80th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, History Section

The 80th Indiana is one of the many Civil War units for which no formal, detailed regimental history was ever published. As a result the 80th is now all but forgotten, except by a few whose ancestors served in it. This history is intended to attract and present what is remembered about the 80th and its soldiers so that knowledge of their deeds and sacrifices will be preserved in living memory.

In the left hand column below are links that will take you to pages with overviews and quotes describing the 80th's experiences in each of the years that it existed. These are drawn from official records, newspaper articles, personal letters, diaries, and memoirs of that time period, as well as from modern sources. On the annual pages are overviews and quotes describing the 80th's experiences on a month-by-month basis. And by following the links for each month you can read about the 80th's experiences on day-by-day basis.

Following the links for the individual years are links to lists of documents on the 80th website. These include partial or complete transcribed copies of personal letters, memoirs and diaries by 80th soldiers, members of their families, or friends. Also included are newspaper articles, official reports, speeches, songs and poems that either mention the 80th Indiana or its soldiers or which insights into the social or political events and sentiments they would have known at the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865).

This history is a work-in-progress. There remains much data to be located and entered. If you have or know the location of information about the 80th and/or its soldiers, please contact Scott Cantwell Meeker, Webmaster of the 80th Indiana website. For details about what is needed, visit the Help Needed section of this site. All who contribute will be credited on the list of Modern 80th Indiana Volunteers located in the About This Website section. Thank you for any help that you can provide.

Sources: Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana, 1861-1865, Volumes III, IV, and VIII, (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1866); and other items as noted.

Links	Descripyions	Quotes
1862	Saving Kentucky. Answering Lincoln's for 300,000 more volunteers. Training at Princeton, Indiana. Bloody battle at Perryville, Kentucky. Guard duty in Kentucky. Pursuit of Morgan's Cavalry.	"We leave our plows and workshops, our wifes and children dear, With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear; We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before. We are coming, Father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!" --From the song We Are Coming, Father Abr'am by J.S. Gibbon & L.O. Emerson, 1862
1863	Kentucky & East Tennessee. Guard duty at Columbia and Glasgow, Kentucky. Pursuit of Morgan's Cavalry. Liberating East Tennessee with Burnside. Defense of Knoxville, Tennessee, against Gen. Longstreet.	"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free..." --President Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, '63
1864	Georgia & Tennessee. Guard duty in East Tennessee. Sherman's Atlanta Georgia Campaign, including bloody Battle of Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, and fall of Atlanta. Pursuing Gen. Hood's Army into Tennessee. Narrow escape at Spring Hill, Tennessee. Bloody Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. Destruction of Hood's Army at Battle of Nashville, Tennessee.	"Many are the hearts that are weary tonight, wishing for the war to cease, Many are the hearts looking for the right, to see the dawn of peace. Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old Camp ground." --From the song Tenting on the Old Camp Ground by Walter Kittredge
1865	North Carolina. Transfer to North Carolina. Capture of Wilmington, Kingston, Goldsboro, and Raleigh, North Carolina. War ends; Lincoln assassinated. Guard duty at Salisbury, North Carolina. Muster out and return to Indiana.	"...if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword...so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." --President Abraham Lincoln, speaking of the war in his Second Inaugural address, Mar. 4, '65
Letters	Their Own Words. Transcribed copies of personal letters, memoirs and diaries by 80th soldiers, their family members or friends about their Civil War service.
Reports	Words About Them. Index of Civil War period newspaper articles, official reports, and speeches that mention the 80th Indiana and/or its soldiers.
Songs	Words They Knew. Index of poems and songs on the 80th Indiana website that its soldiers would have known and/or which provide insights into their Civil War experiences.	"We shall meet, but we shall miss him, there will be one vacant chair; We shall linger to caress him when we breathe our evening prayer. When a year ago we gathered, joy was in his mild blue eye, But a golden cord is severed, and our hopes in ruin lie." --From the 1862 song The Vacant Chair by George F. Root.

This page Copyright by Scott Cantwell Meeker of Deep Vee Productions. All Rights Reserved. Created January 5, 2000. Last updated January 1, 2005.

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The 80th Indiana's 1864-issued National Colors Photo displayed above has been electronically enhanced by Deep Vee Productions