This morning orders are issued for all the troops in and around Corinth to be paraded on the review ground by eight o'clock, A. M., to witness the execution of one Johnson, a deserter from Company A, First Alabama Union Cavalry. At the appointed time all the troops are on the ground and in position. The sun shines intensely hot, and the tramp of infantry and the galloping of horsemen keeps in the wind one dense cloud of smoke. Soon the procession with the unfortunate man appears upon the ground. They march slowly along the division line, the doomed man walking, supported by the Chaplain of the Sixty-sixth Indiana. He has the appearance of a guilty man—guilty of deserting the flag and his comrades. After the procession has passed the line, they march to the place of execution; the deserter is placed upon his coffin in a sitting position. A solemn and impressive prayer is offered by the Chaplain after which he is blindfolded. The executioners take their position, the Provost Marshal gives the command, and the man who so unhappily erred from the path of duty is launched into eternity. May his ignominious death prove a warning to all who might peradventure be tempted to do likewise.
Showing posts with label 17th IL INF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 17th IL INF. Show all posts
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Thursday, July 23, 1863
SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 180-1
Monday, October 21, 2019
Special Dispatch to the Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1862
FORT
HENRY, Tenn., February 9, 1862
Via.
Cairo, the 11th.
A force of the 2nd Illinois
cavalry under Major Mudd, made a reconnoissance to-day in the direction of Fort
Donelson. An advance guard of some forty
men, encountered a superior number of the rebel cavalry about seven miles on
the main road to Dover. Capt. Brink,
ordnance officer, who accompanied the command, with Carson, were in the
advance, and discovered the enemy and gave notice to our cavalry who were
feeding some distance in the rear. The
rebels advanced on our small force and gave them battle to a cross road. Some 20 more of our cavalry coming up to the
assistance of our struggling little band, the enemy turned and took to flight
with a loss of 5 killed and 23 prisoners, among whom was the captain of the
rebel band. Our loss was 1 man wounded
and 1 horse killed.
Gen. Grant and staff to-day, also
made a reconnoissance to within 4 miles of Fort Donelson, and a complete
knowledge of the roads was obtained.
The Reconnoitering transport steamer
H. H. Brown, in charge of Capt. Logan, aid to Gen. Grant, with Col. Riggins and
Col. A. H. Markland, the military Mail Agent accompanying the army, made
another trip to-day to the railroad bridge across the river at Danville, where
a large quantity of army stores, wagons, hides and numerous other articles of
value were obtained.
From All appearances in every
direction from the Fort, the rebel retreat assumed a complete panic and
stampede. At Danville the quarters of the
troops gave evidence that they fled while in the act of preparing either dinner
or supper. The cooking utensils
contained the allowance of their morsel.
Beds and cabin furniture were strewn about in reckless confusion, and
terror and dismay seem to have filled the breast of the occupants.
An unfinished letter from a
soldier to his sister, was found, dated the 6th, (the day of the battle) which
stated that the 7th regiment left there the night previous for the fort leaving
every room for the conclusion that actual force at this place on the day of the
capture of this Fort was not less than 12,000.
Col. Markland, by order of Gen.
Grant, took possession of eleven bags of mail matter at Danville and closed the
office yesterday.
Gen. Grant and staff visited
Danville and took possession of a large amount of property of the same
character as that taken to-day, besides the ferry steamer J. M. Martin, which
was brought down to this point.
The bridge is a magnificent
structure of about 1200 feet in length, besides about 400 feet of trestle
work. The piers of the spans, some nine
in number, are built of granite, and in the strongest manner. The trestle work has been partly destroyed to
its being used by rebels.
Reinforcements are arriving very
rapidly. The 14th Iowa, the 13th
Missouri, a battalion of Birge’s sharpshooters, the 43rd and 17th Illinois
regiments, all arrived during last night and to-day.
The gunboats which went up the
river after the capture of the fort have not yet been heard from.
SOURCE: “Special Dispatch to the
Chicago Tribune,” Chicago Daily Tribune,
Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, February 12, 1862
Thursday, July 6, 2017
1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: May 19, 1862
Near Corinth, Miss.,
May 19 ,1862.
Our regiment now is acting as a kind of rear guard for
Pope's division. The enemy's cavalry in bodies of from 1,000 down have been
running around our left flank and threatening to interfere with our trains.
Every day we send out six companies to patrol between here and the river and
forward. Yesterday (Sunday) I was out. We went to Red Sulphur Springs, one of
the most romantic, beautiful places I have ever seen. There are about 40 double
cottages for families, and stables, kennels and quarters for the servants,
hounds and horses. The buildings are in good repair, though the place has not
been frequented much for the last three or four years. White Sulphur Springs
are four miles from the Red and more fashionable. I am going there to-morrow.
There were about a dozen real ladies at the springs yesterday, and they were
quite sociable and so interesting that I could not help staying an hour after
the column left We were the first of our soldiers that the party had seen and
they were much surprised that our boys behaved so well. None of them had ever
been North, and they occupied about all the time I was with them in asking
questions, principally though, about the conduct of our army. About a mile
before we got to the springs we passed a house where there were as many as six
young ladies in full dress. The major sent me to make some inquiries of the man
of the house, and I noticed the party were in something of a flurry but
ascribed it to the presence of our men. Of course Sunday was an excuse for the
finery and there being so many together. After we had advanced a little way one
of our captains took a squad, went ahead and passed himself for a Rebel officer
just from Corinth. By his figuring he found out that at this house I have spoken
of they were expecting some Rebel officers and men, 14 in all, from Corinth to
dinner and a visit. We set a trap for them, but they heard of us through the
citizens and sloped. They came within a mile of us and then their tracks showed
they had gone off through the woods and a swamp on a run. We got one of their
horses, a beauty, fully equipped. It being a hot day the owner had strapped his
coat on his valise and not having time to take it off we got it. A dozen of our
boys went back and ate the dinner, but without the company of the ladies who
had flown. Our line has now closed to within two and one-half miles around the
north and east sides of Corinth. Our men have thrown up breastworks within that
distance along nearly the whole line. The cannons play on each other
occasionally, say as an average four times a day, a half hour each time. Our
line is, I think, nine or ten miles long; am not sure. The Rebels are suffering
for rations, not more than half rations having been served for the last ten
days. Hundreds are deserting from them. One battalion that was raised in this
county, over 500 men, have all deserted but about 90. The commander himself ran
off. Of a 100 men that deserted from them probably five come within our lines.
