Left the State: November 29, 1861
Mustered out: June 27, 1865

Col. Samuel J. Crooks received authority to recruit this regiment; it was organized for a three years' service, November 14, 1861, at Rochester, where Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, I and K were mustered in the United States service November 23d, and Companies G and H November 28, 1861, only ten companies being organized; Company L having been consolidated into Company G and Company M merged into H, November 14, 1861. A number of the enlisted men of Company K were in December, 1861, transferred to other companies of the regiment, and March 8, 1862, the remaining men were transferred to the 1st Battalion of Artillery, Companies A, B and D, later 29th, 30th and 32d Batteries. A new Company K and Companies L and M were organized in August, September and October, 1862, and mustered in the United States service at Rochester for three years, September 29th, October 15th and 14th, respectively. At the expiration of the term of service of the regiment, those entitled thereto were, October 29, 1864, ordered to Rochester to be discharged and mustered out, and those remaining were, November 1, 1864, consolidated into a battalion of eight companies and retained in service. In this consolidation Companies A, B, C, D and E retained their letters and organization, Company K became Company F, L became G, and M was designated H; the enlisted men of the original Company F were transferred to Company A; those of original G to Companies B, C, D and M, old; those of original H to D and L, old; those of I to Company E, old. On the 30th of April, 1865, new Companies I, K, L and M were formed of recruits, mustered in for one and two years' service, and the regimental organization again completed.

The companies were recruited principally: A at Rochester, Penn Tan, Penfield, Webster and Canandaigua; battles were fought at Rochester, Avon, Brighton, Lima, Rush and Honeoye Falls; C at Rochester, Newark, Sodus, Palmyra, Marion and Williamson; D at Rochester, Clyde and Phelps; E at Rochester, -Hartland, Middleport and Royalton; F at Rochester, Albion, Carlton, Kendall and Newark; G at Rochester, Rushville, Seneca Falls, Montezuma and Waterloo; H at Rochester, Brockport, Bergen, Clarkson, Fairport and Hamblin; I at Rochester, Clinton, Penfield, Paris, Deansville, Waterville, Ontario, Webster, North Bay and Walworth; second Company I at Buffalo and Auburn, and K at Rochester, Brockport, Batavia, Norwich, Pitcher, Pharsalia, Sherburne, Spencerport and Webster; second Company K at Rochester; third Company K at Lockport, Canandaigua, Rochester, Buffalo and New York city; Companies L and M at Rochester; second Companies L and M at Rochester, Auburn, Elmira, Canandaigua, Buffalo, Binghamton, Lockport, Oswego and Syracuse.

The regiment left the State November 29, 1861, and served in the defenses of Washington, D. C., from December, 1861; in the Department of the Shenandoah from March, 1862; in the Middle Department, 8th Corps, from June, 1862; in the 5th Brigade, Pleasanton's Division of Cavalry, Army of the Potomac, mounted, from August, 1862; in the 1st Brigade, same division, from December, 1862; in the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, from February, 1863; in the 2d Brigade, 3d Division, Cavalry, Army of the Potomac, from March, 1864; in the Army of the Shenandoah from October, 1864, and with the Army of the Potomac from March, 1865.

The regiment, commanded by Col. Edmund M. Pope, was mustered out and honorably discharged June 27, 1865, at Alexandria, Va., having lost by death during its service, killed in action, 8 officers, 60 enlisted men; died of wounds received in action, 5 officers, 32 enlisted men; died of disease and other causes, 6 officers, 213 enlisted men; total, 19 officers, 305 enlisted men; aggregate, 324, of whom 3 officers and 70 enlisted men died in the hands of the enemy.

General Early's Defeat

General Philip Henry Sheridan and his union cavalry had wintered near Winchester, Virginia and as February ended they moved two divisions of veteran mounted troops up the Valley to Staunton.  Nearly 10,000 officers and men carrying five days worth of rations in haversacks, and each horse bearing approximately a thirty pound load.  Fifteen days ration of coffee, sugar, and salt were borne in wagons.  They also had ammunitions trains, a pontoon train of eight boats, eight ambulances, and one wagon per division headquarters, but were actually rather lightly equipped and able to proceed with greater ease.  However, the weather was vile with rapidly melting rain on the snow capped mountains causing the banks of every small stream to overflow. The horses were dripping wet and the slushy roads plastered every boot in the march. 

Small bands of guerrillas hovered at their flanks, but at a respectful distance and no one paid much attention to them until a party of of one to two hundred attempted to impede the march by burning a bridge over a fork of the Shenandoah.  They were quickly driven off after suffering a considerable loss of men and supplies.  In three days, the Union Soldiers reached Staunton where Sheridan learned the Confederate troops, led by General Jubal A. Early, were nothing more than a pitiful remnant of an army.  When Sheridan learned that some 2,000 enemy soldiers were entrenched on a knoll near Waynesboro, by the western entrance to Rockfish Gap, he became determined to conquer them and thereby obliterate the last Confederate force in the Shenandoah Valley.

Source: Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C.