Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2011, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org Copyright (c) 2011 by Linda Talbott ====================================================================== Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, 1861 - 1865, Published by authority of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Michigan Legislature, under the direction of Brig. Gen. Geo. H. Brown, Adjutant General Published by Ihling Bros. & Everhard Stationers, Printers and Publishers Kalamazoo, Mich. ====================================================================== Seventeenth Infantry ====================================================================== [Page 1] The Seventeenth Michigan Infantry was organized at Detroit in the spring of 1862, and started for Washington, D. C., August 27, 1862 under command of Colonel William H. Withington of Jackson, with an enrollment of 982 officers and men, and upon the arrival of the regiment at Washington it was assigned to the First Brigade, First Division, Ninth Army Corps. It continued to form a part of this celebrated corps during its term of service. The field, staff and line officers at organization were as follows: Colonel, Wm. H. Withington, Jackson. Lieutenant Colonel, Constant Luce, Monroe. Major, George Collins Lyons, Jackson. Surgeon, Abram R. Calkins, Allegan. Assistant Surgeon, Jonathan Beviere, Grand Rapids. Second Assistant Surgeon, Albert Daniels, Richland. Adjutant, Wm. V. Richards, Ann Arbor. Quartermaster, Charles Ford, Jackson. The companies mustered in and making up the regiment were: A. Captain, Lorin L. Comstock, Adrian. First Lieutenant, John S. Vreeland, Adrian. Second Lieutenant, Richard A. Watts, Adrian. B. Captain, Isaac L. Clarkson, Manchester. First Lieutenant, J. Cunningham, Detroit. Second Lieutenant, Abraham Horton, Summit. C. Captain, Henry B. Androus, Coldwater. First Lieutenant, George H. Laird, Colon. Second Lieutenant, Wm. E. Duffield, Monroe. D. Captain, Julius C. Burrows, Kalamazoo. First Lieutenant, Wm. H. White, Wayland. Second Lieutenant, Wm. S. Logan, Richland. E. Captain, Gabriel Campbell, Ypsilanti. First Lieutenant, Thomas Matthews, Flint. Second Lieutenant, James T. Morgan, Muskegon. F. Captain, Frederic W. Swift, Detroit. First Lieutenant, John Tyler, Detroit. Second Lieutenant, Wm. Winegar, Grass Lake. G. Captain, John Goldsmith, Jr., Jackson. First Lieutenant, Rowen Summers, Jackson. Second Lieutenant, Christian Rath, Jackson. H. Captain, Charles A. Edmonds, Quincy. First Lieutenant, J. P. C. Church, Jackson. Second Lieutenant, Benjamin F. Clark, Quincy. I. Captain, Alfred Brooks, Kalamazoo. First Lieutenant, Nelson D. Curtiss, Kalamazoo. Second Lieutenant, George Galligan, Kalamazoo. K. Captain, Wm. W. Thayer, Battle Creek. First Lieutenant, James E. Thomas, Grass Lake. Second Lieutenant, Benjamin B. Baker, Jackson. Perhaps no other Michigan regiment had such a serious test of its patriotism, courage and soldierly qualities so soon after arriving in the field as the Seventeenth. Scarcely two weeks from the time it left the state it participated in one of the severest battles of the war, considering the numbers engaged. September 14th the Seventeenth, with the Ninth Corps, engaged the enemy at South Mountain, Md., where the corps attempted to cross the mountain through Turner's Gap and drive the confederates from the summit, where they had taken advantage of securing their position behind stone fences and other obstructions, and from commanding points had planted their artillery to sweep the narrow roads over which the Union troops must pass. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Page 2] MICHIGAN VOLUNTEERS, 1861 - 1865 The Seventeenth had been so recently organized and was so inex- perienced in actual warfare that the men did not realize the desperate task they were assigned until the enemy's shot and shell were crashing through their ranks. Almost at a moment's notice the regiment was plunged into the horrible realities of a pitched battle. On the crest of the mountain, behind stone walls, the enemy awaited the advance of the Union forces. The orders came for the Seventeenth to charge, when with wild cheers the regiment rushed through a storm of lead and drove the enemy from its stone defences, and sent him retreating down the slope of the mountain. In this charge the Seventeenth secured the title of the "Stonewall Regiment," which clung to it as an honorable distinction during the war. The regiment carried approximately 500 men into this engagement and lost 140 in killed and wounded. The battle of South Mountain was fought Sept. 14, and Sept. 17 the regiment was desperately engaged at Antietam, Md., and participated in the bloody and useless charges at "Burnside's Bridge," where the Union troops were massed in the attempts to carry the bridge, when the small stream of water could have been easily forded above or below it. Although the regiment succeeded in gaining the opposite heights occupied by the enemy, it was at a fearful cost in killed and wounded. The Seventeenth was in Virginia and Maryland until March, 1863, when with the Ninth Corps it was transported to Louisville, Ky., and occupied a number of places in the state of Kentucky by continuous marching, until it was ordered to General