In July 1861, the United States Congress authorized President Abraham Lincoln to call out 500,000 men, to serve for three years unless sooner discharged.

It was organized from militia companies from Springfield, Coventry, Newbury (Wells River), Charleston, Johnson, Hartford, St.Johnsbury, St. Albans, Guidhall, and East Montpelier and Calais.

Phelps, however, was serving as commandant of the post at Newport News, Virginia, and the offers to Seymour and Colburn were declined.

At Hartford, Connecticut, the regiment's commander, Colonel William Farrar Smith,[note 5] joined them.

Major Walter W. Cochran, of Bellows Falls, resigned his commission on August 6 due to a severe attack of fever and ague.

[1] It was also here that Private William Scott, known to history as the Sleeping Sentinel,[6] was found asleep at his post on August 31, court-martialed, and sentenced to be executed.

[7][8] Scott served faithfully with his regiment until the Battle at Lee's Mill, where he was mortally wounded, and was buried in the national cemetery at Yorktown.

A shell fell within the ranks of Company C, killing Private Amos Meserve, mortally wounding William H. Colburn, and injuring five others.

Quartermaster Redfield Proctor resigned from the regiment on this date to accept appointment as Major of the 5th Vermont Infantry.