55th Infantry Regiment
Officers Of "The Red-Legged Fifty-Fifth" New York At Fort Gaines, 1861

Back to 55th Regiment During the Civil War

Right royally did Washington welcome the Fifty-Fifth New York Infantry, surnamed "Garde de Lafayette" in memory of that distinguished Frenchman's services to our country in Revolutionary days, in September,1861. The "red-legged Fifth-fifth" was organized in New York City by Colonel Philip Regis de Trobriand (who ended the war as a brevet major-general of volunteers, a rank bestowed upon him for highly meritorious services during the Appomattox campaign) and left for Washington August 31st. The French uniforms attracted much attention and elicited frequent bursts of applause as the crowds on Pennsylvania Avenue realized once again how many citizens from different lands had rushed to the defense of their common country. The Fifty-fifth accompanied McClellan to the Peninsula, and took part in the desperate assault on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg, after which it was consolidated, in four companies, with the Thirty-eight New York December 21 1862. The regiment lost during service thirty enlisted men killed and mortally wounded, and twenty-nine enlisted men by disease. Its gallant colonel survived until July 15, 1897.

Taken from Photographic History of the Civil War Volume VIII Soldier Life - Secret Service, Francis Trevelyan Miller, editor-in-chief. New York: the Trow Press, 1911. Page 97.

Back to 55th Regiment During the Civil War