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��Colonel Albert A. Pope.
��The regiment participated in the at- tack on Sulphur Springs and the battle of Fredericksburg in 1862; the siege of Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi, in 1863; the invasion ^f eastern Ten- nessee and defense of Knoxville ; the Wilderness campaign and the siege of Petersburg ; the charge into the crater of the Mine ; the bombardment ; and the pursuit of the remnant of Lee's army towards Appomattox. The regi- ment was the first to enter Jackson, Mississippi, after seven days fighting, and captured more prisoners than they had men in their command.
After the fall of Chattanooga and the deliverance of East Tennessee fi-om the Confederates, Captain Pope was ordered home for a short time on recruiting ser- vice, his duty being to take detach- ments of recruits from Boston to the front. After about two months of this service Captain Pope was ordered to join his regiment, then fighting with the Army of the Potomac in the campaigns of Grant. He was directed to take about six hundred recruits on the steamer United States from Boston Har- bor to Alexandria on his way, a duty he performed without the loss of a man. On his arrival in Washington the city was threatened by the enemy and he was or- dered to headquarters to report for duty. The task of organizing a regiment of artil- lery men from the convalescent camp inside of thirty-six hours was assigned to him. Fifteen officers reported to him, and in less than twelve hours he had a regiment of eight hundred men organ- ized, armed, equipped, and ready to march. With this regiment he relieved the garrisons at Forts Slocum and Ste- vens and was assigned command of these important posts. When the im- mediate danger was over he was relieved and served a few days on court martial,
��then joined his regiment before Peters- burg. At one time he was temporarily in command of Fort Hell, a most im- portant position on the line, where his men were under fire continuously and where the Federal and Confederate picket posts were only fifteen yards apart. It was a proud moment for Col- onel Pope when he rode into Peters- burg at the head of his regiment.
After he had been in the regiment a little over two years he was the only orig- inal officer in the line left with it ; and at one time there was no line offtcer serv- ing with the regimect who was even a commissioned officer when he was a captain.
Colonel Pope was commissioned first lieutenant of Company K March 23, 1863. He was commissioned captain of Company I November 15, 1863. He was commissioned brevet major and lieutenant colonel March 13, 1865, for meritorious conduct before Petersburg. He was mustered out with the regiment June 9, 1865. He served continuously^ in the field save for the short time in the summer of 1864 when he was de- tailed on recruiting service, and returned to civil life a veteran at the age of twen- ty-two years. His clerkship before the war had been his preparatory school ; his army life was his college course ; he was graduated with high honors.
During his three years service he im- proved all his leisure moments by study. The science of war received his atten- tion first ; art, physical science and liter- ature came next.
At the close of the war he returned home and applied for employment with the old firm. They had signed a pa- per in common with other merchants that the clerks who went to the war and who lived to come home should have as good a place provided for them as if
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