154th New York Infantry Regiment

The regiment served in the eastern theater with the Army of the Potomac (AoP) until it was sent west as part of Hooker's reinforcement of the Army of the Cumberland (AoC). It remained in the west through the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign, the last two as part of the Army of Georgia (AoG).

After the first year of war and the debacle on the Peninsula caused the Lincoln administration to realize that the war would take longer than first expected and many more men, on July 1, 1862, Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers for three-year commitments. New York's quota from this call was twenty-eight regiments. The state, in turn, immediately ordered most of its thirty-two senatorial districts to constitute regimental districts with a regimental muster center in each. New York's Thirty-Second Senatorial District was composed of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. A Cattaraugus County lawyer and state assemblyman from Ellicottsville, Addison G. Rice, was appointed a Colonel for the recruiting effort.[6] The district exceeded its quota by 100% by raising twenty-one companies, twelve from Chautauqua County, eight from Cattaraugus, and a sharpshooters company recruited at large in the district. On September 11, 1862, ten Chautauqua companies mustered into the U.S. service as the 112th New York . The following day that regiment and the sharpshooter company left for the front,[note 3]

On Sunday, September 14, the two remaining Chautauqua companies reported to Colonel Rice for duty joining the eight Cattaraugus companies as Company E and F in the next regiment. They blended into the 154th Regiment alongside their Cattaraugus County neighbors, and the ten companies mustered in the next week, on September 24 and 25. On Friday, the officers mustered into federal service the next day, and on Monday, September 29, the 154th New York left left for Virginia.[8] The regiment's companies were recruited principally:[9]

• A — Ellicottsville, Carlton, Cold Spring, Humphrey, Randolph, Great Valley, Carrolton, Little Valley, Conewango, South Valley, Salamanca, and Napoli
• B — New Albion, Otto, Dayton, Perrysburg, Leon, Mansfield and Persia
• C — Portville, Hinsdale, Ischua, Allegany, Humphrey, and Olean
• D — Machias, Yorkshire, Freedom, Franklinville, Ashford, and Lyndon[note 4]
• E — Portland, Westfield, Ripley, and Chautauqua[note 5]
• F — Charlotte, Arkwright, Gerry, French Creek, and Freedom
• G — Ashford, Ellicottsville, East Otto, Allegany, Mansfield, Olean, Jamestown, and Hillsdale
• H — Randolph, Napoli, Salamanca, Little Valley, Great Valley, Jamestown, Carrolton, South Valley, Cold Spring, and Farmington
• I — Olean, Hinsdale, Salamanca, Allegany, Great Valley, Humphrey, New Albion, Portville, Machias and Yorkshire
• K — Conewango, Perrysburg, Dayton, Persia, Leon and New Albion

The regimental staff during its service consisted of:[9]

• COLs — Patrick H. Jones[note 6] and Lewis D. Warner;
• LTCs — Henry C. Loomis, Daniel B. Allen, Lewis D. Warner, and Harrison Cheney;
• MAJs — Samuel G. Love, Jacob H. Ten Eyck, Daniel B. Allen, Lewis D. Warner, Harrison Cheney, and Alfred W. Benson.

The majority of the men of the regiment coming from south central and southwestern New York were native-born and from a farming background.[note 7]. There were some rivermen and canal men, however, who had worked the rivers canals between the Great Lakes and the industrial centers of Pittsburgh. There were even a handful of Great Lake sailors who had sailed all around the Old Northwest.[12]

On Tuesday, September 30, 1862, the 154th left the state and was assigned to the 1st brigade, 2nd (Steinwehr's) division, XI corps, which was stationed during the fall of 1862 in Northern Virginia in the vicinity of Centerville. They missed the battles at Antietam and Fredericksburg.

The regiment went into winter quarters with the corps at Stafford, VA in December 1862. From Tuesday, January 20 through Saturday January 214, 1863, the regiment slogged up and down the Rappahannock during Burnside's infamous Mud March.

