7th Rhode Island Infantry - Mississippi Campaign

Mississippi Campaign

Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Seventh Rhode Island returned to its winter camp across the Rappahannock River near Falmouth, Virginia. Here many of the men would experience the hardships that their ancestors experienced at Valley Forge some eighty-five years earlier. Food and money was scarce, while typhoid, dysentery, and pneumonia reduced the regiment even further. Even in the worst of weather, one company of the regiment was constantly on picket duty along the river. A respite came in mid-February when the Ninth Corps was transferred to Suffolk, Virginia. From here they were again transferred to Lexington, Kentucky when Burnside was given command of the Army of the Ohio.

In June the Seventh left Cairo, Illinois as reinforcements for Ulysses S. Grant’s army as they besieged Vicksburg, Mississippi. They spent several weeks entrenching around Vicksburg before being sent to Jackson, in order to prevent Confederates from reinforcing the Vicksburg garrison. Here they defeated the Rebels at the Battle of Jackson. Though the Mississippi Campaign only lasted for two months, forty-seven Rhode Islanders lost their lives; only two were killed in action. In August they were recalled to Kentucky. The Seventh entered Mississippi with slightly over three hundred men; over half would be infected by disease. Yazoo Fever, dysentery, and typhoid reduced the regiment to mere company strength.

They spent a miserably cold and wet winter as the provost marshal in Lexington, Kentucky. Here they protected the loyal citizens against John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate guerillas. Following this, the regiment was again summoned to Virginia in April 1864 as reinforcements to the Army of the Potomac.