Maryland Campaign

Battle of South Mountain

From the marker on South Mountain:

The fighting began around 9:00 a.m. just south of this site. Around noon a Confederate battery opened fire on the regiment, which was supporting Cook’s Massachusetts Battery. The 17th held its position for several hours. At 4:00 p.m. the command ws given for an assault along the entire Union line. The Confederates came out of the woods to meet the charge at a fence line in the middle of the field, then moved back to the stone walls along the crest of the hill. The 17th advanced and captured the stone walls. Of the 500 men of the “Stonewall Regiment” engaged in battle here, 27 were killed and 114 wounded, many mortally.

The Regiment was afterwards known as the “Stonewall Regiment” for its actions. Colonel Withington was breveted brigadier general for “conspicuous gallantry.”

Battle of Antietam

From the War Department marker for Christ’s Brigade along Rodman Avenue at Antietam:

On the morning of the 17th Christ’s Brigade was in reserve on the eastern slope of the ridge on the left bank of the Antietam, nearly opposite the Burnside Bridge.

About 2 P.M., after Sturgis’ Division had carried the bridge, the Brigade crossed and, following the stream and road to Sharpsburg, filed to the right where the course of the former diverged to the east and formed line on the narrow plateau at the foot of the bluff southeast of this point. After the formation of the Corps line, the Brigade advanced, under a heavy fire from Cemetery Hill and the high ground west of the road, to within a few yards of this point where it was checked. After a short delay the 79th New York advanced as skirmishers and compelled the Confederate Artillery to retire. The Brigade was about to move forward, when the attack of A.P. Hill on the left of the Corps obliged it to fall back to the Antietam, where it remained until the evening of the 18th, when it was relieved by Morell’s Division of the Fifth Corps.

Battle of Fredericksburg

Siege of Vicksburg

Siege of Jackson

Action at Blue Springs

Knoxville Campaign

Action at Campbell’s Station

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Smith and Private Joseph Brandle were awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroism in the fight. Private Brandle was one of three color bearers killed or wounded, having his eye shot out. Lieutenant Colonel Smith, “Gallantly seized the colors and rallied the regiment after three color bearers had been shot and the regiment, having become demoralized, was in imminent danger of capture.” Smith then led a charge, still carrying the colors, that routed the attacking Confederates.

Siege of Knoxville

Fort Saunders

Repulse of Longstreet’s assault

Campaign from the Rapidan to the James River

Battle of the Wilderness

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

From the monument on the Spotsylvania battlefield:

At 2 p.m., May 12th, two Ninth Corps brigades were ordered to attack the Confederate works one-quarter mile southeast of this spot. The 17th Michigan was on the extreme left of the Federal line. As the regiment approached its objective, Brig. Gen. James Lane’s North Carolina Brigade emerged from the thick woods and struck it on the left flank. In the bloody hand-to-hand fighting that followed, the 17th Michigan lost its national  colors and 189 of the 225 men it carried into battle. Three soldiers* later received the Medal of Honor for their brave but unsuccessful efforts to save the colors.

* The 3 soldiers that received the Medal of Honor at Spotsylvania were Private Frederick Alber of Company A, Sergeant Daniel McFall of Company E, and Sergeant Charles A. Thompson of Company D.

Assault on the Salient

North Anna River

Ox Ford

Totopotomoy

Battle of Cold Harbor

Bethesda Church

First Assault on Petersburg

Siege of Petersburg begins

Mine Explosion, Petersburg

Six Mile House, Weldon Railroad

Poplar Springs Church

Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher’s Run

Fort Stedman, Petersburg

Appomattox Campaign

Fall of Petersburg

Occupation of Petersburg