The Railroad Conductor Who Saved Uncle Billy

     William Wallace Patch is a name that would probably be excoriated in the South if his story were better known.  The General who made Georgia howl and brought home the hell of war to the civilian population in South Carolina could have spent much of the war as a prisoner of the Confederates but for the quick thinking of the C. B. & Q. engineer.

 

     Conductor Patch was in charge of a train scheduled to run between Memphis and Corinth.  Among the cars assigned to the train was a private coach on which were traveling General William Tecumseh Sherman and his staff.  Unbeknown to the brass in blue, the engineer of the train was a Rebel sympathizer, and he had worked in conjunction with a band of mounted cavalry to ambush the train and capture the General and his staff.

 

     As the train entered into a densely forested area, the engineer slowed the train to a stop.  Leaning out the window, he bellowed a piercing war whoop.  This was the signal to the men waiting in ambush to attack the train. 

 

     Conductor Patch, immediately sizing up the situation, ran to the locomotive, jumped aboard it and stuck a revolver into the ribs of the treacherous engineer.  He then gave him the alternative of getting the train moving immediately at full speed or of meeting his maker.  The engineer, valuing his life more than his allegiance to his cause, got the train moving quickly, but in the meantime the attacking rebels were charging forward and a furious firefight began.   Nearly a dozen of General Sherman’s bodyguard were killed.  According to Hiram Mars, a Galesburg resident who was an eyewitness to the incident, when the train reached Collierville, General Sherman and several members of his staff jumped off one end of the coach as rebel soldiers were storming their way into the other end.  According to Mr. Mars, “If General Sherman never ran before, he certainly ran then,” and he and his staff were able to flee to the safety of a Union fort not far away from the tracks.

 

     Close friends of Myra Patch, the heroic conductor’s daughter, recalled at the death of her father that she frequently referred to the incident, and that in appreciation for what Conductor Patch had done to enable the General’s narrow escape, Sherman later presented him with a diamond ring.

 

     General Sherman’s report on the action, issued from the Headquarters of the Fifteenth Army Corps, which he commanded, and dated October 14^th, 1863, issued from Corinth, Mississippi, addresses the action at Collierville in detail, and testifies to the briskness and the severity of the firefight.  It reads as follows…

          I have the honor to report that on Sunday, the 11^th instant, having sent forward all my troops, partly in cars and mostly by land, owing to the small capacity of the railroad, I started in a special train with my personal staff and the Battalion of the Thirteenth U. S. Regulars, Captain C. C. Smith commanding.  At 12 noon we reached Collierville, and observing signs of danger, the train was stopped.

          Colonel Anthony, of the Sixty-Sixth Indiana, commanded at Collierville, and soon that his pickets had at that moment been either captured or driven in by a large force of Confederate cavalry.  I directed the regulars to get off the cars, and the train to back to the depot.  A flag of truce was seen to be approaching from the direction of the enemy, and Colonel Anthony, who met it, sent me word, by Captain Dayton of my staff, that General Chalmers, of the Confederate army, had sent his adjutant to demand the surrender of the place.  I instructed him to return an emphatic negation, and at once made preparations to resist the attack.  The battalion of regulars consisted of eight small companies, aggregate, 260, and Colonel Anthony had six companies of the Sixty-Sixth Indiana, aggregate, 240.  These were disposed, three companies of the regulars in the ditch outside a small earth-work near the depot, and the balance in the wood near the railroad cut, to the east and south of the fort.  One company of the Sixty-Sixth Indiana was inside the fort, one in the depot building, and in rifle pits behind the fort near their regimental camp. 

     The enemy at once opened with artillery from a ridge overlooking our entire position, throwing canister, 6 pounder round shot and rifled solid projectiles.  They also threw a few shells at us, but their artillery fire was principally aimed at our train, disabling the locomotive and damaging some of the cars, killing and wounding 8 of our horses.  Two columns passed the railroad on either side of us, breaking the telegraphic wire, and burning three small trestles of the railroad.  A pretty brisk fire of small arms was kept up for a couple of hours, the enemy approaching under cover of the ground, woods, and depot building to about 75 yards of the fort, but at no time did he attempt to assault the fort.  We had no artillery, and had to confine our attention to the defense of the fort, depot building containing the supplies of the garrison, and our own train.  In this we succeeded.  Lieutenant James, Third U.S. Cavalry, acting ordinance officer on my staff, organized the unarmed clerks and orderlies with some soldiers who had taken passage with us on the train, and undertook to protect the train, which extended well from to the rear of the depot, and was sheltered from the fire of the fort by that building.  He made a sally and charge on the enemy, receiving a very severe wound.  He is a very enthusiastic and meritorious young officer, and his loss to the service at this time is a serious one. 

     Toward the close of the action, the enemy had got possession of some of the rear cars, and had taken out 5 of our horses, and carried off some overcoats and parcels left in the cars.  They set fire to the rear car, but a sally from the fort, made by a company of regulars led by Lieutenant Griffin, drove them off, and the party extinguished the fire.

