Saratoga County History Center Presents Program on  “The Iron-Hearted Regiment”

The Saratoga County History Center at Brookside Museum will present Saratoga and the Civil War: The 115th “Iron-Hearted Regiment” at War, its second program in our 2026 series Americans at War on Wednesday, August 26 at 7 PM. David Brooks, the Education Director at Schoharie Crossing State Historic site in Fort Hunter, will bring to life the unique experiences of the 115th Regiment, which mustered soldiers into service 165 years ago on this date – August 26, 1861 in Fonda, New York. Regimental companies were formed from Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery and Saratoga Counties. 

Under the leadership of Colonel Simeon Sammons, a local farmer and militia officer before the war, the regiment participated in several campaigns that took them to both well-known and little-known battlefields, gaining them recognition as the “Iron Hearted Regiment.” 

Brooks will follow the regiment’s journey from Harpers Ferry to Chicago and into the deep south before returning to Virginia in the last year of the war, recounting the battles they faced on the front line and those experienced from within.  

David Brooks is a member of the Board of Trustees for both Fulton and Montgomery Historical Societies and former past president of the Mohawk Valley Museums Consortium. As David tells us, “The 115th has a story unlike most upstate NY regiments during the Civil War, though their experiences are not all that unique during a time of crisis for the country. As a child I learned of this regiment and it’s service in family stories and directly from letters written during the war between brothers and the family on the home front.”

This event is presented with the support of Adirondack Trust Company, and is free with registration. Registration and more information regarding for this event is available online at Brooksidemuseum.org