By the summer of ’65 practically all who had served with the 72nd New York Infantry were back home. A few had been promoted to positions that kept them away, a few more still lingered in northern hospitals, but for those who had survived, the war was now memory. Most carried some kind of mark indicating their service: scars from a cut or burn, a missing chunk of flesh, a twisted finger, a limp, something. For others the scars were unseen. Returning veterans sometimes slept on floors for months, unused to the comfort of a bed; others kept shoes positioned in every room for fear of being without; still others woke screaming in the dead of night. For all it was a time they would never forget.
Four years earlier, towns across the country had been frantically gathering men to fight. In the north, the war was called the “Great Rebellion.” In eleven Southern states, men joined to fight in the “War of Northern Aggression.” Men joined the fight for any number of reasons: for country, for friends, or for an inspirational idea or leader. In the state of New York 5,000 men were inspired to join a brigade being formed by Daniel Edgar Sickles. Dan Sickles was a former congressman, lifelong politician, rogue, philanderer, and acquitted murderer. He was many things, and men were drawn to him. His brigade would be called the Excelsior Brigade, after the state’s motto, meaning “Ever Upward,” and it promised to represent all of New York. Excitedly, men from New York City all the way west to the smallest villages along Lake Erie’s shore joined companies that would eventually serve under Sickles.
Sickles’ Excelsior Brigade consisted of five regiments. All five drew men from across the state, but one, his Third Regiment, exemplified the trans-state inspiration of Sickles. With companies drawn from New York City, upstate and western counties, and even New Jersey, the regiment eventually designated the 72nd New York would compile a fighting record few other regiments would rival. Four of the five Excelsior regiments would be listed among Colonel Fox’s 300 fighting regiments, but the 72nd would lead the five in total casualties. In three separate engagements, Williamsburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, the 72nd would take losses equivalent to one-fourth or more. Few regiments in all of New York would surpass the 72nd’s record of sacrifice.
This is the story of these fighting men told in part in their own words. Using letters written from the field only moments after their hottest actions, officers’ reports, and memoirs laid down after a lifetime of thoughtful reflection, the full picture of their service is brought to light. Here is the excitement of a new recruit, anxious for blood; the despair of veterans, unable to foresee a campaign’s successful end; and the cool, analytical dispassion of the colonels and generals. This is a “brogans-up” view of the war, looking at all aspects: the camping, the marching, the fighting, and the dying.
The Excelsior Brigade was with the Army of the Potomac’s III Corps from the beginning. Few brigades embodied the history of the III Corps more than the Excelsior Brigade, and no other regiment within the brigade saw more action than the 72nd New York. Unlike some unit histories that draw narrowly from the perspectives of one or only a few men, The 72nd New York Infantry in the Civil War: A History and Roster draws from numerous collections of letters, diary entries, officers’ reports, veterans’ remembrances, and newspaper articles to paint the most complete picture of the 72nd’s service from its inception in 1861 to its discharge in summer of ’64. The entire strategic picture of their movements and engagements is examined so the reader will always know the role this regiment played. While focused on the 72nd, this work also examines the struggles of the Excelsior Brigade as it fought both the Confederates and within itself as officers bickered over questions of command and competency.
With the men’s three-year enlistments up, the 72nd didn’t finish the war, but during its service over 1,200 men filled and refilled its ranks, with over half becoming casualties. During their service the 72nd never single-handedly won a battle or defended a flank against overwhelming odds, and sometimes they retreated in disorder. But they did their duty and slugged it out when prudence may have dictated withdrawal, bringing honor to themselves and the state they represented. These men deserve to be remembered, and this is their story.
This work was assembled from a wide range of source materials, from letters and accounts not previously published to iconic pieces of Civil War literature. To the extent possible, this history of the 72nd New York is told using the words and recollections of men in the regiment who lived and experienced these events. Some events depicted have been recounted by only one individual while other events are found in many sources. When only one source is available, the citation will of course reflect this source, but when multiple sources describe the same event, the source most immediate to the regiment will be noted in the citation. Primary sources will always take priority over secondary sources, but in cases when large events or periods of time must be compressed for the sake of space and to advance the story, reliable secondary sources are used and cited. Every care has been made to report the history of the regiment as truthfully as possible while rendering the context within which it served.