The 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was a Union Army regiment in the American Civil War. It served in both the Eastern and Western Theaters, most notably at the 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain and during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign. During the war, the regiment lost 17% of its strength through combat losses and disease.
History
Organization and early movements
The regiment was recruited in Allegheny, Berks, Dauphin, Luzerne, Mifflin, Northampton, Northumberland, and Potter counties, and mustered into service on September 4, 1861, under the command of Colonel Joseph F. Knipe. At Camp Curtin, in Harrisburg, they were formally accepted into the service of the United States and received their uniforms and equipment. Additionally, they were presented with their regimental colors by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin.
From late September 1861 through February 1862, the 46th was stationed on the upper Potomac River in Maryland, performing guard and outpost duty in Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams' division, assigned to Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks' corps. During this time, on September 22, Maj. Arnold Lewis was shot and killed by Pvt. John Lanahan of Company I while trying to enforce discipline, for which he was sentenced by military court to be executed. He was hanged on December 23 of that year, in front of his gathered brigade.
By March 1862, the regiment had crossed the Potomac and reached Winchester, Virginia, beginning their part in what was to become the Valley Campaign. After a brief foray to Manassas, they were ordered back to Winchester and subsequently started a long march up the Shenandoah Valley, reaching as far south as Harrisonburg. From there they began a retrograde movement in which they fell back to the vicinity of Strasburg. On May 24 they again arrived at Winchester after a desperate march to reach the town before General Stonewall Jackson's troops. The next day they fought the First Battle of Winchester, in which, heavily outnumbered, General Banks' troops were forced to frantically retreat thirty-five miles to Williamsport, Maryland, on the north bank of the Potomac.
Battle of Cedar Mountain
In early August, Banks' corps, now part of Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia, was stationed at Culpeper, Virginia. With reports of Jackson's Confederate troops marching in their direction, the 46th and the rest of their brigade under Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford were ordered to attack them near a promontory named Cedar Mountain. Advancing across a wheat field, Crawford's brigade smashed into the left of Jackson's line and collapsed elements of two brigades there, including the vaunted Stonewall Brigade. During the confusion of battle, the 46th split in two directions, with the right half engaging the right flank of the Stonewall Brigade, and the left half tangling with the left end of Brig. Gen. Richard B. Garnett's brigade. The fighting here was close and savage, including hand-to-hand combat. However, with no Union reinforcements immediately sent to sustain this breakthrough, and with pressure from additional Rebel troops sent to shore up and rally this end of the line, Crawford's men were soon outflanked and forced to retreat back across the wheat field.
The Battle of Cedar Mountain devastated the ranks of the 46th. Out of a total of 504 engaged, the regiment lost 31 killed, 102 wounded, and 111 taken prisoner or missing, a casualty rate of 48%. Due to these losses, the regiment was not actively engaged in the Second Battle of Bull Run at the end of August. However, at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, in spite of still having a fraction of their former number, they nevertheless saw action and lost an additional six killed and three wounded.
After Antietam, the regiment occupied Maryland Heights opposite Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where they were placed on picket duty, lasting through the middle of December, when they marched to Fairfax, Virginia, and remained there until mid-January 1863.
1863
Subsequent to having taken part in Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's Mud March January 20–24, 1863, the 46th went into winter camp at Stafford Courthhouse, Virginia and remained there into late April. That spring, Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker reorganized the Army of the Potomac, of which he was now in command. One of Hooker's initiatives included assigning each army corps a particular badge symbol, color-coded to indicate the division to which the wearer of the badge belonged. Hence, the men of the 46th now wore a red star, indicative of their assignment to the First Division of the XII Corps.