     The enemy drew off about 3pm, leaving on the ground about 10 dead, but their ambulances were seen removing dead and wounded.  From wounded prisoners left in our hands, we learned that General Chalmers was in command, and his force was entirely a mounted one, composed of 5 regiments numbering from 2500 to 300, with four guns.

     There is not doubt that our opportune arrival (which wouldn’t have occurred without the quick actions of Conductor Patch---Authors note) and the efforts of the regulars saved the place, and prevented the enemy capturing our force at Collierville, with its store of supplies, and what is of more importance, the railroad at that point.

 

     The after action report that follows that was submitted by Colonel Anthony isn’t couched in the dispassionate military jargon that Sherman’s is.  It gives us a more of vivid picture of the fighting and how strapped for men the defenders were….

          Upon reaching the front from which the attack was being made, I immediately deployed Companies I., G. and E as skirmishers and advanced them 200 yards south of

and parallel with the railroad.  Companies B and C were left in rifle pits protecting the rear of the camp as approached upon the State line Road east and west.  These dispositions had just been completed when a flag of truce was discovered approaching from the enemy, and at the same time a train arrived going east, bearing Major General Sherman and staff, escorted by about 240 of the Thirteenth Infantry, U.S Army.  The flag of truce was from General Chalmers, borne by his assistant adjutant-general, and his communication a demand for the unconditional surrender of the post.  Having received the flag in person, a compliance with the demand was at once refused.  The Thirteenth U. S. Infantry was at once disembarked, and formed in line of battle immediately on the left of the three companies of the Sixty-Sixth Indiana.

          Upon the return of the flag, the enemy opened with artillery upon the earth-work and depot.  Having no artillery, and by reason of the scarcity of our numbers, we were compelled to act entirely on the defensive.  Our fire was reserved until the enemy moved within the range of small-arms, where it opened actively from both sides.

          Company D, having been sent upon the railroad in the morning to assist in the repairs, arrived and was placed north of and perpendicular to the railroad, to guard against a flank movement on my right and rear, then being attempted.  The company soon became hotly engaged, and Company E was withdrawn from the rear to re-enforce it.

          30 or 40 passengers on the train were armed with some surplus guns in my possession, and at his own request, placed in command of Lieutenant James, Third U.S. Cavalry, and a member of General Sherman’s staff, and these were also sent to re-enforce Companies E and D, then hard-pressed on the right by the Second Missouri, under Lieutenant-Colonel McCulloch.  Upon the arrival of Lieutenant James, the two companies with a portion of Lieutenant James’ command, charged the enemy with great boldness, and drove them 500 yards into a wood, when, encountering three additional rebel regiments, they were compelled to retire to their original position.  In this attack Lieutenant James was severely wounded and Lieutenant Mills, Company D, was taken prisoner, with 12 of his men, and had 2 wounded.  Company E lost 7 killed and wounded and 5 missing.  About an hour after commencement of the attack, the Thirteenth Infantry, on the left of the line, fell back on the earth-work and occupied that and the surrounding ditches.

          This movement involved the necessity of withdrawing the companies of the Sixty-Sixth from the front.  Company I was ordered into the earth-work, and Company G into the ditch on the west of the work.  After the charge referred to, made upon our own right, the enemy attempted no further encroachments upon that flank, and Company E was withdrawn and placed in the depot building.  The positions now occupied were held until the affair closed at 3:30 p.m. by the hasty retreat of the enemy.

 

     The brave conductor whose quick actions enabled General Sherman and his troops to arrive in Collierville in time to repel a Confederate assault was born in Ludlow, Vermont on October 14^th, 1823.  He received his early education there, but his childhood suffered the grief and consternation of his father’s early death.  After a brief stint as a farm worker, he was drawn to the railroad as a young man, and found employment there, on one of the first railroads in the region, a line that ran from Boston, to Bellow’s Falls, Vermont.   The big city drew his attention.  He moved to Boston and found work in a large wholesale clothing concern.  Ill health was the reason that he fled the New England winters and moved west.  He immediately sought employment with the Michigan Central road, then was hired by the Burlington line.  When a merger formed a new line, a new line, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, he was, in fact, the first man hired by the company after it had taken on its new name, and the man chosen to run the first passenger train from Galesburg to Chicago.

 

     On October, 17^th, 1855, William Wallace Patch married Philena Estes in Durham, Maine.  Thus began a long and happy marriage that included a residence of over 40 years in a home on Galesburg’s Beecher Avenue.  Their residence there almost ceased before it began.  While Mr. Patch was building his home in 1858, the structure was practically destroyed by a great storm that passed through the area.  Undaunted, Mr. Patch persevered, rebuilding the structure.

 

     One of Patch’s regular runs was on the main line to Chicago, and in his obituary, reference is made to two runaway slaves, whom Galesburg’s Dr. Beecher had hidden in his home.  Having heard that officers were about to search his home, Dr. Beecher, with the aid of Henry Hitchcock, hustled the runaways out of his home and took them to the Burlington right-of-way that passed nearby.  There they flagged down a train that Conductor Patch had charge of, and persuaded the kind-hearted gentleman to take the two runaways with him to Chicago to help them avoid their pursuers and set them on their way to Canada and freedom.

