Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

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[217] on. When Manassas was evacuated by the Rebels, in the spring of 1862, Almy's regiment went to Vienna, a few miles west from Washington. When General McClellan moved down the Peninsula, this regiment went with him, in General Fitz-John Porter's division. It was engaged in the siege of Yorktown, but did not participate in much of the fighting in the campaign against Richmond. A singular accident prevented it from taking part in the seven days battle immediately before Richmond. The regiment, with others, was sent out on an expedition under General Stoneman, expecting to meet the enemy and to see some hard service. But they did not find the enemy as they expected; and they were cut off from the main body of the Federal forces by a movement of the Rebels in their rear. For several days the whole force was supposed to be captured by the Rebels; but General Stoneman retreated down the York River, and then marched up the James, rejoining the main body of the army after an absence of seven or eight days, at Harrison's Landing. They thus escaped in safety from the hands of the enemy, but they lost all their camp equipage, which was burned; and for three weeks after their return they were without tents to shelter them.

After the Army of the Potomac was withdrawn from the Peninsula, Almy's regiment was joined to General Pope's army, and fought in the battle of Manassas, August 29 and 30, 1862. From the first day's fight Almy came out unharmed, but upon the second day he was killed. His company was ordered to take a certain battery. They charged and took it. But on capturing this battery, they found a second still in front. While advancing against the second battery they came under a very severe cross-fire, and were forced to retire.

While retreating, Almy was heard to exclaim, ‘God! they'll annihilate us!’ and the words had hardly been spoken when a bullet struck him in the head and instantly killed him. The field was left in possession of the enemy; hence his body was not recovered, and no memento marks its resting-place.