Reminiscences Of The Civil War by Theodore M. Nagle, formerly sergeant Company “C,” 21st Regiment, N.Y.S. Vol. Inf.

Sergeant Nagle, a native of Erie New York, recounts his reminiscences of the Civil War in the Eastern theatre 1861-1863.

Nagle spent his soldiering career in the 21st New York State Infantry, 1st Buffalo, joining the Union ranks in the first year of the war. Assigned initially to the Washington defences at Fort Runyon, Nagle would have to wait until 1862 for action as part of General McClellan’s Army of the Potomac and then under General Pope on the Rappahannock, culminating with the bloody defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas. He and his comrades of the First Corps next engagement would be under General McClellan at the brutal battle of Antietam fighting around the Dunker church. After heavy losses at Fredericksburg the 21st NYS was ordered to form part of General Patrick’s Provost Guard Brigade at Aquia Creek. Nagle was eventually discharged in 1863 at the end of his two year enlistment having seen as much action as any soldier of the Union armies during the first two years of the Civil War.