Norwich bulletin., 1918-08-10

worn veterans as Sumner, Kearney Hooker and others, had made it's retreat costly one to tho rebel forces, and might even havt turned it's sad retirement from the. ad. vance, on Richmond into victory, i there had been the requisite courage and skill on the part of the then commanding general
 Following this great failure, cant the short and unfortunate campaign of Gen. Pope, and the triumphant ad- vance of Gen Lee into. Maryland. The need of more men by the government was urgent in the exrame and the Presidents call appeared just at the time when national reEerses had pro- duced wide-s spread Encouragement and solicitude; and yet, as will be seen, the people met the crisis with un- daunted faith, responding with rea- sonable promptness to the, appeal mada to them for more troops.
 lt'was in January of this year (fS621 that the Fourth Regiment of Infantry was, by order of the War Department converted into the First Artillery. It received two additional companies and was, recruited to eighteen hundred men and placed under the. command of Col Robert O. Tyler.
 In few months it had attained a remarkable degree of eficienecy and was soon after ranked by military judges as the best volunteer regiment of artillery in the field, and consider ed equal in all respects to any regi-i ment of the same arm in ths regular service''
 On the promotion of coloaei Tylsr. | Henry L. Abott was appointed to the command, and under him the regiment served until the close of the war.
 It constituted during a portion of this period the basis of an artillery
 brigade, which sometimes exceeded an aggregate of $500 men and had in it's charge the entire siege train tn use in the final siege of Petersburg and Richmond. 1 From this regiment, after the trans@ ference of Major F.. w. Birge to tho
 colonelcy of the Thirteenth Infantry, : Norwich was represented by Dr. EdviB Bentley, assistant surgeon. promoted
 to the rank of brigade surgeon; John
 H. Tingley, second lieutenant, Com-
 pauy A, who had with a noble patriot-
 ism served in the ranks as a private
 
 Bela P. Learned, second heutenanp Company D, who also served two yearS with honor as a field officer on the
 staff of Gen. Abbott, transactfng with rare efficiency, Dana says in his Nor<
 wieh Memorial, the complicated ofc<
 duties of the command. Later Lieut.
 Learned was promoted captain, and received the appointment of brevet
 major before he was mustered ou
 with the regiment. Others representa- ing Norwich were: Edwin L. Tyler
 Frank J. Jones second lieutenant
 Company L.
 On the regimentaI rolls appear fh(
 names of about sixty prfVafes, som(
 of whom were non-residents and ara accredited to the town as substitutes,
 The regiment served through th< Peninsular campaign under Gen. Mc< CleIlan, where it's discipline and splen< , did equipment were severely tested, At the battle of Malvern Hill it's gunS : were served with great rapidity and ) accuracy, and for it's efficient serviceS the names of Siege of Yorktown Hanover Court House" ~Chicka< } vern" were ordered to be emblazone6 . O1l 1IS OO4OAos
 l When garrisoning Washington, after 3 this, it was awarded position ot ) supreme importance and in the ad-
 vance under Gen. Grant the regiment
 again had distinguished part, the
 gallantry of it's officers and men att 1 tracting attention
 | Throughout the final campaign
 against Richmond, it continued to hold
 the high reputation it had gained in
 the earlier one during this year under Gen. Mcclellan.
 , tn the siege of Yorktown, in 1882, when the regiment had been but a T few months in service and had receiv- ed comparatively little exact training
 the report of the ordnance officer of t it's siege train, Major Doull, of the e Second New York Artillery, said, Its . . labor will compare favorabfy with. any thing of the kind that has been done . before"
 T It manned the long line Of guns tr : front of Petersburg, in 1864 and '65
 while eight companies served on the . lines in front of RahNaond- When not serving their guns, the V greater part of the regiment would z act as guards for the reserve artillery : or would be ready to accompany as- # saulting columns in order to use with H out delay any captured artillery upor - the retreating enemy.
 a In the assault on the lines of Peters Y burg, April 2nd 1865, by the Nfntl
 Corps, detachment of the regimen o joined the assaulting column, and en. . tered among the first the enemy's = works, serving instantly four capturet : light 12-pounder guns upOn the re- . treating masses of the foe. Two mor' < were afterwards taken, when the -si1 = guns were served gallant1y all da. . long and during the night, contribut . ing greatly to the success of thu
 charge, and repulsing the rebels il
 their desperate efforts to re-take tn. ., works.