Reminiscences of service with the Twelfth Rhode Island Volunteers, and a memorial of Col. George H. Browne: US civil war

Short account of service with the 12th Rhode Island Volunteers during the US civil war

Excerpt -

The months of July, August, September and October of 1862, were stirring times in Rhode Island,—and in fact throughout the entire North. The vigorous onward movement of our army towards Richmond, which had been long and frequently promised, was still deferred. The decisive victory won by the Union forces over Lee's army at Malvern Hills at great cost, which, in the judgment of every officer in the Army of the Potomac save one, and he the chief, should have been immediately followed by a determined advance towards the rebel stronghold, which was only about a day's march distant, was supplemented by the now somewhat stereotyped order to "fall back," thus presenting the not altogether inspiring military spectacle of a victorious army running away from its defeated and thoroughly demoralized enemy.