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The 68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Also known as the Cameron Rifles or the Second German Rifle Regiment, the men were mostly German immigrants. Organized in July 1861, three months after the outbreak of war, the 68th saw service in the Eastern and Western theaters. As a part of the Army of the Potomac, it was initially assigned to the defenses of Washington, D.C. Later, the 68th was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley and fought at the Battle of Cross Keys. The men of the 68th were then reassigned to central Virginia and found themselves in the thick of the fighting at Second Bull Run. After returning to the nation's capital, the regiment fought in Chancellorsville and was routed by Confederate forces. At Gettysburg, they saw battle on two of the three days and took heavy losses. The regiment was then transferred to the west and participated in the Chattanooga Campaign. The 68th fought in the battles of Wauhatchie and Missionary Ridge, assisting in the Union victories there. The regiment marched to relieve the siege of Knoxville, and then spent the last year of the war on occupation duty in Tennessee and Georgia, before being disbanded in November 1865. ==Raising the regiment== On July 22, 1861, the United States War Department authorized Robert J. Betge to raise a volunteer infantry regiment in New York.〔Phisterer, p. 427〕 Recruited to serve for three years, the men came mostly from Manhattan (New York City), and also from New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.〔 The mostly German immigrants were also called the "Second German Rifles" (the First German Rifles, raised several months earlier, were the 8th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment), but Betge called the regiment the "Cameron Rifles", after Secretary of War Simon Cameron.〔Fritsch, p. 19〕 The officers were also German, and many had served in the armies of Austria, Prussia, and other German states.〔Kummer, p. 566〕 In all, 1,020 men filled the ranks when the regiment had finished recruiting.〔 Accepted into service on August 19, the 68th left New York the next day, traveling by train from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, to Washington, D.C., to join the brigade of Brigadier General Louis Blenker in the Army of the Potomac.〔〔 Blenker was a German immigrant himself, a refugee of the Revolutions of 1848, and many of the units under his command were heavily German-American.〔Coffey, pp. 12–13〕 Encamped at Roach's Mills, Virginia, the 68th participated in the defense of Washington,〔 losing three men in their first combat, a minor skirmish with a Confederate patrol.〔 In November, the Army was reorganized; the 68th was shifted to Colonel Adolph von Steinwehr's brigade and Blenker moved up to command the division.〔 They encamped at Hunter's Chapel, Virginia, for the remainder of the winter.〔 There, Betge was brought before a court-martial, accused of "conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman": confiscating two horses and other property from "loyal" Virginia citizens, and taking a bribe to hire the 68th's regimental sutler.〔 He was not convicted, and was permitted to return to the regiment. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「68th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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