The 26th Missouri Volunteer Infantry: One of the 300 Fighting Regiments

It’s about time that I get back to posting items on my blog! The end of the semester, followed by my Christmas preparations, have filled my days over the last two weeks. This afternoon I attended an interesting event at a friend’s house: I joined in with about twenty-two other people for the singing of the entire Messiah! My contribution was minimal, but nevertheless it was fun to be with friends for a cultural event.

Several weeks have gone by since I last highlighted one of the 300 fighting Union regiments from William F. Fox’s Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865 (1898). All of the regiments that I have featured served at some point in the trans-Mississippi, and many of these, like the regiment spotlighted today, were small units. The 26^th Missouri Infantry saw some action in their native state and then engaged in campaigns in Mississippi (most notably the Vicksburg campaign) before heading east to Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

The 26^th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment website created by Greg A. Wall has lots of helpful information including rosters, biographical sketches, statistics, regimental losses, and even Recollections of the 26^th Missouri Infantry by Benjamin Devor Dean (1892).

“Boomer’s Brigade —Quinby's Division--Seventeenth Corps.

（1) Col. George B. Boomer (Killed).

（2) Col. Benjamin D. Dean

Losses.	Officers.	En. Men.	Total.
Killed and mortally wounded	6	112	118
Died of disease, accidents, etc.	2	171	173
Died in Confederate prisons		12	12
Totals	8	295	303

Original enrollment, 972; killed, 118; percentage, 12.1.

Battles.	Killed.	Wounded.1	Missing.2	Total.
Iuka, Miss.	21	75	1	97
Guerillas, Miss.	1		1	2
Corinth, Miss.	1	2		3
Jackson, Miss.		1		1
Champion's Hill, Miss.	18	69		87
Assault on Vicksburg, May 19th	2			2
Assault on Vicksburg, May 22d	5	5		10
Siege of Vicksburg, Miss.	2	10		12
Missionary Ridge, Tenn.	15	34	4	53
Sherman’s March, Ga.	1		1	2
The Carolinas	1	2		3
Totals	67	198	7	272

Present, also, at New Madrid, Mo.; Island No. 10, Mo.; Tiptonville, Mo.; Farmington, Miss.; Siege of Corinth, Miss.; Raymond, Miss.; Siege of Jackson, Miss.; Lookout Mountain, Tenn.; Savannah, Ga.; Salkahatchie, S. C.; Neuse River, N. C.

Notes.--Recruited in the fall of 1861. In March, 1862, it joined Pope’s expedition against New Madrid, Mo., and participated in the investment and capture of Island Number 10. Its division — Hamilton’s — then moved to Corinth, where it joined the besieging army, arriving there April 22, 1862. Although the regiment was under fire at New Madrid, and also during the Siege of Corinth, yet it sustained little or no loss. But at Iuka it was hotly engaged, its skirmishers opening that battle; the whole regiment was soon under a severe fire, in which Colonel Boomer was seriously wounded. Two weeks later, under Lieutenant-Colonel Homan, it was engaged at the battle of Corinth; it was then in Buford’s (1st) Brigade, Hamilton’s (3d) Division, Army of the Mississippi.

During the Vicksburg campaign it was in Boomer's (3d) Brigade, Crocker’s Division, Seventeenth Corps. At Champion's Hill the regiment encountered some more hard fighting and heavy losses, Major Charles F. Brown being among the killed. Colonel Boomer was killed in the assault on Vicksburg --May 22d--while in command of the brigade. In October, 1863, the division under command of General John E. Smith --now the Third Division, Fifteenth Corps—left Memphis and moved to Chattanooga, where it fought in the battle of Missionary Ridge. This division did not move with Sherman on the Atlanta campaign, but garrisoned Allatoona, Kingston, Ga., and other points on that line. The regiment was mustered out in November, 1864, the recruits having been consolidated into a battalion of three companies, which marched with Sherman to the Sea, and through the Carolinas.

1 Includes the mortally wounded.

2 Includes the captured” (Fox, p. 416).