The rest all go to their homes. If Porter takes Mobile, and Farragut and Davis
get Memphis, I think in ten days afterward there will not be enough Rebels left
in Corinth to oppose our regiment. There is no doubt that they have more men
now than we have but they lack discipline. Success at the points above named
will leave them without any railroad communication whatever or telegraph
either. I'm afraid that our gunboats got the worst of that little affair at
Pillow the other day. An army is the slowest moving animal. Here we've been over
a month making 20 miles. I think I shall run off to McClernand's division this
p. m. and see some of the 17th and 8th boys.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 90-1
Labels:
17th IL INF,
7th IL CAV,
8th IL INF,
Charles H Davis,
Charles W Wills,
Corinth MS,
David D Porter,
David Farragut,
Deserters,
Fort Pillow,
John Pope,
McClernand,
Memphis,
Mobile AL,
Siege of Corinth,
Southern Women
Saturday, July 1, 2017
1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: May 8, 1862
Near Farmington, Miss.,
May 8, 1862.
I've been within one and a half miles of Corinth to-day.
Didn't see anything especially worthy of mention, but had full rations in the
way of leaden bullets whistle. Yea, and larger missiles also. For four days
past our battalion has been the advanced picket of Pope's army, full five miles
in advance of the army. We have been skirmishing the whole time, not five
minutes passing without more or less shooting. Our picket line was on one side
of a long prairie or clearing, from 300 to 450 yards wide, and theirs on the
opposite side. With all the firing, the losses on our side was but one horse up
to this morning, and we were congratulating ourselves on getting on so well,
when the advance of a large reconnoitering party under General Paine came in
sight and we were ordered to lead them. Well, it's all over now, and we've had
our Maj. Z. Applington killed, several wounded, and horses hurt by bursting
shells. It's all right, I suppose, but damn the general that sent us on a fool's
errand. We've a strong old place to take here at Corinth, but guess we'll make
the riffle. The major fell while leading a charge along a road. The timber and
brush by the roadside were so thick that we could see nothing until our boys
received the volley of musketry, of which one ball reached the major's brain.
The reconnoitering party returned to camp last night, and this morning the
Rebels took their turn. They advanced in considerable force, drove our men back
some two miles, captured a couple of pieces of cannon, and filled our hospitals
pretty well. Our regiment was not in that fight. The Iowa 2d Cavalry suffered
badly, 'tis said, in trying to take a Rebel battery.
Lieutenant Herring was wounded by a drunken soldier of the
4th Regular Cavalry yesterday, and Captain Nelson knocked down by the same man.
Herring was shot through the arm. A suspender buckle that the ball glanced from
saved his life. It's a little doubtful whether this fight comes off
immediately. I think and hope that our folks are going to let them concentrate
all their troops here and then make a Waterloo of it. That is, a Waterloo for
them, but if they whip us, call out the home-guards and try them again. Weather
here almost too warm for comfort in daytime, but deliciously cool after sunset.
Apples and peaches are as large as hickory nuts, and blackberries the size of
peas. The water is very good. Think will like it as well as Mississippi water
after a while. The well water is not as cool though as I have seen it. I have
not visited the 8th or 17th yet. They are in a division that forms a reserve
(McClernands) and will not fight until the rest of Thomas's (formerly Grant's)
division have had a chance. Shall go and see them immediately after the battle
if I have luck. My health is perfect yet and am in hopes 'twill remain so. My
love to inquiring friends, and do not expect to hear from me regularly as the
mail only leaves here semi-occasionally. What a change in climate two day's
ride make. Trees all in full leaf, and saw peaches to-day larger than filberts.
Summer coats are in demand.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 86-7
Labels:
17th IL INF,
2nd IA CAV,
4th US CAV,
7th IL CAV,
8th IL INF,
Charles W Wills,
Corinth MS,
Drunkenness,
Eleazer A Paine,
George Thomas,
Grant,
Hospitals,
John Pope,
McClernand,
Siege of Corinth,
Water,
Weather
Thursday, June 22, 2017
1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: March 26, 1862
Camp near Point
Pleasant, Mo., March 26, 1862.
It is, to-day, very much warmer. I'm altogether too hot to
be comfortable in my shirt sleeves. Don't know what is to become of us in July
if it is so hot in proportion. I shake in my boots at the thought of the
mosquitoes, flies, etc., we will have to endure. Vegetation is giving the
surroundings a greenish appearance already, and have seen a peach tree in
nearly full bloom. Wheat is about three or four inches above ground. Makes a
very respectable sod. I think there are more Union people here than in any part
of Missouri that I have been in, and fewer widows. Men are nearly all at home
and putting in their crops as coolly as though there was no war. Some of our soldiers
impose on the natives pretty badly. You don't know how thankful you ought to be
that you don't live in the invaded country. Wherever there is an army, for 10
or 15 miles around it there will be hundreds of stragglers. Some out of
curiosity, some to see the natives and talk with them, but the majority to pick
up What they can to eat. There is not a farm house within ten miles of camp,
notwithstanding the positive orders against straggling, that has not, at least,
50 soldier visitors a day, and they are the poorest soldiers and the meanest men
that do all the straggling, or nearly all. They will go into a house and beg what
they can and then steal what is left. Rough, dirty, coarse brutes, if they were
all shot, our army would be better off. Most of these fellows are bullies at
home, and that class makes plunderers in war. I've seen enough of war to know
that it isn't the brawling, fighting man at home that stands the bullet whistle
the best. A favorite game of these chaps, where they are not utterly depraved
(there are a good many of the latter), is for a couple of them to go in the
house and make themselves as interesting as possible while the others clean out
the smokehouse, chicken yard, and the premises generally. The greatest
objection and the only one I have to being in the army, is the idea of being
associated, in the minds of the people of this country, as well as the home
folks, with such brutes. But I tell you, that I have always acted the gentleman
to the best of my ability since I entered the army, and I don’t believe I’m a
whit worse than I was at home. I haven't drank one-tenth as much liquor as I
did in the same length of time at home, and you know how much that was, and
that I hate the stuff too much to ever taste it unless forced upon me. The last
I touched was with poor George Shinn just before the 17th left the cape. We
drank to “Our next shake hands, may it be at the end of the war, at home and
before three months.” George was a No. 1 soldier. We bays all think everything
of him. Tell him we all sympathize with him and wish him a speedy recovery, and
that his services may not be needed any more. Seems to me I write you nearly
every day, but haven't had a letter from home for two or three weeks. Our mail is
very irregular though, and I can excuse, but I would like you to get all
of mine and save them, for I would like to look these over myself when I get
home, as I keep no diary. The day is so warm that our boys are all out bathing
in a little swamp lake near here. The Lord knows some of them need it.
