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.
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“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
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