Major (Brevet Lt.-Col.) Edward R. S. Canby, 10th Infantry, was appointed colonel, and the headquarters of the regiment were established at Indianapolis, Indiana, where Lieut.-Col. Edward A. King issued his first general order, dated July 10, 1861, assuming command of the regiment. First Lieutenant Egbert Phelps was designated as acting adjutant and First Lieutenant Edward Moale was appointed quartermaster. Colonel King also issued orders establishing recruiting rendezvous in eleven different cities in Indiana, and one in Cincinnati, Ohio, and an officer was designated to take charge of each. The senior major,—Stephen D. Carpenter,—reported for duty August 7, and was assigned to the command of the recruits.

Company A, 1st Battalion, was organized August 24, and at the end of August the regiment consisted of one organized company and 76 unassigned recruits. The first duty it was called upon to perform was on the 1st, when the Governor of Indiana called upon the commanding officer for assistance in preserving peace in the city of Indianapolis. The unassigned officers were ordered to report to Major Carpenter and he was ordered, with Company A and the unassigned recruits to the circle. Their presence seems to have been all that was required to preserve order. While they remained at Indianapolis the unassigned officers and recruits were often put on duty guarding prisoners and escorting them to different northern prisons.

Company B, First Battalion, was organized in September, and in October Companies A and B were ordered to report to General Sherman in Kentucky, and were attached temporarily to the First Battalion of the 15th Infantry. Company C was organized in November and Company D in December, 1861.

On the 1st of January, 1862, 1st Lieutenant W. W. Gilbert was appointed adjutant of the regiment, and in February orders were issued designating Companies A, B, C and D (organized), and E, F, G and H (unorganized), as the First Battalion of the regiment, and Major Carpenter was assigned to the command. Companies C and D, under command of Major Carpenter were ordered to proceed to Louisville, Ky., and report to Gen. Buell.

Company E was organized March 15, 1862, and one week later left Indianapolis for Nashville, Tenn. It participated in the battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862, with companies A, B, C and D, under the command of Major .Carpenter. The loss in this battle was 37 killed and wounded. Capt. Fessenden and Lieutenant Lyster were wounded. Major Carpenter was complimented for his gallant conduct in this engagement by his brigade commander—General Rousseau.

Company F was organized in April and sent to Pittsburg Landing, Tenn.

Companies G and H were organized in May and these two companies completed the organization of the First Battalion, but instead of joining the battalion they were ordered by telegraph, the day that H was organized, to proceed to Washington, D. C., which city was in danger of being captured, and to which point all available troops were being hurried. These companies participated in the various manoeuvres of the Army of the Potomac, marching and countermarching, embarking and disembarking, and had a varied existence; but being orphans, were used for guarding ammunition trains and for provost-guard duty. Company G was present at the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, but was not engaged.

Colonel King and Major Carpenter wrote letters in vain to the War Department asking to have these companies transferred to Tennessee to join their proper battalion, or, if it were not practicable to send them to their own battalion, to have them assigned to duty with some regular battalion in the Army of the Potomac, where they might receive proper instruction and drill. In September Company H was detailed for duty as a bodyguard to General McClellan, and in October Company G was assigned to duty with the 1st Battalion of the 17th Infantry in the regular brigade of Sykes' Division.

Lieutenant-Colonel King having been made colonel of the 68th Indiana Volunteers, went into the field with that regiment, leaving the headquarters of the 19th Infantry without a head, as Colonel Canby had been made a brigadier-general of volunteers, and was in command in New Mexico. In November the headquarters were ordered from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne, Mich., but were not destined to remain long at the latter place, for Major Carpenter, now being the senior officer on duty with the regiment, applied to the War Department to be furnished with the colors, and renewed the request which he had made several times when Col. King was commanding, to have the band join the First Battalion in the field. Late in the fall this request was finally granted, but before the band reached the battalion the gallant commander of the 19th had given up his life at the battle of Murfreesboro.

Major Carpenter was a brave, gallant and efficient officer, and his untimely death surely deprived him of a brilliant future. In December he made a final appeal to the War Department to have Companies G and H transferred from the Army of the Potomac to his battalion. His letter was manly, soldierly and pathetic. He called attention to his long service and to his depleted battalion of scarcely two hundred men. In support of his argument for having a larger battalion he said:—" It is not unreasonable to suppose that my battalion in battle may be ordered to support a battery as it was at Shiloh, and be met by a battalion or regiment numbering eight hundred or a thousand men; * * the result would be certain disgrace." Just two weeks later the regular brigade of which the battalion of the 19th Infantry formed a part, was engaged in the battle of Murfreesboro supporting batteries. The contest was in the pines the first day. The enemy was in overwhelming numbers, and it was while struggling to hold his battalion against great odds, that Major Carpenter fell from his horse bleeding from six mortal wounds. His prediction almost came true, except as to the disgrace. The loss of the battalion of six companies was 65 killed and wounded. The loss of the regular brigade was nearly 36 per cent., almost double the loss of the other two brigades of the division.

