Chapter 9
“Land of Barbarism”
Meanwhile, unhappy with Beauregard and upset with his decision to take leave without permission, Jefferson Davis had appointed one of his corps commanders, Gen. Braxton Bragg, to assume command of the Confederate Army of Mississippi. In a bold move, Bragg left about 32,000 men in northern Mississippi to hold Grant back, and took 34,000 more on a circuitous route to invade Kentucky. The move, together with other smaller Rebel thrusts into the state, failed. Kentucky’s citizens did not rally to the Southern banner, the Confederate command remained divided, and a lack of supplies and a reliable logistical lifeline made remaining that far north impossible. After a sharp fight against General Buell at Perryville, Bragg retreated back into Tennessee.2
The Confederates remaining in northern Mississippi tried to advance into middle Tennessee to recapture some of the territory they had lost and help Bragg’s Kentucky effort. Confederate Maj. Gen. Sterling Price retook the Mississippi town of Iuka, but was driven from the place on September 19. He joined his Army of West with Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn’s Army of West Tennessee and they unsuccessfully attempted to capture Corinth, where Union forces under Grant tried to trap the combined armies. A sharp battle was fought on October 3-4, but the Southern forces managed to slip away.3
* * *
From June until October of 1862, the 17th Illinois was part of the force detailed to keep the rail and supply lines safe from the Confederates. According to Sergeant Duncan’s log, the regiment spent a good part of its time guarding various posts and chasing small Rebel parties around Middle Tennessee. The Illinois regiment was part of the force intended to trap Sterling Price at Iuka, but he slipped away before Union forces arrived.
Josiah to Jennie
Bolivar Tenn
August 4th 1862
Miss Jennie
Dear Lady,
Be, not surprised I had not forgotten-Well Jennie you will no doubt think that something strange has happened, no nothing more than ordinary.
Now then you must be patient while I tell you my story-could I but lay aside this dull medium for a better I think I could make my case much more satisfactory i.e. to one side at least.
Your4 epistle of June 18th came in due time and was perused as usual with much pleasure. I was also pleased to hear from our dear little friend Mattie. I can almost imagine that I see Jennie & Mattie promenading along those dear old walks that once were so joyous, or while away in gentle song the mellow moonlight evening just such bright evenings as were wont to come, like angel visitants, over a year ago—Oh I often think that there will be other evenings more brilliant still.
Well dear Jennie I should have replied sooner but till now I have been unable to make a full reply that “good likeness” could not easily be found you know we soldiers enjoy but few of the sights of civilization away down here in this land of barbarism the natives don’t seem to have any such institutions as picture gallerys – one of our 17th boys started one here a few days since but Jennie when I went to try it I almost backed out, just think of a soldier who for over a year has lived in the woods only once and a while hearing from the confines of civilization scarcely ever seeing a spark of that divine institution that makes man what he is, going to have a picture taken well such an idea not to speak of the picture I think would very well suit a comic almanac—still I thought it would not do for a soldier to be scared especialy at his own shadow—and now Jennie you have the result—my dear why draw such a long breath? I couldn,t help it I tried to look just as white as possible but then I think the glass was green.
Well Jennie since I last wrote many strange items have transpired in our Countries destiny I had hoped that ere this the bloody conflict would have closed, but where are we? The desired goal seems to be as distant and more desperate than ever! Now don’t think that I despair my hope of success has not loosed a single radiant. I believe that our cause is just and that God will prosper the right. Yet what a sad scene does our poor weeping prostrate country present at the present time—but trials make friends more firm and sorrow only makes the cup of joy more full—God knows what is best for us not only as a nation but as a people we must wait his good time and way.
“Our Regt” spent a few weeks at Jackson 27 miles North of here—two or three weeks since we moved down here and as we are now on about the front lines we are kept pretty busy. for some time after coming here we looked for an attack every day.
I had my company out 10 miles south on the R.R. guarding it while the cars could assist our troops that had gone a little too far in the advance, to fall back to this station we got all away safely only 100 bales of cotton this the rebels burned just as our troops left. The rebels also followed up the line of rail way and burned a station (Depot and 80 bales of cotton) within 1 ½ miles of where I was stationed. This was coming pretty close and for 2 or 3 days I hardly knew how soon I might go up but we finely got safely back to camp tho we have not had much rest as we have strongly suspected an attack still affairs appear more favorable now. Gen,l Ross is comding and he has 5 forts nearly completed—300 negroes5 have been to work for over 2 weeks we also took 2000 or 3000 bales of cotton to build temporary works – At present I think the enemy have turned their course towards Chattanooga
Well I presume Jennie that you are tired of this long story I had not forgotten but I had hoped that ere this I could have been able to bid an honorable adieu to the old 17th as it’s affairs look too gloomy, now more than ever every freeman is needed at his post. I scarcely know what to do, other than look on the brighter side—it seems that those who are of but little use or rather nuisances in the service can get any privileges they want, go or stay as it suits them while those who can do duty get their share these are men whose object seems to be to be absent when needed and spend the rest of their time seeking for office and I and sorry to say that there are Illinoisans who should blush over such facts.
Now Jennie you will excuse my delay and I shall try and do better and hoping to hear from you soon and that this may find you in the enjoyment of good health amid the joys of dear friends & peaceful home I bid thee dear Lady a kind good night
J Moore
P.S. I had tho’t of attending a “fair” this fall but I fear that the connections cannot be made however I wish you all success and hope that it may be pleasant occasion—But dear Lady if we cannot go the fair we shall just think fair and that well be some consolation, As above J.M.
Oh Jennie we have such nice peeches I wish I could treat you to some I know you would like them even tho secesh but we make them take the oath—this is the greatest peech district I ever saw.
I must write Mattie a letter soon I have not forgotten her kindness towards us while strangers Jennie I think she is such an excellent Lady so cheerful and kind may her friends be worthy of her.6 J.M.
Oh Jennie I almost forgot to thank you for that compliment to Mr Hough especially since it so much concerned myself I only hope that I may be ever worthy the admiration of such worthy friends.
Excuse such letter folding.
This August 4 letter evinces that Josiah’s enthusiasm and optimism about the war was flagging. His hope that the conflict would end soon, especially after the victories at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, was obviously not going to happen. He also believed the war was progressing according to God’s plan, but he was torn between his strong desire to come home and his sentiment that “every freeman is needed at his post.” Jennie’s constant urging that he return home, of course, created conflicting emotions that would have weighed heavily upon him.
