The history of Adams County Illinois : containing a history of the county - its cities, towns, etc. a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 23

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Murray, Williamson & Phelps
Number of Pages: 1254

USA > Illinois > Adams County > The history of Adams County Illinois : containing a history of the county - its cities, towns, etc. a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 23

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12S

HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

Bitter words spoken in moments of political heat were forgotten and forgiven, and joining hands in a common cause, they repeated the oath of America's soldier-statesman: " By the Great Eternal, the Union must and shall be preserved." The honor, the very life and glory of the nation was committed to the stern arbitrament of the sword, and soon the tramp of armed men, the clash of musketry and the heavy boom of artillery reverberated throughout the continent; rivers of blood saddened by tears of mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and sweethearts flowed from the lakes to the gulf, but a nation was saved. The sacrifice was great, but the Union was preserved.

CALL FOR TROOPS PROMPTLY ANSWERED.

Simultaneously with the call for troops by the President, enlist- ments commenced in this State, and within ten days 10,000 volunteers offered service, and the sum of $1,000,000 was tendered by patriotic citizens. Of the volunteers who offered their services, only six regiments could be accepted under the quota of the State. But the time soon came when there was a place and a musket for every man. The six regiments raised were designated by numbers commencing with seven, as a mark of respect for the six regiments which had served in the Mexican war. Another call was antici- pated, and the Legislature authorized ten additional regiments to be organized. Over two hundred companies were immediately raised from which were selected the required number. No sooner was this done than the President made another call for troops, six regiments were again our proportion, although by earnest solicita- tion the remaining four were accepted. There were a large number of men with a patriotic desire to enter the service who were denied this privilege. Many of them wept, while others joined regiments from other States. In May, June and July seventeen regiments of infantry and five of cavalry were raised, and in the latter month, when the President issued his first call for 500,000 volunteers, Illinois tendered thirteen regiments of infantry and three of cavalry, and so anxious were her sons to have the Rebellion crushed that the number could have been increased by thousands. At the close of 1561 Illinois had sent to the field nearly 50,000 men, and had 17,000 in camp awaiting marching orders, thus exceeding her full quota by 15,000.

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

A VAST ARMY RAISED IN ELEVEN DAYS.

In July and August of 1862 the President called for 600,000 men-our quota of which was 52,296-and gave until August 18 as the limits in which the number might be raised by volunteering, after which a draft would be ordered. The State had already fur- nished 17,000 in excess of her quota, and it was first thought this number would be deducted from the present requisition, but that could not be done. But thirteen days were granted to enlist this vast army, which had to come from the farmers and mechanics. The former were in the midst of harvest, but, inspired by love of country, over 50,000 of them left their harvests ungathered, their tools and their benches, the plows in their furrows, turning their backs on their homes, and before eleven days had expired the demands of the Government were met and both quotas filled.

The war went on, and call followed call, until it began to look as if there would not be men enongh in all the Free States to crush out and subdue the monstrous war traitors had inaugurated. But to every call for either men or money there was a willing and ready response. And it is a boast of the people that, had the supply of men fallen short, there were women brave enough, daring enough, patriotic enough, to have offered themselves as sacrifices on their country's altar. On the 21st of December, 1864, the last call for troops was made. It was for 300,000. In consequence of an im- perfect enrollment of the men subject to military duty, it became evident, ere this call was made, that Illinois was furnishing thous- ands of men more than what her quota would have been, had it been correct. So glaring had this disproportion become, that under this call the quota of some districts exceeded the number of able-bodied men in them.

A GENERAL SUMMARY.

Following this sketch we give a schedule of all the volunteer troops organized from this State, from the commencement to the close of the war. It is taken from the Adjutant General's report. The number of the regiment, name of original Colonel, call under which recruited, date of organization and muster into the United States' service, place of muster, and aggregate strength of eachı organization, from which we find that Illinois put into her one hun- dred and eighty regiments 256,000 men, and into the United States

