78th Pennsylvania Infantry

The 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 78th Pennsylvania Infantry was organized at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on October 12, 1861 under the command of Colonel William Sirwell.

The regiment was attached to Negley's 4th Brigade, McCook's Division, at Nolin, to November 1861. 7th Brigade, Army of the Ohio, to December 1861. 7th Brigade, 2nd Division, Army of the Ohio, to March 1862. Negley's Independent Brigade, Army of the Ohio, to August 1862. 7th Brigade, 8th Division, Army of the Ohio, to November 1862. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, Centre, Army of the Cumberland, to January 1863. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to October 1863. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, XIV Corps, to July 1864. Unassigned, 4th Division, XX Corps, Department of the Cumberland, to October 1864. Garrison duty at Nashville, Tenn., to September 1865.

The 78th Pennsylvania Infantry mustered out of service on September 11, 1865.

Detailed service

Left Ohio for Louisville, Ky., October 18, thence moved to Nolin Station, Ky., October 24, and duty there until December. At Munfordville, Ky., December 1861 to February 1862. March to Nashville, Tenn., February 14-March 3. Guard railroad from Nashville to Columbia until May, and at Decatur May. Expedition to Rodgersville May 13–14. Negley's Expedition to Chattanooga May 28-June 17. Chattanooga June 7–8. Garrison at Rodgersville and guarding Lamb's Ferry until July 18. Moved to Nashville, Tenn., and garrison duty there until December. Hermitage Ford October 20. Nashville November 5. Advance on Murfreesboro December 26–30. Battle of Stones River December 30–31, 1862 and January 1–3, 1863. Duty at Murfreesboro until June. Tullahoma Campaign June 23-July 7. Hoover's, Gap June 24–26. At Dechard, Ala., July 8-August 15. Passage of Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River, and Chickamauga Campaign August 16-September 22. Davis Cross Roads or Dug Gap September 11. Battle of Chickamauga September 19–21. Rossville Gap September 21. Siege of Chattanooga September 24-October 27. Reopening Tennessee River October 26–29. Battles of Chattanooga November 23–25; Missionary Ridge November 24–25. Reconnaissance to Lookout Mountain November 29-December 2. Duty on Lookout Mountain until May 1864. Atlanta Campaign May 1-June 21. Demonstration on Rocky Faced Ridge May 8–11. Battle of Resaca May 14–15. Near Cassville May 19. Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5. Pickett's Mills May 27. Operations about Marietta and against Kennesaw Mountain June 10–21. Pine Hill June 11–14. Lost Mountain June 15–17. Ordered to Chattanooga, Tenn., June 21. Duty guarding trains to the front July to September. Action at Dalton, Ga., August 14–15. Ordered to Decatur, Ala., September 24, thence to Nashville, Tenn., and to Tullahoma September 29. Returned to Nashville and duty there until September, 1865. Old members ordered home October 1864 and mustered out at Pittsburgh, Pa., November 4, 1864. Non-veterans and recruits were organized into a battalion of two companies. Battle of Nashville, Tenn., December 16–17, 1864.

Casualties

The regiment lost a total of 267 men during service; 2 officers and 68 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 3 officers and 194 enlisted men died of disease.

Commanders

• Colonel William Sirwell
• Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Blakeley - commanded at the battle of Chickamauga
• Major Henry W. Torbett - commanded at the battle of Nashville

See also

• List of Pennsylvania Civil War Units
• Pennsylvania in the Civil War

References

• Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
• Gancas, Ron. The Gallant Seventy Eighth, Stones River to Pickett's Mill: Colonel William Sirwell and the Pennsylvania Seventy Eighth Volunteer Infantry (Murrysville, PA: R. Gancas), 1994. ISBN 0-9644952-0-1
• Gancas, Ron and Dan Coyle. Dear Teres: The Civil War Letters of Andrew Joseph Duff and Dennis Dugan of Company F, the Pennsylvania Seventy-Eighth Infantry (Butler, PA: Mechling Associates), 1999. ISBN 0-9644952-8-7
• Gibson, Joseph Thompson. History of the Seventy-Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (Pittsburgh, PA: Press of the Pittsburgh Print. Co.), 1905.
• Lutzke, Mitch. The Life and Times of Kimber M. Snyder: A Soldier in the 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse), 2006. ISBN 1-4259-3466-8

Attribution

• This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.

External links

• Company F, 78th Pennsylvania Infantry living history organization