The 125th Pa. Inf. Rgt. at Antietam

 Above: Monument to the 125th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment at Antietam

Above: Placard outlining the combat of the 125th Pa. in the West Woods at Antietam (the placard is visible to the right of the monument in the topmost photo)

At the Battle of Antietam, the 125th, a new regiment belonging to Brig. Gen. S. W. Crawford’s brigade, wandered away from its brigade and, improbably, crossed the Cornfield and entered the West Woods just west of the Dunker Church. There, it was joined by the 34th New York of Gorman’s Brigade, Sedgwick’s Division, which, equally improbably, had somehow entered the West Woods nearby, well ahead of its brigade. The two regiments were the first federal regiments to enter the West Woods. According to the 125^th’s regimental history, 76: “…it is sufficient to say here that the 125th Pennsylvania and the 34th New York had been in the West Woods and tried to hold them, before the main portion of Sedgwick’s Division reached them.”
 

For the 125th Pa., see Regimental Committee. History of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1906. This history gives the regiment as less than 700 in line and gives BC as 54 KIA/MW and 91 WIA (an unlikely ratio!), with 84 lightly wounded not reported (p. 85). See also Huyette, Miles C. (Pvt.) and Smith, John P. History of the Antietam Fight (account of Pvt. J. D. Hicks).

Rich:

Your HFC notes re: the 128th PA of Crawford’s 2d Bde, 1st Div, XII Corps list Ted Alexander’s book, but you give the title as the 126th PA, which would be in Tyler’s Bde of Humphrey’s Div (V Corps).  It looks to me like you slipped, but we can check and resolve the reference.