PENNSYLVANIA 102ND INFANTRY FLAGS
The twelve companies forming the 102nd Infantry were raised primarily from the soldiers of the three-month 13th Infantry. All except Company H (Butler County) were from the Pittsburgh area. By the end of August 1861, the regiment had assembled in camp near Washington, where it remained throughout the winter of 1861-62. Colonel J. H. Puleston of the State Agency presented a Horstmann-made state color to the regiment on December 17.
Assigned to Darius Couch’s division of the Fourth Corps, Army of the Potomac, the 102nd moved with the Army to the Peninsula in late March 1862. After the Siege of Yorktown, the regiment first engaged the enemy at Williamsburg on May 5. The regiment next fought on the first day of the fighting at Fair Oaks (May 31). Of the fifty-nine casualties suffered that day, four were color-bearer. Sergeant George W. Workman, the initial bearer, was hit in the leg and went down. He refused to relinquish the banner to anyone except on of the guards. Corporal Joseph Hucks of Company M sought permission to raise the flag, but soon after this brave man seized the fallen color he was hit twice, in the groin and shoulder, and fell mortally wounded. Corporal Charles Donohue of company K then grabbed the flag and safely took it from the field as the regiment fell back under heavy enemy pressure. The
fourth bearer was Sergeant Edwin Anderson (Company B), who bore the “regimental flag” after it had been perforated by a grapeshot.
During the Seven Days’ Battles, the division was not engaged until the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1. Here, Corporal William H. Cowan of H was wounded while carrying the flag. Couch’s division moved to northern Virginia in August, arriving in time to help cover the retreat of Pope’s beaten troops from the Second Battle of Manassas. During the ensuing Maryland Campaign, the division arrived on the Antietam battlefield after the fighting had ended. Soon thereafter, the division was assigned to the Sixth Corps. At Fredericksburg on December 13, most of the corps was not engaged with the enemy.
The regiment’s primary fighting in 1863 was during the Chancellorsville Campaign. While most of the army moved with Hooker on a flanking movement to draw Lee’s troops away from Fredericksburg, the Sixth Corps remained opposite the city to hole the enemy’s attention. When Hooker’s plan bogged down, he ordered Major-General John Sedgwick to attack the enemy and then join the main army. Sedgwick’s troops attacked the Confederate positions behind Fredericksburg on May 3, capturing the entrenchments and driving away the defenders. The general put his troops in motion towards Chancellorsville, but encountered Rebel troops at Salem Church. During the severe fighting here, Sergeant John B. Devaux, color-bearer since December 26, 1862, was mortally wounded; he died a week later. Then, Corporal John F. Brill of Company L apparently took the flag, but fell wounded as well.
At this point, subsequent events become confused. Defeated in his attempt to join Hooker, Sedgwick pulled back into a defensive perimeter near Bank’s Ford across the Rappahannock River. After some desultory combat the next day, Sedgwick re-crossed the river on the evening of May 4-5. The 102nd was one of the rearguard units and reached the ford after dark, apparently in some confusion. Confederate troops could be heard closing in and the regiment seems to have disintegrated in the darkness. Some men managed to escape, but more than a hundred were taken prisoner. Captain Orlando M. Loomis of Company I, together with several other paroled prisoners, later claimed that the flag was torn from its staff, tied around some stones, and thrown into the river to prevent the enemy from taking it.
Colonel Kinkead reported that the sole survivor of the color-guard told him that the flag was given to a mounted sergeant of the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry for safe-keeping.
On the other hand, Major-General Richard H. Anderson, commanding one of the Confederate divisions opposing Sedgwick, reported the capture of a flag of the 102nd Pennsylvania. “This flag was not actually taken in battle, but was found by General Wilcox’s brigade in the river at the point where the enemy had their bridges down.” If this flag was the first state color, then it has not resurfaced after its capture. However, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh has the remnant of a 102nd Pennsylvania flag that was supposedly fished from the Rappahannock River sometime after the war, kept by Colonel James Patchell, and presented to the Hall by his family after the colonel’s death in 1929. Indeed, Patchell himself supported the river story when he verified the missing state color in 1866.
