The 80th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantryregiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was composed of ten companies that drew primarily from eight southern Illinois counties. Over the course of the war the regiment traveled approximately 6,000 miles, and was in over 20 battles.
Infantry is the branch of an army that engages in military combat on foot, distinguished from cavalry, artillery, and tank forces. Also known as foot soldiers, infantry traditionally relies on moving by foot between combats as well, but may also use mounts, military vehicles, or other transport. Infantry make up a large portion of all armed forces in most nations, and typically bear the largest brunt in warfare, as measured by casualties, deprivation, or physical and psychological stress.
A regiment is a military unit. Their role and size varies markedly, depending on the country and the arm of service.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army referred to the United States Army, the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. Also known as the Federal Army, it proved essential to the preservation of the United States of America as a working, viable republic.
In the summer of 1862 President Lincoln issued calls for more volunteers in the war effort. In July he requested 300,000 men for three years of service, and the next month, on 4 August 1862, he issued a call for 300,000 more men for nine months of service. In part as a patriotic response to these calls, the 80th Illinois Infantry was organized by Colonel Thomas G. Allen at Centralia, Illinois and mustered into service on 25 August 1862.
Abraham Lincoln was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. He preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the U.S. economy.
Centralia is a city in Clinton, Jefferson, Marion, and Washington counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 13,032 as of the 2010 census, down from 14,136 in 2000.
Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 29th most-populous city in the United States. It is one of two cities in Kentucky designated as first-class, the other being Lexington, the state's second-largest city. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, located in the state's north and on the border with Indiana.
The Army of the Ohio was the name of two Union armies in the American Civil War. The first army became the Army of the Cumberland and the second army was created in 1863.
William Rufus Terrill was a United States Army soldier and general who was killed in action at the Battle of Perryville during the American Civil War. His Confederate brother James was also killed during the same war, making the Terrills one of the few sets of American brothers killed in action while commanding brigades.
Battle of Perryville
I was in every battle, skirmish and march that was made by the First Tennessee Regiment during the war, and I do not remember of a harder contest and more evenly fought battle than that of Perryville. If it had been two men wrestling, it would have been called a "dog fall." Both sides claim victory—both whipped.
In its first principal action of the war the regiment participated in the Battle of Perryville (also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills) and suffered extensive casualties. The group set out from Louisville on 1 October 1862 under the direction of Maj. Gen.Don Carlos Buell and marched in pursuit of ConfederateGen.Braxton Bragg, passing through Taylorville, Bloomfield and Mackville before engaging in the Battle of Perryville on 8 October 1862. The 80th Illinois fell under the command of Brig. Gen.William R. Terrill (33rd Brigade) and Brig. Gen.James S. Jackson (10th Division). Both Terrill and Jackson were ultimately killed in the battle.
The Battle of Perryville was fought on October 8, 1862, in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky, as the culmination of the Confederate Heartland Offensive during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi initially won a tactical victory against primarily a single corps of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of the Ohio. The battle is considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
Don Carlos Buell was a United States Army officer who fought in the Seminole War, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War. Buell led Union armies in two great Civil War battles—Shiloh and Perryville. The nation was angry at his failure to defeat the outnumbered Confederates after Perryville, or to secure East Tennessee. Historians generally concur that he was a brave and industrious master of logistics, but was too cautious and too rigid to meet the great challenges he faced in 1862. Buell was relieved of field command in late 1862 and made no more significant military contributions.
The Confederate States Army (C.S.A.) was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces. On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the newly chosen Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Davis was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War. He had also been a United States Senator from Mississippi and U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. On March 1, 1861, on behalf of the Confederate government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston, South Carolina, where South Carolina state militia besieged Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison. By March 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress expanded the provisional forces and established a more permanent Confederate States Army.
Parsons' battery position on the Open Knob, 2007.