Grant, then at Vicksburg, Miss. The regiment was engaged with the enemy at Jackson, Miss., but soon returned to Kentucky and arrived at Crab Orchard Aug. 24. From this point commenced the long and tedious march across the Cumberland Mountains to Knoxville, Tenn. After occupying a number of places in East Tennessee, where the regiment suffered the hardship and privations for want of clothing and rations that were incident to that campaign, it returned to Knoxville and was sent to Lenoir Station west of Knoxville, to contest the advance of General Longstreet's troops, then marching upon Knoxville. As the Union troops fell back slowly upon Knoxville, the Seventeenth acted as rear guard and fought a severe engagement with Longstreet's forces at Campbell Station Sept. 16. During the night and the next day the Union troops fell back to Knoxville, where they occupied the entrenchments and Fort Saunders, a strong earthwork, thrown up to resist the attack of the confederates. Under cover of darkness the Seventeenth made a brilliant sortie and burned a house between the lines occupied by rebel sharpshooters, but the light of the burning house revealed the regiment to the foe, who opened a furious cannonade, which caused the death of Lieutenant Billingsly. The Seventeenth occupied Fort Saunders during the siege and helped to repel the desperate charges of the enemy. After General Longstreet marched by Knoxville and into East Tennessee, the Seventeenth followed him and occupied a number of positions, marching continuously, all the time nearly destitute of supplies, having to depend for the scanty rations obtained upon the country through which the regiment marched. The weather was cold, with frequent sleet and snow storms, and the men of the Seventeenth, with their comrades of the campaign, endured these hardships cheerfully, though at times confronted by ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Page 3] SEVENTEENTH INFANTRY starvation or chilled with cold, their threadbare uniforms offered but slight protection against the rigors of such a climate. On the 22d of March, 1864, the regiment commenced its return march across the Cumberland Mountains to Nicholasville, Ky., a distance of nearly 200 miles. When it arrived orders were received for it to proceed to Annapolis, Md., where the Ninth Corps proceeded to join the Army of the Potomac. It crossed the Rapidan at Germania Ford, and on the 6th day of May was engaged in the desperate battle of the Wilderness. The regiment was actively engaged in this campaign, and in a daring charge upon the enemy's works on the 12th of May, the Seventeenth was surrounded in dense woods by the heavy lines of the enemy and practically annihilated by the loss of nearly 100 killed and wounded and the same number taken prisoners. After this sanguinary engagement the Seventeenth practically lost its position in the brigade for want of numbers and regimental organization, and the few who survived were detailed in the engineer corps and at headquarters. These survivors served with the army in the positions assigned them, and took part in the assault before Petersburg, where that stronghold fell into the hands of the Union troops. After General Lee's surrender, the Seventeenth embarked at City Point for Alexandria, Va., and participated in the grand review at Washington on the 23d of May. The regiment started for Michigan by rail on the 4th of June and arrived at Detroit June 7th, 1865, where it was paid off and disbanded. The 17th had engaged the enemy while in service at South Mountain, Md., September 14, 1862; Antietam, Md., September 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, Va., December 12, 13, 14, 1862; siege of Vicksburg, Miss., June 22 to July 4, 1863; Jackson, Miss., July 11 to 18, 1863; Blue Spring, Tenn., Oct. 10, 1863; Loudon, Tenn., November 14, 1863; Lenoir Station, Tenn., November 15, 1863; Campbell's Station, Tenn., November 16, 1863; siege of Knoxville, Tenn., November 17 to December 5, 1863; Thurley's Ford, Tenn., December 15, 1863; Fort Saunders, Tenn., November 29, 1863; Strawberry Plains, Tenn., January 22, 1864; Wilderness, Va., May 5, 6, and 7, 1864; Ny River, Va., May 9, 1864; Spottsylvania, Va., May 10, 11, 12, 1864; North Anna, Va., May 24, 1864; Bethesda Church, Va., June 2, 3, 1864; Cold Harbor, Va., June 7, 1864; Petersburg, Va., June 17, 18, 1864; the Crater, Va., July 30, 1864; Weldon R.R., Va., August 19, 21, 1864; Ream's Station, Va., August 25, 1864; Poplar Spring Church, Va., September 30, 1864; Pegram Farm, Va., October 2, 1864; Boydton Road, Va., October 8, 1864; Hatcher's Run, Va., October 27, 28, 1864; Fort Steedman, Va., March 25, 1865; capture of Petersburg, Va., April 3, 1865; siege of Petersburg, Va., from June 17, 1864 to April 3, 1865. Total enrollement......................................1224 Killed in action.........................................84 Died of wounds...........................................48 Died in confederate prisons..............................54 Discharged for disability (wounds and disease)..........249 Died of disease..........................................84 This department is indebted to Charles D. Cowles of Lansing, Mich., for many of the addresses supplied. ======================================================================