USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I > Part 23
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No more conclusive summary of the part played by Adams County in the Civil war has been given than that by Henry Asbury, for more than a year provost marshal with headquarters at Quiney, and there- fore authority. Ile says: "It may not be uninteresting to state here that Illinois is credited (in the adjutant general's report) with having sent into the war 226,592 men, whose names are recorded. Be- sides this number many of our young men throughout the State in the earlier stages of the war, went into other states and there volun- teered. Illinois, as stated, received credit for some of them, but no doubt many of them were not thus eredited by reason of the omis- sion, sometimes accidentally, of the volunteer in stating his residence in the enlistment papers. I know of some colored men from Quincy who were mustered into one or more Massachusetts regiments. The regiment of Colonel J. A. Bross, the Twenty-ninth United States Col- ored Regiment, was raised mainly in Quincy-903 men. How many of these men were credited to Quincy ? Though no doubt some of them were so eredited. I do not, as I write now, know. The regiment of Colonel Bross is not mentioned in our Illinois regiments, nor is the regiment of 985 men of Colonel 1. W. Wilson so mentioned. There also appears in the adjutant general's report the names of Captain John Curtis, ninety-one men, that of Captain Simon G. Stockey. ninety men, and Captain James Steele, eighty-six men." From such facts known respeeting Adams County, Mr. Asbury is led to believe. respecting the state at large, that Illinois shonkl be credited with fully 240,000 men who served in the Union armies.
"It is proper to remark," he adds. "that the Illinois Legislature convened in special session April 23, 1861, and out of respect to Illi- nois regiments in Mexico provided that the infantry regiments raised under the President's proclamation of the 15th of April. 1861, should begin with the number Seven. The law also provided for the election
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of a brigadier general. Henee, Benjamin M. Prentiss, of Quincy, became the first brigadier general of volunteers, though by the ruling of the War Department the act of Congress only gave those brigadiers appointed by the President rank from the date of their appointment by him. Prentiss having been at first commissioned by Governor Yates did not take rank until afterward appointed by the President.
DIFFERENT UNITS REPRESENTING ADAMS COUNTY
"Quiney and Adams County had, as we know, men and officers, or officers alone, in the following regiments, besides some, perhaps many, not within our observation, namely : Of infantry, the 10th regi- ment, the 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 27th, 33d, 43d, 50th, 58th, 65th, 66th, 73d, 78th, 84th, 97th, 118th, 119th, 137th, 148th, 151st and 154th. Of cavalry Quincy and Adams County sent at least one full company -Delano's, afterward Moore's company, of the Second Regiment- and also Macfall's company of the Third Regiment.
"As provost marshal of our district I recruited and mustered quite a large number of men for cavalry regiments in the field, also in the First and Second regiments, and in the ten batteries of artillery raised by the State we had some men, but exactly how many I cannot state without great care and patient examination of records. My main object in these somewhat statistical statements is to carry the minds of readers back to the times of war in Quincy. In this con- nection I may state that Quincy was represented, more or less, in every army corps of the nation, either in the regular or volunteer service. There could scarcely be a battle of any magnitude during the war but our people, or some of them, felt a personal interest in its results. As a matter of course. we lived in a state of painful excite- ment and anxiety, and when the end came all rejoiced. Many, how- ever, knew that some of those who had gone forth to fight for their country could never return."
In speaking of those 800 Illinois soldiers who died in Anderson- ville prison, Mr. Asbury mentions one as a member of the Tenth Regi- ment, thirty-three victims as belonging to the Sixteenth, fourteen to the Seventy-Eighth and seven to the Eighty-Fourth-some of them from Adams County. "Though our city and county had their full share of horrors incident to and resulting from the great War of the Rebellion, we yet, in a business and commercial point, were exceedingly prosperous. In the matter of saddles, harness and war equipments alone to the amount of as much as $250,000 at least were furnished to the Government, and though some of our manufacturers, owing to delaved payments and the sudden rise in prices of material, eventually lost money under their contracts. yet in a general way we had a great season of business prosperity during the war.
