74th Infantry Regiment
Illustration For "The Volunteer"

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The men of the 74th New York Infantry, as they drill in their camp of 1861, exemplify the martial splendor of Cutler's peom; nor was its hero animated by a more unflinching resolve than they. The regiment's record tells the story. It was organized in New York and till August 20th was stationed at Camp Scott, on Staten Island, as the fifth in Sickles' "Excelsior Brigade." Barely a month after Bull Run, the first overwhelming Federal defeat, this regiment was on its way to Washington. The fall of the year, as the picture shows, was spent in the constant marching and drilling by which McClellan forged that fighting instrument known to fame as the Army of the Potomac. The volunteers were indeed where bugles called and rifles gleamed, but they were impatient for service on the "great hot plain" to hear the "dissonant cries of triumph and dismay." Marching about under the leafless trees over ground frequently covered with snow did not satisfy their notions of the glory of military service. The next year brought to both officers and men the long-wished-for opportunity. In April, 1862, they floated down the Potomac to take part in McClellan's Peninsula campaign. At the battle of Williamsburg, May 5th, the regiment performed distinguished service, fighting behind an abatis of felled timber and holding a position against the main force of the Confederate army. Of 36 of its number the regiment might report, "And with the dead he lay," and the total loss mounted to 143. Through the rest of the campaign, at Fair Oaks and during the Seven Days' Battles, it was in the hard fighting. At Chancellorsville it served under General Berry, who was killed on May 3, 1863. At Gettysburg it appeared with ranks thinned by two years of continuous service, yet sustained a loss of eighty nine.

Taken from Photographic History of the Civil War Volume IX Poetry and Eloquence, Francis Trevelyan Miller, editor-in-chief. New York: the Trow Press, 1911. Page 79.

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