Josiah to Jennie
Bolivar Tenn,
August 8, 1862
Well Jennie we have just voted on that Constitution, and what? You might guess the old 17th killed it deader than ever we should rather have voted some means of closing this war still it is some relief when we hear that “they are about to draft up North” That pleases the boys to think of the crokers7 being brought out. Enclosed find a copy of our Union Banner, excuse this little extra and with that “little package” now sent off accept the best wishes of.
Yours truly, J.M.
The “Constitution” Josiah mentioned was an attempt by some Illinois Peace Democrats to draft a new state constitution that would have stripped the governor of much of his power, re-drawn congressional and state legislative district lines to benefit Democrats, and barred African-Americans from settling in the state. Historian James McPherson defined the Peace Democrats, known to their detractors as “Copperheads,” as that portion of the Northern Democratic party that “opposed the transformation of the civil war into a total war—a war to destroy the old South instead of to restore the Union.” The Peace Democrats’ opposition was stiffened by the growing casualties and Washington’s imposition of a draft, passed in July 1862. The draft law allowed men to find substitutes or pay their way out of the service, which caused significant resentment among Irish and German immigrants and others in the poor and working classes. As Josiah pointed out, the Illinois voters, including the troops in the field, rejected the proposed constitution, but the draft and the lack of military progress for the North increased Copperhead support.8
Following the passage of the Second Confiscation Act in July 1862, Lincoln made plans to broaden emancipation’s reach. Before the war, Lincoln had declared he had no intention of eliminating slavery where it existed, but now he saw that ending slavery and the free labor it supplied to the Southern war effort was necessary to win the conflict. Lacking a significant battlefield victory, Lincoln put his plans on hold, fearing that an announcement would appear desperate rather than courageous or enlightened. He penned a draft of an executive order that freed the slaves in the states still in rebellion, and included a provision to recruit blacks into the Union Army—but set it aside. When George McClellan blunted General Lee’s invasion of Maryland at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, Lincoln finally had his opportunity to release it to the nation.9
On September 22, Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation, which would free slaves in areas still in rebellion on January 1, 1863. While it did not apply to border states, the action struck at what many increasingly recognized as a “tower of strength to the Confederacy.” Lincoln said that while he was conducting the war for “the sole purpose of restoring the Union,” he acknowledged that “no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done.” Lincoln focused on reuniting the country, not because he was ambivalent about slavery, but because he realized that if reunification failed, then most slaves would be living in a foreign country where he had no influence. If he did succeed in reuniting the country, it would be, as one historian said, a “hollow victory” unless slavery was abolished. For Lincoln, “emancipation, however great a righting of a historic wrong, would be meaningless unless it was set within the larger question of democracy’s survival.” He understood that the European ruling class held the American experiment in contempt, and he was determined to prove that “popular government is not an absurdity.” Making the war about freeing the slaves, of course, would also make it much more difficult for Europe to come in on the side of the Confederacy.10
The Emancipation Proclamation further emboldened the Peace Democrats, who intended to take advantage of the sentiments typified by a soldier in the 95th Illinois who wrote, “I certainly hope that they may lay down their arms before the first of Jan in order to keep the Niggers where they belong.” Another Yankee put it this way: “When we cease to fight for the Union and begin to fight for Negro equality I am ready to lay down arms and will.” Many Union soldiers shared those views, and many others worried that emancipation would trigger a flood of cheap labor and hurt their job prospects when they returned home.11
A sizable and growing number in the Union armies, however, had come to agree with their commander-in-chief that emancipation was more a pragmatic move to end the war than a moral action. “I think the President has struck the blow in the right time,” explained one soldier, while another announced it the “only remedy, and all know it will have a tendency to terminate the war shortly and permit us to return to better and more desirable vocations.” Another Illinois soldier wrote that he and his comrades “like the Negro no better now that we did then but we hate his master worse and I tell you when Old Abe carries out his Proclamation he kills this Rebellion and not before. I am henceforth an Abolitionist and I intend to practice what I preach.”12
While many Northern troops realized they did not have to change their negative view of blacks to support emancipation, others began to see blacks in a much more sympathetic light. As the Union armies moved south, the men in the ranks were confronted with the harsh realities of slavery—the lack of individual liberty they took for granted, and the deliberate breaking apart of families and the physical and sexual abuse that accompanied it. One historian wrote that many Union soldiers became convinced “the immoral and blighting institution of slavery was antithetical to republican government, and that any republican government that tried to accommodate slavery was doomed to eventual failure.”
Ironically, there were Union soldiers who found that their bigotry against blacks led them to support emancipation. In some parts of the South, the Northerners found slaves whose complexions were almost as white as their own as the result of sexual relations between white male slave owners and their female slaves. Many Northern troops came to believe that slavery must be inherently evil if it led to such immoral activity.
