46th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment

Last updated
46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg
Pennsylvania flag
ActiveSeptember 1861 – July 16, 1865
CountryFlag of the United States (1863-1865).svg  United States
Allegiance Union
Branch Infantry
Engagements First Battle of Winchester
Battle of Cedar Mountain
Battle of Antietam
Battle of Chancellorsville
Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Resaca
Battle of New Hope Church
Battle of Kolb's Farm
Battle of Peachtree Creek
Battle of Bentonville
Joseph Matchette of Co. C, 46th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. He is pictured with his aide, Mrs. Minnie Lazarus, on horseback Civil War veteran Joseph Matchette in uniform with medals and his aide, Mrs. Minnie Lazarus, on horseback) - Roth LCCN2017658729.jpg
Joseph Matchette of Co. C, 46th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. From the Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. He is pictured with his aide, Mrs. Minnie Lazarus, on horseback

The 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union Army regiment in the American Civil War. It served in both the Eastern and Western Theaters, most notably at the 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain and during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign. During the war, the regiment lost 17% of its strength through combat losses and disease. [1]

Contents

History

Organization and early movements

The regiment was recruited in Allegheny, Berks, Dauphin, Luzerne, Mifflin, Northampton, Northumberland, and Potter counties, and mustered into service on September 4, 1861, under the command of Colonel Joseph F. Knipe. At Camp Curtin, in Harrisburg, they were formally accepted into the service of the United States and received their uniforms and equipment. Additionally, they were presented with their regimental colors by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin. [2]

From late September 1861 through February 1862, the 46th was stationed on the upper Potomac River in Maryland, performing guard and outpost duty in Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams' division, assigned to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks' corps. During this time, on September 22, Maj. Arnold Lewis was shot and killed by Pvt. John Lanahan of Company I while trying to enforce discipline, for which he was sentenced by military court to be executed. He was hanged on December 23 of that year, in front of his gathered brigade. [3]

By March 1862, the regiment had crossed the Potomac and reached Winchester, Virginia, beginning their part in what was to become the Valley Campaign. After a brief foray to Manassas, they were ordered back to Winchester and subsequently started a long march up the Shenandoah Valley, reaching as far south as Harrisonburg. From there they began a retrograde movement in which they fell back to the vicinity of Strasburg. [4] On May 24 they again arrived at Winchester after a desperate march to reach the town before General Stonewall Jackson's troops. The next day they fought the First Battle of Winchester, in which, heavily outnumbered, General Banks' troops were forced to frantically retreat thirty-five miles to Williamsport, Maryland, on the north bank of the Potomac. [5]

Battle of Cedar Mountain

46th Pennsylvania Monument, Cedar Mountain Battlefield 46th Pennsylvania Monument, Cedar Mountain Battlefield.JPG
46th Pennsylvania Monument, Cedar Mountain Battlefield

In early August, Banks' corps, now part of Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, was stationed at Culpeper, Virginia. With reports of Jackson's Confederate troops marching in their direction, the 46th and the rest of their brigade under Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford were ordered to attack them near a promontory named Cedar Mountain. Advancing across a wheat field, Crawford's brigade smashed into the left of Jackson's line and collapsed elements of two brigades there, including the vaunted Stonewall Brigade. During the confusion of battle, the 46th split in two directions, with the right half engaging the right flank of the Stonewall Brigade, and the left half tangling with the left end of Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett's brigade. [6] The fighting here was close and savage, including hand-to-hand combat. However, with no Union reinforcements immediately sent to sustain this breakthrough, and with pressure from additional Rebel troops sent to shore up and rally this end of the line, Crawford's men were soon outflanked and forced to retreat back across the wheat field. [7]

The Battle of Cedar Mountain devastated the ranks of the 46th. Out of a total of 504 engaged, the regiment lost 31 killed, 102 wounded, and 111 taken prisoner or missing, a casualty rate of 48%. [8] Due to these losses, the regiment was not actively engaged in the Second Battle of Bull Run at the end of August. However, at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, in spite of still having a fraction of their former number, they nevertheless saw action and lost an additional six killed and three wounded. [9]

After Antietam, the regiment occupied Maryland Heights opposite Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where they were placed on picket duty, lasting through the middle of December, when they marched to Fairfax, Virginia, and remained there until mid-January 1863. [9]

