Tag: 15th US Infantry

Wikipedia says: The 15th United States Infantry Regiment is a parent regiment in the United States Army. It has a lineage tracing back to the American Civil War, having participated in many battles.

…The current 15th Infantry was activated during the Civil War on 3 May 1861 by General Order No. 33. It was one of nine new Regular Army regiments, numbered 11 through 19, which were organized into three 8 company battalions. The battalions often operated independently of each other.

Its headquarters first in Wheeling, West Virginia then Cleveland, Ohio, then on to Newport Barracks, Kentucky and finally ending up in Fort Adams, Rhode Island in September 1862. Fort Adams served as the regiment’s training depot were new recruits were trained and organized into companies before being sent to the front lines.

At the Battle of Shiloh on 7 April 1862, the 15th Infantry was the first new infantry regiment to engage in battle in the Civil War.:105 In April–May 1862, the regiment marched toward and fought in the First Battle of Corinth, Mississippi. By the end of the Civil War, the regiment had fought in 22 major engagements, including Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta as a part of Brigadier General John H. King’s Brigade under Gen. Richard Johnson’s Division, XIV Army Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. The regiment was a key element of the only regular brigade in Sherman’s Army. The regiment’s crest includes the acorn, the symbol of the Major General George Thomas’s XIV Corps, and the mountains of stone to symbolize the corps’ firm stand as the “Rock of Chickamauga”. The four acorns represent the four major engagements.

During the Civil War, the regiment was commanded by Colonel Fitz John Porter from May 1861 to January 1863. Porter spent little time in actual command of the regiment after its original organization, as he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in August 1861. Porter served as a division and corps commander in the Army of the Potomac until he was dismissed from service in January 1863. During Porter’s absence, the regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James P. Sanderson. Porter was succeed as regimental commander by Colonel Oliver L. Shepherd who served as such from January 1863 to December 1870.