The 122nd Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry was an Infantry Regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Campaign History
Organization
The 122nd Illinois was organized at Camp Palmer, Carlinville, Illinois, in August 1862, by Colonel John I. Rinaker, and was mustered into the service of the United States 4 September 1862, with 960 enlisted men.
The regiment remained in camp and was drilled until 8 October, and was then ordered and moved to Columbus, Kentucky. Upon its arrival at that post, it was ordered to go at once to Trenton, Tennessee, and report to General G. M. Dodge. The regiment arrived at Trenton on 12 October and relieved the First Kansas Infantry, Colonel George W. Deitzler. Colonel Rinaker was assigned to the command of the post, and troops at that place, consisting of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Illinois Infantry, Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, Colonel Isaac R. Hawkins commanding; Fourth Illinois Cavalry, and Captain Sparstroms Battery, Second Illinois Artillery.
The regiment continued on duty at Trenton till 12 November 1862, when Colonel Rinaker was ordered to take the right wing of the regiment, companies A, D, and F, and proceed to Humboldt, Tennessee, and relieve the Eighty-first Illinois Infantry, and to take command of the post and troops remaining there, consisting of four companies: Fifty-fourth Illinois Infantry, a part of Fourth Illinois Cavalry, Seventh Wisconsin Battery. This order was at once executed. The remainder of the regiment was left at Trenton under command of Lieutenant Colonel J. F. Drish.
The force at Humboldt was to hold the Mobile and Ohio Railroad from Trenton to Jackson, Tennessee, and guard the ordnance, commissary and quartermaster's supplies stored at that place.
This service was performed until 18 December, when the regiment moved to Jackson to aid in defense of that place against an impending attack thereon by heavy forces of cavalry under lieutenant general Nathan Bedford Forrest. From Jackson, the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiment, with the Forty-third and Sixty-first Illinois, moved out on 19 December, and had a skirmish with the enemy that day and moved on out to Lexington, Tennessee, and returned to Jackson on 21 December.
Thence moved to Trenton on the 23d of December, and the same night marched in obedience to orders to a point near Humboldt, to protect a force repairing Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which had just been destroyed by rebel cavalry. During the time that the regiment had been about Jackson, the rebel cavalry under Forrest had captured the hospital at Trenton, and had made prisoners of the sick and the guards on duty at Trenton, by which the One Hundred and Twenty-second for the time being lost Major James F. Chapman and Captain B. Cowan, W. W. Freeman, Regimental Quartermaster, and 60 enlisted men taken prisoner.
Battle of Parker's Cross Roads
On 27 December, nine companies of the One Hundred and Twenty-second, nine companies of Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry, Fiftieth Indiana Infantry, and a part of Seventh Wisconsin Battery, with three pieces of artillery, and 40 men of Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, the latter mounted, whole under command of Colonel Cyrus L. Dunham, Fiftieth Indiana, marched from Trenton to head off the cavalry force under Forrest then moving back from near Columbus, Kentucky, toward the Tennessee River. Moved by way of Huntingdon, Tennessee, and on 30 December a skirmish occurred with the enemy, and on 31 December 1862, at about 11 A.M., the One Hundred and Twenty-second and Fiftieth Indiana and the 40 men of the Eighteenth Illinois Infantry, and a part of the Seventh Wisconsin Battery, constituting a force of 1,540 men, engaged in battle with the enemy under Forrest, numbering over 6,000 men with eighteen pieces of artillery. The fight continued till about 2 o’clock P.M., when the enemy fell back leaving the field in possession of the little force that had fought them for nearly three hours, and had during that time captured eight pieces of artillery and 500 prisoners, among them Major Strange, Forrest's Adjutant General. The losses of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Regiment in killed were 22 enlisted and 1 officer, Lieutenant Bristow, in wounded 56 enlisted men and 2 officers, Colonel Rinaker, who received a severe wound in his right leg, and Captain William B. Dugger; one man missing, making a total loss of 80 men.