Jump to content

98th Illinois Infantry Regiment

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry/Illinois Volunteer Mounted Infantry
Illinois flag
Active1862–1865
DisbandedJuly 29, 1865
CountryUnited States
AllegianceUnion
Branch
EquipmentSpencer repeating rifle
Engagements
Insignia
1st Division, XIV Corps
4th Division, XIV Corps
Illinois U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiments 1861-1865
Previous Next
97th Illinois Infantry Regiment 99th Illinois Infantry Regiment

The 98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, later the 98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Mounted Infantry, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.[1]

Service

[edit]

After the first year of war and the debacle on the Peninsula caused the Lincoln administration to realize that the war would take longer than first expected and many more men, on July 1, 1862, Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers for three-year commitments. Illinois’ quota under this call was 26,148. [2] The 98th Illinois Volunteer Infantry was raised in response to this quota. Col. John J. Funkhouser, of Effingham, IL,[3] organized and trained it at Centralia, IL,[note 1] in southern Illinois, during the summer of 1862. He mustered it into federal service on Wednesday, September 3.[4] By this time of the war, Illinois had imported stocks of rifle-muskets from Europe to make up for the shortfalls in the standard Springfields, and the state issued Austrian Rifle Muskets to the 98th Illinois.[5]

Initial Deployment

[edit]

In the Western campaigns earlier in 1862, U.S. forces had largely driven organized Confederate forces from Kentucky and large parts of Tennessee.[6] The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers were now U.S. Navy avenues for logistics and troop movements. The Tennessee state capital, Nashville, the railroad hub at Corinth, and New Orleans, the Confederacy's largest city at that time, were back in federal hands. Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, was now a target for the Union commands, ergo, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg decided to divert U.S. attention by invading Kentucky, the most southern of the southern border states,[6] which would occur simultaneously Gen. Lee's invasion of Maryland and Maj. Gen.s Earl Van Dorn's[7] and Sterling Price's attack to regain the rail center at Corinth. Kentucky produced cotton (in west Kentucky) and tobacco on large scale plantations similar to Virginia and North Carolina in the central and western portions of the state with slave labor, and was the primary supplier of hemp for rope used in the cotton industry. The state was also a major slave trade center especially out of Louisville.[6]

Bragg had begun his campaign in August, hoping that he could rally secessionist supporters in Kentucky (similar to Lee in Maryland at the same time) and draw Union forces under Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell back to protect the Ohio River.[8] Bragg sent his infantry by rail from Tupelo, MS, to Chattanooga, TN, while his cavalry and artillery moved by road. By moving his army to Chattanooga, he was able to challenge Buell's advance on the city.[9][10]

On Monday, September 8, Funkhouser received orders to take the 98th Illinois via the Ohio and Mississippi Rail Road to Louisville, KY. At Bridgeport, IL, their train derailed killing eight men and injuring seventy-five.[11] Arriving in Jeffersonville, IN, opposite Louisville the next day, they marched into Camp Jo Holt. Once his forces had assembled in Chattanooga, Bragg then planned to move north into Kentucky in cooperation with Lt. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, who was commanding a separate force operating out of Knoxville, Tennessee. In response to Bragg's advances, the 98th remained north of the Ohio River for ten days as part of the defense of Louisville.[11]

Meanwhile, Bragg, advancing to Glasgow, KY, pursued by Buell, Bragg approached Munfordville, a station on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&IRR), about 70 miles (110 km) south of Louisville, and the location of an 1,800 foot long railroad bridge crossing Green River, in mid-September.[6] The 98th Illinois' future commander Col. John T. Wilder,[note 2] commanded the Union garrison at Munfordville, which consisted of three new, raw regiments behind extensive fortifications. After rebuffing the Rebels on September 14 and unaware that Buell was nearing him, Wilder surrendered to Bragg's army on Tuesday, September 16 and became prisoners of war (POWs) for two months.[13]