Burnside's relief by Hooker raised morale as the Army prepared for its next move, a plan to get Lee out of his positions at Fredericksburg. Upon assuming command, Hooker took advantage of improved military intelligence about the positioning and capabilities of the opposing army, superior to that available to his predecessors in army command. His chief of staff, Butterfield, commissioned COL George H. Sharpe from the 120th New York Infantry to organize a new Bureau of Military Information (BMI) in the Army of the Potomac, part of the provost marshal function under BGEN Marsena R. Patrick.[note 8] Hooker soon realized that to avoid bloody direct frontal attacks, he could only cross of the Rappahannock by subterfuge.[13]

To cause Lee to abandon his fortifications by Fredericksburg and withdraw toward Richmond, Hooker planned to send his 10,000 cavalrymen under MGEN George Stoneman across the Rappahannock far upstream and raid deep into the rear cutting Lee's lines of communication and supply.[14] Hooker would then send his infantry across the Rappahannock in pursuit, attacking Lee when he was moving and vulnerable. On Monday,April 13, heavy rains made the river crossing site at Sulphur Spring impassable.[15] Hooker's second plan was to launch his cavalry and infantry simultaneously in a bold double envelopment of Lee's army. Stoneman's cavalry would make a second attempt at its deep strategic raid, but at the same time, 42,000 men in three corps (V, XI, XII Corps) would stealthily march to cross the Rappahannock upriver at Kelly's Ford. They would then move south across the Rapidan at Germanna and Ely's Ford, concentrating at Chancellorsville, and strike Lee from the west.[16]

As members of Buschbeck's[note 9] 1st Brigade[note 10] in Von Steinwehr's 2nd Division of Howard's XI Corps, the 154th, then numbering 590 men in line of battle, moved into positions at Kelly's Ford on April 14.[17]

Over the next two weeks, the 154th and its brigade showed no signs of activity to lull the Rebl cavalry guarding the other side of the ford into complacency while Hooker moved the 42,000 men in the V, XI, and XII Corps stealthily into nearby hidden positions for the crossing.[18] The men, unaware of the Hooker's plans, patrolled the riverbank and were struck by the hostility of the local white population and friendliness of the black.[19] The 154th's baptism of fire happened in the early evening on Tuesday, April 28, 1863, at 18:00.[17]

Completely surprising the Confederates, the 154th, paddled out of Marsh Run, 500 yards downstream in canvas pontoon boats. [20] Under cover of sharpshooters from their 73rd Pennsylvania brigade mates, they seized a bridgehead on the southern side. After receiving a volley from the Rebel troopers with no effect, they spread out to defend the crossing site. While on guard, the 15th New York Engineers built a pontoon bridge. Four and half hours later, the three corps began crossing on the bridge.[21] They remained until the crossing was complete and then moved on to Chancellorsville. Following their corps, they crossed the Rapidan at Germanna Ford taking the Wilderness Road to Wilderness Tavern and turned east, or left onto the junction of Orange Turnpike and Orange Plank Road.[22]

Their position was near Dowdall's Tavern, where with Battery I, 1st New York Light Artillery, Wiedrich's Battery, it was serving as headquarters guard.[23][24][note 11] While elements of the corps further right, westward, started seeing indications of activity to their right in the woods west along the turnpike, the westernmost division commander, Devens, and Howard dismissed these reports as the imaginings of nervous troops.[25][note 12] Ergo, when Jackson struck the AoP's right flank at 17:30 on Saturday afternoon, May 2, 1863, the corps collapsed and fled to the east along the turnpike. The other two division commanders, Schurz and Steinwehr, despite obeying Howard's order to keep their divisions facing to the south had warily positioned a few of their units to watch their flank, unaware that Devens had done no such thing and was completely unprepared to receive an attack from the woods.[26][27] As such, when the Rebels advanced and drove the XI Corps ahead of them, any resistance that did occur was sporadic and uncoordinated.

Individual regiments and brigades, such as those in Schurz's 3rd Division around the Hawkins farm held their ground to stem the tide of the enemy advance before retreating in good order. These stands that caused the Rebel lines to contract and condense as they pushed between and around them. Shortly afterward, Howard's frightened stragglers rallied around the Buschbeck's brigade (including the 154th) who had thrown up a hasty defensive position at Dowdall's Tavern, to become known as the "Buschbeck line".[28][note 13] and slowed the enemy assault, at least for a few moments. Many of the 73rd Pennsylvania retreating, fell in with the 154th and stood alongside them as they lay and fought in their breastworks.[10] These daring but futile actions were mostly the inspiration of small-unit commanders as the leadership on the brigade, division, and corps level struggled to bring order to the mob that an hour before had been the right flank of the Union Army. The 154th at Buschbeck's line paid dearly.[29] During its fighting at Chancellorsville, it lost 1 officer and 31 enlisted men killed, 10 enlisted men mortally wounded, 3 officers and 68 enlisted men wounded, and 4 officers and 113 enlisted men captured or missing.[30][note 14]

Its losses in killed, wounded, and captured at Chancellorsville, were so large that the regiment numbered only about 300 men when it entered the Gettysburg Campaign where it suffered more severe losses.[32] At Gettysburg, it was heavily engaged in the battle of the first day and in the defense of Cemetery Hill the second day.

