Truth and Courage: The Seventeenth U.S. Infantry Regiment in the Civil War

ECW welcomes guest author Kyle R. Hallowell

My first assignment as a young Army officer was to the 4th Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, garrisoned at Fort Bliss, Texas. This assignment gave me a tangible connection to the Civil War, since the 17th served in twelve of the war’s major campaigns in the Eastern Theater.[1] Throughout the Civil War, the regulars were the backbone of Union armies and were often assigned the hard tasks of spearheading attacks, covering retreats, or relieving other beleaguered troops.

Formation and Early Operations, May 1861- May 1863

On May 3, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln authorized the expansion of the regular Army by adding numerous regiments. The 17th was activated on July 6, 1861, with its headquarters at Fort Preble, Maine, just outside of Portland. Two officers who would gain notoriety in the Civil War were assigned to the regiment: Samuel P. Heintzelman was promoted to colonel and given command, and Abner Doubleday was appointed as a major. Another officer, J. Durell Greene, who invented the Greene rifle, the first bolt-action firearm to be adopted by the U.S., was appointed lieutenant colonel.[2] William H. Wood and George L. Andrews were also appointed majors. Greene became the regiment’s acting commander and began recruiting in Maine and New Hampshire. By March 1862, five companies had been raised, and the regiment departed Fort Preble under the command of Maj. Andrews to join Sykes’ regular brigade at Arlington Heights. Upon arrival, two companies were designated as Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s headquarters guard, and the remaining three companies became a battalion in the regular brigade.

At the end of March, the battalion embarked on the Peninsula Campaign, where the 17th served in the trenches at Yorktown and fought at Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, and Malvern Hill, suffering six men killed and 23 wounded. The battalion then fought at Groveton on the August 29 and Second Manassas on August 30, suffering five killed and 43 wounded.[3] Later that year the 17th fought in the battles of Antietam, Shepherdstown, and Fredericksburg. During the December 13 assault on Marye’s Heights, the 17th made it to within 80 yards of the infamous stonewall before becoming pinned down by Confederate fire.[4] The men were forced to remain on the ground until their withdrawal the next day, ultimately suffering three killed and 19 wounded. Following Fredericksburg, the 17th went into camp for the winter. On May 1, 1863, the 17th moved to the Rapidan River and served as skirmishers during the opening phases of the battle of Chancellorsville, where the regiment lost six men killed and 29 wounded.

June-July 1863

In June and July, the 17th’s most noteworthy Civil War service took place in Maine and Pennsylvania. The regiment participated in one of the most obscure events of the Civil War, the battle of Portland Harbor, and fought in the war’s most famous engagement, the battle of Gettysburg.

On the early morning of June 26, sailors from the Confederate raider Tacony surreptitiously sailed the revenue cutter Caleb Cushing out of Portland Harbor.[5] The harbor master, with the assistance of Portland’s mayor, impressed three civilian ships and men from the 17th and the 7th Maine Infantry into service to chase the Caleb Cushing. Forty-one soldiers from the 17th embarked on the Forest City, which eventually overtook and engaged the Caleb Cushing and captured the Confederate crew.[6]

On the evening of July 1 in Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania, the 17th, along with the other regular Army regiments of the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the 2nd Division, V Corps, rapidly marched to Gettysburg and halted the next morning approximately one mile east of Little Round Top. The march was conducted so briskly that only 226 of the regiment’s 334 men arrived on the field.[7] These men would be sorely missed when the regiment engaged in fierce combat on Little Round Top, Houck’s Ridge, and in the Wheatfield.

