Did the 148th Illinois Infantry See Any Action?
A man recently came into the library with his ancestor’s Civil War compiled service record. The service record had the company name, the date the man enlisted in the military, the name of his enrolling officer, his physical description and a few more informational tidbits including the date he was discharged.
The patron had what most people seek, yet, he asked how to find more out on the ancestor’s service.
The ancestor enlisted February 21, 1865 for a year. The war was nearly over….. and the guy was in Illinois.
Most all the fighting was over-everywhere.
He was mustered out September 5, 1865 in Springfield, Illinois when the war had been over several months.
So, how much more could be found and what action could he have seen?
We went to the card catalogue and the shelves and found a book titled, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois: Containing Reports for the Years 1861-1866 published by the Illinois State Adjutant General’s Office.
The book regurgitated what the compiled service record said, the 148th Infantry had been organized at Camp Butler, at Quincey, Illinois on February 21, 1865 for one year.
Then it continue,……. the Regiment served in garrisons and operated against guerillas, first at Tullahoma, Tennessee and afterward along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. It said the regiment was mustered out September 5, 1865 with two enlisted men Killed in Action or mortally wounded. One officer and seventy enlisted men died of disease totaling seventy three fatalities.
So much, for not much happening, huh?
The Adjutant General wet our appétit for more information. Two men were killed in action? And seventy one had died of disease.
We Googled the 148th Illinois infantry and came up with a number of hits. One site, the Illinois Genweb site at http://civilwar.ilgenweb.net/re-html/148_reg.html had more…
This site told where each of the companies in the regiment were from. That was good genealogical information.
Co A was from Bureau County, Co B from Adams and Fulton Counties, Co C. was from Peoria and Tazwell Counties, Co D. was from Adams County, Co E was from Bureau County, Co F was from Adams, Knox and Peoria Counties, Co G and H was from Adams County, Co I was from Henry County and Co K was from Bureau County.
The site commented the Regiment did not have a band, unassigned recruits or unassigned substitute or drafted recruits. This was another interesting bit of information.
The site continued…the Regiment was organized at Camp Butler, Illinois on February 21, 1865 for one year. On February 22 the regiment left Camp Butler for Nashville, Tennessee, arriving there on February 25. On March 1 they moved to Tullahoma and remained there until June 18 engaged in guard duty.
Then five companies were ordered to “Decerd” (actually, Decherd in Franklin County, near the Alabama state line) , one was ordered stationed at McMinnville and the other four companies were engaged in guarding the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad from Lombardy to Anderson Station near the Alabama line until they were ordered to Springfield, Illinois for final payment and discharge.
The regiment was mustered out of the service September 5th and paid off and discharged at Springfield on September 9th.
We looked at several more links from our Google search. One was an auction held in December 2007 by Wes Cowan’s Auctions (one of the History Detectives on PBS) at http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/iten.aspx?ItemId+49914 .
The collection included forty one letters written by Wilson Pickard of Company K, 148th Illinois Infantry.
The website described a few of the letters but did not print their contents. In the letters home Pickard described guerillas firing on the fort at night. He said on one occasion the troops captured and shot to death two guerrillas and on another occasion six.
Pickard said two men in their brigade cheered when President Lincoln’s death was announced and described a large ceremony drumming the two out of the military. About the same time two civilians were placed in prison for expressing similar sentiments.
He also described one of the regiments in the brigade as rowdy and insubordinate after it was announced the war was over and they threatened to disband and return home without being discharged. The commanding general ordered another regiment to surround the first basically placing it under arrest.
On a somber note Thomas Swift, Pickard’s roommate, wrote Pickard’s family three letters. The last said Pickard had died June 27th of Typhoid Fever.
So, in all, a search for a military unit in the waning months of the Civil War proved quite fruitful when little to nothing was expected to have been found. The information was always there. It just had to be creatively ferreted out and, admittedly, the Internet makes things easier to find.
So, asking to find out more on a soldier‘s experience in the waning days of the war was a good question to ask.
