25mm wargaming figures from the collection of a wargaming friend from Erie, Pennsylvania.
Background post: An unexpected visit to York
One of the most colorful Civil War regiments from the Keystone State was the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a unit known for its late war colorful "zouave" uniform (loosely modeled after similar uniforms worn in the French Army). These men and boys from Pittsburgh saw their first combat at the Battle of Antietam, and a few of their casualties were transported to the U.S. Army Military Hospital in York for treatment of their injuries. As mentioned in the background post, teenaged private Franklin Gilmore of the 155th was an emergency patient at that hospital in 1864.
With the Union army's failure to capture Richmond, Virginia, in the summer of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln called for 30,000 more volunteers. Nearly a thousand men in the Pittsburgh area enlisted in the new 155th Pennsylvania, which received its baptism of fire near Sharpsburg and fought in 27 other major battles over the next two-and-a-half years. The regiment mustered out in early June 1865.
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