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the best possible condition, physically & morally.

Within a month this Regiment has been engaged in the most active & honorable service. Taking a conspicuous part in three fights in as many different states, within that time & in all of their doing as well as the best. At the great battle of Gettysburg, however, the Regiment won distinguished honor. We were assigned to the extreme left of our line of battle, where the fiercest assault was made. A whole Rebel Brigade was opposed to this Regiment, charging on us with desperate fury, in column of Regiments, so that we had to contend with a front of fresh troops after each struggle. After two hours fighting on the defensive, our loss had been so great, & the remaining men here so much exhausted, having fire all our "six pounds" & all the cartridges we could gather from the scattered boxes of the fallen around us, friend & foe, I saw no way left but to take the offensive & accordingly, we charged on the enem trying "cold steel" on them. The result was we drove them entirely out of the field, killing & wounding one hundred & fifty of them & taking three hundred & eight & two hundred & seventy five