As the dawn rose over the smoking hulk of Fort Sumter and the war clouds finally erupted in a blaze of gun shells zeroing in on the former protector of Charleston, South Carolina, the widely dispersed forces of the Regular Army of the United States began to gather facing the storm as it lashed across the landscape. In the west, Regular Army regiments formed into what became the Regular Brigade.

We have already seen the Federal government decided to face the crisis of war by asking the various States to bring forth volunteers.  The original call for 75,000 volunteers became eclipsed many times over as the war dragged on for the better part of four years causing many hundreds of thousands of lives and devastating the Southern States where most of the fighting took place.

REGULAR ARMY CONCENTRATIONS AND RECRUITMENTS

Battles took place all over the different theaters of the war, but they concentrated in Virginia where the Federal Army of the Potomac rose to face off with the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.  To the Potomac came most of the various original ten regiments of the Regular Army.  But included in the original call for volunteers came a doubling in size of the Regular forces, as well.  Ten new infantry regiments arose.  Some of these would shunt to the Potomac, but most of the newly raised units found their way to become part of the Regular Infantry Brigade of the Army of the Cumberland, one of the main Union armies fighting in the western theaters of the war.

Being new units, it took time to both recruit and train the new Regular regiments before sending them into battle.  The new regiments gained authorization for three battalions but recruiting proved difficult for the new regiments drawn mainly from the western States of the North.  Most regiments went into battle with only one battalion present.  As such, instead of a division of Regulars, like in the east on the Potomac, in the West, there were only enough Regular troops to build into a brigade.

A QUICK PRIMER OF ARMY ORGANIZATION

First, here is a quick primer on military units, their classification and sizes.  An army consisted of the largest organization, technically commanded by a lieutenant general though in all cases for Federal units, their armies fell under the command of a major general since before 1864 that rank did not exist.  An army consisted of two or more corps and could number 80,000 or more, though some armies were also smaller.

Commanding a corps of troops, again, was a major general.  Two to three divisions usually made up a corps.  The corps normally numbered well over 20,000 men though some could be smaller and some larger.  A corps was a relatively new-to-the-time organization dating to the Napoleonic era when armies grew to enormous sizes also seen in the American Civil War.  The divisions making up the corps held about 8,000 troops led by a major general but could also have a brigadier general at the helm.

units of battle

At division, corps and army commands, generals in charge had a hard time seeing the whole picture of battle with army sizes up past 100,000 in some Federal cases.  Below, the leaders had a closer perspective on the actions and their actors.  Two to five brigades combined into a division on the next organizational rung down.  The brigades were commanded by brigadier generals, though in many cases, colonels were called upon to lead.  They consisted of two to five regiments of some 2,600 soldiers. 

The main tactical units on the battlefield were the regiments led by a colonel with 800 to 1,000 soldiers.  As the war went on and the size of regiments shrank due to disease and battle casualties, the number of regiments in a brigade increased.  It was not uncommon either, to find a major or even a senior captain in charge of a regiment after a serious engagement.

NEW SCALES OF COMMAND

It is important to remember, no officers had commanded units larger than a regiment for the most part before the war, let alone brigades, divisions, corps or armies.  Command was something, like much of the war, learned on the job.  The size of the Regular army before the war consisted of 16,000 men made up of 198 companies posted across North America at 79 different locations.  Here, we are only talking about the fighting foot soldiers or infantry, but there were many other components of the Army needing to adapt to the new conditions – quartermaster, ordnance, medical, adjutant general, subsistence, paymaster, engineer, inspector general, topographical engineer (mapping), and judge advocate general.

RECRUITMENT AND REPLACEMENT

All Regular regiments – old and new – faced an uphill battle when it came to recruitment.  Volunteers opted to join State Volunteer regiments as opposed to one of the Regular ones.  Both States and the Regular Army never figured out an effective way to replenish the ranks as the war went on.  For the States, they simply tended to make more new regiments, possibly increasing the size of bounties a soldier could gain by signing up.  The Regulars tried to increase their bounties, as well, meanwhile outlawing flogging and decreasing the time needed to serve an enlistment.  But harsher discipline and the tendency to stick Regular units into the heart of a combat resulting in higher casualties tended to make recruiting more difficult.

