The 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was organized on April 22, 1861, for three-months' service in Indianapolis. After being reorganized for three years' service in late August and early September 1861, the 9th took part in many major battles, including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain and the Siege of Atlanta.
The 9th was mustered out on September 28, 1865, after duty at San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas.
Personnel
Governor Oliver Hazard Perry Morton appointed Robert H. Milroy as colonel of the 9th on April 26, 1861, nearly two weeks after the firing began at the Battle of Fort Sumter. By September 3, 1861, Milroy had become a brigadier general. He continued to command troops in West Virginia (as Commander of the Cheat Mountain District) into 1862. ] By the time the 9th was assigned to William B. Hazen's 19th Brigade of Buell's Army of the Ohio in March 1862, Colonel Gideon C. Moody, a former prosecutor and politician, commanded the regiment. Hazen called Moody "a most gallant officer."
Isaac C.B. Suman, initially the captain of Company H, then became colonel of the 9th. He commanded the 9th during such major battles as Chickamauga.
William H. Blake, initially a major, later became colonel of the 9th. Dudley H. Chase served as a captain in Company K of the 9th in the three-month regiment. William P. Lasselle began as a sergeant in Company K in the three-month regiment and finished as a lieutenant colonel in the three-year regiment. James Nutt of Company I began as a first sergeant and ended as a captain of the three-year regiment. Photographs of some of these officers and a number of other officers and enlisted men from the 9th can be found at Indiana Civil War Soldiers, 9th Infantry .
Service records
The NPS System includes 816 troop records (three-month) and 2916 troop records (three-year) classified as 9th Regiment, Indiana Infantry. These are not complete listings, and they include a number of apparent duplicates (due to alternate name spellings), but the listings do consist of many useful records. For example, author Ambrose Bierce's record of service in the three-year regiment is as follows:
Other sources such as the Bierce biography by Roy Morris , or at least the sources Morris relied on, confirm the accuracy of this particular record.
Other kinds of service documentation that exist include muster rolls, identification discs, and discharge papers. In the case of the 9th, George Bickel's documentation is representative. Bickel served in Company C of the three-month regiment and, for a short period, in the three-year regiment before he received a medical discharge. Photos of his identification disc, images of the other documentation such as his three-year regiment service papers and a narrative of Bickel's service are available at .
Death Records
Records of some 9th's troops who died during the War can be found at national cemeteries in states where the 9th served, such as Grafton and Shiloh National Cemeteries.
Grafton National Cemetery
According to the available records, 19 soldiers from the 9th are buried at the Grafton National Civil War Cemetery, West Virginia. All of these men were killed in action in what is now West Virginia between the fall of 1861 and the winter of 1861-1862.
Shiloh National Cemetery
There are 22 dead buried in Shiloh National Cemetery at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, identified as soldiers from the 9th Indiana Infantry, according to the cemetery's records.
Stones River Hazen Brigade Monument
The west face of the Hazen Brigade Monument indicates that Capt. Isaac M. Pettit and 2nd Lt. Henry Kessler were among those from the 9th killed at the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862. 113 men from the 9th were killed or wounded in the battle. Capt. A. Johnson of the 9th and a detail of officers selected the location of the monument on a crest located between the railroad and the Nashville Pike. Lt. Edward Crebbin of the 9th supervised the detachment that constructed the monument in 1863.
Engagements
Soldiers from the 9th Indiana Infantry were among the first troops of Major General George B. McClellan’s Department of the Ohio to enter western Virginia in the spring of 1861. As the first Indiana regiment to depart, the 9th was reviewed by Governor Morton and General McClellan, then departed for Grafton, Virginia (now Grafton, West Virginia) via railroad at midnight on May 29, 1861. Crowds in central Ohio cheered for the troops as the train passed.