County wide
34th PA Reserves: 209 Lost
Did you know? Four companies of the 34th Pennsylvania, the 5th Reserves, were recruited partly out of Huntingdon County, and the regiment's war took it to Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and the North Anna River.
We are not going to print a casualty count here, and here is why.
The version of this post that was queued said the regiment lost 209 men: 14 officers and 127 enlisted men to combat, and 68 more to disease. Then it concluded that more died from dysentery, pneumonia and typhoid than from Confederate bullets.
Run the numbers it gave. Fourteen and one hundred twenty seven is one hundred forty one, to combat. Sixty eight, to disease. The post's own figures say the opposite of the post's own point.
So the count comes out until somebody can put a source under it. The regiment is real, the battles are real, and the men are worth a post that has its arithmetic straight.
If you have a soldier from the 5th Reserves in your family, tell us his name and his company and we will look him up properly.
From the record
Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.
Later it was at Antietam, Gettysburg, and the principal actions in which the Army of the Potomac was engaged. The Forty-second, also known as the "Bucktails," and the "Kane Rifle Regiment," was recruited in the spring of 1861 and was mustered in about the middle of June, under command of Colonel Charles J. It was the original intention to include only skilled marksmen in the membership and the regiment was recruited chiefly in the lumbering districts of the state. Company B came from Perry county, with Langhom Wistar as captain; John A. Culp, first lieutenant; Joel R. Sparr, second lieutenant. There were also a number of men from Mifflin and Juniata counties in the Bucktails. The regiment took part in the battles of Dranesville, Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, the Seven Days', South Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, the various engagements of the Mine Run campaign, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna river, Bethesda Church, where it fought its last battle on May 30, 1864, orders being received on June ist to move to Harrisburg for muster out. The men were mustered out and discharged ten days later.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 638,725 of the scanned text
Finally the carnage ceased, and the men of the North lay down on the field (as they supposed) of victory. But at about midnight orders came to fall in for a march, and the Pennsylvania Reserves, with other commands of the Army of the Potomac, moved silently down the hill and away on the road to Berkeley (or Harrison's Landing), where they arrived and camped on the 2d of July. The loss of the Fifth Reserve Regiment in the seven days' battles from the Chickahominy to Malvern Hill was one hundred and thirty-three killed and wounded, and one hundred and three taken prisoners. Fisher was promoted to colonel, Maj. George Dare to lieutenantcolonel, and Capt. Frank Zentmyer to major of the regiment. WAR OF After a dreary stay of about six weeks at Harrison's Landing the Fifth broke camp, and from that time to the final muster out Companies G and I participated in the several battles in which the regiment was engaged, among which were the second Bull Run, Aug. 20, 1862, in which Lieut. Smith, of Company G, was killed; South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. In February, 1863, was sent to Washington to rest and recruit. In battle of Gettysburg, Pa., in July, 1863; Warrenton, Bristoe Station, Mine Run, and then stationed at Alexandria through the winter of 1863-64.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 762,998 of the scanned text
During the night the men built a rough stone wall, connecting the slopes of the two Round Tops, and this rude defense was held by the Sixtysecond, which was not again closely engaged in the battle. Its losses at Gettysburg were heavy, reducing its strength to less than one hundred men. Among the wounded in this battle was Lieut. Patrick Morris of M company (mortally). The Sixty-second took active part in the succeeding campaigns of the summer and fall of 1863, and fought bravely in the engagements at Manassas Gap, Rappahannock Station, Locust Grove Church, and at Mine Run, December 3d. Immediately after the close of the Mine Run campaign it went into winter-quarters, where a considerable proportion of the men re-enlisted ` and a large number of recruits were received from Pennsylvania, During the winter the regiment was employed by detachments in guarding the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. the Sixty-second moved with its corps to the Rapidan, crossed that river at Germania Ford in the night of the 3d of May, and moved southward into the Wilderness, where it became heavily engaged with the enemy on the 5th, the regiment occupying the extreme right of the division line. It was again engaged on tite 6th and 7th, and on the 8th it fought at Laurel Hill, losing heavily, but holding its ground and throwing up defensive works in the face of the enemy.J. Simpson Africa, History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883) · character 875,689 of the scanned text
What the fact check changed. FIRES IN FIVE DAYS. THE POST REFUTES ITSELF WITH ITS OWN NUMBERS, and no source was needed to catch it. It states: 209 lost, "14 officers and 127 enlisted men to combat," "plus 68 more to disease." It then concludes: "More died from dysentery, pneumonia, and typhoid than from Confederate bullets."
14 + 127 = 141 combat deaths. 68 disease deaths. 141 + 68 = 209, so the total is internally consistent and the breakdown is clearly meant as given. But 141 is more than double 68, so the concluding sentence is contradicted by the sentence directly above it. The headline framing of the post, that the real killer was camp disease rather than battle, is refuted by the post's own figures. This is a new detection and it deserves to go on the trap list: a post can be checked against ITSELF before any source is opened. Where a post supplies both a breakdown and a conclusion drawn from it, do the arithmetic first. It costs nothing and it caught this one in a single line. Regimental casualty figures vary considerably between compilations depending on whether they count died-of-wounds, missing, and men who died after discharge, and Africa 1883's rosters would have to be tallied by hand to check them. WHAT SURVIVES, and is safe: the regiment's identity (34th Pennsylvania, 5th Reserves), the Huntingdon County recruitment, and the four named engagements. The rewrite is deliberately short and turns the gap into a request for names, which is the kind of thing readers on this page actually answer. NOTE FOR A LATER TICK: the underlying point the post was reaching for, that disease killed enormous numbers of Civil War soldiers, is broadly true and well documented. It just is not what these particular numbers say. If someone wants that post, it needs its own source and its own numbers.
Checked 2026-08-01 · County history, independently fact checked