Eighteen months of service in the field, including a march of over a thousand miles, two battles and a number of skirmishes, had reduced the battalion from 500 to less than 150 men. Four of the officers who had gone out with companies were serving as staff officers with the brigade and division commanders, and one was commanding a volunteer regiment, so that at the battle of Murfreesboro only one major, one captain, two 1st lieutenants and four 2d lieutenants were serving with the battalion.

After Major Carpenter was killed on the first day, Captain J. B. Mulligan assumed command of the battalion and handled it very skilfully, but he scarcely had time to write a report of the battle and an obituary of the late commander before captains, zealous commanders, began to spring up like mushrooms from the ground, and in a few weeks no less than six of them had assumed command of the battalion of six companies; but the duration of command of the senior one was short, for Major Dawson, who up to this time had been in the North, joined and assumed command.

Early in 1863 the band from Fort Wayne, and Companies G and H from the Army of the Potomac, had joined the headquarters in the field. The final request of Major Carpenter had been complied with, but he had not lived to see his labors rewarded. Company A, 2d Battalion, had also been organized and had joined the First Battalion at Murfreesboro.

On the 19th and 20th September the 1st Battalion, with Company A of the 2d, aggregating 14 officers and 185 men and commanded by Major Dawson, was engaged in the battle of Chickamauga. The first day, September 19th, Major Dawson was wounded, and 66 non-commissioned officers and privates were killed and wounded. Captain E. L. Smith, a gallant and accomplished officer, succeeded Major Dawson and commanded the regiment until he was captured. At the end of the second day's battle a 2d lieutenant was found in command, reporting four officers and 51 men for duty. Lieutenants Fogarty and Miller had been killed; Captain Cummings and Lieut. Ayres wounded, and Captains Cummings, Smith, Hart and Pearce and Lieutenants Causten, Bickham and Gageby had been taken prisoners.

Colonel King was killed in this battle, September 20th, while serving as colonel of the 68th Indiana Volunteers, but at the time of his death was commanding a division. A short time before this he had been promoted to be colonel of the 6th Infantry.

During the Chattanooga-Ringgold campaign and at the battle of Missionary Ridge, the 19th Infantry was a mere detachment and was commanded by a captain. The losses of the regular battalions had been so great that two and three companies had to be consolidated for drill; and in the fall the 19th Battalion was found in camp at Chattanooga, consolidated with the 16th Infantry, under the command of Captain R. E. A. Crofton, and designated as a "Detachment of the 16th and 19th Infantry." The band had lost nearly all of its property and instruments during its year in the field, and on December 1st, pursuant to orders from the War Department, set out for headquarters at Fort Wayne, Mich.

In the year 1863 there was almost a complete change in field officers. DeLancey Floyd-Jones had become lieutenant-colonel; Major Dawson had been promoted to the 15th Infantry; and Capt. J. H. Potter of the 7th to be major of the 19th in his place. Pinckney Lugenbeel had been promoted major vice Carpenter, and Charles C. Gilbert major vice Willard, killed July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg.

Major Willard had never served with the regiment. He was appointed a major in the 19th while a captain in the 8th Infantry, to date February 19, 1862, and all his war service was with the Army of the Potomac, first as commander of the provost guard, and later as colonel of the 125th N. Y. Volunteers. He was commanding the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, 2d Corps when he was killed near Plum Creek. Fort Willard, a redoubt on the Potomac, was named in orders from the War, Department, "after, George L. Willard, Major 19th Infantry."

The beginning of the year 1864 found the regiment without a single field officer for duty either in the field or at regimental headquarters, but on March 7th, Major Lugenbeel reported at Fort Wayne and assumed command of the regiment. The battalion was in camp near Chattanooga, under the command of a captain, where it remained until February 22d, when it started out with its brigade and division on a reconnoissance, supporting the cavalry, and marched towards Ringgold, Georgia. The marching was in presence of the enemy and skirmishing was kept up constantly. On the 28th, Lieutenant Robert Ayres, the battalion adjutant, while posting pickets at Taylor's Ridge, was captured by the enemy's cavalry. On March 13th the battalion was engaged, in the battle of Resaca, Georgia, and on the 28th in the battle of New Hope Church, near Dallas, Ga. The companies had now become so much reduced, that Captain Mooney, the battalion commander, organized the battalion into four companies, making A, B and E the first company; D, second company; C and F, third company; G and H, and A, 2d Battalion, fourth company. Previous to this consolidation in the field Company D had been reorganized at regimental headquarters with 63 enlisted men, and Captain Lewis Wilson had been assigned to the command of it.