Federal antebellum regiments – a model used by most State Volunteer units – consisted of ten companies.  While companies made up the fighting unit most soldiers knew best, it was the regiment forming the basic maneuver unit.  Another unit falling in between the regiment, and the company was the battalion, normally commanded by a major. 

A NEW REGIMENTAL MODEL

The new regiments raised after 1861 for the Regular Army consisted of three battalions.  A battalion was not a commonly used organization before or during the war.  Battalions could consist of as little as two companies – companies, led by captains, usually numbered 100 at the beginning of their lives.  Regiments fewer with eight or less companies often were referred to as a battalion. 

The original Regular Army regiments, like State Volunteers, did not normally use battalions.  With the new regiments, the three battalions comprised of twenty-four companies instead of the normal ten.  This made them technically stronger, but again authorization and reality did not mesh well. 

Only a couple of the regiments seeing action in the West ever put more than two battalions on the field at once.  Several managed only one.  In a couple of instances, a company or two of a third battalion actually did end up raised, but losses and the inability to recruit at a high standard made the three-battalion structure a bit of a dream.

NEW REGIMENTS IN THE WEST

Of the new Regular Army regiments, four served with the Army of the Cumberland – 15^th, 16^th, 18^th and 19^th – while one other – the 13^th – served in the West, but with William T. Sherman and the Army of the Tennessee.  Since for this post, we are talking about the Cumberlanders, we will stick to those four regiments.

15^th US INFANTRY

John P. Sanderson took up the task of organizing the 15^th after a couple other commanders were promoted out of the regiment.  He previously served as chief clerk in the War Department of Simon Cameron – both were from Pennsylvania.  Sanderson took up a position as a lieutenant colonel in the regiment of his son, George (George would erect the first memorials to Custer and his men at Little Big Horn in 1879).  Serving until 4 July 1863, Sanderson became part of William Rosecrans’ staff thereafter.

Major John King – West Point class of 1837 – commanded the 1^st Battalion which marched to join Grant’s army in front of Fort Donelson.  When the fort fell before they could reach the scene, they became part of the forces operating to occupy Nashville.  Becoming part of the 4^th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio – including the 1^st Battalions of the 16^th and 19^th US as well – they marched to joining General Grant’s forces at Pittsburg Landing reaching there in time to take part in the second day’s fighting at Shiloh.  Along with the 16^th, they played a significant role in breaking the enemy line forcing the Confederate retreat to Corinth, Mississippi.  Losses amounted to 63 men that day.

stones river

Following the siege of Corinth the battalion spent much of the year marching through Tennessee and Kentucky.  Formed into the Regular Brigade under Major King with the 1^st Battalion, they took part in the Battle of Stones River at the end of 1862.  The regiment was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. Sheperd – West Point class of 1848.  Losses in the 15^th were high with 105 casualties out of 320 present at the start of battle on 31 December.  Major King among the wounded suffered two bullet wounds to the left arm, one to the left hand and a dislocated shoulder after falling from his horse.  He returned to the field to take command of the Regular Brigade in May 1863.

chickamauga

Captain Albert B. Dod commanded the battalion’s six companies present – two others behind on detached duties – plus one company of the 2^nd Battalion at Chickamauga.  They marched guarding an artillery battery into the woods in the rear of the brigade on 19 September surviving some of the major onslaught other units of the brigade suffered that day.  On 20 September, the battalion helped repulse four separate attacks until forced to withdraw as darkness fell out of ammunition.  Of the 276 men going into combat, 152 became casualties.

missionary ridge and beyond

The rest of the 2^nd Battalion reached Chattanooga on 2 October with the command of the regiment under Major John R. Edie.  Edie served in Congress as a member of the Republican party in 1856.  His son graduated from West Point with the class of 1861.  The 2^nd Battalion represented badly needed reinforcements to the Regular Brigade, badly mauled at Chickamauga. In command of a newly constructed Regular Brigade for Missionary Ridge, Edie broke his command into demi brigades with the Regulars in the front rank – 15^th on the right and 16^th US on the left with the 18^th and 19^th forming behind in a second line.

