The 82nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantryregiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was designated the 31st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry until after the Battle of Seven Pines but changed to avoid confusion with the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment, which was renumbered.
Infantry is a military specialization that engages in military combat on foot, distinguished from cavalry, artillery, and tank forces. Also known as foot soldiers or infanteers, infantry traditionally relies on moving by foot between combats as well, but may also use mounts, military vehicles, or other transport. Infantry make up a large portion of all armed forces in most nations, and typically bear the largest brunt in warfare, as measured by casualties, deprivation, or physical and psychological stress.
A regiment is a military unit. Their role and size varies markedly, depending on the country and the arm of service.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Also known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States as a working, viable republic.
The 82nd Pennsylvania Infantry was organized at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for a three-year enlistment in August 1861 and mustered in under the command of Colonel David H. Williams. Company B was organized in Pittsburgh, while the other nine companies were organized in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2018 census-estimated population of 1,584,138. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.
In the United States Army, Marine Corps, and Air Force, colonel is the most senior field grade military officer rank, immediately above the rank of lieutenant colonel and immediately below the rank of brigadier general. It is equivalent to the naval rank of captain in the other uniformed services. The pay grade for colonel is O-6.
The regiment was attached to Graham's Brigade, Buell's (Couch's) Division, Army of the Potomac, October 1861 to March 1862. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, to July 1862. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, IV Corps, to September 1862. 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, VI Corps, Army of the Potomac, to October 1862. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, VI Corps, to January 1864. Johnson's Island, Sandusky, Ohio, to May 1864. 4th Brigade, 1st Division, VI Corps, Army of the Potomac, to July 1864. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, VI Corps, Army of the Potomac, and Army of the Shenandoah, to July 1865.
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 May 1865 following the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April.
There were two corps of the Union Army called IV Corps during the American Civil War. They were separate units, one serving with the Army of the Potomac and the Department of Virginia in the Eastern Theater, 1862–1863, the other with the Army of the Cumberland in the Western Theater, 1863–1865.
The VI Corps was a corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 82nd Pennsylvania Infantry mustered out of service on July 13, 1865.
Detailed service
Duty in the defenses of Washington, D.C., until March 1862. Advanced on Manassas, Va., March 10-15. Moved to the Virginia Peninsula March 26. Siege of Yorktown April 5-May 4. Battle of Williamsburg May 5. Operations about Bottom's Bridge May 20-23. Battle of Seven Pines May 31-June 1. Seven days before Richmond June 25-July 1. Savage's Station June 29. White Oak Swamp June 30. Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing until August 16. Reconnaissance to Malvern Hill August 5-7.Movement to Alexandria, then to Chantilly August 16-30. Chantilly September 1. Maryland Campaign September 6-24. Battle of Antietam September 16-17. Williamsport September 19-20. Duty in Maryland and along the Potomac River until November 1. Movement to Falmouth, Va., November 1-19. Battle of Fredericksburg December 12-15. Burnside's second Campaign. "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. At Falmouth until April. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Operations about Franklin's Crossing April 29-May 2. Maryes Heights, Fredericksburg, May 3. Salem Heights May 3-4. Banks' Ford May 4. Operations about Deep Run Ravine June 6-13. Gettysburg Campaign June 13-July 24. Battle of Gettysburg July 2-4. Pursuit of Lee July 5-24. At and near Funkstown, Md., July 10-13. At Warrenton and Culpeper until October. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Rappahannock Station November 7. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Moved to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie, January 6, 1864, and duty there guarding prisoners until May 6. Moved to Washington, D.C., then joined the Army of the Potomac in the field. Rapidan Campaign May 12-June 12. Spotsylvania Court House May 12-21. Assault on the Salient May 12. North Anna River May 23-26. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Before Petersburg June 17-18. Jerusalem Plank Road June 22-23. Siege of Petersburg until July 9. Moved to Washington, D.C., July 9-11. Repulse of Early's attack on Washington July 11-12. Snicker's Gap Expedition July 14-18. Sheridan's Shenandoah Valley Campaign August to December. (Old members mustered out September 16, 1864.) Battle of Opequan, Winchester, September 19. Fisher's Hill September 22. Battle of Cedar Creek October 19. Duty in the Shenandoah Valley until December. Ordered to Petersburg, Va., December 1. Siege of Petersburg December 1864 to April 1865. Dabney's Mills, Hatcher's Run, February 5-7, 1865. Fort Fisher, Petersburg, March 25, 1865. Appomattox Campaign March 28-April 9. Assault on and fail of Petersburg April 2. Pursuit of Lee April 3-9. Sailor's Creek April 6. Appomattox Court House April 9. Surrender of Lee and his army. At Farmville and Burkesville until April 23. March to Danville April 23-27, and duty there until May 24. Moved to Richmond, Va., then to Washington, D.C.. May 24-June 3. Corps review June 8.
Casualties
The regiment lost a total of 178 men during service; 5 officers and 106 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 67 enlisted men died of disease.
Commanders
Colonel David H. Williams - discharged February 14, 1863
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References
Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
Attribution
This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.
The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.
Frederick Henry Dyer served as a drummer boy in the Union Army during the American Civil War. After the war, he wrote A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion – a complete record of every regiment formed under the Union Army, their histories, and the battles they fought in – taking forty years to compile.
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