Cleanliness is undoubtedly the best preventive of disease in the army. Hardly
any of the boys that are cleanly suffer from disease. The colonel and Sidney
went to Cairo yesterday. The colonel with dispatches from General Pope, I believe,
and Sid. just because he could. We buried our two boys yesterday morning that
were killed at Cane Bridge, and I (never felt sadder in my life. I’m sure that
knowing I would be killed to-morrow wouldn’t hurt me half as much. These poor
fellows have suffered all the hardships and trials of the private soldier's
life, and are now put under the ground in the dark-swamp, without a friend
here, save their comrades, and probably after the army leaves, a friendly eye
will never see their graves. I sent a package of letters back to a young lady
that one of them was engaged to. Our men have been living on mush and
the other messes, makeable from cornmeal for a week, without coffee or any
thing else. Couldn't get provisions through from Cairo near fast enough, and
Pope gobbled up everything that did come for the troops at Madrid. Chet. Caswell,
a Canton boy, is here now and cooking for our mess, I can live on fried mush as
long as the next man. The frogs, bugs, blackbirds and sich like, keep up a
perfect bedlam around us the whole time.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 73-5
Labels:
17th IL INF,
7th IL CAV,
Baths,
Bugs,
Burying The Dead,
Cairo,
Charles W Wills,
Coffee,
Cornmeal,
Health,
John Pope,
Letter Writing,
Mail,
Mosquitoes,
Plundering,
Stragglers,
Weather,
Wheat
Monday, June 12, 2017
1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: February 14, 1862
Cape Girardeau, Mo., February 14, 1862.
Sam arrived here to-night and brought me everything I could
wish for except my watch. Jem Harper from Company K is home on furlough and we
expect him now shortly, also Benton Spencer. If you could manage to send the
watch by one of them I would be much obliged. I cannot well get along without
one now. You seem to be very happy about my getting away from the Point. Rather
more so than I am myself. If I had stayed there I would have been with a fair
chance to fight — to fight soldiers. Here there are no forces to fight but a
few hundred bushwhackers that will lie by the roadside in the swamp, and I
believe they would murder Jesus Christ if they thought he was a Union man. We failed
in doing what we wanted to the last trip, but I believe we'll get even with
them yet. I'd hate mightily to get killed by such a pack of murderers, but that
isn't my business. If U. B. and father have experienced such trips as we have,
I'll bet I beat them in one thing — enjoying them. I always feel better out
that way than in camp. The 11th Missouri is still with us and the 17th has gone
to Tennessee. The colonel, Ross, picked out 50 or 60 of his most worthless men
and put them on the gunboats. There are some hopes that our regiment will be
ordered to Kentucky soon or to Wheaton, Mo., for there is a regiment of
Missourians here forming that will be sufficient to guard this vicinity. This
place if not entirely secession is very strongly southernly righteous. I am
getting acquainted with the female population slowly, not very, and one family
of three girls tell me they are positively the only unconditional Union women
in town. But the others show nothing of the cold shoulder to us. They are all
very friendly and sociable. Quite a number of beautiful girls here. The
aristocracy here are all Catholic. Funny, isn't it? Frenchy.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 61-2
Sunday, June 11, 2017
1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: February 9, 1862
Cape Girardeau, February 9, 1862.
I, like a good boy, wrote you a long letter yesterday, and,
like a careless fellow, lost it. I told you in it how we “300” of us, left here
in the p. m. of last Monday, rode all night and at daylight made a desperate
charge into Bloomfield where we found and captured nothing. How a little party
of 15 of our boys were surprised some eight miles beyond Bloomfield by 80
Rebels and one of them captured, one badly wounded and another's horse shot and
he at last accounts running in the swamps. How the major got together his men
and went out and captured some 20 of the bushwhackers and killed five and how
he returned to the Cape, etc. You have read about this riding and marching all
night until I expect you hardly think of its being fatiguing and somewhat
wearing on the human system, etc., but allow me to assure you that it is.
Novice as I am in riding, the cold and fatigue were so severe on me that I
slept like a top horseback, although I rode with the advance guard all the time
and through country the like of which I hope you'll never see. There is a swamp
surrounding every hill and there are hills the whole way. Damn such a country.
We passed, a small scouting party of us, the bones of seven Union men. They
were all shot at one time. I didn't go with the party to see them. One of our
guards went out with a party of nine of the 17th Infantry boys and captured
some 20 secesh and brought in, in a gunny sack, the bones of five other Union
men. I noticed there were no skulls and asked the guide where they were. He
said that “as true as truth the secesh who murdered them had taken the skulls
to use for soup bowls.” I was talking with a man to-night who had his two sons
shot dead in the house by his side last week. A gang of fellows came to the
house while he was eating supper and fired through between the logs. He burst
open the door and escaped with but one shot in him after he saw that his sons
were killed. I can hardly believe that these things are realities, although my
eyes and cars bear witness. In my reading I can remember no parallel either in
truth or fiction for the state of things we have in this southeastern portion
of Missouri. Anyone can have his taste for the marvelous, however strong, glutted
by listening to our scouts and the refugees here. I thank God from my heart
that dear old Illinois knows nothing of the horrors of this war. The 17th left
here yesterday for Fort Henry. The boys were very glad to start. The old 8th
was there with the first. I almost wish I had stayed with her. Without bragging
or prejudice I am satisfied that the 8th is the best in every respect of the
whole 100 regiments I have seen and has the best colonel. Colonel Kellogg is
now commanding the post and Sid. is “A. A. A. General,” and I am “A Regimental
Adjutant.” My duties are light, though, and I am in tip-top health. That ride
didn't hurt me at all. I can stand riding with the best of them. I suppose that
Sam will be with us soon. I hope our regiment will be ordered to Kentucky. I
believe I'd rather be shot there than to bushwhack around in Missouri much
longer. The major and I will get along capitally. He stands fatigue equal to
any of us. He and I took a ride of 30 miles alone through the swamps the other
day. Send my watch the first chance you have.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 60-1
Saturday, June 10, 2017
1st Lieutenant Charles Wright Wills: February 3, 1862
Headquarters, 3d Battalion, 7th Illinois Cavalry,
February 3, 1862.
I am pretty sure that we will start on a scout to-morrow
that will give us a ride of 150 miles. From the knowledge I have of it believe
that we are going to raise the devil before we get back or get raised
ourselves. There are only about 300 of us going, but we are all cavalry and are
going fast, will make our mark and then return probably at the same gait. We
are going pretty close to New Madrid, into a hot place, where a long stay would
not be pleasant. I believe there are 300 or 400 men about 70 miles from here
guarding commissary stores. We are going to try and surprise them and destroy
the goods, kill what we can of the secesh “and get out o’ that.” It will be my
first scout horseback but I'm going if it busts me. This is one of Colonel
Kellogg’s ideas and looks more like work than anything I have tried yet. It's
awful rough weather to start out in but that makes it more favorable for us.
Well, I have got over the hardest part of soldiering, though I doubt if I enjoy
myself as well as I did in the ranks. I never in my life spent nine months more
pleasantly than those I passed in the “8th.” We had some rough times, but good
health and good company made them as pleasant as and often happier than life in
quarters. I disliked very much to leave the boys I had been with so long and
knew so well, but cupidity and ambition got the better of the just resolves I
made never to leave them untill the war was over. John Wallace, Fred Norcott
and my chum, Hy Johnson, I did hate to leave. They'll get along just as well
though after they have forgotten us. My chances for a lieutenancy in that
company were first rate but I have got a better thing, and without so much
walking. You never saw a gladder boy than Sam was when he found himself safe
out of the infantry. He couldn't begin to hold his body. I suppose he and
Keefer are having very gay times all by themselves. Sidney and I concluded that
our best policy was to stay here and I'm glad I did so, although I would have
liked a visit home more than I can tell. If we can manage it so as to get off
together some time this spring we will do so, but I have little hopes now of
seeing you untill the war is over. The major (Rawalt), Seavy, Billy Resor and
myself mess together. We have the wife of one of the men cooking for us and are
living as well as I want to, in regular home style. White tablecloth, white
ware and a fork and spoon for every man. Warm biscuits and excellent coffee every
meal. My duties are light and not many of them. All writing. We live in a
house, too. My health is booming again. That trip brought me out all right.
This is a splendid place to camp in — high, healthy and beautiful. There are
lots of pretty girls here too, that smile very sweetly on shoulder-strapped
soldiers, but well, you understand me. I have Billy Stockdale, Trites, Chancey,
Geo. Shinn, Jesse B. and the rest of the Canton boys in the 17th and they are
all in excellent health. Chancey will be home in a few days I think. He is
second lieutenant in the Fairview Company now. Billy Stockdale is sergeant
major. Trites is romantic, enthusiastic and desponding as ever. Major Rawalt is
one of the best officers there is in the service. He and I will get along splendidly.
We are really off in the morning, and for a 200-mile march. There will be fun
before we get back.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 58-60
Sunday, June 4, 2017
3rd Sergeant Charles Wright Wills: January 2, 1862
January 2, 1862.
We've waited patiently until after New Year for the box of
provisions, and nary box yet. Have given it up for a goner. We're just as much
obliged to you as though we had received it. We haven't yet eaten all the
tomatoes, etc., that came with the quilts. Partly because we are too lazy to
cook them, but mostly because we don't hanker arter them. Beans, bacon and
potatoes are our special hobbies or favorites rather, and we are never
dissatisfied on our inner man's account when we have them in abundance and of
good quality. Company H of the 17th, Captain Boyd, was down here on the 30th.
All the boys save Chancy Black and Billy Stockdale were along. We had a grand
time, Nelson's, Boyd's and our boys being together for the first time in the
war. Yesterday, New Year, the camp enjoyed a general frolic. A hundred or two
cavalry boys dressed themselves to represent Thompson's men and went galloping
around camp scattering the footmen and making noise enough to be heard in
Columbus. The officers of the 11th Infantry were out making New Year calls in
an army wagon with 30 horses to it, preceded by a splendid band. The “boys” got
a burlesque on the “ossifers.” They hitched 20 mules to a wagon and filled it
with a tin pan and stovepipe band, and then followed it in 60-mule wagon around
the camp and serenaded all the headquarters.
General Paine said to-day that our regiment and the 11th
would move in a week, but I don't believe it.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 50-1
Thursday, May 11, 2017
3rd Sergeant Charles Wright Wills: November 20, 1861
Bird's Point, November 20, 1861
Part of Pitt's (Col. W. Pitt Kellogg's) cavalry are here. We
are glad to see them as it will relieve us of considerable picket duty. But
otherwise cavalry are of not much service in this brushy, swampy country. That
fox of a Jeff Thompson that we chased down to New Madrid last week, had the
impudence to follow us right back and we had hardly got our tents pitched here
at the Point before he passed within 12 miles of us to the river above, and
captured a steamboat. Report says that there were nearly a dozen officers on
the boat, and a paymaster, with money to pay off the Cape Girardeau troops.
