The Swiss Rifles

My posting about Jacob Philip Wingerter was a fun project, and it drew the attention of a number of readers. His descendants are hoping to learn more about Wingerter’s Bavarian roots so if you have some information for them, then please contact them at the email address listed in the comments section of the Wingerter posting.

Today marks the next installment of my regimental series about Union units from Fox’s list of 300 Fighting Regiments that served at some point in the trans-Mississippi. The 15^th Missouri Infantry, also known as the Swiss Rifles, began their combat service at the battle of Pea Ridge and then went on to serve actively in many other campaigns. This German-American regiment was a small unit that suffered a high percentage of killed and mortally wounded compared to their enrollment numbers.

For more information about the Fighting Fifteenth see:

Allendorf, Donald. Long Road to Liberty: The Odyssey of a German Regiment in the Yankee Army, The 15^th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006.

“Kimball's Brigade — Newton's Division--Fourth Corps

（1) Col. Francis J. Joliat.

（2) Col. Joseph Conrad; Bvt. Brig.-Gen.

Losses.	Officers.	En. Men.	Total.
Killed and mortally wounded	8	107	115
Died of disease, accidents, in prison, etc.	1	106	107
Totals	9	213	222

Enrollment (prior to 1865), 904, killed, 115; percentage, 12.7.

Battles.	Killed.	Wounded.1	Missing.2	Total.
Pea Ridge, Ark.			11	11
Chaplin Hills, Ky.	1	7		8
Stone’s River, Tenn.	12	55	5	72
Liberty Gap, Tenn.		1		1
Chickamauga, Ga.	11	67	22	100
Missionary Ridge, Tenn.	5	22		27
Rocky Face Ridge, Ga.		1		1
Resaca, Ga.	6	24	1	31
Adairsville, Ga.	1	4		5
New Hope Church, Ga.		4		4
Dallas, Ga.	3	16		19
Kenesaw Mountain, Ga.	8	19	2	29
Peach Tree Creek, Ga.	1	2		3
Siege of Atlanta, Ga.	4	16		20
Jonesboro, Ga.	1	4		5
Lovejoy's Station, Ga.	2	5		7
Spring Hill, Tenn.	3	11	3	17
Franklin, Tenn.	8	44	34	86
Nashville, Tenn.	1	6	2	9
Columbia, Tenn.	1			1
Totals	68	308	80	456

Notes.--Organized at St. Louis in August, 1861. After serving in Missouri and Arkansas during the rest of the year, it marched, in the spring of 1862, with Curtis's Army of the South-west on the campaign which culminated in the victory at Pea Ridge, Ark. The regiment was then in Asboth's (2d) Division, but as it was in reserve at that battle it sustained but slight loss. In June, 1862, it moved with Asboth's command to Corinth, Miss. It was there transferred to Buell’s Army of the Ohio, with which it marched on the Kentucky campaign, and was engaged at the battle of Chaplin Hills, Ky., it being then in Sheridan's Division. Three months later it fought at Stone’s River, where Colonel Schaeffer, the brigade commander, was killed while leading the regiment. Colonel Joliat, who had resigned in November, 1862, was succeeded by Colonel Conrad, formerly Major of the Third Missouri. The regiment suffered its severest loss at Chickamauga, its casualties on that field being unusually large in proportion to the very small number engaged; it was then in Laiboldt's (2d) Brigade, Sheridan's Division, McCook's Corps. Upon the reorganization of the Army of the Cumberland, in October, 1863, the regiment was placed in Steedman's (1st) Brigade, Sheridan's (2d) Division, Fourth Corps, remaining in that corps during the rest of its service. Reenlisting in January, 1864, it was furloughed for thirty days, and upon its return joined Sherman's Army as it was starting on its Atlanta campaign. After the fall of Atlanta, the corps fought at Franklin and Nashville, proceeding thence to Texas, where the regiment was mustered out in December, 1865” (Fox, p. 415).

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1 Includes the mortally wounded.

2 Includes the captured.