I am just new to the site and I am trying to get some information on the 23rd Illinois Brigade.I know very little about the Civil War, but I have just got interested when I discovered a relative was Captain of H Company the Ottawa Guards. I have googled the regiment and I have looked on the fold3 site but the is very little information about his Company or himself. I was wondering if there was a book on the Regiment. There is some details on the engagements of the other companies but H Company I cant find out anything.
My relatives name was Captain Charles Coffey[sometimes shown as Coffee}.I know he took part in the Mexican War [Sappers or Engineers Corps}and was involved at the Siege of Lexington in the Civil War. I found out he is buried in Butler County Iowa and he had a brother called Peter Coffey who served in the US Navy in the Civil War on board a ship called "The Dawn". Peter was from St Louis Missouri. They were both born in Ireland.
If there is anyone researching the 23rd Illinois I would love to know where they were especially H Company or if there is any records on Captain Charles Coffey/Coffee I would like to know any information. I am in Ireland
What I know!
Captain Charles Coffey was born Dublin Ireland in 1821,he emigrated to New York in 1842 and studied Engineering in West Point. He took part in the Mexican War and was in the Sappers Corps. When the Civil War started he raised H Company the Ottawa Guards in the 23rd Illinois Infantry. He supervised the defenses at the Siege of Lexington.He served from 15/6/1861 until 1864 when his term expired.
He had a brother Peter Coffey who served on the Ship The Dawn during the Civil War, Peter was also born in Dublin Ireland. He had also a sister called Mary Ann Coffey she married a Mr. Joseph Etherington in La Salle Illinois. She later moved to Butler Iowa where Captain Coffey had a farm.
Captain Charles Coffey died while building a Church in Butler he was transporting lumber on a wagon when the horses got fright and bolted, the wagon hit a tree stump and overturned and killed Captain Coffey. He died in 1871 and is buried in Coldwater Cemetery Butler County Iowa.
Welcome !
Report of Col.
James A. Mulligan, Twenty-third Illinois Infantry.
FEBRUARY 21-22, 1864.--Scout from New Creek to Moorefield, W. Va.
CUMBERLAND, MD., February 22, 1864.
(Received 11.30 p. m.)
The following telegram from Col. Mulligan just received. Capt.
Wallace is the hero of Greenland Gap, where he was captured with his
company last May by Gen. Jones, and take to Richmond by his
prisoner, Parker. Capt. Kuykendall was captured a few days since in
Hampshire County.
NEW CREEK, W. VA., February 22, 1864.
Capt. MATHEWS,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-GEN.:
Capt. Wallace just in from a scout to Moorefield. He captured
Lieut. Parker, 2 privates, and 3 horses. Parker is first lieutenant
of Kuykendall's company, and the same officer who guarded Wallace
to Richmond.
JAS. A. MULLIGAN,
B. F. KELLEY,
Brig.-Gen.
Brig.-Gen. CULLUM,
Chief of Staff.
Source: Official Records
CHAP. XLV.] SKIRMISHES NEAR CIRCLEVILLE, VA., ETC. PAGE 158-60
[Series I. Vol. 33. Serial No. 60.]
...............................................................................................................................................................................................
ILLINOIS
TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY.
(Three Years)
The organization of the Twenty-third Infantry Illinois
Volunteers commenced under the popular name of the "Irish
Brigade," at Chicago, immediately upon the opening of
hostilities at Sumter. It served until the war had fully
closed, and among the officers whom it was compelled to mourn
as lost in the battle was its illustrious Colonel, James A.
Mulligan, of Chicago, who fell while commanding a division of
the Army of West Virginia at Kernstown, in Shenandoah valley,
July 24,1864, and perished while in the hands of the enemy,
July 26, of three desperate wounds, received while at the
head of his own Regiment to which he had galloped in the
confident and justified expectation that he would be able to
make it the steady rear-guard of an overwhelming rout, caused
by the advance of all of Early's army upon an unsupported and
merger force.
The formal muster of the 23rd was made June 15,1861, at
Chicago when the Regiment was occupying barracks known as
Kane's brewery on West Polk street, near the river. From a
barrack encampment on Vincennes road it moved July 14, 1861,
to Quincy, Illinois, and thence, after a few days encampment,
to the arsenal at St. Louis. On the 21st of July it moved to
various excursion into the surrounding country. Brigadier
General Grant superseded Colonel Davis as commander of the
post at Jefferson City, and on the 18th of September the 23d
commenced a march of 120 miles on Lexington, Mo., where the
first notable siege of the war of the Rebellion occurred.
Lexington, reinforced by the 23d, which arrived on the
evening of the 11th , became a post of 2,780 men, Colonel
Mulligan commanding. General Price with the Missouri State
guards was marching upon the town, a convenient location near
which Colonel Mulligan's command engaged actively in
fortifying. The rebel advance under Rain's with a battery of
six guns assaulted the fortifications on the 12th but were
repulsed. The post was then regularly invested by an army of
28,000 men with 13 pieces of artillery. For nine days the
garrison sustained an unequal conflict, not alone against the
vastly superior forces of the enemy tent against hunger and
thirst, for provisions, hastily gathered in from the
surrounding country, were inadequate and the water supply
wholly failed. No reinforcement appeared, nor was there
promise or hope of any. On the 20th the most determined and
systematic of the enemy's assault was made, and repeatedly
repulsed, tent in the afternoon it was determined to
surrender. The killed and wounded of the Regiment numbered
107, while General Price officially reported his loss at 800.
