8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry
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The 8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union army during the American Civil War. Among its early leaders were Morgan Lewis Smith and Giles Alexander Smith, who both later became generals.
The 8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry (US) was formed in St Louis, Missouri, in the early summer of 1861. Many of its members were Irishmen who had worked on the Mississippi River docks prior to the war, giving the regiment a distinct Celtic personality. This was in spite of the fact that several companies were actually raised in Illinois, but joined the 8th Missouri because their home state's quota for enlistments was full. Early on, the 8th Missouri wore uniforms patterned after Zouave units.
The regiment's first commander was Col. Morgan Lewis Smith, a tough New Yorker who had moved west to Missouri after serving as an enlisted man in the Regular Army. Under his firm hand, the 8th Missouri would become one of the finest units to serve in the Army of the Tennessee. M. L. Smith's brother, Giles Alexander Smith, also served in the regiment.
The 8th Missouri saw extensive service during the first three years of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Theater and Western Theater, and built for itself an enviable reputation on the battlefield. The regiment first fought in Missouri in the summer of 1861 against pro-Southern guerillas who were attacking U.S. Army supply trains—for example, in Wentzville, Missouri. That autumn, the 8th participated in the Federal occupation of Paducah, Kentucky.
In February 1862, the regiment fought its first major battle, the Battle of Fort Donelson, in Tennessee. Later that spring, it was heavily engaged in the second day's fighting at Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh). After a two-month-long campaign, it was the first regiment to enter the strategic rail center of Corinth, Mississippi, following the Confederate evacuation in May 1862, and in late December, it took part in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. In January 1863, it stormed the breastworks of Fort Hindman to capture Arkansas Post.
The 8th Missouri saw considerable service in the Battle of Vicksburg, where eleven men of the regiment won the Medal of Honor in one day during the May 22, 1863, assault on Stockade Redan. The regiment marched on to participate in the Battle of Jackson, the Battle of Chattanooga, and the opening phases of the Atlanta Campaign.
On June 25, 1864, the three-year enlistments of most of the regiment's members expired and they returned to their homes. Those who remained on active duty were consolidated into a battalion of two companies, and as such participated in the rest of the Atlanta Campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea. In February 1865, the remaining veterans of the 8th Missouri were attached as an extra company to the 6th Missouri Infantry Regiment. In this capacity, they took part in the Carolinas Campaign and the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C., before being mustered out of service in June 1865.
