48th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment

48th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment raised in Pennsylvania for service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Organized amid recruitment drives in 1861, the regiment served in multiple theaters, participating in major campaigns and enduring significant casualties. Its officers and enlisted men came from counties across Pennsylvania and joined contemporaries from New York, New Jersey, and Ohio in Federal formations.

Formation and Organization

The regiment was organized at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and mustered into Federal service in late 1861 during a period of mobilization that included units such as the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 69th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserves, 10th Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment, and other volunteer regiments. Recruitment drew volunteers from counties including Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Berks County, Pennsylvania, Chester County, Pennsylvania, York County, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, connecting the regiment to civic institutions like the Franklin Institute (Philadelphia), local Mechanics' Institutes, and municipal leaders. Officers commissioned from state militias and organizations such as the Pennsylvania Militia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's adjutant general's office oversaw company musters, rolls, and equipment procurement amid coordination with War Department agents and quartermaster depots.

Service and Campaigns

After mustering, the regiment was assigned to operations in the Eastern Theater and later served in campaigns that placed it alongside corps and divisions associated with commanders like George B. McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, Joseph Hooker, and Ulysses S. Grant. The 48th participated in movements that linked it to major campaigns such as the Peninsula Campaign, the Maryland Campaign, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Chancellorsville Campaign, the Gettysburg Campaign, and later operations around Richmond, Virginia and across the Appomattox Campaign. During the Overland Campaign the regiment served in offensives coordinated with units engaged at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor, and later in the sieges and maneuvers that brought Federal forces to Petersburg, Virginia and ultimately to the surrender at Appomattox Court House. The regiment’s service connected it functionally and operationally with corps-level organizations including elements of the Army of the Potomac, the Army of the James, and cooperating formations such as the XIX Corps and VI Corps during various phases of the war.

Engagements and Casualties

The 48th Pennsylvania saw action in numerous engagements where it was engaged against Confederate formations under commanders such as Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, and A. P. Hill. At battles like Second Battle of Bull Run, elements of the regiment encountered Confederate brigades that included veterans from the Army of Northern Virginia, while at Antietam and Fredericksburg it faced massed infantry and artillery deployments comparable to those arrayed by divisions under Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose Powell Hill. The regiment sustained casualties from small arms fire, artillery, disease, and prisoner exchanges; losses included killed, wounded, missing, and those who succumbed to illnesses common in Civil War camps such as dysentery and typhoid fever. Muster rolls and casualty lists tied names of the fallen and disabled to counties and towns like Reading, Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the regiment's casualty figures contributed to broader statistical assessments of Union losses compiled by staff officers in the Adjutant General's Office (U.S. Army).

Commanders and Notable Officers

Command leadership included field-grade officers who had prior experience in militia units or who rose from the ranks. Commanders and notable officers served alongside prominent generals and staff officers such as George G. Meade, Henry W. Slocum, Daniel Sickles, and Winfield Scott Hancock during divisional and corps-level operations. Company officers and non-commissioned officers often had ties to local institutions including Franklin & Marshall College, University of Pennsylvania, and commercial organizations like the Pennsylvania Railroad. Several officers were recognized for leadership in combat and for acts of conspicuous service; a number of veterans later participated in postwar organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic and in civic affairs in municipalities across Pennsylvania.

Uniforms, Equipment, and Regimental Identity

The regiment wore standard Union infantry uniforms produced by contractors supplying Federal quartermaster depots, including dark blue frock coats, sack coats, sky-blue trousers, and forage caps similar to patterns issued throughout the Army of the Potomac and other Union armies. Equipment comprised Springfield Model 1861 rifled muskets or comparable arms procured through the United States Armory and Arsenal System, edged weapons such as bayonets, cartridge boxes, haversacks, and knapsacks detailed in quartermaster requisitions. Regimental colors and flags—often presented by civic committees or veterans' groups—bore inscriptions and battle honors that linked the unit to participation in battles like Antietam, Gettysburg, and Petersburg, and were later deposited in municipal halls, county courthouses, or veteran memorials in places such as Philadelphia City Hall and local veterans' memorials.

Category:Units and formations of the Union Army from Pennsylvania