5th Rhode Island Infantry

The 5th Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Service

The 5th Rhode Island Infantry was organized at Providence, Rhode Island, as a battalion of five companies and mustered in December 16, 1861. An additional five companies were raised afterward and mustered in December 27, 1862.

The regiment was attached to Parke's 3rd Brigade, Burnside's Expeditionary Corps, to April 1862. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, Department of North Carolina, to July 1862. 2nd Brigade. 1st Division, Department of North Carolina, to January 1863. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, XVIII Corps, Department of North Carolina, to May 1863. Lee's Brigade, Defenses of New Berne, North Carolina, Department of North Carolina, to July 1863.

The 5th Rhode Island Infantry ceased to exist in July 1863 when it was reorganized as the 5th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery.

Detailed service

Burnside's Expedition to Hatteras Inlet and Roanoke Island, N.C., January 7-February 8, 1862. Battle of Roanoke Island February 9. At Roanoke Island until March 11. Expedition up Currituck Sound February 19. Advance to New Berne March 11–13. Battle of New Berne March 14. Operations against Fort Macon March 19-April 26. Moved to Havelock Station, Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad, March 19–20. Companies A, B, and C to Newport Barracks March 23, then the battalion moved to Carolina City April 4. At Bogue Banks April 6–30. Camden, South Mills, April 19. At Fort Macon April 30-June 30. At Beaufort, N.C., until August 7, and at New Berne until December. Expedition to Tarboro November 2–12. Rawle's Mills November 2. Demonstration on New Berne November 11. Foster's Expedition to Goldsboro December 11–20. Kinston December 14. Whitehall December 16. Goldsboro December 17. Duty at New Berne until May 1863. Expedition to relief of Little Washington April 7–10. Duty in the defenses of New Berne until July.

Casualties

The regiment lost a total of 119 men during service (this includes casualties after it was changed to heavy artillery); 1 officer and 8 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded, 4 officers and 106 enlisted men died of disease.

See also

• List of Rhode Island Civil War units
• Rhode Island in the American Civil War

References

• Barney, C. H. A Country Boy's First Three Months in the Army (Providence, RI: N. B. Williams & Co.), 1880.
• Douglas, William Wilberforce. Relief of Washington, North Carolina, by the Fifth Rhode Island Volunteers (Providence, RI: Providence Press Co., Printers), 1886. on the Internet Archive
• Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Des Moines, IA: Dyer Pub. Co.), 1908.

Attribution

• This article contains text from a text now in the public domain: Dyer, Frederick H. (1908). A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, IA: Dyer Publishing Co.