Pennsylvania monuments at Antietam
36th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
The monument to the Seventh Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves at Antietam is on Mansfield Avenue. (Mansfield Avenue tour map; map location) It was dedicated on September 17, 1906.
The 7th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves was commanded at Antietam by Major Chauncey A. Lyman after its colonel, Henry Bolinger, was wounded at Turner’s Gap on South Mountain on September 14.
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.
There is a bronze Coat of Arms of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the west side of the monument. On the east side is a carved Maltese cross within a circle, a composite of the symbols for the two army corps in which the regiment served, the 1st (circle) and the 5th (Maltese cross).
Text from the tablet on the front of the monument:
7th Regiment Pennsylvania
Reserve Volunteer Infantry
36th Regiment in line, 2nd Brigade
3rd Division, 1st Corps
Organized June 26, 1861
Mustered out June 16, 1864
The regiment 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 12
Wounded 60
Total 72
Recruited three companies in Philadelphia,
two companies in Cumberland County,
two companies in Lebanon County,
one company each in Luzerne, Clinton
and Perry counties.
Battles participated in:
| Great Falls | Dranesville |
| Mechanicsville | Gaines Mills |
| Charles City Cross Roads | Malvern Hill |
| Gainesville | Second Bull Run |
| Chantilly South Mountain | Antietam |
| Fredericksburg | and Wilderness |
A War Department tablet near the monument tells the story of the 7th’s parent brigade at Antietam.
Location of the monument
The monument to the 7th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves is north of Sharpsburg on the north side of Mansfield Avenue. It is about 575 yards east of the Hagerstown Pike (39°29’19.5″N 77°44’43.4″W;).
See more on the history of the 7th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves during the Civil War