The regiment left its training camp at Diamond Cottage in Camden on May 31, 1862. On that day it went by train to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where it was assigned to guard about five hundred Confederate prisoners.(1) It stayed there for a little over three weeks. At this point the regiment consisted of only the following six companies: B, E, C, F, A, and K. Company I, the last of the so-called Philadelphia companies, was mustered in on July 7. The other companies had been mustered in between January and May. Company K was mustered in on May 27, only four days before the departure for Harrisburg.
On June 25, the regiment was ordered to join the army of General George McClellan, who was on the peninsula east of Richmond, hoping to take the city and end the war. At this point, just before the regiment is about to join the army at war, it may be helpful to review briefly the status of the war effort up to this time.
Speaking very broadly, the Civil War in its first few years was concentrated in two areas, east (mostly in Virginia) and west (mostly along the Mississippi River). The western theater of the war plays no direct part in the story of the 115th Pennsylvania, but it was the scene of most activity from the start of the war through the time when the 115th Pennsylvania went to the front The Union objective in the west was to take control of the Mississippi River. By June 1862, the Federals had made a successful start on this objective, proceeding south on the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers into the northernmost part of Mississippi.
The focus of the eastern theater involved a series of movements back and forth across Virginia and Maryland. The objective of the Union Army varied according to circumstances and commanders, but that army was concerned with either capturing Richmond or destroying the Confederate Army, or both. At the same time, with Confederate troops frequently located very near Washington, the Union Army was never entirely free to concentrate entirely on offense. It always had to concern itself to some extent with the defense of Washington, a concern which affected practically everything it did from the beginning of the war through at least 1863. The Confederate Army first had to concern itself simply with the defense of Virginia against invasion by the Union Army, but it hoped to turn any successful defense into an offensive move against either Washington or against some other major Northern population center.
The first battle of any size in the east was the first Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. This was a tremendously demoralizing defeat for the Union, whose citizens had hoped for a short war and an easy victory. Confederate General Beauregard failed to invade Washington immediately after this battle, although President Lincoln and others had good reason to fear that the Confederates would soon be as successful in invading and burning Washington as the British troops had been in the War of 1812.
After the First Battle of Bull Run, the Union Army grew quickly, with hundreds of thousands of volunteers enlisting. The rest of 1861 was spent primarily in drilling and training these new troops, with General George B. McClellan assuming command of the army in November.
Once McClellan took command, the training and morale of the troops improved dramatically. Unfortunately, McClellan was not inclined to immediate action, as Lincoln and many others desired, whether realistically or not. McClellan's preferred strategy for the attack on Richmond was not to proceed overland south through Manassas, a strategy favored by those who sought hasty action. Instead, McClellan planned to attack Richmond from the east, moving his army down the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay by boat, landing at Fortress Monroe in the Hampton Roads area, and proceeding northwest to Richmond on the peninsula between the James and York Rivers. This campaign was known as the "Peninsula Campaign."
The Peninsula Campaign started in March 1862; its major deciding battles, known as the Seven Days' Battles, were fought several months later. The 115th Pennsylvania had no role in these battles, which occurred between June 25 and July 1, 1862. By the time this series of battles had begun, McClellan's army had successfully driven back the Confederates at Yorktown, Williamsburg, and other places, and was literally within earshot of the church steeples of Richmond.
Beginning on June 25, however, the Confederates began to defend their capital successfully. By the time of the last of the Seven Days' battles (Malvern Hill), the Union Army was effectively in retreat even though it repulsed the Confederates at Malvern Hill. Following the Battle of Malvern Hill, the Union Army retreated still further, proceeding about eight miles southeast from Malvern Hill to Harrison's Landing on the James River. During the first few days of July, the Army of the Potomac fortified its site at Harrison's Landing and encamped there.