Just before the beginning of the Bristoe Station Campaign (October 1863), the regiment received some type of flag on October 1. A brief reference by the regimental chaplain is the only documentation to this flag located thus far. Of the colors in the state collection, one is marked a “national” color. The remnant clearly indicates that the state coat-of-arms was painted in the blue canton. Although evidence is lacking, this flag, is most likely not that thrown into the Rappahannock River, as the staff has battle damage that matches breaks in the silk. White possibly, the officers raised some money and had a state color made to replace the missing flag, as did the officers of the 56th Infantry. Without more documentation, the origin of this flag must remain speculation. The bearer of this flag was killed on May 5, 1864.
Sergeant Lewis C. White of Company H took the flag and carried it
until October 19, when he was wounded at cedar Creek. As the 102nd advanced near the close of the battle, a bullet nicked the flagstaff, another penetrated White’s bucket, and a third lead ball smashed the sergeant’s right hand, forcing amputation.
SECOND
STATE COLOR
A
replacement color for the 102nd was finished in April 1864. The regiment carried
this new banner into the fighting in the Wilderness on May 5, where the 102nd
suffered 163 casualties. Following this battle, the unit took part in the
fighting at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the initial attacks on the Petersburg
defenses. In July, the Sixth Corps was sent north to bolster the Washington
defenses when Jubal Early’s Confederates threatened the capital. The 102nd was
engaged as skirmishers at Fort Stevens (July 11-12), but suffered no casualties.
During the ensuing Shenandoah Valley Campaign, the 102nd engaged the enemy at
Winchester on September 19, losing 62 soldiers. Three days later, the
regiment charged the entrenchments on Fisher’s Hill. Sergeant William G.
Greenawalt of Company A, carrying the state
color, was among the first Union color-bearers to plant a flag on the enemy
earthworks. On October 19, the regiment fought at Cedar Creek, the last major
engagement of this campaign. Here, Sergeant
Greenawalt was wounded in the face by a mini ball, which exited near his ear.
When the sergeant fell, Corporal Joseph S. Fithean of Company H seized the flag
as the regiment advanced. On December 7,while yet in camp near
Winchester, Colonel Patchell requested a new state color from Adjutant-General
Russell. Patchell reported that the present colors “have been so badly
torn by bullets and exposure to the weather, that it is unsafe to unfurl them
for fear of their falling to pieces”. The 1864 color was then sent back to
Harrisburg and officially returned to state care in 1866. By this time, Colonel
Patchell had removed the coat-of-arms, which remained in his family until
donated to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in 1929.
THIRD STATE COLOR
A replacement color was finished in early January 1865 and forwarded to the 102nd,
then back in camp near Petersburg. During the last months of the war in
Virginia, the 102nd took
part in the picket line fighting on March 25th and at Saylor’s Creek (April 6).
Following Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the Sixth Corps moved briefly to
Danville, Virginia, before returning to Washington. The 102nd was mustered out
of service on June 28. The third state color was presented in the 1866 parade.
NATIONAL COLOR
Following
the loss of its state color, the 102nd Pennsylvania took part in the Gettysburg
Campaign, arriving on the field late on July 2. It suffered a slight loss during
the remainder of the battle.
PRESENTED COLOR
The 34-Star
National Color of Company K, with the stars arranged in a giant star pattern,
was presented by the ladies of Pittsburgh to Major John Poland sometime in 1861
REGIMENTAL COLOR
The brass finial is eagle-shaped, and cords
and tassels are red, white and blue silk rather than the regulation blue and
white silk. Poland’s son presented the banner to Soldiers and Sailors Memorial
Hall in 1920. Nothing else has been found to document its war-time use.
PENNSYLVANIA 102ND REGIMENT COLOR-BEARERS
Cp. Joseph Hucks, Co. M, mortally wounded 5/31/62
Sgt. Edwin Anderson, Co B, 5/31/62
Sgt. George Workman, Co. K, mortally wounded 5/31/62
*Cpl. Charles L. Donohoe, Co. K, 5/31/62
Cpl. William H. Cowan, Co. H, wounded 5/3/62
Sgt. John B. Devaux, Co. F, 12/26/62, wounded 5/3/63
Cpl. John F. Brill, Co. L, 5/3/63- ?
Sgt. William G. Greenawalt, Co. A, 9/64
Lewis C. White, Co. H, wounded 10/19/64
Resource: Advance The Colors!: Pennsylvania
Civil War Battle Flags By, Richard A. Sauers, Vol 2 Harrisburg Pa.
Capitol Preservation Com, 1991, PP 342-45 & pg 578
E527.3S38.1991 v2
* Photograph not available