Out of Our Past: Wayne County regiment fought in 17 Civil War engagements

The third week of September 1861, a Wayne County regiment organized at Richmond for the Civil War.

This was the 36^th Indiana Infantry.

It was mustered on Sept. 16, 1861.

This regiment of mostly Wayne County men, according to the 1865 "Directory & Soldier’s Registry of Wayne County, Indiana," left the state, going into camp intermittently until the latter part of February 1862, when it walked to Nashville with the Army of the Ohio.

In March the regiment moved to the Tennessee River and was in the perilous battle of Shiloh, losing 9 killed and 38 wounded. (Casualties for both armies totaled 24,000.) The men remained in camp until a movement was made against Corinth, and was in the deadly siege of that place until the regiment was removed to northern Alabama, and thence to Nashville, where it joined in the pursuit of Confederate General Braxton Bragg through Kentucky. Thereafter the regiment returned to Nashville and merged with Union General William S. Rosecrans' outfit to Murfreesboro. (Corinth Union losses 2,520; Southern loses 4,233.)

At the bitter Stone River conflagration in which it participated, 24 were killed, 90 wounded and 18 missing; total casualties 132. (Casualties totaling both sides 24,000.) The troops of the 36^th encamped at Murfreesboro until May, thence marched with General John M. Palmer's division for Chattanooga and took part in the vicious battle of Chickamauga, losing 14 killed, 110 wounded and 13 missing: a total of 137 casualties. (The battle toll for both sides just under 35,000 casualties.)

The 36^th relocated to Chattanooga, at Whiteside and Tyner's Station, until March 1864. Part of the regiment upon reenlisting returned to Indiana on furlough in February. Afterwards the men marched with General William Tecumseh Sherman's army in the Atlanta campaign, taking part in nearly every skirmish and engagement of that destructive movement that resulted in the South losing heart for the war. (American total loss estimates 66,666.)

Non-veterans of the 36^th left for home Aug. 13to muster out, and the veterans and recruits were organized into a battalion with Captain John Swisher in command. The battalion to which they enjoined moved with the 4^th Corps in pursuit of rebel General John Bell Hood into northern Alabama, then it proceeded to Nashville where it was engaged in that furious battle in December, and after joined in pursuit of the enemy to Huntsville, Alabama, and thence to Chattanooga. (Nashville Union casualties 3,061; Confederate casualties 6,000.)

In June 1865, the regiment was sent to New Orleans and transferred to the battalion of the 30^th regiment, forming Company H of that assemblage. The 36^th was stationed in the interior of Texas until Nov. 25, 1865, when it was mustered out.

The regiment fought in 17 major engagements. The original strength was 1,023; gain by recruits 133; reenlistments 21; total 1,177. Loss by death 234; plus 11 unaccounted for, feared dead. This was a 20 per cent casualty rate, or one man out of five.

Short biographies of three men of the 36^th Indiana:

• James L. Baumer of Richmond enlisted in the 36^th Indiana Infantry on Sept. 16, 1861; was in the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Stone River, Perryville, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Resaca, and in the entire campaign to Atlanta and Jonesboro. Was popularly promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant and so enthused was he to fight that contrary to orders, he had the habit of departing from transport trains still in motion to engage in the enemy.

• Thomas Conley of Milton, Indiana, served three years in the 36^th Indiana that formed in Richmond. He fought in the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Perryville, Stone River; was captured at Chickamauga and as a prisoner exchanged at Louisville, Kentucky. He had enlisted at 15 years of age, having been born in 1846, but exaggerated himself as older to get in. He survived the war and in 1869 married Bridget Clinton of New Castle. His brother James, also from Milton, enlisted on Nov. 27, 1861, at Camp King in Covington, Kentucky, in the 23^rd Kentucky Regiment. He was just 14 years old. He lied about his age too, and rode with the Army of the Cumberland, and was wounded three times, most severely at the battle of Chickamauga on Sept. 19, 1863. His injuries were mainly to his back. He suffered greatly after the war and in December of 1869, after he got off a train in Connersville at the age of 21, he died in his mother’s arms.

Joseph Reynolds of Newport [Fountain City] enlisted in the 36^th Indiana that trained in Richmond on Sept. 1, 1861, for three years; was in the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, and wounded in the shoulder by the falling of a tree limb shot off by cannonball; although he was discharged on account of this wound on June 26, 1862, he reenlisted after recovery in February, 1865, to fight some more.

Contact columnist Steve Martin at stephenmonroemartin@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: Out of Our Past: Wayne Co. regiment fought in 17 Civil War engagements