Showing posts with label 12th US INF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 12th US INF. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

12th United States Infantry

Organized by direction of the President May 4, 1861, and confirmed by Act of Congress July 29, 1861. Organized at Fort Hamilton, N.Y. Harbor. Moved to Washington, D.C., March 5, 1862. Attached to Sykes' Regular Infantry, Reserve Brigade, Army Potomac, to May, 1862. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 5th Army Corps, to August, 1863. Dept. of the East to September, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 5th Army Corps, to March, 1864. 4th Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Army Corps, to April, 1864. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Army Corps, to June, 1864. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 5th Army Corps, to November, 1864. Dept. of the East to July, 1865.

SERVICE. – Moved to the Virginia Peninsula March, 1862. Siege of Yorktown April 5-May 4. Seven days before Richmond June 25-July 1. Battles of Mechanicsville June 26; Gaines' Mill June 27; Turkey Bridge June 30; Malvern Hill July 1. At Harrison's Landing till August 16. Movement to Fortress Monroe, thence to Centreville August 16-28. Pope's Campaign in Northern Virginia August 28-September 2. Battles of Groveton August 29; Bull Run August 30. Maryland Campaign September 6-22. Battle of Antietam September 16-17. Shepherdstown Ford September 19-20. At Sharpsburg, Md., till October 29. Kearneysville and Shepherdstown October 16-17. Movement to Falmouth, Va., October 29-November 19. Battle of Fredericksburg, Va., December 12-15. "Mud March" January 20-24, 1863. Chancellorsville Campaign April 27-May 6. Battle of Chancellorsville May 1-5. Gettysburg (Pa.) Campaign June 11-July 24. Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., July 1-3. Pursuit of Lee July 5-24. Moved to New York August 16-19. (Cos. "F" and "H," 2nd Battalion, in N.Y. riots July, 1863.) Duty at New York till September 14. Rejoined army at Culpeper, Va., September 22. Bristoe Campaign October 9-22. Advance to line of the Rappahannock November 7-8. Mine Run Campaign November 26-December 2. Rapidan Campaign, battles of the Wilderness, May 5-7; Spottsylvania Court House May 8-21; North Anna River May 22-26. On line of the Pamunkey May 26-28. Totopotomoy May 28-31. Cold Harbor June 1-12. Bethesda Church June 1-3. Before Petersburg June 16-18. Siege of Petersburg June 16 to November 2. Mine Explosion, Petersburg, July 30 (Reserve). Weldon Railroad August 18-21. Poplar Springs Church, Peeble's Farm, September 29-October 2. Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher's Run, October 27-28. Moved to New York November 2-6. 1st Battalion on duty at Elmira, N.Y., and 2nd Battalion at Fort Hamilton. N.Y. Harbor, till July, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 8 Officers and 118 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 Officers and 190 Enlisted men by disease. Total 319.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1713

Monday, December 2, 2013

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, March 18, 1862

CAMP NEAR ALEXANDRIA, March 18, 1862.

I note all you write about McClellan. I fear it is all true, and that the most desperate efforts have been made and are still being made to take away his command and destroy him. Franklin told me that McClellan said to him, as they followed Lander's corpse, that he almost wished he was in the coffin instead of Lander. It is reported that they were about to introduce into the House of Representatives a vote of want of confidence in him, but were restrained by fearing it would not pass. It is said the President remains his friend.

McClellan is not the man to make himself popular with the masses. His manners are reserved and retiring. He was not popular either in Chicago or Cincinnati, when at the head of large railroad interests. He has never studied or practiced the art of pleasing, and indeed has not paid that attention to it which every man whose position is dependent on popular favor must pay, if he expects to retain his position. Now, you know long before the tide turned, I told you of ill-advised acts on his part, showing a disposition to gratify personal feelings, at the expense of his own interests. I have no doubt now that the enmity of Heintzelman, Sumner, McDowell and Keyes can all be traced to this very cause — his failure to conciliate them, and the injustice they consider his favoritism to others has been to them. So long as he had full swing, they were silent, but so soon as others had shaken the pedestal he stood on, they join in to lend their hands.

Don't you remember as early as last September, telling us how indignant Charles King was at the treatment of General Scott by McClellan, and that the General had said he would have arrested him for disrespect if he had dared to? In the selection of his staff he has not shown the judgment he might have done. There are too many men on it that are not worthy to be around a man with McClellan's reputation. Again, you know my opinion of his treatment of the Ball's Bluff affair, through personal regard for Stone. All these little things have combined, with his political foes, to shake his position. I think, however, it is pretty well settled that Old Abe has determined he will not cut his head off till he has had a chance, and as I wrote you before, all will depend now on the hazard of a die. Any disaster, never mind from what cause, will ruin him, and any success will reinstate him in public favor.

It is very hard to know what is going to be done, or what the enemy will do. My opinion is that they are concentrating all their available forces around Richmond, and that they will make there a determined and desperate resistance. Of course, this defense will be made at first in advance, as far as they deem it prudent to go, or as they can readily retire from, as for instance, the Rappahannock on the north, Fredericksburg and the Potomac on the east, Yorktown and Norfolk on the southeast. Where McClellan will attack them is not known, but before many days are over it will be settled, and we will have a fight either at Fredericksburg, Yorktown or Norfolk. For my part, the sooner we meet them the better. The thing has to be done, and there is nothing gained by delay. The morale is on our side; our recent victories, their retreat from Manassas, all combine to inspirit us and demoralize them; and if our men only behave as we hope and believe they will, I think before long we shall have Richmond.

I rode over this morning and saw Willie.1 I found on my arrival that there was in camp a party of ladies and gentlemen, consisting of Mr. Charles King, of New York, and his daughter, Mrs. Captain Ricketts, and her sister, who is married to a son of Charles King, a captain in the Twelfth (Willie's) Regiment. These ladies had come out to see Captain King, accompanied by Colonel Van Rensselaer, who you remember married a niece of Charles King. They had prepared a lunch, and all the officers were partaking of it, and having, as is usual, a merry time. Soon after I rode up, Miss King recognized Kuhn, who was with me, and sent Captain Wister,2 of the regiment after him, and in a few minutes Colonel Van Rensselaer came up to me, and, after the usual salutations, politely asked me to permit him to present me to the party. Of course I had to say yes, and went up with him and joined the party. Mrs. Ricketts, you know, was a Miss Lawrence. I had known her mother and family all my life. She is now a great heroine. After doing the civil to the party I retired.
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1 William Sergeant, brother of Mrs. Meade.
2 Francis Wister, captain 12th U. S. Infantry.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 253-4

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, September 26, 1861

TENALLYTOWN, September 26, 1861.

Yesterday, Baldy Smith1 made one of his reconnoissances, and our division was held in readiness all day to move at a moment's notice to support him, in case of emergency. He returned, however, without encountering any force of consequence, though we could see him from my tent firing his artillery at small bodies hovering around him. To-day being the day set apart by the President for fasting, humiliation and prayer, all duties were suspended and the day observed as Sunday. I have a letter from Willie,2 written in good spirits, and saying he expects to take the field in a few weeks, with the First Battalion of his regiment.
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1 Brigadier-General William F. Smith, commanding a division, and an old Detroit friend of the Meade family.

2 William Sergeant, brother of Mrs. Meade, captain 12th U. S. Inf. Afterward wounded at Gravelly Run, Va., March 29, 1865. Died April 11, 1865.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 220-1