United States Regiments & Batteries > Pennsylvania > Infantry


The 149th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment lost 4 officers and 160 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded and 172 enlisted men to disease during the Civil War. It is honored by three monuments at Gettysburg.

1862
August Organized at Harrisburg under the command of Colonel Roy Stone.

Company A – Captain Alfred J. Sofield
Company B – Captain John Irvin
Company C – Captain John H. Bassler
Company D – Captain James Glenn
Company E – Captain Z.C. McCullough
Company F – Captain Edwin S. Osborne
Company G – Captain Thomas B. Bryden
Company H – Captain Charles B. Stratton
Company I – Captain Brice X. Blair
Company K – Captain John C. Johnson

September Ordered to Washington, D. C. and attached to Defenses of Washington, D.C.
1863
February Ordered to join 2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, 1st Army Corps, Army of the Potomac at Belle Plains, Va., and duty there
April 27-May 6

Chancellorsville Campaign

April 29-May 2 Operations about Pollock’s Mill Creek
May 2-5
Battle of Chancellorsville
June 11-July 24 Gettysburg Campaign
July 1-3
Battle of Gettysburg

In the first day’s fighting along Chambersburg Pike the regiment suffered heavily from Confederate artillery (one shot killing three men, cutting Captain Alfred Sofiel in half) until Lt. Col. Dwight sent the color party fifty yards north to draw fire away from the regiment. This worked, although when the Union line was forced to retreat the colors were not retrieved. This was spite of the heroic death of Color Sergeant Henry Brehm, who was shot down after he had fought off a party of attackers and was running to return the colors to the retreating regiment.

The regiment was commanded at Gettysburg by Lieutenant Colonel Walton Dwight until he was wounded on July 1. For some time all of the 149th’s officers on the field were killed and wounded.

Company D had been detached as Provost Guard for the division. It reached the field near the Schultz House where the Company D monument is now located and made a stand for twenty minutes to cover the retreating men. Its commander, Captain Glenn, assumed command of the 149th upon learning he was the regiment’s only unwounded officer.

From the main monument on Chambersburg Pike, on the northwest side of town:

July 1st. The Regiment held this position from 11:30 a.m. until the Corps retired, resisting several assaults of the enemy, making two successful charges to the R.R. Cut and changing front to rear under fire.

July 2nd. Moved to support of the left and remained on picket all night. In the morning of the 3rd moved to left center where its other monument stands.

Carried into action 450. Killed and mortally wounded 66. Wounded 159. Captured or missing in toal 336. Mustered in Aug. 30th, 1862. Mustered out June 24th 1865.

From a monument to Company D:

Erected and presented to the company by George W. Baldwin in memory of his brother Joseph H. Baldwin who was killed here July 1, 1863 and Alex. M. Stewart mortally wounded dying in Gettysburg July 6, 1863.

Co. D-149th Regiment Pa. Vols. held this ground for 20 minutes on the evening of July 1st 1863 against the right of Scales Brigade by order of Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday Commanding 1st Army Corps.

July 5-24 Pursuit of Lee
August At Bealeton Station
October 9-22

Bristoe Campaign

October 19 Haymarket
November 7-8 Advance to line of the Rappahannock
November 26-December 2

Mine Run Campaign

December Attached to 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 1st Army Corps

1864

February 6-7 Demonstration on the Rapidan
February Duty near Culpeper
March Attached to 3rd Brigade, 4th Division, 5th Army Corps
May 4-June 12

Rapidan (Overland) Campaign

May 5-7
Battle of the Wilderness
May 8 Laurel Hill
May 8-21
Spottsylvania Court House
May 12 Assault on the Salient
May 23-26
North Anna River
May 25 Jericho Ford
May 26-28 On line of the Pamunkey
May 28-31
Totopotomoy
June 1-12
Cold Harbor
June 1-3 Bethesda Church. Attached to 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Army Corps
June 16-18
First Assault on Petersburg
July 30
Mine Explosion, Petersburg (Reserve)
August 18-21 Weldon Railroad
September Attached to 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 5th Army Corps
September 29-October 2
Poplar Springs Church
October 27-28
Boydton Plank Road, Hatcher’s Run
December 7-12 Warren’s Raid on Weldon Railroad
1865
February 5-7
Dabney’s Mills, Hatcher’s Run
February 10 Ordered to Baltimore, Md. then to Draft Rendezvous, Elmira, N.Y., and duty there
June 24 Mustered out