[
197]
Forty-Ninth New York Infantry--“Second Buffalo.”
Neil's Brigade —
Getty's Division--Sixth Corps.
| companies. | killed and died of wounds. | died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c. | Total Enrollment. |
| Officers. | Men. | Total. | Officers. | Men. | Total. |
| Field and Staff | 4 | | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 15 |
| Company | A | 1 | 10 | 11 | | 29 | 29 | 121 |
| | B | 1 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 21 | 22 | 126 |
| | C | 1 | 15 | 16 | | 12 | 12 | 103 |
| | D | 1 | 18 | 19 | | 15 | 15 | 156 |
| | E | 2 | 17 | 19 | | 10 | 10 | 145 |
| | F | 1 | 12 | 13 | | 10 | 10 | 117 |
| | G | 2 | 13 | 15 | | 25 | 25 | 152 |
| | H | | 5 | 5 | 1 | 18 | 19 | 113 |
| | I | 1 | 17 | 18 | 1 | 16 | 17 | 139 |
| | K | 1 | 7 | 8 | | 17 | 17 | 125 |
| Totals | 15 | 126 | 141 | 5 | 174 | 179 | 1,312 |
141 killed == 10.7 per cent.
Total of killed and wounded, 521 died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 24.
| battles. | K. & M. W. | battles. | K. & M. W. |
| Yorktown, Va., April 5, 1862 | 1 | Spotsylvania, Va. | 52 |
| Chickahominy, Va., June 27, 1862 | 1 | Cold Harbor, Va. | 5 |
| White Oak Swamp, Va. | 1 | Fort Stevens, D. C. | 7 |
| Antietam, Md. | 7 | Charlestown, W. Va. | 1 |
| Fredericksburg, Va. (1862） | 2 | Opequon, Va. | 3 |
| Fredericksburg, Va. (1863） | 4 | Cedar Creek, Va. | 11 |
| On Picket, Pa., June 4, 1863 | 1 | Petersburg, Va. | 3 |
| Fairfield, Pa. | 1 | Place unknown | 2 |
| Wilderness, Va. | 39 | | |
Present, also, at
Dranesville;
Williamsburg; Golding's Farm;
Malvern Hill; Crampton's Pass;
Gettysburg; Rappahannock Station;
Mine Run;
Sailor's Creek;
Appomattox.
notes.--Organized at
Buffalo, September 18, 1861.
The regiment arrived in
Washington, September 21, 1861, and was assigned soon after to
Davidson's Brigade,
W. F. Smith's Division.
In March, 1862, this division was placed in
Keyes's (Fourth) Corps and accompanied it to the
Peninsula; but on May 18, 1862, the division was detached and used in forming the Sixth Corps, in which command (Third Brigade, Second Division) the regiment served until the end of the war. Although the regiment participated in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac in 1862 and 1863, its losses were comparatively small until 1864, when it encountered some hard fighting and severe losses.
The Forty-ninth started on
Grant's Virginia campaign, May 4, 1864, with 384 men, losing at the
Wilderness, 29 killed, 54 wounded, and 6 missing, and at
Spotsylvania, 24 killed, 89 wounded, and 18 missing. Among the killed in these battles were ten officers.
At
Spotsylvania the regiment behaved with especial gallantry, its percentage of loss in that battle being a remarkable one.
Its term of service expired September 17, 1864, while fighting in the Shenandoah Valley, and the remnant of the regiment went home.
The reenlisted men and recruits with unexpired terms were left in the field and formed into a battalion of four companies which served through the war. At
Cedar Creek this battalion sustained a loss of 8 killed and 30 wounded. The Forty-ninth suffered a severe and unusual loss in the number of its field officers killed in action.
Colonel Bidwell, who had been brevetted General, was killed at
Cedar Creek;
Major Ellis was mortally wounded at
Spotsylvania (shot with a ramrod);
Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson was killed at
Fort Stevens, while in command; and
Colonel Holt fell in the final and victorious assault at the fall of
Petersburg.
