The 42nd Indiana Infantry was organized at Evansville, Indiana and mustered in for a three-year enlistment on October 9, 1861, under the command of Colonel James Garrard Jones. The regiment was recruited in Daviess, Gibson, Pike, Spencer, Warrick, and Vanderburgh counties.
The regiment was attached to 14th Brigade, Army of the Ohio, October to December 1861. 14th Brigade, 5th Division, Army of the Ohio, to April 1862. 17th Brigade, 3rd Division, Army of the Ohio, to September 1862. 17th Brigade, 3rd Division, I Corps, Army of the Ohio, to November 1862. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, Center, XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to January 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to April 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, XIV Corps to October 1863. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, XIV Corps, to July 1865.
The 42nd Indiana Infantry mustered out of service at Louisville, Kentucky on July 21, 1865.
Detailed service
1862
January - February - Ordered to Kentucky, and duty at Henderson, Calhoun and Owensboro, Kentucky
February 10-25 - Advance on Nashville, Tennessee
March 28-April 11 - Occupation of Shelbyville and Fayetteville and advance on Huntsville, Alabama
April 11–14 - Alabama
April 11 -Action at Wartrace
April 29 - Advance on and capture of Decatur, Alabama
August 27-September 26 - Action at West Bridge near Bridgeport
until August - Duty at Huntsville, Alabama.March to Nashville, Tennessee, then to Louisville, Kentucky, in pursuit of Bragg,
October 1–15 - Pursuit of Bragg into Kentucky
October 8 - Battle of Perryville
October 16-November 7 - March to Nashville, Tennessee
until December 26 - Duty in Nashville, Tennessee
December 26–30 - Advance on Murfreesboro
December 30–31 - Battle of Stones River
1863
January 1–3 - Battle of Stones River
March 9–14 - Duty at Murfreesboro until June. Reconnaissance to Versailles
June 23-July 7 - Tullahoma Campaign
until August 16 - Elm River
June 29 - Occupation of middle Tennessee
August 16-September 22 - Passage of the Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River and Chickamauga Campaign
September 11 - Davis Cross Roads or Dug Gap
September 19–21 - Battle of Chickamauga
September 21 - Rossville Gap
September 24-November 23 - Siege of Chattanooga
November 23–27 - Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign
November 23–24 - Lookout Mountain
November 25 - Missionary Ridge
November 26 - Pea Vine Creek and Graysville
November 27 - Ringgold Gap, Taylor's Ridge
1864
January 1, 1864 - Regiment reenlisted
May 1-September 8 - Atlanta Campaign
May 8–11 - Demonstrations on Rocky Faced Ridge
May 8–9 - Buzzard's Roost Gap
May 14–15 - Battle of Resaca
May 18–25 - Advance on Dallas
May 25-June 5 - Operations on Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church, and Allatoona Hills
May 27 - Pickett's Mill
June 10-July 2 - Operations about Marietta and against Kennesaw Mountain
June 11–14 - Pine Hill
June 15–17 - Lost Mountain
June 27 - Assault on Kennesaw
July 4 - Ruff's Station, Smyrna Camp Ground
July 5–17 - Chattahoochee River
July 18 - Buckhead, Nancy's Creek
July 19–20 - Peachtree Creek
July 22-August 25 - Siege of Atlanta
August 5–7 - Utoy Creek
August 25–30 - Flank movement on Jonesboro
August 29 - Near Red Oak
August 31-September 1 - Battle of Jonesboro
September 29-November 3 - Operations against Hood in northern Georgia and northern Alabama
November 15-December 10 - March to the Sea
December 10–21 - Siege of Savannah
1865
January to April - Campaign of the Carolinas
March 16 - Averysboro, North Carolina
March 19–21 - Battle of Bentonville
March 24 - Occupation of Goldsboro
April 10–14 - Advance on Raleigh
April 14 - Occupation of Raleigh
April 26 - Bennett's House
April 29-May 19 - Surrender of Johnston and his army. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Virginia
The regiment lost a total of 310 men during service; 5 officers and 108 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 1 officer and 196 enlisted men died of disease.
Commanders
Colonel James Garrard Jones - mustered out November 4, 1864 on expiration of term of service
Colonel William T. B. McIntire - commanded at the Battle of Chickamauga as lieutenant colonel; resigned as lieutenant colonel, December 12, 1864
Colonel Gideon R. Kellams - mustered out with regiment.
Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
Horral, Spillard F. History of the Forty-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry (Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, Printers), 1892.
Kirkpatrick, George Morgan. The Experiences of a Private Soldier of the Civil War (Indianapolis: Hoosier Bookshop), 1973. [written in 1924]
Shanklin, James Maynard. "Dearest Lizzie": The Civil War as Seen Through the Eyes of Lieutenant Colonel James Maynard Shanklin of Southwest Indiana's own 42nd Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry (Evansville, IN: Friends of Willard Library Press), 1988. ISBN0-940163-01-2
Attribution
This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.