Jeff is a shrewd one, and the man that captures him will do a big thing. Back
in the country where we were, he made the natives believe that he whipped Ross
and company at Fredericktown, and killed 400 federals with a loss of only ten
of his men. Don't it almost make you sick the way that 17th brag and blow about
themselves? That affair at Fredericktown didn't amount to a thing. From the best
information I can get, there was not to exceed 50 Rebels killed, and I'm sure
not that many. Thompson is stronger to-day than ever. This thing of sending
infantry after him is all bosh, although we tried it again yesterday. It failed
of course. The boys came back through the rain last night about 10, tired and
mad as the deuce. A thousand cavalry may possibly get him some day, but they
will be sharp ones, sure. In this fight at Belmont 1,200 of our men at first
completely whipped 2,400 of theirs, four regiments, then the whole of ours,
2,600 ran like the devil before and through 5,600 of theirs. These are the true
figures.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 43-4
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
3rd Sergeant Charles Wright Wills: November 11, 1861
Cape Girardeau, November 11, 1861.
We have just arrived here after a week's absence from any
sign of civilized life. Saturday the 2d we (our company) went out six or seven
miles from the Point to guard a bridge on the Cairo and Fulton Railroad. Sunday
we came back to the Point, and found the tents of our regiment all struck and
everything prepared for a march. By dark we were all safely stowed on the “Aleck
Scott,” and also five companies of the 11th Illinois. At 10 p. m. the boat
shoved out, but had to tie to all night about 10 miles up the river on account
of the fog. Monday at 10 a. m. we landed at Commerce between Cape Girardeau and
Cairo and stayed there all night. Up to this time we had not the most distant
idea of where we were going, but here we began to guess that we were after Jeff
Thompson and company. Tuesday morning we started back into the country and
camped for the night on Colonel Hunter's farm, a distance of 18 miles. (I
forgot to mention that the 18th and 22d Illinois with three companies, cavalry
and two pieces artillery joined us before we started from Commerce, making a
total of some 2,200 men.) This Colonel Hunter is in the Rebel Army When we
stopped at his farm there was a large flock of sheep, at least 40 goats and
pigs, turkey, geese, chickens and ducks without number. After we had been there
a half hour I don't believe there was a living thing on the farm that did not
come with our train. I never saw a slaughterhouse on as large a scale before.
The next day the boys made an awful uproar on the road, playing that the sheep,
hogs, geese, etc., inside of them were calling for their comrades. Wednesday
night we stopped at Little Water River and the slaughtering commenced
immediately. All along the road up to this place every horse or mule that
showed himself was gobbled instanter, a bridle cramped, and some footman made
happy. It was hard to tell whether our force was infantry or cavalry that
night. This was too much for the colonel, so next morning he drew the brigade
up in column of company and gave us fits. He made the men turn every horse
loose; told us that the next man that cramped anything without permission would
be dealt with as severely as the regulations would allow. That suited me. I
never have been disgusted with soldiering save in those two days, and I tell
you that I did then feel like deserting. When we are marching through a country
as thoroughly secesh as this is, I think that the men should be allowed fresh
meat at the expense of the natives; but there is a proper and soldier-like way
to get it. We can send our foraging party ahead and have all we want at camp
when we halt, but to allow men to butcher everything they see is mob-like.
Wednesday night Jeff's men tried to burn a bridge a short distance from us and
this led to a little brush, but the cavalry only were engaged. Thursday we
marched all day and went into camp at night without seeing a horse. The march
was through the “Black Swamp.” The ground was covered with this black moss four
inches deep and so thick that 'tis like a carpet. That was an awful gloomy road
and I was glad enough to land at a nice clear stream and have orders to pitch
tents. That night not a thing was pressed. The next day we got into Bloomfield
about 9 a. m. and found Jeff gone. For the third time we pitched tents on one
of his deserted camps. I have just now heard that we started with orders to
push on down to New Madrid, but here the orders were countermanded and we were
started to Cape Girardeau. This Bloomfield is a rank Rebel hole. The first
Rebel company in Missouri was raised here. It is the county seat of Stoddard or
Scott, and a very fine place. Here the boys got the understanding that we were
to be allowed some liberties and take them they did. They broke open four or
five stores whose owners had left, and helped themselves. Colonel Dick
(Oglesby) thought this was going too far, so he stopped it and sent a police
force around to collect the stolen (pressed rather) property. I walked around
and took a look at the pile they collected. There were lots of women's bonnets,
girl's hats, mallets, jars of medicine, looking glasses three feet long, boys'
boots, flat irons, a nice side table and I don't know what wasn't there. It
beat anything I ever saw. The men had no way to carry these things but on their
backs, and what the devil they stole them for is more than I know. Well, the
colonel divided the stuff out again among the men, but stopped stealing
entirely for the future. We have been a respectable regiment since then. On the
march back to the Cape, the 10th Iowa was ahead of us and they fired several
houses. We (our regiment) saved one of the houses but the rest burned down. The
march back to the Cape was a fast one but quiet. We arrested some 20 or 30 of
Jeff's men but released them all again. At Bloomfield my tent was pitched under
a tree on which we saw the marks of three ropes to the ends of which Colonel
Lowe attached three men not very long since. The ropes had cut through the moss
on the tree and the marks will be visible a long time. We also arrested a
number of men that had been concerned in hanging Union men through the country,
At Round Pond an intelligent man told us that 17 men (Union) had been hung and
shot inside of three days and he saw their bodies in one pile lying in the woods.
We have marched over 100 miles this trip, and we have not seen a mile of
prairie. I haven't been 20 feet from a tree for three months. The 17th are
going into winter quarters here. Our regiment will certainly be in the next
fight at Columbus. We start back to the Point at 3 to-morrow morning.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 39-42
Labels:
10th IA INF,
11th IL INF,
17th IL INF,
18th IL INF,
22nd IL INF,
8th IL INF,
Burning Bridges,
Burning Buildings,
Charles W Wills,
Columbus KY,
Foraging,
horses,
M Jeff Thompson,
Meat,
Missouri,
Railroads,
Richard J Oglesby,
Southern Unionists,
Tents,
Winter Quarters
Monday, May 8, 2017
3rd Sergeant Charles Wright Wills: October 27, 1861
Bird's Point, October 27, 1861.
