7th Ill. Vol. Inft. / Elgin Continentals

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.