Colonel Elias Peissner[3][i] received authority, June 26, 1862, to recruit 119th New York Infantry was organized at New York City,[4]New York beginning June 26, 1862 and mustered in for three years service on September 4, 1862 under the command of Elias Peissner. The companies were recruited principally:[5]
A — Halleck Guard
B, C, D — Sigel Life Guard, Siegel Sharpshooters
E, F, G, I and K — New York City
H — Hempstead
The regiment was considered one of the German, or "Dutch," regiments in the XI Corps. The historian, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, joined it as regimental adjutant in November 1862, and wrote: "There are Germans who don't understand English, Frenchmen ditto, Swedes and Spaniards who don't understand anything, and Italians who are worse than all the rest together."[6][ii]
The 119th New York Infantry mustered out of service June 8, 1865 near Bladensburg, Maryland.[8] Recruits and veterans were transferred to the 102nd New York Volunteer Infantry.
Affiliations, battle honors, detailed service, and casualties
Organizational affiliation
The regiment was attached to the following brigades:[1]
The regiment lost a total of 166 men during service; six officers and 66 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, two officers and 92 enlisted men died of disease.[10][4]
Commanders
Colonel Elias Peissner – killed in action at the Battle of Chancellorsville
^Peissner was a 35-year-old German immigrant, who was appointed Colonel, June 26, 1862. He commanded the regiment until he was killed in action, May 2, 1863, at Chancellorsville.
^Many native-born Americans in the U.S. Army initially harbored some disdain for immigrants, but Dodge was sent to the regiment because he had studied in Berlin before the war and was fluent in German.
^The efficiency of the United States' railroads over the Confederacy's effectively canceled the normal advantage of interior lines of communications that the Rebels possessed. While traveling 400 miles further with slightly more than twice the number, the troops had taken the same time as Longstreet's troops who had arrived two weeks earlier still lacking arms and supplies.
Ceremonies and Addresses at the Dedication of a Monument by the 119th Regiment, N.Y. State Vols. at Gettysburg, July 3, 1888. (Boston: Wright & Potter), 1889.
Kotzbauer, Robert W. Elias, Ersatz Prinz, Union Patriot: A True Story (Wagontown, PA: R. W. Kotzbauer), 2004. [Biography of Col. Elias Peissner.]
