The Michigan Eleventh Volunteer Infantry was recruited as May's Independent Regiment during the fall of 1861 in St. Joseph, Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee, and Monroe counties. In 1862 the Michigan Eleventh was brigaded with the Eighteenth and Sixty-ninth Ohio and the Nineteenth Illinois as Stanley's Brigade. At the battle of Stones River, Stanley's brigade was the hinge on which Rosecrans' line bent and was in the vanguard of the counterattack on January 2, 1863. The Brigade under the command of Col. William L. Stoughton of the Eleventh were among the defenders of Snodgrass Hill at Chickamauga and were probably the last Federal unit to leave that bloody battlefield. The Regiment fought with distinction at Missionary Ridge and during the Atlanta campaign.
