44th’s monument on Little Round Top, Gettysburg (from NY Military Museum)
Having completed its three year term, the 44th New York Volunteer Infantry returned to the state 150 years ago this month.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in October 1864:
THE FORTY-FOURTH REGIMENT. – The term of service of the 44th (Ellsworth) regiment expired on Sunday last, and the regiment is daily expected at Albany to be mustered out of the service. Out of the one thousand who marched forth to battle three years ago, about one hundred return to their families. Quite a number from this county went into the regiment.
The number of casualties seems a bit misleading in this article as the New York State Military Museum clarifies:
May, 1864, was the month of the memorable Wilderness campaign, in which the regiment served faithfully, suffering most severely at the Wilderness and at Bethesda Church. By this time the regiment had become greatly reduced in numbers by hard service and the loss in this campaign, while not so large in numbers as in previous battles, was even greater in proportion to the number of men engaged. The regiment was active in the first assault on Petersburg in June, 1864, at the Weldon railroad, and at Poplar Spring Church. On Oct. 11 , 1864, the 44th was mustered out at Albany and the veterans and recruits were consolidated into a battalion, of which 266 men were transferred to the 140th and 183 to the 146th N. Y. The total strength of the regiment was 1,585, of whom 188 died during the term of service from wounds received in action, and 147 died from accident, imprisonment or disease. The total loss in killed, wounded and missing was 730. The men chosen for this command were of the flower of the state and displayed their heroism on many a desperately contested field, where they won laurels for themselves. and for their state. Col. Fox numbers the 44th among the “three hundred fighting regiments.”
Arch of Sacrifice (near Alexandria, Va.)
officers of 44th near Alexandria, Va.
