Colonel Géza Mihalótzy, 24th Illinois Regiment
(First Hecker Jaeger Regiment)
By Michael A. Peake

Géza Mihalótzy was born April 21, 1825, at Nagyvárad, Hungary and entered the Austrian Military Academy in Wiener-Neustadt at age thirteen. Mihalótzy served as captain in the 7th Hungarian Army Corps during the 1848-49 Hungarian War of Independence and following the revolution immigrated to Illinois. Just before the Civil War, he organized Hungarian, Czech and German recruits at Chicago from the city athletic and social clubs into a militia company named ‘Lincoln's Riflemen’ that merged into Frederick Hecker’s 24th Infantry Illinois. They mustered into Federal service July 8, 1861, with Mihalótzy appointed lieutenant colonel. He became colonel when Hecker returned to the State to organize the 82nd Illinois. The 24th Illinois served with distinction at Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and the battles of the Atlanta campaign. Mihalótzy was severely wounded at Chickamauga and had barely recovered when he was mortally wounded in Northern Georgia and died March 11, 1864. He is buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery, in Section A, Grave 439.

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Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-128691