I haven't written for a full week because I really had
nothing to write and in fact I have not now. Although soldiering is a hugely
lazy life, yet these short days we seem to have but little spare time. We are
up nearly an hour before sun up, have breakfast about sunrise, drill (company)
from about 8 to 10. Cards until dinner time, 12; lounge or read until 2;
battalion drill untill 4:30 or 5, supper, and then dress parade at 4:45; from
candle lighting untill bedtime (taps), 10, we have cards mixed with singing or
some awful noises from Sam Nutt and Fred Norcott. Those two boys can make more
noise than three threshing machines. Our boys are all in excellent health and
prime spirits. Fred and Sam and Sid are fatter than the Canton folk ever saw
them. There are but four regiments at the Point now, so we have to work on the
entrenchments every fourth day two hours or cut down trees the same length of
time. We are clearing away the timber within 500 yards of the earthworks. It is
mostly Cottonwood and very heavy. They stand so thick that if we notch a dozen
or so pretty deep and then fell one it will knock three or four down. Lin
Coldwell and I are going to get a set of chess to-morrow. That gunboat, “New
Era,” that the papers blow so much about is of no account as a gunboat. She is
laid up at Mound City for a battery. The men on her have told me that she
wouldn't half stand before a land battery that amounted to anything. We are
beginning to have some frost here, but I don't believe we'd suffer a bit lying
in these tents all winter. The sickly season is over now and the health is
improving very much. We had 18 on the sick list in our company three weeks ago
and now we have but three, and they are only diarrhoea or the like. I tell you
I feel as strong as two mules and am improving. I haven't been the least unwell
yet. Our boys are perfectly sick for a fight so they can be even with the 17th.
We are sure that the 17th doesn't deserve to be named the same day with us for
drill or discipline, with all their bragging. They are an awful set of
blowhards. Sid., Theo., Ben Rockhold and John Wallace are on picket out of our
mess to-night. The picket was fired on last night where they are posted
to-night.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 38-9
Labels:
17th IL INF,
8th IL INF,
Camp Life,
Cards,
Charles W Wills,
Chess,
Diarrhea,
Drill,
Earthworks,
Games,
Gunboats,
Health,
Mound City,
Parades And Reviews,
Picket Duty,
Reading,
Sick List,
Singing,
Taps,
USS New Era
Saturday, May 6, 2017
3rd Sergeant Charles Wright Wills: October 10, 1861
Bird's Point, October 10, 1861.
I have just finished a dinner of cider, cake, bread, butter,
etc. We have just been paid off and of course have to indulge in a few
delicacies for awhile. Last Tuesday we were ordered to strike tents and pack
for a march. It wasn't much of a march though for we were put on the cars and
rolled out to Charleston, 12 miles from here, where we camped on a beautiful
little prairie adjoining town. The 11th Illinois, Taylor's artillery and two
companies of cavalry and our regiment formed the party. I think we were out
looking after that damned Jeff Thompson, who is reported everywhere from
Ironton down to New Madrid. I don't believe he has a thousand men, for there
seems to be nothing reliable about any of the reports we have of him. The
natives up at Charleston told us that Jeff was at Sykestown, 12 miles from
there, with 5,000 or 6,000 troops, and our pickets had several little fights
with his, or what we supposed to be his, but — well, the generals may know
better but we that stay in the ranks think that there is no enemy nearer than
Columbus save a few small bands of bushwhackers, who, under the impression that
they are upholding principles eternal and doing their country service, gobble
up everything sweet or sour, that weighs less than a ton. We came down from
Charleston Thursday. We marched about 10 miles of the way through an immense
(it seemed so to me) cypress swamp. I think Mrs. Stowes’ “Dred” would have
enjoyed that swamp hugely. It was rather an interesting piece of scenery for a
first view, but I don't think I should enjoy living in sight of it. The 18th,
Colonel Lawler, worked six or eight weeks in this swamp repairing bridges the
secesh had burnt, and it put half their men on the sick list. We got our pay in
treasury notes but they are as good as the gold. Lots of the boys have traded
them off for gold “even up.” I get $21 this time for two months and five days,
our other boys got $14 or $15. I am third sergeant now, our second having been
appointed sergeant major. I think I should rather be sergeant, for the field
officers make a kind of servant of the sergeant major. I send you a couple of
daguerreotypes to let you see what a “skeleton” I have become. Our boys are all
very well. The 17th is in a pretty hard condition, nearly half of them sick and
as a regiment pretty badly used up. We have been paid twice and they only $10
yet.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 35-6
Labels:
11th IL INF,
17th IL INF,
18th IL INF,
8th IL INF,
Bread,
Bridges,
Bushwhackers,
Butter,
Charles W Wills,
Cider,
Columbus KY,
Daguerreotypes,
Harriet Beecher Stowe,
M Jeff Thompson,
pay,
Tents,
Trains
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
James C. Earp
Funeral services for James C. Earp, 84 years old, who died
in Los Angeles Monday, will be conducted by the Rev. W. C. Loomis at 10 a.m.
today in the parlors of the Mark B. Shaw company. Interment will be in Mountain View
cemetery. Mr. Earp was a veteran of the
Civil War, and came to California in 1864.
He is survived by one sister, Mrs. A. D. Edwards of Los Angeles and one
brother, Wyatt Earp of Vidse.
— The San Bernadino
County Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday, January 28, 1926, p. 6
Private Charles Wright Wills: Late September 1861
Norfolk [date torn off.]
The colonel talks some to-night about a forward movement,
and two regiments have come across the river from the Kentucky side this
evening, the Iowa 2d and 7th. The 17th are still opposite us and I have seen
none of them yet. Our cavalry scouts are fighting now more or less every day.
Yesterday a party of the Iowa 7th were out hunting bushwhackers when they were
attacked by a company of horsemen of whom they killed four. One of our men was
shot while returning from a scout. They routed the enemy but came back and
reported four of their men missing, but the lost four have all come in to-day.