"Our hospitals for sick and wounded soldiers, our commissary and quartermaster's department and last, though not least, the head- quarters of the provost marshal's office for our district, all tended
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to keep every man busy and anxious in the discharge of his duties. It may be proper to state here that during the year and fifteen days the writer held the office of provost marshal here, there were sent into the war from these headquarters, of volunteers, drafted men and sub- stitutes, 4,000 men. There were sent during the services of my pred- ecessor, of volunteers about 500 men. The whole number of men eredited to our office, including deserters from other states and from our own State, 4,750 men, or more than five regiments.
THE WOMEN OF QUINCY
"I could deem myself greatly remiss and at fault, if I should not say a few words concerning the women of Quiney and the county dur- ing the war, and especially their two great societies, 'The Needle Piekets' and 'The Good Samaritans.' These societies had a laudable rivalry as to which could best work, and do most for the comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers. I think the total of their eontribu- tions, if merely counted at their money value, amounted to many thousands of dollars. If our mothers of the revolution knew how to minister to the wants of our fathers in their struggle for national independence, the wives and daughters and sisters of Quiney also knew and felt what was due from them towards those fighting for the preservation of our heritage of liberty. We are proud to say that the women of Quiney were not one whit behind the best and foremost of their sex anywhere throughout our country in their patriotic and efficient help."
LIGHTNING WAR MOVES
On the evening of April 15, 1861, the National Secretary of War sent a dispatch to Governor Yates calling upon him, as the representa- tive of the State of Illinois, for six regiments of militia for "imme- diate service." On the same day President Lincoln issued his proc- lamation for 75,000 militia, of which number Illinois' quota was 4.683 men. The governor also issued a proclamation on that day convening the Legislature to pass measures for organizing and equip- ping the six regiments required, and the adjutant-general issued his orders to all the commandants of the state forces to assemble their men for immediate service. Events succeeded each other with light- ning speed in those days.
On the evening of the 17th a great Union meeting was held at Quiney, on the grounds outside the court house, at which Charles A. Savage presided, with a backing of vice-presidents and secretaries comprising many prominent citizens of the county. Colonel Morris made a stirring address, the venerable Dr. D. Stahl (one of the vice- presidents) "would only say that he had sworn seventy-five years ago to support the Government of his country and that he should not desert
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it now in its hour of trial"; and the glowing Union resolutions which were adopted with a sweeping vote were presented by O. H. Browning.
OFF FOR CAIRO-COLONEL PRENTISS IN COMMAND
The War Department at once recognized the importance of sending a strong force of troops to occupy Cairo, jutting ont as it did into the border-land of the rebellious states. Accordingly, on April 19th a dispatch was sent to Brigadier-General Swift at Chicago to gather as strong a foree as was possible and immediately proceed to Cairo. Within forty-eight hours after the order was received (which was re- markably rapid mobilization in those days, when nothing was pro- vided) General Swift left Chicago over the Illinois Central Railroad with 595 men and four six-pounder pieces of artillery. There were two companies of Chicago Zouaves and commands from other central points. The expedition was indifferently armed with rifles, shot- guns, muskets and carbines gathered from stores and shops in Chieago.
The motley command of eager men arrived at Cairo on the following morning (April 23d), on the 24th it was reinforced by seven companies from Springfield under command of Col. Ben- jamin M. Prentiss, who thereupon relieved General Swift and assumed charge of all the troops at Cairo. Traffie in contraband of war had already commeneed between Galena and St. Louis with towns on the Mississippi below Cairo, and upon the very day of his arrival Colonel Prentiss received a telegraphie order from Governor Yates to seize the arms and munitions aboard the steamers C. E. Hillman and John D. Perry which were about to leave St. Louis for southern ports. On the evening of the 24th and morning of the 25th, as these boats neared Cairo, Colonel Prentiss directed Captain Smith of the Chicago Light Artillery and Captain Scott of the Chicago Zouaves, to board them and bring them to the wharf. His orders were exeented and large quantities of arms and munitions of war were seized and confiscated. Though this seizure was not expressly author- ized by the War Department, the act of seizure and subsequent eon- fiseation was approved, and in May the Government at Washington issued a circular to all collectors forbidding shipments "intended for ports under insurrectionary control" and also from Cairo.
