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Chapter 10:
three Hundred fighting regiments.
It is not claimed that these are
the Three Hundred Fighting Regiments of the Army; but, that they are three hundred regiments which evidently did considerable fighting.
There were, undoubtedly, others which did equally good or, perhaps, better fighting, and their gallant services will be fully recognized by the writers who are conversant with their history.
But, for lack of other information, this chapter deals only with those which sustained the heaviest losses in battle.
It includes every regiment in the
Union Armies which lost over 130 in killed and died of wounds during the war, together with a few whose losses were somewhat smaller, but whose percentage of killed entitles them to a place in the list.
It may be suggested that large casualty lists are not necessarily indicative of the fighting qualities of a regiment; that on many occasions regiments have rendered valuable service and achieved a brilliant success with but slight loss.
Granted, as regards some particular action or instance; but, in the long run active service brings its many scars; where the musketry was the hottest, the dead lay thickest; and there is no better way to find the fighting regiments than to follow up the bloody trail which marked their brave advance.
The losses in these three hundred regiments have been compiled from their muster-out-rolls, and counted name by name; the total of the deaths is, in each case, correct.
At times, it was difficult to decide as to the company to which a death should be tallied: for men were often transferred from one company to another, and, where companies were consolidated, a dead man's name often appeared in two or more companies in the same regiment.
Then, again, in dividing the deaths among the different battles it was sometimes difficult to ascertain the action in which the wound was received, as the date of death was often given, instead of the date when the wound was received.
In such cases the death was tallied to the last battle previous to the man's death, that is, the last battle in which his regiment was engaged.
In some instances the rolls bear the names of men marked simply as “killed in action;” these are recorded here as killed at Place Unknown.
But these inaccuracies are few and slight, leaving the main result substantially correct as to each regiment.
In some regiments the rolls were in such condition, owing to the consolidation of companies and accessions of new companies bearing the same letters as the old ones, or to the reorganization consequent upon the reenlistment of the regiment, that the regular form of tabulation was not practicable, and, so, after stating the total number of deaths — omitting company losses — the list of battles is given, accompanied by the official casualty lists of killed, wounded, and missing, instead of the number of “killed and died of wounds.”
Where the casualties are stated thus, in “killed, wounded, and missing,” the wounded includes the mortally wounded.
This must be borne in mind to properly understand the nature of the loss.
Where it could be done with accuracy, the number of killed and mortally wounded in each action is given in the regimental tabulations of these three hundred regiments; and this is done without confusing it with an additional statement of wounded and missing.
The
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number of wounded is not always an exact, definite statement, owing to the slightly wounded which are counted in some regiments and not in others.
It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between wounds, slight injuries, and lack of injury.
The missing is a still more indefinite quantity, including, as it does, the captured, the missing, the stragglers, and, very often, many of the killed and wounded.
But there is nothing indefinite about the status of the dead soldier, and, so, for purpose of comparison, it is better that the losses of the various regiments be stated in “killed or died of wounds,” and in that only.
When the total of the killed and died of wounds in any regiment is known, it is very easy to arrive at the number of its wounded, for the proportion, in the aggregate, is a definite and well known one, as has been previously shown.
1 True, this proportion will not always hold good for a regiment in the instance of some one battle; but, in all the battles of a regiment it will be found correct, the variations correcting themselves in the aggregate.
In these three hundred regiments, the title of each is accompanied by the name of its brigade, division, and corps.
Of course, many regiments served in more than one brigade, and each brigade had several commanders.
Still, in each case, the brigade mentioned will assist largely in identifying the regiment, or recalling to the hasty reader the campaigns in which it served.
Lack of space debars the tedious details necessary to trace properly the changing organizations to which most regiments belonged.
The loss by disease in Confederate prisons is stated in many instances, but, at the same time, it is included in the column of “loss by disease, accidents, &c.”
In stating the total enrollments, care has been taken to subtract transferred men who were shifted from one company to another in the same regiment.
Deductions are also made for men transferred to a regiment after the war had closed, many regiments having received large accessions from disbanded organizations just before their own muster-out.
In comparing these enrollments with the muster-out-rolls, this fact must receive attention; otherwise, there would be an apparent discrepancy.
The bands are also omitted in the enrollments as stated here, as all regimental bands were ordered discontinued, and were mustered out during the summer of 1862.
After that, no bands were enlisted, or paid as such, except brigade bands; and, if a regiment had a band, it was formed of enlisted men, or company musicians, detailed for that purpose.
In addition to the battles mentioned,--in which a regiment lost men killed or mortally wounded,--the engagements at which the regiment was “present” are also given.
In some of the latter, losses were often sustained in wounded or missing men, but, as none of these wounded or missing are recorded among those who died of wounds, the battle does not appear in the tabulated list.
