Campaign Chronology

Not long after Chancellorsville, it marched up to Pennsylvania where it met another invasion of the North by General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg. The 107th was not involved in the repulsing of "Pickett’s Charge", but it did help fight off the Confederate charge against Culp’s Hill earlier that day. If that charge had succeeded, the Rebels would have broken through to the rear of the Union troops who fought off Pickett.

Following Gettysburg, during the winter of 1863-64, the regiment was re-assigned to the Army of the Cumberland and sent to Tennessee to guard railroads. It was a welcome change from their previous duty, and for the most part the men thoroughly enjoyed their stay there. Little did they know that their hardest fighting and greatest loss of life lay in front of them in "Bloody Georgia."

On April 4, 1864 they were brought together in the Twentieth Army Corps, a consolidation of the 11th and the 12th corps. Together with other army corps, they were to form an army of 100,000 under General William T. Sherman, which would become of one of the most famous armies in the history of warfare. They would be part of his plan to devastate the underbelly of the Confederacy. The 107th fought hard in the many skirmishes and battles on its way to Atlanta, losing a great many men in the battle of New Hope Church, also known as Dallas. They were among the first troops to enter Atlanta, and they were part of its provost guard while Sherman's other corps sought to engage and defeat Hood's army.

They left Atlanta in mid November and began the "March to the Sea." Only three days out of the city over forty of them were captured, and sent off to Confederate prison camps. A week later a sergeant of the 107th raised the American flag over the state capitol at Milledgeville and his picture appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly.

They continued on southward and participated in the capture of Savannah. Sherman's armies reached the outskirts of Savannah on December 10 but found that Hardee had entrenched 10,000 men in good positions, and his soldiers had flooded the surrounding rice fields, leaving only narrow causeways available to approach the city.

Earthworks, with Magazine Entrance, Fort McAllister

On December 13, William B. Hazen's division of Howard's army stormed Fort McAllister guarding the Ogeechee River, in hopes of unblocking his route and obtaining supplies awaiting him on the Navy ships. He captured it within 15 minutes. Some of the 134 Union casualties were caused by torpedoes, a name for crude land mines that were used only rarely in the war.

Sherman sent a message requesting Hardee's surrender. Hardee decided not to surrender but to escape. On December 20, he led his men across the Savannah River on a pontoon bridge hastily constructed of rice flats. The next morning, Savannah mayor R. D. Arnold rode out to formally surrender, in exchange for General Geary's promise to protect the city's citizens and their property.

General Sherman's Army entering Savannah, December 21, 1864

As Sherman pushed into North Carolina, Lee, lacking other alternatives, restored Joseph E. Johnston to a command and sent him against Sherman. The effort was futile. It had become clear that the South could no longer defend itself. Finally, at the end of this campaign Sherman's army would receive the surrender of General Joseph Johnson, which for all practical purposes ended the war.

There was one last march for them before they could go home. Onward to Washington they marched, where they would parade in the "Grand Review" of the Union Army on May 24, 1865 in front of the newly sworn in President Andrew Johnson. After the review they remained in camp near Bladensburg, Md. until June 5 when they were mustered out. They arrived home in Elmira on the 8th and were formally discharged from the service on June 18, 1865.