From a Seneca County, New York newspaper on February 7, 1863:
Promoted.
We are pleased to learn that GEORGE A. SHERMAN, formerly foreman in this office, who volunteered last summer as a private in Company K, 126th Regiment, has been promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant, in place of H. CLAY LAWRENCE, resigned.
This promotion has, no doubt, been well earned; for Lieut SHERMAN is a true man, faithful and thorough in everything he undertakes. – Canandaigua Times.
Mr. SHERMAN is an old resident of this place, and was connected with the REVEILLE office as foreman for more than six years. – His many friends here will be glad to hear of his good fortune.
The 126th New York Infantry was one of the green Union Regiments that were surrendered with the rest of the garrison at Harper’s Ferry in September 1862 and imprisoned in Chicago’s Camp Douglass for a couple months. However, it is said that the 126th did the most fighting at Harper’s Ferry:
The regiment left the state on Aug. 26, 1862, and took part in its first fighting during the siege of Harper’s Ferry, where it received the brunt of the enemy’s attack and suffered a large share of the casualties at Maryland and Bolivar heights. It lost 16 killed and 42 wounded during the fighting, and was surrendered with the rest of the garrison on Sept. 15. The men were immediately paroled and spent two months in camp at Chicago, Ill., awaiting notice of its exchange. As soon as notice of its exchange was received in December, it returned to Virginia, encamping during the winter at Union Mills.
You can read a letter from a member of the 126th written at Camp Douglass at Yates County, NY, in the Civil War. The letter backs up the idea that the 126th bore the brunt of the rebel attack at Harper’s Ferry. The regiment was sad about being called “the Harper’s Ferry cowards” and longed to get back into battle. Lieutenant Sherman would fight with the 126th until May 1864.
a faithful and true man killed at Spotsylvania
_________________________________________
I just found a bit more about the mustering in of the 126th at Project Gutenberg (Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life In America 1852-1872 page 143):
July, 1862.—The President has called for 300,000 more brave men to fill up the ranks of the fallen. We hear every day of more friends and acquaintances who have volunteered to go.
August 20.—The 126th Regiment, just organized, was mustered into service at Camp Swift, Geneva. 144Those that I know who belong to it are Colonel E. S. Sherrill, Lieutenant Colonel James M. Bull, Captain Charles A. Richardson, Captain Charles M. Wheeler, Captain Ten Eyck Munson, Captain Orin G. Herendeen, Surgeon Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, Hospital Steward Henry T. Antes, First Lieutenant Charles Gage, Second Lieutenant Spencer F. Lincoln, First Sergeant Morris Brown, Corporal Hollister N. Grimes, Privates Darius Sackett, Henry Willson, Oliver Castle, William Lamport.
Dr. Hoyt wrote home: “God bless the dear ones we leave behind; and while you try to perform the duties you owe to each other, we will try to perform ours.”
We saw by the papers that the volunteers of the regiment before leaving camp at Geneva allotted over $15,000 of their monthly pay to their families and friends at home. One soldier sent this telegram to his wife, as the regiment started for the front: “God bless you. Hail Columbia. Kiss the baby. Write soon.” A volume in ten words.
“God bless you. Hail Columbia. Kiss the baby. Write soon.”
