Organization of the Regiment

• Company A – St. Albans – Captain Charles G. Chandler
• Company B – Middlebury – Captain Charles W. Rose
• Company C – Swanton – Captain John D. Sheridan
• Company D – Hyde Park – Captain Reuben C. Benton
• Company E – Manchester – Captain Charles P. Dudley
• Company F – Cornwall – Captain Edwin S. Stowell
• Company G – Rutland – Captain Benjamin R. Jenne
• Company H – Brandon – Captain Charles W. Seagar
• Company I – Burlington, Poultney and Tinmouth – Captain John R. Lewis
• Company K – Richmond – Captain Fred F. Gleason

Peninsula Campaign

Moved by ship to the Virginia Peninsula, landing near Fort Monroe and moving to Newport News.

Siege of Yorktown

Battle of Williamsburg

Attached to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac

Seven days before Richmond

Garnett’s Farm

Savage’s Station

The regiment brought around 400 men to the field and in one half hour lost 188 officers and men, with Company E losing 25 men killed or mortally wounded and 19 men wounded out of 59. It was the greatest loss, in killed and wounded, of any Vermont regiment in any one engagement.

Five brothers and one cousin from the Cummings family were killed or wounded, with only one of them surviving their wounds.

• Second Lieutenant Olney A. Comstock of Company B was killed.
• Second Lieutenant Brownson M. Barber of Company K was mortally wounded and taken prisoner but was paroled and released before he died on July 20.
• Captain Charles W. Rose of Company B and First Lieutenant H.H. Peck of Company E were wounded.
• Captain Benjamin R. Jenne of Company G and First Lieutenants Lewis McD. Smith of Company A and Wilson D. Wright of Company B were wounded and taken prisoner.

White Oak Swamp Bridge

Malvern Hill

Maryland Campaign

Crampton’s Pass (South Mountain)

Battle of Antietam

Commanded by Colonel Lewis A. Grant. The regiment was not heavily engaged at Antietam and suffered only 2 men wounded by artillery.

From the War Department marker for Brooks’ brigade on the Antietam battlefield:

Brooks’ Brigade left its camp in Pleasant Valley at 6 A.M. of the 17th, crossed the Antietam at Pry’s Ford and reached the field about noon. It was ordered to the support of Sedgwick’s Division, Second Corps, on the Union right but, before getting into position, was ordered to the support of French’s Division and formed in Mumma’s Cornfield, on ground vacated by the 14th Connecticut, its left connecting with French, its right resting on Mumma’s Lane, facing south parallel to and about 170 yards from the Bloody Lane.

It was subjected to a galling fire of both Artillery and Sharpshooters, causing some loss.

It remained in this position until the morning of the 19th.

Battle of Fredericksburg

First Lieutenant Warren R. Dunston was wounded and would be discharged.

Burnside’s Second Campaign, “Mud March”

Chancellorsville Campaign

Maryes Heights, “Second Fredericksburg”

Salem Church

Colonel Lewis A. Grant was wounded. Second Lieutenant Lyman H. Loomis of Company G. was taken prisoner.

Colonel Grant was awarded the Medal of Honor for “Personal gallantry and intrepidity displayed in the management of his brigade and in leading it in the assault in which he was wounded.”

Banks’ Ford

Franklin’s Crossing

Battle of Gettysburg

Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John R. Lewis. It brought 341 men to the field and had no casualties.

From the Vermont Brigade monument on the Gettysburg battlefield:

Reaching this field by a forced march of thirty two miles in the evening of July 2, the brigade took position on the left Union flank near this point in anticipation of an attack by the enemy and held the same July 3d and 4th.

Bristoe Campaign

Rappahannock Station

Mine Run Campaign

Campaign from the Rapidan to the James

The regiment began the campaign with about 500 men, and in one month wold lose 349 men killed, wounded and missing, which included two field officers, six captains and five lieutenants.

Battle of the Wilderness

From the Vermont Brigade monument on the Wilderness battlefield:

In these woods, during the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5 and 6, 1864, Vermont’s “Old Brigade” suffered 1,234 casualties while defending the Brock Road and Orange Plank Road intersection.

• Captains George D. Davenport of Company B and Charles J. Ormsbee of Company D and Second Lieutenant Watson O. Beach of Company F were killed.
• Captain Alonzo Hurlbut of Company A and First Lieutenant Orvis H. Sweet of Company A were mortally wounded.
• Captains Friend H. Barney of Company C, William B. Robinson of Company H and Leonard D. Tyce of Company K and First Lieutenant Willard G. Davenport of Company H were wounded.

Spotsylvania Court House

Assault on the Salient (Spotsylvania)

North Anna River

Totopotomoy

Cold Harbor

Captain Merrill T. Samson of Company I was killed. Second Lieutenant Miner E. Fish was wounded and promoted to Captain of Company D, but he was discharged for his wounds and never mustered. Second Lieutenant James A. Bixby of Company I was wounded.

Grant’s First Assault on Petersburg

Siege of Petersburg

Jerusalem Plank Road

Repulse of Early’s attack on Fort Stevens

Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Third Battle of Winchester (Opequan)

First Lieutenant Douglass P. Loomis of Company A was wounded.

Fisher’s Hill

Battle of Cedar Creek

• First Lieutenant Edson M. Raymond was promoted to Captain of Company D.
• First Lieutenant George H. Sessions of Company I was promoted to Captain of Company E.
• Second Lieutenant Charles G. Gould was promoted to Captain of Company H.
• First Lieutenant Samuel F. Kilbourne of Company F was promoted to Captain of Company I.
• First Lieutenant Myron S. Dudley of Company E was promoted to Captain of Company K.

Siege of Petersburg

Returned to siege at Petersburg. Went into winter quarters near Squirrel Level Road.

Fort Fisher, before Petersburg

Appomattox Campaign

Fall of Petersburg

The 5th Vermont was the first regiment to plant its colors on the Confederate defensive works.

First Lieutenant John Smith of Company A was killed. Captain Edson M. Raymond of Company D and Second Lieutenants George W. Steinberg of Company D and Florance O’Donahoe of Company I were wounded.

Captain Charles Gilbert Gould of Company H was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was “Among the first to mount the enemy’s works in the assault, he received a serious bayonet wound in the face, was struck several times with clubbed muskets, but bravely stood his ground, and with his sword killed the man who had bayoneted him.” Captain Gould was breveted Major for gallantry.

Sergeant Jackson G. Sergeant of Company D was awarded the Medal of Honor for being “First to scale the enemy’s works and plant the colors thereon.”

Sergeant Lester Goodel Hack of Company F was awarded the Medal of Honor for the “Capture of flag of 23d Tennessee Infantry (C.S.A.) and several of the enemy.”

Sailor’s Creek

Appomattox Court House

Surrender of Lee and his army.