14 FIRST REGIMENT INFANTRY.

On the 16th day of September the regiment assisted in the repulse of another
attempt of the enemy to dislodge the 5th Army Corps from the Weldon railroad.

On the 7th of December, 1864, the regiment, with the brigade and 5th Army Corps,
also accompanied by General Greggs' division of cavalry, cut loose from the Army of the
Potomac, and started on a mid-winter raid to effectually destroy the Weldon railroad,
well towards the North Carolina line, over which Lee's army was still drawing large
supplies, by making a wide detour from the railroad terminus.

The column marched nineteen miles to the Nottoway river, which it crossed on a
pontoon bridge, and bivouacked for a part of the night; starting before daylight, the
column pushed forward fifteen miles to the Halifax road, preceded by the cavalry, who
drove before them small bodies of the enemy, who attempted to harrass and impede the
rapid movements of the infantry.

At six P. M. on the evening of the 8th, the column moved down upon the Weldon
railroad and began its destruction southward from the bridge across the Nottoway, con-
tinuing its work day and night, until it reached Hicksford on the Meherrin river, on the
9th, where the enemy were found in force behind strong earthworks on the opposite side
of the river.

The object of the raid having been effectually accomplished, the column started
back for Petersburg, marching all day over wretched roads, through a storm of sleet
and snow, a distance of twenty miles, and bivouacked for the night; resuming the march
the next day, the weather was found to be intensely cold, and the regiment suffered
severely from exposure.

The column reached Petersburg in six days from the time of starting, after forced
marches night and day over horrible roads and in a constant storm of sleet and snow,
during the severest winter of the Civil War, but the object of the raid had been thor-
oughly accomplished, and the Weldon railroad ceased to be an artery over which supplies
could be brought to Lee's beleaguered army.

During all of the movements to destroy the Weldon railroad the 1st Eegiment and
Maryland Brigade did their full share in the fighting, marching and suffering incident to
campaigning in the inclement weather of the winter season.

On the 5th day of February, 1865, the regiment and brigade, with the 5th Army Corps,
entered on the campaign along Hatcher's Run for the purpose of destroying the South
Side Railroad, culminating in the battle of Dabney's Mills, in which the 1st Regiment suf-
fered severe loss, including its gallant Colonel Wilson, killed in the thickest of the fight
on the 27th of March, 1865 ; the 1st Regiment and Maryland Brigade, with the 5th Army
Corps and Sheridan's Cavalry, under the command of General Sheridan, marched around
the enemy's right flank in the last grand movement inaugurated by General Grant, cul-
minating in the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, the end of the Civil War
and the preservation of the Federal Union.

The battle of White Oak Road was followed by the splendid victory at Five Forks,
resulting in the capture of 6000 prisoners, the loss of the enemy's artillery—in fact, their
utter rout and demoralization.

This battle rendered the position of Lee's army at Petersburg untenable, and caused
its evacuation simultaneously with that of the Confederate capital at Richmond.