The Fighting Unit

The Illinois Tenth Cavalry Regiment was organized at Camp Butler, Illinois and mustered into service on November 25, 1861. We believe that some of the first individuals recruited for the Regiment were the Officers and band members. The band was used extensively as a recruiting tool. The roughly 100 man companies of the Regiment were drawn from the following Illinois counties:

Company A – Menard, Platt and Sangamon
Company B – Menard and Sangamon
Company C – Iroquois and Champaign
Company D – Cook
Company E – Macoupin, Madison and Menard
Company F – Madison
Company G – Sangamon and Logan
Company H – Coles and Sangamon
Company I – Champaign
Company K – Brown
Company L – Christian and Sangamon
Company M – Coles and Moultrie

During the War of the Rebellion, the Regiment saw service in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Cavalry units during the Civil War were used as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the army. This translated into many scouting and patrolling missions which meant long hours in the saddle. The members of the Regiment were armed with Hall and Sharps carbines, Colt, Remington, Savage and Starr revolvers and Dragoon sabers. In January, 1865, the men of the Tenth were consolidated into nine companies and the men of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry Regiment were consolidated into three companies and all reorganized into the Tenth Illinois Volunteer Cavalry. The Regiment lost 290 members to death throughout its service, 25 members of the Regiment were killed in or from battle and 285 died from disease. The Regiment mustered out of service on November 22, 1865.