Page 107 - 86-Book1

defend Washington early in the war and provided the core of the 66th when they returned to New York after their initial enlistment expired. The unit participated in many of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg, and Hammell took command of the men at the latter two and was wounded at all three. Many of the documents are copies of original period documents such as muster rolls and battle reports as well as early secondary sources. Hammell is listed as enrolled on September 6, 1861, in New York City at the age of 21 years old for three years. He mustered in at the beginning of November 1861 as the first lieutenant of Company I and was also appointed adjutant. He was promoted to captain in Company B in April 1862.
At Antietam, they were in the Third Brigade commanded by Colonel John R. Brooke and were led by Captain Julius Wehle with Captain Nelson as acting lieutenant colonel, and Hammell as acting major. In the battle, they lost twenty-two enlisted men killed or morally wounded, and Hammell
and seventy-nine enlisted men were reported wounded. At Fredericksburg, the largest battle of the war in terms of combatants, he was promoted
to lieutenant colonel after Lieutenant Colonel James H. Bull was killed in action on December 11th. Captain Julius Wehle took command initially after Bull fell but was also killed. Hammell then took command but was then also wounded on the 13th by a shell fragment that struck him in
the hindquarters and back and left him seriously bruised. They lost Bull, Wehle, Captain John Dodge, and sixteen enlisted men killed or mortally wounded out of their 238 engaged and also suffered Hammell, Lieutenant James Switzer, and forty-five men wounded and another eight missing. At Chancellorsville in May 1863, they lost three more men killed along with two officers and eight enlisted men wounded and two officers and fifty- five enlisted men captured. At Gettysburg, Hammell took command of the unit after Colonel Orlando H. Morris was wounded crossing the Wheatfield on July 2, 1863. Hammell was wounded shortly thereafter when he suffered a gunshot through his left forearm during their attack across the
Wheatfield on Stony Hill, reportedly fired by a Confederate sharpshooter. At Gettysburg, of the 176 men from the 66th that fought, two officers
and five enlisted men were killed or mortally wounded, and five officers, including Hammell, and twenty-two enlisted me were wounded. Another officer and nine enlisted men were reported missing. They then fought at Auburn, Bristoe, and in the Mine Run Campaign. This completes the period noted on the sword’s inscription, but the war was not over for Hammell and the 66th.
In January of 1864, when the sword was presented, the unit was paraded in New York City and was hosted for a reception in their honor. Local papers indicated there was a unanimous reenlistment of the men for
the duration of the war. In February, they participated in the botched Demonstration on the Rapidan River in Virginia and then fought at
the Battle of the Wilderness where they lost two enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, five wounded, and four missing before fighting
105