Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 43 of those read), 1877

The First Gun

JN Saturday, April 13th, 1861, Fort Sumpter surrendered to the secessionists. It was an exciting Sabbath that followed, and on Monday evening this 'dispatch was received at Springfield :

" To Gen. Swift : - As quick as possible have as strong a force as you can raise, armed and equipped with ammunition and accoutrements, and a company of artillery, ready to march at a moment's warning. A messenger will start to Chicago to-night.

The dispatch was received at eleven o'clock Friday evening, and at eleven oclock on Sunday evening, five hundred and ninety-five men and four pieces of artillery started for Cairo. They Avere followed on Monday by three hundred and thirteen men, among them, Captain Carr's company, of Sandwich, in which were the following Kendall county men : Samuel Faxon, Lucien Hemenway, Hiram Dayton, Thomas Darnell, Walter Atkins,

The Three Months Volunteers

William Hall, Alfred Darnell, Geo. S. Bartlett, Geo. A. Hough, Nicholas Costar, Jas. J. Hummel], Jas. Howard, Edgar Percival, William H. Ross, Henry C. Smith, Harlow Tuttle and Thomas Welsh. Another, Jas. A. Lannigan, enlisted at Springfield in Capt. Gibson's company. These were our first offering to the war, and they were on their way five days after the receipt of the Governor's proclamation. Capt. Carr was granted his commission on Friday, and in twenty-four hours his company was full. Capt. Houghtaling's company, of Ottawa, was one day ahead. All these tjoops were enlisted for three months only, and were armed with such guns and rifles as could be found at home or in the stores at Chicago. There were not more than six hundred available government muskets in all Illinois. The Sandwich company became a part of the and most of them re-enlisted for three years, as did also the other three months regiments, numbered Seventh to Twelfth. The Seventh was the first, the preceding six having been raised for the Mexican war. The Tenth' was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and took part in most of the battles of that region during the war. Their first Colonel, Benjamin M. Prentiss, became a Major General. Their flag was presented to them by the ladies of Alton. Out of their number, during the war, twenty-seven were killed, one hundred and twenty died from wounds and disease, and over one hundred were discharged for disability. The army, and suffered a loss of seventy killed, one hundred and forty-four from disease and wounds, and seventy-five discharged from the same causes. They were in four teen battles. Seventeen of their number were starved to death in Andersonville prison pen in six months, from May to November, 1864.

First To Enlist

FIRST TO ENLIST. That honor belongs to a company of Kendall county volunteers, without historic fame save in local history. Fort Sumpter fell at noon on the 13th of April, and in the evening of the same day, a crowded and excited mass meeting was held in the Court House in Oswego. Speeches were made by Judge Helm, Judge Ricketson, A. B. Smith, and others. x\.t last Lyman G. Bennett was called out. He remarked that this was a time for action rather than words. It was a time when men were needed ; and he asked how many would then and there volunteer for their country. He held in his hand a paper with one name on it - his own. Who would go, if need be ? The spark of patriotism canght like fire in dry tinder, and in a few minutes eighty names were enrolled. James Cliggitt was the first to put down his name under Mr. Bennett's. The company was soon full, and drilled every day under Captain A. B. Hall, and awaited orders from the Governor to proceed to the front. But the six regiments called for were already full, and several hundred volunteers, the Oswego company among them, were left out. Most of the accepted companies, too, were over-full, and among the most touching incidents of the time was the rejection of these surplus volunteers. Men who had left their homes at an hour's notice to enter the service of their country, wept at the disappointment of being refused admission to their companies on muster day. Provision was made for one month's pay for them, and they filed their rolls and were mustered out of service.