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IIISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

army, through other States, enough to swell the number to 290,000. This far exceeds all the soldiers of the Federal Government in all the war of the Revolution. Her total years of service were over 600,000. She enrolled men from eighteen to forty-five years of age, when the law of Congress in 1864-the test time-only asked for those from twenty to forty-five. Her enrollments were otherwise excessive. Her people wanted to go, and did not take the pains to correct the enrollment; thus the basis of fixing the quota was too great, and the quota itself, at least in the trying time, was far above any other State. The demand on some counties, as Monroe, for example, took every able-bodied man in the county, and then did not have enough to fill the quota. Moreover, Illinois sent 20,844 men for one hundred days, for whom no credit was asked. She gave to the country 73,000 years of service above all calls. With one-thirteenth of the population of the loyal States, she sent regu- larly one-tenth of all the soldiers, and in the perils of the closing calls, when patriots were few and weary, she sent one-eighth of all that were called for by her loved and honored son in the White House. Of the brave boys Illinois sent to the front, there were killed in action, 5,SSS; died of wounds, 3,032; of disease, 19,496; in prison, 967; lost at sea, 205; aggregate, 29,588. As upon every field and upon every page of the history of this war, Illinois bore hier part of the suffering in the prison-pens of the South. More than 800 names make up the awful column of Illinois' brave sons who died in. the rebel prison of Andersonville, Ga. Who can

measure or imagine the atrocities which would be laid before the world were the panorama of sufferings and terrible trials of these gallant men but half unfolded to view? But this can never be done until new words of horror are invented, and new arts dis- covered by which demoniacal fiendishness can be portrayed, and the intensest anguish of the human soul in ten thousand forms be painted.

No troops ever fought more heroically, stubbornly, and with bet- ter effect, than did the boys from the "Prairie State." At Pea Ridge, Donelson, Pittsburg Landing, Iuka, Corinth, Stone River, Holly Springs, Jackson, Vicksburg, Chicamanga, Lookout Moun- tain, Murfreesboro, Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, Chattanooga, and on every other field where the clash of arms was heard, her sons were foremost.

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

CAPTURE OF THE ST. LOUIS ARSENAL.

Illinois was almost destitute of firearms at the beginning of the conflict, and none could be procured in the East. The traitorous Floyd had turned over to the South 300,000 arms, leaving most arsenals in the North empty. Gov. Yates, however, received an order on the St. Louis arsenal for 10,000 muskets, which he put in the hands of Captain Stokes, of Chicago. Several unsuccessful attempts were made by the Captain to pass through the large crowd of rebels which had gathered around the arsenal, suspecting an attempt to move the arms would be made. He at last succeeded in gaining admission to the arsenal, but was informed by the com- mander that the slightest attempt to move the arms would be dis- covered and bring an infuriated mob upon the garrison. This fear was well founded, for the following day Gov. Jackson ordered 2,000 armed men from Jefferson City down to capture the arsenal. Capt. Stokes telegraphed to Alton for a steamer to descend the river, and about midnight land opposite the arsenal, and proceeding to the same place with 700 men of the 7th Illinois, commenced loading the vessel. To divert attention from his real purpose, he had 500 guns placed upon a different boat. As designed, this movement was discovered by the rabble, and the shouts and excitement upon their seizure drew most of the crowd from the arsenal. Capt. Stokes not only took all the guns his requisition called for, but emptied the arsenal. When all was ready, and the signal given to start, it was found that the immense weight had bound the bow of the boat to a rock, but after a few moments' delay the boat fell away from the shore and floated into deep water.

" Which way?" said Capt. Mitchell, of the steamer. " Straight in the regular channel to Alton," replied Capt. Stokes. "What if we are attacked ?" said Capt. Mitchell. "Then we will fight," was the reply of Capt. Stokes. "What if we are overpowered?" said Mitchell. "Run the boat to the deepest part of the river and sink her," replied Stokes. "I'll do it," was the heroic answer of Mitchell, and away they went past the secession battery, past the St. Louis levee, and in the regular channel on to Alton. When they touched the landing, Capt. Stokes, fearing pursuit, ran to the market house and rang the fire bell. The citizens came flocking pell-mell to the river, and soon men, women and children were tugging away at that vessel load of arms, which they soon had deposited in freight cars and off to Springfield.

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

LIBERALITY AS WELL AS PATRIOTISM.

The people were liberal as well as patriotic; and while the men were busy enlisting, organizing and equipping companies, the ladies were no less active, and the noble, generous work performed by their tender, loving hands deserves mention along with the bravery, devotion and patriotism of their brothers upon the Southern fields of carnage.

