The 135th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry was an infantry

Infantry

Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 regiment

Regiment

A regiment is a major tactical military unit, composed of variable numbers of batteries, squadrons or battalions, commanded by a colonel or lieutenant colonel...

 that served in the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. It was among scores of regiments that were raised in the summer of 1864 as Hundred Days Men

Hundred Days Men

The Hundred Days Men was the nickname applied to a series of volunteer regiments raised in 1864 for 100-days service in the Union Army during the height of the American Civil War...

, an effort to augment existing manpower for an all-out push to end the war within 100 days.

Service

The 135th Illinois Infantry was organized at Mattoon, Illinois

Mattoon, Illinois

Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census. It is a principal city of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area.Mattoon was the site of the "Mad Gasser" attacks of the 1940s....

, and mustered into Federal service on June 6, 1864, for a one-hundred-day enlistment. The 135th garrisoned the line of the Missouri Pacific Railroad

Missouri Pacific Railroad

The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...

, and performed fatigue duty at Jefferson City, Missouri

Jefferson City, Missouri

Jefferson City is the capital of the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Cole County. Located in Callaway and Cole counties, it is the principal city of the Jefferson City metropolitan area, which encompasses the entirety of both counties. As of the 2010 census, the population was 43,079...

.

The regiment was mustered out of service on September 28, 1864.

Total strength and casualties

The regiment suffered two deaths of enlisted men who were killed in action or mortally wounded, and seventeen deaths of enlisted men from disease, for a total of nineteen fatalities.