TENTH INFANTRY ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS
When Colonel Prentiss was promoted to be brigadier-general in May, 1861, James D. Morgan, who had been lieutenant-colonel of the Tenth Regiment, was promoted to the eoloneley of the latter. Upon the advancement of Colonel Morgan to the rank of brigadier- general in July, 1862, John Tillson, the old lientenant-colonel, was advanced a grade and commanded the Tenth Illinois during almost the entire remaining period of the Civil war; the exception being,
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during the march to the sea, when he commanded a brigade and his regiment was assigned to Lieut .- Col. David Gillespie.
The Tenth Infantry Illinois Volunteers were mustered into the United States service at Cairo, Illinois, April 29. 1861, and during its first three months' service garrisoned that place and made expedi- tions to Columbus and Benton, Missouri. In July it was mustered into the service for three years. In the following year it participated in the movements of Pope's army at New Madrid, Fort Pillow, Island No. 10 and the siege of Corinth, the defense of Nashville. and subse- (mently was with Sherman at Mission Ridge, Chickamauga and the march to the sea and through the Carolinas, suffering severely during the attack at Bentonville. After Johnston's surrender, its route was to Richmond, Fredericksburg and Washington, where the regiment participated n the grand review. On the 4th of June. 1865, it proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, was mustered out of the United States service on the 4th of July, and received its final discharge July 11, 1865, at Chicago. During the last campaign of the war the Third Brigade, of which it was a part, was commanded by Brev .- Brig. John Tillson.
The three officers of highest fame and rank who went from Adams County were, therefore, identified with the Tenth Illinois.
GEN. B. M. PRENTISS
Benjamin M. Prentiss was a Virginian, born in Wood County in 1819 and, as a youth, located in Marion County, Missouri, where he engaged in the manufacture of cordage. In the spring of 1841, then twenty-two year of age, he moved to Quincy and there, with his father. engaged in the same business. During the Mormon excitement he was in the military service of the state, and in the Mexican war was first-lieutenant of a Quiney company commanded by James D. Morgan and, with his friend. was afterward chosen captain of a com- pany which was incorporated into a battalion assigned to garrison Sal- tillo near Buena Vista. The two, whose fortunes were also to be linked on the broader and more bloody fields of the Civil war, returned to- gether at the close of the comparatively small trouble with Mexico.
Captain Prentiss, as he was then called, commeneed the study of the law after his return from Mexico in 1847, and, although he studied for five years and was admitted to the bar, varions difficulties occurred to keep him from practice, until the greatest obstacle of them all, the Civil war, effectually blocked the law for more than four years of storm and stress. After he left Cairo as a brigadier-general he was ordered by General Fremont to Jefferson City, Missouri, to take command of the military department embraced by Northern and Central Missouri. Subsequently being ordered to the field by General Halleck. he proceeded to Pittsburg Landing, where he arrived April 1, 1862, and organized and took command of the Sixth Division. On the morning of the 6th his command was attacked by a superior
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force of the enemy, against which he contended the entire day, being overwhelmed and captured in the evening. He remained a prisoner six months, and after his exchange was ordered to Washington to sit on the court martial case of Gen. Fitz John Porter. At the close of that trial he was called to report to General Grant at Milliken's Bend and was assigned the command of the eastern district of Arkansas, with headquarters at Helena. At that place, on July 4, 1863, he com- manded the Union forces in the Battle of Helena, gaining a decisive victory over the greatly superior forces of the enemy. Previous to this he had been promoted to the rank of major general for gallantry at Shiloh.
After the Battle of Helena, although his prospects for advancement in the service were of the best, General Prentiss decided to return to Quincy and commence the active and continuous practice of the law; which he did, with marked success, except for short periods of public- office holding, such as that of pension agent, to which he was ap- pointed by President Grant in April, 1869.
GEN. JAMES D. MORGAN
Gen. James D. Morgan, the successor of General Prentiss in com- mand of the Tenth Illinois Regiment, was born in Boston in 1810, located in Quincy in 1834 and at once got busy in his work as a cooper. Edward Wells was one of his fellow workmen in the same shop, and in the year following his arrival the two rented a little building where the jail now stands and established a business of their own. Mr. Morgan then became a confectioner, but, like his fellow townsman, B. M. Prentiss, his outside diversion was drilling and other matters connected with the Quincy Rifles. Of these he became cap- tain in 1843 and Mr. Prentiss, first lieutenant. They were, therefore, together as local military leaders in the Mormon complications, and Captain Morgan went to the Mexican war as captain of Company A, First Regiment Illinois Volunteers.