The continued need of money to obtain the comforts and neces- saries for the sick and wounded of our army suggested to the loyal women of the North many and various devices for the raising of funds. Every city, town and village had its fair, festival, picnic, excursion, concert, which netted more or less to the cause of hospital relief, according to the population of the place and the amount of energy and patriotism displayed on such occasions. Especially was this characteristic of our own fair State, and scarcely a hamlet within its borders which did not send something from its stores to hospital or battlefield, and in the larger towns and cities were well-organized soldiers' aid societies, working systematically and continuously from the beginning of the war till its close. The great State Fair held in Chicago in May, 1865, netted $250,000. Homes for traveling soldiers were established all over the State, in which were furnished lodging for 600.000 men, and meals valued at $2,500,000. Food, clothing, medicine, hospital delicacies, reading matter, and thousands of other articles, were sent to the boys at the front.

MESSAGES OF LOVE AND ENCOURAGEMENT.

Letters, messages of love and encouragement, were sent by noble women from many counties of the State to encourage the brave sons and brothers in the South. Below we give a copy of a printed letter sent from Knox county to the "boys in blue," as showing the feelings of the women of the North. It was headed, " FROM THE WOMEN OF KNOX COUNTY TO THEIR BROTHERS IN THE FIELD." It was a noble, soul-inspiring message, and kindled anew the intensest love for home, country, and a determination to crown the stars and stripes with victory :

" You have gone out from our homes, but not from our hearts. Never for one moment are you forgotten. Through weary march and deadly conflict our prayers have ever followed you; your sufferings are our sufferings, your victories our great joy.

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

" If there be one of you who knows not the dear home ties, for whom no mother prays, no sister watches, to him especially we speak. Let him feel that though he may not have one mother he has many; he is the adopted child and brother of all our hearts. Not one of you is beyond the reach of our sympathies; no picket- station so lonely that it is not enveloped in the halo of our prayers.

" During all the long, dark months since our country called you from us, your courage, your patient endurance, your fidelity, have awakened our keenest interest, and we have longed to give you an expression of that interest.

"By the alacrity with which you sprang to arms, by the valor with which those arms have been wielded, you have placed our State in the front ranks; you have made her worthy to be the home of our noble President. For thus sustaining the honor of our State, dear to us as life, we thank you.

" Of your courage we need not speak. Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Shiloh, Stone River, Vicksburg, speak with blood-bathed lips of your heroism. The Army of the Southwest fights beneath no defeat-shadowed banner; to it, under God, the nation looks for deliverance.

"But we, as women, have other cause for thanks. We will not speak of the debt we owe the defenders of our Government; that blood-sealed bond no words can cancel. But we are your debtors in a way not often recognized. You have aroused us from the aimlessness into which too many of our lives had drifted, and have infused into those lives a noble pathos. We could not dream our time away while our brothers were dying for us. Even your suffer- ings have worked together for our good, by inciting us to labor for their alleviation, thus giving us a work worthy of our womanhood. Everything that we have been permitted to do for your comfort has filled our lives so much the fuller of all that makes life valua- ble. You have thus been the means of developing in us a nobler type of womanhood than without the example of your heroism we could ever have attained. For this our whole lives, made purer and nobler by the discipline, will thank you.

"This war will leave none of us as it found us. We cannot buffet the raging wave and escape all trace of the salt sea's foam. Toward better or toward worse we are hurried with fearful

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IIISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

haste. If we at home feel this, what must it be to you! Our hearts throb with agony when we think of you wounded, suffering, dying; but the thought of no physical pain touches us half so deeply as the thought of the temptations which surround you. We could better give you up to die on the battle-field, true to your God and to your country, than to have you return to us with blasted, blackened souls. When temptations assail fiercely, you must let the thought that your mothers are praying for strength enable you to overcome them. But fighting for a worthy cause worthily ennobles one; herein is our confidence that you will return better men than you went away.

" By all that is noble in your manhood; by all that is true in our womanhood; by all that is grand in patriotism; by all that is sacred in religion, we adjure you to be faithful to yourselves, to us, to your country, and to your God. Never were men permitted to fight in a cause more worthy of their blood. Were you fighting for mere conquest, or glory, we could not give you up; but to sus- tain a principle, the greatest to which human lips have ever given utterance, even your dear lives are not too costly a sacrifice. Let that principle, the corner-stone of our independence, be crushed, and we are all slaves. Like the Suliote mothers, we might well clasp our children in our arms and leap down to death.'

