82 Illinois
The 82nd Illinois Infantry The Second Hecker Regiment
The 82 Illinois Infantry was recruited from the Chicago area. It was almost exclusively German, but Company C was noted as being a Jewish company (though many if not most of these were German Jews) and Company I was mainly of Scandanavians. The regiment was organized September 26, 1862 and mustered into service on October 23, 1862. The 82nd fought with the XI Corps and with the XX Corps after it was formed. Its battles included:
- Chancellorsville- lost 156 casualties
- Gettysburg- lost 131 casualties
- Chattanooga
- Lookout Mountain
- Resaca
- New Hope Church
- Kolb's Farm
- Peachtree Creek
- Atlanta
- Sherman's March to the Sea
- Averysboro
- Bentonville
Frederick Hecker was the regiment's first colonel. He was the leader of the revolution in Baden in 1848, and was forced to emigrate to America with so many of the other '48ers he commanded. Hecker was wounded at Chancellorsville, but would return to assume command of a brigade. He would resign from the army on 4 March, 1864, because he was not being promoted from the official rank of colonel. (The nickname of the 82nd, "The Second Hecker Regiment" comes from the fact that this was the second regiment that Hecker was colonel of. The first was the 24th Illinois, but he resigned that position before coming to the command of the 82nd.)
The regiment's second colonel, after Hecker was wounded, was Edward Selig Salomon. Salomon was be the highest ranking Jewish officer in the Union army, and would eventually become a brevet brigadier general. He was born in Germany, but was no realtion to General Friedrich Salomon.
The 82nd Illinois has several pages devoted to it on the Web. The following are good sources, and are where almost all of my information derives from:
82nd Illinois includes a summary of it history.