1st Delaware Infantry Regiment

The 1st Regiment Delaware Volunteer Infantry was a United States volunteer infantry regiment raised for Union Army service in the American Civil War. For part of the war, it was a part of the famed Gibraltar Brigade.

May - August 1861

When the Civil War began in April 1861, there were only about 16,000 men in the U.S. Army, and many Southern soldiers and officers were already resigning and joining the new Confederate States Army. With this drastic shortage of men in the army, President Abraham Lincoln called on the states to raise a force of 75,000 volunteers for three months to put down the insurrection in the South. Accordingly, the 1st Delaware was raised at Wilmington, Delaware on May 22, 1861 and mustered into Federal service on May 28. The regiment comprised 37 officers and 742 enlisted men under the command of Colonel Henry H. Lockwood. The regiment was attached to the command of Major General John Dix ('Dix's Command", Department of the Potomac) and assigned to duty along the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. The regiment mustered out on August 30, 1861.

September 1861 - July 1865

The war proved to be longer and larger than anyone had expected, and on July 22, 1861, the United States Congress authorized a volunteer army of 500,000 men. A "new" 1st Regiment of Delaware Volunteers was raised at Wilmington, Delaware between September 10 and October 19, 1861. The regiment served throughout the war and suffered 12 officers and 146 enlisted men killed and mortally wounded, and 118 enlisted men killed by disease. The regiment mustered out of Federal service on July 12, 1865 with 37 officers and 846 enlisted men under the command of Colonel John W. Andrews.

Service and engagements

1861

• Organization and training at Wilmington, Delaware—September 10-October 19

1862

• Camp Harrison, Virginia (part of the Fortress Monroe garrison) -- until May
• Occupation of Norfolk, Virginia—May 10
• Battle of Antietam—September 16–17
• Garrison of Harpers Ferry—September 22-October 30
• Movement to Falmouth, Virginia—October 30-November 17
• Battle of Fredericksburg—December 12–15

1863

• Mud March—January 20–22
• Falmouth, Virginia—January–April
• Battle of Chancellorsville—May 1–6
• Gettysburg Campaign—June–July
• Battle of Gettysburg—July 1–3
• Pursuit of Lee to Manassas Gap—July 5–24
• Duty of line of the Rappahannock and Rapidan River—July–October
• Blackburn's Ford—October 15
• Mine Run Campaign—November 26-December 2

Medal of Honor

Four men were awarded the Medal of Honor while serving with the 1st Delaware. At the Battle of Antietam, Second Lieutenant Charles B. Tanner of Company H earned the medal by saving the regimental flag after the entire nine-man color guard was killed or wounded. Tanner himself was wounded three times in the battle. During the Battle of Gettysburg the next year, two soldiers, Private Bernard McCarren of Company C and Private John B. Maberry of Company F, were awarded the medal for capturing Confederate battle flags. Another man, Captain James Parke Postles of Company A, received the medal for voluntarily carrying a message under heavy fire at Gettysburg.

See also

• Lists of American Civil War Regiments by State
• 1st Delaware Regiment—a Delaware regiment from the American Revolutionary War

External links

• Gettysburg battlefield monument to Lieut. Col. Edward P. Harris