Pennsylvania monuments at Antietam
“37th Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry”
The monument to the 8th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves at Antietam is on Mansfield Ave. (Mansfield Avenue tour map) It was dedicated by the State of Pennsylvania on September 17, 1906.
The Pennsylvania Reserves
The Pennsylvania Reserves were 15 regiments that were recruited in early 1861. Refused by the War Department as they were in excess of Pennsylvania’s quota, Governor Curtin decided they would be armed and trained at state expense. The War Department soon realized they were needed and assigned them standard designations when they were accepted into Federal service. But the men preferred to be known by their original name: the Pennsylvania Reserves. See more about the Pennsylvania Reserves.
All 15 regiments of the Pennsylvania Reserves fought at Antietam, but there are only monuments to four. Why? The Pennsylvania Reserves Division was divided into three brigades. After the first year of the war the badly battered division was transferred to the Washington Defences to rest and rebuild. But two brigades were reattached to the Army of the Potomac to take part in the Gettysburg Campaign. One brigade remained behind to defend Washington. When Pennsylvania made state funds available after the war to create monuments to its Civil War veterans, the Pennsylvania Reserves that fought at Gettysburg chose to put their monuments there. The four regiments that weren’t at Gettysburg put their monuments at Antietam.
Text from the front of the monument:
8th Regt.
Pennsylvania
Reserve Volunteer Corps
37th Regiment of the line
Text from the bronze tablet on the rear of the monument:
8th Pa. Reserve Vol. Inf.
Major Silas M. Baily
2nd Brigade, 3rd Div., 1st Corps
Advanced about 600 yards south and became
engaged with Hood’s Confederate Division
Loss at Antietam
Killed 12
Wounded 44
Engagements
Mechanicsville, Va., June 26, 1862
Gaines Mill, Va., June 27, 1862
Charles City Cross Road, Va., June 30, 1862 Malvern Hill, Va., July 1, 1862
Second Bull Run, Va., Aug. 28, 29 & 30, 1862
South Mountain, Md., Sept. 14, 1862
Antietam, Md., Sept. 16 and 17, 1862
Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862
Wilderness, Va., May 5 to 17, 1864
Spotsylvania, Va., May 5 to 17, 1864
Present at Dranesville, Bristae Station, Chantilly
Recruited
Co. “A” Armstrong County;
Co “B” Dauphin County;
Cos. “C” & “E” Alleghany county;
Cos. “D” & “G” Fayette County;
Co. “F” Bedford County;
Co. “H” Clarion County;
Co. “K” Washington County;
Co. “I” Green County.
Mustered into United States Service July 29, 1861
at Meridian Hill, D.C.
Mustered out at Pittsburg May 24, 1864.
Summary
Total enlistment, 1062; killed and died of wounds 158;
Total killed and wounded 490, captured and missing 147.
Died of disease and accidents in prison 68.
The east side of the monument has a Maltese cross inscribed insided a circle, the symbols of the two corps (First Corps – Circle; Fifth Corps, Maltese Cross) to which the regiment was attached during the war.
A War Department tablet near the monument tells the story of the 8th’s parent brigade at Antietam.
Location of the monument
The monument at Antietam to the 8th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves is north of Sharpsburg on the north side of Mansfield Avenue about 375 yards east of the Hagerstown Pike (39°29’19.9″N 77°44’51.0″W).
