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Second Rhode Island Infantry.
Eustis's Brigade —
Getty's Division--Sixth Corps.
| companies. | killed and died of wounds. | died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c. | Total Enrollment. |
| Officers. | Men. | Total. | Officers. | Men. | Total. |
| Field and Staff | 2 | | 2 | | | | 16 |
| Company | A | | 12 | 12 | | 10 | 10 | 143 |
| | B | | 10 | 10 | | 8 | 8 | 140 |
| | C | | 14 | 14 | | 6 | 6 | 152 |
| | D | | 12 | 12 | | 5 | 5 | 150 |
| | E | 1 | 14 | 15 | | 6 | 6 | 157 |
| | F | 2 | 5 | 7 | | 7 | 7 | 171 |
| | G | 1 | 12 | 13 | | 9 | 9 | 147 |
| | H | | 4 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 164 |
| | I | 2 | 12 | 14 | | 6 | 6 | 156 |
| | K | 1 | 16 | 17 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 164 |
| Totals | 9 | 111 | 120 | 2 | 74 | 76 | 1,560 |
Total of killed and wounded, 428; Died of disease in Confederate prisons, 12.
The above enrollment does not include the reorganized regiment.
| battles. | K. & M. W. | battles. | K. & M. W. |
| First Bull Run, Va. | 24 | Wilderness, Va. | 23 |
| Yorktown, Va. | 1 | Spotsylvania, Va. | 19 |
| Oak Grove, Va. | 8 | Cold Harbor, Va. | 4 |
| Malvern Hill, Va. | 1 | Opequon, Va. | 2 |
| Salem Heights, Va. | 20 | Petersburg, Va. | 2 |
| Gettysburg, Pa. | 1 | Sailor's Creek, Va. | 14 |
| Williamsport, Md. | 1 | | |
Present, also, at
Williamsburg; Seven Days;
Antietam;
Fredericksburg (1862);
Marye's Heights; Rappahannock Station;
Fort Stevens;
Appomattox.
notes.--The Second was
Rhode Island's fighting regiment.
It fired the opening volley at
First Bull Run, and was in line at the final scenes of
Appomattox.
It arrived at
Washington, June 22, 1861, and after a few weeks encampment there, marched to the field of
First Bull Run.
It was then in
Burnside's Brigade, of
Hunter's Division.
Burnside opened that fight with the First Rhode Island deployed as skirmishers, and the Second advancing in line of battle.
Its casualties in that engagement aggregated 98 in killed, wounded and missing; among the killed were
Colonel Slocum,
Major Sullivan Ballou, and two captains.
During the
Peninsular campaign it served in
Palmer's (3d) Brigade,
Couch's (1st) Division, Fourth Corps; this division was transferred in October, 1862, to the Sixth Corps as
Newton's (3d) Division.
The regiment, under
Colonel Rogers, distinguished itself in the hard-fought battle of the Sixth Corps at
Salem Heights, May 3, 1863, in which action it lost 7 killed, 68 wounded, and 6 missing. At the
Wilderness, it lost 12 killed, 66 wounded, and 5 missing; and at
Spotsylvania, 15 killed, 32 wounded, and 6 missing. In the final battle of the Sixth Corps--at
Sailor's Creek, April 6, 1865--the regiment displayed remarkable fighting qualities, engaging the enemy in an action so close that men were bayoneted, and clubbed muskets were freely used.
The original regiment was mustered out June 17, 1864, the recruits and reenlisted men left in the field were organized into a battalion of three companies, to which five new ones were subsequently added in the
fall and
winter of 1864-5.
