Civil War
Phelps was appointed Colonel of the 22nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment that mustered in on June 6, 1861 for two-years service. Colonel Phelps later assumed command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Corps, 1st Division, after General Hatch was transferred out of the Brigade.
Colonel Phelps wrote: "In compliance with orders from General Hatch, I assumed command of his brigade Sunday, September 14, at 10 a.m. The column of General Hooker's corps was then moving through Frederick toward Middletown on the pike."
He was then in command of the First Iron Brigade but at this time it was known simply as the "Iron Brigade" because at this time the "Iron Brigade of the West" had not gained its acclaim. At the Battle of Antietam however the "Iron Brigade of the East" supported and rescued the "Iron Brigade of the West". Phelps' Iron Brigade advanced through the cornfield early on the 17th in close support of General John Gibbon's Iron Brigade. The 14th Brooklyn under his command helped the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers as a Confederate charge was about to push them back through the cornfield. Phelps' Brigade got the farthest during the action, the 14th Brooklyn being the only regiment to reach Dunkard Church and hold their waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
Read more about this topic: Walter Phelps
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“Colonel Shaw
and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
on St. Gaudens shaking Civil War relief,
propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“During the Civil War the area became a refuge for service- dodging Texans, and gangs of bushwhackers, as they were called, hid in its fastnesses. Conscript details of the Confederate Army hunted the fugitives and occasional skirmishes resulted.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)