The Civil War.

county commissioners at once to appropriate five thousand dollars, and twenty thousand dollars thereafter, to be used for the support of the families of those men who should join the army. The activity did not cease here, for the subordinate committees in the several districts in two days after their appointment collected two thousand seven hundred dollars for the relief fund, and in addition Samuel M. Felton, president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Company, sent a check for one thousand dollars to John P. Crozer, as the contribution of the company. Mr. Felton also notified the clerks in the employment of the road that those who should go to the front would receive their salaries while absent, and on their return from the war would be taken back into the railroad company's service. The women were as active as the men, and busy fingers found constant employment during all the four succeeding years of war in fabricating articles of clothing to minister to the comfort and healthfulness of the soldiers in the field.

After the defeat at Bull Run had convinced the North that the revolting States were terribly in earnest, that they were brave men, ably commanded, and that a war which would dwarf all former wars in the world's history had begun, the popular excitement of the first three months of open hostilities settled into dogged determination that, cost what it might, the national authority should be maintained in every part of the land. During the latter part of July, and in August, 1861, recruiting for new military organizations was brisk in the county. Hereafter the local history of the time, so far as it relates to the several companies and regiments, will be presented in a connected account of such organizations.

Twenty-sixth Regiment (Three-Years' Service). - Although the history of this regiment antedates the actual outbreak of hostilities, and, as will be recalled, under Col. Small, it was attacked in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, when on its way to Washington to be equipped and armed, it is nowise distinctly connected with the annals of Delaware County until nearly a month subsequent to that event. Under the call of the United States, May 3, 1861, for troops to serve a period of three years, William L. Grubb began recruiting a company in Chester and the surrounding neighborhood. This company was mustered in on May 3l, 1861, as Company K, Twenty-sixth Regiment, and on Monday evening, June 16th, it went through Chester. The people in the ancient borough, knowing that the company was ordered to Washington, gathered at the station and along the railroad. The boys in blue, as they caught sight of their friends and acquaintances, waved their hats from the car windows and platforms and cheered, which was taken up and answered by the people who had been watching their coming so anxiously. The main body of the regiment was then at Washington guarding the quartermaster-general's stores, the arsenal, and the flying bridge at Georgetown. The regiment was subsequently assigned to Gen. Hooker's division, and early in April, 1862, was transported to the Peninsula, where it took part in the siege of Yorktown, and on May 5th, at the battle of Williamsburg in front of Fort Magruder, it drove the enemy out of the rifle-pits into the works, which position it held for eight hours until fresh troops came to its support, and the fort was taken. It was engaged at Seven Pines, and in "the change of base," on June 19th, was in action at Savage Station. On the 20th it was engaged in the battle of White Oak Swamp from noon to night, and just before dusk of that long summer day it made a brilliant bayonet charge, breaking the enemy's line, compelling them to retire, and the following day it took part in the battle of Malvern Hill. On August 20th it was with Heintzelman's corps, dispatched to the support of Gen. Pope. In that campaign it was engaged at Bristoe Station on the 26th, and the next day opened communication for the army with its base of supplies. On the 29th it marched through Centreville to Bull Run, going at once into the fight, where it suffered severely. Capt. Meekins, of Company K, was killed in this battle. The next day the Twenty-sixth Regiment was held as support to three different batteries, which compelled it to march rapidly from point to point as occasion required. At Burnside's defeat at Fredericksburg it was in the front line of battle, and was engaged with but slight intermission for thirty hours. At Chancellorsville, on May 2, 1863, the regiment made a reconnoissance up the road in front of Hooker's headquarters to feel the enemy, and on the 3d it was held as a support to batteries after it had fallen back to the intrenchments, a movement made necessary after the Seventy-second New York had broken, leaving the flank of the Twenty-sixth uncovered and exposed to a heavy fire, by which it lost nearly a hundred men. In the Gettysburg campaign it was with Gen. Sickles, and reached the field on the evening of the 1st of July, 1863. The next day the regiment was on the extreme right of the division, and suffered severely. Late in the day it sustained a charge of a Florida brigade, which it checked, and in turn charged the enemy, driving the latter in confusion, capturing many prisoners. The loss of the Twenty-sixth Regiment in this battle was appalling. It had gone into the fight with three hundred and sixty-four men, and its loss was two hundred and sixteen killed and wounded, this number including three color-bearers who were killed. In Grant's campaign, on May 5, 1364, at the battle of the Wilderness, it was on the extreme left of the army and held its position, although repeatedly assailed. On the 12th, at Spottsylvania Court-House, it took part in Hancock's grand charge with the Second Corps, and in the engagement the Twenty-sixth captured two Napoleon guns, which it turned with effect on the enemy. It was actively engaged at the crossing of the North Anna River, and on the 27th of May crossed the Pamunkey River at