Federal Regiment

125th Pennsylvania Infantry

Mustered in on 8/16/1862
Disbanded/Mustered out: Harrisburg, PA 5/18/1863

Commanding Officer on the Antietam Campaign:
Col. Jacob Higgins

This Regiment's Chain of Command:
  Army - Army of the Potomac
  Corps - Twelfth Army Corps
  Division - 1st Division, 12th Corps
  Brigade - 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 12th Corps

Unit history

A 9-month Regiment formed of Companies recruited in Blair and Huntingdon counties.

On the Antietam Campaign

Antietam was their first combat engagement, the Regiment having been in service just over a month by that time. They were in the lead of Mansfields 12th Corps attack across the Cornfield, reaching into the West Woods at the Dunkard Church before being driven back with high casualties. Lt Theodore Flood of Company C later recalled:

"... and then marched to South Mountain , reaching there on Sunday evening, just as the battle of South Mountain was finished."
"... we marched to the battlefield of Antietam, where we went into that awful conflict early on the morning of Wednesday, the seventeenth day of September. While waiting in line of battle for orders to advance and fire, Adjutant Johnston, of our regiment, was mortally wounded and died in a few hours. The battle was on in full force. Confederate pickets were shooting down our officers, shells were flying over our heads, horses and men lay dead on the field. We were ordered forward in line of battle, and Captain Wallace stepped out in front of the company, waving his sword, and called out, 'Boys, remember our battle-cry, In God We Trust.' This was taken up as a battle-cry by adjoining companies along the line, until we reached the edge of a woods, where we were halted and ordered to fire. The enemy met us with a heavy charge. We could see them coming in line of battle as we loaded and fired. General Mansfield fell mortally wounded just in the right front of our regiment while reconnoitering . The blood from his wound reddened his long white beard. As we stood firing into the ranks of the enemy the second man to me, George A. Simpson, while bravely holding the flag aloft, was hit with a bullet from a Confederate gun, which pierced his brain, and he fell dead. A second man picked up the flag, and he was shot down. A third, and he fell; the fourth took it up, and he was shot and fell. Then Sergeant W.W. Greenland picked up tile flag, stained with the blood of Simpson, and Captain Wallace, taking it in charge, carried it across the field to the rear of the nearest battery, and there he, aided by Captains Bell and McKeage and Lieutenant Thomas McCamant, rallied about two hundred of the regiment, who remained in support, while our batteries operated with deadly execution upon the enemy, during the rest of tile conflict. The conflict was raging all along the line of tile army; the Confederates were pressing us hard; our line was broken, and a new line of battle was formed in the rear. Two hundred and twenty-nine men of our regiment were killed and wounded in about twenty minutes; of these 84 were slightly wounded, but not disabled, and therefore were not reported. It was a dreadful struggle and we were thrust into the very furnace of battle."
(from Wallace)

Statistics

Initial Strength: not known; Killed in Action (KIA): 29; Wounded (WIA): 117; Missing in Action (MIA): 4;

Maps Showing this Unit

Detail Map #2: Hood's Division Retakes Miller's Cornfield (7-8 am)
Detail Map #3: Mansfield's Twelfth Corps Attacks into Miller's Cornfield (7-9 am)
Detail Map #4: Greene's High-Water Mark in the West Woods (9am-noon)
Detail Map #5: Sedgwick is Flanked in the West Woods (9-10am)

Battlefield Tablets for this Unit

Tablet #120: Army of the Potomac - 17 Sep, 5 AM to 17 Sep, 12 PM
Tablet #27: Twelfth Army Corps - 17 Sep, 6 AM to 17 Sep, 12 PM
Tablet #28: Williams' Division, Twelfth Army Corps - 17 Sep, 6 AM to 17 Sep, 5 PM
Tablet #29: Crawford's Brigade, Williams' Division - 17 Sep, 9 AM to 17 Sep, 5 PM

After the Antietam Campaign

They marched to Fredericksburg (Va) in December 1862, and were on Burnside's "Mud March" of late January 1863, but were not in combat again until Chancellorsville in May. The Regiment was mustered out following that battle, at the end of its term of service.