The officers and men, with the exception of Colonel
Mulligan, who was detained as a prisoner and accompanied
Price in his march into Arkansas, were paroled. On the 8th
of October the Regiment was mustered out by order of General
Fremont, but upon the personal application of Colonel
Mulligan, who had been exchanged for General Frost, General
McClellan, then commanding the army, directed that its
organization be retained and that it should be considered as
continuously in the service from the date of its original
muster. Reassembling at Camp Douglas in Chicago, the camp
being commanded by Colonel Mulligan, it guarded the rebel
prisoners there until June 14, 1862, when it was ordered to
Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Its service thence forward was in
both Virginias. From Harper's Ferry it moved to New Creek
Virginia. It was at Clarksburg, Virginia, in September and
later at Parkersburg, in both cases saving the towns from the
menace of lmboden. November 10, 1862, companies B, D and K
under Major Moore attacked General Imboden on the South Fork
of the Potomac, capturing forty prisoners and large supplies
on the hoof. January 3, 1863, the Regiment made a forced
march of 40 miles in 10 hours from New Creek to Morefield to
the relief of the Union force there attacked by General
Jones, who thereupon withdrew. In April, 1863, being then at
New Creek, the Regiment was assigned to the 5th Brigade, 1st
Division, 8th Corps, Colonel Mulligan commanding the Brigade
and Lieutenant Colonel Quirk the Regiment. The Regiment
moved to Grafton on the 25th of April, and Captain Martin
Wallace, commanding Co. G, as a detachment in Greenland Gap,
occupying a block house, had a spirited engagement with
General Jones and did not surrender until the block house was
in flames. April 25th the Regiment was engaged with Imboden
at Phillippi. In 1863 the Regiment was on the flank of Lee
in his retreat from Gettysburg, and had an engagement with
Wade Hampton at Hedgeville. Having re-enlisted as veterans
at New Creek in April. 1864, the Regiment was reorganized at
Chicago and the month's furlough having expired returned to
Virginia.
Daring the month of July, 1864, the Regiment participated
in the following engagements: 3d, Leetown, 5th to 7th,
Maryland Heights, Md.; 17th to 20th, Snicker's Gap, Va.; 23d
and 24th, Kernstown, Va., where Colonel Mulligan was killed.
In the battle of Kernstown on the 24th, the Regiment lost in
killed and wounded about one-half of those engaged therein.
From early in August, 1864, to December 25 1864, during
which time General Sheridan was in command of the Shenandoah
Valley, the Regiment was actively engaged therein, and took
part in the following battles and skirmishes: Cedar Creek,
August 12th to 16th, Winchester, August 17th Charlestown and
Halltown, August 21st to 28th; Berryville September 3d
Opequan Creek, September 19th; Fisher's Hill, September 21st
and 22nd Harrisonburg, October--; Cedar Creek, October 13th;
Cedar Creek, October 19th. About December 30th, 1864, the
Regiment was transferred to
Army of the James, and during January, 1865, was in
front of Richmond, and was afterwards assigned to the
defenses of Bermuda :Hundreds. March 25, 1865, rejoined
Twenty-fourth Army Corps north of the James River, and thence
moved to the left as far as Hatcher's Run, where was encaged
March 31st and April 1st, and on April 2nd assisted in the
assault and capture of Fort Gregg in front of Petersburg, and
thereafter took part in the pursuit of Lee's Army until the
surrender thereof at Appomattox C. H., April 9, 1865.
In the months of January and February 1864, while
stationed at Greenland Gap, W. Va., First Lieutenant John J.
Healy, as special recruiting officer, re-inlisted about 300
of the Regiment as veterans, and in May following they came
to Chicago on thirty days' furlough, as the Twenty-third
Regiment Illinois Veteran Volunteers.
In August, 1864, the 10 companies of the Regiment, then
numbering 440, were consolidated into five companies, and was
designated "Battalion Twenty-third Regiment Illinois Veteran
Volunteer Infantry," and Lieutenant Colonel Simison assigned
to command. in March, 1865, Colonel Simison returned to
Illinois, leaving Captain P. M. Ryan in command, to have five
new companies assigned by the Governor to fill the Regiment,
and in this he was successful, but the new companies did not
meet the Veterans until the surrender of Lee.
The Regiment was thanked by Congress for its part at
Lexington, and was authorized to inscribe Lexington upon its
colors. Two medals, authorized by Congress, were given
members of the command for gallant conduct. They were
bestowed upon Private Creed, Company C who, at the battle of
Fisher's Hill, knocked down a rebel color-bearer and captured
his flag, and Private Patrick Hyland, Company D, who was the
first soldier to scale the rebel works at Ft. Gregg,
Petersburg, April 2, 1865.