On the afternoon of July 2, the regiment occupied a position on the northern slope of Little Round Top. They watched the fighting unfold in front of them and saw a gap open between soldiers from Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles’ III Corps and Brig. Gen. John Caldwell’s division of II Corps. Their division commander, Brig Gen. Romeyn Ayres, was directed to fill this gap and subsequently ordered his two brigades of regulars to move forward into the valley. The regulars moved into the valley, crossed Plum Run, and charged up Houck’s Ridge. The 17th was on the left end of the brigades’ line and came to rest in a deep gully overlooked by Devil’s Den. The 17th soon found itself taking fire from its left flank and front, with the fighting being so severe that a drummer boy in the regiment, Matthew F. Kippax, later remarked, “muskets were clubbed, and in the frightful melee bayonets, swords, pistols, knives, and even stones were used. All forms of humanity were forgot, and the brute instinct in man predominated.”[8]

The 17th endured heavy fire from the Devil’s Den until Ayres ordered his brigade to wheel left off of the 17th in an attempt to secure the Wheatfield and gain a better position on higher ground. (See Figure 1) Soon after this move was completed, Confederate troops led by brigadier generals Paul Semmes and Joseph Kershaw burst through the Rose Woods and attacked the exposed right flank of the 2nd U.S. Infantry, which greatly disorganized them and the units to their left. Ayres saw that his brigade was being assaulted on three sides and knew that remaining in place would lead to certain destruction, so he ordered his troops to withdraw back across the valley. The 17th did not initially hear this order and continued to fight until they were enveloped on three sides. However, instead of fleeing in panic, the regiment was ordered to face about and march away from the attacking Confederates, which they did with discipline and calm.[9] A captain in the 17th insisted that not “a single man left the ranks, and they allowed themselves to be decimated without flinching.”[10] The 17th suffered appalling casualties at Gettysburg, totaling 25 men killed and 125 wounded or missing.[11]

August 1863-1866

Following Gettysburg, the 17th was detached from the Army of the Potomac and sent to New York City to help quell the draft riots. In September, the regiment rejoined V Corps and arrived in time to participate in the Mine Run and Rapidan campaigns.

The regiment’s participation in the Overland Campaign began on May 3, 1864, when they began marching with the rest of the Army of the Potomac. The 17th fought in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Laurel Hill, North Anna, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, suffering 18 men killed and 119 wounded or missing. The regiment helped capture the Weldon Railroad in August and was engaged at Poplar Springs Church on September 30 and October 1.[12] Having been heavily attritted, the regiment was withdrawn from Virginia on October 13 and sent to Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor, where it was tasked with guarding Confederate prisoners. The 17th garrisoned the fort for one year until it was transferred to Hart Island in Long Island Sound. The 17th continued to recruit, and beginning in 1866, its battalions were assigned to various posts across the West and South for reconstruction duty.

The 17th took many casualties during its service with the Army of the Potomac, suffering a total of nine officers and 92 men killed in combat and two officers and 100 men dying of disease.[13] No other regular army regiment exceeded these losses, and they were only equaled by the 18th Infantry and the 1st Cavalry, which were both larger units.[14]

Post-war and beyond

The 17th has participated in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Punitive Expedition, World War Two, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, operations in Panama, and the War on Terror. Since 1898, eighteen soldiers of the 17th have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and the regiment has been awarded six Presidential Unit Citations.[15]

The 17th’s current coat of arms is inspired by the Regiment’s Civil War service. (See Figures 3 and 4)The shield contains a Maltese Cross, emblematic of the V Corps, a star fort representing Fort Preble, and a white wall representing the wall on Marye’s Heights. The Buffalo was added during the Korean War at the suggestion of the regiment’s commander, Colonel William W. “Buffalo Bill” Quinn.

In 2017, the 4th battalion, then assigned to the 1st Armored Division, deployed to eastern Afghanistan, where it engaged in combat operations against the Taliban and ISIS. The battalion was deactivated in 2019, leaving the 1st battalion as the only remaining unit of the regiment. The 1st Battalion is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, garrisoned at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. The regiment’s motto is “Truth and Courage.”

Kyle R. Hallowell is an active-duty U.S. Army Strategist currently studying International Policy at Texas A&M University. He has a BA in History from Norwich University and has been passionate about the Civil War since childhood. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and son. 

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Bibliography

“Lineage and Honors, 17th Infantry Regiment.” US Army Center for Military History, accessed April 29, 2024, https://history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/lineages/branches/inf/0017in.htm.

“Medal of Honor Recipients.” 17th Infantry Regiment Association, 2024, accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.17thinfantry.org/history/moh.php.

“Capture and Destruction of the Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing- the Tacony Burned- Her Officers and Crew Taken Prisoner.” The Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), June 29, 1863. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016025/1863-06-29/ed-1/?sp=2&st=image&r=-0.07,0.246,0.471,0.205,0.

“Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry.” The Army of the US Historical Sketches of Staff and Line with Portraits of Generals-in-Chief, Maynard, Merrill & Co, 1896, https://history.army.mil/books/R&H/R&H-17IN.htm; https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Army_of_the_United_States/rUpKAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1.

“Tacony.” US Navy, accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/tacony.html.

“Lot 155: Civil War Era Greene Patent Bolt Action Percussion Rifle.” accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/73/155/civil-war-era-greene-patent-bolt-action-percussion-rifle.

““How They Went Forth to the Harvest of Death”: A Concise Account of the U.S. Regular Infantry at Gettysburg.” Updated June 5, 2022, 2022, accessed April 30, 2024, https://www.militaryimagesmagazine-digital.com/2022/06/05/how-they-went-forth-to-the-harvest-of-death-a-concise-account-of-the-u-s-regular-infantry-at-gettysburg/.

Kippax, Matthew F. “Sykes’s Regulars ” The National Tribune (Washington D.C.), October 04, 1894. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016187/1894-10-04/ed-1/seq-3/.

“Search for Battle Units ” US National Park Service, 2024, accessed April 30, 2024, https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units.htm#fq%5B%5D=Battle_Unit_Function%3A%22Infantry%22&fq%5B%5D=State%3A%22Union+Regular+Army%22.

“17th United States Infantry Regiment.” Union monuments at Gettysburg – United States Regulars – Infantry, 2024, https://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/us-regulars/us-infantry/17th-united-states-infantry/.

Wade, Arthur P. Artillerists and Engineers: The Beginning of American Seacoast Fortifications 1794-1815. CDSG Press, 2011. https://books.google.com/books?id=Py7DBgAAQBAJ.

[1] “Lineage and Honors, 17th Infantry Regiment,” US Army Center for Military History, accessed April 29, 2024, https://history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/lineages/branches/inf/0017in.htm.

[2] “Lot 155: Civil War Era Greene Patent Bolt Action Percussion Rifle,” accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/73/155/civil-war-era-greene-patent-bolt-action-percussion-rifle.

[3] “Search for Battle Units “, US National Park Service, 2024, accessed April 30, 2024, https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-battle-units.htm#fq%5B%5D=Battle_Unit_Function%3A%22Infantry%22&fq%5B%5D=State%3A%22Union+Regular+Army%22.

[4] “Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry,” The Army of the US Historical Sketches of Staff and Line with Portraits of Generals-in-Chief, Maynard, Merrill & Co, 1896, https://history.army.mil/books/R&H/R&H-17IN.htm; https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Army_of_the_United_States/rUpKAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1.

[5] “Tacony,” US Navy, accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/confederate_ships/tacony.html.

[6] “Capture and Destruction of the Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing- The Tacony Burned- Her Officers and Crew Taken Prisoner,” The Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), June 29, 1863, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83016025/1863-06-29/ed-1/?sp=2&st=image&r=-0.07,0.246,0.471,0.205,0.

[7] Chubb, “Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry.”

[8] Matthew F. Kippax, “Sykes’s Regulars ” The National Tribune (Washington D.C.), October 04, 1894, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82016187/1894-10-04/ed-1/seq-3/.

[9] ““How They Went Forth to the Harvest of Death”: A concise account of the U.S. Regular Infantry at Gettysburg,” updated June 5, 2022, 2022, accessed April 30, 2024, https://www.militaryimagesmagazine-digital.com/2022/06/05/how-they-went-forth-to-the-harvest-of-death-a-concise-account-of-the-u-s-regular-infantry-at-gettysburg/.

[10] Joyce, ““How They Went Forth to the Harvest of Death”: A concise account of the U.S. Regular Infantry at Gettysburg.”

[11] Chubb, “Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry.”

[12] Service, “Search for Battle Units “.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Chubb, “Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry.”

[15] “MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS,” 17th Infantry Regiment Association, 2024, accessed April 29, 2024, https://www.17thinfantry.org/history/moh.php; Army, “Lineage and Honors, 17th Infantry Regiment.”