"To the stern arbitrament of the sword is now committed the honor, the very life of this nation. You fight not for yourselves alone; the eyes of the whole world are on you; and if you fail our Nation's death-wail will echo through all coming ages, moaning a requiem over the lost hopes of oppressed humanity. But you will not fail, so sure as there is a God in Heaven. He never meant this richest argosy of the nations, freighted with the fears of all the world's tyrants, with the hopes of all its oppressed ones, to flounder in darkness and death. Disasters may come, as they have come, but they will only be, as they have been, ministers of good. Each one has led the nation upward to a higher plane, from whence it has seen with a clearer eye. Success could not attend us at the West so long as we scorned the help of the black hand, which alone had power to open the gate of redemption; the God of battles would not vouchsafe a victory at the East till the very foot- prints of a Mcclellan were washed out in blood.

"But now all things seem ready; we have accepted the aid of

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

that hand; those footsteps are obliterated. In his own good time we feel that God will give us the victory. Till that hour comes we bid you fight on. Though we have not attained that heroism, or decision, which enables us to give you up without a struggle, which can prevent our. giving tears for your blood, though many of us must own our hearts desolate till you return, still we bid you stay and fight for our country, till from this fierce baptism of blood she shall be raised complete; the dust shaken from her garments puri- fied, a new Memnon singing in the great Godlight."

SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.

On the 15th of November, 1864, after the destruction of Atlanta, and the railroads behind him, Sherman, with his army, began his march to the sea-coast. The almost breathless anxiety with which his progress was watched by the loyal hearts of the nation, and the trembling apprehension with which it was regarded by all who hoped for rebel success, indicated this as one of the most remark- able events of the war; and so it proved. Of Sherman's army, 45 regiments of infantry, three companies of artillery, and one of cavalry were from this State. Lincoln answered all rumors of Sherman's defeat with, "It is impossible; there is a mighty sight of fight in 100,000 Western men." Illinois soldiers brought home 300 battle flags. The first United States flag that floated over Richmond was an Illinois flag. She sent messengers and nurses to every field and hospital to eare for her sick and wounded sons.

Illinois gave the country the great general of the war, U. S. Grant.

CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

One other name from Illinois comes up in all minds, embalmed in all hearts, that must have the supreme place in this sketch of our glory and of our nation's ;honor: that name is Abraham Lincoln. The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on account of its symmetry. In this age we look with admiration at his uncompromising honesty; and well we may, for this saved us. Thousands throughout the length and breadth of our country, who knew him only as "Honest Old Abe," voted for him on that account; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have carried us through the fearful night of war. When his plans were too vast for our comprehension, and his faith in the cause too sub-

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IIISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

lime for our participation; when it was all night about us, and all dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us; when not one ray shone upon our canse; when traitors were haughty and exult- ant at the South, and fierce and blasphemous at the North; when the loyal men seemed almost in the minority; when the stoutest heart quailed, the bravest cheek paled; when generals were defeat- ing each other for place, and contractors were leeching out the very heart's blood of the republic; when everything else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient man standing like a rock in the storm, and said, " Mr. Lincoln is honest, and we can trust him still." Holding to this single point with the energy of faith and despair, we held together, and under God he brought us through to victory. His practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. With such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic. He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory will shed a glory upon this age that will fill the eyes of men as they look into history. Other men have excelled him in some points; but, taken at all points, he stands head and shoulders above every other man of 6,000 years. An administrator, he saved the nation in the perils of unparalleled civil war; a statesman, he justified his measures by their success; a philanthropist, he gave liberty to one race and salvation to another; a moralist, he bowed from the sum- mit of human power to the foot of the cross; a mediator, he exer- cised mercy under the most absolute obedience to law; a leader, he was no partisan; a commander, he was untainted with blood; a ruler in desperate times, he was unsullied with crime; a man, he has left no word of passion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of selfish ambition. Thus perfected, without a model and without a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the representative of the divine idea of free government. It is not too much to say that away down in the future, when the republic has fallen from its niche in the wall of time; when the great war itself shall have faded out in the distance like a mnist on the horizon; when the Anglo-Saxon shall be spoken only by the tongue of the stranger, then the generations looking this way shall see the great President as the supreme figure in this vortex of history.

