Perhaps one of the most odd and incredible stories in the Civil War is that of Little Egypt’s Confederate company. In a Union state where over 250,000 men volunteered for the Union army, 34 men from Jackson and Williamson Counties, Illinois decided to enlist for the Confederate army. They are the only company to be enlisted in the rebel forces from Southern Illinois. Only Company G, of the entire 15th Tennessee was from Southern Illinois, and was called the “Southern Illinois Regiment.” Most of the men in the 15th Tennessee Volunteer Regiment were from different communities, and many were immigrants from Germany, and Ireland. The regiment was present at Belmont, Shiloh, and Perryville, and was almost completely disbanded by 1862. Of the 34 Illinois secessionists that set out for the Confederacy, only one would be active during the war’s end. Almost all of the information provided on this unit came from Ed Gleeson’s Illinois Rebels: A Civil War Unit History of G Company 15th Tennessee Regiment Volunteer Infantry. Gleeson’s work, published in 1996, is the only unit and regimental history written on the 15th Tennessee, and is an invaluable resource on this forgotten regiment.