Southerners, of course, were outraged by Lincoln’s action, and derived smug satisfaction in the belief that the true goal of Lincoln and the North all along had been to end slavery and destroy Southern society, not preserve the Union as initially announced.13
Lincoln’s proclamation did, in fact, provide more ammunition for the Northern Peace Democrats for their opposition to the administration and its policies. With an eye toward the November 1862 elections, the Peace Democrats agitated in towns across the North. The men of the 17th took note of this rising tide of Copperheadism, and most were not happy about it. Lieutenant Edmund Robbins of the 17th Illinois’ Company D was one of them. “Nothing would please our boys better than a campaign against those who are seeking to prolong the war by raising discontent in the army & weakening the hands of our rulers,” Robbins wrote his parents in the fall of 1862. “They would burn their fences to cook rations by, carry off their stock and rummage their houses for money or silver plate & curse them for d——d rebel sons of b——s if they dared to open their heads. Tell your so called Democratic neighbor that it is in their power to bring upon themselves all the miseries and horrors felt by the border states by a factions of opposition to the U.S. Government.” This was certainly a change from the sentiment expressed in the regiment’s paper less than a year earlier, which expressed disdain for the abolitionist movement.14
Unfortunately, some of the Union soldiers occupying Tennessee channeled their frustration with the war effort and the politics at home into a war on the civilian population. Robbins claimed that when the 17th Illinois left Bolivar, “several houses were burned down.” He blamed the “worst men” in the unit for the deprivations. Some did much worse. “Ask some father of a family how he would like to have his house invaded by a couple of ruffians and after he himself was tied hand and foot to see his wife & two daughters ravished before his eyes & his house plundered,” Robbins wrote to his parents. “If the army breeds just such men it was exemplified by two men of our regt. a few days since who deserted as soon as they found they were suspected and have not been heard from since…. I have often felt ashamed of the conduct of my companions in burning houses and destroying property but have not always been able to prevent it.”15
Many Union soldiers blamed Southern women for the war. Josiah mentioned the “sneering women” of Jackson, Tennessee, and his fellow soldiers believed the constant harangues and insults directed at them by such “she-devils” meant they were a proper target of the war effort. Writing from Jackson, the colonel of the 4th Illinois Cavalry noted, “If we have to stay here all summer, somebody must come down and see us. They can help convert these obstinate ladies. We can easily whip the men but the ladies have the advantage of us decidedly.” Another Union officer in Tennessee took a decidedly harsher and cruder approach in trying to “convert these obstinate ladies.” He told the women of the town that if they didn’t prepare a meal for the 600 soldiers of his command, he would “turn his men loose upon them and he would not be responsible for anything they might do.” One byproduct of the harsh treatment of Southern civilians was the way it worried men serving in the Rebel armies. Many understandably deserted to go home to protect their families.16
Brutality against civilians was one result of soldiers becoming more coarse, or “hardened” to war. One Union officer noted that as the war progressed and his men witnessed the brutality of combat, they became “not so good as they were once; they drink harder and swear more and gamble deeper.” His explanation was that when “homicide is habitually indulged in, it leads to immorality.” An Iowa soldier agreed: “War is hell broke loose and benumbs all the tender feelings in men and makes of them brutes.” Another wrote that the descent into immorality “looks gradual from the top but how fast they seem to go as everything seems to hurry on the downward grade.” He noted that many fine, upstanding men he knew in civilian life who “four months ago would not use a profane word can now out swear many others.” One observer noted the “roving, uncertain life of a soldier has a tendency to harden and demoralize most men…. The restraints of home, family, and society are not felt.”17
When Frank Peats wrote about scrounging for souvenirs at Fort Henry, he complained that such activity
afflicted the body corporate of our whole army, it pervaded the atmosphere of all ranks, it affected no distinction of age, sex, or previous condition—The royal edict, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ was suspended like ‘Joshua’s’ sun until the carnage of war was ended—The farmer boy and the city boy seem to have been inoculated at the same time—The young reprobate who played marbles and hop scotch on Sunday and the Y.M.C.A. boy were co-partners in plunder and spoils. The wretched quartermaster and commissary for whose moral training no one desires to be held responsible, would appropriate to his own use whatsoever pleased his fancy that was not more bulky than a piano or a billiard table.18
Henry Penniman, the 17th’s assistant surgeon, documented his own concerns about what he saw in camp, and was convinced the 17th was not impervious to this coarsening process. “War is a dreadful evil,” he confirmed, “and the army is a school of bad morals; about nine-tenths of the troops entering the army irreligious, become worse and worse. A great crowd of men, without the restraints of society, and no influence from women,” he concluded, “become very vulgar in language, coarse in their jokes, and almost blasphemous in their profanity.”19
One historian defined hardening as “a subtle process that culminated in the detachment of the soldier from prewar ideals.” Soldiers became both physically and culturally separated from home and began to adopt behaviors they never would have considered in civilian life. Veteran soldiers told new recruits that “unless a man can drink, lie, steal, and swear he is not fit for a soldier.” Hardening was a defense mechanism that allowed soldiers to cope with their experiences. One Union officer wrote of using the corpses of his own men as a seat and a table for a meal. Charles Wills, the man from the 8th Illinois who so desperately wanted to fight late in 1861, wrote, “The army is becoming awfully depraved…. [I]f we don’t degenerate into a nation of thieves, t’will not be for a lack of the example set by a fair sized portion of the army.” The most obvious manifestation of this process was the way many men reveled in the act of killing the enemy.20
It is not unrealistic to think that for the troops in the Western armies, the hardening process began in earnest after Shiloh. One soldier who experienced his first combat there came upon a dead Confederate lying on his back with outstretched arms. The man reached down and ripped a button off the Rebel’s coat for a souvenir.
The paradox of the soldier at war was that in order to defend the community from which he came, he had to abandon many of the community’s morals. “My virtues and vice must correspond to that of my fellows; I must lie to rebels, steal from rebels, and kill rebels” wrote one Northern soldier. Some men believed (or certainly hoped) that their, true, moral selves were simply “lying dormant” during the war. Others experienced self-loathing over what they had become. As the war progressed, there was a growing gulf between those at home and the soldier, because the soldier often advocated actions that were outside the bounds of proper behavior for civilians, such as theft and destruction of property, in the cause of saving the Union. When those at home questioned the necessity of such actions, it led the men in the ranks to believe those at home no longer understood them, or again, did not support their efforts.21
Religion provided one bulwark against this “coarsening.” Men who were truly devout, such as Josiah, were a “significant, though in many ways powerful, minority in the Union and Confederate ranks.” Religious belief was a great help for men facing their fear of death and the trials of war.22
Jennie to Josiah
Peoria August 19th 1862
Dear Friend
Within the last two months I have learned, well the bitter lesson of disappointment, “Hope deferred more fully realized than ever. I did think “something strange had happened” when so many weeks passed and still no missive from the dear soldier boy. I knew it was not on account of sickness for I heard through several persons of your being well, and—but I’ll think I’ll not tell you of the rest; for you know it hath been said “Man is like [illegible].”
So you see dear friend I dont want you too do any more than your share so I’ll not tempt you by repeating the many good things I’ve heard of you, I at last concluded you were getting so brave that you wouldn’t deign so [illegible] a little coward like myself. I found I had judged you wrongly when I received your dear kind letter, and better still that dear dear likeness, not half so welcome as the original would have been yet I feel this one can be shared much better than the other. Oh, how I would love to see you but I know it is as you say every freeman is needed at his post and it is a shame to see the many that neglect their duty and pretend of sickness at home and a great many other excuses just too get away from danger. It does seem hard that the good should have all the burden too bear yet they have the happiness of feeling that they are doing right which if far more too the noble minded than ought else.
