The 51st Indiana Infantry was organized and mustered in at Indianapolis, Indiana, for a three-year enlistment on December 14, 1861, under the command of ColonelAbel D. Streight.
The regiment was attached to 20th Brigade, Army of the Ohio, to January 1862. 20th Brigade, 6th Division, Army of the Ohio, to September 1862. 20th Brigade, 6th Division, II Corps, Army of the Ohio, to November 1862. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, Left Wing, XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to January 1863. 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, XXI Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to April 1863. Streight's Provisional Brigade, Army of the Cumberland, to May 1863. Prisoners of war until December 1863. Post of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Department of the Cumberland, to April 1864. 1st Separate Brigade, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Department of the Cumberland, to September 1864. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, IV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to November 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, IV Corps, to August 1865. Department of Texas to December 1865.
The 51st Indiana Infantry mustered out of service at San Antonio, Texas, on December 13, 1865.
Detailed service
December 14: Moved to Louisville, KY
until February 1862: to Bardstown, KY (and duty there)
February 7-March 13, 1862: March to Nashville, TN
March 29-April 6: March to Savannah, TN
April 6–7:Battle of Shiloh
April 29-May 30: Advance on and siege of Corinth, MS
May 31-June 12: Pursuit to Booneville
June to August: Buell's Campaign in northern Alabama and middle Tennessee
August 21-September 26: Guarding Memphis & Charleston Railroad. March to Louisville, KY (in pursuit of Bragg)
October 1–22: Pursuit of Bragg to London, KY
October 8: Battle of Perryville (reserve).
October 22-November 7: March to Nashville, TN
until December 26: Duty in Nashville, TN
December 25: Prim's Blacksmith Shop, Edmonson Pike
December 26–30: Advance on Murfreesboro
December 30–31, 1862 and January 1–3, 1863:Battle of Stones River
until April: Duty at Murfreesboro
January 13–15: Reconnaissance to Nolensville and Versailles
April 26-May 3: Streight's Raid to Rome, GA
April 30:Dug Gap, Sand Mountain, Crooked Creek and Hog Mountain
May 1: East Branch Black Warrior Creek
May 2:Blount's Farm
May 3:near CentreGalesville (Cedar Bluff) (where the regiment was captured)
November 1863: Exchanged
December 1863: Reorganized at Indianapolis, IN, and rejoined the army at Nashville, TN
June 23-July 7: (A detachment on Tullahoma Campaign)
until April 1864: Assigned to duty as guard on Railroad, between Nashville and Chattanooga
until September 1864: Duty at Chattanooga
until October: Duty at Atlanta
August 14–15: Action at Dalton, GA
October 3–26: Pursuit of Hood into Alabama
November–December:Nashville Campaign
November 24–27:Columbia, Duck River
November 30:Battle of Franklin
December 15–16:Battle of Nashville
December 17–28: Pursuit of Hood to the Tennessee River
December 21:Columbia
December 22:Duck River
December 14, 1864: Non-veterans mustered out
until March 1865: Moved to Huntsville, AL (and duty there)
March 15-April 22: Operations in eastern TN
until June: At Nashville
June 16: Ordered to New Orleans
July: To TX
until December: Duty at Green Lake and San Antonio
Casualties
The regiment lost a total of 264 men during service; 1 officer and 55 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 6 officers and 202 enlisted men died of disease.
Commanders
Colonel Abel D. Streight
Captain William W. Scearce - commanded at the battle of Nashville
Brief Sketches of the Military Services, Escape from Libby Prison, How He Won a Medal of Honor, and Grand Army Record of Major Marion T. Anderson, Late of the 51st Indiana Vet. Vols. (Washington, DC: Gibson Brothers), 1897.
Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.
Hartpence, William R. History of the Fifty-First Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry: A Narrative of its Organization, Marches, Battles and Other Experiences in Camp and Prison, from 1861 to 1866 (Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company, Printers), 1894.
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.