On the 30th of June, 50 men of the regiment, together with 50 men each from the 27th Pennsylvania, 73rd Pennsylvania, and 164th New York were ordered, under the 154th's MAJ Lewis D. Warner, to make a reconnaissance out to Strykersville. Leaving at 05:00, Wednesday, July 1, 1863, they set out and thus were not engaged in the first day's fight at Gettysburg. [33][32]

The rest of the 154th awoke at their camp near the Daughters of Charity Convent at Emmitsburg, MD, about 11 miles south of Gettysburg. The regiment had been on the road for three weeks since leaving Stafford County, and had endured difficult, long, dusty marches in the early summer heat. They were warmly greeted with food in Maryland by Union sympathizers along their route. At the Emmitsburg convent[note 15], the nuns served them soft bread and sweet milk. [36][37][32][33]

COL Buschbeck had departed on a leave of absence on June 1, and the 29th New York had mustered out as it was a two-year regiment. Replacing it was the 134th New York commanded by COL Charles R. Coster.[note 16] As the senior officer, Coster took command of the brigade.

The 2nd Division was the last one of the XI Corps to reach Cemetery Hill by the Emmitsburg Pike. The remaining 250 men in the 154th in the 1st Brigade, arrived there at about 16:00, on the double-quick, filed into the cemetery and cleaned guns, and immediately (with the 27th Pennsylvania and 134th New York, only,) double-quicked down through the town, out on the Harrisburg Road, and formed line of battle where its monument now stands,[32] a short distance north of Stevens Run.

This location was John Kuhn's brickyard on North Stratton Street in the northeastern outskirts of Gettysburg. It was a five-acre pentagonal lot enclosed by sturdy rail fences with the house on the street and the brickworks—a wooden barn, dome-shaped brick kilns, and a mill behind it. It was, at that time, still a largely rural landscape apart from the main town with a slope north of it and wheat fields to the east and south.[36][37]

At this time the broken lines of Schurz's troops were in full retreat, and about as soon as the 154th (with the 27th Pennsylvania on its left and the 134th New York on its right) had formed line of battle, the enemy in overwhelming numbers fell upon them, in front and on both flanks.

It was a costly battle with the 154th losing 6 killed, 21 wounded, and 173 missing. It accompanied the army on its return to Virginia.

In September 1863, after the defeat at Chickamauga, the 154th and its corps (along with the XII Corps) was ordered to Tennessee to reinforce Gen. Rosecrans besieged in Chattanooga. In October it was lightly engaged in the midnight battle of Wauhatchie and had 6 men wounded at Missionary Ridge. When the XX corps was formed in April 1864, the 154th was assigned to the 2nd brigade. 2nd division (Geary's "White Stars") with which it fought from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and then to the end of the Carolina campaign. At Rocky Face Ridge, the first important battle of the Atlanta campaign, the regiment behaved with distinguished gallantry and sustained its heaviest loss-13 killed and 37 wounded. It also lost heavily at Kennesaw Mountain, where 36 were killed and wounded. At the conclusion of the campaign through the Carolinas it marched with the XX corps to Washington and participated in the Grand Review. Commanded by Col. Warner, it was mustered out at Bladensburgh, MD., June 11, 1865. The regiment lost during service 2 officers and 84 men killed and mortally wounded; 2 officers and 193 men died of disease and other causes, a total of 281 of whom 1 officer and 90 men died in Confederate prisons.

Attached to:[38][39][40][41]

• 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, XI Corps, Army of the Potomac, to October, 1863[42]
• 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, XI Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland to April, 1864[43]
• 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XX Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to October 1864[43]
• 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XX Army Corps, Army of Georgia, to June, 1865.[43]

The official list of battles in which the regiment bore a part:[44][39][40][41]

• Issued weapons
• 
  Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket