Mr.Martin,

As you may already know, Lt.Col.John R.Mahan's 55th Indiana and Col.Thomas J.Lucas' 15th Indiana Infantry were both part of Brig.Gen.Mahlon D.Manson's 1st Indiana Brigade during the Battle of Richmond. Combat is controlled chaos, and whoever controls it best usually wins the fight. At Richmond, it was impossibly chaotic for the Federal Army of Kentucky. McPike may not have been "detached" to serve with the 16th so much as he was just mixed up with the 16th as so many troops from the other three Hoosier units of the brigade became. During the first phase of the battle, the fighting around the Mount Zion Church, the Federal units were still somewhat organized, with the men still in the ranks of their own regiments. However, when the first Federal line of battle was broken by the Confederate assault, the men from the various units became hopelessly intermingled as they fled to the north, to what was then Rogersville, approx. two miles to the north of the first line. While some regimental commanders had better luck reorganizing their units and getting their men back into line, most just fell in with whatever unit they had happened to fall in with during their flight. The next/2nd Federal line of battle was formed along the Duncannon Road, and what was then the Speedwell Road(now part of the Bluegrass Army Depot)where both roads ended at the Richmond Road, now US 421. Gen.Cruft's 2nd Brigade was formed up along Duncannon Rd., while Manson's 1st Indiana Brigade lined up along the Speedwell Rd., which came into US 421/Richmond Rd., roughly fifty yards north of where Duncannon entered present-day 421. The 55th held the extreme left flank of both Manson's line and the Federal Army as a whole. The 16th was in the right-center of the line, but a good number of troops from other units, the 55th among them, were in the 16th's ranks. We can get into what happened with the 16th and 55th Indiana during the rest of the battle at another time, but the end result was this:Col. Lucas' 16th Indiana alone suffered 600 casualties- 42KIA, 163 WIA(with 22 dying of their wounds, or DOWs), and 395 captured. Mahan's 55th suffered the lightest casualties of any US infantry unit in the battle, though one of the highest percentages of loss suffered by any unit throughout the War,possibly because, as they were the most seasoned of the Federal units, they knew when to run. Out of a total of around 600 effectives, the 55th lost 11KIA, 53WIA(nine DOWs), and 493 captured, for a total of 93.3% casualties. At Richmond, the Federal Army of Kentucky suffered a higher percentage of loss than any other US Army ever has, between 76% and 88% casualties, depending on the starting number of troops that you accept. I would put it at approx 81%. That alone should have assured it's place in our history books, but happening as it did on the same two days as Second Bull Run, it received scant attention in the press of the day, and virtually none in the more than 50,000 works on the subject since. I hope to change that, at least a little. If for no other reason, the more than 2,000 men who were killed, wounded, and fought there deserve to be remembered, as does what they did in those fields below Richmond. My apologies for rambling. If you'd like, I would like to email you the TRUE casualty figures for each side, as well as the number of troops engaged, a little later on, in the next day or two. I can guarantee you that the figures you have read on both the number of troops engaged and the losses sustained are wrong, way off. And the figures I cite can be backed up with the names, ranks, and units of the troops, as well as the type of wounds in many cases. Let me know if you'd like to see them. Gov't figures are off by hundreds, and most "professional" historians just blindly repeat them, but I can prove that they are wrong. I'd be happy to help you with further research as well. Take care, Sir, and I hope to hear from you soon. Mike