received considerable additions in volunteers from Orange County, although not half as many as had been mustered out and transferred to the veteran reserve corps in consequence of physical disability. Early in March U. S. Grant had been made Lieutenant General and invested by the President with the chief command of all the armies of the United States. In the latter part of March and the month of April he caused a radical reorganization of the Army of the Potomac, and the "Old Third" became a part of the Second Corps. An advance was ordered May 3d, and that night Birney's division struck tents and began its march. Two days afterward the memorable Battle of the Wilderness was begun. Ward's command in this battle consisted of eight infantry regiments, including the 124th and the Second U. S. Sharpshooters, constituting one of the largest brigades in the army. The leading officers of the 124th were now Colonel Cummins, Lieutenant-Colonel Weygant and Acting Major H. S. Murray. The brigade and regiment did their allotted share in the two-days' battle, but the regiment was less exposed than at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and came out with a loss of three killed and fifty-seven wounded, Colonel Cummins being among the wounded. The battle of Spottsylvania Court House came a week later. On the 9th the 124th N. Y. and 20th Ind. Regiments were thrown out as skirmishers for General Birney's division as it marched forward. Near Po River a Confederate battery opened on them, but fired too high, and soon had to flee. In the battle the next day for a while the 124th supported a battery on the extreme right of Hancock's line, and then marched with the division towards the left, where it was soon engaged, and assisted in an unsuccessful charge on the rebel line. It was in General Hancock's famous charge of May 12th. Birney's division was in four lines, with Ward's Brigade in front, the 124th composing the right center of the first line, Lieutenant Colonel Weygant in command. When the clash came there were hand-to-hand encounters so fierce and desperate as to defy description. There was an "unparalleled struggle of eighteen hours' duration." Hancock's men captured the enemy's works, and he finally abandoned his efforts to retake them. The 124th had been so actively engaged or under fire so much that the men writing home as late as May 18th spoke of the battle as having been raging since May 4th. Its losses were fifteen killed, fifty-two wounded and two captured. Colonel Weygant was one of the wounded. After the battle the regiment was so small that it was found necessary to consolidate it into five and then into three companies, and the 124th and 86th acted together, first under Lieutenant Colonel Lansing and then Major Stafford, both of the 86th. This union lasted until they settled down in front of Petersburg.