85th Illinois Infantry: Chapter 1

History of the 85th Illinois Volunteers
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by
Henry J. Aten

CHAPTER I.
Pages 13 - 16
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     By the middle of the summer of 1862 there were few among the people either North or South, who had not found ample cause for revising their estimate of the magnitude and duration of the Civil War. During the year and more that had passed since the firing upon Fort Sumter, there had been many engagements, some of which had been bloody enough to satisfy the most sanguinary, and each side had scored its victories. Nearly twenty thousand men had been shot dead on the battlefield; upward of eighty thousand had been wounded, while an unknown number had died of disease in the service.
     The early engagements were disastrous to the Federal arms. Bull Run was a crushing defeat, the Union troops falling back in panic to the gates of the National Capital. At Wilson's Creek, Missouri, the army was forced to retreat, after the loss of their gallant leader, General Lyon, and many men. Some victories of minor importance had been gained in West Virginia, and the battle of Belmont, Missouri, was fought in November, 1861, which served to give the Western troops confidence in themselves and in their commander. At Mill Springs, Kentucky, the Union forces won a handsome victory, in which the enemy was beaten, driven, routed, his general slain and his standards captured. Driven and pursued from Missouri, the rebels were defeated in a hard fought battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Fort Donelson was captured with 15,000 prisoners and a large number of cannon. The battle of Shiloh, fought in April, 1862, was a decided victory for the Union arms, though dearly won, and on the thirtieth of May the Federal forces occupied Corinth, Mississippi. And on the first of June, after having seized the peninsula in Virginia, the army of the East was within five miles of the Confederate Capital. At this time, a line beginning on the Chickahominy river in front of Richmond, Virginia, thence running through Cumberland Gap on the southern border of Kentucky, and extending through Huntsville, Alabama, and Corinth, Mississippi, to Helena, Arkansas, would show the positions occupied by the Union armies, and also indicate the vast region that had been wrested from the foe.
     Meanwhile, the South had changed its opinion of northern pluck and endurance, and began to admit by its energetic action, that the military instinct was not a sectional monopoly. To recover their losses, the Confederate authorities devised a plan for an offensive campaign, in which the armies under Lee in Virginia, Bragg in Tennessee, and Van Dorn in Mississippi were to be largely reinforced, and at the same time attack the Federals and drive them from the South. Then Bragg and Van Dorn would unite the standards of their victorious columns at Louisville or Cincinnati, while Lee should plant the Confederate flag on the dome of the National Capitol, and the two Confederate armies would invade the North and compel a recognition of the independence of the Southern Confederacy.
     The plan for driving the Union forces from Southern soil and invading the North by a simultaneous advance of all the Confederate armies, was popular with the people in rebellion, and under their united and enthusiastic support developed unexpected strength and at first met with signal success. Suddenly the Union armies were thrown on the defensive, and from the Chickahominy to the Mississippi the enemy appeared so confident and aggressive, that it became a question whether our armies were not to be forced backward, the scenes of strife transferred to the States north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers, and free soil be watered with the blood of heroes slain in battle.
     In this emergency, the governors of all the loyal States signed a letter to the President requesting him to issue a call for additional troops, and in response to this letter, Mr. Lincoln on July 2nd, 1862, issued a call for 300,000 volunteers. The people fully appreciated the gravity of the situation, but there was some delay in assigning quotas to the various States, so that but little was accomplished in the way of recruiting until July had nearly closed. But by the time the recruiting machinery was in readiness volunteers were responding in large numbers, and the closing week in July and the early days of August witnessed large enlistments. The need of troops continuing and becoming more and more pressing, the President on the fourth of August issued anther call for 300,000 men in addition to the 300,000 called out in July.
     That month of August, 1862, was one long to be remembered by those who shared in its exciting events. The menacing attitude of the South had prepared the loyal people of the North for the most energetic action; the successive calls for additional troops thrilled them with military ardor, and the response was a wonderful one. All sorts and conditions of men left their business and enlisted in the ranks. Boys of fifteen sat down and cried because they were not permitted to enlist, and everywhere there was manifest the most intense devotion to the Union and its starry banner. And the young men of the North, many of whom had others dependent upon them for support, to the number of more than half a million, responded to the call of their country within the brief space of two months.
     Amid the stirring events of that period the Eighty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was organized. Recruited at the most critical period of the war, it was composed of excellent material. With few exceptions officers and men had been familiar with the use of firearms from their youth, and very many were excellent marksmen. They had met men returning from the great battles of the previous year, wounded and maimed for life. The pride and pomp and circumstance of glorious war had disappeared, and all knew that war meant not only wounds and death, but hunger, hardship and privation. Rapidly organized and equipped, it was hurried to the front to meet the rising tide of rebellion on the banks of the Ohio river. Commanded with ability and led with rare courage, it was given opportunity to bear a conspicuous part in the struggle for the preservation of the Union. It never turned its back to the foe but once, and then only in obedience to peremptory orders. To its gallant conduct in the fierce heat of many battles, and its noble bearing in every emergency its members have ever been able to refer with pride. To the recital of some of these events and to the narrative of the whereabouts of the command from day to clay, the following chapters are devoted.

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