The 78th Illinois Infantry Regiment Regiment was organized at Quincy, Illinois, in Adams County, mustering in on September 1, 1862. The 78th Illinois then left the state by way of the steamboat along the Mississippi River for Louisville, Kentucky, arriving on September 19, 1862. The 78th Illinois Infantry Regiment Regiment was organized at Quincy, Illinois, in Adams County. The 78th Illinois Infantry Regiment, would see all of its wartime duty in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The 78th Illinois was originally attached to 39th Brigade, 12th Division, Army of the Ohio. The regiment went through a series of reassignments; first in November 1862 to Gilbert's Command, District of Western Kentucky, Department of the Ohio. While in Franklin, Tennessee, in February 1863 the regiment was assigned to the Army of Kentucky, Department of the Cumberland. In June 1863, another reassignment assigned the 78th Illinois to the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division Reserve Corps, Army of the Cumberland. The final reorganization would come in October 1863, assigning the regiment to the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XIV Corps. The regiment received the blue United States uniform, typical of the civil war. Initially, the regiment was armed with.69 caliber rifled muskets, altered to use a percussion cap. In 1863, the regiment saw more modern arms provisioned to the soldiers; a mixture of the Enfield rifle and Springfield Rifle Muskets were carried. In 1864, all troops were armed with the Springfield Rifle Muskets.
When the regiment mustered in on September 1, 1862, it included 862 enlisted men. The regiment suffered 9 officers and 95 enlisted men who were killed in action or mortally wounded and 117 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 221 fatalities.
Regimental Organization
Headquarters
The 78th Illinois Infantry Regiment Regiment was organized at Quincy, Illinois, in Adams County. Commanding Officers
Colonel William H. Bennison – resigned commission September 2, 1863.
Recruited in Adams County, Illinois. Companies B and C were captured by, then Colonel, John Hunt Morgan during a December 26, 1862, raid at Muldraugh Hill. They were sent to St. Louis, Missouri, under terms of parole and not exchanged until October 1863, effectively reducing the regiment by two companies of infantry.
Recruited in Hancock County. During the same raid that captured Companies B and C, Colonel Morgan attacked the Regimenal Headquarters and Company H, on the morning of December 30, 1862, in New Haven, Kentucky. The company sustained no casualties, but it was assumed that Colonel Morgan's cavalry did, but was never substantiated.
