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362 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
joined in pursuit of the retreating rebel forces for some days and on
July 25th Avent into camp at Catlett's Station, Avhen it Avas assigned to
picket duty.
In September the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps left camp, and by a
series of movements by rail and marching, reached the battle ground of
Mission Ridge, vvhere they Avere engaged on November 25, and suffered
a slight loss, their position being on the extreme left. After this the
Fifty-fifth entered on the Knoxville campaign. This Avas made in the
dead of Avinter, without tents or blankets. On the 1st of January following
the Knoxville campaign 319 of the men of the Fifty-fifth reenlisted,
and thus became veterans. They Avere granted an extended
leave of absence, and it Avas not until early in March, 1864, that they
again encamped in the Lookout Valley. At about this time the Eleventh
and Twelfth Army corps Avere consolidated and denominated the Twentieth,
of which the Fifty-fifth formed a part of the Third Brigade of the
Third Division.
Then commenced the Atlanta campaign, and in it the regiment participated.
The month of May Avitnessed a succession of active operations,
commencing with the affair at Buzzard's Roost Gap, Georgia, on the
5th; again on the 15th came the engagement at Resaca, Avhere the regiment
Avas under heavy fire and lost nearly 100 men. From May 19 to
to the early part of June the Fifty-fifth Avere in a series of maneuvers
about Cassville, Dallas, NCAV Hope Church and Marietta, and the 9th of
June found them engaged in the operations at Kenesaw Mountain,
Avhich continued during the best part of the month.
The month of July found the brigade to which the Fifty-fifth belonged
engaged in the movements and battle at Chattalioochie River, on
the 12th, and also at Peach Tree Creek on the 20th. Further, they
participated in the other operations just prior to and during ttie siege of
Atlanta. This latter occupied from July 28 to September 2, 1864, and
about this time the city was occupied and comfortable quarters found
for the men. When the regiment left Lookout Valley to enter upon this
campaign it numbered about 400 men fit for service, but in the events
that followed up to the time that Atlanta was occupied, that number Avas
reduced by about one-half, so that the entire available force amounted
to less than 200. About the 1st of November the regiment received
drafted men, substitutes, and some recruits, numbering in all some 200,
and about this time those AATIO Avere not veterans AA'ere mustered out.
On the 15th of November the brigade left Atlanta and took up the
line of march tOAvard the sea. On the 21st of December rTarrived at
Savannah, and Avent into camp on the nortliAvest of the city. Here it
remained until the early part of January, 1865, AAiien it nioA'ed to the
opposite side of the river.
In March commenced, the campai£n-of-~flie Carolinas. and on the 16th
and 19th the regiment encountered the enemy at Smith's farm, and lost, in
the tAvo fights, about fifty men. On the 24th Goldsboro Avas reached, and
the troops passed in review before their gallant commander, General
Sherman. From Goldsboro the Fifty-fifth went to Raleigh, and on the