1st Michigan Infantry (Part 1)

 

    On May 1^st in 1861, 798 men were mustered into Federal Service as the 1^st Michigan Infantry. In response to Lincoln calling for 75,000 men on April 16^th, Governor Austin Blair issued a proclamation calling for one regiment. Within no time, the call was answered by men, many of whom were enrolled in local militias. The first to answer the call were the men of the Detroit Light Guard. This prestigious company would form company A in the new regiment. The nine other companies are as follows: the "Jackson Grays" Co B; the "Coldwater Cadets" Co. C ; the "Manchester Union Guards" Co. D; the "Stuben Guard", the "Michigan Hussars", the "Burr Oak Guard", the "Ypsilanti Light Guard", the "Marshall Light Guard", and the "Hardee Cadets".  They arrived in Detroit and marched to Fort Wayne there. 

Fort Wayne in Detroit, MI

            The first was placed under the command of Colonel Orlando Bolivar Willcox. A native of Detroit, Orlando had graduated 8^th in the class of 1847 at the United States Military Academy at West Point. The class graduated 38, including among others Union Generals’ William Wallace Burns, John Gibbon, and Ambrose Burnside, as well as Confederate Generals’ A.P. Hill and Henry Heth. A career soldier, Willcox would serve in both the Mexican American War and the Third Seminole War. He resigned in 1857 and went on to practice law in Detroit. Before the regiment was even raised it had been decided that Willcox would be its Colonel.

General Orlando Bolivar Willcox

            On Monday, May 13^th, the regiment left for Washington, being sent off by crowds of ardent patriots. Private George Lockley of Co. B, later a Lt. Colonel, said that he and others “felt patriotic and ready to fight.” When they arrived on the 16^th, they were very much disappointed with Washington. They were unimpressed with the state of construction that the capital was in, as well as the people there, who seemed to be in a lackadaisical state, as “secesh predominates in this city.”

Lt. Colonel George Lockley

            The restless men would not have to wait too long, however. On May 24^th, at approximately 1 am, Union soldiers crossed the Long Bridge into Virginia. The 1^st Michigan was ordered to unite with the 1^st New York Zouaves and occupy Alexandria. Thus, the military careers for the men of Michigan had begun.

            On July 21^st, 1861, at the First Battle of Bull Run, aka First Manassas, the boys of the First were commanded by Major Alonzo F Bidwell. Colonel Willcox commanded the brigade in Colonel Samuel Heintzelman’s division. Fighting along side them were the boys of the 4^th Michigan Infantry. In the days fighting, the 1^st MI lost 1 officer KIA, 4 officers WIA, 5 officers MIA. Enlisted casualties were 5 KIA, 33 WIA, and 65 MIA.

After their three-month enlistments had expired, the men returned to Michigan where they were mustered out of service on August 7^th, 1861. Shortly thereafter, the regiment was reorganized with three-year enlistments. In September 1861 they left for Washington. They numbered 960. Commanding the 1^st MI was Colonel John C. Robinson, who had been commanding at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, until he was sent to Detroit as a recruiting officer in mid-1861. In September he was appointed Colonel of the three-year 1^st Michigan Infantry, which he had helped in recruitment after both the casualties of Bull Run and the disbanding of the three-month regiment. Robinson was promoted in April 1862

They arrived on the 21^st and were attached to Attached to 1^st Brigade, Hooker's Division, Army of the Potomac, and remained so until February of 1862. The 1^st MI was then assigned to 1^st Brigade, 2^nd Division, 3^rd Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, until March 1862. From June 1862 the 1^st was a part of the 1^st Brigade, 1^st Division, of the newly formed V Corps, Army of the Potomac, to March 1864. They were then assigned to the 3^rd Brigade, 1^st Division, V Corps until the wars end. The corps was created May 18^th, 1862, by combining Major General Fitz John Porter’s division from III Corps and the division of U.S. Regulars under the command of Major General George Sykes.

            On June 24^th, 1862, the 1^st reached White House Landing, the Army of the Potomac’s landing spot on the south side of the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, VA. Over the next week, the regiment would take part in what is known as the Seven Days Battles. From June 25^th to July 2^nd, the Seven Days Battles comprised of a series of battles around Richmond, culminating in the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1^st.

            The 1^st Michigan Infantry saw their first major action of 1862 at the Battle of Mechanicsville (Beaver Dam Creek) on June 26^th. Robert E. Lee was trying to turn the Union right flank, and so had ordered Jackson to slam into Union General Fitz John Porter who commanded V Corps. Porter’s men held the extreme right of the Union line, which comprised of five corps, four of whom were on the south side of the Chickahominy river. Porter’s V Corps were the only ones on the north side of the river. However, Jackson’s men were weary and weak after continuous marching and campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley. General A.P. Hill, who commanded a division under Lee, was ordered to wait for Jackson until entering a fight. However, after a few hours of impatiently waiting, Hill could no longer hold back and ordered an attack. Over the next several hours, piecemeal attacks by A.P. Hill and D.H. Hill got the Confederates nowhere. Jackson declined to choose to fight that day, which makes one wonder if that would have changed the outcome at all. 15,000 men attacked out of Lee’s 60,000-man attack plan. 1484 Confederate casualties were tallied that day. Under the cover of darkness, V Corps fell back to Gaines Mill. At the Battle of Mechanicsville, the 1^st Michigan suffered only one killed and four wounded.

            Over the next few days, Lee pushed the McClellan back up against the James River to Malvern Hill. In the following battle, the 1^st held gallantly against the attacks of General Huger’s division and Magruder’s command. Over the course of the Seven Days, the 1^st Michigan suffered one officer killed, five officers wounded, and one officer missing. The number of enlisted men killed was 32; 128 were wounded and 47 were reported as missing, totaling 214.

            Later, in August, three corps were attached to John Pope’s Army of Virginia. They were the III Corps, the V Corps, and the IX Corps. They were engaged in the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 30^th, the second day of the battle. As a result of the now infamous “Joint Order” they were not engaged sooner. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign, in which Lee was attempting to simultaneously march towards Washington DC as well as prevent Pope’s army from linking up with the AotP. Porter would lead a futile attack on Jackson’s line late on the afternoon of the 30^th. With 178 casualties from the time Porter attacked until the end of the battle approximately two hours later, the 1^st suffered more casualties than any of the other regiments from the AotP, including the deaths of seven officers, Colonel Horace Roberts among them. Major Ira Abbott was then promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and given command of the regiment. He would command until his wounding was severe enough to sideline him at the battle of Gettysburg.

Colonel Horace Roberts was killed at 2nd Bull Run

            The 1^st Michigan was at the battle of Antietam, though it was held along with the rest of the V Corps in reserve and did not see action there. They did however see some fighting while McClellan followed Lee on his way back south. The next main action that the 1^st Michigan participated in was the Battle of Fredericksburg. In General Joseph Hooker’s second major assault on Marye’s Heights, the 1^st charged the works in the first wave of General Griffin’s piecemeal attacks. Instead of sending them all at once, Griffin sent each of his brigades one after another. The 1^st Michigan suffered a total of 48 casualties, including Lt. Colonel Ira Abbott being wounded.

 

 

            This concludes part one of a hopefully two-part post covering the 1^st Michigan Infantry. Due to the weight of real-life, as well as the extensive research that inevitably comes with this type of project, I determined it would be better to release multiple parts over consecutive days, rather then to try to cover four years of action in one post.

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