More on the Web

See a Virtual Cemetery for the Regiment from Donald Coho on Findagrave. It gathers nearly 900 memorials for men of the 125th.

References & Notes

Source: Wallace, William W., ed., History of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1906, excerpted online in the history of the Huntingdon (Pa) Presbyterian Church; and
Bates, Samuel P., History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: 1868-1871, extracted online at Pennsylvania in the Civil War.

We have 174 individuals in the AotW database who were on the Maryland Campaign with this unit:

Co.	Rank	Name	Casualty?
A	Pvt	Coy, John	WIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Crissman, Austin	MWIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Crocker, Henry H.	WIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Dunmire, George Benson
A	Corp	Edwards, Amon G.	MWIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Funk, George	MIA (n) 09/17
A	Pvt	Henchey, Samuel A.	Died (d) 10/20
A	Pvt	Huff, Charles	WIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Hunter, James	KIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Isenberg, John W.	WIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Kinsel, Erastus	MWIA 09/17
A	Lt	Martin, Wilbur Fiske	WIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Shaw, Daniel	MWIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Vaughn, George	WIA 09/17
A	Corp	Warner, Andrew	KIA 09/17
A	Pvt	Wolf, Theawalt	MWIA 09/17
A	Corp	Woomer, Andrew	KIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Donnelly, David R.	WIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Ewing, Levi M.	MWIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Feats, John A.	MWIA 09/17
B	Corp	Geiser, James	WIA 09/17
B	Lt	Higgins, Joseph R.
B	Pvt	McGonegal, George W.	WIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Mock, John E.	WIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Powell, Milton P.	WIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Sims, Andrew J.	WIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Teats, John A.	MWIA 09/17
B	Pvt	Wolfkill, Benjamin F.	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Brenneman, Michael B.	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Decker, Nicholas	MWIA 09/17
C	Sgt	Flood, Theodore Lore
C	Sgt	Greenland, Walter Wright
C	Pvt	Hawn, Henry	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Hoffman, Uriah D.	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	McCoy, John S.	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	McFerran, Alfred	WIA 09/17
C	Lt	McPherran, William F.
C	Pvt	Reed, Charles H.	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Robb, J. Easton	WIA 09/17
C	Sgt	Simpson, George Armstrong	KIA 09/17
C	Sgt	Simpson, James Randolph	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Sprankle, George	WIA 09/17
C	Capt	Wallace, William W.
C	Corp	Williams, Benjamin F.	MWIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Zeek, Elias A.	WIA 09/17
C	Pvt	Zentmyer, Miles
D	Pvt	Aiken, Stephen	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Blake, Wilbur E.	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Bowen, Francis	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Brown, John A.	KIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Burley, Emanuel	KIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Burley, Levi	WIA 09/17
D	Corp	Burley, William	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Davis, John E.	KIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Haney, Sr., Patrick	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Hoar, William S.	WIA 09/17
D	Capt	Hostetter, Christian R.	WIA 09/17
D	Corp	Kelly, John A.	MWIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Kerr, James G.	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Laub, William Asbury Barber
D	Pvt	Markley, Isaac	KIA 09/17
D	Lt	Marshall, Alexander W.	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	McLaughlin, Joseph S.	KIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Robertson, Joseph	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Rollins, John	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Rose, John	MWIA 09/17
D	Sgt	Russ, Edward L.	WIA 09/17
D	Lt	Treese, Peter S.	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Walton, John	WIA 09/17
D	Pvt	Williamson, S. H.	WIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Baker, Franklin S.	KIA 09/17
E	Corp	Beers, George S.
E	Pvt	Benton, Jesse L.	WIA 00/00
E	Pvt	Benton, John	WIA 09/17
E	Sgt	Bryan, John
E	Pvt	Burge, Adam	MWIA 09/17
E	Lt	Cain, John G.
E	Pvt	Dunlap, John	WIA 09/17
E	Corp	Gardner, James
E	Pvt	Harklerode, David	WIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Hoopengarner, George	AWOL 09/16
E	Pvt	Lambright, Jonathan	WIA 09/17
E	Pvt	Lier, John	KIA 09/17
E	Pvt	McGinnes, William	WIA 09/17
