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Veterans reflect decades \ later at reunion on commander killed at Antietam

Photo from the Bucktails regimental history Col. Hugh W. McNeil led the Bucktails for many months until he was killed at Antietam in Sept. 1862. McNeil had come to Warren in 1858 seeking better health.

Hugh Watson McNeil was killed in Sept. 1862 at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland.

When the surviving members of the Bucktails met in Warren in 1918, McNeil, their colonel, remained a prominent figure in the minds of the men, nearly 60 years since he was killed.

The regiment’s history, written by one of the Bucktails who came to Warren in 1918, tells his story.

And that story links to Warren.

According to the regimental history, McNeil was born in 1840 in Oswego, New York, the father of a Scotch Presbyterian minister.

Photo from the Pa. Capitol Preservation Committee website This is what remains of the Bucktails state color. According to the Pa. Capitol Preservation Committee, the flag was on loan to the Smithsonian for over a century until 2003 when it was returned to the Commonwealth.

“At eighteen he entered Yale University, and during his residence, which, owing to circumstances, was abridged, stood high in his class,” the text states. “Resuming his studies at Delaware College, he graduated with the degree of Master of Arts, winning in addition to a recognition of his scholarship a reputation as an orator.”

McNeil bounced around several jobs after college – the U.S. Coast Survey and the Treasury Department – before he was admitted to the bar in Washington D.C.

His health “had been impaired by overwork” forced him to return to New York and eventually brought him here.

“His health still continuing poor, and pulmonary disease threatening him, he removed to Warren, Pa., in 1858, hoping that such removal from the vicinity of the sea would be beneficial,” the text states. “At this place he filled the position of cashier of the Warren Bank, and rapidly became known and respected by his fellow townsmen.”

By Jan. 1862, he was leading the regiment.

“Stricken with typhoid fever, he was unable to participate in the Peninsular campaign, but rejoined the six companies that took part in the Seven Days’ retreat, at Harrison’s Landing,” the text states. “These companies he commanded with marked skill at the Second Bull Run.”

His pride in the Bucktails – and his defense of his men – is clear from a couple accounts, including a letter that he wrote to Pennsylvani’s governor, Andrew Curtin, in July 1862.

“Sir : Major Stone returns to Pennsylvania on the Recruiting Service. During the severe engagements of the past few days, my regiment was in the hottest of the fight, under command of Major Stone,” McNeil wrote. “The Generals of the Reserve Corps speak in the highest terms of its efficiency, and of the distinguished gallantry of that accomplished officer. Where the Bucktails fought there was no giving way of our lines, and where the Major would bring up his Spartan Band, there brigades would re-form and hold their position. General Seymour says he cannot spare a battalion of such veterans from the service, and is desirous that its strength be at once reestablished.”

McNeil was asking Curtin to take the one regiment of Bucktails and create a whole brigade of them (2-4 regiments).

“The name of ‘Bucktail’ has become a terror to the enemy and an inspiration to our own men,” he wrote. “I can speak impartially of the brave fellows,” politely suggesting that a “more extended organization (of Bucktails) would be greatly advantageous to the service.”

A few weeks later, McNeil and his men were asked to turn in the rifles they had used and, per the regimental history “were then offered inferior weapons.

“Colonel McNeil declined, wheeled his men about and marched back to camp.”

The regiment was given better weapons the next day.

As mentioned previously, McNeil was killed at Antietam.

“Colonel McNeil, after about fifteen minutes, ordered his men to charge and clear the enemy out of the woods,” the regimental history states. “With no cover to protect them, in full view of both forces, across a field raked by artillery and covered by a heavy force of infantry, the men were ordered to dash.

Fearless as ever, McNeil led his men in person into the open. Seventy-five yards from their goal, the fire became so murderous that the men dropped to the ground, lying flat on their faces but pouring in shot after shot from their breech-loaders. From time to time they would rise and run forward a few feet, only to drop again as they caught the first flash of a volley of musketry.

Though the advance amidst the increasing hail of shot and shell was slow, yet it was steady. When but a few paces from the fence that marked the edge of the woods. Colonel McNeil sprang forward crying, “Forward, Bucktails, forward.” Even as he spoke, he pitched lifeless to the ground.

A mad fury seized his men. Raging to revenge the death of the man to whom they were devoted, they cleared the fence in an instant. Outnumbered, they cared nothing. With their breechloading rifles and ample cover they were prepared to make the enemy pay dearly.

Their brigade commander, Gen. George Mead (who would rise to command the entire army) wrote the following of McNeil in his official report: “I feel it also due to the memory of a gallant soldier and accomplished gentleman to express here my sense of the loss to the public service in the fall of Col. Hugh McNeil, of the First Pennsylvania Rifles, who fell mortally wounded, while in the front rank, bravely leading on and encouraging his men, on the afternoon of the 16th.”

An additional report notes that McNeil was “pierced to the heart by a rifle ball.”

His body was returned to Auburn, NY for burial.

A historian who wrote the brigade’s history said this of McNeil: “Colonel McNeil was not only an accomplished scholar and a gallant soldier, but he was what is more and greater, a devout Christian.

“The precepts of the Bible taught him by his father, he made the rule of his life. He entered the service of his country from a sense of duty ; devoted to the cause of the constitution, he laid down his life a willing sacrifice on the altar of universal liberty, and died in the defense of republican government.”

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