The 33rd Brigade, including the 80th Illinois, were initially charged with guarding the artillery, called Parsons' battery, on the Open Knob, a prominent hill on the northern end of the battlefield facing the Confederate's right flank.[lower-alpha 1] After some Confederate infantry snuck up the hill undetected in the woods, Terrill ordered the 123rd Illinois to mount a bayonet charge down the hill, with the raw and outnumbered troops suffering heavy casualties. At about 3:00p.m., the 80th Illinois were sent in as reinforcements and resulted in a brief stalemate. Eventually the group was forced to retreat to the next ridge in a disjointed manner that led to much friendly fire.
The battle was the culmination of the Confederate Heartland Offensive (Kentucky Campaign). ConfederateGen.Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi[lower-alpha 2] arguably won a tactical victory, having fought aggressively and pushed his opponent back for over a mile. However, the battle is still considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
The Confederate Heartland Offensive, also known as the Kentucky Campaign, was an American Civil War campaign conducted by the Confederate States Army in Tennessee and Kentucky where Generals Braxton Bragg and Edmund Kirby Smith tried to draw neutral Kentucky into the Confederacy by outflanking Union troops under Major General Don Carlos Buell. Though they scored some successes, notably a tactical win at Perryville, they soon retreated, leaving Kentucky primarily under Union control for the rest of the war.
Braxton Bragg was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who was assigned to duty at Richmond, under direction of the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, and charged with the conduct of military operations of the armies of the Confederate States from February 24, 1864, until January 13, 1865, when he was charged with command and defense of Wilmington, North Carolina. He previously had command of an army in the Western Theater.
There were three organizations known as the Army of Mississippi in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Relative to the number of troops involved,[3] the Battle of Perryville was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. It was the largest battle fought in the state of Kentucky.[4] The 80th Illinois lost 14 killed and 58 wounded, including Lieutenant Von Kemmel killed, Lieutenant Andrews mortally wounded, and Lieutenant Colonel Rodgers and Lieutenant Pace severely wounded. Eye witness reports suggest that three days after the fight there was still dead bodies lying on the field.[2]
Streight's Raid and capture
Map of locations involved in Streight's Raid
In the spring of 1863 the 80th Illinois took part in Streight's Raid in northern Alabama. The raid, led by Colonel Abel D. Streight, was intended to destroy parts of the Western and Atlantic railroad, which was supplying the Confederate Army of Tennessee. But due to poor supplies and poor planning it ended with the defeat and capture of Streight and his men at Cedar Bluff, Alabama, by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Streight was additionally hindered by locals throughout his march, while pursued by Forrest, who had the advantage of home territory and the sympathy and aid of the local populace, most famously Emma Sansom.
The actual capture of the forces was achieved by a clever ruse, when Forrest paraded his much smaller force back and forth in front of Streight, convincing Streight that he was opposed by a superior force. After surrendering and being informed of the deception Streight reputedly demanded his arms back for a proper fight, a request cheerfully declined by Forrest.
In addition to arms, Forest's men stole the regiment's blankets, watches and money. The regiment was taken to Rome, Georgia, where they were paroled and then sent in coal cars to Atlanta. From here the officers were sent to Libby Prison while the enlisted men were sent, via Knoxville and Lynchburg, to Richmond, arriving on 13 May 1863. While the officers largely remained imprisoned for the remainder of the war, the enlisted men were sent to City Point before being exchanged for Confederate prisoners.
With Col. Thomas G. Allen having resigned and Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Rodgers and Major Erastus Newton Bates still being prisoners of war, the regiment received a new leader in the form of Lieutenant Herman Steincke.
Chattanooga Campaign
National cemetery at Chattanooga with a view of Lookout Mountain in the distance.
In October and November 1863 the regiment took part in the Chattanooga Campaign,[lower-alpha 3] a series of maneuvers and battles designed to give the Union control of the state of Tennessee, including Chattanooga, known as the "Gateway to the Lower South." During this campaign they were part of the 3rd Brigade (commanded by Colonel Friedrich Hecker), 3rd Division (commanded by General Carl Schurz), and the XI Corps (commanded by General Oliver O. Howard).