Skirmishers of the 15^th cleared out the Confederate rifle pits at the bottom of Missionary Ridge at the start of the assault. A quick pause to catch their breath and then the men continued on up the ridge.  Victory was swift and the defeat of Chickamauga erased.

The regiment took place in actions during the Atlanta Campaign – one of their former captains, Colonel Charles Harker died at Kennesaw Mountain.  With the Battle of Jonesborough won on 1 September 1864, Atlanta a week later.  The regiment returned to Chattanooga on 29 September where it remained for the rest of the war encamped atop Lookout Mountain.

16^th US INFANTRY

Major Adam Jacoby Slemmer organized the 16^th at Des Plaines, Illinois in the spring of 1861.  He graduated from West Point with the class of 1850 serving at various posts in Florida and the Pacific coast. Slemmer also taught back at the Point from 1855 to 1859.  January 1861 saw him in command of troops at Fort Barrancas, Pensacola, Florida.  The naval yard surrendered to Floridian militia on 10 January whereupon Slemmer moved his force – 80 men – to Fort Pickens.  Asked to surrender, he refused.  Unlike Fort Sumter, Fort Pickens was successfully reinforced and never captured during the war.  Not long into the history of the newly raised regiment before Slemmer left for other duties under General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio command. 

His place taken by a former civilian who entered the Army at the rank of major, Philip Stanley Coolidge, a great grandson of Thomas Jefferson.  But Coolidge soon called away becoming superintendent of regimental recruiting service to try and recruit more than the single existing battalion.  The 1^st Battalion was overseen by Captain Edwin F. Townsend during their first battle at Shiloh.  For his part, Townsend – West Point class of 1854 – received a brevet promotion to major.

stones river

Slemmer returned to command at Stones River, becoming seriously wounded early in the regiment’s fight during the afternoon of 31 December 1862.  Wounded and left behind as the battalion retreated to take up their final position where the monument to the US Regulars sits in the Stones River National Cemetery, Slemmer fell prisoner.  He gained his release shortly afterwards on parole, however.  His wounds proved serious enough to take him from field duty for the rest of the war, though he continued – promoted eventually to brigadier general (volunteers) – serving behind the front.  Slemmer continued after the war in the army but as commander at Fort Laramie, he died in 1867 from lingering effects of typhoid fever he contracted during the war.  Captain Robert E. A. Crofton, originally from Ireland, led the battalion for the rest of the battle at Stones River. 

chickamauga and sidney coolidge

During the battle of Chickamauga, the 16^th was even harder pushed especially during September 19^th when providing support to an artillery battery in the woods north of the Brock Field.  Five Confederate regiments erupted out of the brush in the woods.  Almost 200 men of the 16^th fell to capture.  Brigade commander Brigadier General John King noted afterwards, “I lost the 1^st Battalion, 16^th Infantry.”

prewar adventures

In command of that battalion was Major Sidney Coolidge.  Coolidge enjoyed an interesting personal history before the war.  Both he and his twin brother Algernon had studied abroad in Switzerland, France and for Sidney, the Royal Saxon Military Academy in Dresden.  Algernon returned to Harvard to take up medicine while his brother did survey work and gained appointment to the 1853 exploration expedition of Commodore Perry in Japan.

The following year, he helped Harvard astronomer George Bond with observations of Saturn.  He followed that with other scientific studies in following years before finding himself in Mexico during one of the many civil wars of the period.  At the time – 1858 – asked to advise Liberal forces near the town of Orizaba – west of Veracruz – he helped design and oversee the construction of defenses.  Governmental troops overran the Liberals with Coolidge captured.  He received a death sentence from the Mexican commander, but that was commuted.  After a period of confinement in a Mexico City prison, he gained his release.