1863

Union Army, XII Corps, 1st Division Badge XIIcorpsbadge.png
Union Army, XII Corps, 1st Division Badge
46th Pennsylvania monument on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg 46th PVI Monument Gettysburg.JPG
46th Pennsylvania monument on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg

Subsequent to having taken part in Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Mud March January 20–24, 1863, the 46th went into winter camp at Stafford Courthhouse, Virginia and remained there into late April. [4] That spring, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker reorganized the Army of the Potomac, of which he was now in command. One of Hooker's initiatives included assigning each army corps a particular badge symbol, color-coded to indicate the division to which the wearer of the badge belonged. Hence, the men of the 46th now wore a red star, indicative of their assignment to the First Division of the XII Corps.

Thus organized, at the end of April, the regiment marched up the Rappahannock River around Gen. Robert E. Lee's left flank, on their way toward the Battle of Chancellorsville. On the Morning of May 3 (after General Jackson's wounding), the resumption of the famous 'Flank Attack' bore heavily upon the 1st Division. [10] Generally, the XII Corps played a significant role throughout the battle in defending their part of Hooker's line and covering the army's retreat afterward. [11]

After Colonel Knipe had been promoted to Brigadier General, command was taken over by Colonel James Lercon Selfridge. In June, Lee began advancing his Army of Northern Virginia through Maryland and into Pennsylvania, and the 46th likewise marched north with the Army of the Potomac to stop him, at the Battle of Gettysburg. However, the regiment had a limited role in the battle. After first occupying a position near the Union line's right flank on Culp's Hill late July 1, they were ordered to march toward the left flank in support of the line on Cemetery Ridge. They later countermarched back to Culp's Hill, but now found the enemy occupying the breastworks they had earlier constructed, and instead remained in a reserve position. The only casualties the 46th suffered at Gettysburg were the result of friendly fire from a Union battery posted on Powers Hill behind them. With Lee defeated at Gettysburg and retreating back into Virginia, the Army of the Potomac pursued him to the Rappahannock River. [12]

In September, the XI and XII Corps were detached from the Army of the Potomac and transferred west by rail to Tennessee to aid Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, who was besieged in Chattanooga. For the remainder of 1863, the 46th was assigned to guard duty near Bridgeport, Alabama, on the rail lines leading to Nashville. [11]

1864

46th Pennsylvania monument on Orchard Knob, Chattanooga, Tennessee 46th Pennsylvania Monument on Orchard Knob, Chattanooga, TN.JPG
46th Pennsylvania monument on Orchard Knob, Chattanooga, Tennessee

In January 1864, enough of the officers and men of the regiment volunteered to re-enlist for an additional three years' service that the unit was granted “veteran” status, which entitled them to a thirty-day furlough, and to thenceforward be referred to as 46th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry. [13] Additionally, the XI Corps and XII Corps were now consolidated into one and reorganized as the XX Corps, taking the XII Corps badge as their insignia. However, still being assigned to the First Division of the corps, the men of the regiment retained their red star badges.

The first week of May saw the beginning of Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. The 46th was actively engaged in the fighting at the Battle of Resaca on May 14 and 15, and the Battle of New Hope Church on the 25th of the same month. [14]

Throughout June, Sherman continued to attempt to outmaneuver Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's forces. On the 22nd, the regiment saw a stiff fight at the Battle of Kolb's Farm. In this battle, the men had stacked their arms toward the rear of a position they had just begun to fortify with breastworks, when suddenly two divisions of Confederate troops appeared in the clearing. After running to retrieve their rifles and loading them as they returned to the line, the 46th and the rest of their brigade, supported by artillery, proceeded to handily repulse the Rebels, inflicting terrible casualties, but incurring very few of their own. [15]

Peachtree Creek

In mid-July, with Sherman practically on the doorstep of Atlanta, Confederate President Jefferson Davis demonstrated his dissatisfaction with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's efforts to stop him by relieving him of command and placing the troops under Gen. John Bell Hood instead. Living up to his aggressive and often reckless nature, Hood wasted little time in ordering an attack on the Union forces near Peachtree Creek. Late in the afternoon on July 20, the Confederates assaulted Union Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas' Army of the Cumberland, to which the XX Corps was assigned, catching them completely off guard. Occupying the right flank of Alpheus Williams' First Division, the 46th was in danger of being overlapped by the Confederates. The companies positioned on the right were ordered to refuse the regiment's line, or pull back to form a right angle to the companies on the left. Eventually, with reinforcements arriving to plug a gap between Williams and the next Union division to his right, the Confederates were beaten back. For the 46th, the Battle of Peachtree Creek was second only to Cedar Mountain in the losses they sustained: 26 officers and men killed or mortally wounded, 86 wounded, and 1 missing. [16]

