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- NATHANIEL HUNTER:
Company "A" 37th Illinois Infantry
37th Illinois Infantry Regiment
Recruit Hampton October 5, 1864 - Mustered out October 9, 1865
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/r050/037-a-in.htm
?GRIFFIN, Robert Recruit Coaltown Mar 31, 1864 Died at Mobile, AlabamaMay 28, 1865 (son of John Finley & Jane Giles Griffin)
HUNTER, Andrew Veteran Coal Valley Feb 28, 1864 Killed by mob, Feb 11,1866 (Mobile, Alabama) (son of Elliott & Catherine WilliamsHunter--Joanna Hunter's brother, wife of Andrew Park)
HUNTER, Andrew Private Coal Valley Sep 18, 1861 Re-enlisted as Veteran(same as above)
HUNTER, Nathaniel Recruit Hampton Oct 5, 1864 Mustered out Oct 9,1865? (Andrew & Nathaniel were brothers)
Army of SW Missouri: October 1861 - June 1863
Army of the Frontier: September 1862 - June 1863
Army of the Tennessee: June 1863 - August 1863
Department of the Gulf: August 1863 - December 1864
Military Division West Mississippi: December 1864 - July 1865
Department of Texas: July 1865 - May 1866
Source - "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion" by Frederick H.Dyer
?Organized at Chicago, Ill., and mustered in September 18, 1861. Movedto St. Louis, Mo., September 19, thence to Booneville, Mo., October 2,1861. Attached to Dept. of Missouri to February, 1862. 2nd Brigade,3rd Division, Army of Southwest Missouri, to May, 1862. Cassville,Mo., District of Southwest Missouri, to September, 1862. 2nd Brigade,2nd Division, Army of the Frontier, Dept. of Missouri, to June, 1863.1st Brigade, Herron's Division, 13th Army Corps, Army of theTennessee, to July, 1863. 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, 13th Army Corps,Dept. of the Tennessee, to August, 1863, and Dept. of the Gulf toJune, 1864. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 19th Army Corps, Dept. of theGulf, to December, 1864. 4th Brigade, Reserve Corps, Military DivisionWest Mississippi, to February, 1865. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division,Reserve Corps, M.D. W. M., February, 1865. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division,13th Army Corps, M.D. W. M., to July, 1865. Dept. of Texas to May,1866.
SERVICE - Expedition to Arrow Rock, Mo., October 10-14, 1861 (Cos. "C"and "K"). Fremont's Campaign against Springfield, Mo., October13-November 3 (Cos. "C" and "H," at Rolla, Mo., till February, 1862).At Lamine River till February, 1862. Curtis' Campaign against Price !nMissouri and Arkansas February and March. Springfield February 12.Sugar Creek and Bentonville February 17. Battles of Pea Ridge, Ark.,March 6-8. At Cassville, Mo., guarding frontier in Southwest Missouri,and operating against guerrillas till September 29, 1862. CassvilleJune 11 (Detachment). Expedition from Ozark to Forsyth August 14-17(Cos. "A" and "K"). March to Osage Springs September 29-October 24.Occupation of Newtonia October 4. Expedition from Osage Springs toFayetteville, Ark., October 27-30. March to relief of Blunt, December3-7. Battle of Prairie Grove, Ark., December 7. Expedition over BostonMountains to Van Buren, Ark., December 27-29. Operations againstMarmaduke in Missouri April 17-May 2, 1863. Action at Cape Girardeau,April 26. Chalk Bluffs May 2. Moved to St. Louis, Mo., thence toVicksburg, Miss., June 3-14. Siege of Vicksburg June 14-July 4.Surrender of Vicksburg July 4. Expedition to Yazoo City, Miss., July12-21. Capture of Yazoo City July 13. Moved to Port Hudson, La., July24, thence to New Orleans, La., August 13. Expedition after Taylor'sand Green's forces, west of the Atchafalaya River September 8-October11. Action at Sterling's Farm on Bayou Fordoche September 29. Moved tothe Rio Grande, Texas, October 24-November 4. At Brownsville andguarding Rio Grande to Ringgold Barracks till February, 1864.EXpedition to Rio Grande City November 23-December 2, 1863. Regimentveteranize February 28, 1864. Veterans on furlough till April. Movedto Memphis, Tenn. Expedition from Memphis, Tenn., to Ripley, Miss.,April 30-May 9. Moved to Atchafalaya Bayou, La. Construct SteamboatBridge across Bayou for Banks' forces. At Morganza, La., till July 12.Moved to St. Charles on White River, Ark., July 12 and duty there tillOctober. Non-Veterans mustered out September 20. Duty at Duvall'sBluff, Ark., October 7, 1864, to January 4, 1865. Moved to NewOrleans, La., thence to Barrancas, Fla. March to Pensacola, Fla.,March 11. March to Fort Blakely, Ala., March 20-April 1. Occupation ofCanoe Station March 27. Siege of Spanish Fort April 2-8. Assault andcapture of Fort Blakely April 9. Occupation of Mobile April 12. Movedto Montgomery April 20-29, thence to Selma May 1. Moved to Mobile andduty there May 15 to June 28. Moved to Galveston, Texas, June 28-July1, and to Sabine Pass July 1-5. To Houston July 17. Railroad guardduty in that vicinity till May, 1866.
Mustered out May 15, 1866.
Regiment lost during service 4 Officers and 60 Enlisted men killed andmortally wounded and 1 Officer and 168 Enlisted men by disease. Total233.?