Things have changed since the first part of Summer than [illegible] began to brighten and the universal opinion was, that the war would be ended by the first of September, but I fear that day of peace is far more distant than ever, the people seem to be just awakened to the real dangers of the cause. That call for 600,000 men23 and the fear of drafting has aroused their patriotism wonderfully, they come into Peoria by the hundreds we now have four regiments here. I would that the rule had been made a year ago and we would have been far nearer the termination of this dreadful war. You would have been amused had you been here on the day the last call for men were made I tell you the cowards trembled for their precious lives they seemed to feel as though they were already drafted. It provokes me so to hear a man say he would go if he could leave his business, all the harm I can wish is that his business would leave him. I hope they will draft just to get such men.
The opinion now is that they will not have to in Illinois but it is hard to tell. But dearest friend I am glad too think that all do not go for fear of being drafted. They say when their country needs men so much as to talk of drafting then every man should go so I say and if they can’t put an end to this rebellion then let the women go and just give the rebels a talking too and bring them to their senses poor benighted people I really feel sorry for them for they are surely marking their own ruin. it seems as though God [illegible] just left them too their evil passion. I hope they may be soon delivered from the promptings of the evil one and repent before it is too late. God alone can see what is to be the end of this rebellion. All we can do is to hope for the bitter God of darkness [illegible] light.
I feel that there are still brighter days in store for us and we will remain here to appreciate them when they do come but my dear friend I know you are weary of this I must close, hoping God will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in the right path. Let us put our trust in him and he will deliver us in time of danger.
Yours ever,
Jennie
PS. Brother Andrew has enlisted, we have opposed his doing so on account of his being so young but he says he thinks it his duty to go and that it is better for him to leave than some married man, the dear boy it’s hard to have him leave and yet I feel that God can protect him as well in the camp and on the field of battle as at home. I pray that he may be kept from the many temptations that will surround him. I think the time has come for us to make any sacrifice for our Country for what is life worth to us if our Country is lost.
It is really surprising to see the many old and infirm men this war has brought to light, men, whom we thought but a short time ago men but they have suddenly discovered their age to be that of forty five they have ceased to use hair dye and I fear the dentist will go to ruin for loss of business. They have just realized that old age is honorable.
Capt Moore of one of the old Regts has been elected Col. of one of the Regts now in Peoria. The name sounds very familiar did ever you hear it? You remember Mr. Ballance? He has command of a Regt.
I have been away from home for the last nine weeks and have not seen Mattie Culter since my return but I think of payingmy respects on the morning. I know she will be glad to hear from you as you are quite favored. I suppose you heard of Capt. Harding’s marriage he seems to be in favor of the union. Now dear friend do please write soon. J.E.L.
Jennie’s letter highlights the disillusionment many in the North felt as the war dragged on and the casualties mounted. The Peace Democrats capitalized on this sense of disappointment.
In April 1862, the Confederate government initiated the first draft in American history. Three months later in July, Lincoln called for 300,000 more volunteers. The U.S. Congress followed that by passing a militia law, which defined “militia” as all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45. The obligation to raise Lincoln’s 300,000 men fell to the states. If a state failed to raise its required number, the members of that militia could be forced into the service. The policy met with some violent reaction, particularly among Irish and German immigrants and in areas of the Midwest antipathetic to abolition and the war. It also led to more support for Peace Democrats. Lincoln and Congress expanded the draft even further a few months later with the Enrollment Act, passed in March 1863.24
Jennie’s letter explains the effect the Militia Act had on the able-bodied men of Peoria who had not volunteered for service. She excoriated them as cowards who tried to make themselves appear physically unable to serve. Her 18-year-old brother Andrew (“Andie”) escaped her condemnation because he had enlisted in the 77th Illinois, but the family had opposed his enlistment because they believed him too young to serve.25
The reversal of military fortune for the Union armies discouraged Jennie, just as as it had so many others across the North. The short and glorious war so many people had anticipated 18 months earlier had become a prolonged and unpredictable carnival of blood and death whose end remained out of sight and the victor still in doubt.
Josiah to Jennie
Bolivar, Tenn
Oct 7th, 1862
Miss Jennie E. Lindsay,
Esteemed lady,
Having a few moments that I venture to call my own I will improve to the best advantage i.e. by leaving the scenes of this beautiful moon-light eve away down in Dixie and going back (Alas only in imagination) to brighter visions when all was joy.
I hardly know where to begin my story, several long weeks have passed since your kind favour of August 22nd came to hand tho scarcely an interval uninterrupted by the battle cry nor does the programme seem to change and I presume if it were not for a little lazy spell yours most obdtly would not be allowed this evenings respite but would be far on the road in pursuit of our timid friends of the Sunny South.
You have no doubt had the items of the Iuka battle26 and perhaps wondered why we did,nt catch the veritable Price, well he did,nt wait till the 17th came up, that is all I know—we had quite a trip it is nearly 240 miles the route we took but we arrived about 3 hours too late to meet our friends, they were quite well entertained however i.e. they seemed very well satisfied to retire tho they don’t seem satisfied to stay retired—fighting has now been progressing for several days the first attack was made by the rebels on Corinth, 3 or 4 days since,27 at one time (tho I understand our forces permitted it on purpose) the rebels had almost gained possession of the place but by a desperate charge our forces drove the rebels out and have been driving them ever since—the Federal loss is very heavy and also the rebel. Two of our Brig Generals28 killed at least. Oglesby29 is supposed to have died ere this from wounds received—the rebels retreated this way and the forces here were ordered out under Ord & Hurlburt30 who came up with the rebels and fought them nearly all day yesterday (Sabbath) completely routing the enemy. Late yesterday an order came for two or three Regts to march from here to prevent the rebels from bridging a certain little stream in their retreat. The 17th went along they marched 18 miles last night and the last I heard this evening the rebels were still retreating closely pursued by the forces from Corinth under Rosencrans31 and those from here under Hurlburt, Ord being wounded. Ross went out with the 17th and the other forces that went to prevent the enemy from crossing the river but as the rebels have not attempted to cross but are retreating on the other side. I presume that Ross will join in the route—If all prospers as present indications tend it will be a glorious triumph for our cause, for it seems that the rebels had made every calculation to drive the Federals from this part and to do this they have mustered every man. If they fail as fail they must their failure is most disastrous to them—I only hope that our hopes may be more than realized and that this may be the beginning of brighter days indeed dear friend it almost makes me feel well when I anticipate the results of the next few weeks—for I know that our troops cannot fail to drive the rebels from Ky if they half try, and in such an event the rebellion will be sorely oppressed out here in the West.
