Download or read book The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois written by Edward A. Miller, Jr. and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the Civil War experience of a representative African American regiment The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois tells the story of the Twenty-ninth United States Colored Infantry, one of almost 150 African American regiments to fight in the Civil War and the only such unit assembled by the state of Illinois. The Twenty-ninth took part in the famous Battle of the Crater at Petersburg, joined Grant's forces in the siege of Richmond, and stood on the battlefield when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. In this comprehensive examination of the unit's composition, contribution, and postwar fate, Edward A. Miller, Jr., demonstrates the value of the Twenty-ninth as a means of understanding the Civil War experience of African American soldiers, including the prejudice that shaped their service. Miller details the formation of the Twenty-ninth, its commendable performance but incompetent leadership during the Petersburg battle, and the refilling of its ranks, mostly by black enlistees who served as substitutes for drafted white men. He recounts the unit's role in the final campaign against the Army of Northern Virginia; its final, needless mission to the Texas border; the tragic postwar fate of most of its officers; and the continued discrimination and economic hardship endured after the war by the soldiers.
Download or read book The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois written by Edward a Miller and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-24 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian Edward A. Miller, Jr., chronicles the Civil War experience of a representative African American regiment--the 29th United States Colored Infantry. In a comprehensive examination of the unit's composition, contribution, and post-war fate, Miller demonstrates the value of the 29th as a means of understanding the Civil War experience of African American soldiers, including the prejudice that shaped their service. 67 photos.
Download or read book Duty Honor and Country written by Michael E. Banasik (Ed.) and published by Press of the Camp Pope Bookshop. This book was released on 2006 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Civil War Diary written by James A. Black and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Reconciliation in Action" gives a synoptic view of her intense belief of sanctity toward humanity in her written thoughts on person-to-person interactions. Sadie Williams believes that the realities of the journey through life should be treated with the best possible commonsense attitude in order to maintain a well balanced focus toward a positive direction. She believes that individuals should accept accountability of their thought process that reflects behavioral conduct. Sadie believes that personal conduct is a state of mind that can revel itself in spoken words of harmonious, or contemptuous behavior. She refers to the thought process as being very individually unique within itself, therefore the individual needs to be first, "true to self", in order to accept reality as truth. Sadie applauds respect in dealing with issues of differences or indifference that relates to settling disputes: because there are always two sides to a story that needs to be heard and given its due rewards. Her idea is that it is good for the individual to have and maintain a peaceful mindset that is good for both the mind as well as physical well-being. "Reconciliation in Action" is a book packed with great food-for-thoughts-ideas that is designed to have a delightful impact on its readers.
Download or read book Illinois in the Civil War written by Victor Hicken and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Victor Hicken tells the richly detailed story of the common soldiers who marched from Illinois to fight and die on Civil War battlefields. The second edition of the 1966 classic includes a new preface, twenty-four illustrations, and a twenty-five-page addendum to the bibliography that provides many new sources of information on Illinois regiments.
Download or read book Kane County Illinois African American Civil War Vets written by Raleigh Sutton and published by . This book was released on 2022-06-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prior to the Civil War, it was not allowed to have African Americans in the military, but some were accepted into the Navy. It was thought that they had neither the courage or the discipline to make good soldiers and follow orders. In the beginning the Union had man-power problems and with the draft riots and the initial victories of the Confederacy posed a huge problem. African Americans were considered as a last result. On January 1, 1863, the final version of the Emancipation Proclamation was released, and the war changed from a political one to save the Union, to a moral one to free the slaves. African Americans were allowed to join the military but under special conditions. Each unit was to be commanded by white men. All facilities were to be segregated including hospitals (9) and cemeteries. Eventually, some 170,000 men joined the ranks and served in the field. Most regiments were raised in the North, but many were organized when Confederate territory was captured and newly freed slaves were organized into regiments. In Kane County, Illinois, there were 40 African American veterans. As in most areas, monuments and publications contained the names of white veterans, while the African American names were missing. One exception was in Batavia, Illinois where a small stone marker listed a dozen names. This book is the only reference to these brave men. Only about a dozen were from the area but comrades in the field returned with them and made their mark as full-fledged citizens of the area from Elgin south to St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia and Aurora. Hazards in combat was expected but disease was a bigger killer. The 29th United States Colored Infantry lost 43 in battle but lost 188 to sickness.
