PREFACE. I HAVE written this volume of personal history as a soldier in the rank and file of the Fourth Rhode Island Volunteers, and as a soldier's story I offer it unto all who may kindly favor it with their perusal. It is a simple, truthful story of life in the Army and Navy of the United States, as I saw it, during nearly the whole War of the Rebellion. At the time of my first enlistment in Company B, of the Fourth Rhode Island Regiment, I began a journal, keeping a faithful record of everything that transpired under my own immediate observation that was worthy of note. From that journal this book is compiled. I do not pretend that it is a full and complete history of the regiment. That work is left in abler hands than mine. But in the absence of a full and authentic history of the Fourth Rhode Island, it will give to the world some idea of the patriotism displayed and work accomplished by this regiment in the War of the Rebellion. The record of the Fourth Rhode Island Volunteers is unsurpassed; its services were invaluable, and it is high time that they were better known to the state, and to the country at large. My comrades will find herein authentic data to enable them to write their own personal history, or to locate their evidence in claims for pension, or to refresh their memory of the many reminiscences of their soldier life, and I trust it will prove to them a valuable book of reference. It is expected that errors of omission or commission will be found in every history of the war. No such work has been found yet absolutely correct, and I do not claim that this book is exempt, but it contains nothing of a fictitious nature, and the story of our mutual experience is told only from the stand-point of the writer in the rank and file of Company B. It also embodies the experience of our naval detachment, with whom I served on board the Commodore Perry, during the Burnside Expedition, and an appendix, embracing a complete roster of Company B, and the battles in which it participated. That it may be read without unjust criticism, but with much pleasure and profit, is the only wish of the writer. CORP. GEO. H. ALLEN, Late of Co. B, 4th R. I. Vols. CONTENTS. TO THE SECOND RHODE ISLAND REVIEWED BY PRES- PAGE 13-28 TO LOWER MARLBORO - SECOND DAY'S MARCH, TWENTY- - VISIT OF CAMP CALIFORNIAAN INTER- MAS FESTIVITIES AT ANNAPOLIS, MD., OUR FIRST PAY-DAY -STEAMER EASTERN QUEEN GREAT FLEET GETTING UNDER WAY — STRANGE PAS- SENGERS BELOW THE STORM ARISES WRECK AND DISASTERA GLOOMY SITUATION -GOING OVER THE THE NIGHT-WATCH -PUNISHMENTS THE TRAVELING ADVANCE ON THE ENEMY'S FLEET — WAITING FOR THE - OF EDENTON- EXPEDITION TO WINTON-THE DISMAL OF THE TROOPS-ON THE ROAD AGAIN -A COLD AND PRAISE FROM BURNSIDE CLEARING THE RIFLE-PITS OPERATIONS OF THE NAVAL FLEET CAPTURE OF NEWBERN ON THE MOVE AGAIN - - SURPRISE OF THE INHABITANTS SCENES AND INCIDENTS EXPERIENCE IN HOSPITAL SAD SCENES CHANGE OF QUARTERS BACK FOR DUTY INVESTMENT OF FORT |