WEST VALLEY — Descendants of members of the 15th New York Volunteer Infantry, a Civil War regiment raised in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, will hold their 39th annual reunion from 2–5 p.m. Saturday at the Ashford Historical Society, 5380 School St.

The 154th New York — known as the Hardtack Regiment — was raised in the summer of 1862 and participated in many of the great campaigns and battles of the war, including Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, the Atlanta Campaign and Gen. William T. Sherman’s marches through Georgia and the Carolinas.

The topic of this year’s program is “Camp Seward on Arlington Heights,” the 154th’s first camp in Virginia after arriving in the South in October 1862. It was named in honor of William H. Seward, a New York native who served as Lincoln’s Secretary of State. The program will describe the camp and its surroundings and what the men experienced and thought about it all.

Mark H. Dunkelman of Providence, R.I., will preside at the reunion, as he has every year since its inception in 1986. Stories and relics of his great-grandfather, John Langhans of Ellicottville, who served in the 154th, inspired Dunkelman’s interest and led to his lifelong work as a regimental historian.

Dunkelman is the author of six highly regarded books and dozens of articles on various aspects of the 154th’s history, and creator of the renowned mural next to the regiment’s Gettysburg monument. To date, he has connected with more than 1,300 fellow descendants of 154th members.

Anyone descended from a member of the 154th New York is encouraged to attend the reunion, which is free and open to the public. Descendants are asked to bring photographs and relics of their soldier ancestors to be copied and added to the regimental archives. Attendees will receive a souvenir ribbon and a reproduction of a print depicting the camp.

For more information about the reunion, contact Dunkelman by phone or text at (401) 369-0637 or by email at nyvi154th@aol.com. More information about his work, including summaries of previous reunions, can be found at www.hardtrackregiment.com.