The Union Army

Civil War History

As commander of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment, Colonel John S. Slocum and his blue-uniformed troops left home to fight the Rebels, end the war and preserve the Union. Less than a month had passed since they left Providence, and already they were about to engage the enemy as part of General Irvin McDowell's great 31,000-man army.
It was Sunday morning, July 21,1861, and McDowell's army was about to fight the first major land battle of the war along a muddy northern Virginia creek called Bull Run. As the Rhode Island troops and the rest of their brigade paused to catch their breath at about 9:30 a.m., an alarm was sounded: the Rebels were in front in force and were advancing. Slocum's regiment, supported by a battery of field artillery, was ordered forward while the brigade formed for battle. Within moments, the men of the 2nd Rhode Island were engaged in the kind of fierce, bloody warfare that few soldiers on either side had expected.

The Rhode Islanders bore the brunt of the enemy assault, but under Colonel Slocum's command they stood firm. As the crescendo of battle intensified, Colonel Slocum was suddenly shot down. Command of the regiment passed to Major Sullivan Ballou. Moments later a Confederate cannonball killed Ballou's horse and mangled the major's legs. Both men soon died, but the 2nd Rhode Island remained steadfast, and helped turn back the Confederate attack. Later, when the Federal line broke and provoked a panicky rout, the men of the 2nd Rhode Island calmly covered the Northern retreat.
Their first battle ended in defeat, but the Rhode Islanders had tasted the reality of war. "It is a sad duty to record a defeat accompanied with the loss of so many valuable lives," reported the regiment's brigade commander, Colonel Ambrose E. Burnside. "But defeat should only make us more faithful still to the great cause of humanity and civilization, in order that every disaster should be more than compensated for by an enduring victory."

after a few weeks of training in Providence, the newly-organized 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment was ordered to Camp Sprague in Washington, D.C., in June of 1861. Several weeks later the regiment suffered serious casualties at the Battle of Bull Run. Mortally wounded in the battle were Colonel John S. Slocum, the regiment's commander, and Major Sullivan Ballou. After duty in the Washington defenses, the regiment joined the Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula Campaign.
On the Peninsula, the regiment participated in the Siege of Yorktown, and was engaged in battle at Williamsburg and Seven Pines. During the Seven Days' Campaign that followed, the Rhode Islanders fought at Fair Oaks, White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill. After the Army of the Potomac's forced withdrawal from the Peninsula, the regiment was posted to Maryland and Virginia.

The 2nd Rhode Island was engaged at the bloody Battle of Fredericksburg in December of 1862, then participated in the Army of the Potomac's unsuccessful "Mud March." In May of 1863, the regiment distinguished itself during the army's defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville. "Nothing could have surpassed the determination with which they advanced to the extreme front when a regiment was flying panic-stricken through their ranks," reported Colonel Horatio Rogers, Jr. afterwards. "The gallantry with which they drove back the rebels; the pertinacity with which they held their ground until support could come up; the excellent order and spirit with which they retired when ordered back. This regiment, as much or more than any other, contributed toward checking the enemy, when our forces were being driven on the right."
The regiment fought at the Battle of Gettysburg, participated in the Bristoe and Mine Run Campaigns, and fought at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor. At Spotsylvania, the regiment was engaged in the bloody struggle for "the salient." Detached from the Siege of Petersburg, the Rhode Islanders served in defending Washington from Confederate General Jubal Early's 1864 advance on the capital and participated in General Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Campaign. Again detached from Petersburg, the 2nd Rhode Island participated in the Battle of Fort Fisher which closed the North Carolina seaport of Wilmington. Back at Petersburg, the regiment was involved in the final assault on Lee's defenses and served in the Appomattox Campaign.  When the remnants of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia surrendered at Appomattox, the 2nd Rhode Island was present. On July 13,1865, the men of the regiment were mustered out of service in Washington, D.C., after compiling one of the most extensive combat records of the war.