Of Blood and Battles

Organized in late August and early September, 1862 the 147th Regiment was nicknamed the “Oswego Plowboys.” The soldiers in this organization participated in some of the harshest fighting of the War of the Rebellion in their three years of service. Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Petersburg, and Weldon Railroad were only a few places where Oswego blood was spilled in the struggle to preserve the Union.

The summer of 1862 was an eventful time for Oswego County. As the Civil War raged in other parts of the country, residents carried on normal summertime activities, nevertheless cognizant of the fact that elsewhere their sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands were fighting and dying. President Lincoln’s call for 300,000 troops in July and the threat of a draft should they not be forthcoming voluntarily, resulted in the formation of a county-wide War Committee whose task was to encourage recruitment for the county’s quota of one new regiment. Oswego had already raised the 24th and the 81st Regiments, but strenuous efforts were employed to induce men to leave their homes to fight for a cause whose outcome was at that moment uncertain. Threats of a draft and the lure of generous bounties for enlistees produced enough recruits for two new regiments, the 110th and the 147th. While the former experienced little battlefield action, the latter would have a much different story. By war’s end, the 147th, originally numbering 837 soldiers, would contain over 2,000 men as the unit faced one bloody conflict after another. The survivors, deeply affected by what they had experienced, returned home changed men. For some, life would be short. For others, life would be too long. For all, even though the passage of time softened painful memories, the suffering would never end.