The 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry was a volunteer infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. History Formed in response to President Abraham Lincoln's calls, during the spring and summer of 1861, for volunteers to enroll for military service, the 52nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was composed primarily of men from Bradford, Clinton, Columbia, Luzerne, Union and Wyoming counties of Pennsylvania. Authority to recruit men for the regiment had been granted by Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin on August 1, 1861, to Lycoming County resident John C. Dodge, Jr., who had performed his three months' service during the opening months of the American Civil War. Following their muster-in at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, the members of this regiment engaged in basic training at this Union Army camp until November 8, 1861. While stationed here, John C. Dodge, Jr., Henry M. Hoyt, and John B. Conyngham were commissioned as field and staff officers on October 7, and awarded the respective ranks of colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major. The 52nd Pennsylvania also initially had its own regimental band, a 16-piece ensemble staffed by members of the Wyoming Cornet Band from Wilkes-Barre, which was under the baton of Professor Fred Wagner. As the 52nd readied for departure, Governor Curtin presented regimental leaders with state and national flags to be carried by the regiment's color-bearer unit. On November 8, 1861, the regiment marched to the train station at Harrisburg, and was then transported to Washington, D.C. by way of York, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore and Relay Junction, Maryland. Upon arrival in Washington, the 52nd Pennsylvania Volunteers were marched to the Kalorama Heights in Georgetown, where they made camp at "Camp Kalorama," and received additional training. 1862 Ordered into winter quarters, the 52nd Pennsylvania Volunteers were housed in barracks "on Meridian Hill, at Fourteenth street, in the rear of Columbia College," according to Bates. While here, they continued to perform in a series of dress parades as part of their ongoing training. Illness plagued the regiment during this phase of service with a number of 52nd Pennsylvanians contracting typhoid fever or variola (smallpox); several died. The regiment's ranks were further thinned when 10 men volunteered for gunboat service on detached duty (many of whom were then killed in June 1862 while serving aboard the steamer during the Battle of Saint Charles, Arkansas). In March 1862, the regiment was assigned to the 1st Brigade,