Litchfield enquirer., 1868-11-05
The 2d Conn. Artillery.

UNTEER HEAVY ARTILLERY, originally the
 18th Conn. Vols, by Theodore F. Vail,
 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant
 That the Second Conn.,, or the old Nine. teenth Regiment, Me Litchfeld County Regiment, could show most honorable record, and flag inscribed with many hard-fought battles, and unsulied by sin gle instance of misconduct in the presence Of the enemy, is fact that has always been the boast Of onr County. Hitherto, however, the history of its achievements has remained unwritten, and it is to sup. ply this obvious want that Mir. Vail has is- sued the volume before us We are glad to see the work has been excellently done. The ease and vigor of its style show the advantage of two years drill on the Win sted Herald and its outspoken, lively narra- tive forms a most agreeable contrast with the suited, dry, white washing documents that often figure under the title of Regi- mental Histories" In the sketches of Kellogg and Mackenzie, we feel confident the real men are before us. They are none of the commonplace heroes that fill up la dies novels, and sensation " Histories of the Rebellion" but the genuine product of West Point and of the Volunteer system. In the story of camp and campaign life, We have the plain unvarnished facts, with no attempt to extract poetry out of such very prosaic matters as hard-tack, musket- securing and company drill.
 In the descriptions of the carnage of Cold Harbor of the glories of Winchester, Cedar Creek, the Capture of Petersburg and the concluding fight at Sailors Creek, no attempt is made to describe those great battles themselves but only the part the 2d Conn. took in them.
 "Every true soldier says Adjutant Vaill "belicves i'll his own regiment. He holds himself in perpetual readiness to demon strate that no other battalion, brigade ,divi- sion, or corps ever passed in rev1ew So hand somely, marched so far, fought so bravely or suffered so much, as his own." So, also, does every county believe ill it's own regiment; and no amount of argument would con- vince Litchfeld county that better regi- ment went from the State of Connecticut, or for that matter from the Union at large, than the Old Nineteenth. But in this case we think the claims of our regiment to dis tinguished merit rest on firmer basis than mere sectional pride. In the first place, the great bulk of the officers and pri- yates of the Nineteenth regiment en- listed from patriotic motives and with 8 full appreciation of the risk they were run ming. The first fever of enlistment had passed; it had been discovered that war was very serious business; while the tre- mendOus bonnties of the later years of the war had not begun to fill the army with in- ferior material. Furthermore, the regi- ment was always we'll commanded. What
 may have been his faults, Col. Kel-
 :. was every inch a soldier He sacra. feed his life in carrying the regiment through its first and its hardest trial Mac kcnsie was a most brilliant officer, brave tc recklessness on the field of battle; com mander under whom a soldier could not easily finch. Gen. Hubbard was leader worthy of the victorious veterans to whose command he succeeded. Last but not least, the reniment was in the Sixth Corps fighting side by side with the very best soldiers of the Army of the Potomac.
 TTular Ouoh o;rouu,okooooc &1,o;, ,c could hardly have failed to be good, but il was something more. Their charge al Cold Harbor was said on competent au thority to have been one of the most mag nificent of the war. At Winchester they formed more than half the brigade tha turned the fortunes of the day.-for few moments in doubt. Gen. Sheridan thus reports:-
 t' It was at this juncture that ordered brig ade of Russell's division of the 9th corps to wal till the enemys attacking column presented its flank, then to strike it with vigor. This was hand somely done, the brigade being led by Genera Russel and its commander Upton, in person tho enemy m turn was driven back, our line re-estab lshed, and most of the two three thousand mef "ho had gone to the rear brought back
 1A NluCucstcI, d NuUncHt, the contest WNs uncertain, but the gallant attack of Gen. Upton brigade of the 9th corps restored the line of bat ale, until the turning column of Crook and Mer Eitts and Averill's divisions of cavalry under Tor bert, scat the enemy whirl;ng through Winches Ger ."
 We are not able, of course, to iudoe o the correctness of Capt. vaill's work in detail, but we consider it's general execu ton excellent. If the style is sometimes careless, bearing evident marks of haste, il ss almost always vivid and forcible. There seem tO be some faults of arrangement The last chapter would have appeared more naturally, as it seems to us, in the middle ot the book. There is no general index: 6 serious inconvenience. But taken as q whole, the work is very creditable to its author, and justly entities him to the thanks of his Regiment, his County and his State. See special notice in anothe, column.
 S9~ It Is reported that the Romisb rr;ss at Thompsonville denied the sacromon. 4,