"The Devil's Den" at Gettysburg.  From the collection of the National Archives.

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH REGIMENT OF INFANTRY

State of New York

Ulster Regiment; Washington Guards

Colonel George H. Sharpe received authority, July 14, 1862, to recruit this regiment in the counties of Greene and Ulster; it was organized at Kingston, and there mustered in the service of the United States for three years August 22, 1862. The men of the 71st and 72nd Infantry, not mustered out with their regiments, joined this by transfer in July, August and October 1864. The men of this regiment not to be mustered out with it were transferred to the 73rd Infantry June 1, 1865.

The companies were recruited principally: A at Kingston, Hurley, Olive, Wawarsing and Marlborough; B at Kingston and Shandaken; C at Kingston, Marbletown, Rochester, Rosendale and Gardiner; D at Coxsackie, Ashland, Prattsville, New Baltimore and Kingston; E at Ellenville, Denning, Wawarsing and Kingston; F at Catskill, Jewlett, Lexington, Hunter, Shandaken and Kingston; G at Saugerties, Lloyd and Kingston; H at Rondout; I at Kingston; and K at Cairo, Ashland, Durham, Greenville and Windham.

The regiment left the State August 24, 1862; served in Whipple's Brigade, defense of Washington, from August 1862; In 2d Brigade, 2d Division, 3d Corps, Army of the Potomac, from September 6, 1862; in 2d Brigade, 4th Division, 2d Corps, Army of the Potomac, from March 1864; in 4th Brigade, 3d Division, 2d Corps from May 13, 1864; in 3d Brigade, 3d Division, 2d Corps, from July 1864; and it was honorably discharged and mustered out, under Lieut.-Col Abram L. Lockwood, June 3, 1865, near Washington, D.C.

During its service the regiment lost by death, killed in action, 10 officers, 87 enlisted men; of wounds received in action, 1 officer, 54 enlisted men; of disease and other causes, 3 officers, 181 enlisted men; total 14 officers, 322 enlisted men; aggregate, 336; of whom 69 enlisted men died in hands of the enemy; and it took part in the following engagements, etc.:

Henry Clay Carman of Poughkeepsie, New York enlisting in the 120th at the age of 18.  At Gettysburg, his Regiment was under the command of General Dan Sickles.   Henry's Regiment was assigned "Cemetery Ridge" and it was from the ridge that General Sickles disobeyed orders and took his men forward of the ridge and forward of the Union line, leaving the hill known as "Little Round Top" unguarded. The men went forward into now infamous places known for the ferocity of the fighting, such as "the Devil's Den" and "The Peach Orchard", where 18 year old Private Carman wound up.

This was an indefensible position, out forward of the Union line, with no support. The Confederates attacked about 4:30pm. By 10pm the bloodied Union forces had fought and been pushed back to their assigned position on Cemetery ridge, sometimes by hand to hand combat, to where they had started from, back to their position at the Union Army's Center.  The next morning, July 3rd, was Pickett's Charge  - which focused it's attack at the Union Center on these same weary troops.  General Robert E. Lee had thought these men too worn down to survive another attack.  Unfortunately for Lee, the strategy of Picket's Charge was folly no matter what the condition of the men in the center were.

Through it all, Henry appears to have never been wounded in all his service,  which lasted until General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. After the war Henry returned to upstate New York, where he quietly tended to a 'Lock' on the canal system there.