5th Missouri Infantry Regiment (Union, 3 months)

For other units with the same name, see 5th Missouri Infantry Regiment (disambiguation).
5th Missouri Volunteer Infantry (3 Months)
ActiveMay 18, 1861, to August 27, 1861
CountryUnited States
AllegianceUnion
BranchInfantry
EngagementsExpedition to SW Missouri
Battle of Carthage
Expedition towards Fayette, Missouri
Battle of Wilson's Creek

The 5th Missouri Infantry Regiment evolved from a network of several unofficial pro-Unionist militia groups formed semi-secretly in St. Louis in the early months of 1861 by Congressman Francis Preston Blair Jr. and other Unionist activists. The Fifth Missouri was largely composed of ethnic Germans, who were generally opposed to slavery and strongly supportive of the Unionist cause. Although initially without any official standing, beginning on April 22, 1861, the militia regiments Blair helped organize were sworn into Federal service at the St. Louis Arsenal by Captain John Schofield acting on the authority of President Lincoln.[1][2]

Upon entry into Federal service the members of the Fifth Missouri elected C. E. Solomon colonel of the regiment.[3]

  1. ^ Gerteis, Louis S. (2001). Civil War St. Louis. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-7006-1124-X.
  2. ^ The official designation of the first four regiments organized at the St. Louis Arsenal were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Missouri Volunteers (3 Months Service). The Fifth Missouri was the first regiment of Federal Volunteers mustered in after the Camp Jackson Affair.
  3. ^ Rombaur, Robert Julius, The Union Cause in St. Louis in 1861, St. Louis, St. Louis Municipal Centennial Year, 1909, p407