23rd Indiana Infantry Regiment

23rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry
23rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry
	Flag of the United States, 1865-1867
Active	July 29, 1861, to July 23, 1865
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Infantry
Engagements	Battle of Shiloh; Battle of Port Gibson; Battle of Raymond; Battle of Champion Hill; Siege of Vicksburg; Battle of Kennesaw Mountain; Siege of Atlanta; Battle of Jonesboro; Sherman's March to the Sea; Battle of Bentonville

The 23rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service[]

The 23rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry was organized at New Albany, Indiana, on July 29, 1861.
Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Port Gibson
Battle of Raymond
Battle of Champion Hill
Siege of Vicksburg
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Siege of Atlanta
Battle of Jonesboro
Sherman's March to the Sea
Battle of Bentonville
The regiment mustered out of service on July 23, 1865.

Total strength and casualties[]

The regiment suffered 4 officers and 68 enlisted men killed in action or died of wounds and 2 officers and 143 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 217 fatalities.^[1]^[2]

Commanders[]

Colonel William L. Sanderson

Notable Members[]

Second Lieutenant Henry C. Foster, Company B, nicknamed "Coonskin" by comrades in the XVII Corps. Foster is best known for constructing a crude marksman's tower out of salvaged railroad ties upon the Union siege works during the Siege of Vicksburg, opposite the 3rd Louisiana Redan. Wearing his signature coonskin cap, Foster was acclaimed by his Union comrades as being the best shot in the Army of the Tennessee and consequently, Foster was permitted by Union commanders to sharpshoot on his own accord during the duration of the siege.^{[citation needed]}
Lucy Higgs Nichols, affectionately nicknamed "Aunt Lucy" by the men of the 23rd, was an escaped slave who, along with her daughter Mona, informally joined the regiment at Bolivar, Tennessee, in June 1862. Nichols was soon working in the unit as a forager, seamstress, washerwoman, cook, and nurse. She and her daughter quickly became a part of the unit, as the men and Nichols shared a familial devotion to one another. This bond is best exemplified by the actions of the regiment in the days following Mona's death during the siege of Vicksburg, when the regiment conducted a funeral, complete with arranged flowers, in the midst of the ongoing siege. Aunt Lucy would remain alongside the rest of the 23rd for the remainder of the war and was even present for the Grand Review of the Armies in 1865. She returned with the unit to New Albany, Indiana after the war, was the first and only African-American woman to be awarded an honorary membership in a unit's Grand Army of the Republic post, and was invited to and attended every reunion of the XVII Corps. She gained and fame and recognition later in life in 1898, when with the help of her comrades in the 23rd, Lucy was awarded a veteran pension.

Notes[]

^ "Union Regimental Histories: Indiana". The Civil War Archive. 2009. Retrieved July 16, 2015.
^ Dyer, Frederick Henry (1959). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. New York: Thomas Yoseloff.

References[]

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[1] "Union Regimental Histories: Indiana". The Civil War Archive. 2009. Retrieved July 16, 2015.

[2] Dyer, Frederick Henry (1959). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. New York: Thomas Yoseloff.

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