In giving these additional battles at which a regiment was “Present, also,” intentional omission is made of a certain class of minor affairs which are often used by regimental historians to unduly swell their list of battles, but which, if given here, would only confuse or mislead a disinterested reader.
In the cavalry, however, these minor actions were so frequent, and resulted in so many casualties in wounded and captured men, that they form an important feature in the history of each mounted regiment.
But the brief sketches given in the succeeding pages afford no room for the long and honorable list of additional actions in which each cavalry regiment participated,--actions replete with meritorious details, although they did not result in any loss of life.
Still, the reader should bear these facts in mind to rightly appreciate the services rendered by the mounted regiments.
In most of the three hundred regiments mentioned in this chapter the figures opposite the list of battles show only the number who were killed or who died of wounds.
The number of the killed, wounded, and missing, for the more important losses of each regiment, will be found in the notes appended in each case.
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First Maine Cavalry.
J. I. Gregg's Brigade,
D. M. Gregg's Division, Cavalry Corps.
| companies. | killed and died of wounds. | died disease, accidents, in Prison, &c. | Total Enrollment. |
| Officers. | Men. | Total. | Officers. | Men. | Total. |
| Field and Staff | 3 | | 3 | | | | 31 |
| Company | A | 2 | 6 | 8 | | 29 | 29 | 266 |
| | B | | 7 | 7 | | 35 | 35 | 264 |
| | C | 2 | 10 | 12 | | 23 | 23 | 234 |
| | D | 1 | 12 | 13 | | 22 | 22 | 220 |
| | E | 4 | 17 | 21 | | 30 | 30 | 233 |
| | F | 1 | 19 | 20 | 1 | 28 | 29 | 251 |
| | G | | 19 | 19 | | 27 | 27 | 260 |
| | H | 1 | 19 | 20 | | 29 | 29 | 215 |
| | I | | 11 | 11 | | 24 | 24 | 221 |
| | K | | 20 | 20 | | 36 | 36 | 247 |
| | L | | 7 | 7 | | 36 | 36 | 223 |
| | M | 1 | 12 | 13 | 2 | 19 | 21 | 230 |
| Band | | | | | 3 | 3 | |
| Totals | 15 | 159 | 174 | 3 | 341 | 344 | 2,895 |
| battles. | K. & M. W. | battles. | K. & M. W. |
| Middletown, Va., May 24, 1862 | 3 | White House, Va., June 21, 1864 | 1 |
| Manassas, Va., Aug. 28, 1862 | 1 | St. Mary's Church, Va., June 24, 1864 | 17 |
| South Mountain, Md., Sept. 14, 1862 | 1 | Gurley Farm, Va., June 25, 1864 | 1 |
| Louisa C. H., Va., May 2, 1863 | 2 | Picket, Va., Aug. 9, 1864 | 1 |
| Brandy Station, Va., June 9, 1863 | 1 | Deep Bottom, Va., Aug. 14, 1864 | 1 |
| Aldie, Va., June 17, 1863 | 8 | Malvern Hill, Va., Aug. 16, 1864 | 4 |
| Middleburg, Va., June 19, 1863 | 11 | Charles City Road, Va., Aug. 18, 1864 | 3 |
| Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863 | 1 | Reams' Station, Va., Aug. 25, 1864 | 3 |
| Shepherdstown, Va., July 16, 1863 | 9 | Yellow Tavern, Va., Sept. 29, 1864 | 1 |
| Manassas, Va., Oct. 15, 1863 | 1 | Boydton Road, Va., Oct. 27, 1864 | 16 |
| Dahlgren Raid, Va., March--, 1864 | 10 | Bellefield, Va., Dec. 10, 1864 | 1 |
| Todd's Tavern, Va., May 8, 1864 | 1 | Dinwiddie C. H., Va., March 31, 1865 | 27 |
| South Anna, Va., May 10, 1864 | 2 | Deatonsville, Va., April 6, 1865 | 7 |
| Ashland, Va., May 11, 1864 | 9 | Sailor's Creek, Va., April 6, 1865 | 4 |
| Meadow Bridge, Va., May 12, 1864 | 1 | Farmville, Va., April 7, 1865 | 2 |
| Hawes' Shop, Va., May 28, 1864 | 1 | Appomattox, Va., April 9, 1865 | 7 |
| Cold Harbor, Va., June 2, 1864 | 2 | Picket Duty | 2 |
| Skirmish, Va., June 19, 1864 | 1 | Place Unknown | 11 |
notes.--This regiment sustained the heaviest loss, killed in action, of any cavalry regiment in the entire army.
Besides the actions mentioned, it participated in several in which it lost men wounded or captured.
Like all cavalry commands the First Maine lost many who were captured while on outpost duty, or while foraging and raiding within the enemy's lines.
Of these, 145 died of disease while in Confederate prisons.
