7th Rhode Island Infantry - Formation

Formation

On May 22, 1862 Governor William Sprague issued general orders for the raising of the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers. This regiment was to be the last three-year infantry regiment to be raised in Rhode Island. Camp Bliss was erected in southern Providence and was to be the destination for the recruits for the regiment. Many men came to Camp Bliss in the summer of 1862. Some were Mexican-American War veterans, or had seen service in the United States Army and other volunteer regiments. Some were politicians and gentlemen from the hierarchy of the state. The majority were fifteen- to thirty-year-old farmers and mill workers from southern and western Rhode Island who enlisted in the regiment under the call of President Abraham Lincoln for 300,000 men to defend the Union following a series of humiliating defeats in Virginia. The largest push for recruits came in August, with some towns offering incentives as high as four hundred dollars for men to enlist; though the large bounties encouraged many to come forward, large numbers joined to preserve the Union. Many of their officers were known to them by their first name. They attained their positions through political influence or past experience in the service. In short time one thousand young Rhode Islanders had gathered at Camp Bliss. To command them, Governor Sprague selected Zenas Bliss of Johnston. Bliss was a graduate of West Point and had attained the rank of captain in the Eighth United States Infantry. In the years ahead he would transform these men from Rhode Island from untrained volunteers into a regiment on par with the United States Regulars.

The Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers was mustered into the service of the United States to serve for three years on September 6, 1862. They also drew Enfield rifle-muskets on this day. In addition the Seventh was clothed in the full uniform of the United States Army; a feature of their coats being a very high collar. On September 10, the regiment left Rhode Island and proceeded to Camp Casey outside of Washington, D.C. Here they remained for several weeks before joining the First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Corps on October 6, encamped outside Sharpsburg, Maryland following the victory at Antietam a month earlier. The Seventh remained encamped at Pleasant Valley, Maryland, for three weeks, perfecting its drill, while losing several members of the regiment to disease and the elements.