Kendall County, Illinois - Chapter 44: Deeper Struggles, 1877

Chapter 44: Deeper Struggles

f N THE fall of 1862, the number of our soldiers was doubled, as more than four hundred new men went to the front, principally in four regiments. Recruiting offices were busily running at the same time in Bristol, Lisbon, Newark, Little Rock, Piano and Oswego. The real meaning and magnitude of the war was at last thoroughly comprehended, and the country meant business. Company H, of the was recruited at Bristol - Henry S. Willett, captain. He was killed at Stone River, and was succeeded by Franklin M. Hobbs and John A. Beeman. The entire company, except two or three recruits, was raised in this county.

The Eighty-ninth was at first called the "Railroad Regiment." First colonel, John Christopher of the U. S. Army ; second, Chas. T. Hotchkiss. Its heaviest losses were at Chickamauga^ where one hundred and nine were killed, wounded and missing ; at Stone River, one hundred and forty-two ; and before Atlanta, two hundred and eleven. It was in twenty-five battles, and lost a total, as marked on the company rolls, of seventy-one killed, two hundred and eleven died, and one hundred and eio;hty-eight discharged. Yet these are not the complete figures, since deserters, prisoners, and those sick in the hospitals at the time of mustering out, are not counted. Nor, indeed, would the figures be accurate even then, for at the close of three years the regiment numbered but six hundred, all told, out of a total of fourteen hundred veterans and recruits.

The figures given in this history are mostly from the official reports, but, probably, in the case of every regiment, should be increased by about one-half, in order to arrive at the approximate truth. Of the deaths in the Eighty-ninth, nearly one-fourth must be credited to Andersonville. Fifty of its men were there first reduced to skeletons and then laid away in their hastily made graves. In this, it had a record unreached by any other Illinois regiment, except the Sixteenth Cavalry, eighty of whose brave boys sleep in the soil outside the pine log stockade of that awful prison pen.

Ninety-First Regiment

as Company E. Capt. Hanna resigned at the close of the year, and was succeeded by first Lieut. Edwin Brown, in 1863, and Sergeant Frank H. Jordan in 1864. The entire company, one hundred and three in number, was from the southern part of the county. The regiment

County Record Of The War

It did not suffer like many of the other regiments, losing through the war one hundred and thirty-five killed and died of wounds and disease, and one hundred and forty discharged for disability. December 27th, 1862, the entire regiment was captured by Morgan's cavalry, and after being paroled were sent to Benton Barracks, Missouri, where they remained about six months before they were exchanged. Their subsequent movements were to Vicksburg, and through Louisiana into Texas. Company G of the was recruited by Johnson Misner in Ottawa, and several Kendall county men enlisted in it. Captain Misner resigned in 1863, and was succeeded by First Lieutenant Selim "White. Absalom B. Moore was the first colonel, and Douglas Hapeman the second. The regimental losses, as officially reported, were seventy-one killed, one hundred and sixteen died, and two hundred and twentytwo discharged. Of the three companies were raised principally in this county. Company A was raised in Oswego by Captain William L. Fowler, who was succeeded by William Walker in 1863, and by William S. Bunn in 1864. Company F was raised in Little Rock by Captain Charles Schryver, and Company K, also raised in Little Rock, by Captain John H. Lowe. About two hundred and forty went from Kendall county in this regiment. Colonel John Van Arman commanded - succeeded in 1863 by Colonel Hamilton L. Eldridge. Its losses were two hundred killed and died, and one hundred and fifty-six discharged. Thus, five companies were taken out of this county, and that, too, in the busy days of harvest. The call for fifty thousand men from Illinois was made in July. On August 5th, the decision came that our excess of fifteen thousand could not then be noticed, as the government wanted men, and that as much of the quota as was not full by August 18th, should be filled by draft on that day. Thus to raise fifty thousand men and avoid the draft, only thirteen days were allowed, but it was done. A tremendous enthusiasm rolled over the State, every patriot's heart was thrilled to see that the government was in dead earnest, and on August 16th, after the lapse of only eleven days, Governor Yates could announce the proud fact that the Illinois enlistment rolls were filled ! The quota of this county was two hundred and fifteen, a total with the preceding year of six hundred and eighteen, and to meet this nearly one thousand soldiers had gone to the front - more than one-third of all the able-bodied men in the county.

