The 92nd Regiment Illinois Infantry, also known as 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry Regiment, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service The 92nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry was organized at Rockford, Illinois and mustered into Federal service on September 4, 1862. It was composed of 10 companies, five from Ogle County, three from Stephenson County, and two from Carroll County.

Companies in this Regiment with County of Origin Men often enlisted in a company recruited in the counties where they lived though not always. After many battles, companies might be combined because so many men were killed or wounded.

The following counties of origin are taken from the Adjutant General's Report, found on the Illinois Civil War Rosters web site. Roster pages are from the same report found on the Internet Archives web site. The rosters show the men who served in each regiment, their residences, dates of enlistment and mustering out, and other remarks.

Company A - many men from Stephenson County - Stephenson County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 335-337.

Company B - many men from Ogle County - Ogle County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 337-339.

Company C - many men from Carroll County - Carroll County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 339-341.

Company D - many men from Ogle County - Ogle County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 341-343.

Company E - many men from Ogle County - Ogle County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 343-345.

Company F - many men from Stephenson County - Stephenson County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 345-347.

Company G - many men from Stephenson County - Stephenson County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 348-350.

Company H - many men from Ogle County - Ogle County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 350-352.

Company I - many men from Caroll County - Carroll County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 352-354.

Company K - many men from Ogle County - Ogle County web site - Roster, vol. 5, pages 354-356.

Unassigned Recruits -Roster, vol. 5, pages 356-357.

The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database lists 1,952 men on its roster for this unit. Roster.

The regiment elected twenty-seven-year-old Colonel Smith D. Atkins as its commander, and he received his commission as the regiment's Colonel on September 4, 1862. He was a newspaperman, lawyer, and ardent abolitionist in Illinois prior to the war. Enlisting as a private, he commanded Company A, 11th Illinois Infantry at Fort Donelson and was promoted to Major in March 1862. While home on leave in the summer of 1862 recovering from illness, he collected new volunteers and formed the 92nd.

The regiment remained drilling in Rockford until 10 October 1862.The next day it departed, with orders to report to Gen. Wright, at Cincinnati, where it was assigned to Cochran's brigade, Gen. Baird's division, Army of Kentucky.

Initial infantry service The 92nd marched into the interior of Kentucky, and during the latter part of October, 1863 was stationed at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky to guard that place against rebel raids. It saw some action there where it moved through Danville.

In this time, Atkins had a falling out with the corps commander, General Gordon Granger. Atkins was a radical abolitionist, and he took President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation as a personal mandate to liberate every slave he could. Around Mt. Sterling and Danville, Atkins rounded up local slaves and took them with him, upsetting some local inhabitants and some of his fellow officers. In mid-November, a slave owner named William Hickman sued Atkins in the Fayette Circuit Court to get his "property" back. General Granger forced Atkins to return the slaves. Several officers of the brigade also signed a letter to Atkins requesting that he return the slaves to prevent further embarrassment of the army and " wounding the feelings of men who are unswerving in their loyalty and patriotism ... we expect you to turn them out of your lines."

Because of this betrayal and despite his subsequent rise to brigade command in Granger's brigade, Atkins could not wait to leave the corps. He felt alienated and betrayed by Granger, Baird, and some of his fellow brigade officers. The regiment and division moved south towards Nashville at the end of the year. Colonel Cochrane resigned his command for health reasons on 13 January 1863, and Colonel Atkins as senior regimental commander assumed command of the brigade, so Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin F. Sheets took command of the regiment.. At Nashville, the regiment, with General Baird's division transferred to the Army of the Cumberland on 26 January 1863.

In February, the command moved to Franklin, Tennessee, and was engaged in the pursuit of the rebel Gen. Van Dorn. This culminated in the regiment's participation in the 10 April 1863 defeat of Van Dorn at the Battle of Franklin.

Conversion to mounted infantry

As part of the Tullahoma Campaign, it advanced to Murfreesboro, skirmished around Guy's Gap, and occupied Shelbyville, 27 June. On 1 July, the conflict between Colonel Atkins and Major General Granger ruptured, On 3 July, the regiment detached from Granger's brigade, marched to Wartrace, and was engaged in rebuilding a wagon-bridge over Duck River from 5–6 July. At this time, Colonel Wilder first came into contact with the regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Sheets and the 92nd impressed him. Wilder and the officers of the 92nd discussed the possibility of the 92nd joining Wilder's brigade. Wilder suggested the transfer, and Atkins submitted a request for the 92nd to join Brigadier General John T. Wilder's Lightning Brigade.

