7th Ill. Vol. Inft.
Elgin Continentals
From the Report of the State of Illinois, Revised in 1900 by Brig. Gen. J. N. Reece
HISTORY OF SEVENTH INFANTRY
Company
A 7th Illinois Volunteer Infantry
Three
Months Service
In
1855 the Militia Company of Elgin's Washington Continental Artillery
was formed with adult supervision by Edward Joslyn, George Renwick,
and Samuel Ward. With the opening of the war on April 19, 1861 a
rally was held at Davidson's Hall (site of present day Tower Building
in downtown Elgin) the Continentals were broken into to units. The
Elgin Continentals and the Old Continentals. The Elgin Continentals
would be offering their service to President Lincoln. At this rally
over 120 men signed the rolls with Edward Joslyn elected Captain.
His
first problem was muskets. They only had about twenty muskets in
hand. Discovering there were 90 rifled muskets in Geneva Capt.
Joslyn wired Springfield and received word to take them and get to
Springfield as soon as possible. A wire was sent to Geneva
informing them that the Elgin Continentals would be down that evening
for the muskets. Capt. King of Geneva, who had talked the town of
Lodi (present day Maple Park) out of the muskets, knew that the war
wasn't going to last long and if he lost the muskets may miss out on
the war altogether. Word was sent back to Elgin that they would not
surrender the arms. With the telegram from Adjutant General Mather
of Springfield in hand Capt. Joslyn gathered up about twenty of so
Continentals and headed for Geneva. Meanwhile Capt. King had the
muskets moved to the Grand Jury room on the top floor of the Kane
County Courthouse and gathered as many of his men as he could to
guard them. The Elgin Continentals arrived late that evening and
after the Geneva Company refused to even read the order sent his men
to batter down the doors of the courthouse. Fighting their way up
the stairs they kicked in the lower panels of the Grand Jury Room and
Sgt. Ward led the way crawling through. The last few men guarding
the muskets defended them with fireplace pokers doing great damage to
the Elgin invaders. However they were overwhelmed and the muskets
were loaded and taken back to Elgin. To Capt. Joslyns disapointment
they were not rifles but old U.S. Altered Muskets left over from the
Mexican War.
During
this time the ladies of Elgin were in the process of making Illinois
style uniforms for all the men. These were light gray and would not
see combat as they were issued Federal style dark blue uniforms
before their three months service was up.
The
following day they boarded the train for Springfield and arrived at
Camp Yates the following morning. They were inspected and over
twenty men were separated and sent back to Elgin to bring down the
roster to the regulation 101 officers and men. They were then
mustered in by Captain John Pope.
They
were then sent to Camp DuBois in Alton, Ill. Here they used the
'City of Alton' steamboat to roam up and down the Mississippi river
to stage raids.
From
here they were sent to St. Louis, then Cairo, and finaly Mound City
where they were mustered out on July 25, 1861.
Company
A 7th Ill. Vol. Inft.
Three
Years Service
The
men who re-enlisted were mustered in on July 25, 1861 by Capt. T. G.
Pitcher. The company was under the command of Capt. Samuel Ward as
Capt. Joslyn returned to Elgin and accepted a position with the 36th
Ill. then forming in Aurora, Ill.
Capt.
Ward would be killed in action at Shiloh during the retreat from the
Sunken Road. He is buried in the Shiloh National Cemetery. He
died not knowing his new bride was with child. George Wheeler would
take over as Captain on April 7, 1862 for a little over two weeks
before accedently shooting himself as he pulled his pistol from his
belt. This while target shooting with some officers of the 52nd
Ill. in the woods near camp. He attempted to secure a commission in
the Veterans Reserve Corps for months. Failing that he resigned on
Dec. 31, 1862.
The
7th Ill. would be mounted on mules twice during the war. This
greatly increased their effectivness as mounted infantry.
The
men who re-enlisted as veterans from the whole regiment voted to
invest $100 of their Veterans Bounty to purchase new 16 shot Henry
rifles including the ammunition as the government would not furnish
ammunition for 'Civilian' arms.
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