With The Year 1863

came the draft. In some places, as in Iowa, it was received as the only possible alternative to raise men, and operated peaceably ; but where the secesh sentiment was more powerful, it was resisted. An enrolling officer was murdered in Indiana, and in New York city the riot lasted through five July days, and was not quelled until twenty-five of the military and police, and one hundred and fifty of the rioters were killed or seriously wounded. But the lawless spirit was permanently subdued, and thereafter the ever impending draft was the peaceable handmaid of each fresh call for troops. But our Northern drafts were but faint resemblances of the universal conscription of every able-bodied white man, ordered and carried out in the South. Three hundred thousand men were called for by the President, October 15th, the draft to follow January 5th in all places where the quota was not full. But we were so far in excess of our quota as to have nothing to fear. However,

Under the call of February 1st, for five hundred thousand men, our quota was about three hundred, and was already filled. Under the next call, March 15th, for two hundred thousand men, our quota was one hundred and forty-one, and we were still ahead. But when, July 18th, a call was made for five hundred thousand additional men, to serve for one year, draft to follow September 5th, Kendall county patriotism was put to a strain. Our quota was three hundred and fifteen, a total from the beginning of one thousand, three hundred and seventy-four, one-half our entire militia, and no loyal man shrank. The towns promptly voted appropriations of from three to nine thousand dollars each - sixty-five thousand dollars altogether, for bounties, and the county as a whole as promptly incurred obligations amounting

Twelve regiments for one hundred days were called for. Of these, Company F, of the One Hundred and Forty-first, was enlisted in Newark, while many went to Aurora and enlisted in Company C of the One Hundred and Thirty-second, or to Morris, in Company H of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth. The first went to Columbus, Kentucky ; the second to Paducah, Kentucky, and the third to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, at which places they remained on duty during their time of service. The last call was for regiments to serve one year. Of these. Company D of the One Hundred and Forty-sixth, and Company A of the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth was largely made up of Kendall county men. The One Hundred and Forty-sixth was divided into detachments, and remained in the State at difi^erent camps, guarding drafted men and substitutes. The One Hundred and Fifty-sixth was ordered to the seat of war, but did guard duty principally. It was the last regiment raised in Illinois, and was organized under the last call for troops, issued December 21st, 1864. Under it our quota was two hundred and eighteen, a total of one thousand, five hundred and fifty-one ; but as we had avoided the draft by and excess of thirty-seven, we were that many ahead, and had but one hundred and eightyone men ^^et to raise in the young months of 1865. It was a heavy burden, but vigorously the work went on, and when in the following April the great rebellion collapsed and the recruiting was stopped, we had but four men yet to furnish to complete our quota ! We had actually furnished one thousand, five hundred and forty-seven soldiers, and the State of Illinois nearly two hundred and fifty thousand. The last battle of the war was fought May 12th, and the next day the people of the nation subscribed for $30,000,000 of the new 7-30 loan.

Laid Down Their Lives

Of these, about one hundred were killed on the field or died of their wounds. Perryville, Atlanta and Kenesaw have each two of our men. Shiloh, Rienzi, Franklin and Chattanooga have three each. Pea Ridge, Rolla, Pickett's Mills and Milliken's Bend each have four. Young's Point, Murfreesboro' and Vicksburg each have five. At Memphis seven gave up their lives, and the same number in the hated prison pen at Andersonville. Nashville took eight ; Chickamauga nine, and at Stone River thirteen of our men were killed on the field. The first death from our county was William Ashton, who enlisted at Newark, in Company K, Twentieth Illinois, and died at Cape Girardeau, September 2nd, 1861. The first killed were Ira 0. Fuller, of Company E, and Paul Stevenson, of Company F, Thirty-sixth Illinois; both falling at Pea Ridge, March 7th, 1862. John Ray was killed in the same battle the day after. The last killed were William Thumb and Knud K. Ganstow, who enlisted at Lisbon in Company E, Ninety-first Illinois, and fell while investing Spanish Fort, near Mobile, March 29th, 1865. The last who died were Austin Willett, of

Fox, Company K, Forty-seventh Illinois, at Demopolis, Alabama, July 26th, 1865, and John A. Merrell, of Big Grove, Company D, One Hundred and Forty-sixth Illinois, at Cahawba, Alabama, November 25th, 1865.

The End Had Come

The Eighty-ninth and One Hundred and Fourth Infantry, and Fourth Cavalry were the first to be mustered out, and were home in June. The Seventh, Tenth, Twentieth, Ninety-first, One Hundred and Forty-sixth Infantry, and Eighth Cavalry were home in July - most of them in time for harvest. The remnant of the Thirteenth did not get out until August, and the One Hundred and Fifty -sixth until September ; while the Thirtysixth did not arrive until the forests were in the sere and yellow leaf, in the end of October, having been employed during the summer on guard duty at New Orleans. The end had come. Some slept in Southern graves ; some in cemeteries at home ; and the surviving veterans, laying off the blue, again took up their work where they left it on enlistment day.

Among the most beneficent creations of the war were the Soldiers' Aid Societies, found in every town, and tributary to the U. S. Sanitary Commission. Most of them held weekly sewing meetings, and when the time had come to send away a box, public notice was given, and cupboards and closets were ransacked for anything that would be of service to the soldiers. The following is a list of articles thus sent by the Kendall County Aid Society to the army : Apple butter, arm slings, blankets, blackberries, beets, beans, butter, bandages, books, currant jelly, cabbage, catsup, corn, cotton rags, comfort-

Sanitary Commission Supplies

And those well packed boxes were blessed freight to the sick and wounded in the hospitals. But may it be long before a similar service is again needed in our land.