Returning to Quincy at the close of the Mexican war, Captain Morgan engaged in various lines of business for the succeeding four- teen years, and at the outbreak of the Civil war modestly accepted the position of orderly sergeant in a company then being raised in Quincy. Proceeding to Cairo with his company, the Tenth Regiment, to which it was attached, unanimously elected him lieutenant-colonel. On the promotion of Colonel Prentiss to command a brigade, he was at once advanced to the colonelcy. His regiment soon after took the field and began its fine career of nearly five years of service. Bird's Point, New Madrid, Corinth, Mission Ridge, Chickamauga, Berton's Hill and all the rest to Johnston's final surrender are to the credit of the hard fighting and faithful campaigning of the Tenth. At the engagement last named General Morgan, who had been "brigadier" for some time, was advanced to the grade of brevet major-general for gallantry in action. After the war, General Morgan returned to
.
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the paths of peace and business in Quiney. For twenty-five years he was associated with the pork-packing firm of C. M. Pomeroy & Company : was one of the first to introduce the publie convenience of gas illumination to Quiney; promoted the opera house and railroad projects, and was, in every way, a leader in all legitimate enterprises which promised the substantial advancement of the local interests.
GEN. JOHN TILLSON
Probably Gen. John Tillson touches Quincy more intimately, through his family connections, his war reeord and his public life, than any of the other two citizens of Quincy who were in command of the gallant and faithful Tenth. Ile married the eldest daughter of John Wood when he was a young man; was already earning a name as a public man when the Civil war broke out; in the War of the Rebellion reached the grade of brevet brigadier-general, his progressive military advancement having been all earned while he was in close or indirect connection with the Tenth Regiment; and afterward saw public service through the government's of his eity, state and nation. He was a man of large means, and yet his tastes were so distinctively literary and catholic that his library was for years considered the most extensive and also the most seleet of any private collection in Quincey. To round out his character with a qual- ity really worth-while, the General was widely known for his kindly spirit which was always blossoming out into practical helpfulness and philanthropy.
General Tillson was a native of Illinois, born at Hillsboro, October 12, 1825, the second son of John and Christiana Holmes Tillson, the former a native of Halifax, the latter of Kingston County, Massa- chusetts. The father was one of the most prominent men of the state during its first thirty years. He landed in Shawneetown in 1819, at the same time as John Wood, but first settled at Hillsboro. He made business and real estate investments at Quiney at an early day, although he did not go there to reside until 1843. It is said that he early acquired a fortune which was the largest in the state. But that was by no means the height of his ambition. He was both sagacious in business and philanthropic in the bestowal of much of his wealth. The variety of his investments may be indicated by such farts as these : Ile built Hillsboro Academy ; was one of the founders of the Illinois and Shurtleff colleges, and in 1836, five years before he became a resident of the city. erected the Quiney House, then the finest hotel west of Pittsburgh, at a cost of over $100.000. He died at Peoria, in 1853. from a sudden attack of heart disease, thus pass- ing away as had his father and grandfather.
General Tillson, the son of this good and sturdy John Tillson, received a liberal education through private tutors at home, at South Reading, Massachusetts, and at Hillsboro Academy and Illinois Col- lege. In 1847 he graduated from the Transylvania Law School, at
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Lexington, Kentucky, and at once commeneed the practice of his pro- fession at Quincy. While thus engaged, before the Civil war, he was associated for a time with A. Jonas. In 1851 he organized the land ageney firm of Tillson & Kingman, and in the late '50s was an unsne- eessful eandidate for both houses of the State Legislature.
