The 49th New York Infantry was organized at Buffalo, New York and mustered in for three years service on September 18, 1861, under the command of ColonelDaniel D. Bidwell, an attorney from Buffalo.
The regiment was attached to Stevens' 3rd Brigade, W. F. Smith's Division, Army of the Potomac, to March 1862. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, to May 1862. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, VI Corps,[6] Army of the Potomac, and Army of the Shenandoah, to June 1865.
The 49th New York Infantry mustered out of service on June 27, 1865.
Affiliations, battle honors, detailed service, and casualties
Moved to Richmond, then to Washington May 18-June 2.
Corps Review June 8.
Casualties
The regiment lost a total of 320 men during service; 15 officers and 126 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 5 officers and 174 enlisted men died of disease.[7] The regiment's bloodiest battles were Antietam, 2nd Fredericksburg, The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House.[12]
Of note, the 49th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, commanded by COL Bidwell, brought 414 men into action, but lost only two enlisted men wounded. This was because Neill's 3rd Brigade of VI Corps was one of the last to reach the battlefield on Thursday, July 2, and was held in reserve on the Baltimore Pike at Rock Creek. On Friday, the third day of the battle, the brigade deployed to the north of the Pike on the east side of Rock Creek to push back Confederate skirmishers that were threatening the army's main supply and communications route. It advanced to where its monument is now located, taking light casualties.[13]
Armament
Soldiers in the 49th were armed with 825 Model 1842 Muskets.[1] By the end of the first full year of hard campaigning, the regimented returned 846 Model 1842 smoothbore percussion muskets to the Adjutant General.[14] The regiment reported the following survey result to U.S. War Department:[15][16]
A — 29 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, National Armory (NA)[iii] and contract, (.58 Cal.)
B — 34 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 2 Enfield Rifled Muskets.[iv] (.58 and .577 Cal.)
C — 35 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 2 Enfield Rifled Muskets. (.58 and .577 Cal.)
D — 32 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.);
F — 18 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 14 Enfield Rifled Muskets. (.58 and .577 Cal.)
G — 25 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 30 Enfield Rifled Muskets. (.58 and .577 Cal.)
H — 33 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 3 Enfield Rifled Muskets. (.58 and .577 Cal.)
I — 19 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 9 Enfield Rifled Muskets. (.58 and .577 Cal.)
K — 37 Springfield Rifled Muskets, model 1855, 1861, NA and contract, (.58 Cal.); 3 Enfield Rifled Muskets. (.58 and .577 Cal.)
It appears they continued with a mix of Springfields and Enfields.[19] The 57 Enfields reported at Fredericksburg were drawn from New York Armories.[20][21][22]
Rifle-muskets
Issued weapons
Model 1842 smoothbore musket
Springfield Model 1855
Springfield Model 1861
Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-musket
Uniform
The men of the regiment were initially issued the standard gray militia uniform. In early 1862, they received standard blue sack coats, sky blue infantry trousers, and the sky blue infantry winter overcoat.
Colonel Erastus D. Holt - commanded at the Battle of Fort Stevens while at the rank of captain after Ltc Johnson was mortally wounded; killed in action at the Third Battle of Petersburg
Colonel George H. Selkirk
Lieutenant Colonel William C. Alberger - commanded at the Battle of Antietam until wounded in action
Lieutenant Colonel George W. Johnson - commanded at the Battle of Antietam while at the rank of major after Ltc Alberger was wounded; commanded at the Battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House; mortally wounded in action at the Battle of Fort Stevens
^As reported back to Adjutant General Hillhouse upon departure from New York on December 10, 1861
^On 18 Sep 1861, 846 Harper's Ferry smooth bore Model 1842s, altered from flint to percussion locks. As reported back to Adjutant General on December 31, 1863. This was the number turned in when issued Springfields and Enfields.
^In government records, National Armory refers to one of three United States Armory and Arsenals, the Springfield Armory, the Harpers Ferry Armory, and the Rock Island Arsenal. Rifle-muskets, muskets, and rifles were manufactured in Springfield and Harper's Ferry before the war. When the Rebels destroyed the Harpers Ferry Armory early in the American Civil War and stole the machinery for the Richmond Aresenal, the Springfield Armory was briefly the only government manufacturer of arms, until the Rock Island Arsenal was established in 1862. During this time production ramped up to unprecedented levels ever seen in American manufacturing up until that time, with only 9,601 rifles manufactured in 1860, rising to a peak of 276,200 by 1864. These advancements would not only give the Union a decisive technological advantage over the Confederacy during the war but served as a precursor to the mass production manufacturing that contributed to the post-war Second Industrial Revolution and 20th century machine manufacturing capabilities. American historian Merritt Roe Smith has drawn comparisons between the early assembly machining of the Springfield rifles and the later production of the Ford Model T, with the latter having considerably more parts, but producing a similar numbers of units in the earliest years of the 1913–1915 automobile assembly line, indirectly due to mass production manufacturing advancements pioneered by the armory 50 years earlier. [17][18]
^When the American arms company, Robbins & Lawrence’s went bankrupt after the Crimean War ended, the New York firm of Fox, Henderson & Company, a creditor, agreed to accept 5,600 Pattern 1853 guns to be assembled by Vermont Arms as payment for their credit interest in the now bankrupt company. In 1858 Vermont Arms also failed, and the remaining inventory and assets were sold at auction. The State of New York purchased the completed arms and stored them in their armories. New York merchants like Fox, Henderson & Company also sold many of the completed arms to southern states during 1860 and early 1861. The states had purchased the arms in preparation for the Civil War that they were sure was about to happen. Finally waking up to the arms purchases going on under their noses, in New York, on January 21, 1861, the NYPD intercepted and impounded 38 cases of rifled muskets that were being headed to Alabama and Georgia. The Enfields in New Yorks inventory were mostly American-made like the Windsors and license-built in Liege, Belgium.
Owens, Eldon J. (1976). "Guns Made in Windsor, Vermont"(PDF). American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 35. Dallas, TX: American Society of Arms Collectors. pp. 29–32. ISSN0362-9457. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
.svg)