Well dear lady, you will ask why I am not along. Well I would only I didn’t to, or rather did,nt feel like going, a little home sick I suppose. Yes, but it will all be right I think in a few days Indeed I should not be much afraid of old Price now did he come in here to fight, tho I couldn,t follow him very well did he undertake to run. Just now Adjt. Reynolds has arrived from the Regt which he says, after pursuing 30 miles, is now returning having given up the chase.
I presume you heard of Major Cromwell of the 47th being captured at Iuka. I’ve heard nothing from him since.
I suppose ere this Jennie that the troops have all left Peoria and that you have bid goodbye to your brother, but I hope that “good bye” may not prove as sad as too many parting words of sisters & brothers have proven since the advent of this bloody strife. There is a power that can preserve nor is a mothers love or sisters prayers forgotten, may the Great Arbiter of nations soon be pleased to rebuke the raging storm and a nation redeemed and purified by made worthy the smiles of heavens King.
Well Jennie I have told a long story and I fear not very interesting but you will please take the will for the deed for could I lay aside this medium for another more direct it would be very pleasant for one at least. In replying please don,t imitate my tardiness. Oh I thing that if I were at home I could write almost every day, you see Jennie how selfish I am, good night pleasant dreams.
J. Moore
PS My compliments to Miss Culter32 and tell her that Lieut (Orderly Srgt when we were at Peoria) W.S. McClanahan has been very sick for a few days his first sickness since entering the service. He is fast recovering however and I think will soon be again able for the rebels which he hates heart and soul. Did I say soul, yes, I hardly think they have any. J.M.
Find enclosed a secesh letter I got it among some secesh baggage at Iuka. The remarks are union. Well it is too bad to use a letter so but I couldn,t help it tho I tried. They may get some of mine still I shall keep clear if possible. They never got one yet.
Jennie to Josiah
Peoria Oct, 13th 1862
Dear Friend,
Having just received your kind letter of the 7th inst I hasten to reply in other words I intend returning good for evil by answering before “several long weeks” shall have passed. I thought as you were not well a few lines from home would not be unacceptable poor as they are. You say dear friend if you were at home you could write almost every day. Oh how I wish you were there for I am sure nothing would give me more pleasure than to hear from so dear a friend every day. I have the will and the time to do likewise but I’m sorry to say the gift of letter writing has been denied me, and such poor letters are not worth receiving.
All the Regts but one have left Peoria and I believe it leaves this week, two were sent to Louisville and were in that last battle in Kentucky. four were sent to Covington, Ky. Our Regt among this number. Peorians have two Regts now, the 17th and 77th The Col, Lt. Col, Maj, and Adj are from Peoria your old friend Mr Hough is Adj. Capt Price of the 8th Missouri Col and Mr Wells Lt. Col, They were encamped in Peoria 8 weeks. There were two Regts occupied “Old Camp Mather.” I was over once while Col Irons Regt were there, it looks rather worse for the wear. The encampment at the Pottery is much pleasanter and they have nice barracks and a good drill ground. There were quite a number from the 17th in the different Regts encamped here. Capt Harding had a company in the 102nd he expected to be elected Lt Col., but was disappointed. Capt Rose is fifth sergeant in one of the companys of the 112th Regt. The first Lt. in the Company that Brother’s in was a private in Capt Norton’s Co. perhaps you remember him [illegible] Woodruff. he is such a good officer indeed Andie has been fortunate in having all good officers Capt McCullough is a good Christian man you don’t know what a consolation it is to have him go under the influence of a Christian if go he must. Capt McCullough is a brother to the minister of the United Presbyterian Church in Peoria. His Co. thinks so much of him and I think they have good reason to, for he is well worthy of their respect if there were more such officers, that trusted in God more than in themselves, the omnipotent ruler would have given peace unto us long ere this.
Oh how we miss the dear one from our family circle, living in the country. We were more dependent and both being lovers of home we always miss the absent one. I hope God will preserve him from temptation and evil and spare his life unto us yet a while.
I’m sorry to hear of your being sick, yet there is one consolation you can’t fight and I think homes the place for sick boys, don’t you? (I wonder if “John” got to the “meeting” hope he did.)
Friend I will now say farewell for a while
Jennie E. Lindsay
P.S. I thought perhaps you would like to see the likeness of our soldier boy, but please don’t show it to the girls in meeting write soon J.E.L.
Jennie was clearly conflicted as she tried to support Josiah in a cause she believed was just, yet she couldn’t help but encourage him to come home. Despite her misgivings about Andie going into the service, she was comforted by the fact that his company commander was a “good Christian man.”
The growing casualty lists, combined with the draft and the Emancipation Proclamation, swayed enough votes to give the Democrats major gains in the November elections. Democrats also captured the Illinois legislature. Jennie’s father, John T. Lindsay, who had changed parties from Republican to Democratic, was one of those swept into office by that rising peace tide. He would be sworn in as a member of the Illinois State Senate in January 1863.
Lindsay had been active in local politics as a member of the Whig party in the 1840s and served in the Illinois House as a Republican in 1857-58. In November 1860, he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican in the general election. The Peoria Daily Transcript, the town’s Republican paper, condemned Lindsay for deserting the Republicans for the Democrats “when he failed to secure a renomination at the hands of the former party.” The Daily Transcript would continue to find Lindsay a tempting political target.33
Jennie to Josiah
Peoria Nov 1st 1862
Capt. Moore,
Dear Friend,
As I am having a slight attack of the Blues, I thought I could not better drive the unwelcome presence from me than in living over again in imagination those happy bygone hours with the thought that “joys that were tasted may sometimes return” while a still small voice whispers come again bright days of hope and pleasure gone. Oh that they may come again soon and be all the brighter from being so long darkened, but “He doth all things well” and only sends as clouds that we may love the sunshine all the more.
