Nine Month Men

The 15^th New Hampshire Infantry mustered out of Union service August 13^th 1863.

The 15^th New Hampshire was organized between October 6^th and 16^th 1862 in Concord, New Hampshire as a nine month regiment.  The men of the regiment came mostly from the counties of Belknap, Cheshire, Grafton, Hillsborough, Merrimack, Rockingham, Strafford, and Sullivan, New Hampshire.  They formed under the command of Colonel John W Kingman.

The 15^th left New Hampshire November 13^th 1862 for New York, where they would sail for New Orleans, Louisiana.  The regiment arrived in Louisiana December 26^th 1862.  They were placed in the Union Department of the Gulf a part of William T Sherman’s Division.  The men of the 15^th settled in at Camp Parapet, Louisiana serving there on duty until May 1863.  When the 1863 campaign season got going they were moved to Springfield Landing, Louisiana, and then onto service in the Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana from May 27^th through July 9^th 1863.

The men of the 15^th were mustered out of Union service August 13^th 1863 at Concord, New Hampshire.  During their time in the army the 15^th had 27 men who killed in action or died from their wounds, and another 134 who died from disease.

The Chasseurs d'Afrique

The Union’s first all black regiment was formed September 27th 1862 in New Orleans Louisiana.


The 1st Louisiana Native Guard [which would become the 73rd Regiment United States Colored Troops], the first all black regiment to fight for the Union Army was formed September 27th 1862. They sometimes called themselves the “Chasseurs d’Afrique”; the Hunters of Africa. New Orleans Louisiana fell into Union hand in April 1862. Union Major General Benjamin F Butler organized the regiment whose initial strength was about a thousand men. Membership in the Guard was mainly made up of “free men of color”, but there were some runaway slave from nearby plantation. Field grade officers [majors, and colonels] were all white men, but line officers were all black.

From its formation until May 1863 the regiment mostly performed fatigue duty, and guarding railroad depots between New Orleans and Brashear City Louisiana. The number of men had dwindled to about half. The Guards first combat came on May 27th 1863 during the first Siege of Port Hudson. In April 1864 the Guard was dissolved and its members became part of the newly organized 73rd and 74th Regiments of the United State Colored Troops. At the end of the war about 100 of the original 1,000 members of the First Louisiana Native Guard still remained in uniform.