New York Battle Flags

It’s been several years since I’ve highlighted websites that feature the flags of the trans-Mississippi. Since that time some websites have been extensively updated and some new ones have appeared. This series will feature websites of trans-Mississippi State flag collections as well as websites that depict flags of regiments that served in the theater.


The New York Military Museum andVeterans Research Center has constructed a well-organized website with histories of every unit that served in the Civil War plus hundreds of photographs of New York flags. Many people don’t think of New York having much of a connection to the war west of the Mississippi, but soldiers of the 6^th New York Infantry, the 114^th New York Infantry, the 116^th New York Infantry, and the 21^st Independent Battery served in Louisiana for part of the conflict. The website is well worth checking out, and I noticed a couple of colorful posters for sale too.

One of the Fighting Regiments: 114th New York Infantry

This is the first entry in an occasional series highlighting twenty-three regiments from William F. Fox’s list of 300 fighting regiments from his Regimental Losses In The American Civil War, 1861-1865 (1898). Each of the twenty-three regiments featured served at some point in the trans-Mississippi. What follows below is the entry about the 114^th New York Infantry from Fox’s book; there are several places online where you can peruse (for free!) Fox’s important reference work. For example, the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University includes a free, online version of Fox's book in their collection. After Fox’s entry, I have included some online resources that include additional information about the fighting 114^th.

“Beal's Brigade — Dwight's Division--Nineteenth Corps.

（1) Col. Elisha B. Smith (Killed).

（2) Col. Samuel R. Per Lee; Bvt. Brig.-Gen.

companies.		killed and died of wounds.			died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c.			Total Enrollment.
		Officers.	Men.	Total.	Officers.	Men.	Total.
Field and Staff		1		1				16
Company	A		14	14	1	24	25	113
	B	1	10	11		22	22	120
	C	1	12	13		21	21	113
	D	1	16	17		20	20	115
	E		10	10	1	15	16	110
	F	1	15	16		14	14	120
	G	2	10	12		10	10	105
	H	2	9	11		22	22	110
	I		8	8		20	20	106
	K		8	8		24	24	106
Totals		9	112	121	2	192	194	1,134

121 killed==10.6 per cent.

Total of killed and wounded, 423.

battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.
Fort Bisland, La.	3	Opequon, Va.	44
Port Hudson, La.,June 14, 1863	21	Cedar Creek, Va.	38
Port Hudson Trenches, La.	7	Guerillas	1
Sabine Cross Roads, La.	2	Place unknown	2
Pleasant Hill, La.	3

Present, also, at Cane River, Mansura; Fisher's Hill.

Organized at Norwich, N. Y., leaving there on September 6, 1862, and journeying to Binghamton on canal boats, a long line of them being used for the purpose. Seven of the companies had been recruited in Chenango county, and three in Madison. The regiment sailed from Baltimore on November 6, 1862, for New Orleans, where it was assigned to Weitzel's Brigade, Augur's Division, Nineteenth Corps, and stationed at Brashear City, La.

Its first experience under fire was at Fort Bisland, April 112, 1863, where several men were wounded, some of them mortally. After the Teche Campaign,--a march through “the garden of Louisiana,” --the One Hundred and Fourteenth, on May 30, 1863, joined its Corps, which had already invested Port Hudson, and for forty days participated in the incessant fighting which echoed through the magnolia woods about the works. In the grand assault of June 14th, Colonel Smith, while in command of the brigade, was killed. The total loss of the regiment during the siege of Port Hudson was 11 killed, 60 wounded, and 2 missing.

On March 15, 1864,--in Dwight's (1st) Brigade, Emory's (1st) Division,--it started on Banks's Red River campaign, traversing the Teche country for the sixth time, and fighting at Sabine Cross Roads, where Lieutenant-Colonel Morse, the regimental commandant, was wounded. The Nineteenth Corps having been ordered to Virginia, the One Hundred and Fourteenth embarked for Washington on July 15, 1864, and after marching through Maryland, fought under Sheridan in his famous Shenandoah campaign against Early. At the battle of the Opequon, the regiment lost 185 men killed and wounded--three-fifths of those engaged — eliciting by its gallantry a complimentary notice from the Division General. At Cedar Creek it lost 21 killed, 86 wounded, and 8 missing. The regiment was mustered out at Elmira on June 17, 1865” (Fox, p. 225).

Additional resources:

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center—links to a number of primary sources relating to the regiment.

New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center—battle flag of the 114^th New York Infantry