Coolidge returned to command the regiment in time for the Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863.  At Chickamauga, he brought 308 men onto the battlefield.  During the Confederate attack, Coolidge disappeared while trying to rally his men.  At first, reported as missing, then as a prisoner and finally dead, though his body never recovered from the battlefield.   The artillery battery was unable to get away either in the midst of woods and Rebel attackers.

reorganization

19 September proved so traumatic for the 16^th, what was left – 62 men – was combined with the remnants of the 19^th US – only about 200 men in total – for the next day’s battle.  They held off several attacks on 20 September until late in the afternoon, with ammunition out, they began pulling out of the line.  Being one of the last brigades to pull off General Thomas’ line – found today with the wealth of monuments found along Battleline Road – the ad-hoc battalion came apart with the men of the 19^th suffering the worst of this day, especially when they never received retirement orders.  It was up to Captain Crofton to take the survivors of the 16^th off the battlefield once again.

The 16^th, like the rest of the Regular Brigade, continued their fighting days through the end of the Atlanta Campaign before being withdrawn to set up camp atop Lookout Mountain in late 1864.  58% of the men of the 16^th had suffered capture on 19 September.  The 16^th gained resurrection after the war joined by the survivors of the 11^th US.

18^th US INFANTRY

hENRY CARRINGTON

Henry B. Carrington graduated from Yale in 1845.  After law school, also at Yale, he moved to Columbus, Ohio to practice law.  An abolitionist, he helped organize the Republican party in 1854 becoming a close friend of Salmon Chase, Ohio governor and general man of greater importance within the nascent political party.  After a year as Judge Advocate General for the state in 1857, Carrington became Adjutant-General charged with reorganizing the state’s militia.

With the outbreak of Civil War, he helped muster ten regiments of militia and the first twenty-six of Ohio’s volunteer regiments.  In May 1861, he was given a commission as colonel for the new 18^th US Infantry Regiment.  Carrington did not spend a long time with the regiment.  He was regarded to be two important as an organizer and mobilizer sending needed troops to the fronts.  He was also retained as an important officer investigating secret organizations supposedly acting counter to the Federal government.

Carrington would return to command the regiment after the war.  The three battalions split up into new regiments with the 1^st Battalion retaining the 18^th designation.  Just prior to that reorganization – December 1866 – 80 men under the command of Captain William Fetterman, 2^nd Battalion suffered an ambush by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors and annihilated as a result.  Distrust of the lawyer who had not seen combat during the Civil War, popularity of the war-tested captain and a lack of aggressiveness on the part of Carrington led to a court-martial.  Exonerated, he was still relieved of his command ruining his military career.

OLIVER SHEPHERD

Command of the 18^th was left to Lieutenant Colonel Oliver L. Shepherd.  A graduate of West Point’s class of 1840, Shepherd served in Florida and Mexico before the Civil War.  The regiment reached the actions along the Tennessee River just after the battle of Shiloh.  Commanding the 1^st Battalion was Major James N. Caldwell.  Caldwell also was in the West Point class of 1840.  He did serve in Florida during the Second Seminole War but seems to have missed out on the actions in Mexico.  Assigned to command of the barracks at Key West at the beginning of the war, he gained promotion to major at the end of February 1862 in time to lead the 1^st Battalion into battle.

He led the battalion through Kentucky and Tennessee, winning a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel for gallant leadership displayed at Stones River.  With failing health, he was forced to leave the field.

frederick townsend

Major Frederick Townsend commanded the 2^nd Battalion.  The 1^st Battalion organized five companies while there were six with the 2^nd.  Even a 3^rd Brigade was formed, but it only figured in with a lone company.  Frederick started off as a lawyer practicing in Albany in 1849.  With the Gold Rush, he went out to California coming back with lots of stories and a single gold nugget.  Back in Albany, he helped organize the 76^th New York militia regiment, becoming its colonel.  In 1857, he gained appointment to become the Adjutant General for New York.  He was reappointed in 1859 considering the good work he put into reorganizing New York’s militia.

