42d Mississippi Infantry Regiment

42d Mississippi Infantry Regiment
42d Mississippi Infantry Regiment
Active	1862–1865
Disbanded	April 12, 1865
Country	Confederate States
Allegiance	Mississippi
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Regiment
Part of	Davis' Brigade
Nickname(s)	"Forty-second Mississippi"
Facings	Light blue
Arms	Enfield rifled muskets
Battles	American Civil War Siege of Suffolk ; Gettysburg Campaign ; Battle of the Wilderness ; Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ; Battle of Cold Harbor ; Siege of Petersburg ; Appomattox Campaign ; ;
Battle honor	Gettysburg
Commanders
Commanding officers	Col. Hugh R. Miller † ; Col. William A. Feeney † ; Col. Andrew M. Nelson;

Last updated May 12, 2024

The 42d Mississippi Infantry Regiment, also known as the "Forty-second Mississippi", was an infantry formation of the Confederate States Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, and was successively commanded by Colonels Hugh R. Miller, William A. Feeney, and Andrew M. Nelson.^[1]^[2]

History

The Forty-second was organized on May 14, 1862, in the Mississippi Volunteers at Oxford from the counties of Carroll, DeSoto, Tishomingo, Calhoun, Yalobusha, Panola, and Itawamba.^[3]^[4] For a time, it served on provost duty in Richmond, Virginia,^[5] then was assigned to Davis' Brigade, Heth's Division, Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia.

The 42nd Regiment was engaged in fierce fighting during the Gettysburg, taking heavy casualties, with the brigade commander Col. Hugh R. Miller killed in action. In the aftermath of the Gettysburg campaign, the Regiment fought at the Battle of Bristoe Station after retreating into Virginia. It lost 46 percent of the 575 engaged at Gettysburg, had eight disabled en route from Pennsylvania, and had six killed and 25 wounded during the Bristoe Campaign.

In 1864, the 42nd took part in the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, and the Battle of Cold Harbor, before joining the defense of Petersburg, Virginia. When the Union forces broke through the Confederate lines at Petersburg in early April, 1865, the remnants of the 42nd Regiment were captured and surrendered. The Regiment surrendered one lieutenant, one chaplain, and five enlisted men on April 9, 1865.^[6]

Commanders

Commanders of the Forty-second Mississippi:

Col. Hugh R. Miller, killed at Gettysburg, 1863.
Col. William A. Feeney, killed at the Battle of the Wilderness, 1864.
Col. Andrew M. Nelson, wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, 1864.
Lt. Col. Hillary Moseley, wounded and disabled at Gettysburg, 1863.

Regimental order of battle

Units of the Forty-second Mississippi:^[3]

Company A, "Carroll Fencibles"
Company B, "Senatobia Invincibles"
Company C, "Nelson's Avengers"
Company D
Company E, "Davenport Rifles"
Company F, of Calhoun County
Company G, "Gaston Rifles"
Company H
Company I, "Mississippi Reds"
Company K

Notes

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Archives and Records Administration.

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References

↑ Sifakis, Stewart (1995). Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Mississippi. New York: Facts On File. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-0-8160-2292-2. OCLC 31712711.
↑ Allardice, Bruce S. (2008). Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. pp. 274, 145, 289. ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4. LCCN 2008018253. OCLC 799725372. OL 16839816M.
1 2 Rowland, Dunbar (1988) [1st pub. MDAH:1908]. Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898: Taken From the Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, 1908. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Reprint Company. pp. 121–124. ISBN 978-0-87152-266-5. LCCN 78-2454. OCLC 26822556.
↑ Williams, T. P. (1999). The Mississippi Brigade of Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Davis: A Geographical Account of Its Campaigns and a Biographical Account of Its Personalities, 1861-1865. Dayton, Ohio: Morningside House. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-0-89029-335-5. OCLC 43558556.
↑ "Grand Exodus of Three Thousand Yankees". Richmond Dispatch . Vol. XXIII, no. 32. August 6, 1862. p. 1.
↑ Crute, Joseph H. Jr. (1987). Units of the Confederate States Army (2nd ed.). Gaithersburg, Maryland: Olde Soldier Books. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0-942211-53-5. OCLC 660162619.

Bibliography

"Brig. Gen. Davis...". Memphis Daily Appeal . Vol. XV, no. 93. April 26, 1864. p. 1.
Brown, Kent Masterson (2005). Gallagher, Gary W. (ed.). Retreat from Gettysburg: Lee, Logistics, and the Pennsylvania Campaign. Civil War in America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2921-9. OCLC 55488044.
Coddington, Edwin B. (1979) [1st pub. Morningside Bookshop:1979]. The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (1st Touchstone ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-684-84569-2. OCLC 37565392.
"From Weldon". North Carolina Standard. Vol. XIII, no. 34. April 24, 1863. p. 2.
Gottfried, Bradley M. (2012) [1st pub. 2002]. Brigades of Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Gettysburg. New York: Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61608-401-1. OCLC 738350721.
Heth, Henry (1974). Morrison, James L. Jr. (ed.). The Memoirs of Henry Heth. Contributions in Military History, Number 6. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-8371-6389-5. LCCN 72000820. OCLC 749406. OL 5282600M.
"The Pennsylvania Campaign". Fayetteville Observer . Vol. XLVII, no. 2442. March 21, 1864. p. 4.
"Prison Items". Richmond Dispatch . Vol. XXIII, no. 104. November 1, 1862. p. 2.
Roberts, Bobby; Moneyhon, Carl (1993). A Photographic History of Mississippi in the Civil War. Portraits of Conflict. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-55728-260-6. LCCN 92021637. OL 1718833M.
Stewart, George R. (1959). Pickett's Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 . Boston: Houghton Mifflin. LCCN 59-8864.
Wilson, LeGrand James (1973) [1st pub. 1902]. Silver, James W. (ed.). The Confederate Soldier. Memphis, Tennessee: Memphis State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87870-016-5. LCCN 72-95936.
"Yankee Faithlessness". Richmond Dispatch . Vol. XXV, no. 55. September 3, 1863. p. 1.

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[1] Sifakis, Stewart (1995). Compendium of the Confederate Armies: Mississippi. New York: Facts On File. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-0-8160-2292-2. OCLC 31712711.

[2] Allardice, Bruce S. (2008). Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. pp. 274, 145, 289. ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4. LCCN 2008018253. OCLC 799725372. OL 16839816M.

[Rowland-3] 1 2 Rowland, Dunbar (1988) [1st pub. MDAH:1908]. Military History of Mississippi, 1803-1898: Taken From the Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, 1908. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Reprint Company. pp. 121–124. ISBN 978-0-87152-266-5. LCCN 78-2454. OCLC 26822556.

[4] Williams, T. P. (1999). The Mississippi Brigade of Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Davis: A Geographical Account of Its Campaigns and a Biographical Account of Its Personalities, 1861-1865. Dayton, Ohio: Morningside House. pp. 41–42. ISBN 978-0-89029-335-5. OCLC 43558556.

[5] "Grand Exodus of Three Thousand Yankees". Richmond Dispatch . Vol. XXIII, no. 32. August 6, 1862. p. 1.

[6] Crute, Joseph H. Jr. (1987). Units of the Confederate States Army (2nd ed.). Gaithersburg, Maryland: Olde Soldier Books. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0-942211-53-5. OCLC 660162619.

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