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The Fifty-sixth Illinois Infantry[1] was mustered into service February 27, 1862 at Camp Mather near Shawneetown in Gallatin County. The men volunteered from the most southern counties of Illinois—Company A-Massac County, Company B-White County, Company C-Hamilton and White counties, Company D-Gallatin, White and Saline counties, Company E-Saline and Williamson counties, Company F-Hamilton and Wabash counties, Company H-Gallatin and Saline Counties, Company I-Franklin and Williamson counties and Company K-Saline and Pope counties. Grant immediately ordered the Regiment to garrison duty at Paducah, Kentucky. In April the Regiment moved by steamboat up the Tennessee River to Hamburg Landing and marched to join the siege of Corinth, Mississippi. Following the rebels abandonment of Corinth, The Regiment joined in the pursuit of Beauregard’s army to Booneville, Mississippi and remained in northern Mississippi during the summer. In October Confederate forces attacked Corinth and the Fifty-sixth with the Tenth Missouri drove the rebels from their works and repulsed rebel reinforcements. During the winter of 1862 the Regiment campaigned in central Mississippi and escorted wagons and supplies to Memphis in December. In the spring of 1863 the Fifty-sixth was ordered to Vicksburg going through the Yazoo Pass and joining Grant’s army at Young’s Point and moving south to occupy Grand Gulf, Mississippi in May. They fought at Champion Hills and at the siege of Vicksburg in May and on June 25 were sent to Fort Hill, occupying the crater, a portion of the night, and lost heavily in both killed and wounded. After the fall of Vicksburg, they moved to Helena, Arkansas then to Memphis and finally to Chattanooga where they remained until the end of November. On November 23 they crossed the Tennessee River and attacked the rebels right flank at Missionary Ridge; the next three days the Regiment sustained heavy losses. Following the battle the Fifty-sixth garrisoned Whitesburg, Alabama on the Tennessee River. May 1864 the Regiment joined Sherman’s Atlanta campaign and through November guarded the line of communication and railroads at the rear of the army. During this time the Regiment was reinforced with a new Company I (composed of veterans from the Thirteenth Illinois Infantry) and a newly organized Company D. In mid October Confederate General Hood attacked Resaca, Georgia and the Fifty-sixth with other regiments defended the city against five times their number. On the “March to the sea” the men saw action at Savannah, Georgia, Salkehatchie Swamp, South Edisto River, and Columbia South Carolina and Bentonville and Goldsboro, North Carolina. On March 25, 1865 two hundred and five men of the Regiment boarded the US General Lyon for the trip to Fortress Monroe. On March 27 in a storm off of Cape Hatteras fire erupted in the engine room and only 29 survivors were rescued including just 5 men from the 56^th Illinois Infantry.[2] Following the surrender of Johnston the Fifty-sixth marched to Washington DC for the Grand Review on May 24. The Regiment mustered out at Little Rock Arkansas on August 12, 1865.[3