This is the closest I can get to the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry. Our Version of the history was created from information I collected from different sources

Private Church

Around this time the 2nd Michigan V.I. was augmented by an overflow of new recruits (552 men plus officers) from the 27th Michigan Infantry from the Saginaw (Bay area) This unit had been very fruitful in recruiting new members and a business agreement between the 2 Colonels made this possible.

On the 6th of May, it participated in the battle of the Wilderness.

On May 9th it marched to Fredricksburg via Chancellorsville.

On the 10th, 11th and 12th it was in the battle of Spottsylvania Court House. Captain Farrand gave his life on the 12th being in command of the Regiment a part of the 12th, Colonel Humphrey having been placed temporarily in command of a Brigade.

While Farrand had command, a rebel Brigade, under General Wilcox, advanced rapidly and unexpectedly on a battery of four guns, of the Nineteenth New York, killing or wounding every man before a gun could be fired, taking possession of some of the guns. Farrand instantly called for volunteers from the Second, who manned the remaining guns, putting in a double charge of cannister to those, that were already loaded, and with these guns loaded to the muzzles, opened a terrific and destructive fire on the Confederate Brigade, with great slaughter, checking it and driving it from the attack, saving the rest of the battery and preventing an overwhelming charge on the remaining union troops in the vicinity.

On the 23rd of May the Regiment, now in the Second Brigade, was engaged at Ox Ford, on the 23rd and 24th at the North Anna River, then on the 30th at Tolopotomy, Lieutenant Nelson Fletcher being among the killed on the 24th. On the 3rd of June, again in the First Brigade, it was in the battle of Bethesda. From Bethesda Church the Regiment marched to Cold Harbor, where it was engaged on the 7th.

On June 12th, then in the Second Brigade. The Army broke contact, withdrew a few miles, and crossed the Chickahominy River to swing toward Petersburg, well below Richmond. The 2nd Michigan and its brigade were left with the dangerous duty of bluffing Lee into believing the entire Army was still in its entrenchments. They performed perfectly & escaped.

On June 14th and during the night of the 15th crossed to the south side of the James river, They caught up with Grant's force just in time to be launched into the first assaults on Petersburg. On June 17th and 18th. The 2nd participating in the engagement before Petersburg on the 17th and 18th. On the 18th the Regiment was in command of Lieutenant Colonel March, Colonel Humphrey having command of a Brigade, being specially assigned to it on the field. During the attack which followed the exploding of the mine on the 30th of July, the Second was heavily engaged with Captain John L. Young commanding.

Captain Young, commanding, filed a report on casualties for May and June. The regiment had lost 37 dead and 272 wounded--nearly half its reconstituted strength. The wounded included the colonel, the lieutenant colonel, and the adjutant. Of ten company commanders, one was dead and five wounded.

In late July, another attempt was made to storm Petersburg. Miners drove a tunnel underneath the Confederate lines and detonated tons of powder. Union attempts to exploit the explosion--the fabled "Battle of the Crater"--were to no avail. The Second went in on the left side of the crater itself, captured entrenchments, and held out: long after the rest of the Army withdrew, three flags were seen waving above the Confederate trenches: one was that of the Second Michigan. The men fought their way out, taking 57 casualties. (Captain Young, commanding the regiment, was killed while directing men to dig out a cannon buried by the crater explosion). Its flag fell into enemy hands despite the gallantry of the color bearer, who as he was captured hurled it like a javelin toward the Union lines.

Withdrawing from in front of Petersburg, the Regiment marched with its Corp to the Weldon Railroad, where in was in action of the 19th of August, on this road. In command of Lieutenant Colonel March, Colonel Humphrey being still in command of the Brigade, it participated in the movement on the right flank of the Confederate army, where on the 30th of September, in the engagement at Popular Spring Church. The Regiment remained in camp from the 30th of September to the 27th of October, near Peeble�s Farm House.

On the 27th, in the advance on the Boydon Plank Road the 2nd was engaged with the enemy once again. On the 28th it returned to its camping ground by Peeble�s House, where it was employed in constructing fortifications, and on the usual picket duty until the 29th, when it moved, with its Corp, about 10 miles to the right, on the old City Point and Petersburg Railroad, where it relieved a part of the Second Corp at that point and was engaged in the trenches assisting in the Siege of Petersburg.