The 11th regiment, in conjunction with other Federal units, was dispatched on a wild goose chase that culminated in a narrow miss at surrounding Morgan's entire force at Paris, Kentucky.

[3] Braxton Bragg’s Confederate invasion of Kentucky in August 1862 left the 11th Michigan among the Federal units stranded in isolation at Nashville under the command of James Scott Negley.

[4] After Bragg's invasion was repulsed at Perryville, the 11th Michigan joined the Army of the Cumberland's advance under Major General William Starke Rosecrans in late December, and was heavily engaged at the Battle of Stones River.

The green Michiganders fought bravely despite absorbing severe casualties (140 killed, wounded, or missing—a 32 percent loss), and helped stall Bragg's powerful opening assault shy of Rosecrans's supply artery, the Nashville Pike.

[5] After months of recuperation in Murfreesboro, Rosecrans advanced again in the Tullahoma Campaign on June 23, 1863, turning Bragg's army out of its position, and repeated this feat to force his retreat from Chattanooga.

When Rosecrans pushed too aggressively in pursuit, Negley's division, the 11th Michigan included, was nearly cut off and captured, but fought a successful delaying action against a vastly superior Confederate force at the Battle of Davis's Cross Roads.

A week later, the adversaries clashed again at the Battle of Chickamauga, where the 11th Michigan on September 20, 1863, helped parry a Rebel attempt to flank George H. Thomas’s corps and cut the Union army off from its line of retreat.

[6] The Union defeat at Chickamauga left the Army of the Cumberland virtually under siege in Chattanooga, but the arrival of reinforcements under Ulysses S. Grant turned the tables several weeks later, and the 11th Michigan joined in the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863.

Stoughton's troops participated in the pursuit of Bragg's army the next day, launching a night assault in pitch darkness near Graysville, Georgia, and capturing the Confederate artillery battery of Thomas B. Ferguson without the loss of a single soldier.

In pursuit of the subsequent Confederate retreat, the Michiganders were engaged at Battle of Ruff's Station, where Colonel Stoughton suffered a severe shell wound that necessitated the amputation of his leg.

[8] The 11th Michigan was again lightly engaged at Peachtree Creek on July 20, where the unit rushed the length of the Union line under artillery fire to plug a gap with John Newton's 4th Corps division.

Stopping at Sidney, Ohio, on the 24th, the Michiganders stumbled across Copperhead Clement L. Vallandigham and democratic vice presidential candidate George H. Pendleton, both of whom were reviled by the soldiers for their antiwar stances.