The Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill.
As pictured above, the Seventeenth New York Infantry at
Minor's Hill marches along the rolling
Virginia fields to the inspiring music of the military band.
This regiment, with its bright array, lives up to its spirited name,
Westchester Chasseurs.
Well might such a pageant have inspired
Mrs. Howe to write the resonant war-song to which her name is forever linked.
But these New Yorkers saw much severe service.
They went with
McClellan on the
Peninsula campaign in 1862, and back toward
Washington in time to fight in the
second battle of Bull Run and to see service in the bloody conflict at
Antietam, September 16-17, 1862.
They were in the sanguinary repulse at
Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862.
They remained at
Falmouth, across the river from
Fredericksburg, till
Chancellorsville.
Its three-years men then went to the 146th New York.
In the earnest spirit of
Mrs. Howe's poem, the Ninth Vermont Infantry, as pictured vividly below, marches out of Camp in
North Carolina, 1863.
Its career of only a year has been unusual.
It had barely entered active service in 1862 when it was transferred to
Harper's Ferry.
There it was captured by ‘
Stonewall’ Jackson on September 15, 1862, and was paroled the next day. Its military career was apparently cut short.
It was used, however, to guard Confederate prisoners at
Camp Douglas,
Chicago, until March 28, 1863.
In January of that year, it had been declared exchanged and in the fall was at length sent to
New Berne, North Carolina, where it was on duty in the
Newport Barracks till July, 1864.
There it engaged in various expeditions into the vicinity, destroying salt-works and capturing turpentine.
There the photograph here reproduced was taken.
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‘In burnished rows of steel’: the Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill. |
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‘His truth is marching on’: the Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill. |
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