Of the 115th Regiment, parts of Companies E, F, and H were recruited in Macon county.  The regiment, Col. Jesse H. Moore, of Decatur, commanding, was ordered to the front from Camp Butler, Ill., Oct. 4th, 1862, and was assigned to the Second Brigade, Second Division, Army of Kentucky.
     October. 20th, marched via Falmouth, Cynthiana, Paris, and Lexington to Richmond, Ky.  There Col. Moore took command of the post, and remained about two months scouting between that place and the gaps of the Cumberland Mountains.  Dec. 21st, marched to Danville, Ky., and joined the main part of the Army of Kentucky; Jan. 26th, 1863, moved to Louisville; Feb. 10th to Nashville, remaining in camp there till Mar. 1st, and thence to Franklin, Tenn., and camped.  No casualties from battle had as yet occurred to the regiment; but from exposure on marches during the severe winter of 1862-3 it had lost two hundred men either by death or permanent disability.  During the month of Mar. the regiment encountered the rebel general, Van Dorn, and drove him across Duck river; returned to camp, remaining there till June 1st, and then marched to Triune, Tenn.; June 24th, marched against the confederate army under Gen. Bragg, driving it across the Tennessee river, and afterward, with the brigade, camping at Wartrace, Tenn.; thence the regiment moved to Tullahoma, and held that place till Sept. 5th, setting out then in the direction of Chattanooga; Sep. 14th, made forced march across the Cumberland mountains to within five miles of Chattanooga; Sept. 19th, engaged in the battle of Chickamauga, losing six men; Sept. 20th, supported Gen. Thomas on the extreme right, and in the fearful struggle that ensued bravely held the ground from 1 p.m. till night put an end to the sanguinary content.  Half of the entire command was cut down.  The colonel and his invincible regiment received special commendations in orders - an honor richly merited by deeds of valor that will live forever.  The regiment participated in all the great engagements around Chattanooga and Mission Ridge, in which campaign it lost in killed, wounded, and captured, during the fall of 1863, two hundred and thirty-five men and ten officers, among whom was Lieut. Col. Kinman, of Jacksonville, a brave and efficient officer.
     February 21st, marched, under command of Gen. Palmer, against Dalton, Georgia, skirmishing ten days and losing six men; remained there till May 3d, and then, with Sherman's Grand Army, started on the Atlanta campaign; May 7th, the regiment gallantly led the charge upon Tunnel hill, Georgia, driving the enemy through Buzzard Roost gap; May 15th and 16th, took part in the battle of Resaca, Ga., stubbornly sustaining the charge on the left flank, for which the regiment was commended in orders.  It lost in this contest thirty men and one officer; the entire loss of the regiment during the Atlanta campaign was one hundred men.  By special order all the principal engagements of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which resulted in the fall of Atlanta, were inscribed upon the regimental banner.
     October, 1864, Company D, 115th Regiment, occupied a blockhouse in Buzzard Roost gap, and held in check for ten hours Hood's whole army, heroically refusing to surrender till the house had been demolished by the enemy's artillery and one-third of the company killed or wounded.  For this special act of bravery the captain, Samuel Hymer, of Schuyler county, Ill., was brevetted major, and has since been appointed captain in the regular army.  In November and December, 1864, the regiment took an active part in the series of battles which destroyed Bragg's veteran army, then under command of the rebel general Hood, and known as the Army of the Tennessee.
     The Second Brigade, to which the 115th Regiment belonged, had, by its magnificent deeds of daring, won the title of the "Iron Brigade, and on the 23d of December, 1864, Col. Moore of the 115th took command of this splendid brigade, which position he held till the close of the war.  Having achieved a most glorious record, the 115th was mustered out of service June 11th, 1865, and received its final pay and discharge at Camp Butler, Ill., June 23d, 1865.

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