53rd PVI, Co. K The Latrobe Light Guards

The 53rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, Company K is a Civil War Reenacting group located in Central Virginia.  The unit was established in 1997 and is one of the few Federal  units based in the Richmond, Virginia area. We are a family oriented unit and are always looking for new members who wish to honor the soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. This site is still under construction.  Additional information will be posted as it becomes available.  If you have any questions, please e-mail me at: MCamp34660D@aol.com

135th Gettysburg Reenactment July 1998

53rd PVI Unit History

The 53rd PVI was mustered into service in Harrisburg in 1861 & was sent into service with the Army of the Potomac.  Co. K was recruited in Westmoreland County.  The regiment was eventually assigned to II Corps & saw action throughout the war, including the Seven Days Battles, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Antietam, Gettysburg, & the 1864 campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg.  The regiment was present at the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse & was mustered out of service in June 1865.  The regiment mustered in 1861 with a strength of 1,000 men & only 27 original members remained in 1865.

Four Enlisted Men 53rd PVI, Co. K

Newsletter - November 1, 2002

Event Schedule

Equipment Information Updated 9/25/01

FOX'S REGIMENTAL LOSSES

Dyer's Compendium

NCO Guide

53rd Emergency Regiment

Present, also at Yorktown; Gaines's Mill; Peach Orchard; Savage                         Station; White Oak Swamp; Malvern Hill; Mine Run; Po River;                                     North Anna; Strawberry Plains; Appomattox NOTES:  Recruiting commenced in September, 1861, the companies being raised in various counties.  An organization was effected at Harrisburg, November 5, 1861, after which the regiment proceeded immediately to Washington.  It wintered in Virginia, near Alexandria, and then went with General McClellan to the Peninsula, having been assigned to French's (3d) Brigade, Richardson's (1st) Division, Second Corps, remaining in that famous division throughout its service.  Its first experience in battle was at Fair Oaks; Major Thomas Yeager was killed there, the total loss of the regiment amounting to 13 killed, 64 wounded, and 17 missing.  General Richardson was killed at Antietam, and General Hancock succeeded to the command of the division.  General Zook commanded the brigade at Fredericksburg, where, in that bloody assault, the Fifty-Third Lost 21 killed, 133 wounded, and 1 missing, out of the 283 men who were in line that day.  In December, 1863, the regiment reenlisted for the war, and so was present at all the battles of the Second Corps.  It participated, with severe loss, in Hancock's charge at Spotsylvania, in the assaults at Cold Harbor and Petersburg, and was actively engaged in the battle near Hatcher's Run, on March 31, 1865, an engagement known as White Oak Road or Boydton Road.  Its losses at Spotsylvania were 26 killed, 123 wounded, and 28 missing; total, 177.  The regiment was mustered out June 30, 1865.

Battle Reports

John Rutter Brooke

53rd PVI Co K Roster

53rd PVI Statistics

IDENTIFIED BURIAL LOCATIONS FOR MEMBERS OF THE 53rd PVI (updated 9/11/01)

Members KIA/Died in Service

Pennsylvania Regimental Losses

Images of Members of the 53rd PVI (Under Construction)

Flags of the 53rd PVI

We conduct a school of the soldier and frequent drills at Henricus Park which is located in Chesterfield County.  The Citie of Henricus was one of the first settlements in the new world and is supposedly where Pocohontas married John Rolfe.  The Park also overlooks Dutch Gap.  This was the canal dug by the Army of the James to bypass batteries placed on the James River by the Confederates near Bermuda Hundred.  The construction of Dutch Gap involved the removal of over 50,000 cubic yards of earth.  Unfortunately, Dutch Gap did not become fully functional until after the surrender at Appomattox.

Dutch Gap

Official Records Related to Dutch Gap

Dutch Gap Construction

Dutch Gap Lighthouse

Miscellaneous Information

Escape from Andersonville

Attempts at Humor

Numbers, Stats, ect.

Women in the War

Civil War Statistics

53rd PVI Monument at Gettysburg

Camp Chase Gazette

53rd PVI at Gettysburg

53rd PVI Documents

Original 53d PVI, Keg

Chesterfield Civil War Sites

United States Volunteers (USV)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

38th United States Colored Troops, Co. D

Just One More

Bibliography of Information Regarding the 53rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Bates, Samuel P. History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5. Wilmington, NC:  Broadfoot, 1993.  Vol. 3, pp. 92-134. Dyer, Frederick H.  A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion.  Vol. 2.  Dayton, OH:  Morningside,  1979.  p. 1592. Ludwig, Mahlon S.  "My Escape from a Rebel Prison."  Natl Tribune Scrapbook I:  pp. 104-12 Pennsylvania. Gettysburg Battlefield Comm.  Pennsylvania at Gettysburg:  Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Monuments Erected by the Commonwealth.... Vol. 1.  Hbg, PA:  Wm. S. Ray, 1914.  pp. 326-38. Sauers, Richard A.  Advance the Colors!:  Pennsylvania Civil War Battle Flags.  Vol. 1.  Hbg, PA:  Capitol Preservation Comm, 1987.  pp. 148-150. "The 53rd Pennsyvania Volunteer Infantry in the Gettysburg Campaign."  Gettysburg Magazine 11 (July 1994):  pp. 80-90.