My grandmother recently passed, and after going through one of her scrap books I found an ancestor by the name of Jacob Arnold who after incurring the rage of his Grandfather(A Burgomeister in the area of Darmstadt Germany) for hunting on private lands avoided being forced into the prussian army by him when his grandmother paid for his trip to the United States. Having escaped the Prussian army he landed in American to find the only way he could make money was to enlist and did so according to my grandmother as a paid substitute.
Anyways sorry for the long story I'll cut to the chase. My grandmother had very detailed information including
-Enlisted September 9th, 1864
-Lost shelter tent had to reimburse government $2.13
-Participated in battles Poplar Spring Church Sept 30th, Boydton Road Oct. 27, Hatchers Run Feb 5th, Boydton Road March 31st.
As great of a job researching as she did I still wish to know more. While I have all of this information I want to know specifically what actions Arnold's Regiment, even company may have taken part in during the engagements. For example rear guard, pickets, flanks movement, attacking, defending, reserves. I’ve attempted searching through Wikipedia and the internet to get an idea and as far as I could get was that he maybe was in the II corp at the time of these battles. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would really recommend starting with the National Parks' Soldiers and Sailors Database. It contains some basic information about virtually every soldier on both sides of the Civil War.
As it is, you already have more information than the system will provide you, but the system will also point you to the specific reference number or code to microfilm records accessible at the state or national archives. Using this number, you can find all of the official documents on record for your ancestor from the period of the war.
I would also recommend a trip to the National Archives to search out any pension records. Soldiers had to apply for pensions, and in so doing related personal experiences in the combat. Not only would it confirm some of the things you've already found, it might also give you details that would otherwise escape.
Hope that helps!
At Hatcher's Run, the 8th NJ was commanded by Major Hartford, assigned to the Third Brigade (Robert McAllister) of the Third Division (Gersham Mott), of the II Corps (Thomas Smyth).
Third brigade was on the left of the divisional line, and was separated from its neighboring brigades a bit during the Confederate assaults. This put the 8th NJ in an exposed position where they took 48 of the 76 casualties in the division. Their brigade commander said the regiment deserved "particular credit" for holding their positions. source
That's just the reference from the index to the 8th NJ itself. If you look up the names of other generals in the regiment's chain of command you can probably find more contextual information on the larger maneuvers your subject was involved in.
And that's just volume XLVI as accessed from this page. Look for XLIII for August to December of 1864 as well.