The 12th Missouri Infantry: A German-American Regiment

Missouri contributed many fine military units, both Union and Confederate ones, to the war effort. William F. Fox highlighted four Union Missouri regiments in his list of 300 fighting regiments; all of the Missouri units in his list suffered high percentages of men killed or mortally wounded in action. Many German-Americans served in the ranks of the 12^th Missouri Infantry, and they saw their first combat at the battle of Pea Ridge.

For further information about the unit see:

Hess, Earl J., ed. A German in the Yankee Fatherland: The Civil War Letters of Henry A. Kircher. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1983.

“C. R. Wood's Brigade — Osterhaus's Division--Fifteenth Corps.

（1) Col. P. J. Osterhaus; Major-General.

（2) Col. Hugo Wangelin; Bvt. Brig.-Gen.

Losses.	Officers.	En. Men.	Total.
Killed and mortally wounded	10	102	112
Died of disease, accidents, in prison, etc.	2	94	96
Totals	12	196	208

Total enrollment, 931; killed, 112; percentage, 12.0.

Battles.	Killed.	Wounded.1	Missing.2	Total.
Pea Ridge, Ark.	3	29	2	34
Chickasaw Bluffs, Miss.	2	4		6
Arkansas Post, Ark.		1		1
Fort Pemberton, Miss.		2		2
Vicksburg, Miss. (assault, May 19）	1	3		4
Vicksburg, Miss. (assault, May 22）	26	82		108
Siege of Vicksburg, Miss.	10	42		52
Canton, Miss.	1	5		6
Barton Station, Miss.	1	3		4
Lookout Mountain, Tenn.	1	23	3	27
Misssionary Ridge, Tenn.
Ringgold, Ga.	5	22	1	28
Resaca, Ga.	6	18		24
Dallas, Ga.	3	9		12
Kenesaw Mountain, Ga.	4	6		10
Battle of Atlanta, Ga., July 22d	2	5	1	8
Ezra Chapel, Ga.	1	2		3
Siege of Atlanta, Ga.	2	8		10
Skirmishes; Guerillas; On Picket.	3	10	1	14
Totals	71	274	8	353

Notes.--Organized at St. Louis in August, 1861. After participating in Fremont's expedition in Missouri, the regiment left its camp at Rolla, Mo., in January, 1862, with General Curtis's Army, moving into Arkansas, where it was engaged, March 8, 1862, at the battle of Pea Ridge. It was then in Greusel's Brigade, of Osterhaus's Division. The rest of that year was passed in Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas, its next battle occurring, December 29, 1862, at Chickasaw Bluffs; a few days after it sailed for Arkansas Post, where it was present but not engaged. It was then in Hovey's Brigade, of Steele’s Division. During the Vicksburg campaign it was in C. R. Woods's Brigade, Steele's Division, Fifteenth Corps. It took a prominent part in the assault on Vicksburg, May 22, 1863, in which Major Gustavus Lightfoot was killed. After the fall of Vicksburg, the regiment accompanied its corps to Tennessee, where it participated in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, in which Colonel Wangelin lost an arm. On May 1, 1864, it moved with Sherman's Army in the advance on Atlanta. It was then in Wangelin's (3d) Brigade, Osterhaus's (1st) Division, Fifteenth Corps; this division was subsequently commanded by General Charles R. Woods. The Twelfth fought its last battle at Ezra Chapel, Ga., on July 28, 1864; its time having expired it was shortly afterwards ordered home for muster-out. Of the officers belonging to the regiment, ten were killed, one lost both eyes, one lost a leg and arm, one lost one arm, and two lost one leg each; one died of disease, and one was drowned” (Fox, p. 414).

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1 Includes the mortally wounded.

2 Includes the captured.

A New Civil War Journal

Yesterday, I received the first issue of The Journal of the Civil War Era, a joint venture of the University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at The Pennsylvania State University. The first issue contains an editor’s note, three articles, a review essay, a book review section, and an article about the job market for historians specializing in the nineteenth-century. Altogether there are 140 pages of text plus several pages of advertisements in this inaugural issue. What caught my attention mostly was the inclusion of an article by LeeAnn Whites titled “Forty Shirts and a Wagonload of Wheat: Women, the Domestic Supply Line, and the Civil War on the Western Border.” Pleasant to see an article about the trans-Mississippi in the first issue!

