Col. Ulysses S. Grant passed up a chance to have his soldiers ride in train cars. Instead, he thought it best that they march to war.
So, on July 3, 1861, Grant mounted a horse and led his first Civil War command out of Camp Yates in Springfield, en route to Quincy.
*The weekly Illinois Bicentennial series is brought to you by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors and Illinois Press Association. More than 20 newspapers are creating stories about the state’s history, places and key moments in advance of the Bicentennial on Dec. 3, 2018. Stories published up to this date can be found at 200illinois.com.
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Col. Ulysses S. Grant passed up a chance to have his soldiers ride in train cars. Instead, he thought it best that they march to war.
So, on July 3, 1861, Grant mounted a horse and led his first Civil War command out of Camp Yates in Springfield, en route to Quincy. The 39-year-old Grant had molded his somewhat unruly troops — members of the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment — into a disciplined fighting force.
“There was direct railroad communication between Springfield and Quincy, but I thought it would be good preparation for the troops to march,” Grant wrote in his “Memoirs.”
The approximately 1,000 men of the 21st Illinois marched about 8 miles the first day before setting up camp just west of present-day Riddle Hill near what is known today as the Old Jacksonville Road in Sangamon County.
On the Fourth of July, Grant led his men to Island Grove in western Sangamon County, where they stopped for a while at the home of Capt. James N. Brown, a wealthy farmer and Shorthorn cattle raiser.
“My father, Capt. Brown, sent (my brother), William Brown, out to meet Col. Grant and tell him the people wished him to stop and the troops could rest and enjoy the day with them,” wrote Benjamin Warfield Brown in 1927. “The exercises soon began and Col. Grant and a great many of the soldiers listened very intently to the exercises. Hon. David A. Brown read the Declaration of Independence and the Rev. Peter Cartwright delivered the main address.”
The march on the Fourth covered about 17 miles and ended on the Corrington farm, 9 miles east of Jacksonville.
Years later, William Corrington recalled the soldiers’ encampment on his father’s farm.
“I well remember that 4th of July as I watched Grant and his regiment go in camp just across the road from my father’s home … on the head of the Mauvaisterre (Creek),” Corrington wrote.
Greg Olson of the Jacksonville Journal-Courier can be reached at golson@civitasmedia.com.
Editor’s note: The weekly Illinois Bicentennial series is brought to you by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors and Illinois Press Association. More than 20 newspapers are creating stories about the state’s history, places and key moments in advance of the Bicentennial on Dec. 3, 2018. Stories published up to this date can be found at 200illinois.com.