Organization of the Regiment:

• Company A – Lamoille and Washington Counties – Captain Luman M. Grout
• Company B – Captain Charles B. Child
• Company C – Caledonia county – Captain Henry E. Foster
• Company D – Orange County – Captain Cyrus B. Leach
• Company E – Washington County – Captain Edward Hall
• Company F – Franklin County – Captain Hiram E. Perkins
• Company G – Orange County  – Captain Samuel G. P. Craig
• Company H – Windham County – Captain Henry F. Dutton
• Company I – Captain William W. Lynde
• Company K – Captain John S. Clark

Raceland Station

A 30 man detachment was sent out by train to investigate Confederates tearing up the railroad track. It was ambushed and a firefight broke out. Lieutenants Franklin and Holton were badly wounded, 5 enlisted men were killed and seven men were wounded.

St. Charles Station

Companies A and C along with a section of artillery and a company of cavalry were ordered to raid Fashion, a sugar cane plantation owned by Confederate Geheral Richard Taylor. The plantation was used as a gathering point for Texas cattle that supplied Confederate forces in Louisiana, and was worked by 200 slaves.

Colonel Stephen Thomas commanded the raid. They marched through the night on the 30th and attacked in the early morning, driving the Confederate guards away. They captured about 20 prisoners and 2,000 head of cattle, which they began to drive back to Union lines. The 200 newly freed enslaved people took charge of the cattle while the troops held off Confederate pursuit, and they safely reached Unin lines by early afternoon.

Bote Station

In response to the raid at St. Charles the Confederates sent 1,500 men to capture the Union post at Bote Station and to take and destroy two trains scheduled to arrive there.

The first train to arrive was escorted by Company K of the 8th Vermont under the command of Captain Clark, with 60 men and a 12-pounder gun riding on open flat cars. The Confederates opened fire from ambush. The train was able to continue through the station in spite of the switches being thrown against it – one brave volunteer ran ahead of the train, reset the switch and was able to reboard unscathed.

Thirteen men were killed, 2 were mortally wounded, and 20 were wounded, some of whom fell off the cars to be captured. Only 25 of Clark’s men were unhurt. But the train escaped up the line and warned the second train. Both returned to Union lines.

The Confederates burned the station buildings and continue up the rail line to the station at Des Allemands. This was defended by parts of Companies E, G, and K under the command of Company E’s Captain Hall. The Confederates approached under a flag of truce and demanded the surrender of the station and Captain Hall, badly outnumbered and low on ammunition, agreed.

Operations in La-Fourche District

Attached to Weitzel’s Reserve Brigade, Dept. of the Gulf

Action with Steamer Cotten on Bayou Teche

A plan was put into operation to capture or destroy the Confederate gunboat John L. Cotton in Bayou Teche. Sixty volunteers were chosen as sharpshooters under the command of Captain Dutton of Company H to pick off gunners on the deck of the Cotton. The regiment boarded a transport. Most of the regiment debarked as they neared the battle area, but the sharpshooters remained on the ship for another two miles before landing. The two parts of the regiment converged on a force of Confederates in rifle pits and wiped them out in a surprise attack, killing 7, wounding 27, and capturing 57, without the loss of a man.

As night fell the regiment was in a dangerous, isolated position, and it was later fond that the Confederates planned a night attack with overwhelming numbers. Colonel Thomas had the men build a two mile long line of campfires and kept them burning through the night, giving the impression that a large reinforcement had arrived. The Confederates fell for the trick. No attack was made, and Cotton was burned to prevent it from falling into Union hands.

First Sergeant Squire E. Howard was awarded the Medal of Honor when he “Voluntarily carried an important message through the heavy fire of the enemy to bring aid and save the gunboat Calhoun.”

Operations on Bayou Plaquemine, Black and Atchafalaya Rivers

Operations against Port Hudson

Adjutant J.L. Barstow was promoted to Captain of Company K.

Operations in Western Louisiana

Teche Campaign

Captain Craig of Company G died of disease at Opelousas, and Captain Clark of Company K died of disease in the hospital at New Orleans.

Expedition to Alexandria on Red River

Siege of Port Hudson

Assault on Port Hudson

Colonel Thomas commanded the brigade as senior officer while Lieutenant Colonel Dillingham commanded the regiment, which was in the third line of battle. The first and second lines were badly broken in their assault and Colonel Thomas was ordered forward. They broke the Confederate line and found themselves holding 50 to 75 yards worth of trenches under a heavy enemy fire. With no possibility of advancing, Colonel Thomas fell back to a ravine.

The 8th Vermont lost 12 men killed and 76 wounded. Captain Hubbard, the Acting Brigade Assistant Adjutant General, and Lieutenant Wrotnouski were  both killed. Captain John Barstow of Company K would replace Captain Hubbard as AAG.

Second assault on Port Hudson

Lieutenant Colonel Dillinghame again led the regiment, but Colonel Thomas was in the hospital and the brigade was commanded by Colonel Elisha Smith of the 114th New York, who would be mortally wounded. Adjutant Stephen Spaulding was shot dead as he gave the order for the regiment to attack. Sixty men dropped dead or wounded in five minutes, and the regiment was forced to fall back to cover.

The 8th Vermont lost 96 men killed or wounded.

Surrender of Port Hudson

Confederate General Gardner surrendered 6,340 men. As Vickeburg had surrendered five days before, the Mississippi now lay open to navigation all the way to the sea.

