The Union Army

Civil War History

In the spring of 1864, after Union and Confederate armies had wintered on separate sides of Virginia's Rapidan River, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered a massive move south. His army of 115,000 began crossing the Rapidan, forcing General Robert E. Lee to move his 64,000 troops against the Federals heading through the Wilderness toward Richmond. Grant's forward troops included the hard-fighting 1st Michigan Infantry, who made the first contact with Rebel forces in the Battle of the Wilderness.

The 1st Michigan Engages and Attacks at Dawn

Shortly after 5 a.m. on May 5, the 1st Michigan commander Lieutenant Colonel William A. Throop spotted a large force of Confederate cavalry and infantry nearing his position on the Orange-Fredericksburg Turnpike. Throop sent for reinforcements as Rebel skirmishers boldly moved forward to the edge of the woods. As the 18th Massachusetts and 20th Maine regiments arrived, Throop urged his troops into attack, advancing with their colors a quarter mile across an open field under fire. Despite heavy losses in fierce hand-to-hand combat with bayonets and rifle butts, the 1st Michigan drove the Rebels into the woods.
For the next eight days, the 1st Michigan saw continuous fighting as Grant's army relentlessly pushed south at great cost in casualties. In two determined charges at Allsop's Farm on May 8, the 1st Michigan's ranks were decimated. Lucius R. Mills of Company H seized the fallen colors of another regiment and carried them in the fray to the top of the hill, despite a severe wound.
Although their three-year enlistment was due to end just one month later, the men of the 1st Michigan fought unswervingly throughout the bloody campaign. Throop wrote, "I might mention many instances of individual gallantry, but where all have done so nobly it is almost impossible to particularize."

Among the Union's first volunteers was the 1st Michigan Infantry Regiment organized by Colonel Orlando B. Willcox as a 90-day regiment. Women from the state of Michigan presented the regiment with its silken colors in Detroit on May 13,1861. The regiment won its first glory by leading the Union advance into Alexandria, Virginia, and capturing a troop of 100 Confederate cavalrymen. The regiment saw its first hard fighting at Bull Run on July 21,1861, gallantly charging a key Confederate battery four times. Mustered out in August and reorganized as a three-year regiment in September under Colonel John C. Robinson, they fought in the Peninsular Campaign at Mechanicsville, Games' Mill and Malvern Hill. Colonel Horace Roberts succeeded the promoted Robinson as commander.

The 1st Michigan's Famous Charge at Second Bull Run

The 1st Michigan's most legendary chapter came at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862. Union General John Pope ordered General Fitz John Porter's corps to attack General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's right flank. Porter hesitated, saying that five Confederate batteries could fire on the assault. But Pope insisted, and officers of the 1st Michigan shook hands before the attack as though for the last time. Within minutes, half of the 1st Michigan was killed or wounded in a murderous cross-fire from Jackson's infantry and batteries. Only four of 20 officers returned unwounded from the futile charge which has been compared to the Charge of the Light Brigade for its "do or die" heroism. The mortally wounded Colonel Roberts' last words were, "I trust that Michigan will believe that I tried to do my duty."
Colonel Franklin W. Whittelsey succeeded Roberts, and the 1st Michigan saw more action at the major battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. After an exhausting march from Maryland in broiling heat, the 1st Michigan reached Gettysburg at 1:30 a.m. on July 2,1863 and helped repulse Confederate assaults the same day. New commander, Colonel Ira C. Abbott, was wounded and replaced in the field by Lieutenant Colonel William A. Throop, who would gallantly lead the regiment in their magnificent role in the Battle of the Wilderness. Later the 1st Michigan participated in the siege of Petersburg and the critical breakthrough at Five Forks.