Following the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, Sherman enveloped the fortifications around the city and settled in for a siege, which lasted until September 2. After occupying Atlanta for two and a half months, the Union forces then set out on Sherman's March to the Sea, with the 46th among the ranks, on November 15, ending with the capture of Savannah, Georgia, on December 22. [17]

End of the war

From Savannah, the 46th turned north with Sherman's army and marched through South Carolina and into North Carolina in what became known as the Carolinas Campaign. At the Bennett Place near Durham, North Carolina, Confederate Gen. Joe Johnston surrendered his forces to Sherman. With hostilities now being ended, the regiment continued their march north through Virginia and into Washington, D.C., where on May 24 they took their place in the Grand Review of the Armies. On July 16, the men of 46th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers were formally mustered out of service of the United States. [4]

Losses

Over the course of the war, the 46th Pennsylvania had 1794 officers and men enrolled in its ranks. Of these, 179, or 10%, were killed or mortally wounded. An additional 138 died of disease, for a total of 317, or 17% deaths. [4] John Wadsworth Vodrey, son of noted American potter Jabez Vodrey, was killed at the Battle of New Hope Church while serving with the regiment.

Re-enactors

A group of musicians from Central Pennsylvania, known as the 46th Pennsylvania Regiment Band (The Logan Guard), portrays the regimental band that accompanied the 46th in the first part of its service, until being discharged in August 1862. [18]

See also

Notes

  1. Re-enactor's Web site
  2. Bates, Vol. I, p. 1111
  3. Williams, p. 44
  4. 1 2 3 4 Dyer, Vol. III, p. 1589
  5. Official Records, Series I, Vol. XII, Part I, p. 612–14
  6. Krick, map on p. 146, and p. 177
  7. Official Records Series 1, Vol. XII, Pt.II, p. 151
  8. Krick, p. 373
  9. 1 2 Bates, p. 1113
  10. Furgurson, Ernest (1992). Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave. New York: Vintage Books. p. 217. ISBN   0-679-72831-7.
  11. 1 2 Bates, p. 1114
  12. Official Records Series I, Vol. XXVII, Part I, p. 803
  13. Bates, p. 1115
  14. Official Records Series I, Vol. XXXVIII, Part II, pp. 54–55
  15. Official Records Series I, Vol. XXXVIII, Part II, pp. 55–56
  16. Official Records Series I, Vol. XXXVIII, Part II, pp. 56–57
  17. Bates, p. 1116
  18. Re-enactors' Web site

Related Research Articles

Battle of Chancellorsville Major battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Two related battles were fought nearby on May 3 in the vicinity of Fredericksburg. The campaign pitted Union Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac against an army less than half its size, General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Second Battle of Bull Run Major battle of the American Civil War

The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 29–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia against Union Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, and a battle of much larger scale and numbers than the First Battle of Bull Run fought on July 21, 1861 on the same ground.

Union Army of the Potomac Principal Union army in the eastern theatre of the American Civil War

The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April.

Jacksons Valley campaign 1862 campaign in the American Civil War

Jackson's Valley campaign, also known as the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862, was Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's spring 1862 campaign through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia during the American Civil War. Employing audacity and rapid, unpredictable movements on interior lines, Jackson's 17,000 men marched 646 miles (1,040 km) in 48 days and won several minor battles as they successfully engaged three Union armies, preventing them from reinforcing the Union offensive against Richmond.

Battle of Cross Keys Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Cross Keys was fought on June 8, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Together, the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic the following day were the decisive victories in Jackson's Valley Campaign, forcing the Union armies to retreat and leaving Jackson free to reinforce Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond, Virginia.

