34th PA Reserves: 209 Lost

Two companies of Huntingdon County men marched out in the summer of 1861 with the Fifth Pennsylvania Reserves, and the county can now be told what became of the regiment, with the book it comes from.

The Fifth Reserve, numbered the Thirty-fourth of the Pennsylvania line, was organised at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg on 20 June 1861 out of companies raised in Lycoming, Northumberland, Clearfield, Union, Huntingdon, Centre, Bradford and Lancaster counties. Huntingdon County furnished two of them: the Huntingdon Infantry under Captain Andrew S. Harrison, which became Company G, and the Scott Infantry under Captain George Dare, which became Company I.

Now the count, which this page has been carrying a note about for some time. William F. Fox set the regiment's losses out in 1889 in the standard book on the subject, and lists it among the three hundred fighting regiments of the war. Of 1,046 men enrolled, 14 officers and 127 men were killed or died of wounds, which Fox works out as 141 killed, 13.5 per cent of the regiment. Another 68 died of disease, accident or in prison. Two hundred and nine in all.

An earlier version of this post gave those same figures and then concluded that more men died of dysentery, pneumonia and typhoid than of Confederate bullets. That part was wrong, and it was wrong against its own numbers: 141 is more than twice 68. In this regiment the fighting killed twice as many as the sickness did.

The two Huntingdon County officers named above were both killed. George Dare rose from captain of the Scott Infantry to major, then to lieutenant colonel, and was killed at the Wilderness while in command of the regiment. Frank Zentmyer, who took over Dare's company when Dare was promoted, was killed at Fredericksburg, where the regiment lost 18 killed, 87 wounded and 61 missing, and where Fox notes that the missing were all killed or wounded. Colonel Seneca G. Simmons had been killed at Glendale two years earlier while commanding the brigade.

Fox lists the fights where the regiment lost men: Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill, Glendale, Manassas, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Bristoe Station, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. It was present also at Malvern Hill, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the North Anna and Totopotomoy.

If you have a soldier from the Fifth Reserves in your family, tell us his name and his company and we will look him up properly.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

Later it was at Antietam, Gettysburg, and the principal actions in which the Army of the Potomac was engaged. It was mustered out at Harrisburg on June 11, 1864. The Forty-second, also known as the "Bucktails," and the "Kane Rifle Regiment," was recruited in the spring of 1861 and was mustered in about the middle of June, under command of Colonel Charles J. Biddle. It was the original intention to include only skilled marksmen in the membership and the regiment was recruited chiefly in the lumbering districts of the state. Company B came from Perry county, with Langhom Wistar as captain; John A. Culp, first lieutenant; Joel R. Sparr, second lieutenant. There were also a number of men from Mifflin and Juniata counties in the Bucktails. The regiment took part in the battles of Dranesville, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, the Seven Days', South Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, the various engagements of the Mine Run campaign, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna river, Bethesda Church, where it fought its last battle on May 30, 1864, orders being received on June ist to move to Harrisburg for muster out. The men were mustered out and discharged ten days later.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 638,725 of the scanned text

Finally the carnage ceased, and the men of the North lay down on the field (as they supposed) of victory. But at about midnight orders came to fall in for a march, and the Pennsylvania Reserves, with other commands of the Army of the Potomac, moved silently down the hill and away on the road to Berkeley (or Harrison's Landing), where they arrived and camped on the 2d of July. The loss of the Fifth Reserve Regiment in the seven days' battles from the Chickahominy to Malvern Hill was one hundred and thirty-three killed and wounded, and one hundred and three taken prisoners. By the death of Col. Simmons, Lieut.-Col. Fisher was promoted to colonel, Maj. George Dare to lieutenantcolonel, and Capt. Frank Zentmyer to major of the regiment. WAR OF After a dreary stay of about six weeks at Harrison's Landing the Fifth broke camp, and from that time to the final muster out Companies G and I participated in the several battles in which the regiment was engaged, among which were the second Bull Run, Aug. 20, 1862, in which Lieut. R. W. Smith, of Company G, was killed; South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. In February, 1863, was sent to Washington to rest and recruit. In battle of Gettysburg, Pa., in July, 1863; Warrenton, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, and then stationed at Alexandria through the winter of 1863-64.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 762,998 of the scanned text

During the night the men built a rough stone wall, connecting the slopes of the two Round Tops, and this rude defense was held by the Sixtysecond, which was not again closely engaged in the battle. Its losses at Gettysburg were heavy, reducing its strength to less than one hundred men. Among the wounded in this battle was Lieut. Patrick Morris of M company (mortally). The Sixty-second took active part in the succeeding campaigns of the summer and fall of 1863, and fought bravely in the engagements at Manassas Gap, Rappahannock Station, Locust Grove Church, and at Mine Run, December 3d. Immediately after the close of the Mine Run campaign it went into winter-quarters, where a considerable proportion of the men re-enlisted ` and a large number of recruits were received from Pennsylvania, During the winter the regiment was employed by detachments in guarding the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. the Sixty-second moved with its corps to the Rapidan, crossed that river at Germania Ford in the night of the 3d of May, and moved southward into the Wilderness, where it became heavily engaged with the enemy on the 5th, the regiment occupying the extreme right of the division line. It was again engaged on tite 6th and 7th, and on the 8th it fought at Laurel Hill, losing heavily, but holding its ground and throwing up defensive works in the face of the enemy.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 875,689 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-09-10 · County history, independently fact checked

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