On the 1st of June, 1864, the battalion was at Kenesaw Mountain under the command of Captain Egbert Phelps, and a few days later an advance was made and the regiment took part, in the battles of Kenesaw Mountain, Neal Dow Station, Peach Tree Creek, and finally, on July 22, took a position on the railroad within two miles of Atlanta and built breastworks. The long campaign before reaching Atlanta, and the battles in front of Atlanta, had reduced the battalion so much that the enlisted strength present for duty at the, end of August was only 336. On September 1, the battalion took part in the battle of Jonesboro, and on October 1, it went into camp at Lookout Mountain, where it remained during the winter, with an enlisted strength present of 510.

During the month of February, 1865, Fort Wayne, Mich., Companies B and C, 2d Battalion, were organized, and in March, Company A, 2d Battalion, was reorganized, and Captain W. W. Gilbert was assigned to command it. Captain Gilbert was also ordered to conduct Companies B and C, 2d Battalion, from Fort Wayne to the 1st Battalion in the field.

On April 3, 1865, Lieut.-Col. Floyd-Jones assumed command of the regiment, and Major Lugenbeel proceeded to Lookout Mountain and assumed command of the 1st and 2d Battalions.

Company B, 1st Battalion, was reorganized in April and shortly afterwards was ordered to the field, as was also Company A, 2d Battalion. Company A, 3d Battalion, was organized May 16, and Lieut. L. T. Morris was assigned to it.

In August, 1865, the battalion marched from Lookout Mountain to Chattanooga, and from that point was transferred by rail to Augusta, Ga. During the month of October, Companies D and E, 2d Battalion were organized and sent from Fort Wayne to Augusta, and on the 11th of October the headquarters of the regiment and Company A, 3d Battalion, were transferred from Fort Wayne to Newport Barracks, Ky.

In November, Company F, 2d Battalion, was organized and shortly after was sent to Little Rock, Ark., to report to General Reynolds. Companies C and B were organized in December.

In the early part of 1866 the 1st Battalion and part of the Second proceeded from Augusta, Ga., to Little Rock, Ark. The small-pox broke out on the way and a great many of the men became frightened and deserted before reaching their destination. Upon arriving at Little Rock, two companies of the 2d Battalion took station there and the remaining companies proceeded to Camden and the southern part of the State of Arkansas, and entered upon the unpleasant reconstruction duty. The headquarters and a part of the 1st Battalion remained at Little Rock, and the balance of it went to Fort Smith and the Indian Territory frontier.

Companies D and E, 3d Battalion, were organized at Newport, Kentucky.

In February, Company F, 2d Battalion, and Companies A, B,C and D, 3d Battalion, went from Newport to Little Rock, and the headquarters of the 1st Battalion from Little Rock to Fort Gibson, I. T. Majors Gilbert and Potter having reported at headquarters were assigned to the command of the 2d and 3d Battalions respectively. This was the first time since the organization of the regiment that more than one major had been on duty with it, yet with the exception of the colonel, all the field officers had changed since first assignment. In March, Colonel Floyd-Jones was ordered from Newport to Little Rock with regimental headquarters.

The organization of the companies of the 2d and 3d Battalions was continued during the spring and summer of 1866, and before July 1st the regiment had its complement of three battalions with eight companies each, aggregating nearly two thousand men.

The three-battalion organization of the 19th was short lived, for the regiment had scarcely been completed when the act of Congress approved July 28, 1866, did away with the battalion organization for infantry and made a regiment out of each battalion by simply adding a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, and two companies to each battalion. Under the provisions of this law the 1st Battalion became the 19th Infantry, the 2d Battalion the 28th Infantry, and the 3d Battalion the 37th Infantry. Colonel Canby, who had never joined the regiment, was made a brigadier-general, and S. K. Dawson, formerly major of the 19th, now became the colonel. Lieut.-Col. Floyd-Jones and Major Lugenbeel remained in the regiment in their respective grades. The band became one of the fifteen post bands authorized by law, and remained at Little Rock. The headquarters and Companies I and K moved to Fort Gibson, I. T., but in March, 1867, the headquarters moved to Fort Smith, and later in the year most of the companies of the regiment were assembled at Fort Smith and vicinity.

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