Mattie Culter spent several days with us last week. we had a pleasant time as usual, with many a chat of old times and absent friends. Mattie is as lively as ever. She wishes to be remembered to you, says she is going to write soon.
Capt Ryan is now paying Peoria a visit. he seems to be one of the favored ones, he honored us with a call last Monday. he is looking well. I wish I could have a real proof of our “soldier boy” looking so, but I suppose that is one of the impossibilities.
I do wish you could come home, just to see what a welcome you would receive. I tell you dear friend I’ve about come to the conclusion that the end of this war is far away in the dim distance if there be an end which I very much doubt unless the millennium comes soon. If I were a good Christian nothing would give me more pleasure than to look for such an event to come to pass. Sad alone knoweth what is to be and all things earthly find when he will it other wise. But we surely deserve our present chastisement for we have all gone sadly astray and have even been too boastful of our Country, forgetful of Him, who gave us the blessing. I do hope if ever we get our Union back again we will be more thankful for God’s good gifts and try to be a better people. Why cant we be good instead of being so wicked. I’m sure the only way to be happy is to be good.
Maj. Cromwell has been in Peoria for a couple of weeks but has now returned to his Regt he did not look as though he had received very bad treatment from the rebles while a prisoner.
Parson Brownlow34 honored the Peorians with a speech this afternoon in Pauleys Hall. I think his language more befitting a politician than a parson.
“Having many things to write unto you, I would not writh with paper and ink” but I trust I shall soon see you “and speak face to face that our joy may be full.”
Well dearest friend if you see [illegible] that displeases you in this unworthy epistle I pray you will pardon the writer and charge it to the “blues,” I bid you a kind good night with many a wish for your safety.
Jennie
Do please write soon.
Gilman Smith, who joined the 17th Illinois and Company F in September of 1862, would transfer to the 8th Illinois in 1864 and finish his enlistment with that regiment. Author
A ten-cent fractional currency note issued by the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad Company on February 20, 1862, from Grenada, Mississippi. The Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad ran south from Memphis, Tennessee to Grenada, Mississippi, where it connected with the Mississippi Central Railroad. Author
Jennie’s description of Abraham Ryan, who was again back in Peoria, as “one of the favored ones” almost certainly refers to the fact that Ryan was back home and so many others, including her dear Josiah, were not. She also continues make it clear that the war was a “chastisement” of the people for having “all gone sadly astray.” The nation had become unwilling to recognize the grace and gifts of God, and in her view had become too arrogant and self-reliant as a people.35
Josiah to Jennie
Camp 17th U.S. Vol, Inf,try of Ills, La Grange Tenn.
Nov, 13th 1862
My dear lady,
With much pleasure I improve the few golden moments of leisure that it is my fortune to enjoy, this evening down here in Dixie, after the 9 O,clock P.M. “Roll Call” when all is partial quiet.
Strange scene! Tho present in body yet absent in spirit, even in this still hour when the sable curtains of evening gather round and close from view the outer world the imagination like the imprisoned bird seeks its ethereal clime, nor does it fail to hover round in sweet delight the enchanted grounds made joyous by the “bright days of hope and pleasure gone.”
Two of those dear little messengers that like angels from the “better land” deign to visit the scenes of mortal woe, have come and with them the past recalled. You can scarcely imagine dear friend what joys and hopes, doubts and fears a “soldier boy” realizes on perusing the record of the past traced by dear friends at home nor is the anxiety decreased by the anticipation of the “welcome” in store for the future return. Sometimes I almost doubt whether my heart is in the cause or not, indeed I suspect that when it gets me busy it tries “to steal a while away” I know I would if I could but don,t mistake me I can never recognize a southern confederacy.
Well Jennie as yet I have not shown that picture to the “folks at meetin”. Such opportunities are rather scarce down here in this “sunny land.” I think Andrew looks quite soldier-like. I am glad that it has been his fortune to serve with “good officers” for I can assure you that I can appreciate such even for asociates not speaking egoistically either—I presume that by this time all the troops have left Peoria. The 103rd came here several days since, Lt. Col Wright was formerly Capt. of Co C of our Regt, and Maj Willison, 1st Lieut in Co H. A pretty good premium on non-combativeness in the past but if future developments prove favourable why all right.
Yours of the 1st inst came duly to hand and was a very pleasant surprise for I had received the one previous only a few days before but it was none the less welcome. I received it in the evening after a hard days march and tho I had to read it by the light of the camp fire. It was not passed slightly over and Jennie tho you requested me if I found anything in it to “displease,” to charge it to the “blues” yet so far from this I think Jennie I must give the “blues” credit for one of your best, tho experience admonishes me to wish you more joy than the blues can impart. I should think that our excellent little friend Mattie could assist you by her lively disposition, in chasing such “dull cares away” however Jennie I believe I would be none the looser by making an even trade i.e. provided you should wish to dispose of yours.
Capt. Ryan was at my quarters yesterday to see me but I was not present and did not see him. I should have been pleased to hear directly from “Gods Country” (such we call the North) especially the City of the Lake. The Captain had quite a visit and I presume he enjoyed it accordingly. General Ross has now command of another Divison i.e. his old one in which we are in under Logan.
I saw some of the 47th yesterday. They have a Capt. Williams of the Regular Army appointed as Col, Cromwell will now be Lt. Col. tho he has not yet returned.
Well Jennie I presume you will all be looking for and expecting some serious work in this part but it is hard telling what the future contains. Grants Army is mostly all here now and it was expected that the rebels would make a stand at Holly Springs 14 miles South but it seems that they have now left the Springs and retired 12 miles beyond. Our army now occupies the Springs. Marched there today, but I think the intention is to follow-up as far at least as Jackson Miss unless the rebels fight sooner. I never saw our men so little concerned about a battle. They seem to think that our advance would be certain victory and hence they are eager for the work.
We expected to remain at Bolivar as provost guards and did remain for nearly a week after the other troops left but some of the Generals got uneasy because the 17th was not on hand and here we are now. We had quite a fine place at Bolivar almost fixed up for winter but it was no use. The men are generally healthy and would about as soon fight as eat hard crackers. Yesterday we had the first rain that has fallen for 2 or 3 months. It was very welcome indeed for it was awful work moving a large army over such dusty roads. The weather is quite pleasant tho the nights are quite cool, good blankets are very comfortable articles now.