A Well Traveled Regiment: The 24th Iowa Infantry

Lieutenant Colonel William F. Fox chronicled many fascinating facts in his histories of 300 fighting Union regiments in his classic, Regimental Losses in The American Civil War, 1861-1865. This is the latest installment in my series on twenty-three regiments from his list of 300 fighting regiments. And what is so special about the twenty-three? They all served at some point in their history in the trans-Mississippi. Among the 300 fighting regiments was the storied 24^th Iowa Infantry that had the interesting distinction of seeing combat duty in all three theaters of the war. Read on…

“Slack’s Brigade — Hovey’s Division--Thirteenth Corps.

（1) Col. Eber C. Byam.

（2) Col. John Quincy Wilds (Killed).

（3) Col. Edward Wright; Bvt Brig.-Gen.

companies.		killed and died of wounds.			died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c.			Total Enrollment.
		Officers.	Men.	Total.	Officers.	Men.	Total.
Field and Staff		1		1	1	1	2	19
Company	A	1	19	20	1	12	13	107
	B		4	4	1	23	24	127
	C	2	12	14		16	16	107
	D	1	17	18		24	24	137
	E	1	10	11		26	26	117
	F	1	14	15		20	20	123
	G		16	16		22	22	113
	H	1	10	11		23	23	129
	I		12	12		20	20	104
	K	1	5	6		25	25	124
Totals		9	119	128	3	212	215	1,207

128 killed == 10.6 per cent.

Total of killed and wounded, 474.

Battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.
Magnolia Hills, Miss.	2	Sabine Cross Roads, La.	6
Champion's Hill, Miss.	75	Rosedale Bayou, La.	1
Black River, Miss.	1	Opequon, Va.	21
Siege of Vicksburg	3	Fisher’s Hill, Va.	1
Jackson, Miss.	1	Cedar Creek, Va.	13
Grand Coteau, La.	1	Guerrillas, La.	2
Nachitoches, La.	1

Present, also, at Duvall's Bluff, Ark.; Fisher’s Hill, Va.

Notes.--Organized in August, 1862, the men having been recruited from the State at large. Leaving Iowa soon after, it proceeded to Helena, Ark., where it was stationed for a few months, and in January, 1863, took part in General Gorman’s Expedition up the White River to Duvall's Bluff. In the spring of 1863, the regiment joined the army in its advance on Vicksburg, having been assigned to Slack's (2d) Brigade, Hovey's Division, Thirteenth Corps. Its first engagement occurred at Port Gibson (Magnolia Hills), May 1, 1863, in which the regiment lost 1 killed and 5 wounded. At the battle of Champion's Hill, May 16th, it sustained a severe loss, having charged, captured, and held a battery of the enemy. It was a daring act, but as it made the advance alone, and without proper arrangement for support, it became the object of a concentrated fire which drove it back in disorder. Its loss at Champion's His was 35 killed, 120 wounded, and 34 missing; total, 189. From January, 1864, it lay encamped at Algiers and in the defences of New Orleans, until March 13th, when it joined Banks's Red River Expedition. It was then in Raynor's (2d) Brigade, McGinniss's (3d) Division, Thirteenth Corps. At the battle of Sabine Cross Roads, this division was commanded by General Cameron. The regiment was then transferred to the Nineteenth Corps, accompanying it to Virginia, where it fought in the Shenandoah Valley campaign, during which Colonel Wilds was killed at Cedar Creek. The regiment was then in Shunk's (4th) Brigade, Grover's (2d) Division, Nineteenth Corps. Its casualties at the Opequon were 10 killed, 57 wounded, and missing; and at Cedar Creck, 8 killed, 43 wounded, and 41 missing” (Fox, p. 412).

The Battle of New Market: The Trans-Mississippi Connection

Recently, I read Charles R. Knight’s excellent book titled Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market and the Opening of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, May 1864 (New York: Savas Beatie, 2010). How can there possibly be a connection between a Virginia campaign and the trans-Mississippi? I kid myself sometimes by thinking that I know a lot about the Civil War, and then I read a book like Valley Thunder and realize that I still have much to learn. For instance, I learned that there was a company of Missouri Confederates that fought at the battle of New Market. I had no idea until then that any Missouri Confederates served in Virginia!

