98th Illinois Infantry Regiment

Last updated
98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry/Illinois Volunteer Mounted Infantry
Flag of Illinois.svg
Illinois flag
ActiveSeptember 3, 1862, to July 29, 1865
Country United States
Allegiance Union
Branch
Equipment Spencer repeating rifle
Engagements
Insignia
1st Division, XIV Corps XIVcorpsbadge1.png
4th Division, XIV Corps XIVcorpsbadge3.png

}

The 98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, later the 98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Mounted Infantry, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. [1]

Contents

Service

The 98th Illinois Infantry was organized at Centralia, Illinois and mustered into Federal service on September 3, 1862. [2]

The regiment was converted to mounted infantry on March 8, 1863 [3] and became an element of "Wilder's Lightning Brigade", [note 1] a unit that pioneered the use of mounted infantry. [4] As part of that brigade, it performed admirably in the Tullahoma [5] [6] and Chickamauga campaigns. Its superior firepower [7] due to its Spencers was found to allow it to take on an enemy that outnumbered them on several occasions and triumph. Also, the rapidity of movement afforded by their mounts gave them a rapid response ability that could take and maintain the initiative from the rebels [8] This combat power prevented much larger Confederate units from crossing a bridge on the first day of Chickamauga [8] [9] [10] and stopped the left column of the Bragg's key breakthrough on the second day. [11]

1862 Spencer Rifle with sling and bayonet Spencer Rifle w Bayonet MANG Museum-10001.jpg
1862 Spencer Rifle with sling and bayonet

The regiment was mustered out on June 27, 1865, and discharged at Springfield, Illinois, on July 7, 1865. [12]

Total strength and casualties

The regiment suffered 30 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 5 officers and 136 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 171 fatalities. [12]

Commanders

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Chickamauga</span> American Civil War battle

The Battle of Chickamauga, fought on September 18–20, 1863, between the United States Army and Confederate forces in the American Civil War, marked the end of a U.S. Army offensive, the Chickamauga Campaign, in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia and the most significant US defeat in the Western Theater, and it involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Hoke's Run</span> Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Hoke's Run, also known as the Battle of Falling Waters or Battle of Hainesville, took place on July 2, 1861, in Berkeley County, Virginia as part of the Manassas campaign of the American Civil War. Notable as an early engagement of Confederate Colonel Thomas J. Jackson and his Brigade of Virginia Volunteers, nineteen days before their famous nickname would originate, this brief skirmish was hailed by both sides as a stern lesson to the other. Acting precisely upon the orders of a superior officer about how to operate in the face of superior numbers, Jackson's forces resisted General Robert Patterson's Union forces briefly and then slowly retreated over several miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Cross Keys</span> 1862 battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Cross Keys was fought on June 8, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Together, the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic the following day were the decisive victories in Jackson's Valley Campaign, forcing the Union armies to retreat and leaving Jackson free to reinforce Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chickamauga campaign</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goode Bryan</span> Confederate Army general (1811–1885)

Goode Bryan was a planter, politician, military officer, and American Civil War general in the Confederate States Army. His brigade played a prominent role during the Battle of the Wilderness, fighting stubbornly until exhausting its ammunition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John T. Wilder</span> United States Army general

John Thomas Wilder was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, noted principally for capturing the critical mountain pass of Hoover's Gap during the Tullahoma Campaign in Central Tennessee in June 1863. Wilder had personally ensured that his "Lightning Brigade" of mounted infantry was equipped with the new Spencer repeating rifle. However, Wilder initially had to appeal to his men to pay for these weapons themselves before the government agreed to carry the cost. The victory at Hoover's Gap was attributed largely to Wilder's persistence in procuring the new rifles, which disoriented the enemy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">17th Indiana Infantry Regiment</span> Military unit

The 17th Indiana Infantry Regiment, also known as 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry Regiment, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army from 1863 to 1865 during the American Civil War. It served in West Virginia before being transferred to the Western Theater. In that theater, it was known for its membership in the "Lightning Brigade."

The 11th Maine Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">92nd Illinois Infantry Regiment</span> Military unit

The 92nd Regiment Illinois Infantry, also known as 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry Regiment, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">123rd Illinois Infantry Regiment</span> Military unit

The 123rd Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. In 1863 and 1864 it was temporarily known as the 123rd Illinois Volunteer Mounted Infantry Regiment, as part of Wilder's Lightning Brigade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">18th Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery</span> Military unit

The 18th Independent Battery Indiana Light Artillery, also known as Lilly's Hoosier Battery and Lilly's Battery, was a civil war regiment formed in Indiana during the American Civil War. The regiment was formed at the end of 1860 by 22-year-old Eli Lilly, an Indianapolis pharmacist. He had recruitment posters placed around the city and recruited primarily among his friends and classmates. The unit were first issued 6 "Rodman Guns" and was manned by 156 men. The Battery members stated preference to 3" Ordnance Rifles over the 10 pound Parrott Rifle due to its tendency to bursting. The unit mustered in Indianapolis where it was drilled during 1861, excelling at their skill with firing accuracy. Lilly was elected captain of the unit in August 1862 when the unit was deployed to join the Lightning Brigade commanded by Col. John T. Wilder.

The 10th Kentucky Infantry Regiment was a three-year volunteer infantry regiment that served in the U.S., or Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">72nd Indiana Infantry Regiment</span> Military unit

The 72nd Indiana Infantry Regiment, also known as 72nd Indiana Mounted Infantry Regiment, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment served as mounted infantry from March 17, 1863, to November 1, 1864, notably as part of the Lightning Brigade. during the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns.

The 67th Ohio Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">124th Ohio Infantry Regiment</span> Military unit

The 124th Ohio Infantry Regiment, sometimes 124th Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

The 27th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, commonly known as the "Twenty-seventh Tennessee", was a line infantry formation of the Confederate States Army in the Western Theater of the American Civil War successively commanded by Colonels Christopher H. Williams and Alexander W. Caldwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horn Brigade</span> Union infantry brigade

The Horn Brigade, also known as the Dutch Brigade, or the “Iron Brigade of the Army of the Cumberland,” was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Cumberland during the American Civil War. The brigade fought in the battles of Shiloh, Stones River, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lightning Brigade</span> Union Army mounted infantry in the United States civil war

The Lightning Brigade, also known as Wilder's Brigade or the Hatchet Brigade was a mounted infantry brigade from the American Civil War in the Union Army of the Cumberland from March 8, 1863, through November 1863. A novel unit for the U.S. Army, its regiments were nominally the 1st Brigade of Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Reynolds' 4th Division of Thomas' XIV Corps. Operationally, they were detached from the division and served as a mobile mounted infantry to support any of the army's corps. Colonel John T. Wilder was its commander. As initially organized, the brigade had the following regiments:

Henry Benedict Mattingly was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the September 1, 1864, Battle of Jonesborough, Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John G. Coltart</span> Confederate States Army officer

John Gordon Coltart was a Confederate States Army officer who held regiment, brigade and division command during the American Civil War.

References

Footnotes

  1. It acquired the names due to the movement speed that was gained by mounting the brigade, and also by the hatchets/tomohawks that Wilder had issued initially. See Lightning Brigade article for more.

Citations

Sources

See also