With the onset of the Civil War, he helped organize the 3^rd New York Volunteer Regiment becoming its colonel – a three-month unit.  His regiment involved itself in one of the first land battles of the war at Big Bethel.  It was a small affair as far as Civil War battles went.  The regiment drew friendly fire with 21 casualties caused by the 7^th New York mistaking them for Confederates – standardized uniforms had yet to be adopted.

move to the 18th

Townsend gained appointment as major with the 18^th on 19 August 1861.  The men fought during the Siege of Corinth and later at Perryville before the severe test of Stone River.  As all of the senior members of the brigade went down killed or wounded except for the brigade commander, Shepherd, Townsend took command of the left wing of the brigade consisting mainly of both battalions of the 18^th.  Of the 603 men present at the battle, there were 282 casualties from the heavy actions.  To fill in the holes rent by battle, men organizing into a third battalion of the 18^th transferred to the other two battalions.

stones river and chickamauga

After Stones River, Townsend left back for New York, posted as assistant provost marshal general in Albany.  Command of the 1^st Battalion fell to Captain George W. Smith.  The 2^nd Battalion fell to Captain Henry Haymond.  Haymond came from western Virginia, another lawyer turned soldier.  Wounded at Stones River but he was back on duty shortly afterwards.

At Chickamauga on 19 September, the 1/18^th survived relatively intact.  They were not immediately overrun by the Rebel attack of Edward Walthall’s Mississippi brigade.  The 1/18^th was able, with help from the 94^th Ohio, to cover the retreat of the rest of the Regular brigade during the late morning rout in the woods above Brock’s Field.  They were not so lucky on 20 September.  After spending most of the day fighting on the line General Thomas had set up following today’s Battleline Road, about 5pm with ammunition drawing down, the brigade came apart as an organized withdrawal occurred just as Confederates ramped up more attacks. 

Some of the men never heard the orders to pull out while others retreated in unorganized fashion.  Captain Smith organized the mingled companies of both battalions as they made their way best they could.  Haymond recalled the time had come for every man to think of himself, “to stay behind was certain capture to retreat seemed certain death …  choosing “the latter, not fancying a sojourn in Libby Hotel.  I made as good as time as I could, falling down several times on the way …”  The two-day battle left the regiment left a count of 303 casualties – 108 missing, mostly captured – representing a casualty rate over 50%.

missionary ridge and beyond

The 18^th, now quite a bit smaller, did take part in the battle on Missionary Ridge in November, still under command of Captain Smith.  The 18^th attacked as part of the 2^nd Brigade of the 1^st Division 14^th Corps – the Regular commands were still together but other Volunteer units had needed to bring numbers up to a brigade-sized unit.  Along with the rest of the brigade, the 18^th planted their colors atop the Ridge.

During the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, the 18^th saw action at Resaca, New Hope Church and at Kennesaw Mountain before the big battles around Atlanta, itself – Peachtree Creek, Utoy Creek and finally Jonesboro.  Along with the rest of their brigade, they withdrew from the frontline spending the rest of the year encamped on Lookout Mountain.  Men from the 1^st Battalion companies transferred over to the 2^nd Battalion which became the regiment in its entirety. 

19^th US INFANTRY

Major Edward Canby gained the colonelcy for the newly raised 19^th in the summer of 1861, but he was busy in New Mexico.  Plus, soon he gained promotion to brigadier general, so initial organization fell to Edward A. King, the lieutenant colonel.  With recruiting offices in Indiana and Cincinnati, Major Stephen D. Carpenter was put in charge of training the recruits.

The first two companies organized in the summer and fall with the next two in the late fall.  The first four companies found themselves making up the nucleus of the 1^st Battalion of the 19^th with four more companies later organized.  These four came online in the spring of 1862, joining the regiment as they reached readiness.  Two companies – G and H – organized in May found themselves diverted to Washington, D.C. eventually attached to the Army of the Potomac; H as bodyguard for General McClellan and G became part of the 1^st Battalion of the 17^th US in Sykes’ Regular Brigade – soon to be Division.

stephen carpenter

King left the regiment to go into the field as the colonel of the 68^th Indiana Volunteer Regiment leaving Major Carpenter the senior officer.  With Carpenter leading, companies A, B, C, D and E joined the battle of Shiloh in the brigade of General Lovell Rosseau.  They comported themselves gallantly losing 37 casualties in their first actions.