This is a very fine region of country some splendid fields of cotton which as you are aware is now very valuable but the owners cant get it picked as the darkies have nearly all run away.36 I never saw such work men women and children all on the run. What the result will be God only knows. Our country seems engulfed in one of wildest revolutions but such are often necessary for a nations purification. I long for peace but I would scorn to compromise a single principle of our nations honor, no never. God would never forgive us, but Jennie I must have wearied you with my prosey letter. You must excuse. Please write often.
My health is now very good and hoping that this may find you in the sweet enjoyment of heavens richest blessings I bid thee Dear friend a kind good night.
J. Moore
Remember me to Mattie and—Oh well I dont know who else, just as you think Jennie. Goodnight, J.M.
God was on the side of the North as far as Josiah was concerned, and the war needed to be prosecuted to the end. Still, it is obvious he was tired of life in the field.
* * *
By this point in the fall of 1862, the 17th Illinois and large portions of the Union Army of the Tennessee had begun congregating around LaGrange, Tennessee, a major staging area in the southwestern part of the state for additional incursions into Mississippi. According to Henry Forbes of the 7th Illinois Cavalry, LaGrange was “a neat little place of about a thousand people. The yards were beautifully improved, filled with evergreens and rare shrubberies. A fine College building crowned a gentle eminence to the east of the town and Seminary for Ladies looked across to it from the north.”37
The town would not remain handsome for long. Foraging and destruction of private property became widespread; the war had taken a vicious turn. Charles Wills, formerly of the 8th Illinois and now an officer with the raw 103rd Illinois, wrote on November 7 about his march from Bolivar, Tennessee. “I think there is not a house left or rail unburned and ‘twas all done on our trip down,” he said. The hardening process was accelerating.
Despite their inexperience, the men of the 103rd Illinois became quite adept at finding food in the countryside. Wills wrote of an early December expedition to a point south of Holly Springs, Mississippi, and that the items his company “found” included “150 pounds of flour, a hog, a beef, two and one-half bushels of sweet potatoes, chickens, ducks, milk, honey, and apples.” Wills claimed he allowed his men to take only “eatables,” but seemed to have little trouble justifying the foraging. He thought it “right, and can find no arguments for any other side of the question.” In short order, the 103rd and other regiments cleaned out the surrounding area. “Chickens, fences, swine etc are entirely unseeable and unfindable within 15 miles of where our camp has been this week,” boasted Wills, who even took two freed slaves as his servants while stationed in the LaGrange area.38
Another green Illinois unit, the 124th, was also assigned to duty in LaGrange. Like those in the 103rd, the men of the 124th also quickly learned the ways of the army. On one of their first marches, the 124th soldiers lured half a dozen calves into their ranks and covered them with blankets and overcoats to keep them hidden from their officers until they could butcher them for their evening meal. One private in the 124th summarized his view of foraging this way: “Hang all the officers who won’t let us steal from the rebel property. I will steal it whenever I get a chance.” He wrote of one particularly destructive evening where the unit, “stole lots of niggers, killed six cattle, and burned the fence around the college—all in one night. It was one of the most jovial nights I ever experienced.” Many officers turned a blind eye to the foraging and destruction or were spectacularly unsuccessful in preventing it. For regiments like the 103rd and 124th, the hardening process had not taken long to set in.39
Henry Forbes of the 7th Illinois Cavalry had left LaGrange in the fall. When he returned in January 1863, the bucolic town he had described was long gone. “All is vulgar destruction now,” he lamented. Henry’s brother Stephen, who succeeded him as captain of the 7th Illinois Cavalry, was one of the last soldiers to leave the town in 1863. He left this moving and extraordinarily gripping description of LaGrange:
long lines of dark, empty houses that looked through the open doors and windows as if they were opening their mouths to show the blackness and confusion of their interiors, with no living thing moving, save one solitary refugee woman, worn and dreary, who sat in the doorway of a large house without a window or door, gazing down the street quietly as if nothing under heaven could especially interest her, and three little black children playing slowly on the sidewalk, made me feel as if I was moving along the veins of some dead body looking in at the holes where were once the eyes, and into the great shell where seethed the brain, and this dark cavity where throbbed the heart, now all dry and pulseless and black.
Captain Forbes turned his horse and set his spurs, leaving the now-dead town of LaGrange behind him.40
The Union Army lost control of Holly Springs just a few weeks later when Confederate General Van Dorn, now in command of Rebel cavalry, looped around Grant’s army and captured the town and destroyed its large stores of supplies on December 20. The Holly Springs raid ended one of Grant’s many efforts to capture the Confederate Mississippi river bastion at Vicksburg.41
Jennie to Josiah
Peoria Nov 19th 1862
Capt. Josiah Moore
Dearest Friend,
The shades of evening have fallen and “Night, God’s silent worshipper” has come to dwell with us for a while. The silent hours seem propitious for thine or as the heart loves to steal away from things present to those more distant. neath the soothing influence of their hours the weary one finds [illegible] from the sorrow that are past bright of the [illegible] hopeful future rise up before us making the heart long for something better.
Your kind message of the 13th inst. arrived safely. To say that it was welcome would but half express the pleasure it gave. I only regret they come so seldom.
Mr Currie’s Father and Mother have come [illegible] to spend the winter with them. The old gentleman preached for us on last Sabbath. He reminds one of the Vicar of Wakefield. It is a real pleasure to converse with him he is so good. I hope it will be a benefit to his son having him with them.
I’ve not seen Mattie Culter for over a month. I’m going in to fulfill a long promised visit to Mrs Young next week. I will then meet Mattie more often. I’ve formed such a habit of staying at home that it has become almost a task to visit. I rather my friends would come to see me. That I consider a pleasure, for I love “Home Sweet Home.”
Jackson seems to be the place of interest now it looks as though we were going to have a battle there if we do I hope the 17th will not get there until its over. I think you deserve to rest, but you have proved so brave, and the Generals know how to appreciate such a Regt. and like to have them on hand when there’s prospect of battle.
