7th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment - Service

Service

The regiment was organized in New York City and was mustered in for a two year enlistment on April 23, 1861. Early in its training, it was so poorly equipped that a civilian who visited the troops wrote a letter to the editor of The New York Times (published May 16, 1861) complaining that tailors within the regiment had to resew the uniforms and put buttons on them, and that some of the soldiers were wearing "flip-flaps". The letter-writer was impressed (spelling and punctuation as in the original):

"I have seen no troops before, and I have seen none since, in which there was the same indescribable aspect of discipline. The men were not in uniform, but very poorly dressed, — in many cases with flip-flap shoes. The business-like air with which they marched rapidly through the deep mud of the Third-avenue was the more remarkable."

With "one or two exceptions" almost every officer then in the regiment had experience in European armies, and six out of eight of the soldiers had seen service, often in battle. "The only arms they have as yet are a few old muskets bought by the officers themselves."

The regiment was mustered out of service on May 8, 1863.