Sabine Pass Expedition

The gunboats were not able to silence the Forts and the expedition was abandoned without the troops leaving the boats.

Western Louisiana (“Teche”) Campaign

Sheridan’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign

Third Battle of Winchester (Opequon)

The 8th Vermont Infantry Regiment reached the front around 10 a.m. and moved across an open field and woods into the front line of battle, relieving Grover’s battered division. They advanced with Company F under Captain W.H. Smith deployed as skirmishers, and joined by four men of the color guard of the 14th New Hampshire who had remained on the field after their regiment had been shot to pieces and dissolved. Then 8th Vermont held their position for three hours in a desperate firefight.

As the Confederate line began to waver at 3 p.m. Colonel Thomas on his own initiative led the 8th Vermont, followed by the 12th Connecticut, in a bayonet charge that broke the Confederate line. The rest of the Union line soon followed, meeting with the charge of Crook’s Union 8th Corps coming in from the right and sweeping the Confederates from the woods.

The Confederates were pressed on their front and both flanks when the final blow fell. “Capt. Mead shouted, ‘Boys, look at that!’ We did look, and saw a sight to be remembered a lifetime. In solid columns, with drawn sabres flashing in the sun, and with- out firing a shot, down from the crest in the left rear of the enemy came a brigade of troopers, and burst at a gallop upon the surprised enemy. It was like a thunder-clap out of a clear sky, and the bolt struck home. The entire left of the enemy’s line broke in utter confusion and fled in perfect rout.”

Eight men were killed, including Captain Francis Warren, killed by a shot to the head. Lieutenant Colonel Dutton was wounded, his arm shattered.  Captain George O. Ford of Company K, Lieutenants Wheaton Livingston of Company B, Nathaniel Robie of Company I, and Perry Porter of Company K, and 23 enlisted men were wounded, one mortally.

From the monument to the 8th Vermont in Winchester National Cemetery:

Honor the Brave

Erected to commemorate the Bayonet Charge of the
Eighth Vermont Vol’s. led by Genl. Stephen Thomas

Sergeant Henry W. Downs of Company I was awarded the Medal of Honor when, “With one comrade, voluntarily crossed an open field, exposed to a raking fire, and returned with a supply of ammunition, successfully repeating the attempt a short time thereafter.”

Fisher’s Hill

The regiment prepared to assault the heights at Fishers Hill but found them abandoned after Crook’s 8th Corps outflanked the COnfederate position. The regiment lost four men wounded and one man captured while taking around 250 prisoners in the one sided victory and pursuit.

Battle of Cedar Creek

Colonel Stephen Thomas commanded the brigade, consisting of the 8th Vermont, 12th Connecticut, and 116th New York, while Major John Meade commanded the regiment. At the height of the Confederate surprise attack, General Emory ordered Colonel Thomas to advance his brigade across the Valley Pike and 150 yards forward into a deep ravine and thick stand of trees as a “forlorn hope” to delay the Confederates, who had overrun Crook’s corps and were about to strike the flank of the 19th Corps. Years later Emory said, “Thomas, I never gave an order in my life that cost me so much pain as it did to order you across the Pike that morning. I never expected to see you again.”

Attacked on the front and both flanks, they held their postion for 30 minutes of desperate hand to hand fighting, This bought time for the rest of the corps to withdraw and join the Sixth Corps, which was able to form line of battle.

But at at a tremendous cost. Of the 164 enlisted men of the 8th Vermont who went into battle, 110 were killed or wounded along with 13 out of 16 officers. Major John B. Meade was shot in his right side*, and Captain Moses McFarland of Company A took command. Although three color bearers – Corporals Petre, Perham, and Blanchard – were killed, the flag was successfully brought from the field. The 8th Vermont Infantry suffered its highest casualties of the war at Cedar Creek.

Amazingly, the survivors withdrew in good order. They made another stand to recover the only piece of artillery that had not been safely withdrawn from the field, then a second in front of the Belle Grove House, and a third in the deserted Sixth Corps camp. The regiment finally rejoined the rest of the 6th and 19th Corps and took its place in the defensive line.

Sheridan rejoined the army in the afternoon, and vowed to retake the lost camps. The whole Union line surged forward, forcing back the Confederates, although many had turned a small woods into a defensive position which was slowing the advance. Colonel Thomas’ horse was shot and believed killed**, but he led the brigade on foot in an attack on the woods, where the enemy  “broke in great confusion.” After this it became a pursuit, as the rest of the Confederate line fell back so as to not be outflanked, then fled as the Union cavalry rode them down. The pusuit continued to Fisher’s Hill, where the Confederates took brief respite In their old fortifications.

*Major Meade had his wound dressed and treated. He left the field hospital and rejoined the regiment that night at Fisher’s Hill and resumed command of the regiment.

**Colonel Thomas’ horse, Old Pete, did not die. It somehow managed to make its way that night to the Colonel’s headquarters. Thomas saw to its wounds and when it was able to travel sent it back to Vemont where it lived to an old age, treated as a war hero.

From the monument to the 8th Vermont at Cedar Creek:

The 8th Vermont Vols, Genl. Stephen Thomas Commanding Brigade advanced across the Pike the morning of Oct. 19, 1864. Engaged the enemy near and beyond this point, and before sunrise lost in killed and wounded 110 men. Three color bearers were shot down and 13 out of 16 commissioned officers. Whole number of men engaged 164.

Colonel Stephen Thomas was awarded the Medal of Honor for “distinguished conduct in a desperate hand-to-hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked.”