Louisville Legion

Louisville Legion

Infobox Military Unit
unit_name= 5th Kentucky Volunteer regiment


caption=Kentucky flag
dates= July 1 1861 to September 1864
country= United States
allegiance= Union
branch= Infantry
equipment=
battles= Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Perryville
Battle of Stones River
Battle of Chickamauga

The Louisville Legion, officially known as the 5th Kentucky Volunteer regiment, was an infantry regiment that fought in the American Civil War. Lovell Rousseau formed the group. It gained its name by being formed of volunteers from Louisville, Kentucky.

It attained its name from an earlier Kentucky militia that was first constituted on January 21 1839 in Louisville, and was mustered into Federal service for the Mexican-American War, from May 17 1846, as the 1st Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment. It saw action in the Battle of Monterey. On May 17 1847, in New Orleans, it was mustered out.cite web | url = http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/149ar-bde.htm | title = 149th Armor Brigade | publisher = Global Security ]

Recruits to the Legion were promised a pay of $11–$21 a month, in addition to clothes and lodging. After a year's enlistment, they were promised convert|160|acre|km2 of land. Although a recruitment station was placed at the corner of 8th and Main in Louisville, the actual training took place across the Ohio River at Camp Joe Holt, in present-day Clarksville, Indiana. [Sarles, Jane. "Journeys Through Clarksville's Past" (2006), pp. 76–7.]

On July 1 1861, 334 recruits were shipped to Camp Joe Holt as the first company of the Louisville Legion.

On September 17 1861, the Legion left Camp Joe Holt, with its first mission being to stop Confederate forces from approaching Louisville.

Among the battles fought by the Legion included Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, and Chickamauga.cite web | url = http://www.kynghistory.ky.gov/places/loufairgroundsarmory.htm | title = Louisville Fairgrounds Armory | publisher = Kentucky government]

The Legion participated in William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta campaign, fighting in the battles of Dalton, Resaca, Pickett's Mill, and Kennesaw Mountain. It was during this campaign that the Legion was mustered out of service. Of the 1,020 men that had at one time or the other served in the Legion during the War, 302 died. Sherman wrote of the Legion, "No single body of men can claim more honor for the grand result than the officers and men of the Louisville Legion of 1861."Kleber, John. "Encyclopedia of Louisville", p. 558]

Ten years later the Legion would again organize as part of the Kentucky State Guard. In this incarnation it would take part in the French Eversole Feud and the Rowan County War. In the Spanish-American War it would be the first unit from Kentucky to reach Puerto Rico. Afterwards it would maintain the peace around Frankfort, Kentucky after the assassination of Governor William Goebel, and then patrol the Mexican border.

The 138th Field Artillery and 149th Armor Brigade are directly descended from the Louisville Legion.

ee also

*Louisville in the American Civil War

References

External links

* [http://civilwarlandscapes.org/cwla/per/unit/union/ky/ky_5.htm List of actions by the Louisville Legion during the American Civil War]


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