2nd Vermont Brigade The 2nd Vermont Brigade was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War . Composition and commanders . The brigade was composed of the 12th , 13th , 14th , 15th and 16th Vermont Infantry regiments , all nine - month regiments 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 . The brigade was organized on October 27 , 1862 , after the five regiments had arrived in Washington , D . C . The brigade ' s first commander was Colonel Asa P . Blunt , commander of the 12th regiment , who was the ranking colonel . Brigadier General Edwin H . Stoughton arrived on December 7 , and assumed command of the brigade . 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 . Defense of Washington . The brigade spent most of its short career in the defenses of Washington , in and around Fairfax , Virginia . From October 1862 until February 1863 , it served as the 2nd Brigade , ( Brigadier General John J . ) Abercrombie ' s Division , Military District of Washington . In a reorganization in February 1863 , the division came under command of Brigadier General Silas Casey and the military district was reorganized as the XXII Corps . In April , Abercrombie resumed command of the division . The 13th , 14th and 15th regiments were stationed at Camp Chase , Arlington , Virginia until October 28 , then joined the 12th and 16th at East Capital Hill by October 30 , when the brigade moved to Munson ' s Hill , thence to Hunting Creek several days later , where it conducted picket duty on Occoquan Creek , until mid - December . On December 12 , the brigade moved to Fairfax Court House , where it remained until late March 1863 , when it moved to Wolf Run Shoals . Several of the regiments were camped independently or in pairs at Bristoe Station , Catlett ' s Station , Manassas , Warrenton Junction and Rappahannock Station until late June , when they were consolidated at Union Mills in mid - to late - June . The only excitement to break the tedium of picket duty occurred on December 29 , 1862 , when Fairfax Court House was attacked by J . E . B . Stuart ' s cavalry , and March 9 , 1863 , when Stoughton was captured . But all that was to change when Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia started marching north in late June . Gettysburg Campaign . On June 25 , the brigade was assigned as the 3rd Brigade , 3rd Division , I Corps , and ordered to follow the rest of the Army of the Potomac north . The 12th and 15th regiments were detached at Westminster , Maryland , on July 1 , to guard supply trains , and the remaining regiments arrived on the battlefield late that evening , and camped to the rear of Cemetery Hill . On the morning of July 2 , the brigade remained massed in the rear of Cemetery Hill . In the afternoon , Stannard was given command of the infantry supporting batteries on the left flank . The brigade was moved forward some , and the 14th and 16th regiments engaged to check advancing Confederates and help close up the Union line on the left flank of Cemetery Hill . The 13th regiment engaged some Georgian troops who were trying to capture a battery , approaching the Emmitsburg road . Members of the regiment , led by Captain John Lonergan , approached and surrounded the Codori farm house , and captured 80 soldiers from an Alabama regiment . Colonel Wheelock G . Veazey of the 16th regiment was detailed as the division field officer of the day . On the morning of July 3 , members of the 16th regiment were stationed as pickets forward of Cemetery Hill . In the afternoon , after a two - hour artillery duel , Confederate General Robert E . Lee launched what has become known Pickett ' s Charge . The Vermont pickets were withdrawn , and as the Confederates approached Cemetery Hill , the three Vermont regiments flanked the Confederate troops first flanking Pickett ' s division by wheeling two units to the right and then doing the same to two detached Confederate brigades by wheeling two regiments to the left . Stannard ' s brigade inflicted severe casualties on the advancing Confederate regiments and forcing some of Pickett ' s men to redeploy covering their right flank . History recalls this battle as the high - water mark of the Confederacy . Three years later , at St . Albans , Vermont , General George G . Meade , commanding the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg , said " there was no individual body of men who rendered greater service at a critical moment than the comparatively raw troops commanded by General Stannard . " After the battle . Col Francis V . Randall assumed command of the brigade after Stannard was wounded . On July 4 , the 12th regiment was sent to Baltimore , Maryland to transport and guard prisoners . The 13th , 14th , 15th and 16th regiments participated in the pursuit of Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia starting July 4 , but broke off and were ordered back to Vermont between July 8 and July 18 . Some of them tarried at New York City to assist in controlling the Draft riots , but by August 10 , all five regiments had mustered out at Brattleboro , Vermont . A total of 4 , 847 men served in the five regiments of the brigade . It suffered at total of 356 casualties during its career , including 70 killed or mortally wounded at Gettysburg , 282 lost to disease , 2 who died in Confederate prisons , 1 who committed suicide , and 1 who was murdered .