It was just at this point that the 115th Pennsylvania joined the army at the front. On June 25, just when the first of the Seven Days' Battles was beginning, the regiment had been ordered to leave Harrisburg for the Peninsula. The next day, June 26, was the date of the unit's actual departure. They proceeded by train to Baltimore, stayed in Baltimore on the 27th, and then went by steamer to Fortress Monroe (in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia) on the 28th.(2) For the next several days, the regiment remained in camp at Camp Hamilton, near Fort Monroe, awaiting its assignment to a specific part of the army.
The regiment impressed one military observer at Fortress Monroe. That officer wrote to Colonel Patterson's father, telling him that he had visited the regiment's camp and that "it was by far the cleanest, best managed and most orderly, also the soberest, camp that had been there since the war began."(3) Perhaps there was some exaggeration in these comments of General Patterson's old friend, but Colonel Patterson was a trained officer who was probably quite capable of creating order out of a collection of raw recruits.
The regiment remained at Fortress Monroe throughout the remainder of the Seven Days' Battle. It joined the rest of the Army of the Potomac at Harrison's Landing, about fifteen miles downriver from Richmond, on July 6.(4) Finally, on July 9, it was placed into the structure of the Army of the Potomac as a regiment in General Francis E. Patterson's Brigade, Hooker's Division, Heintzelman's Third Corps.(5)
Apparently the entire trip from Harrisburg to Harrison's Landing was uneventful, with one exception. As the regiment moved from Fort Monroe to Harrison's Landing (probably on the steamer Vanderbilt(6)), Company B, commanded by Captain John Dunne, was assigned to bring the equipment and quartermaster's stores. Presumably it was the last company of the regiment to leave Fort Monroe. Company B began steaming east on the James River on board the Juniata. When it was about five or six miles downstream from Harrison's Landing, the Juniata ran aground opposite a location on the south bank of the James known as Windmill Point. This running aground had occurred under cover of darkness, but when dawn broke on July 7, a battery of Confederate light artillery was delighted to find this target sitting helpless about 1000 yards from its guns.(7) According to the battery's captain, "the guns were speedily thrown into battery and opened upon her."(8) The records of Company B state that the men "threw some government stores overboard to lighten the boat so as to float and get out of range."(9) The Confederates in the battery observed that "the boat was lightened by her crew and backed up the river, but finding the direction was likely to prove of disadvantage she moved down the river, evidently worsted by our fire."(10) At around this time, the Confederates reported that the Union gunboats came up and attempted to shell the battery; this shelling did not hit the battery, but prevented it from further firing lest it disclose its position, hidden on a bluff in a woods. After the Union gunboat had cleared the area, the Juniata was free to continue proceeding upstream. According the Company B report, there was only one slight injury caused by a splinter, although the boat itself was "badly riddled."(11) This incident was the first exposure of anyone in the regiment to hostile fire.(12)(13)
The part of the army which the 115th Pennsylvania joined had been organized under President Lincoln's General War Order No. 2, issued on March 8, 1862. Under that order, the portion of the Army of the Potomac which was sent to the Peninsula was organized into four corps. The Third Corps, to which the 115th Pennsylvania was ultimately assigned, consisted of three divisions, and was commanded by Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman.(14) Shortly thereafter, the three division commanders were named by McClellan. The Second Division, to which the 115th Pennsylvania was later assigned, was under Brigadier General Joseph Hooker. The other two divisions were under Brigadier Generals Fitz-John Porter and C.S. Hamilton.(15) At the brigade and regimental level, the 115th Pennsylvania joined what became as the New Jersey brigade, commanded by Colonel Samuel H. Starr, and then consisting of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth New Jersey regiments.(16)
When the 115th Pennsylvania arrived to join the brigade, it joined an organization made up entirely of veteran troops which had seen recent heavy fighting. The four New Jersey regiments were mustered in during August and September 1861. The brigade, made up of these four regiments, went from Washington, D.C. to the Peninsula on April 5th through 8th, 1862. It saw action at Yorktown and Williamsburg as the Army of the Potomac advanced to the east. By the time the 115th Pennsylvania actually joined the encamped army, the brigade also included the Second New York regiment (mustered in during May 1861), which had arrived on the Peninsula in time to participate in the Seven Days' Battles.