In response, on Sunday, September 19, the regiment marched 18 miles (29 km) south of Louisville to a blocking position at Shepherdsville. Eleven days later, September 30, they were ordered 90 miles (140 km), via Elizabethtown, to Frankfort to protect the capital. While the 98th Illinois was on the march, Bragg had participated in the inauguration of Richard Hawes as the provisional Confederate governor of Kentucky on Saturday, October 4.[6] The next Wednesday, October 8, the wing of Bragg's army under Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk met Buell's army at Perryville (60 miles (97 km) southeast of Louisville amd 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Lexington) on October 8 and won a tactical victory against him. Despite this result, Bragg ordered his army to retreat through the Cumberland Gap to Knoxville, labeling it a withdrawal and the successful culmination of a giant raid. He had reasons for withdrawing in that news had arrived that Van Dorn and Price had failed at the Second Battle of Corinth, just as Lee had failed at Antietam.[6]

This all occurred while the 98th Illinois were on their 90 miles (140 km) march to Frankfort, where they arrived on Thursday, October 9. Two days later, the regiment, moved 13 miles (21 km) to Versailles taking 200 sick POWs from the Rebel army hospital that they had abandoned.[11] On Monday, the regiment returned to the capital. At this time, the regiment was brigaded in the Col. Abram O. Miller's 40th Brigade, with the 72nd and 75th Indiana, 123rd Illinois, and 13th Indiana Battery in Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Dumont's 12th Division in the Army of the Ohio.[11][14]

The War Department was disappointed with Buell who although the strategic victor, had lost the battlefield to Bragg at Perryville.[10] As a result of his part in rebuffing the Confederate advamce on Corinth, William S. Rosecrans was given command of XIV Corps (which, because he was also given command of the Department of the Cumberland, would soon be renamed the Army of the Cumberland), on October 24. Rosecrans was promoted to the rank of major general (of volunteers, as opposed to his brigadier rank in the regular army), which was applied retroactively to March 21, 1862, so that he would outrank fellow Maj. Gen. Thomas who had earlier been offered Buell's command, but turned it down out of loyalty to Buell.[15][note 3] Rosecrans soon became popular with his men as "Old Rosy and began organizing his army.[17]

Two days after Rosecrans took command, Sunday, October 26, the 450th Brigade marched out of Frankfort for Bowling Green. Their route took them southwest via Bardstown, Mumfordsville, and Glasgow, to Bowling Green.[11] The brigade, averaging 15 miles (24 km) per day, completed the roughly 130 miles (210 km) on Monday, November 3.[11] A week later, November 10, the 98th Illinois' brigade moved with its division to Scottsville.[11] Roughly two weeks later, Tuesday, November 25, the division moved into Tennessee to Gallatin, and on Friday, November 28, to Castalian Springs. Two weeks and two days later, Sunday, December 14, the regiment moved to Bledsoe Creek.[11] On 22 December 1862 in Gallatin, Col. Wilder, who with his regiment had ended parole mid-November, took command of the 40th Brigade which at that time consisted of the 98th and 123rd Illinois Infantry Regiments, the 17th, 72nd, and 75th Indiana Infantry Regiments, and the 18th Indiana Battery of Light Artillery.[18] Maj. Gen. Reynolds took command of the 12th Division on Tuesday, December 23.[11]

The 98th Illinois was now with its most famous brigade commander. Wilder's initial combat mission was to pursue another of Morgan's raids into Kentucky intended to sever the Army of the Cumberland's primary supply line. Lacking sufficient cavalry to screen his army as he moved south toward what would be the Battle of Stones River as part of the Stones River Campaign, Rosecrans again had to use infantry to chase off Morgan. He tasked Rewynolds to use his infantry brigades for this mission. Trying to speed their movement, these infantry units deployed partially by rail. Wilder also unsuccessfully tried to replicate the use of mule-drawn wagons with the addition of men mounting the mules pulling the wagons.[19] Unfortunately, they still traveled the majority of the pursuit on foot over unpaved roads. Despite the use of rail and wagons to speed up the pursuit, the mission was a failure with Morgan's command escaping at the Rolling Fork River.[20] The difference in speed between cavalry and infantry made the pursuit near impossible. On Boxing Day, December 26, Wilder's brigade had marched northward after Morgan, arriving Wednesday, New Year's Eve, December 31, at Glasgow.[11]

