12th Vermont Infantry The 12th Regiment , Vermont Volunteer Infantry ( or 12th VVI ) was a nine months ' infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War . It served in the eastern theater , predominantly in the Defenses of Washington , from October 1862 to July 1863 . It was a member of the 2nd Vermont Brigade . History . The 12th Vermont Infantry , a nine months regiment , raised as a result of President Lincoln ' s call on August 4 , 1862 , for additional troops due to the disastrous results of the Peninsula Campaign . It was composed of volunteers from ten volunteer militia companies as follows : Colonel Asa P . Blunt , previously of the 3rd and 6th Vermont regiments , was selected to command the regiment . Lieutenant Colonel Roswell Farnham and Major Levi G . Kingsley had held commissions in the 1st Vermont Infantry , along with a total of 65 officers and men . The regiment went into camp at Brattleboro on September 25 , 1862 , and was mustered into United States service on October 4 . It left Vermont on October 7 , and arrived in Washington , D . C . on October 10 , and went into camp on East Capital Hill . On October 30 it became part of the 2nd Vermont Brigade , which also included the 13th , 14th , 15th and 16th Vermont Infantry regiments . Colonel Blunt , as ranking colonel , commanded the brigade until the arrival of Brigadier General Edwin H . Stoughton , on December 7 . Stoughton was not popular with the officers and men of the brigade , so when he was captured by Confederate partisan John S . Mosby on March 9 , 1863 , few mourned his loss . Colonel Blunt assumed command of the brigade again , turning it over to the new brigade commander , Brigadier General George J . Stannard , on April 20 , who led the brigade until the Battle of Gettysburg . The regiment marched to Munson ' s Hill on October 30 , and Hunting Creek the next day , where it stayed until December 12 , in ' Camp Vermont . ' It was engaged in picket duty near Fairfax Courthouse from December 12 to January 20 , 1863 , participating in a repulse of J . E . B . Stuart ' s cavalry on December 29 . The regiment was stationed at Wolf Run Shoals from January 20 to May 1 , performed railroad guard duty at Warrenton Junction until May 7 , and camped near Rappahannock Station until May 18 . From then until June 1 , it camped near Bristoe and Catlett ' s Station . For the majority of June , it was at Union Mills . On June 25 , the brigade was assigned as the 3rd Brigade , 3rd Division , I Corps , and ordered to form the rear guard of the Army of the Potomac as it marched north after Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . The 12th marched with the brigade from Wolf Run Shoals on June 25 , crossed the Potomac river on June 27 , at Edward ' s Ferry , and moved north through Frederick City and Creagerstown , Maryland . It was drawing near Gettysburg on July 1 , when the 12th and 15th regiments were detached to guard the corps trains . The regiment accompanied the corps trains to Rock Creek Church , near the battlefield , and two companies of the 12th went forward to protect ammunition trains on the Taneytown road . After the battle , the regiment moved south to Westminster , Maryland , then served as guards for a train of 2 , 500 Confederate prisoners who were taken to Baltimore , Maryland . Departing Baltimore , the regiment traveled to Brattleboro , Vermont , where it arrived on July 9 . It was mustered out on July 14 , 1863 . Dozens of newly discharged members of the regiment enlisted again , predominantly in the regiments of the 1st Vermont Brigade , and the 17th Vermont Infantry . See also . Vermont in the Civil War