The Battle of Vicksburg

On April 14th, 1861 Indiana’s Governor Morton, issued a call to arms to meet the 7500 quota set for Indiana to contribute to the Union Army efforts.  The two Lamar brothers were enlisted in the Union Army, 49th Infantry from Indiana under Colonel John. W. Ray to serve their president and second-cousin, Abraham Lincoln.

The 49th Infantry was organized from Jeffersonville Indiana, just north of Louisville, KY along the Ohio River.  Elijah and Elisha mustered in with the rest of their unit on November 21st 1861, both were assigned to ‘Company E’.  Their first move was to Bardstown Kentucky, just south of Louisville, attaching to the 12th Brigade, 1st Division, Army of the Ohio.  Kentucky was the only state to declare neutrality in this war.

This roughly 45 mile journey would take the unit two days in the heart of winter to complete; leaving December 11th 1861 and arriving December 13th trudging thru several inches of snow and rain along the way.  They were on duty there until January 12, 1862 where they would then begin their March through the Kentucky Mountains to Camp Cumberland Ford (now Pineville, KY) to protect against the push of the ‘rebels’; defending the Cumberland Gap area until September 17th, 1862 participating in 5 or more skirmishes and campaigns.  

Captain John A. Ritter was the MD that was assigned to the 49th Indiana Regiment and wrote letters to Elijah’s wife about the sickness that he and the troops endured in their first six months of their enlistment.