Mounted infantry

[edit]

On Friday, January 2, 1863, the 989th and its brigade marched to Cave City,[21] and, on Sunday, the regiment's division took the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L7NRR) 78 miles (126 km) to Nashville. After detraining, the division with the 98th Illinois, marched the 30 miles (48 km) to join the Army of the Cumberland (AoC) in camp by the Stones River battlefield by Murfreesboro which they reached at dusk on Tuesday, January 6. The army was recovering from the battle there and resupplying and drilling. Rosecrans reorganized the army further and 12th Division became the 5th Division of Maj. Gen. Thomas' Center Corps and the 40th Brigade became the 2nd Brigade in that division and once again commanded by Col. Miller.[21] Eight days later, a further reorganization renumered it as the 1st Division and added the 123rd Illinois to the brigade, again commanded by Wilder.[11] On Saturday, January 24, moved through Bradyville, and, on 25th, returned.

As a result of the failure to capture Morgan and other mounted Confederate raiders, Rosecrans and his subordinates, with Wilder very imvolved in the discussion, tried to find a solution to the insecurity of the AoC's lines of communication. The the experiment with wagons from the October events was revisited and analyzed, and it became apparent that the solution to their problems was the early role of dragoons as mounted infantrymen.[22] Several times, Rosecrans wrote to the Union General-in-Chief Major General Henry Wager Halleck stating his desire to convert or establish units of mounted infantry and asking for authorization to purchase or issue enough tack to outfit 5,000 mounted infantry.[23] He also believed, with Wilder in agreement, that he needed to outfit all of his cavalry with repeating weapons. When he felt he was not being heard, he went over Halleck directly to War Secretary Edward M Stanton.[24]

In Wilder, an innovative and creative man, Rosecrans found an eager acolyte for mounted infantry as a solution. On 16 February 1863, Rosecrans authorized Wilder to mount his brigade.[25] The regiments also voted on whether to convert to mounted infantry. All but the 75th Indiana voted to change to mounted infantry. The 123rd Illinois who had wanted to become mounted infantry transferred from the 1st Brigade of the 5th Division of XIV Corps to replace them.[26] Through February 1863, Wilder obtained around a thousand mules to mount his command, not from the government but scavenged from the countryside. Due to the obstinacy of the mules, horses were frequently seized from local stocks in Tennessee as contraband and replaced the mules. Wilder boasted that it did “not cost the Government one dollar to mount my men.”[27]

In theory and in practice, the brigade would use their mounts to travel rapidly to contact, but upon engagement, the soldiers would fight dismounted. Due to this speed of deployment, the unit earned the nickname, "The Lightning Brigade", and it would prove the validity of its conversion in the campaign in the Western theater. They were also sometimes known as the "Hatchet Brigade" because they received long-handled hatchets to carry instead of cavalry sabers.

As well as mounting the command for faster deployment, Wilder felt that muzzle-loaded rifles were too difficult to use traveling on horseback. Like Rosecrans, he also believed that the superiority of repeating rifles were worth their price in return for the great increase in firepower. The repeating rifles also had the standoff range similar to the standard infantry Lorenzes, Springfields, and Enfields in use by the Army of the Cumberland. He felt the repeating and breech loading carbines in use by the Federal cavalry lacked the accuracy at long range that his brigade would need.[28]