Battle of Cedar Mountain

The Battle of Cedar Mountain, also known as Slaughter's Mountain or Cedar Run, took place on August 9, 1862, in Culpeper County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. Union forces under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks attacked Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson near Cedar Mountain as the Confederates marched on Culpeper Court House to forestall a Union advance into central Virginia. After nearly being driven from the field in the early part of the battle, a Confederate counterattack broke the Union lines resulting in a Confederate victory. The battle was the first combat of the Northern Virginia campaign.

The Army of Virginia was organized as a major unit of the Union Army and operated briefly and unsuccessfully in 1862 in the American Civil War. It should not be confused with its principal opponent, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by Robert E. Lee.

Culps Hill

Culp's Hill, which is about 34 mi (1,200 m) south of the center of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, played a prominent role in the Battle of Gettysburg. It consists of two rounded peaks, separated by a narrow saddle. Its heavily wooded higher peak is 630 ft (190 m) above sea level. The lower peak is about 100 feet shorter than its companion. The eastern slope descends to Rock Creek, about 160 feet lower in elevation, and the western slope is to a saddle with Stevens Knoll with a summit 100 ft (30 m) lower than the main Culp's Hill summit. The hill was owned in 1863 by farmer Henry Culp and was publicized as "Culp's Hill" by October 31, 1865.

The XII Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Maryland campaign

The Maryland campaign occurred September 4–20, 1862, during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North was repulsed by the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who moved to intercept Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia and eventually attacked it near Sharpsburg, Maryland. The resulting Battle of Antietam was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history.

Alpheus S. Williams Union Army general and politician

Alpheus Starkey Williams was a lawyer, judge, journalist, U.S. Congressman, and a Union general in the American Civil War.

Adolph von Steinwehr

Baron Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich von Steinwehr was a German-Brunswick army officer who emigrated to the United States, became a geographer, cartographer, and author, and served as a Union general in the American Civil War.

Samuel W. Crawford Union Army General

Samuel Wylie Crawford was a United States Army surgeon and a Union general in the American Civil War.

Joseph F. Knipe

Joseph Farmer Knipe was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His troops won a decisive victory in late 1864 that helped clear Tennessee of Confederates during the Franklin-Nashville Campaign.

Ario Pardee Jr.

Ariovistus Pardee Jr. was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He rose to fame during the Battle of Gettysburg, where he led the defense of a portion of Culp's Hill on July 3, 1863. A monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield commemorates the spot as "Pardee Field."

68th New York Infantry Regiment American infantry regiment

The 68th New York Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Also known as the Cameron Rifles or the Second German Rifle Regiment, the men were mostly German immigrants. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, the 68th saw service in the Eastern and Western theaters.

Henry J. Stainrook, occasionally spelled Steinrock, led a regiment of the Army of Virginia and the Army of the Potomac in the American Civil War. He briefly led a brigade at the Battle of Antietam. Stainrook was killed in the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Edward Tiffin Harrison Warren

Edward Tiffin Harrison Warren was a military colonel who commanded a Virginia infantry regiment in the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. He was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864.

2nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment

The 2nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Major George H. Gordon, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Mexican-American War, organized the unit's recruitment and formation. The 2nd Massachusetts was trained at Camp Andrew in West Roxbury, Massachusetts on the site of the former Transcendentalist utopian community, Brook Farm. Roughly half the regiment was mustered in on May 18, 1861 and the remainder on May 25, 1861 for a term of three years. The regiment saw extensive combat as part of the Army of the Potomac particularly during the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Gettysburg.

125th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment Union Army infantry regiment

The 125th Pennsylvania Infantry volunteered during the American Civil War and served a 9-month term from August 1862 to May 1863. It selected the motto In God We Trust. The Regiment fought at the Battle of Antietam under the leadership of Colonel Jacob C. Higgins less than six weeks after being recruited in Blair, Cambria and Huntingdon Counties. The Regiment was noted for its charge through the East Woods, along the Great Cornfield, down Smoketown Road, past the Dunker Church, and into the West Woods. While in formation beyond the Dunker Church in an 'overextended' position, the Regiment repulsed four counterattacks at a price of 229 casualties within 20 minutes. A fifth, heavily reinforced Confederate counterattack forced a retreat with a desperate struggle to retain the Regimental colors. Two weeks before the end of their enlistment, the 125th Pennsylvania also occupied the perimeter of Chancellorsville, Virginia, during the Battle of Chancellorsville.

References