| If this website has been useful to you, please consider
making a Donation.
Your support will help keep this website free for everyone, and will allow us to do
more research. Thank you for your support! |
53rd Illinois Infantry
in the American Civil War
Online Books:
53rd Illinois Infantry Soldier Roster - Report of the Adjutant
General of the State of Illinois, Volume 3, Revised by Brigadier General J.N.
Reece, Adjutant General, 1900
View
Entire Book
| Regimental History |
| Fifty-third Illinois Infantry.— Cols., William H. W. Cushman,
Daniel F. Hitt, Seth C. Earl, John W. McClanahan, Robert H. McFadden;
Lieut.-Cols., Daniel F. Hitt, Seth C. Earl, John W. McClanahan, Robert
H. McFadden, Charles H. Brush; Majs., Theodore C. Gibson, Seth C. Earl,
John W. McClanahan, Rolland H. Allison, Charles H. Brush. This regiment
was organized at Ottawa in the winter of 1861-62. On Feb. 27, 1862, it
was ordered to Chicago to complete its organization and to assist in
guarding the Confederate prisoners captured at Fort Donelson. It was
ordered to St. Louis on March 23, and from St. Louis to Savannah, Tenn.
It was engaged in the siege of Corinth, and for meritorious conduct on
the skirmish line was furnished with new Springfield rifles. The
following October, near the Hatchie river, it engaged four times its
number of the enemy, who were retreating from the battle of Corinth, and
moved steadily forward, holding the bridge and road for over 2 hours
until other troops could be crossed and placed in position. The regiment
lost in that battle 16 killed and 49 wounded. It there assisted in
running a section of artillery (a Missouri battery) up the bluff by
hand, placing it within 50 yards of the enemy's line, and supported it
while it did splendid work. The regiment participated in the gallant but
disastrous charge by Gen. Lauman at Jackson, Miss., on July 12, 1863,
going into the fight with 250 men and officers and coming out with but
66. The color-guard and bearers were all either killed or wounded. On
Feb. 1, 1864, the regiment reenlisted and was mustered as a veteran
organization, and on the 3d started on the Meridian campaign. It left
Vicksburg on March 13 and reached Ottawa on the 22nd, where the men were
furloughed for 30 days. Cos. I and E having been consolidated, a new
company was organized and assigned to the regiment as Co. I. Upon
returning to the front the regiment was engaged in the siege of Atlanta,
and in the engagements of July 19-22 lost 101 men in killed and wounded.
It was engaged as skirmishers at Jonesboro, went with the army as far
south as Lovejoy's Station, and then returned to East Point. It
participated in the march to the sea, and upon arriving in front of the
fortifications at Savannah on Dec. 10, the first shell from the enemy
exploded in the ranks of Co. I, killing 5 and wounding 6 men. On Jan. 4,
1865, the 41st Ill., numbering 222 officers and men, was consolidated
with the 53d. In the Carolina campaign the regiment moved by way of
Orangeburg, Columbia, Cheraw and Fayetteville, and participated in the
battle of Bentonville, losing 1 man killed and 3 wounded. After
Johnston's surrender it marched with the army to Washington and was in
the grand review. On June 6 it left Washington for Louisville, Ky.,
where, on July 22, 1865, the regiment was mustered out and moved to
Chicago. |
Footnotes:
Regimental history taken from "The Union Army" by Federal Publishing
Company, 1908 - Volume 3
|
Whats New
Bibliography
About Us
|