From The Susquehanna River to Stones River Pennsylvanians at Stones River, Part III

Part of a Series: Part 1 and Part 2

Few eastern units served with the western Union armies in places like Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi. In the Army of the Cumberland, which fought at Stones River, Tennessee, most of the troops were from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, along with smaller numbers from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. There were even troops raised in Kentucky and Tennessee with General William S. Rosecrans’s army.

I don’t know that this was on purpose, I think it was simply a matter of geography. As units were raised, they were sent where they were needed. Those closest to the front in the western states naturally went to assembly points there. But at times a unit might find itself far from home, simply being sent where needed as it was available at the time. Look at the large number of New England troops in the Gulf, fighting in the Red River campaign, or the few western units like the Iron Brigade that ended up in Virginia.

In the order of battle for Stones River, you will not find troops from New York, Maryland, New Jersey, or New England. One of the few eastern units here was the 79th Pennsylvania, one of only three Pennsylvania infantry units in the battle.

Raised in Lancaster County in September, 1861, the men hailed from the state’s central region along the wide Susquehanna River. The troops organized at Harrisburg, the state capital.

The 79th got their first taste of battle at Perryville, Kentucky in the fall of 1862. They were heavily engaged here, and lost 216 men. They moved to Nashville, Tennessee with the rest of the Union army and prepared to advance on Murfreesboro in the middle of the state.

The 79th was in Col. John Starkweather’s brigade of Gen. Lovell Rousseau’s division. Col. Henry A. Hambright was their commander, an experienced leader. He had served as1st Lieut. in Co. G, 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry, during Mexican War. Afterwards he was supervisor of operations in Lancaster for the Pennsylvania Railroad, as well as Captain of the Jackson Rifles militia company in Lancaster.

As the Union army approached Murfreesboro in late December, Starkweather’s brigade was positioned in the rear, along the Nashville Pike. They were to be part of the Union attack the next morning, but the Confederates struck first. Thus the brigade was now used to stem the tide rather than lead an assault.

Rousseau’s division moved south to shore up the collapsing Union line at mid-morning on December 31st. The 79th advanced into the cedars south of the Nashville Pike with their brigade. They became engaged with Gen. Richard Johnson’s Tennessee brigade in the woods. This was a crucial sector of the battlefield, it was here that Union reinforcements like Rousseau’s division stymied the Confederate advance.

With darkness and the end of the day’s fighting, they pulled back. They spent the evening of the 31st and the first day of 1863 in reserve near the Nashville Pike with other battered units. The brigade changed positions a bit on the 1st as General Rosecrans adjusted his lines. On January 2nd Starkweather’s brigade moved to support troops in action at McFadden’s Ford, though it was not engaged there. The brigade remained here on the Union left until January 5th.

The regiment lost only 7 on the 31st, and ten on the 2nd, not being heavily engaged. Yet they were part of the reserve that bolstered the Union line when it was most needed. Today it is unfortunately not possible to stand on the site where the 79th fought, this part of the battlefield being lost to development decades ago.

After Stones River, the 79th Pennsylvania fought at Chattanooga, Atlanta, was in the March to the Sea, and ended the war in North Carolina. They had travelled farther than most units from the Keystone State.

Bert Dunkerly is co-author, with Caroline A. Davis, of the book, Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River, published by Savas-Beatie.