44th Regiment Indiana Infantry

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name=44th Indiana Infantry


caption=Company H of the 44th Indiana Infantry stands in two-rank order of battle. Units such as this were rarely at full strength, primarily due to illness. The number of men shown here was typical for a unit in service.
dates= November 1861 - September 1865
country= United States of America
allegiance= Union Army
branch= Army
type= Infantry
role=
size=
command_structure=
current_commander=
garrison=
ceremonial_chief=
colonel_of_the_regiment=Hugh B. Reed
nickname=
patron=
motto=
colors=
identification_symbol=
march=
mascot=
battles=Battle of Fort Henry
Battle of Fort Donelson
Battle of Shiloh
Siege of Corinth
Battle of Stones River
Battle of Chickamauga
Battle of Missionary Ridge
notable_commanders=
anniversaries=
decorations=
battle_honours=

The 44th Indiana Infantry, an American Civil War regiment, was organized at Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 24, 1861, with Hugh B. Reed as colonel, and officially mustered in on November 22, 1861. It was comprised mostly of volunteers from what was then Indiana's Tenth Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state. In December, the regiment left for Henderson, Kentucky. It camped at Calhoun, Kentucky, until February 1862, when it moved to Fort Henry, Tennessee, then to Fort Donelson, Tennessee, where it participated in the siege of the fort, taking heavy casualties there.

The regiment was engaged both days, April 6-7, 1862, at the Battle of Shiloh, where it suffered 33 killed and 177 wounded. It participated in the Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, and fought at Stones River, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge. It was assigned provost (police) duty at Chattanooga, Tennessee, before being mustered out on September 14, 1865.

Frederick Dyer ("see references") reports that the regiment's total combat fatalities were four officers and 76 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, and nine officers and 220 enlisted men who died of disease. The Indiana Chickamauga Commission ("see references"), however, reports the 44th's casualties as 350 killed and wounded in combat, and another 58 dead from disease.

One of the regiment's early casualties was William H. Cuppy, captain of Company E, paternal uncle of humorist Will Cuppy. Severely wounded at Fort Donelson, he was sent home to South Whitley, Indiana, where he was cared for by his mother and sister until he died of his injuries in July 1862 at age 26.

References

*Terrell, W.H.H. "Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana", (Vol. 2 pp. 438–40) Indianapolis: A. H. Connor, State Printer, 1865–69.
*Dyer, Frederick Henry. "A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion", Des Moines: Dyer Publishing Co. (1908).
*Indiana Commissioners, Chickamauga National Military Park, Report of, "Indiana at Chickamauga", Indianapolis: Sentinel Printing Co. (1900), pp. 187-190.

External links

* [http://www.indianahistory.org/library/manuscripts/collection_guides/m0417.html Indiana Historical Society: 44th Indiana Regiment Association Records, 1861–1938]