18th Infantry Regiment

18th Infantry Regiment
Following on from the 35th Regiment Indiana Infantry post these images are of the remaining ACW Perry hard plastic miniatures representing the 18th Infantry Regiment. As mentioned before these Union troops served alongside the 35th at the Battles of Stones River and Chickamuga. The National & Regiment flags of the 18th are included with the figures. Here’s a few brief notes taken from the ‘History of the 18th US Infantry’:
“By direction of the President of the United States, of date May 4, 1861, subsequently confirmed by Act of Congress, July 2, 1861, the infantry arm of the Regular Army was increased nine regiments, numbering from the eleventh to the nineteenth, inclusive; the new regiments to be organized into three battalions each, each battalion to consist of eight companies, the companies of each battalion to be lettered from A to H inclusive. Henry B. Carrington, a citizen of Ohio but a native of Connecticut, was appointed colonel of the regiment in 1861. The headquarters of the regiment were stationed in Columbus, Ohio, and recruiting started on the 1st day of July, 1861”

Following notes taken from, Thomas Crew
18th U.S. Infantry Reenactor, Regular Brigade Society

“After the creation of the 18th US Infantry on May 3, 1861 nearly 20 months would pass before the regiment lost its first man killed in action. During this time the 18th US actively campaigned through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. Yet the Army of the Ohio’s path seemed predestined to keep the regiment out of the fighting. At both Mill Springs and Shiloh the 18th US arrived shortly after the fighting had ended. Then during the Siege of Corinth the regiment took part in an assault that found the Confederate positions empty as Beauregard had withdrawn his army during the night.

A total of 102 men from the 18th US were killed in action or died of wounds as a result of the action at Stone’s River on New Year’s Eve 1862, the regiments first major engagement. Robert Kennedy ... fought at Chickamauga in two days of almost continuous combat. Before he was captured on September 20, 1863 near Kelly Field he had fired over 200 rounds of muzzle loaded ammunition, changing rifles several times as they became fouled. He was sent to Danville, Virginia where he escaped and was recaptured before being sent to Andersonville. Corporal Robert Kennedy C/2/18 lived to the age of 92 and his memoir is arguably the best civil war account of any enlisted man in the 18th U.S. Infantry.
The primary source for this information is Major Mark W. Johnson’s book That Brave Body of Men, The Civil War Campaigns of the 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th U.S. Infantry Regiments, Regular Army”
The 18th recruited a large amount of immigrants mostly German and Irish. Battles fought by the 18th during the American Civil War:
Siege of Corinth; Buell's Chase of Bragg; Perryville; Stones River; Hoover's Gap; Chicamauga; Siege of Chattanooga.
Battles of Atlanta: Resaca; Pumpkin Vine Creek; Dallas; New Hope Church; Pickett's Mill; Pine Hill; Lost Mountain; Kenesaw Mountain; Chattahoochee Line; Peachtree Creek; Siege of Atlanta; Jonesboro; Lookout Mountain.