For nearly a month after the 115th Pennsylvania arrived at the front in early July, very little action occurred. Eventually the regiment was sent into action briefly at Malvern Hill in the beginning of August. In the meantime, however, there was much happening off the battlefield in July 1862.
As McClellan approached Richmond, he did so with the impression that his troops were badly outnumbered by the Confederates. General McClellan was a cautious general. His actions and correspondence strongly indicate that he was unwilling to enter a battle unless he so outnumbered the enemy that his success was guaranteed. With McClellan unwilling to advance again without at least 50,000 reinforcements, the situation after the Seven Days' Battle soon became an impossible one. The Union at that time simply did not have that number of troops to send. As a result, the only practical course open to McClellan, in light of his view of the situation, was to stay at Harrison's Landing indefinitely.
In the meantime, President Lincoln was open to the suggestion that the Union needed a more aggressive general in overall command, and thought he had found such a general in the person of John Pope, who Lincoln put in command of the part of the army which was still in northern Virginia and Washington. As the month of July wore on, Confederate troops began advancing north again, leading Lincoln to the view that if reinforcements were to go anywhere, they should go north from the Peninsula in support of Pope, rather than south from Pope to the Peninsula.
On July 30, General-in-Chief Halleck telegraphed McClellan that there were reasons to believe that the Confederate force in Richmond had become very small as a result of troop movements northward. Halleck suggested that the Confederates "be pressed in that direction [toward Richmond], so as to ascertain the facts of the case."(17) McClellan believed that in order to do this, he needed to regain possession of Malvern Hill, from which he had retreated on the July 1 in the last of the Seven Days' Battles.(18) On August 2, McClellan ordered Hooker's division (including the 115th Pennsylvania), together with 1,000 cavalrymen and 2 artillery batteries, to proceed to Malvern Hill.(19) The men were to be issued two days' rations and were to leave at 7:00 p.m. that evening, Saturday, August 2, 1862.
Hooker's initial move on the evening of August 2 was unsuccessful in reaching Malvern Hill. The guide assigned to Hooker was unable to lead the division to Malvern Hill. The troops accordingly returned to camp on the August 3. Hooker said that this was "in consequence of the incompetency of guides furnished me."(20) This delay may have been fatal to any chance that Lincoln would permit McClellan's army to remain on the Peninsula. On the evening of August 3, by which time the Malvern Hill reoccupation would have been completed if it had been successful, Halleck wired McClellan that "I have waited most anxiously to learn the result of your forced reconnaissance toward Richmond, . . . and I can get no answer to my telegram. It is determined to withdraw your army from the Peninsula to Aquia Creek. You will take immediate measures to effect this . . . ."(21)
Despite this order, Hooker's Division set out for Malvern Hill again on the evening of Monday, August 4. Since the Seventh New Jersey did not actually leave until August 4(22), it is probable that the 115th Pennsylvania also moved out at that time rather than in the earlier effort.
The reoccupation of Malvern Hill was sometimes referred to as the regiment's first entry into action, although official reports suggest that the regiment was far away from the little real fighting which occurred.(23) The Third Brigade was placed in a ravine, in front of and perpendicular to the First Brigade.(24) The brigade was formed in three lines, with the 8th New Jersey and the 115th Pennsylvania in the third line as the reserve. Col. Carr marched the brigade forward toward a house where the Confederates had a battery in place, but when the brigade got there, only a few enemy soldiers were found.(25) These were taken as prisoners. The First Brigade apparently had arrived at the scene of the action somewhat earlier. It was shelled by the Confederates, with two killed, twenty-four wounded, and three missing.
