Showing posts with label 51st IN INF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 51st IN INF. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

51st Indiana Infantry

Organized at Indianapolis, Ind., and mustered in December 14, 1861. Moved to Louisville, Ky., December 14; thence to Bardstown, Ky., and duty there till February, 1862. Attached to 20th Brigade, Army of the Ohio, to January, 1862. 20th Brigade, 6th Division, Army of the Ohio, to September, 1862. 20th Brigade, 6th Division, 2nd Army Corps, Army of the Ohio, to November, 1862. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, Left Wing 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to January, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 21st Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to April, 1863. Streight's Provisional Brigade, Army of the Cumberland, to May, 1863. Prisoners of war till December, 1863. Post of Chattanooga, Tenn., Dept. of the Cumberland, to April, 1864. 1st Separate Brigade, Chattanooga, Tenn., Dept. of the Cumberland, to September, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 4th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to November, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 4th Army Corps, to August, 1865. Dept. of Texas to December, 1865.

SERVICE. – March to Nashville, Tenn., February 7-March 13, 1862, and to Savannah, Tenn., March 29-April 6. Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., April 6-7. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Pursuit to Booneville May 31-June 12. Buell's Campaign in Northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee June to August. Guarding Memphis & Charleston Railroad. March to Louisville, Ky., in pursuit of Bragg August 21-September 26. Pursuit of Bragg to Loudon, Ky., October 1-22. Battle of Perryville October 8 (Reserve). March to Nashville, Tenn., October 22-November 7, and duty there till December 26. Prim's Blacksmith Shop, Edmonson Pike, December 25. Advance on Murfreesboro December 26-30. Battle of Stone's River December 30-31, 1862, and January 1-3, 1863. Duty at Murfreesboro till April. Reconnoissance to Nolensville and Versailles January 13-15. Streight's Raid to Rome, Ga., April 26-May 3. Dug Gap, Sand Mountain, Crooked Creek and Hog Mountain April 30. East Branch Black Warrior Creek May 1. Blount's Farm and near Centre May 2. Galesville (Cedar Bluff) May 3. Regiment captured. Exchanged November, 1863. Reorganized at Indianapolis, Ind., and rejoined army at Nashville, Tenn., December, 1863. (A detachment on Tullahoma Campaign June 23-July 7.) Assigned to duty as guard on Railroad, between Nashville and Chattanooga, till April, 1864. Duty at Chattanooga, Tenn., till September, 1864, and at Atlanta, Ga., till October. Action at Dalton, Ga., August 14-15. Pursuit of Hood into Alabama October 3-26. Nashville Campaign November-December. Columbia, Duck River, November 24-27. Battle of Franklin November 30. Battle of Nashville December 15-16. Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River December 17-28. Columbia December 21. Duck River December 22. Non-Veterans mustered out December 14, 1864. Moved to Huntsville, Ala., and duty there till March, 1865. Operations in East Tennessee March 15-April 22. At Nashville till June. Ordered to New Orleans, La., June 16; thence to Texas, July. Duty at Green Lake and San Antonio till December. Mustered out at San Antonio December 13, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 1 Officer and 55 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 6 Officers and 202 Enlisted men by disease. Total 264.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the 3, p. Rebellion, Part 1139

Friday, August 8, 2014

Brigadier-General James A. Garfield to Corydon E. Fuller, May 4, 1863

Headquarters
Army Of The Cumberland,
Murfreesboro, May 4, 1863.

My Dear Corydon: — Yours of April 1 was received by the hand of Lieut. Beeber, and I assure you it was read with great pleasure. When I was in Washington last winter, I saw Mr. Colfax, who spoke very kindly and highly of you. I have now fully recovered my health, and for the last three months have been hardy and robust. My duties are very full of work here, and I have never been more pressingly crowded with labors than now. I have not retired, on an average, before two o'clock for the last two months and a half. Gen. Rosecrans shares all his counsels with me, and places a large share of the responsibility of the management of this army upon me, even more than I sometimes wish he did.

This army is now in admirable condition. The poor and weak material has been worked out, and what we now have is hard brawn and solid muscle. It is in an admirable state of discipline, and when its engineries are fully set in motion it will make itself felt.

From all the present indications, it can not be long before we meet the rebel army now in our front, and try its strength again. When the day comes, it bids fair to be the bloodiest fighting of the war.

One thing is settled in my mind: direct blows at the rebel army — bloody fighting — is all that can end the rebellion. In European wars, if you capture the chief city of a nation, you have substantially captured the nation. The army that holds London, Paris, Vienna, or Berlin, holds England, France, Austria, or Prussia. Not so in this war. The rebels have no city, the capture of which will overthrow their power. If we take Richmond, the rebel government can be put on wheels and trundled away into the interior, with all its archives, in two days. Hence our real objective point is not any place or district, but the rebel army wherever we find it. We must crush and pulverize them, and then all places and territories fall into our hands as a consequence.

These views lead me to hope and believe that before many days we shall join in a death-grapple with Bragg and Johnston. God grant that we may be successful. The armies are nearly equal in numbers, and both are full of valiant soldiers, well drilled and disciplined.

I am glad to hear of your success in the Chronicle, and especially in the triumph in your region over the copperheads.

The little circumstance you related to me of the soldier in the 51st Indiana, touches my heart. I wish you would write a letter for me to Joseph Lay, and express my sympathy with him for the loss of his brave son, who was many times with me under the fire of the enemy. I want to know of the health of his family, and especially of that little one to whom the affection of the father gave my name.

John E. McGowan is here, visiting me. He is a Captain in the 111th Ohio. He wishes to be kindly remembered. Give my love to Mary, and let me hear from you both. With the love of other days, I am, as ever,

Your brother,
James.

SOURCE: Corydon Eustathius Fuller, Reminiscences of James A. Garfield: With Notes Preliminary and Collateral, p. 336-7