that time the Army of the Potomac had a
new commander in the person of Maj. Gen.
Joseph Hooker. Determined to finally bring
Lee to bay, “Fighting Joe” launched a sur-
prise offensive in April 1863, and the affair
initially went well. The 27th Indiana was
tasked with securing Germanna Ford, a
vital crossing of Virginia’s Rapidan River,
and by the first of May the two armies were
arrayed for battle in dense forest near the
Chancellorsville crossroads. Stonewall Jack-
son’s unexpected flank attack of May 2
caught Hooker entirely by surprise, and the
Confederate juggernaut wrecked one Fed-
eral brigade after another. As darkness fell,
Jackson ran into stiffening Federal resis-
tance, and following his accidental wound-
ing the attack was halted for the night.
Among XII Corps troops in line that
night was the 1st Division’s 3rd Brigade,
including Colgrove’s 27th Indiana and the
2nd Massachusetts under Colonel William
Cogswell. Realizing that the Confederates
would press their advantage in the morn-
ing, Colgrove braced his men for the com-
ing battle, nabbed two fieldpieces from a
passing battery, and admonished his
troops to form into line and stand firm.
When the battle renewed at dawn the
next day, Ruger’s brigade was assailed by
regiment after regiment of fresh troops,
and the fighting intensified, in the words of
one participant, to a struggle “which for
cool, deliberate action and resolute,
unflinching endurance, on both sides, has
had few parallels.” Colgrove, stripped
down to his shirt, was busy helping his vol-
unteer gunners. He called out to his 19-
year-old son, Theodore, the regimental
major, “Here, boy, you run the regiment
while I run this here gun.”
As the Rebel line faltered and gave way,
the 27th Indiana, along with the 2nd
Massachusetts and 3rd Wisconsin,
mounted a vigorous bayonet charge that
swept their front. The 2nd engaged in a
brutal hand-to-hand encounter with the
1st North Carolina, and Mudge later
recorded that he had prayed for courage,
“but I never believed a man could feel so
joyous, and such a total absence of fear, as
I had there.”Colgrove received a nasty wound to the
hip, but the ball missed any bone. Cogswell
was not as fortunate, receiving a serious
wound that incapacitated him. Command
of the 2nd fell to Mudge, a major since the
previous November, who wrote to his
father after Chancellorsville that the pres-
sures of battle and command weighed heav-
ily on him, “yet I had courage enough, by
God’s help, to bear it all coolly.”
Mudge’s repeated allusions to divine
assistance highlighted his reawakened
interest in spiritual concerns. By upbring-
ing an Episcopalian, Mudge apparently
underwent something of a personal revival
consequent to his experiences in the war.
Whereas the crusty Colgrove, described by
one of his men as the “most profane man
I ever came in contact with,” was entirelyindifferent to the administration of divine
services to his men, Mudge took it upon
himself to personally perform such duties
in the absence of a chaplain. He was
known to keep an Episcopal prayer book
in his pocket, and his attention to the spir-
itual welfare of the regiment further
endeared him to the men.
Ruger’s brigade would face its most des-
perate fight of the war two months later.
Flushed with the success of its Chancel-
lorsville victory, the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia again crossed the Potomac River in
the middle of June and ushered in the cam-
paign that would culminate at the cross-roads of Gettysburg. Hooker shadowed
the Rebel army, but his days of command
were numbered. Exasperated by the disas-
trous drubbing of the Army of the
Potomac, the Lincoln administration was
determined not to risk another such defeat
on northern soil and pressured Hooker
into resigning. His replacement was V
Corps commander Maj. Gen. George G.
Meade, awakened from a dead sleep and
given command of the army in the early
morning hours of June 28.
Three days later Meade was drawn into
the epic struggle at Gettysburg, and the
orders he issued on July 1 would have fatal
repercussions for the men of the 27th Indi-
ana and 2nd Massachusetts. Known as the
Pipe Creek Circular, the directive detailed
Meade’s strategic vision for the campaignand resulted in a gross misunderstanding
for one of his corps commanders. In the
circular, Meade made provision for a pos-
sible withdrawal of his army to Pipe Creek
in Maryland. In the event such a move
would become necessary, he appointed XII
Corps commander Maj. Gen. Henry
Slocum as commander of the army’s right
wing. This nebulous unit was to consist of
both Slocum’s XII Corps and V Corps. In
assuming command of the right wing,
Slocum left a vacancy in the command of
XII Corps, which was filled by Brig. Gen.
Alpheus Williams of the 1st Division.
Williams was then replaced by Ruger.CWQ-EW16 Culp's Hill_Layout 1 10/22/15 1:04 PM Page 43