Pennsylvania monuments at Antietam
“33rd Regiment Pennsylvania Infantry”
The monument to the Fourth Pennsylvania Reserves at Antietam is on Mansfield Avenue. (Mansfield Avenue tour map) It was dedicated on September 17, 1906.
The regiment’s commander, Colonel Albert L. Magilton, commanded the brigade at Antietam as senior colonel, while Major John Nyce commanded of the regiment.
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, all of 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:
4th Regiment
Pennsylvania
Reserve
Volunteer
Corps
Text from the tablet on the rear of the monument:
4th Regt. Pennsylvania
Reserve Volunteer Corps
33rd Regt. in line 2nd Brigade
3rd Division. 1st Army Corps.
Organized June 10, 1861
Mustered out June 17, 1864
The Regt. arrived on the field on the afternoon of September 16, 1862.
Formed at this point on the morning of the 17th, advanced about 600 yards South and became engaged with Hood’s Confederate Division.
Casualties at Antietam
Killed 5
Wounded 43
Total 48
Recruited Five Companies in Philadelphia, one company each in Montgomery, Chester, Monroe, Lycoming and Susquehanna Counties.
Battles participated in:
Dranesville, Va., December 20, 1861
Mecahnicsville, Va., June 26, 1862
Gaines Mills, Va., June 27, 1862
Charles City Cross Roads, Va., June 30, 1862
Malvern Hill, Va., July 1, 1862
Gainesville, Va., August 28, 1862
Second Bull Run, Va., August 29 and 30, 1862
Chantilly, Va., September 1, 1862
South Mountain, Maryland, September 14, 1862
Antietam, Maryland, September 16 and 17, 1862
Fredericksburg, Va., December 13, 1862
Princeton, W. Va., May 6, 1864
Bushey Mountain, W. Va., May 8, 1864
Cloyds Mountain, W. Va., May 9, 1864
New River Bridge, W. Va., May 10, 1864
Blacksburg, W. Va., May 11, 1864
Virtue, Liberty and Independence
Erected by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
On the east side of the monument is a carved Maltese cross within a circle, a composite of the symbols for the two organizations in which the regiment served, the 1st Corps (circle) and the 5th Corps (Maltese cross).
A War Department tablet near the monument tells the story of the 4th’s parent brigade at Antietam.
Location of the monument
The 4th Pennsylvania Reserves Monument is north of Sharpsburg on the north side of Mansfield Avenue about 445 yards east of the Hagerstown Pike (39°29’19.7″N 77°44’45.8″W).
See more about the 4th Pennsylvania Reserves during the American Civil War