Download or read book Military History and Reminiscences of the Thirteenth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War in the United States 1861 1865 written by United States. Army. Illinois Infantry Regiment, 13th (1861-1864) and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 800 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Chicago s Irish Legion written by James B. Swan and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2009-03-18 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extensively documented and richly detailed, Chicago’s Irish Legion tells the compelling story of Chicago’s 90th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the only Irish regiment in Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s XV Army Corps. Swan’s sweeping history of this singular regiment and its pivotal role in the Western Theater of the Civil War draws heavily from primary documents and first-person observations, giving readers an intimate glimpse into the trials and triumphs of ethnic soldiers during one of the most destructive wars in American history. At the onset of the bitter conflict between the North and the South, Irish immigrants faced a wall of distrust and discrimination in the United States. Many Americans were deeply suspicious of Irish religion and politics, while others openly doubted the dedication of the Irish to the Union cause. Responding to these criticisms with a firm show of patriotism, the Catholic clergy and Irish politicians in northern Illinois—along with the Chicago press and community—joined forces to recruit the Irish Legion. Composed mainly of foreign-born recruits, the Legion rapidly dispelled any rumors of disloyalty with its heroic endeavors for the Union. The volunteers proved to be instrumental in various battles and sieges, as well as the marches to the sea and through the Carolinas, suffering severe casualties and providing indispensable support for the Union. Swan meticulously traces the remarkable journey of these unique soldiers from their regiment’s inception and first military engagement in 1862 to their disbandment and participation in the Grand Review of General Sherman’s army in 1865. Enhancing the volume are firsthand accounts from the soldiers who endured the misery of frigid winters and brutal environments, struggling against the ravages of disease and hunger as they marched more than twenty-six hundred miles over the course of the war. Also revealed are personal insights into some of the war’s most harrowing events, including the battle at Chattanooga and Sherman’s famous campaign for Atlanta. In addition, Swan exposes the racial issues that affected the soldiers of the 90th Illinois, including their reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation and the formations of the first African American fighting units. Swan rounds out the volume with stories of survivors’ lives after the war, adding an even deeper personal dimension to this absorbing chronicle.
Download or read book In Their Letters in Their Words written by Mark Flotow and published by Southern Illinois University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-14 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vital lifeline to home during the Civil War, the letters of soldiers to their families and friends remain a treasure for those seeking to connect with and understand the most turbulent period of American history. Rather than focus on the experiences of a few witnesses, this impressively researched book documents 165 Illinois Civil War soldiers’ and sailors’ lives through the lens of their personal letters. Editor Mark Flotow chose a variety of letter writers who hailed from counties throughout the state, served in different branches of the military at different ranks, and represented the gamut of social experiences and war outcomes. Flotow provides extensive quotations from the letters. By allowing the soldiers to speak for themselves, he captures what mattered most to them. Illinois soldiers wrote about their reasons for enlisting; the nature of training and duties; necessities like eating, sleeping, marching, and making the best of often harsh and chaotic circumstances; Southern culture; slavery; their opinions of commanding officers and the president; disease, medicine, and hospitals; their prisoner-of-war experiences; and the ways they left the army. Through letters from afar, many soldiers sought to manage their homes and farms, while some single men attempted to woo their sweethearts. Flotow includes brief biographies for each soldier quoted in the book, weaves historical context and analysis with the letters, and organizes them by topic. Thus, intimate details cited in individual letters reveal their significance for those who lived and shaped this tumultuous era. The result is not only insightful history but also compelling reading.
Download or read book From Shiloh to Savannah written by Daniel Leib Ambrose and published by . This book was released on 1868 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the first Union victories in the west at Forts Henry and Donelson to the savage battle of Shiloh and onward to the March to the Sea, the Seventh Illinois Infantry fought with distinction across the Confederacy. Ambrose's vivid eyewitness account traces the first Illinois volunteer regiment from its muster in 1861 to the final days of the war. An introduction and explanatory notes by Civil War historian Daniel E. Sutherland reveal the importance of this western unit's contributions. Originally stationed in Missouri and Kentucky, the unit helped to maintain Union control of border slave states that had not joined the Confederacy. During the middle years of the war, the Seventh protected rail lines and raided into Confederate-held areas of Tennessee and Alabama. Ambrose vividly depicts the ravages of war as the Seventh Illinois tracked and fought rebel raiders, partisans, and guerrillas. Illustrating the chilling relationship between violence and daily army life, Ambrose describes Northern soldiers who, initially reluctant to pillage and forage the South, grew hardened to brutality and unrepentantly destroyed towns and plantations. The Seventh's bloodiest battles took place at Shiloh and at Allatoona Pass, where the unit played a crucial role in Union victories. The infantry also fought throughout the prolonged campaigns around Corinth. It saw the sea at Savannah, witnessed the burning of Columbia, and marched through the heart of the Confederacy before ending the war in North Carolina. Throughout this highly textured account, Ambrose searingly portrays the confusion of battle and the fierce loyalty to fallen comrades as he details the heroism and sacrifice of his fellow soldiers.
Download or read book Black Cloud Rising written by David Wright Falade and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2022-02-15 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Already excerpted in the New Yorker, Black Cloud Rising is a compelling and important historical novel that takes us back to an extraordinary moment when enslaved men and women were shedding their bonds and embracing freedom By fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild—a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist—set out from Portsmouth to hunt down the rebel guerillas and extinguish the threat. From this little-known historical episode comes Black Cloud Rising, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers—men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners. At the heart of the narrative is Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, raised with some privileges but constantly reminded of his place. Deeply conflicted about his past, Richard is eager to show himself to be a credit to his race. As the African Brigade conducts raids through the areas occupied by the Confederate Partisan Rangers, he and his comrades recognize that they are fighting for more than territory. Wild’s mission is to prove that his troops can be trusted as soldiers in combat. And because many of the men have fled from the very plantations in their path, each raid is also an opportunity to free loved ones left behind. For Richard, this means the possibility of reuniting with Fanny, the woman he hopes to marry one day. With powerful depictions of the bonds formed between fighting men and heartrending scenes of sacrifice and courage, Black Cloud Rising offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of enslaved men and women crossing the threshold to freedom.