Based on information from Knight’s book plus James E. McGhee’s Guide to Missouri Confederate Units, 1861-1865 (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2008), THE source on Missouri Confederate units, I learned that Charles H. Woodson and Edward H. Scott received permission to raise a company from “exchanged Missouri prisoners in late June 1863” (McGhee, p. 164). Raised as a cavalry company, these Missourians were attached to the 62^nd Virginia Mounted Infantry. At the battle of New Market, the 62^nd Virginia, along with Woodson’s men, fought as infantrymen and held the center of the line. The Virginia Military Institute’s Cadet Battalion were to their left during the most intense part of the battle. Woodson’s company has the distinction of suffering the highest proportion of casualties during the battle of New Market. Knight estimates that 62 Missourians were in the ranks, and that the company suffered 8 killed and 33 wounded for a total of 41; that amounts to a 66% casualty rate.

In 1905, a simple monument to Woodson’s Company was dedicated on the New Market battlefield. According to Knight, the marker reads:

“’This rustic pile/The simple tale will tell:/It marks the spot/Where Woodson’s Heroes fell’” (Knight, p. 295).

The 44th Illinois Infantry: One of the Three Hundred

William F. Fox included the 44^th Illinois Infantry in his list of 300 fighting regiments, and it is no wonder! From Pea Ridge, the regiment eventually made its way into the Army of the Cumberland where it assembled a fine combat record.

“Kimball’s Brigade --Newton’s Division--Fourth Corps.

（1) Col. Charles Knobelsdorf.

（2) Col. Wallace W. Barrett; Bvt. Brig.-Gen.

companies.		killed and died of wounds.			died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c.			Total Enrollment.
		Officers.	Men.	Total.	Officers.	Men.	Total.
Field and Staff		1		1				13
Company	A	2	20	22		11	11	127
	B		10	10		10	10	130
	C		10	10		12	12	136
	D		13	13		23	23	145
	E	2	11	13		14	14	135
	F	1	13	14		17	17	142
	G		16	16		20	20	130
	H		10	10		24	24	125
	I		15	15		16	16	124
	K		11	11	1	9	10	137
Totals		6	129	135	1	156	157	1,344

135 killed == 10 per cent.

Total of killed and wounded, 486; died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 24.

battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.
Pea Ridge, Ark.	2	Adairsville, Ga.	9
Guerrillas, April 18, 1862	1	New Hope Church, Ga.	3
Chaplin Hills, Ky.	2	Kenesaw Mountain, Ga.	16
Stone’s River, Tenn.	53	Siege of Atlanta, Ga.	5
Chickamauga, Ga.	14	Jonesboro, Ga.	3
Missionary Ridge, Tenn.	7	Franklin, Tenn.	10
Resaca, Ga.	5	Nashville, Tenn.	5

Present, also, at Hoover’s Gap; Dandridge; Rocky Face Ridge; Dallas; Peach Tree Creek; Lovejoy's Station; Spring Hill.

Notes.--Mustered in at Chicago September 13, 1861, proceeding the next day to Missouri, where it was engaged on active duty for several months; it was then in Sigel’s Division. It was engaged at the battle of Pea Ridge, its first experience under fire, sustaining a slight loss only,--1 killed and 2 wounded. In May, 1862, it marched with other reenforcements for the besieging army at Corinth, after which it remained in Mississippi a few months, proceeding thence, in September, to Covington, Ky., and then to Louisville. There it was assigned to Laiboldt’s Brigade of Sheridan’s Division, in which command it fought at Chaplin Hills; loss, 1 killed and 11 wounded. It fought next at Stone’s River, where it lost 29 killed, 109 wounded, and 17 missing; total, 155. At Chickamauga, it lost 6 killed, 60 wounded, and 34 missing; total, 100.

Upon the consolidation of McCook’s and Crittenden’s Corps into the newly formed Fourth Corps, the regiment became a part of Steedman's Brigade, Sheridan’s (2d) Division. At the battle of Missionary Ridge, Sheridan gave it credit for being among the first to plant its colors on the enemy's works. Over three-fourths of the men having reenlisted, the organization of the regiment was preserved throughout the war. The division under Newton participated in the hard fighting of the Atlanta campaign, and under Wagner, fought with Hood's Army at Franklin. After the victory at Nashville, the regiment moved to Huntsville, Ala., on January 5, 1865; thence in April, to East Tennessee, and from there it went with the Fourth Corps to Texas where it was mustered out in September, 1865” (Fox, p. 367).

