4th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves

United States Regiments & Batteries > Pennsylvania > 4th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves

33rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry

The 4th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves lost 2 officers and 76 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 1 officer and 60 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. The regiment is honored by a monument at Antietam.

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.

1861
June-July Organized at Easton under the command of Colonel Robert G. March, Lieutenant Colonel John F. Gaul and Major Robert McClure.

Organization of the Regiment
  • Company A – “The Able Guards” – Philadelphia County – Captain John Schoenewald
  • Company B – “The Quaker City Guards” – Philadelphia County – Captain Robert M. McClure
  • Company C – “The Montgomery Rifles” – Montgomery County – Captain Isaiah W. Kimble
  • Company D – “The Dickson Guards” – Philadelphia County – Captain Nathan J. Taylor
  • Company E – “The Williamsport Legion” – Lycoming County – Captain Francis H. Burger
  • Company F – “The National Guards of Monroe” – Monroe County – Captain George B. Keller
  • Company G – “The Harmer Guards” – Philadelphia County – Captain Thomas F.B. Tapper
  • Company H – “The Susquehanna Union Volunteers” – Susquehanna County – Captain Elisha B. Gates
  • Company I – “The Reed Guards” – Philadelphia County – Captain Henry Einwechter
  • Company K – “The Enton Guards” –  Chester County – Captain William Babe
July 16 Ordered to Harrisburg and encamped at Camp Curtin.
July 21 Moved by train to Baltimore , camping on Carrol Hill and then at Stewart’s mansion on Baltimore street.
August 31 Moved to Washington, D.C., then to the Pennsylvania Resevres Division camp at Tennallytown, Md. Attached to 2nd Brigade, McCall’s Pennsylvania Reserves Division, Army of the Potomac. The regiment was reported by General McCall as rostering 847 men and was “variously armed, the flank companies have rifles; company K, has the Harper’s Ferry musket; the other companies the old, altered flint-lock musket.”
October 1 Colonel March resigned due to gastric rheumatic fever. He would later serve as a captain of emergency troops during the Gettysburg Campaign and would be wounded at Wrightville.
October 4 Lieutenant Colonel Albert Magilton of the 2nd Pennsylvania Reserves was promoted to colonel of the 4th.
October 10 At Camp Pierpont, near Langley, Va.
December 6 Expedition to Grinnell’s Farm
1862
February 15 Lieutenant Colonel John Gaul was discharged by special order of the War Department.
March Attached to 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac
March 10-15 Advance on Manassas, Va.
April 9-19 McDowell’s advance on Falmouth, Va. Attached to 2nd Brigade, McCall’s Division, Dept. of the Rappahannock
April-June Duty at Fredericksburg
May 12 Major Robert McClure was discharged by special order of the War Department.
June Attached to 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac
June 1 Major Richard H. Woolworth of the 3rd Pennsylvania Reserves was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the 4th, and Adjutant John Nyce was promoted to major.
June 9-11

Peninsula Campaign

Moved to White House, Virginia.
June 25-July 1

Seven days before Richmond

The regiment lost 200 men.
June 26

Battle of Mechanicsville (Bever Dam Creek)

The regiment was in reserve and not actively engaged, although it was under fire.
June 27

Battle of Gaines’ Mill

The regiment was in reserve until 3 p.m., when it was order into the fighting. It “supported Duryea’s Zouaves, and after driving the enemy from the woods the regiment moved up to support Colonel Sickel, whose regiment was engaged in a terrific contest. Before the Fourth could come up, the Third had repulsed the enemy, and Colonel Magilton was ordered to the extreme left. Soon after going into action there, his regiment was overwhelmed, driven back, and becoming detached, was forced to cross the Chickahominy to Smith’s division to escape being captured.”
June 30

Battle of Charles City Cross Roads (Glendale)

The regiment supported Randall’s Battey against a determined attack by an Alabama brigade. General McCall said “It was here, however, my fortune to witness between those of my men who stood their ground, and rebels who advanced, one of the fiercest bayonet fights that perhaps ever occurred on this continent. Bayonets were crossed and locked in the struggle; bayonet wounds were freely given and received. I saw skulls crushed by the heavy blow of the butt of the musket, and, in short, the desperate thrusts and parries of a life and death encounter, proving indeed that Greek had met Greek, when the Alabama boys fell upon the sons of Pennsylvania.”