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

THE WAR ENDED-THE UNION RESTORED.

The rebellion was ended with the surrender of Lee and his army, and Johnson and his command in April, 1865. Our armies at the time were up to their maximum strength, never so formidable, never so invincible; and, until recruiting ceased by order of Sec- retary Stanton, were daily strengthening. The necessity, however,

LINCOLN

UND- MENALLY-CO

LINCOLN MONUMENT AT SPRINGFIELD.

for so vast and formidable numbers ceased with the disbanding of the rebel forces, which had for more than four years disputed the supremacy of the Government over its domain. And now the joyful and welcome news was to be borne to the victorious legions that their work was ended in triumph, and they were to be per- mitted "to see homes and friends once more."

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HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

SCHEDULE-Showing statement of volunteer troops organized within the State, and sent to the field, commencing April, 1861, and ending December 31, 1865, with number of regiment. name of original commanding officer, date of organization and muster into United States' service, place of muster, and the aggregate strength of each organization. INFANTRY.

¿ Commanding officer at organiza- Date of organization and Place where mustered

No.

tion.

muster into the United States service.

into the United States service.

since organi-

Aggr. strength |

7 Col. John Cook ..

July 25, 1861

Cairo, Illinois.

1747 1853

Jas. D. Morgan ...

John M. Palmer.

May 25, 1861.

Jacksonville.

Thos. J. Turner .. Robert F. Smith ... Leonard F. Ross. Michael K. Lawler

May 28, 1861

Anna.

18 19

66 John B. Turchin

June 13, 1861.

Joliet

Ulysses S. Grant.

June 15, 1861.

Mattoon

Ilenry Dougherty.

June 25, 1861.

Belleville.

Jas. A. Mulligan.

June 18, 1861.

Chicago

Frederick Hecker.

July 8, 1861.

Chicago.

Wm. N. Coler.

Oct. 31, 1861.

Camp But.er ...

27 29

A. K. Johnson. Jas. S. Rearden

July 27, 1861.

Camp Butler.

Philip B. Fouke.

Sept. 30, 1861.

Camp Butler.

Chas. E. Hovey.

Aug. 15, 1861

Camp Butler.

Edward N. Kirk

Sept. 7, 1861

Camp Butler.

Gus. A. Smith

Sept. 23, 1861.

Aurora

Julius White.

Sept. 18, 1361.

Chicago.

Wm. P. Carlin.

Aug. 15, 1861.

Camp Butler

Austin Light.

December, 1861

Chicago.

Steph. G. Hicks

Ang. 10, 1861

Salem

Isaac C. Pugh.

Ang, 9, 1861.

Decatur.

Wm. A. Webb.

Sept. 17, 1861

Chicago.

43 44 45

John E. Smith

Dec. 26, 1861.

Galena ..

John A. Davis ..

Dec. 28. 1861

Camp Butler.

John Bryner ..

Oct. 1. 1861

Peoria ..

Wm. R. Morrison

Dec. 31, 1861

Camp Butler.

G. W. Cumming

Dec. '61, Feb. '62.

Camp Douglas.

Isaac G. Wilson.

Nov. 19, 1861

Geneva

53 54 55 56

David Stuart.

Oct. 31, 1861.

Camp Donglas

Robert Kirkham.

Feb. 27, 1862.

Shawneetown

Silas D. Baldwin.

Dec. 26, 1861.

Camp Douglas

،، Wm. F. Lynch.

Dec. 24, 1861.

Camp Douglas

59 60

46 Silas C. Toler

Feb. 17. 1862.

Anna.

Jacob Fry ..

March 7, 1862

Carrollton

.. James M. True.

April 10, 1862

Anna

.. Francis Mora ..

Anna ..

64 Lt. Col. D. D. Williams

Dec. 31, 1862

Camp Butler.

Col. Daniel Cameron

May 15. 1862

Camp Douglas

.. Patrick E. Burke.

April. 1862.

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The history of Adams County Illinois : containing a history of the county - its cities, towns, etc. a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, Part 23

Author: Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : Murray, Williamson & Phelps Number of Pages: 1254

Author:
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : Murray, Williamson & Phelps
Number of Pages: 1254