On 22 November, the 80th Illinois set out toward Chattanooga and arrived in the evening east of town. The next day, on 23 November, the regiment engaged with the enemy and took the first line of rifle splits as part of the XI Corps, driving on the left flank in the enemy's skirmishers. The 80th Illinois laid in line of battle all night. This advance was part of the Union Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman maneuvering to launch a surprise attack against Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge. Meanwhile, on 24 November, Eastern Theater troops on the opposite side of the line under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker defeated the Confederates in the Battle of Lookout Mountain and began a movement toward Bragg's left flank at Rossville.
On 25 November, Sherman's attack on Bragg's right flank, which included the 80th Illinois, made little progress. Hoping to distract Bragg's attention, Grant authorized Thomas's army to advance in the center of his line to the base of Missionary Ridge. A combination of misunderstood orders and the pressure of the tactical situation caused Thomas's men to surge to the top of Missionary Ridge, routing the Army of Tennessee, which retreated to Dalton, Georgia, fighting off the Union pursuit successfully at the Battle of Ringgold Gap.
Bragg's defeat eliminated the last Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, leading to Sherman's Atlanta Campaign of 1864, of which the 80th Illinois also took part.
Johnston's Army of Tennessee withdrew toward Atlanta in the face of successive flanking maneuvers by Sherman's group of armies. In July, the Confederate president replaced Johnston with the more aggressive John Bell Hood, who began challenging the Union Army in a series of damaging frontal assaults. Hood's army was eventually besieged in Atlanta and the city fell on September 2, hastening the end of the war.
The 80th Illinois was heavily involved in all of the heavy battles of the Atlanta campaign and was constantly exposed to the enemy's fire for about three months. The 80th Illinois commenced its involvement on 3 May 1864 and participated in the battles of Dalton, Resaca, Adairsville, Cassville, Dallas, Pine Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Marietta, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesborough and Lovejoy's Station. During the campaign, the Regiment captured about 150 prisoners, and lost 25 killed and 60 wounded.
End of service
The regiment was mustered out on 10 June 1865 and proceeded to Camp Butler, Illinois, for final pay and discharge.
Total strength and casualties
The regiment suffered the loss of 6 officers and 52 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 160 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 218 fatalities.[5] Only four of the captured officers ever returned to the Regiment. The remainder were held as prisoners until 1 March 1865, when they were paroled for exchange.
The Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought November 24, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga Campaign of the American Civil War. Union forces under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker assaulted Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and defeated Confederate forces commanded by Maj. Gen. Carter L. Stevenson. Lookout Mountain was one engagement in the Chattanooga battles between Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Military Division of the Mississippi and the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg. It drove in the Confederate left flank and allowed Hooker's men to assist in the Battle of Missionary Ridge the following day, which routed Bragg's army, lifting the siege of Union forces in Chattanooga, and opening the gateway into the Deep South.
The Battle of Stones River was a battle fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the war, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. Although the battle itself was inconclusive, the Union Army's repulse of two Confederate attacks and the subsequent Confederate withdrawal were a much-needed boost to Union morale after the defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and it dashed Confederate aspirations for control of Middle Tennessee.
William Joseph Hardee was a career U.S. Army officer, serving during the Second Seminole War and in the Mexican–American War, where he was captured and exchanged. In the American Civil War, he sided with the South and became a general. Hardee served in the Western Theater and quarreled sharply with two of his commanding officers, Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood. He served in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and the Carolinas Campaign of 1865, where he surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston to William Tecumseh Sherman in April. Hardee's writings about military tactics were widely used on both sides in the conflict.
The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in most of the significant battles in the Western Theater. It should not be confused with the Union Army of the Tennessee, named after the Tennessee River.
The Army of the Tennessee was a Union army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, named for the Tennessee River. It should not be confused with the similarly named Army of Tennessee, a Confederate army named after the State of Tennessee.