Carpenter graduated from West Point with the class of 1840 – other Regular classmates included Oliver Shepherd, James Caldwell and William Sherman.  He fought in the Mexican War where he needed evacuation from Veracruz due to disease.  After the war, on duty with the 1^st US in Texas, he – now a captain – led one of the three companies able to avoid capture following General Twiggs surrender of the entire Department of Texas to the Confederates.  Carpenter was with one of the two companies left to bolster the Federal numbers at Key West.  Promoted to major in the newly raised 19^th, he reported to Indianapolis where he began training his new recruits.

stones river

While leading the 19^th, Carpenter gained two brevets – lieutenant colonel at Shiloh and colonel at Stones River.  The problem with his latter brevet was the promotion was done posthumously.  The 19^th assumed its place in the Army of the Cumberland as part of the Regular Brigade, designed to be a tactical reserve for that army. 

At Stones River on 31 December 1862, the brigade went to plug the crumbling Federal line in a forest on the south side of a cotton field.  Helping to repel a Confederate attack after the retirement of Philip Sheridan’s brigade, they, in turn, found it necessary to retreat several hundred yards, making their final stand where the national cemetery is today. 

In their retreat, the regiment had to cross the cotton field.  Trying to decrease the number of casualties as they went across a field directly under enemy fire, Carpenter ordered his men to “scatter and run”.  While overseeing the withdrawal, he was knocked off his horse by six bullets.

Carpenter’s body was recovered by Private Joseph Prentice – he subsequently gained a Medal of Honor for his actions – and Carpenter was buried on the field.  Later, after the war, his body was removed back to his home state of Maine.  Losses that day from the six companies of the 1^st Battalion ran to 65 out of just under 200 men.  A series of captains rose to command the battalion-regiment after Carpenter’s death.

samuel dawson

Early in 1863, the two 19^th companies attached to the Army of the Potomac came west to join the regiment along with an initial company raised for the second battalion.  Also, the regiment greeted a new commander, Major Samuel K. Dawson.  He graduated from West Point with the class of 1839 – originally Carpenter was in that class but held back a year to help bring his basic studies further along.  Dawson served in the Mexican War gaining a brevet of captain for bravery shown at Cerro Gordo.  During the war, he found himself promoted to major though he went through a court martial for some offense committed in the Department of the Ohio in early January 1863.  That finding was overturned and exonerated, he came south to take command of his battalion.

chickamauga

At Chickamauga, on 19 September, the 19^th was helping the 16^th defend Battery H US 5^th Artillery in the forest north of Brock Field.  The same rout which engulfed the 16^th affected the 19^th. 

The next day, both those two regiments combined with only half of their remaining strengths available.  In the retreat at the end of the day from the line formed along today’s Battleline Road, the combined regiments – making up the brigade’s second line – fell apart as the men of the 15^th passed through their ranks, part of a plan by the brigade commander John King to withdraw by battalion. 

By the end of the day, the ranks of the 16^th-19^th halved once more.  204 men went in with Major Dawson on 19 September.  Only 48 men answered roll call at the battle’s end, Major Dawson one of the wounded.

Dawson would recover and go on to assignment as lieutenant colonel with the 15^th US.  The 19^th found itself commanded by a second lieutenant.  The original organizer of the regiment, Edward King, fell in the confusion at the end of day on 20 September, as well, leading another brigade just to the south of the Regulars. 

reorgasnization

A mere detachment now after the battle, both regiments – 16^th and 19^th – consolidated into one detachment under the command of Captain Crofton of the 16^th.  The regiment headquarters withdrew to Fort Wayne, Indiana in December 1863 to attempt to regroup, Pickney Lugenbeel gained a promotion to major replacing Dawson.  The men remained in camp near Chattanooga until February 1864 when the combined Federal armies began moving to Ringgold, Georgia to begin the Atlanta campaign.  Lugenbeel did not accompany his men in the 1864 campaign and command fell to Captain Mooney who further reorganized the battalion into four companies from the previous nine.

The battalion took part in battles at Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek and finally Jonesboro.  The long campaign reduced the strength of the battalion to 336. It withdrew to finish the war in camp atop Lookout Mountain where it regained a strength of 510.

In April 1865, Lieutenant Colonel DeLauncey Floyd-Jones took command of the regiment with Major Lugenbeel moving to assume command of the two battalions on Lookout Mountain.