We received a letter from Brother last evening. They were just leaving Louisville for Memphis. They have done some walking from Covington to Lexington, stayed there for about a week then walked to Louisville, who wouldn’t be a soldier, but with all the hardships they seem to like it, those that come home are always anxious to return they are so used to excitement that a quiet life does not please them. I expect when the war is over (if such an event shall ever come to pass) you will all be for joining the Regular service.
We are having beautiful weather now it has not rained for three days and that is something unusual for I believe it has rained about five days out of every week since last June.
Peoria is still honored by the presence of soldiers. There are two cavalry Regts here I believe they are to remain during the winter.
Well, dear friend, I know you have long ere this tired of my miserable attempt to interest you. Oh that I could speak with thee, but vain it is to wish for that which is impossible. Hoping many bright and joyous hours are in store for thee in “God’s Country I bid thee my dearest friend a kind good night, good night.
Jennie Lindsay
Take good care of yourself and please write soon, Jennie
Josiah was detached to Peoria on December 14, 1862, to arrest deserters. His November 13 letter did not mention his visit. Perhaps he had no time to inform Jennie that he was coming, or perhaps he wished to surprise her. To his delight, Josiah set eyes upon Jennie for the first time since he left in July 1861.
1 Simpson, Ulysses S. Grant, 149.
2 For an even-handed, high-level treatment of the 1862 Kentucky Campaign, see Earl J. Hess, Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy (Chapel Hill, NC, 2016), 58-73 (advance review galley viewed May 2016).
3 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 512-524.
4 The page is torn here and a word is missing.
5 These were likely former slaves who had been freed by the advance of the Union forces and were now working to help the Federals.
6 Josiah often mentioned to Jennie that he received letters from others in Peoria, but it appears that he did not keep any of them except for the January 3, 1862, letter from Mrs. Currie. It was difficult for men in the field to preserve letters from home.
7 “Croakers” was a contemporary term for pessimists. Paul Dickson, War Slang (New York, NY, 1994), 7.
8 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 492-494; Weber, Copperheads, 48-51.
9 Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 265; Oakes, Freedom National, 302-307.
10 McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 354; Gallagher, The Union War, 75; Guelzo, Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, xviii, 480.
11 Mitchell, Civil War Soldiers, 126-128.
12 Hicken, Illinois in the Civil War, 130-131; Manning, What This Cruel War Was Over, 93.
13 Ibid., 51, 106.
14 Letter in pension file of Edmund Robbins, NARA
15 This mistreatment of civilians was contradictory to the example Grant set. On one occasion the general spotted one of his soldiers chasing a women and her daughter while brandishing a musket. Grant grabbed the weapon and brained the soldier with it. Grant couldn’t stop all such behavior by himself. Some 600 Union soldiers were court-martialed during the war for the rape of black and white civilians. Simpson, Grant, 149; James Marten, Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front (New York, NY, 2003), 55.
16 Leo Kaiser, “Letters from the Front,” in Journal of the Illinois Historical Society, Volume LVI, Number 21 (Summer 1963), 52; Mitchell, The Vacant Chair, 100-103, 36-37.
17 Woodworth, While God Is Marching On, 184-185, 188-189.
18 Peats, Recollections, 15-16. Peats claimed that even the regimental chaplain was not above picking up a few items lying about the fort.
19 Blaisdell, Civil War Letters, 128.
20 Mitchell, Vacant Chair, 7; Ramold, Across the Divide, 8-11; Woodworth, While God is Marching On, 186.
21 Ramold, Across the Divide, 1-3; Mitchell, Vacant Chair, 7-10, 35-37; Linderman, Embattled Courage, 240-244.
22 Rable, God’s Almost Chosen Peoples, 8-9.
23 President Lincoln’s call was for an additional 300,00 men, not 600,000 as Jennie wrote.
24 Wagner, Gallagher, and Finkelman, Civil War Desk Reference, 17; McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 292-294, 600-601.
25 Eighteen-year-old men made up the largest single age group in the service during the first year of the war. In fact, more than 10,000 youths under the age of 18 served in the Union Army. Before the war was over, Jennie’s brother William, who was born in December 1845, would enlist in the 53rd Illinois. Linderman, Embattled Courage, 26.
26 September 19, 1862, in northern Mississippi.
27 The battle of Corinth was fought October 3-4, 1862.
28 In fact, only one general was killed. Pleasant Adam Hackleman was mortally wounded on October 3 when a ball struck him in the neck, severed his esophagus, and exited near his spine. Jack D. Welsh, Medical Histories of the Union Generals (Kent State, 1996), 145.
29 Richard J. Oglesby was shot through the lungs on October 3, 1862, but managed to survive. He would be elected governor of Illinois in 1864. Welsh, Medical Histories of the Union Generals, 242-243.
30 Edward O. C. Ord and Stephen A. Hurlbut.
31 Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, commander of the Union Army of the Mississippi.
32 Miss Culter” is Martha Culter, a 24-year-old resident of Peoria and a neighbor of Thomas and Sallie Currie.
33 Weber, Copperheads, 68-69.
34 Parson Brownlow was William Gannaway Brownlow, a former Methodist minister from Tennessee who was strongly pro-slavery, but opposed secession. He became a Unionist leader in eastern Tennessee, published a pro-Union newspaper, and was imprisoned for a time by the Confederates. He later became the governor of Tennessee and a U.S. Senator. Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 93.
35 Rable, God’s Almost Chosen People, 7.
36 This casual reference that slaves on local plantations were leaving in droves demonstrated one practical effect of the Union occupation of Southern lands: military emancipation.
37 Hicken, Illinois in the Civil War, 154-155; Letter from Henry Forbes to Nettie Forbes, January 24, 1863. Forbes Collection, University of Illinois Library, Illinois History and Lincoln Collection. See www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/place/288/la-grange-union-supply-base.
38 Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, 129-137, 141-142, 161-163. One thing that disturbed Wills was when some of the men decided to “steal from the negroes (which is lower business than I ever thought it possible for a white man to be guilty of), and many of them are learning to hate the Yankees as much as our ‘Southern Brethren’ do.”
39 Hicken, 82; Richard L. Howard, History of the 124th Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers, Otherwise Known as the “Hundred and Two Dozen” From August, 1862 to August 1865 (Springfield, IL), 30.
40 Stephen Forbes journal, October 18, 1864, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
41 Woodworth, Nothing But Victory, 264-265