|
The 43rd Regiment of Indiana Infantry was a volunteer infantry unit from the U.S. state of Indiana that served in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War in the Western Theater. Though deployed at different times in support of Federal operations in Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, the majority of its combat service took place in Arkansas. During the ill-fated Camden Expedition (part of Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign), it formed a lead element of the Third Brigade of the Third Division of the Union VII Corps, under the command of Major General Frederick Steele. A sizable portion of the regiment was killed or captured at the Battle of Marks' Mills on 25 April 1864; the prisoners were sent south to Camp Ford in Tyler, Texas, where eleven of them perished.〔McLean, pg.33.〕 The remaining elements were transferred northward, and ended their wartime service guarding Confederate prisoners-of-war at Camp Morton in their own homestate.〔(National Park Service—Civil War Regiments database )〕 Due to the relative lack of large-scale engagements in the areas where it was deployed, the 43rd did not fight in many battles, nor did it suffer large combat losses during the war. A total of two officers and 41 enlisted men are recorded as having been killed or mortally wounded during the conflict, while five officers and 200 men perished due to disease.〔(National Park Service – 43rd Indiana Infantry )〕 In addition, 121 were recorded as deserting, while 285 were unaccounted for.〔(Wesley Wilshire Norris ).〕 ==Initial organization== The 43rd Indiana was created on 11 September 1861 at Camp Vigo in Terre Haute, Indiana by order of Governor Oliver P. Morton, who commissioned William E. McLean as lieutenant colonel of the regiment, with orders to organize it and prepare it for duty.〔McLean, pg. 6.〕 Fourteen companies were raised, and George K. Steele of Rockville was appointed colonel. However, Steele's advanced age and physical infirmities led him to resign in January 1862, upon which McLean was promoted to colonel and given overall command of the regiment, which he would retain until the end of the war.〔McLean, pg. 8. McLean was given a brigade command that included the 43rd and two other regiments during the Camden Expedition, but he reports that he retained formal command of the regiment until the end of the war&mdsah;though day-to-day command passed to Major Wesley W. Norris.〕 The regiment was formally mustered in for Federal service on 27 September 1861.〔(Civil War Archive – 43rd Indiana )〕 Its original strength was 985 officers and men; these would be augmented over the next four years by 1154 recruits, with 165 veterans reenlisting.〔 Four of the fourteen initial companies were allotted to the newly formed 31st Indiana;〔 the remaining units of the 43rd, together with the counties from which they were recruited, were:〔(43rd Indiana Infantry Roster )〕〔McLean, pp.37–41.〕 *Co. A, from Clay County, *Co. B, from Putnam County, *Co. C, from Greene County, *Co. D, from Vigo County, *Co. E, from Sullivan County, *Co. F, from Lawrence County, *Co. G, from Clay, Vigo and other nearby counties, *Co. H, from Putnam County, *Co. I, from Vermillion County, and *Co. K, from Parke County. According to Colonel McLean, the men who joined the 43rd were "probably not Sabbath School or YMCA models," but nor were they the "coarse combination of the fighting devil and the jolly, boisterous rowdy" that he said were created by "Miss Nancy novelists" after the war to sell the stories they wrote about it.〔McLean, pg. 7.〕 He went on to describe the men of his regiment in these terms: Private James Gilmore of Co. H, who would go on to a distinguished local legal career after the war, offers this portrait of "the reckless disregard" displayed by some of his regimental comrades—like soldiers of all ages—"for the moral precepts taught () in () youth:" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「43rd Indiana Infantry Regiment」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|