At the commencement of the War of the Rebellion, Mr. Tillson, with other lieutenants and B. M. Prentiss, orderly sergeant of the Quiney City Guards. offered the company to Governor Yates; two companies were at onee raised, which were the first to be presented and mustered into the service at Springfield, and Captains Prentiss and Tillson received the first military commissions issued by Governor Yates. The Tenth Regiment, to which these companies were attached after the organization at Cairo, in April, 1861, eleeted Captain Tillson successively major, lieutenant-colonel and eolonel, and that regi- ment remained under his eommand, either as regimental or brigade- commander, from the time it left Illinois until the final muster-out on July 4, 1865. Twice, during the earlier part of the war, General Tillson declined the promotion to the colonelcy of another regiment, preferring to remain with the Tenth to the end. His regiment par- tieipated in the movements against New Madrid, Island No. 10, Cor- inth, Mission Ridge and the battles under Sherman toward Atlanta. On the fall of the last named city, General Tillson commanded a brigade in the Seventeenth Army Corps, receiving his star as a brigadier while on the march to the sea. General Tillson was mus- tered out of the volunteer service July 21. 1865, but remained in the regular army as captain (to which he had been appointed in 1861) and was brevet lieutenant-colonel in the regular army on reerniting duty until February, 1866, when he resigned. Not long afterward he became a partner in the Quiney Whig, and still later served as president of the company building a railroad from Quincy to Keokuk.
In 1873 General Tillson was elected to the lower house of the State Legislature to fill a vacancy and the distinction came at a time when it was an unheard of event for a republican to serve in that body. He resigned his seat in June, to accept the position of United States revenue collector. He had already served three terms in the City Council-elected in 1867, 1869 and 1871-and for a number of years was a member and president of the board of trustees of the Jacksonville Insane Asylum.
WILLIAM H. COLLINS' WAR NOTES
The late William H. Collins, founder of the great Collins plow industry after the war, a most humane captain of industry and a philanthropist, as well as a leading publie eharaeter, was. throughout the tragie eivil ordeal. one of the strong characters of Quiney and Illinois. A native of Illinois and a graduate of Illinois College and of advaneed courses at Yale, in philosophy and theology, he first en-
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gaged in editorial work at JJacksonville, and in 1561 became chaplain of the famous Tenth Illinois Infantry. Later, he resigned his posi- tion to assist in raising the One Hundred and Fourth Illinois In- fantry. He was elected captain of Company D. of the latter regi- ment, which he commanded at the battles of Elk River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge and Ringgold. In the spring of 1864 he was appointed as a member of the staff of Maj .- Gen. John M. Palmer, and in that capacity served in the Atlanta campaign. In Deeember of that year he was appointed provost marshal of the Twelfth Distriet of Illinois, and served in that office until Deeember 31, 1865.
Mr. Collins was in a peculiarly advantageous position to write of war matters in Western Illinois, and has done so, as especially re- lates to the first year of the war in Quiney-the initial year of her efforts, the eritieal period which fixed her position as one of the great strategie points for the conduet of the war in the great valley of the Mississippi. Along these lines Mr. Collins writes : "Quiney, next to Cairo, was the most important military point in the State. Measured by longitudinal lines, it is seventy-five miles further west than St. Louis. Situated thus, on the extreme western edge of Illinois, projecting into the state of Missouri, it was of great strategie importance.
"The line of military effort between the loyal and the slave states reached from the Potomac River westward aeross West Virginia and Kentucky to Cairo, thenee bent northward to the Iowa line, and thence westward to Nebraska and Kansas. After Cairo was occupied, the next movement was to secure control of Missouri. In a general way the operations of the Union army was a 'left-wheel,' pivoted upon the Army of the Potomac. The extreme right wing began its forward movement from the Iowa line. Quiney was the point at which the national army made her rendezvous, effeeted their organi- zation, and from which they crossed the river to take possession of the northern part of Missouri, cooperate with the forces sent out from St. Louis and thus take military control of the state.
"Quiney beeame a center of great military activity. Companies gathered here from various parts of the state to be organized into regiments. Steamers passed down the river loaded with soldiers from Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Mechanies in the eity were busy making munitions of war, from a leather box for caps to steel cannon. The recruiting drum was heard night and day. Orators made patriotie speeches and pastors preached patriotic sermons. Regiments with hands paraded the streets. Women organized to make provision for the sick and wounded in hospital and eamp.
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