E	Sgt	Robertson, John H.
E	Corp	Stroup, Peter	WIA 09/17
E	Corp	Stroup, Samuel	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Bryan, Charles	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Bryant, James	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Cozzens, Robert
F	Pvt	Cunningham, Benjamin	KIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Friedley, William
F	Pvt	McCracken, Joseph	KIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Shearer, Calvin B.
F	Pvt	Shorthill, David H.	WIA 09/17
F	Capt	Simpson, William H.	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Strickler, William R.	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Switzer, Elias H.	WIA 09/17
F	Lt	Wagoner, William C.	WIA 09/17
F	Pvt	Walker, William C.	KIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Beamer, Albert	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Bean, John P.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Charles, Thomas	WIA 09/17
G	Corp	Christian, John G.	WIA 09/17
G	Corp	Gibboney, James H.	KIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Holler, James M.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Johnson, Day	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Johnson, James I.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Long, James	MWIA 09/17
G	Sgt	McCahan, David	WIA 09/17
G	Lt	McCamant, Thomas
G	Capt	McKeage, John
G	Pvt	Price, Joesph C.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Prounkard, J. E.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Reed, Joseph H.	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Riddle, James D.	MWIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Robison, Albert
G	Pvt	Sanders, John	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Sharar, H. Bascom	WIA 09/17
G	Pvt	Williams, Reese
H	Pvt	Boblits, Eugene Jacob	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Brindle, Cyrus	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Burkholder, George	WIA 09/17
H	Corp	Carton, Peter	MWIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Crouse, Valentine	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Decker, John W.	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Decker, Levi	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Dierfield, James H.	KIA 09/17
H	Capt	Gregg, Henry H.
H	Pvt	Hess, Samuel	KIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Hoover, Joseph W.	KIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Keefer, John	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Logan, Henry C.
H	Sgt	Lytle, John W.	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	McCarthy, John S.	KIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Morrison, John B.	WIA 09/17
H	Pvt	O'Donnell, Michael	KIA 09/17
H	Pvt	Snyder, James G.	WIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Baker, F. Alfred	WIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Clark, Thomas H.	KIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Corbin, William W.	KIA 09/17
I	Corp	Foster, Isaiah
I	Pvt	Guardlock, Conrad	WIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Hall, Albert	WIA 09/17
I	Sgt	Hall, Thomas L.	WIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Harken, Samuel B.	MWIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Hays, William M.	MWIA 09/17
I	Pvt	Householder, G. W.	MWIA 09/17
I	Sgt	McAllister, Alfred	MWIA 09/17
I	Lt	Thomas, George	WIA 09/17
I	Corp	Wirt, Edward H.	KIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Beal, John S.	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Beal, William	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Bendin, Simon	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Boartman, A. H.	MWIA 09/17
K	Sgt	Coho, John
K	Corp	Commerford, James	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Cratin, Joshua	KIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Dillon, Charles	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Huffler, Frederick	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Jones, George W.	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Kearney, Patrick F.	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	McCleary, Samuel	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	McDemitt, Louis C.	MWIA 09/17
K	Pvt	McDemitt, Michael A.	MWIA 09/17
K	Pvt	McGuire, Hiram	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Myers, William H.	MIA (r) 09/17
K	Pvt	Rhodes, Abraham	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Smith, Robert	WIA 09/17
K	Pvt	Ward, Frederick Calloway	MWIA 09/17
F&S	Sgt	Becker, Joseph M.
F&S	Col	Higgins, Jacob
F&S	Lt	Johnston, Robert M.	MWIA 09/17
F&S	LCol	Szink, Jacob	WIA 09/17

* If there's a symbol in the Details column ...

- We have a picture for this person
- We have details beyond name and rank
Click on their last name to see more