While Rosecrans looked at the regiment's five-shot Colt revolving rifle that would equip other units in the Army of the Cumberland (particularly seeing action with the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Union forces at Snodgrass Hill during the Battle of Chickamauga), Wilder was initially opting for the Henry repeating rifle as the proper weapon to arm his brigade. In early March, Wilder arranged a proposal for New Haven Arms Company (which later became famous as Winchester Repeating Arms) to supply his brigade with the sixteen-shot Henry if the soldiers paid for the weapons out of pocket. He had received backing from banks in Indiana on loans to be signed by each soldier and cosigned by Wilder. New Haven could not come to an agreement with Wilder despite the financing.[29][30]

The regiment was converted to mounted infantry on March 8, 1863[31] and became an element of "Wilder's Lightning Brigade",[note 4] a unit that pioneered the use of mounted infantry.[32] As part of that brigade, it performed admirably in the Tullahoma[33][34] and Chickamauga campaigns. Its superior firepower[35] due to its Spencers was found to allow it to take on an enemy that outnumbered them on several occasions and triumph. Also, the rapidity of movement afforded by their mounts gave them a rapid response ability that could take and maintain the initiative from the rebels[36]This combat power prevented much larger Confederate units from crossing a bridge on the first day of Chickamauga[36][37][38] and stopped the left column of the Bragg's key breakthrough on the second day.[39][40]

1862 Spencer Rifle with sling and bayonet

The regiment was mustered out on June 27, 1865, and discharged at Springfield, Illinois, on July 7, 1865.[41]

Affiliations, battle honors, detailed service, and casualties

[edit]

Organizational affiliation

[edit]

The 98th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment was organized at Centralia, IL, and served with the following organizations:[4]

List of battles

[edit]

The official list of battles in which the regiment bore a part:[42]

Detailed service

[edit]

1862

[edit]

1863

[edit]

1864

[edit]

1865

[edit]
  • March to Gravelly Springs, AL, and duty the until March 13
  • Wilson's Raid to Macon, GA, March 1-April 24
  • Summerville April 2
  • Selma, AL April 2
  • Montgomery April 12
  • Columbus, GA, April 16
  • To Macon April 20
  • Provost duty at Macon until May 23
  • Moved to Edgefield, TN and duty there until June, 1865
  • Mustered out of federal service June 27
  • Discharged at Springfield, IL, July 1865.

Total strength and casualties

[edit]

The regiment suffered 30 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 5 officers and 136 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 171 fatalities.[42]

Commanders

[edit]
  • Colonel John J. Funkhouser - Discharged due to wounds July 5, 1864.[3]

Armament/Equipment/Uniform

[edit]

Armament

[edit]

The 98th Illinois was an 1862, three-year regiment, that greatly increased the number of men under arms in the federal army. As with many of these volunteers, initially, there were not enough Model 1861 Springfield Rifles to go around so they were instead issued imported Austrian Rifle Muskets[note 5] Initially an infantry unit that served in the Army of Ohio, they then joined the Army of the Cumberland at the new year in1863. They reported the following on o0rdnance surveys:

  • 4th Quarter 1862 Quarterly Ordnance Survey &mdash 259 Austrian Rifle Muskets, leaf and block sights, Quadrangular bayonet (.577 Cal), 25 Springfield Model 1855/1861 National Armory (NA)[note 6] and contract (.58 Cal.)[5][note 7]
  • 1st Quarter 1863 Quarterly Ordnance Survey &mdash 649 Austrian Rifle Muskets, leaf and block sights, Quadrangular bayonet (.577 Cal), 25 Springfield Model 1855/1861 National Armory (NA) and contract (.58 Cal.)[5]

During the spring of 1863, the regiment was converted to mounted infantry, and on May 31, it received Spencer rifles.[5] A handful of men received the Colt 5-shot revolver rifles. It was also issued Colt Model 1860 .44 "Army" pistols. They reported the following numbers of Spencers in the ordnance surveys:

  • 2nd Quarter 1863 Quarterly Ordnance Survey &mdash 417 Spencer rifles (.52 Cal), 19 Colt Model 1860 (.44 Cal)[5]
  • 3rd Quarter 1863 Quarterly Ordnance Survey &mdash 354 Spencer rifles (.52 Cal), 9 Colt 5-shot revolver rifles (.56 Cal)[5]
  • 4th Quarter 1863 Quarterly Ordnance Survey &mdash 380 Spencer rifles (.52 Cal), 6 Colt Model 1860 (.44 Cal)[5]
  • Issued weapons
  • Lorenz Rifle Model 1854
    Lorenz Rifle Model 1854
  • M1862 Spencer rifle
    M1862 Spencer rifle
  • Colt Model 1855 revolving rifle
    Colt Model 1855 revolving rifle

Uniforms

[edit]

The 98th Illinois had enlisted to fight as infantry, and Wilder had the issue of mounting the brigade put to a vote. The men of the 98th Illinois voted to go with the change but were adamant that they wanted to move and fight as mounted infantry.[46] In March, they received new hats, standard Federal cavalry jackets trimmed in yellow (and a small amount of the prewar green trimmed mounted rifle version), and reinforced mounted trousers. The men promptly removed the yellow piping from the jackets and trousers, although some kept the green rifle trimming.[47] Like most of the western U.S. volunteers, an undecorated 1858 Hardee hat or black civilian slouch hat was the normal headgear.[46]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]

