76th PA Volunteer Infantry Soldier Reinforces Grant's Overland Campaign

FOGLE enlisted on August 26, 1863 as a Private. He was a member of the 76th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, also known as the Keystone Zouaves, a Union Army infantry regiment that served in the Civil War from October 18, 1861, to July 18, 1865. 3 pp, 5 x 8, May 21, 1864, Fogle writes to his wife, in part, ... We left where we was on Saturday and we marched all night and on Sunday morning we got on the boat and went down the James River to Fortress Monroe and from there to York Town and from there to the York River... And went up to what they call the white house landing...

We have come here to reinforce Grant... He is going to get his supplies from here... I can hear the cannon roar... Fogle is referring to the Rapidan Campaign. The Overland Campaign involved some 40 days of maneuver and combat between the Rapidan and James Rivers, pitted the Civil War premier generals - Ulysses S.

Grant for the Union, and Robert E. Lee for the Confederacy - against one another in a grueling contest of endurance and guile. Grant and Lee were evenly matched in military talent. 1864 was an extremely important year as President Lincoln was up for his second term. But unless the Union army produced significant victories, the presidency could have gone to a candidate willing to negotiate with the South. Although Grant suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic Union victory. The Union inflicted higher losses on Lee's army and maneuvered it into a siege at Richmond and Petersburg in just over eight weeks. The letter has been professionally reattached at breaks. Fogle's writing is challenging.

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