Our men think they finished a couple at least but 'tis questionable. We are all
again bored to death with lying still, but patience and we'll get what we want
in time. We have the report here to-day that Colonel Mulligan has capitulated
to Price, Jackson & Co. at Lexington. This, if true, will certainly retard
our movement down the Mississippi. I'm getting perfectly indifferent about
Fremont's being superseded or as to who has the command. It seems to me that
none of our commanders are doing anything. With at least 75,000 troops at
Paducah, Cairo and in Missouri to allow the gallant Mulligan to be forced to
surrender is perfectly shameful. It's disheartening to a soldier, I tell you.
Let them go on, if this war goes against us 'twill be the fault of our
commanders and not of the men, sure. Yesterday information was brought our
colonel that a battery was in course of erection on the Kentucky shore six
miles below us. We were put on steamboats 2,000 or 2,500 strong and preceded by
two gunboats scooted down, when within a mile of the place our regiment was
landed and we marched down but of course found no battery.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 32-3
Monday, May 1, 2017
Private Charles Wright Wills: September 16, 1861
Norfolk, September 16, 1861.
We are still here at Norfolk and now in camp for we don't
know how long. We got tents the day after the date of my last, and splendid
ones they are. They are full 10 feet high and 15 feet across. They each
accommodate about 15 men. Since we have been here we have been out scouting
three times. The first time we were down the river about five miles. That was
the time our gunboats had the fight with the “Yankee” and the land batteries.
Two days afterward a body of the enemy's cavalry came up almost to our camp,
and after dinner we were sent out to look them up. We were scooting along
through a thick wood when one of our cavalry men came back half scared out of
his wits (we had about 20 of the cavalry ahead acting as scouts) and reported a
whole mess of men just over a rise of ground ahead of us. Our company was in
the van, and the column came into line on us and our cavalry tried to draw the
enemy back on our position, but Mr. Enemy “drawed” the other way and again we
missed our little fight. Last Saturday we started out again at noon and went
down the river 10 miles where we thought sure we'd find secesh, but he had
again left. We had 2,000 men this time and 6 pieces of artillery. We had
stopped to rest when a cloud of dust was observed rising on our side of the
river about four miles from us. Some of the boys had glasses with them and made
out the cause to be a body of cavalry. Our right was marched a few hundred
yards to the front and placed in line of battle with the left at the river bank
and our right extending along an edge of woods and fronting a cornfield and
open pass between it and the river. A splendid place (for our side) for a
fight. Our gunboat then started down the river, fired at and dispersed one body
they saw and then slipped a few shells into Columbus and returned. We were
within four or five miles of Columbus where there are (our colonel says) 26,000
troops, and on ground where the secesh were encamped but lately with 16 pieces
of artillery. We started back at dusk and got home about 10 o'clock; some of
the boys pretty tired. I stand these little trips like a horse and would rather
go every day than lay around camp. Yesterday (Sunday) the “Yankee” came up and
shelled the woods where we were the day before. She tried to throw some shells
into our camp but they didn't reach us by a mile and a half. One of our
gunboats has to lay here all the time or the “Yankee” would make us skedaddle
out of this on double quick. Don't talk about furloughs. They are played out. A
dispatch came this last week to Colonel Oglesby that his wife was dying. He
went up to Cairo but General McClernand showed him an order from McClellan,
vetoing furloughs, no matter for what. So the colonel had to return here. I'd
like very much to go home but I'll enjoy it all the more when this business is
finished. The 17th is encamped just opposite us on Island No. 1, but we can't
get to see them. Our boys are in good spirits. Sid. and Sam and Theo. are now
all right. Milo Farewell thinks he has the dumb ague. Fred Norcott is sick in
Cairo. Charley Cooper is also sick I have heard. I am all right. My office is
sergeant, two grades below private. Our company goes out on picket to-night.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 30-1
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Private Charles Wright Wills: September 9, 1861
Cairo. The
refreshments and drygoods from home arrived Saturday. We were at Paducah then
and they were taken care of by two or three of the lame and halt, that were not
in traveling order and were left behind. We returned this morning and after
acknowledging the excellence, profusion, variety, gorgeousness, and
confiscarity of your benevolent appropriation to our temporal wants, I will
particularize by saying that you needn't worry about your picture, as it is in
my possession; that the cakes are both numerous and excellent, that the pickles
are prodigious in quantity, beautiful in quality and remarkably acceptable.
That the butter and cheese are non ad com valorum. The tobacco and Hostetter,
the boys say, are very fine. To Mrs. Dewey and Mrs. Heald we all return thanks
and send our kind respects and love. We have sent a share of the eatables to
the Canton boys of the 17th, which is again encamped near us; this time on the
Kentucky shore. They are hard at work to-day cutting down trees, clearing away
for a camp ground. I have seen none of them yet. We had the nicest little trip
to Paducah, that ever soldiers had. We have just received orders to get ready
to start in five minutes.
Time extended a little. We had 1,500 troops in Paducah, Ky.,
and received information that they would be attacked Saturday, so Friday night
350 of us were sent up as an advance.—Now we go.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 27-8
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Diary of Private Charles Wright Wills: August 11, 1861
Cairo. Our Canton
boys came down on time, and right glad I am to have them here. Colonel Ross's
17th Regiment got here the same day by the river. The boys were sworn into our
company the day after they arrived, and the day following a lieutenant in the
Fulton Blues came over to get them to join his company. I am glad he was too
late. We have all been over to the Point to visit the Canton boys of the 17th,
and found them looking very well. Will Trites, alone, looks unwell. A few weeks
at home is what he really needs, for he will not give up work and go on the
sick list as he ought to, as long as he can stand. Billy Stockdale, Chancey
Black, George Shine, Billy Resor and Jesse Beeson are in No. 1 condition. Their
tents are pitched in old Bird's cornfield from which the corn has just been cut
and you can imagine that the stubble is not equal to feathers to lie upon. They
call us boys that live in barracks in Cairo, Sunday soldiers and Fourth of July
braves; the same names we applied to them when they were in Camp Mather. The
Canton boys in our company get along finely. They are in the best of spirits
and already appear quite soldierly. They are well satisfied with the company
which now numbers 90 men and will be full this week. We all room together
except John Wallace and Milo Farewell. We are now drilling about six hours a
day, but the greenhorns act as though they think it fun. We don't suffer from
the heat as much as one would think, and can you believe it the health of the
camp is better now than ever before. We have not in our company a man on the
sick list. Major Smith (our old friend Marion), says that the 17th have been
healthier at Bird's Point than they ever were before; and so every regiment
says that comes here. If there are any very old people in Canton that want to
live 50 or 60 years longer, advise them to come to Cairo. Mosquitoes and fleas
are around these times. The whole family are here.
SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an
Illinois Soldier, p. 24-5
Thursday, October 27, 2016
In The Review Queue: A Civil War Captain and His Lady
By Gene Bar
A Civil War Captain and His Lady is a true “Cold Mountain”
love story from the Northern perspective.
More than 150 years ago, 27-year-old Irish immigrant Josiah Moore met
19-year-old Jennie Lindsay, a member of one of Peoria, Illinois’s most
prominent families. The Civil War had just begun, Josiah was the captain of the
17th Illinois Infantry, and his war would be a long and bloody one. Their
courtship and romance, which came to light in a rare and unpublished series of
letters, forms the basis of Gene Barr’s memorable A Civil War Captain and His
Lady: Love, Courtship, and Combat from Fort Donelson through the Vicksburg
Campaign.
The story of Josiah, Jennie, the men of the 17th and their families tracks the
toll on our nation during the war and allows us to explore the often difficult
recovery after the last gun sounded in 1865.
Josiah’s and Jennie’s letters shed significant light on the important role
played by a soldier’s sweetheart on the home front, and a warrior’s
observations from the war front. Josiah’s letters offer a deeply personal
glimpse into army life, how he dealt with the loss of many close to him, and
the effects of war on a man’s physical, spiritual, and moral well-being.
Jennie’s letters show a young woman mature beyond her age dealing with the
difficulties on the home front while her brother and her new love struggle
through the travails of war. Her encouragement to keep his faith in God strong
and remain morally upright gave Josiah the strength to lead his men through the
horrors of the Civil War. Politics also thread their way through the letters
and include the evolution of Jennie’s father’s view of the conflict. A leader
in the Peoria community and former member of the Illinois state house, he
engages in his own political wars when he shifts his affiliation from the Whig
Party to the new Republican Party, and is finally elected to the Illinois
Senate as a Peace Democrat and becomes one of the state’s more notorious
Copperheads.
In addition to this deeply moving and often riveting correspondence, Barr
includes additional previously unpublished material on the 17th Illinois and
the war’s Western Theater, including Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and the
lesser known Meridian Campaign―actions that have historically received much
less attention than similar battles in the Eastern Theater. The result is a
rich, complete, and satisfying story of love, danger, politics, and warfare,
and it is one you won’t soon forget.
About the Author
Gene Barr is the president and CEO of the Pennsylvania
Chamber of Business and Industry, the largest broad-based business advocacy
group in Pennsylvania. He has spent more than 40 years in the political and
government affairs world, including more than twelve years with a Fortune 100
energy company. Barr is a board member and former chair of the National Civil
War Museum in Harrisburg, PA and spent many years engaged in Civil War living
history events. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from St.
Joseph's University in Philadelphia and lives in Mechanicsburg with his wife
Mary.
ISBN 978-1611212907, Savas Beatie, © 2016, Hardcover, 360
Pages, Photographs, Maps, Footnotes, Appendix, Bibliography & Index. $32.95. To
Purchase the book click HERE.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
First Division, Army of the Tennessee: Historic Plaque, near Woolf Field, Shiloh National Military Park
U. S.
FIRST DIVISION, ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.
MAJ. JOHN A. MccLERNAND
1ST BRIGADE,
|
COL. ABRAHAOM M. HARE, 11TH IOWA (W’D).
|
COL. MARCELLUS M. CROCKER, 13TH IOWA.
|
|
2ND BRIGADE,
|
COL. CARROLL MARSH, 20TH ILLINOIS
|
3RD BRIGADE,
|
COL. JULIUS RAITH, 43RD ILL. (MORTALLY W’D)
|
LT. COL. ENOS P. WOOD, 17TH ILLINOIS.
|
|
BATTERY ‘D’ 1ST ILL. LT. ARTY., CAPT. EDWARD McALLISTER,
(W’D).
|
|
BATTERY ‘D’ 2D ILL. LT. ARTY., CAPT. JAMES P. TIMONY.
|
|
BATTERY ‘E’ 2D ILL. LT. ARTY., LIEUT. GEORGE L. NISPEL.
|
|
14TH BATTERY, OHIO LT. ARTY., CAPT. JEROME B. BURROWS, (W’D).
|
|
6 COMPANIES OF ILLINOIS CAVALRY.
|
This Division encamped here March
21, 1862; the 1st Brigade on the right, in Jones Field, the 2d in the center,
its left on the Corinth Road; the 3d along the Hamburg Road south of Review
Field.
During the battle on Sunday, April
6, 1862, the Division occupied seven positions on the field as follows: the
first, by the 3d Brigade, east of Shiloh Church; the second, by the Division,
along the Corinth Road; 9 A.M. to 11 A.M.; the third position, at right angles
across the center of its 2d Brigade Camp, at 11:15 A.M.; the fourth position in
Jones Field. From its fourth position
the Division advanced and at 12 M. recovered its 2d Brigade Camp and Division
Headquarters. It then fell back,
fighting to Jones field again, and held this, its fifth position until 2:30
P.M. when it retired to its sixth position in Cavalry Field. At 4:30 P.M. it occupied its 7th line, along
the Hamburg and Savannah Road.
On Monday it was engaged in the
camps of its First and Second Brigades.
The Division had present for duty, of all arms, officers and men,
6941. It losses were 285 killed; 1372
wounded; 85 missing; total 1742.
Labels:
11th IA INF,
13TH IA INF,
14th OH LT ART,
17th IL INF,
20th IL INF,
43rd IL INF,
Abraham M Hare,
Army of the Tennessee,
Bat D 1st IL LT ART,
Bat D 2nd IL LT ART,
Bat E 2nd IL LT ART,
Marcellus Crocker,
McClernand,
Shiloh,
Shiloh National Military Park
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