Footnotes

[edit]
  1. ^ Centralia lies roughly 60 miles (97 km)east of St. Louis.
  2. ^ A New York native, Wilder had relocated to Indiana and owned a foundry there.[12]
  3. ^ Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Grant was not unhappy that Rosecrans was leaving his command as the rift between them continued to grow.[16]
  4. ^ It acquired the names due to the movement speed that was gained by mounting the brigade, and also by the hatchets/tomohawks that Wilder had issued initially. See Lightning Brigade article for more.
  5. ^ The Lorenz rifle was the third most widely used rifle during the American Civil War. The Union recorded purchases of 226,924. Its quality was inconsistent. Some were considered to be of the finest quality (particularly ones from the Vienna Arsenal), and were sometimes praised as being superior to the Enfield; others, especially those in later purchases from private contractors, were described as horrible in both design and condition. Lorenz rifles in the Civil War were generally used with .54 caliber cartridges designed for the Model 1841 "Mississippi" rifle. These differed from the cartridges manufactured in Austria and may have contributed to the unreliability of the weapons. Many of the rifles were bored out to .58 caliber to accommodate standard Springfield rifle ammunition.
  6. ^ In government records, National Armory refers to one of three United States Armory and Arsenals, the Springfield Armory, the Harpers Ferry Armory, and the Rock Island Arsenal. Rifle-muskets, muskets, and rifles were manufactured in Springfield and Harper's Ferry before the war. When the Rebels destroyed the Harpers Ferry Armory early in the American Civil War and stole the machinery for the Richmond Arsenal, the Springfield Armory was briefly the only government manufacturer of arms, until the Rock Island Arsenal was established in 1862. During this time production ramped up to unprecedented levels ever seen in American manufacturing up until that time, with only 9,601 rifles manufactured in 1860, rising to a peak of 276,200 by 1864. These advancements would not only give the Union a decisive technological advantage over the Confederacy during the war but served as a precursor to the mass production manufacturing that contributed to the post-war Second Industrial Revolution and 20th century machine manufacturing capabilities. American historian Merritt Roe Smith has drawn comparisons between the early assembly machining of the Springfield rifles and the later production of the Ford Model T, with the latter having considerably more parts, but producing a similar numbers of units in the earliest years of the 1913–1915 automobile assembly line, indirectly due to mass production manufacturing advancements pioneered by the armory 50 years earlier. [43][44]
  7. ^ The quarterly survey lacked reports from companies E, F, and H, so one can estimate from 150-250 further Lorenz or Springfield Rifled-muskets were carried by the regiment.[45]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ Dyer (1908), p. 1088.
  2. ^ Dayton (1940), p. 4.
  3. ^ a b Reece (1900), p. 493.
  4. ^ a b Dyer (1908), p. 1088; Federal Publishing Company (1908), p. 319; Reece (1900), pp. 515–517.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Baumann (1989), p. 187.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Van Der Linden (2023), p. 1.
  7. ^ Smith (2005), p. 360.
  8. ^ Martin (2011), pp. 178–182; Van Der Linden (2023), p. 1.
  9. ^ AHC, Buell (2025).
  10. ^ a b Powell & Wittenberg (2020), p. 14.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Reece (1900), p. 515.
  12. ^ Baumgartner (2007), p. 5.
  13. ^ Cozzens (1992), pp. 14–15; Van Der Linden (2023), p. 1.
  14. ^ U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 16/2, p. 595,Organization of the Army of the Ohio, October 8, 1862, pp. 591-596
  15. ^ Gordon (2001), pp. 119–22; Lamers (1999), pp. 171–82.
  16. ^ Gordon (2001).
  17. ^ Foote (1963), p. 80.
  18. ^ U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 20/1, p. 179Organization of the ... Army of the Cumberland, Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, U.S. Army, Commanding, December 26, 1862-January 5, 1863, pp.174-182
  19. ^ Living History (2020).
  20. ^ Baumgartner (2007), p. 15; Duke (1906), p. 71.
  21. ^ a b U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 20/2, p. 305General Orders No.1- Numbering of the divisions and brigades of the center, Fourteenth Army Corps, January 6, 1863. pp.303-305
  22. ^ Dyer (1908), p. 1089.
  23. ^ U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 20/2, p. 326,Rosecrans to Halleck, 14 January 1863
  24. ^ U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 23/2, p. 34,Rosecrans to Stanton, 2 February 1863
  25. ^ U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 23/2, p. 74,Special Orders No. 44, 16 February 1863
  26. ^ U.S. War Dept., Official Records, Vol. 23/1, p. 457-461,Wilder Report (1st Bde, 4th Div. XIV Corps), 11 July 1863
  27. ^ Garrison, Graham, Parke Pierson, and Dana B. Shoaf (March 2003) “Lightning at Chickamauga.” America’s Civil War V.16 No.1.
  28. ^ Baumann (1989), p. 224.
  29. ^ Jordan, Hubert (July 1997) “Colonel John Wilder’s Lightning Brigade Prevented Total Disaster.” America’s Civil War V.16 No.1, p. 44.
  30. ^ Leigh, Phil (December 25, 2012) "Colonel Wilder's Lightning Brigade," The New York Times, p. 1.
  31. ^ Sunderland (1984), p. 24.
  32. ^ Sunderland (1969), p. 45.
  33. ^ Robertson, Blue & Gray, Jan 2006, p. 46–50.
  34. ^ Sunderland (1984), p. 45; Kennedy (1998), p. 225.
  35. ^ Sunderland (1984), p. 26.
  36. ^ a b Robertson, Blue & Gray, Jun 2006, p. 46–50.
  37. ^ Robertson, Blue & Gray, Dec 2006, p. 41–45.
  38. ^ Robertson, Blue & Gray, Jun 2007, p. 44–47.
  39. ^ Robertson, Blue & Gray, Oct 2007, p. 46–48.
  40. ^ Jordan, Hubert (July 1997) “Colonel John Wilder’s Lightning Brigade Prevented Total Disaster.” America’s Civil War V.16 No.1, p. 48.
  41. ^ Dyer (1908), p. 1088; Reece (1900), p. 493.
  42. ^ a b Dyer (1908), p. 1088; Federal Publishing Company (1908), p. 319; Reece (1900), p. 493.
  43. ^ Smithsonian, Civil War symposium, (2012).
  44. ^ NPS, Springfield Armory NHS, (2010).
  45. ^ Research Arsenal, Summary Statement of Ordnance, 31 December 1862.
  46. ^ a b Masters (2023).
  47. ^ Baumgartner (2007), pp. 63–64.

Sources

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=98th_Illinois_Infantry_Regiment&oldid=1303087505"