For further information about the regiment check out the following links:

Civil War Flags of Illinois

Illinois in the Civil War: a roster of the 44^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry is available plus various other information

Hoosiers at Pea Ridge

One of 300 fighting regiments highlighted by William F. Fox in Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865, the 22^nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry first saw combat service in Missouri and Arkansas before fighting at such places as Perryville, Missionary Ridge, Peach Tree Creek, and Bentonville. In Fox’s sketch below note the unfortunate demise of one major and two lieutenant-colonels in this unit.

“McCook’s Brigade —Davis’s Division--Fourteenth Corps.

（1) Col. Jeff. C. Davis, R. A.; Bvt. Major-Gen., U. S. A.	（3) Col. William M. Wiles.
（2) Col. Michael Gooding.	（4) Col. Thomas Shea

companies.		killed and died of wounds.			died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c.			Total Enrollment.
		Officers.	Men.	Total.	Officers.	Men.	Total.
Field and Staff		3		3				16
Company	A		12	12		18	18	186
	B		13	13		23	23	200
	C		11	11		11	11	189
	D	1	10	11		22	22	188
	E	3	16	19		33	33	226
	F		20	20		10	10	182
	G	2	15	17		15	15	185
	H	1	15	16		18	18	191
	I	1	13	14		19	19	193
	K	3	14	17		21	21	230
Totals		14	139	153		190	190	1,986

Total of killed and wounded, 565

battles.	K. & M. W.	battles.	K. & M. W.
Glasgow, Mo.	2	Kenesaw Mountain, Ga.	15
Pea Ridge, Ark..	14	Marietta, Ga..	2
Chaplin Hills, Ky.	57	Peach Tree Creek, Ga.	6
Stone’s River, Tenn.	11	Atlanta, Ga.	6
Chattanooga, Tenn.	1	Jonesboro, Ga..	9
Missionary Ridge, Tenn.	6	Sherman’'s March	1
Rome, Ga.	13	Averasboro, N.C.	2
Dallas, Ga.	3	Bentonville, N. C.	5

Present, also, at Siege of Corinth; Lancaster; Nolensville; Liberty Gap; Tunnel Hill; Rocky Face Ridge; Resaca; Savannah; The Carolinas.

Notes.--Organized at Madison, Ind., on the 15th of July, 1861, leaving the State in the following month. Joining Fremont's army at St. Louis, it marched to the relief of Lexington. While on the way to that place the Union troops fired into each other by mistake, in which affair Major Gordon Tanner, of the Twenty-second, was mortally wounded. Colonel Davis being promoted Brigadier, the regiment was attached to his division with which it marched, in January, 1862, on Curtis's expedition against Price, and thence to the battle of Pea Ridge; its casualties in that engagement were 9 killed, and 33 wounded, including Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Hendricks, who fell, mortally wounded. The regiment then joined the army at the Siege of Corinth, after which it was stationed in Northern Mississippi until August, 1862, when it marched with Buell on the Kentucky campaign. At the battle of Chaplin Hills, Ky., October 8, 1862, the regiment was in Mitchell's (R. B.) Division; Colonel Gooding commanded the brigade, and Lieutenant-Colonel Keith the regiment. Keith fell dead, at the head of his men, while waving his sword and cheering on the line. The casualties in the regiment were 49 killed, 87 wounded, and 33 missing, out of 303 engaged. Six of the officers lost their lives in that battle. The loss at Stone’s River was 7 killed, 39 wounded, and 18 missing. The Twenty-second was then in Post's (1st) Brigade, Davis's (1st) Division, McCook’s Corps. The regiment was detailed as rear-guard at Chickamauga, and so was absent at that battle; but it participated, two months later, in the storming of Missionary Ridge,--then in Sheridan's (2d) Division, Fourth Corps. It served next in Davis's (2d) Division, Fourteenth Corps” (Fox, p. 345).

For further information about the unit see the following:

Indiana Magazine of History article: Letters of 2^nd Lieutenant Leroy S. Mayfield