The Union Army

Civil War History

The opening day of battle at Gettysburg was at a crucial point and the troops of the 19th Indiana were defending a strategic position. On the morning of July 1,1863, the Hoosiers and other Federal troops had repulsed advance elements of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army, capturing hundreds of prisoners. In the mid-afternoon more of Lee's army joined the battle. Troops of the Federal Iron Brigade defending McPherson's Ridge — including the 19th Indiana — were struggling to stand firm under a withering fire from advancing Southern forces. One after another, the 19th Indiana's color-bearers had been shot down.
The regimental battle flag was more than just a place marker for the center of the line — it represented the regiment's strength and honor. Soldiers eagerly volunteered to keep it aloft, even though it automatically drew enemy fire and carrying it often meant death. In the bloody contest for McPherson's Ridge, after more than eight color-bearers were shot down, Sergeant Major Asa Blanchard volunteered to organize a makeshift color guard to keep the flag aloft.

At one point, after another color-bearer fell, Lieutenant Colonel William W. Dudley grabbed the fallen flag and was immediately shot down. Blanchard detailed two soldiers to carry Dudley to safety as the flag fell again. "It's down again, Colonel," Blanchard said to the departing officer. "Now it's my turn."
"From where I lay I clearly saw him raise the flag," Dudley later recalled. "While he was holding it the order came for the line to retire to the top of the hill behind us.... Here a determined stand was made.... [Sergeant Major Blanchard], having seen that capture was imminent, had torn the flag from the staff and wrapped it about his body...and while...encouraging the men to stand fast, he received a musket ball...causing his almost immediate death."
Although the Northern forces were driven back on the first day of Gettysburg, the battle ended in a Federal victory and proved to be the turning point of the Civil War. Among the soldiers and regiments who established "a glorious record of patriotism and devotion to duty" at Gettysburg were the 19th Indiana and Sergeant Major Asa Blanchard. Lieutenant Colonel Dudley remarked, "No braver man fell that day in all the Union lines."

The 19th Indiana Infantry was organized in Indianapolis and Muncie during the summer of 1861, and entered Federal service on July 29,1861. On August 5, the regiment was transferred to Washington, D.C., where it served in northern Virginia and in the Washington defenses. The regiment's baptism of fire came in September of 1861, in a bloody clash with Confederate cavalry at Lewinsville, Virginia. In the summer of 1862, the regiment was assigned to the 4th Brigade of the First Division in the Army of the Potomac. Eventually, the regiment, which was composed entirely of Midwestern troops, became known for its fighting ability and the black felt hats worn by the men.
On August 28,1862, the regiment endured a bitter two-hour fight at the Battle of Groveton during the Second Manassas Campaign — the Federal defeat that preceded General Robert E. Lee's 1862 attempt to invade the North. On September 14,1862, the 4th Brigade, to which the Hoosiers belonged, was engaged at the Battle of South Mountain in Maryland and so distinguished itself that it became known as the "Iron Brigade." Two days later, Lee's army was turned back at the Battle of Antietam, which proved to be the bloodiest single day of the Civil War. Despite severe casualties, the regiment stood its ground at Antietam, prompting General George B. McClellan to declare that "no better regiment" existed in the Army of the Potomac than the 19th Indiana.

After being rushed northward with the Army of the Potomac to counter Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in 1863, the 19th Indiana was among the first troops to do battle with Southern forces at Gettysburg. By then the Iron Brigade was famous. "We were among the first of the advance infantry columns commanded by General John F. Reynolds of the 1st Corps to engage the enemy upon the field northwest of the town of Gettysburg," recalled a veteran of the regiment.
Later in the day, the regiment's ranks were drastically thinned during the Iron Brigade's bloody defense of McPherson's Ridge. At Gettysburg, by some accounts, the Iron Brigade suffered the heaviest losses of any brigade in the Federal army during the war. Although eventually driven off McPherson's Ridge, the brigade — and the 19th Indiana — became famous for their valiant defense. The 19th Indiana recorded a casualty rate of 72 percent and the Iron Brigade never recovered from the bloodbath of July 1,1863.
After Gettysburg, the 19th Indiana participated in the Bristoe Campaign in October of 1863 and the Mine Run Campaign in November of that year. In General Ulysses S. Grant's drive toward Richmond in 1864, the regiment was engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The Hoosiers of the 19th fought at the Battle of the Wilderness, at Spotsylvania Court House and at Cold Harbor. With the Army of the Potomac, the regiment battled Lee's army in the Siege of Petersburg from June through mid-October of 1864. Depleted by casualties and expired enlistments, the 19th Indiana was consolidated with the 20th Indiana Infantry on October 18,1864. Within six months, Lee would surrender to Grant at Appomattox, establishing the Northern victory the 19th Indiana had fought so long to achieve.