William Babcock Hazen was a career United States Army officer who served in the Indian Wars, as a Union general in the American Civil War, and as Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army. His most famous service was defending "Hell's Half Acre" at the Battle of Stones River in 1862.
The Battle of Missionary Ridge was fought on November 25, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the Union victory in the Battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24, Union forces in the Military Division of the Mississippi under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Missionary Ridge and defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg, forcing it to retreat to Georgia.
The Tullahoma Campaign was a military operation conducted from June 24 to July 3, 1863, by the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, and regarded as one of the most brilliant maneuvers of the American Civil War. Its effect was to drive the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and to threaten the strategic city of Chattanooga.
The Chickamauga Campaign of the American Civil War was a series of battles fought in northwestern Georgia from August 21 to September 20, 1863, between the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee. The campaign started successfully for Union commander William S. Rosecrans, with the Union army occupying the vital city of Chattanooga and forcing the Confederates to retreat into northern Georgia. But a Confederate attack at the Battle of Chickamauga forced Rosecrans to retreat back into Chattanooga and allowed the Confederates to lay siege to the Union forces.
The Siege of Corinth was an American Civil War engagement lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. A collection of Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry Halleck engaged in a month-long siege of the city, whose Confederate occupants were commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The siege resulted in the capture of the town by Federal forces.
The Western Theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the Lower Seaboard Theater. Most other operations east of the Mississippi are part of the Eastern Theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.
Carter Littlepage Stevenson, Jr. was a career military officer, serving in the United States Army in several antebellum wars and then in the Confederate States Army as a general in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
The Knoxville Campaign was a series of American Civil War battles and maneuvers in East Tennessee during the fall of 1863 designed to secure control of the city of Knoxville and with it the railroad that linked the Confederacy east and west. Union Army forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville, Tennessee, and Confederate States Army forces under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet were detached from Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga to prevent Burnside's reinforcement of the besieged Federal forces there. Ultimately, Longstreet's own siege of Knoxville ended when Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led elements of the Army of the Tennessee and other troops to Burnside's relief after Union troops had broken the Confederate siege of Chattanooga. Although Longstreet was one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's best corps commanders in the East in the Army of Northern Virginia, he was unsuccessful in his role as an independent commander in the West and accomplished little in the Knoxville Campaign.
The 51st Regiment Indiana Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The Chattanooga Campaign was a series of maneuvers and battles in October and November 1863, during the American Civil War. Following the defeat of Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans' Union Army of the Cumberland at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg besieged Rosecrans and his men by occupying key high terrain around Chattanooga, Tennessee. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was given command of Union forces in the West, now consolidated under the Division of the Mississippi. Significant reinforcements also began to arrive with him in Chattanooga from Mississippi and the Eastern Theater. On October 19, Grant removed Rosecrans from command of the Army of the Cumberland and replaced him with Major General George Henry Thomas.
The 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
References
Crawford, James (1979). "Dear Lizzie": Letters Written by James "Jimmy" Garvin Crawford to His Sweetheart Martha Elizabeth "Lizzie" Wilson. New Jersey: Bascom.
Kennedy, Frances H., ed. (1998). The Civil War Battlefield Guide (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. ISBN0-395-74012-6.
Notes
↑ Companies G and B were not engaged in the fight.[2]
↑ During the battle, correspondence referred to the army as the Army of the Mississippi, deviating from the general rule that only Union armies were named after rivers. It was also sometimes referred to as the Army of the West. The army was activated on March 5, 1862, just before the Battle of Shiloh, and was renamed by Bragg as the Army of Tennessee in November. See Army of Mississippi.
↑ This reference lists battles and campaigns for Union regiments and also gives the composition of corps and armies, i.e., such as the 80th Illinois Volunteer Regiment. Take note, however, that regimental battle lists cannot be considered proof that any particular soldier fought in various battles since different companies in the regiment may have had different assignments, or an individual soldier may have been absent due to sickness, desertion, temporary assignment to other duties, or other causes.
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