Download or read book Held in the Highest Esteem by All written by Thomas A. Pressly and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an orphan, William Burnham Chilvers did not have parents to coach him through his journey of life that took him across the sea from Great Britain to the United States. Shortly after immigrating, he found a home in the Union Army and campaigned with the Ninety-Fifth Illinois Infantry. Years of hard marching and tough fighting carried him through the Vicksburg Campaign and into Louisiana and the Red River Campaign. He served in Missouri, then at Nashville and Brice's Crossroads, before finishing his career assaulting the Confederate works near Mobile, Alabama. Through it all, Chilvers was a strong abolitionist and sympathetic to the plight of slaves. He wrote about the atrocities faced by African Americans at the hands of Southern whites--as well as by his fellow Union soldiers. His letters and the editors' research tell stories of massacres, combat, and idealism in the face of the brutal realities of war. William Chilvers and the Ninety-Fifth Illinois Infantry fought to victory, but his experience transcends mere combat and instead reveals the development of a remarkable man whose compassion and humanity rose above the ugliness of the Civil War.
Download or read book Illinois s War written by Mark Hubbard and published by Ohio University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the eve of the Civil War and after, Illinois was one of the most significant states in the Union. Its history is, in many respects, the history of the Union writ large: its political leaders figured centrally in the war’s origins, progress, and legacies; and its diverse residents made sacrifices and contributions—both on the battlefield and on the home front—that proved essential to Union victory. The documents in Illinois’s War reveal how the state and its people came to assume such a prominent role in this nation’s greatest conflict. In these crucial decades Illinois experienced its astonishing rise from rural frontier to economic and political powerhouse. But also in these years Illinois was, like the nation itself, a “house divided” over the expansion of slavery, the place of blacks in society, and the policies of the federal government both during and after the Civil War. Illinois’s War illuminates these conflicts in sharp relief, as well as the ways in which Illinoisans united in both saving the Union and transforming their state. Through the firsthand accounts of men and women who experienced these tumultuous decades, Illinois’s War presents the dramatic story of the Prairie State’s pivotal role in the sectional crisis, as well as the many ways in which the Civil War era altered the destiny of Illinois and its citizens. Illinois’s War is the first book-length history of the state during the Civil War years since Victor Hicken’s Illinois in the Civil War, first published in 1966. Mark Hubbard has compiled a rich collection of letters, editorials, speeches, organizational records, diaries, and memoirs from farmers and workers, men and women, free blacks and runaway slaves, native-born and foreign-born, common soldiers and decorated generals, state and nationally recognized political leaders. The book presents fresh details of Illinois’s history during the Civil War era, and reflects the latest interpretations and evidence on the state’s social and political development.
Download or read book Freedom s Soldiers written by Ira Berlin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-03-13 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom's Soldiers tells the story of the 200,000 black men who fought in the Civil War, in their own words and those of eyewitnesses.
Download or read book The Black Hawk War 1831 1832 written by and published by . This book was released on 1970 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Story of the Fifty fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War 1861 1865 written by United States. Army. Illinois Infantry Regiment, 55th (1861-1865) and published by . This book was released on 1887 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Civil War Diary of a Common Soldier written by Terrence J. Winschel and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2001-05-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Wiley was typical of most soldiers who served in the armies of the North and South during the Civil War. A poorly educated farmer from Peoria, he enlisted in the summer of 1862 in the 77th Illinois Infantry, a unit that participated in most of the major campaigns waged in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama. Recognizing that the great conflict would be a defining experience in his life, Wiley attempted to maintain a diary during his years of service. Frequent illnesses kept him from the ranks for extended periods of time, and he filled the many gaps in his diary after the war. When viewed as a postwar memoir rather than a period diary, Wiley's narrative assumes great importance as it weaves a fascinating account of the army life of Billy Yank. Rather than focus on the noble and heroic aspects of war, Wiley reveals how basic the lives of most soldiers actually were. He describes at length his experiences with sickness, both on land and at sea, and the monotony of daily military life. He seldom mentions army leaders, evidence of how little private soldiers knew of them or the larger drama in which they played a part. Instead, he writes fondly of his small circle of regimental friends, fills his pages with refreshing anecdotes, records troop movements, details contact with civilians, and describes the appearance of the countryside through which he passed. In the epilogue, Terrence J. Winschel recounts Wiley's complex and often frustrating struggle to obtain his military pension after the war. Wiley was an ingenious misspeller, and his words are transcribed just as he wrote them more than 130 years ago. Through his simple language, we come to know and care for this common man who made a common soldier. His story transcends the barriers of time and distance, and places the reader in the midst of men who experienced both the horror and the tedium of war. Winschel's rich annotation fleshes out Wiley's narrative and provides an enlightening historical perspective. Scholars and buffs alike, especially those fascinated by operations in the lower Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf Coast, will relish Wiley's honest portrait of the ordinary serviceman's Civil War.
