The 47th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Formed by adults and teenagers from small towns and larger metropolitan areas of Pennsylvania, this regiment was composed primarily of men of German heritage, and was ultimately known as the 47th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers due to the length of service by the majority of men on its rosters. Many of their family and friends still spoke German or its Pennsylvania Dutch variant in their homes and churches more than a hundred years after their forebears emigrated from Germany in search of religious or political freedom. Other members of this regiment traced their roots to Ireland; at least two had emigrated from Cuba; several were formerly enslaved men wh