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[157]

The Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill.

As pictured above, the Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill marches along the rolling Virginia fields to the inspiring music of the military band. This regiment, with its bright array, lives up to its spirited name, Westchester Chasseurs. Well might such a pageant have inspired Mrs. Howe to write the resonant war-song to which her name is forever linked. But these New Yorkers saw much severe service. They went with McClellan on the Peninsula campaign in 1862, and back toward Washington in time to fight in the second battle of Bull Run and to see service in the bloody conflict at Antietam, September 16-17, 1862. They were in the sanguinary repulse at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862. They remained at Falmouth, across the river from Fredericksburg, till Chancellorsville. Its three-years men then went to the 146th New York. In the earnest spirit of Mrs. Howe's poem, the Ninth Vermont Infantry, as pictured vividly below, marches out of Camp in North Carolina, 1863. Its career of only a year has been unusual. It had barely entered active service in 1862 when it was transferred to Harper's Ferry. There it was captured by ‘Stonewall’ Jackson on September 15, 1862, and was paroled the next day. Its military career was apparently cut short. It was used, however, to guard Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, until March 28, 1863. In January of that year, it had been declared exchanged and in the fall was at length sent to New Berne, North Carolina, where it was on duty in the Newport Barracks till July, 1864. There it engaged in various expeditions into the vicinity, destroying salt-works and capturing turpentine. There the photograph here reproduced was taken.

‘In burnished rows of steel’: the Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill.

‘His truth is marching on’: the Seventeenth New York Infantry at Minor's Hill.


   

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