Illinois Regiments in Operations against Vicksburg
(Mississippi River above Vicksburg and Vicksburg, Mississippi)
(December 1862 - July 4, 1863)
?After the fall of Memphis and New Orleans in 1862, Vicksburg was theprincipal remaining Confederate strongpoint on the Mississippi River.The city was perched on steep bluffs overlooking a sharp bend in theriver. As long as the city remained in Confederate hands, trade fromthe Great Plains and the Ohio Valley down the Mississippi River wascut off. In addition, the possession of the city kept open the flow ofsupplies from the trans-Mississippi region of Texas, Louisiana, andArkansas. The loss of the city would cut the Confederacy in two.
The first attempt on the city was made by the Navy. Ironclad gunboatsfrom Memphis joined the downriver gunboats from New Orleans in arather ineffective bombardment of the city. Unable to force thesurrender of the city, both squadrons returned to their startingpoints with little to show for their efforts. It became clear that theNavy alone could not capture Vicksburg.
The main antagonists for the struggle for Vicksburg were Union GeneralUlysses S. Grant and Confederate General John C. Pemberton. Inaddition to fighting the enemy in front of him, Grant had to fend offthe designs of Union General John A. McClernand. McClernand was aformer law partner of Lincoln and had secretly proposed an expeditionagainst Vicksburg to "show what a volunteer officer could do." Grantand General-in-Chief Halleck back in Washington were not informed ofMcClearnand's orders or intentions, although his troops began arrivingin Memphis. Grant had been planning an overland push towards Vicksburgand was concerned that his effort would draw all the Confederatedefenders to his front, giving McClernand an easy job in takingVicksburg. Determined to avoid all the work with none of the glory,Grant basically hijacked McClernands troops in Memphis (with Hallecksapproval) and began a two-pronged effort to capture the city.
Grant pushed south from Tennessee in what became known as his CentralMississippi Campaign. At the same time, he sent Brigadier GeneralWilliam T. Sherman with his own as well as McLernands troops down theMississippi River to attempt a landing just north of Vicksburg up theYazoo River. After his supply depot at Holly Springs and the railroadsin his rear were destroyed by cavalry raids, Grant had to pull back toTennessee. Pembleton was then able to shift his troops south tocounter Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou. After unsuccessful assaults,Sherman convinced McClernand, who had finally arrived down river, toeliminate the Confederate Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post), which had beenused as a base for disrupting Sherman's supplies. A combined Army-Navyattack forced the surrender of the fort. Grant then brought the restof his army down from Memphis and based his troops at Millikan's Bend,Louisiana, several miles upriver from Vicksburg.
Grant's principal problem was the geography of the region. BetweenMemphis and Vickburg on the east side of the Mississippi River was avast swampy alluvial plain with little dry land. There were noapproaches from the north that Grant could use without long vulnerablesupply lines. In addition, malaria was rampant in the region reducingthe effectivness of any troops he could bring to the area. All thistime, the Confederates were strengthening the defenses of Vicksburgand also at Port Hudson 100 miles downriver.
While waiting for dryer road conditions, Grant's troops undertook aseries of attempts to get on the dry ground behind Vicksburg. Theseattempts included, bringing a gunboat through the Yazoo delta(blocked), two attempts to dig a canal for the Mississippi bypassingVicksburg (ineffective), finding passages for the transports throughthe swamps west of the river in Louisiana (not enough water) and eastof the river (blocked).
Grant finally decided to march his troops downriver and force acrossing below the city. His plan was to march two of his three corpsdown the west side of the river till they were 25 miles downriver ofVicksburg. This put Grant's troops below Vicksburg, but still on thewrong side of the river. To get across, the Army's transports and theNavy's gunboats would have to run by the guns of Vicksburg. Thegunboats could get past the Vicksburg batteries with little damage,but to try and run the batteries going back upstream against thecurrent would expose them to almost certain destruction. Once theboats ran past Vicksburg, they were stuck there until the city wasdestroyed. Similarly, once Grant was on the east bank of theMississippi below Vicksburg, he would have to either take the city orbe destroyed. With the troops, transports, and gunboats downstream ofVicksburg, Grant would cross to the east bank and attack Vicksburgfrom the rear. The boats ran the gauntlet on April 16 taking many hitsbut only losing one transport.
To distract the Confederates during the movement accross the river,Grant had Sherman's corps make a demonstration to the north of thecity. He also had Colonel Benjamin Greirson lead a cavalry raid withthree regiments of cavalry south from Tennessee to break up therailroads of Central Mississippi. Grierson's raid was the firstsuccessful large Union Cavalry raid of the war. His troopers reenteredUnion lines at Baton Rouge having confused the Confederates as to thetrue position and intentions of Grants forces.
The landing of the troops was unopposed at Bruinsburg. With his twocorps ashore, Sherman's corps was brought down so that the entire armywas south of Vicksburg. In the next seven days, Grant's army fought aseries of battles (Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champions Hill, BigBlack River Bridge), winning each, keeping a relief force underConfederate General Joe Johnston at bay, and forcing Pembletonsremaining defenders into the trenches around Vicksburg. During thatweek, Grants army had no direct supply line, but lived off the landfor food.
Upon reaching the city, Grant reestablished his supply line and aftertwo unsuccessful assaults on the defenses of Vicksburg, began siegeoperations. To protect his operations against Johnstons forces, Grantset up an additional defense line behind his first looking backtowards Jackson.
With no hope for relief and with his starving soliders unable to forcea breakout from the city, Pembleton surrendered the city and its29,500 defenders on July 4, 1863. Upon hearing that Vicksburg hadfallen, President Lincoln quipped "The Father of Waters again goesunvexed to the sea."
http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcivilw/battles/vicops.htm
[Obtained & Transcribed 10 October 2006, SLJuhl, compiler]
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