The Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, the celebrated "Stonewall" regiment was rendezvoused at Detroit under orders dated 29 May 1862.

The organization of the regiment was commenced under Colonel James E. Pittman, then State Paymaster, whose excellent drill and discipline enabled the regiment to leave for the front in a very creditable condition.

The Seventeenth left Michigan for Washington on the 27^th of August, 1862 with a force on its rolls of 982 officers and men, in command of Colonel William H. Withington, who had short time before been commissioned as its commanding officer.

On its arrival in Washington, it was attached to the First brigade, first division, ninth corps and was sent immediately into the Maryland campaign with McClellan, and a little more than two weeks after it left the state was fiercely engaged in the hotly contested action of South Mountain on September 14, whence it emerged with a loss of 27 killed and 114 wounded.

The Seventeenth participated in the following battles after having been baptized in the war at South Mountain: - Antietam, Maryland, Fredericksburg, Wilderness, Ny River, Spottsylania, North Anna River, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor, Petersburg (2), Crater, Weldon RR, Reams Station, Poplar Springs Church, Pegram Farm, Boydton Road, Hatcher’s Run, and Fort Steadman, VA, Vicksburg and Jackson, Mississippi, Blue Spring, London, Lenoire Station, Campbell Station, Knoxville, Thurley’s Ford, For Saunders, and Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.

After the battle at Petersburg, the regiment began its trek to Washington for the grand review of all the army of the Potomac, after which it went into camp at Tannallytown remaining there until the third of June when it was mustered out and started for Detroit where it was paid off and discharged.