Some of the first Oswego company re-enlisted at Sandwich, in F. W. Partridge's company, and others at Aurora, in B. F. Parks' company- - both of which were incorporated in the under Colonel John B. Wyman, who was killed at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, December 28th, 1862, They lost during the war, thirty-seven killed on the field, one hundred and thirty-eight died from wounds and disease, and one hundred and fifty-eight were discharged. About forty Kendall county soldiers belonged to the regiment. At the close of the first three years of the war, it was consolidated with the Fifty-sixth Illinois. Their silk flag has become famous as being the first Union fiag unfurled in Richmond after its evacuation. It had been captured, and was hanging in the office of the keeper of Libby Prison as a trophy, and was taken from thence by John F. Locke, of the Thirty-ninth Massachusetts, about 7:30 o'clock on the morning of April 3d, and given to the breeze from one of the windows of the prison. The Federal cavalry were about a mile off*, approaching the city, and straggling Rebel soldiers were still on the streets. This flag, with many other battle flags, is preserved at Springfield. During the last week

Twentieth Regiment

The initial mass meeting was held in the Baptist church. , Speeches were made, and a large number enlisted. Fiftyfive of Company K were residents of this county - mostly from around Newark. There were about seventy in the entire regiment. Captain Dyer, after nine months, resigned, and was followed by Captain John W. Boyer, and Captain Perry W. Spellman. The regiment was mustered in at Joliet, under Colonel C. C. Marsh, and at the close of their first year's service received a handsome new flag from the citizens of Chicago, for gallant conduct on the fields of Frederickstown and Donelson. With the one exception of the Thirty-sixth, they sufi'ered the severest losses of any regiment raised in this part of the State, having eighty-three killed on the field, two hundred deaths in the hospitals, and one hundred and sixteen discharges by reason of wounds and disease. But the was above all others emphatically our own. It was recruited in July, 1861. Company D was raised in Lisbon by Dr. William P. Pierce ; Company E in Little Rock and Bristol, by Charles D. Fish and Albert M. Hobbs ; Company F in Newark, by Porter C. Oleson ; and Company I in Oswego, by Samuel C. Camp. Over three hundred altogether enlisted in this regiment from Kendall county. It w^as called at first the Fox River Regiment. Nicholas Greusel was its first Colonel. On his resignation, in 1863, Silas Miller succeeded, and after his death in 1864, from wounds received at Kenesaw mountain, Porter C. Oleson commanded. He was killed at Franklin, November 30th, 1864, and was succeeded by B. F. Campbell. Among the battles in which the regiment took part were Pea Ridge, Perryville, Stone River, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Dalton, Resaca, Adairsville, Kenesaw, Atlantic, Franklin and Nashville. The battle of Stone River was particularly and terribly severe. During these awful eight days forty-four men were killed on the field, and the killed, wounded and missing were three hundred and six, or nearly one-half the entire regiment. Colonel Greusel reported, " I came out of the action with only two hundred men."

During the war one hundred and twenty were killed, one hundred and eighty died, and two hundred and twenty discharged from disability. This does not include the losses of

Company A Cavalry

Capt. Albert Jenks, which was raised in this county, and formed, with another company raised at Elgin, part of the Thirty-sixth. These and other independent companies were in the beginning of 1863 consolidated into one regiment, the Fifteenth Cavalry - our company being Company I. In the beginning of 1865, it was consolidated with the Tenth Cavalry, and lettered as Company M. It was in active service on the field during the entire war, and lost in the last two years, twenty-six died and twenty-two discharged. While the Thirty-sixth was still

Fourth Cavalry

Col. T. Lyle Dickey commanding. It was mustered in as Company C. About sixty-five men enlisted in it from this county, besides several in Company B, of which Garrett L. Collins was lieutenant, and afterwards captain. The losses of the regiment were twenty- one killed, one hundred and sixty-five died and two hundred and sixty discharged. In 1865 they were consolidated with the Twelfth Cavalry - both regiments making but the full number of one.

The total enlistments from this county during 1861 were between four and five hundred, while our quota was but three hundred and sixty-seven - the entire quota of the State being about forty-eight thousand. Besides the regiments mentioned, we were also represented in the Eighth Cavalry, and Twenty-third, Forty sixth, Fortyseventh, Fifty-third and Sixty-ninth Infantry.