107th
New York Volunteer Infantry Service History
Camp
Rathbun in Elmira, NY where the 107th was Organized
This camp also known as Camp #3 later became the prison for Confederate
prisoners of war
The regiment left Camp Rathbun in Elmira on August 13 and arrived in Washington on the 15th, marched through the city and over the Long Bridge into northern Virginia where for several weeks it camped and trained among the
forts which guarded Washington. On September 6, it began its long hard march north to
the battlefield of Antietam.
It saw its first action, as a member of
the Twelfth Army Corps' First "Red Star" Division, north of
Sharpsburg, Maryland in this battle which would be known as the single most
bloody day of the war. This division was commanded by General A. S. Williams,
and he was its only commander for the duration of the war. It is said to be the
only instance in which a division had one commander the whole of the war. The
Twelfth Army Corps, and later when it became the Twentieth, had the reputation
of never having lost a color or a gun. Following a winter of picket duty,
guarding against other Confederate incursions along the Potomac River, it participated in the battle of Chancellorsville.
Not long after Chancellorsville, it marched up to Pennsylvania where it met another invasion of the North by General
Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg. The 107th was not involved in the repulsing of
"Pickett’s Charge", but it did help fight off the Confederate charge
against Culp’s Hill earlier that day. The Rebel charge that took place at the
break of day on Culp's Hill has gone largely unnoticed by all but the learned
scholars of the war. If that charge had succeeded, the Rebels would have broken
through to the rear of the Union troops who fought off Pickett. Who knows what
the result might have been.
Following Gettysburg the regiment was re-assigned and sent to Tennessee to guard railroads during the winter of 1863-64. It was
a welcome change from their previous duty, and for the most part the men
thoroughly enjoyed their stay there. Little did they know that their hardest
fighting and greatest loss of life lay in front of them in "Bloody Georgia."
Early in 1864 they were brought together
in the Twentieth Army Corps, a consolidation of the 11th and the 12th corps
which took place on April
4, 1864, and with other army corps by General William T. Sherman
to form an army of a 100,000, which would become of one of the most famous
armies in the history of warfare. They were to be part of his plan to devastate
the underbelly of the Confederacy. The 107th fought hard in the many skirmishes
and battles on its way to Atlanta, losing a great many men in the battle of New Hope Church, also known as Dallas. They were among the first troops to enter Atlanta, and they were part of its provost guard while Sherman's other corps sought to engage and defeat Hood's army.
They left Atlanta in mid November and began the "March to the
Sea." Only three days out of the city over forty of them were captured,
and sent off to Confederate prison camps. A week later a sergeant of the 107th
raised the American flag over the state capitol at Milledgeville and his
picture appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly. They continued on southward
and participated in the capture of Savannah. After resting there a while, they began their last
campaign, one that would take them north through the Carolinas where they participated in the battles of Avreasboro and Bentonville. Finally, at the end of this
campaign their army would receive the surrender of General Joseph Johnson,
which for all practical purposes ended the war.
There was one last march for them before
they could go home. Onward to Washington they marched, where they would parade in the "Grand
Review" of the Union Army on May 24, 1865 in front of the newly sworn in President Andrew Johnson.
After the review they remained in camp near Bladensburg, Md. until June 5 when they were mustered out. They arrived
home in Elmira on the 8th and were formally discharged from
the service on June 18, 1865.
However, this was not the end of the
107th. Two years later, they organized their regimental association.
Thereafter, for as long as they were alive and able, the members of the
regiment would meet on September 17, the date of their first battle, to
remember their fallen comrades and to reminisce about their experiences in the
war. The last living member of the regiment was Lieutenant Frank Pomeroy Frost
who died in 1934.
Anyone seeking more information on
the regiment.
Can go to George Farr's site
www.grf-services.net/107nyv.htm
Most, if not all of the information found here is from his site