The views of the green troops who were company officers contrasted sharply with the reports of the regimental officers of this and nearby regiments. The company officers described the situation as "a sharp contest of short duration,"(26) and the regiment's role as "in the fight . . . on that day."(27) Col. Robert Patterson, however, reported that "as the enemy had left before we could possibly reach them, we were not subjected to any further semblance of an action than having a few shells dropped among us."(28) Col. Louis R. Francine was commanding the 7th New Jersey, which was one of the regiments ahead of 115th Pennsylvania as the brigade marched in. Col Francine reported that his regiment reached the rear of Malvern Hill at about 8:30 a.m.. and that the Confederates fled before the regiment got within musket range.(29) Col. Francine stated that his regiment "then stacked arms and proceeded to breakfast, remaining in the position it occupied."(30) The 115th suffered no casualties at all; the regiment's introduction to hostile action was as uneventful an experience as could be hoped for.
Having retaken Malvern Hill on August 5, Hooker's division remained there the rest of that day and until around midnight the following day, August 6. McClellan wired Halleck that he now occupied an advantageous position from which to take Richmond, less than fifteen miles away (but only if he received reinforcements, always a McClellan prerequisite to any further advance).(31) Before McClellan could even finish this telegram, however, he received word that several Confederate brigades were only four miles from Malvern Hill. Halleck responded that he had no reinforcements to send, which was no surprise since he had already ordered McClellan to leave.
In the absence of reinforcements, McClellan felt that the only way he could keep Hooker's division on Malvern Hill, in view of the supposed number of approaching Confederates, was to bring the entire army to bear at that point. Fearing a Confederate attack on the morning of August 7, McClellan at 10:00 p.m. issued an order to Hooker, directing him to abandon the position.
As a result of McClellan's 10 p.m. order to withdraw, the division at midnight began marching back toward its camp at Harrison's Landing, arriving there very early on the morning of August 7.(32) After the Union troops left, Confederate troops promptly reoccupied Malvern Hill. The end result of the entire operation was, as Shelby Foote put it, that the "bluecoats marched up Malvern Hill and marched back down again."(33) The withdrawal did have other consequences, though. Having sent out, and then promptly withdrawn, a force large enough to appear to be the beginning of a new initiative against Richmond, McClellan gave General Lee further confidence that he could continue moving his army north to defend against Pope's southern approach. As Lee wired Stonewall Jackson on the day the Confederates found Malvern Hill empty, "I have no idea that [McClellan] will advance on Richmond now."(34)
The regiment spent the next week back in its camp at Harrison's Landing. During that week, McClellan delayed the beginning of the departure of his troops from the Peninsula, despite a series of urgent telegrams from Halleck that McClellan's troops were desperately needed to support Pope against a Confederate advance in northern Virginia.
Finally, on August 15, the Third Corps left Harrison's Landing and began marching toward Yorktown. This march was over 40 miles long, and took from August 15th until August 20th. The route took the regiment through Williamsburg, and had marching days as long as 17 miles and as short as 2 miles.
The slow speed of the process of loading the troops on transport ships is shown by the brigade's experience at Yorktown. At 8:00 p.m. on the night of August 20th, Col. Carr, in command of the brigade, received orders to have two days' rations cooked immediately and to be ready to board ships during the night. At 7:30 a.m. the following morning (August 21), the brigade began to board the steamships Baltic and Vanderbilt, with the 115th Pennsylvania boarding the Vanderbilt. It took until 2:30 that afternoon for all to be aboard, and the ships did not leave until 6:00 that evening.(35)
The voyage lasted sixty hours (two and a half days), and was not a pleasant one, according to the commander of the 115th Pennsylvania's sister regiment, the 8th New Jersey. Captain Hoffman of that regiment stated that "in consequence of the length of the march and the dry state of the ground, causing a continual dust, combined with great scarcity of water and the crowded condition of the ship, the men were very much exhausted, and not in a suitable condition for immediate active service."(36) The Vanderbilt was originally scheduled to go to Aquia Creek, below Alexandria, but on arriving there, was told to continue by ship to Alexandria. Finally, at 2:30 in the afternoon of the 24th, the regiment arrived at Alexandria.
Upon its arrival, the 115th Pennsylvania rejoined the Third Brigade, and the entire brigade made camp at Alexandria near the railroad. There it remained for the rest of that day and all of the following day, August 25th. On August 26th, the brigade boarded a train and proceeded to Warrenton, Virginia, 40 miles southwest of Alexandria and about 20 miles past Manassas Junction.
