98th Illinois Infantry Regiment

Template:Template otherTemplate:Short description Template:Military unit sidebar The 98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, later the 98th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Mounted Infantry, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.Template:Sfnp

Service

The 98th Illinois Infantry was organized at Centralia, Illinois and mustered into Federal service on September 3, 1862.Template:Sfnmp

The regiment was converted to mounted infantry on March 8, 1863Template:Sfnp and became an element of "Wilder's Lightning Brigade",Template:NoteTag a unit that pioneered the use of mounted infantry.Template:Sfnp As part of that brigade, it performed admirably in the TullahomaTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnmp and Chickamauga campaigns. Its superior firepowerTemplate:Sfnp due to its Spencers was found to allow it to take on an enemy that outnumbered them on several occasions and triumph. Also, the rapidity of movement afforded by their mounts gave them a rapid response ability that could take and maintain the initiative from the rebelsTemplate:SfnpThis combat power prevented much larger Confederate units from crossing a bridge on the first day of ChickamaugaTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp and stopped the left column of the Bragg's key breakthrough on the second day.Template:Sfnp

File:Spencer Rifle w Bayonet MANG Museum-10001.jpg

1862 Spencer Rifle with sling and bayonet

The regiment was mustered out on June 27, 1865, and discharged at Springfield, Illinois, on July 7, 1865.Template:Sfnmp

Total strength and casualties

The regiment suffered 30 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 5 officers and 136 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 171 fatalities.Template:Sfnmp

Commanders

• Colonel John J. Funkhouser - Discharged due to wounds July 5, 1864.Template:Sfnp

See also

• List of Illinois Civil War Units
• Illinois in the American Civil War