The requested transfer came through on July 10, 1863, the regiment was detached from General Granger's Corps and assigned a place in Brigadier General John T. Wilder's Lightning Brigade, where it remained while Gen. Rosecrans had command. On 19 July the regiment joined Wilder's brigade while it was in Decherd, Tennessee. When Colonel Atkins heard that the 92nd was mounting and rearming with Colonel Wilder, he got approval from Rosecrans to resign his post as a brigade commander to rejoin the 92nd as its commander again.

With the transfer, the 92nd Illinois Infantry converted to mounted infantry. Finding mounts for it became the brigade's priority. The brigade conducted two foraging expeditions, one in early July and one in mid July to round up horses for Atkins's men. Atkins needed to rapidly mount the soldiers of the regiment in order to serve as mounted infantry. From 22 to 26 July, a detachment of 200 men of the regiment accompanied by the 98th Illinois captured 1700 horses and mules and liberated 800 slaves who were quickly mustered into a black regiment in Nashville. There were enough horses taken to mount the regiment.

The next task was to rearm with Spencer rifles. On August 1, all the Spencers not in use in the other regiments of the brigade were turned over to the 92nd, enough to completely arm three companies, D, E and F. The remaining companies had a handful of Spencer rifles, and a mix of breech-loading carbines (including Spencers) and some of their originally issued Enfield muzzle-loaders.

As they converted to mounted infantry under the guidance of Wilder and others in the brigade, they took to the Spencer finding it a superior weapon that permitted them to take on an enemy that outnumbered them with confidence. COL Atkins expressed their appreciation for their new weapon saying, "The Spencer rifles made the sweetest music that was heard during the war for the Union." Also, the rapidity of movement afforded by their mounts gave them a rapid response ability that could take and maintain the initiative from the rebels. The 92nd completed its mounting, equipping, and training in five weeks; something the rest of the brigade took four months to accomplish.

Deception at Chattanooga

By the middle of August, the 92nd was ready for operations. Rosecrans sent the brigade to General Crittenden's XXI Corps to conduct deception operations along the bank north of the Tennessee River at Chattanooga. In company with William B. Hazen's infantry, George D. Wagner's, and Robert H. G. Minty's cavalry brigade, their mission was to sprint ahead of Crittenden's Corps to the Tennessee River, and visibly show its presence to the Confederate cavalry screening the south bank. The remainder of the corps would spread out across the Cumberland Plateau heading north of Chattanooga, while the Rosecrans' other two corps crossed the river below Chattanooga and Bragg. Once the other corps were safely across the river, the XXI Corps would fall in behind them leaving the four brigades to keep Bragg focused across the river to the north bank. The four brigades would patrol the river, make as much noise as possible, and feign river crossing operations north of the city. That was what Bragg feared most feared, a crossing north of Chattanooga. This was all part of Rosecrans plan to take Chattanooga by maneuver versus pitched battle.

Wilder's brigade moved out from its headquarters on 16 August, ascending the Plateau and camping that night at Sewanee, Tennessee near the University of the South. The brigade and Minty's cavalrymen led the advance. Those two brigades would move quickly to reach the river while Hazen and Wagner would make their best speed to follow. The 92nd and its companions quickly worked their way towards the Tennessee River, through Dunlap, reaching Poe's Tavern, to the northeast of Chattanoogas Ridge on August 20. The steep slopes of the Cumberland Plateau and Walden's Ridge were difficult terrain, and there was a dearth of forage, but the two brigades still made good time in their advance.

At dawn on 21 August, the command moved to the Tennessee River to begin their deception. Wilder and Minty divided the north bank between their brigades. The 92nd and its brigade mates covered southern side, from city to Sale Creek, and Minty's men from there north to the mouth of the Hiawassee River. Wagner and Hazen's brigades, traveling afoot were still crossing the mountains. Once they arrived, they would join the force already there to keep Bragg distracted.

The 92nd went with the 98th and a section of Lilly's battery ten miles up the Tennessee River toward Minty to the ferry at Harrison's Landing. After securing the ferry and destroying the lone rebel gun on the south side, they began trying to keep the Confederates on the opposite bank distracted. When Wagner and Hazen's brigades arrived on August 29, some of Hazen's dismounted infantry joined the 92nd and 98th at Harrison's landing to aid in the misdirection. The deception operation included the 92nd and its compatriots faking boat construction by hammering, sawing, and tossing bits of lumber into the river at Harrison's Landing so that it would float downstream to Chattanooga. The 92nd also joined the rest of the force in the nightly ritual of building numerous campfires to imitate the look of numerous regimental camps. The whole operation also benefited from the fact that the local population north of the river in Eastern Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau was strongly Unionist which meant that any Rebels operating there would be quickly reported back to the Army of the Cumberland; in light of this Bragg and no cavalry screen patrolling that could see through the deception.