By this time two months had elapsed
since the 115th Pennsylvania
had left Harrisburg to proceed to the front. It was spared the trauma of
participating in the Seven Days' Battles. Its only experience remotely
resembling battle action occurred during a small part of a single morning
as it marched up the nearly-deserted Malvern Hill, only to march back down
shortly thereafter. In its two months, it had spent about four or five
days on ships, two days on trains, a little over a week on the march, and
the remaining time, nearly six weeks, in camp. For better or worse, this
monotony was about to end with the Second Battle of Bull Run.
1. The prisoners were reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer to have part of Stonewall Jackson's army captured near Winchester, Virginia. Inquirer, June 21, 1862, p. 2.
2. Company C, together with Lt. Col. Thompson, took prisoners from Harrisburg to Fort Delaware, the Union prisoner of war fort in the lower part of the Delaware River. That company rejoined the rest of the regiment in Baltimore.
3. General Robert Patterson to Col. Russell, July 8, 1862. Pa. State Archives.
4. Janet B. Hewett, ed., Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ("O.R. Supp.") II, 61, p. 794. The company accounts vary slightly as to specific dates in this and some other instances.
5. Brig. Gen. Patterson was a Mexican War veteran who had served in the regular army. He was born in Philadelphia in 1827 and died in November 1862 as a result of a pistol accident.
7. The battery was the first company of the Washington Artillery, commanded by Capt. C.W. Squires. This was a Louisiana unit attached to Longstreet.
11. O.R. Supp. II, 61, p. 800. The Confederate battery commander believed, based on what he was told by "the army correspondent of the Northern papers" that the Juniata had two killed and six wounded, and had to be run aground to keep her from sinking. O.R. I, 11, p. 926. There is nothing to this effect in the Union reports, so it is apparently simply untrue.
12. A contemporary newspaper account stated that four shots struck the boat, "one coming so near the wheel-house as to shatter the windows into atoms, and throwing the pieces in the face and eyes of the mate and pilot. . . . They, meeting with so unpleasant a reception, turned the boat, and putting on all steam, returned to the spot where they had passed the gun-boats. The gun-boats then conveyed the Juniata to a safe anchorage here [Harrison's Landing]." Philadelphia Inquirer, July 11, 1862, p. 1.
13. Company B was commanded by Captain John P. Dunne, who sought command of the entire regiment about a year later. Dunne, no shrinking violet, claimed that in this incident, "I saved the regiment," and said that "the Capt. of the boat gave her up to destruction without making the least effort to save her or her cargo." Major John P. Dunne to Gov. Curtin, late summer or fall, 1863. Pa. State Archives.
20. O.R. I, 11(2), p. 951-52 (8/3/1862 Report of Hooker).
22. O.R. I, 11(2), p. 953-54 (Report of Col. Francine of 7th New Jersey).
23. For instance, in his 1889 speech dedicating the regiment's Gettysburg monument, Captain A. Frank Seltzer (who was not with the regiment until later) stated that this was the regiment's "first fight.". Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, p. 610. In Taylor, Philadelphia in the Civil War (1913), p. 126, the author remarks that at Malvern Hill the regiment "first came under fire." This is true in a rather literal sense, but see Col. Patterson's report, quoted below, for a description of the nature of the event from a more experienced soldier.
24. O.R. Supp. I, 2, p. 474 (Report of Col. Carr, Commanding Brigade).
26. O.R. Supp. II, 61, p. 815 (Company I).
27. O.R. Supp. II, 61, p. 800 (Company B).
28. O.R. Supp. I, 2, p. 479 (Report of Col. Patterson).
29. O.R. I, 11(2), p. 953-54 (Report of Col. Francine of 7th New Jersey).
32. O.R. Supp. I, 2, p. 479 (Report of Col. Mott of 6th New Jersey).
33. Foote, The Civil War, I, p. ___.
35. These details of the march to Yorktown are taken from the report of the acting brigade commander, Col. Carr. O.R. I, 16, pp. 453-54.