Saturday, January 18, 2014

Union Trans-Mississippi Units at Chickamauga


It’s possible to learn a lot of interesting facts from studying an Order of Battle along with casualty reports. Did you know that the 8th Kansas Infantry and the 2nd Minnesota Infantry were among the regiments that suffered some of the highest casualty rates among Union troops at the battle of Chickamauga? The following list of Union trans-Mississippi units that served at the battle of Chickamauga is taken from the Official Records:


8th Kansas Infantry (20th Army Corps, Heg’s Brigade: 30 KIA, 165 WIA, 25 captured or missing)

2nd Minnesota Battery (20th Army Corps, 1st Division: 2 WIA)
2nd Minnesota Infantry (14th Army Corps, Van Derveer’s Brigade: 35 KIA, 113 WIA, 14 captured or missing)

1st Missouri Light Artillery, Battery G (20th Army Corps, Laiboldt’s Brigade: 4 WIA)
2nd Missouri Infantry (20th Army Corps, Laiboldt’s Brigade: 7 KIA, 56 WIA, 29 captured or missing)
15th Missouri Infantry (20th Army Corps, Laiboldt’s Brigade: 11 KIA, 67 WIA, 22 captured or missing)

Monday, January 13, 2014

Veterans of Trans-Mississippi Actions at Chickamauga


Recently, I’ve been reading a history of the Chickamauga campaign, and while perusing the Order of Battle I noticed some familiar regiments. As far as I can determine, there were fourteen units that fought at the battle of Chickamauga that had campaigned earlier in the trans-Mississippi. Here is the list of units:

Union units:

1st Illinois Light Artillery, Battery C (New Madrid, Missouri)
21st Illinois (Campaigning in southeastern Missouri, fall 1861-early 1862)
22nd Illinois (Belmont)
25th Illinois (Pea Ridge)
27th Illinois (Belmont)
35th Illinois (Pea Ridge)
36th Illinois (Pea Ridge)
42nd Illinois (Fremont's Missouri campaign-1861)
44th Illinois (Pea Ridge)
51st Illinois (New Madrid, Missouri)
59th Illinois (Pea Ridge)

22nd Indiana Infantry (Pea Ridge)

2nd Missouri Infantry (Pea Ridge)
15th Missouri Infantry (Pea Ridge)
1st Missouri Light Artillery, Battery G (Fremont's Missouri Campaign-1861)

Confederate units:

1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles (Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge)
2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles (Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge)
5th-13th Arkansas Infantry (Belmont)

Bledsoe’s Missouri Battery (Carthage, Wilson’s Creek, Dry Wood, Lexington, Pea Ridge)

6th-10th-15th Texas (Arkansas Post)
17th-18th-24th-25th Texas Cavalry (dismounted) (Arkansas Post)
Good-Douglas Texas Battery (Pea Ridge)

A further comment…I hope that there is a scholar working on a book about Arkansas units similar to those written by Art Bergeron, James L. McGhee, Ralph Wooster about Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas troops respectively. Arkansas troops are well deserving of such a reference source.