The 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment
History
April 15, 1861, President Lincoln issued a call for volunteers from every sate in the Union. Michigan responded immediately with the 1st Michigan Infantry and, during the course of the Civil War, supplied over 90,000 men to the conflict.
Excerpt From June 11th, 1862 , Detroit Free Press Article
The Seventeenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment was one of thirty-one (including the 102nd US Colored Troops) infantry regiments mustered in Michigan for Federal service. The Seventeenth was organized during the summer of 1862, and left for Washington D.C. on August 27, 1862. Leading the regiment was Colonel William H. Withington of Jackson Michigan. Withington was already a veteran having been a Captain in the 1st Michigan (3 months) Infantry, captured at the battle of 1st Bull Run; released and then in command of the Seventeenth. Within two weeks of their arrival in the Capitol, the 982 officers and men received their baptism of fire at the battle of South Mountain, Maryland. Their heroic charge and capture of a Confederate brigade at Fox’s Gap earned them the nickname “the Stonewall Regiment.” Three days later they participated in the bloodiest single day in U.S. history.......... Antietam.
Ninth Army Corps Badge
As part of the Ninth Army Corps, often referred to as General Burnside's “Traveling Geography Class,” other engagements followed. Among them were: Fredericksburg, VA, the Sieges of Vicksburg, MS and Knoxville, TN and back to Virginia and the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg.
Enlisted men of the Seventeenth Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment
This photograph is of four members of the 17th Michigan who first saw action at the Battle of South Mountain (clockwise from the upper left) William B. Hurd, Simpson T. Clark, Walter G. Bigsby and Orson B. Woodin, and survived the war. The original of this image is in the archives of the State Library in Lansing, Michigan.
To
view more "Images of the 17th."
The Seventeenth had an aggregate membership of 1,224, and by the end of the war, 238 had died of wounds or disease. More Medals of Honor were awarded to members of the Seventeenth than any other Michigan regiment. After participating in the Grand Review of the Army, a two-day parade of over 150,000 troops in Washington, D.C., the regiment was mustered out June 7, 1865, and returned to Michigan. Source: Michigan in the War, compiled by John Robertson, Adjutant General, Lansing Michigan, 1882.
Soldiers And Sailors Monument at Jackson, Michigan
On July 14, 1904, a monument honoring the "Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War" was donated to the city of Jackson, Michigan, by General William H. Withington. Withington, a resident of Jackson, served with the original 1st Michigan Infantry at the start of the war, was captured at Bull Run, and returned to Michigan to become Colonel Withington of the 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
The 17th at the 2004 Rededication
In July, 2004 the 17th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company E, Inc., took part in the rededication of the "Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War" monument to the city of Jackson, Michigan.
For more information about the original 17th Michigan, you may wish to view the following:
Three
Vignettes of the "Stonewall Regiment"
Note: To see pictures taken of the Regiment in 1865, view the "A Jubilee at Grass Lake" vignette.
