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Twenty-First Illinois Infantry.
Cruft's Brigade —
Stanley's Division--Fourth Corps.
| 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 | 2 | 1 | | 1 | 18 |
| Company | A | 1 | 14 | 15 | | 10 | 10 | 146 |
| | B | | 11 | 11 | 1 | 14 | 15 | 146 |
| | C | 1 | 8 | 9 | | 8 | 8 | 132 |
| | D | 1 | 11 | 12 | | 24 | 24 | 142 |
| | E | | 11 | 11 | | 10 | 10 | 139 |
| | F | | 15 | 15 | | 17 | 17 | 146 |
| | G | 1 | 10 | 11 | | 18 | 18 | 140 |
| | H | | 16 | 16 | | 20 | 20 | 157 |
| | I | | 18 | 18 | | 7 | 7 | 138 |
| | K | 1 | 9 | 10 | | 12 | 12 | 148 |
| Totals | 6 | 124 | 130 | 2 | 140 | 142 | 1,452 |
Original enrollment, 923; killed, 113; percentage, 12.2
Total of killed and wounded, 374; died in Confederate prisons (previously included), 53.
| battles. | K. & M. W. | battles. | K. & M. W. |
| Stone's River, Tenn. | 78 | Kenesaw, Ga. | 1 |
| Chickamauga, Ga. | 45 | Atlanta, Ga. | 1 |
| Gay's Gap, Tenn. | 1 | Franklin, Tenn. | 1 |
| Iuka, Miss., August 21, 1862 | 1 | Nashville, Tenn. | 1 |
| Chattahoochie, Ga. | 1 | | |
Present, also, at
Fredericktown; Siege of
Corinth; Chaplin Hills; Knob Gap; Liberty Gap;
Peach Tree Creek;
Jonesboro; Lovejoy's Station.
notes.--A peculiar interest attaches itself to the Twenty-first, because it was
Grant's old regiment.
The men in that command little thought that the stranger assigned to them as their colonel was destined to become the grandest figure in the war. The recruits rendezvoused at
Mattoon, where they were mustered into the
State service, May 15, 1861, by “
Captain”
Grant, and on the 24th of June, the regiment was mustered into the
United States service by
Captain Pitcher, U. S. A., with
U. S. Grant as colonel.
Grant continued in command of his regiment until the 7th of August, when he was promoted, and entered on the career which was to culminate in grandeur at
Appomattox.
The regiment served in
Missouri until May, 1862, and then it joined
Buell's Army.
It was engaged at the
battle of Perryville,
Ky., but with only a slight loss in wounded.
At
Stone's River, it participated in the hardest of the fighting, losing in that battle, and in the preliminary skirmish at Knob Gab, 57 killed, 187 wounded and 59 missing; total 303.
The regiment was then in
Carlin's (2d) Brigade,
Davis's (1st) Division,
McCook's Corps, and sustained the heaviest loss of any regiment on that field.
Four color-bearers were shot down, but the colors were carried safely through the fight.
At
Chickamauga it lost 22 killed, 70 wounded, and 146 captured or missing;
Colonel Alexander, an officer of rare merit, was killed there.
After this battle the Twenty-first was assigned to
Cruft's (1st) Brigade,
Stanley's (1st) Division, Fourth Corps.
The regiment reenlisted in March, 1864, upon which it returned to
Illinois on a veteran furlough.
It rejoined the Army while at the front, near
Kenesaw Mountain, the men who did not reenlist having been attached during the meanwhile to the One Hundred and First Ohio.
After participating in the
Atlanta and
Nashville campaigns of 1864, it accompanied its corps to
Texas, where it was mustered out in December, 1865.