The attack was thrown back after brutal hand to hand fighting. Colonel Magilton was wounded and Lieutenant Colonel Woolworth was wounded and captured. Isaac Springer of Company K captured the flag of the 8th Alabama Infantry, incorrectly identified in War Department records as the flag of the 11th Alabama. The flag was returned to Alabama in 1905 and is in the State Archives.

At the end of the day the army continued to retire to Malvern Hill.
July 1

Battle of Malvern Hill

The Reserves Division was in reserve and was not actively engaged.
July 17 Lieutenant Colonel Woolworth was paroled.
July-August At Harrison’s Landing
August 16-26 Movement to Join Pope. Attached to 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 3rd Corps, Army of Virginia
August 28

Battle of Gainesville
August 29

Battle of Groveton (Brawner’s Farm)
August 30

Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas)

The regiment was posted near the center of the line. Overwhelmed by superior numbers, the Union line as forced back. The 4th Reserves lost one man killed and 11 wounded.
September 6-24

Maryland Campaign

Attached to 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 1st Corps, Army of the Potomac
September 14

Battle of South Mountain

The regiment fought at Turner’s Gap. Colonel Albert L. Magilton commanded the brigade at South Mountain and Antietam as senior colonel while Major John Nyce commanded of the regiment. The 4th Reserves fought its way from the valley to the summit of the mountain, dislodging the enemy from behind trees and rocks, losing 5 men and 22 wounded.
September 16-17
Battle of Antietam
From the monument to the 4th Reserves at Antietam:

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
September 18 Duty in Maryland
October 30-November 19 Movement to Falmouth, Va.
November 29 Major Nyce was promoted to colonel of the 174th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment
December 12-15

Battle of Fredericksburg

The regiment took part in Meade’s attack three miles downstream the town which broke the Confederate line. Unfortunately there was no support, and the Reserves Division was forced to withdraw. Two men were killed, thirty-four were wounded and four missing. Lieutenant Colonel Woolworth was wounded in the left groin.
December 22 Colonel Magilton resigned and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Woolworth of the Third Pennsylvania Reserves was transferred to the 4th Reserves and promoted to colonel.
1863
January 20-24
“Mud March”
February 6 Ordered to Washington, D.C. and duty there and in the District of Alexandria to rest and recruit attached to 2nd Brigade, Pennsylvania Reserves Division, 22nd Corps, Dept. of Washington
March 1 Captain Thomas Tapper of Company G was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
March 27 Captain Enos L. Christman of Company K was promoted to major.
April 26 Major Enos Christman resigned.
July 21 Captain Frederick Conrad of Company B was promoted to major.
1864
January 6 The 3rd and 4th Reserves Regiments were moved by rail on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to Martinsburg, West Virginia and attached to the Dept. of West Virginia. Colonel Woolworth of the Fourth was in overall command, while the Third was commanded by Major William Briner and the Fourth by Lieutenant Colonel T. F. B. Tapper.
January 27-February 7 Operations in Hampshire and Hardy counties pursuing Confederates who had 80 wagons of a wagon train and a large number of civilian cattle. The pursuit for six days in the rugged mountain country with few rations and poor weather was unsuccessful.
March 1 Lieutenant Colonel Woolworth was promoted to colonel.
March 27 Duty near Kearneysville
April 22 Moved to Parkersburg, then by steamboat on the Ohio River to the Kanawha River and up the Kanawha Valley. Attached to 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Dept. of West Virginia.
May 2-19

Crook’s Expedition to Virginia & Tennessee Railroad.
May 9

Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain

Crook’s army successfully attacked well entrenched Confederates under General Jenkins entrenched behind a river.

Colonel Woolworth was mortally wounded by a shell, his third wound. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Tapper took command of the regiment.
May 10

New River Bridge

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Tapper was commissioned colonel but not mustered.
May 10-19 Expedition to Meadow Bluff
May 12-13 Near Newport
June 4 Left front for Philadelphia. The regiment marched from Millville to Meadow Bluff, and then across the Great Sewell Mountain to Great Fails and down the Kanawha Valley to Camp Piatt. There they took the steamer Jonas Powell to Pittsburg, then moved by rail to Philadelphia.
June 8 Veterans and Recruits formed a battalion of five companies under the overall command of Captain Abel T. Sweet of Company H. The battalion was transferred to the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.
June 17 The 4th Regiment Pennsylvania Reserves mustered out in Philadelphia under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Tapper and Major Frederick Conrad.