 

     Conductor Patch’s heroic actions that saved General Sherman and his staff have been already discussed.  Years afterwards General Sherman mad an appearance in Galesburg.  He noticed William Patch in the crowd, and called him forward and publicly credited him as the man who had saved him from certain capture, and perhaps saved his life.

 

     General Sherman gave Mr. Patch a diamond ring as a token of appreciation for his prompt action.  An interesting story arises out of this.  His spinster daughter, a longtime Galesburg schoolteacher, had the setting of the ring made into a stickpin after her father’s death.  Returning a few years later from a trip out east, Miss Patch stuck the pin in her nightgown after retiring to her Pullman berth for the night.  She was awakened from her sleep by a fumbling in her berth, and feeling for the pin, discovered that it was missing.

 

     She raised an alarm but the pin could not be found.  Upon her return to Galesburg she wrote to the company on whose train she’d been a passenger and told them of the theft of her pin and the history behind it, a history that included her father’s honorable history of railroad service and his association with General Sherman.  She offered an award for its return.  It’s possible that the railroad brass had a pretty good idea of which petty thieves frequented their line, or perhaps their suspicions centered upon one of their own staff.  Either way, a few weeks later she received a mailing from the company that contained the pin.  They refused to accept the reward money that she’d offered.  No doubt an interesting tale could be woven about the trails that led to the pin’s recovery.

 

     For a number of years after the war, Conductor Patch handled the run from Galesburg to Aurora.  Eventually he was given the accommodation train from Galesburg to Burlington and return.  During his railroad life he was a member of the O.R.C.  Railroading was a career fraught with injuries during his time, and he suffered a serious injury at the station at Kirkwood, Illinois when he was caught between some cars and dragged for a distance.  This left him with injuries that followed him to the grave.  He finally retired from railroad service in 1885.  The Chicago Burlington and Quincy gave him the letter of recommendation that follows, in case he ever desired to enter again into service in the industry.

          To whom it may concern:

     The bearer, W. W .Patch has been employed by this Co. for several years past, of which time he has been on this division in the capacity of both Freight and Passenger Conductor.

     I take pleasure in recommending him as an honest and faithful man, and fully competent to carry out and fill any position he should accept.

 

     William Wallace Patch died of pneumonia at his home at Beecher Avenue, in Galesburg, toward the end of January, in 1900.  His obituary lists numerous offices that he held in the Masonic order.  He was also a member of the Central Congregational Church and a good friend of Dr. Beecher.  He was also a member of the Anti-Saloon League and served for a time as Superintendent of Streets, Sealer of Weights and Measures, and on the election board.  Besides the many accomplishments and friends that he could hold close to him at his end, his obituary also stressed his kindliness, his love of animals, and his love for his family in an effusive style that has long been jettisoned by today’s newspapers..  His gravesite, as those of other members of his family, can be located in Galesburg’s Linwood Cemetery.

 

Notes and Sources

     I have Phil Reyburn to thank for the generous loan of the primary sources that he’d gathered in order to preserve the story of General Sherman and William Wallace Patch.  The Galesburg Republican Register was a treasure trove of information, as were the Official Records of the Rebellion.  The Galesburg Register-Mail also had a 1942 article about Mr. Patch that Phil had culled up that I found useful.  Regrettably, I could find no mention of Conductor William Patch in Sherman’s Memoirs.

 

Railroad Conductor William Patch’s Gravesite in Galesburg’s Linwood Cemetery

 

Charles F. Matteson’s Gravesite in Galesburg’s Hope Cemetery

Charles F. Matteson's Four Years of Civil War Service

     One of the many stones you’ll encounter while walking through Galesburg’s Hope Cemetery is that of Captain Charles F. Matteson.  Upon seeing his stone, let your mind take you back to April of 1861, just after the rebels fired upon Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, forcing the Fort’s surrender on April 14^th.  This act of war prompted President Lincoln to call for 75.000 men to help to put down the Rebellion.

     Illinois patriotic fervor was at a white heat, and Knox County wanted to send their share of brave young men to the front.  On the morning of April 18^th a meeting was held at Dunn’s Hall to arrange for the formation of one or more companies.  Charles Matteson was one of the men chosen to draw up enlistment papers.  This was more difficult than was anticipated, since the committee had no models of such papers to draw on.  Finally coming up with a form that satisfied the members of the committee as meeting its needs, the members of the committee, including Charles, were the first subscribers to the document, with the exception of one member, a Mr. Delano, who was deemed too old to serve.

     Once a group of men were signed up, they were taken to the Police Magistrate’s office where they were administered the oath that bound them to serve as volunteers.  By one in the afternoon more than 125 men had enlisted, and a meeting was held at Gordon’s Hall at 114 East Main Street, where the company was organized and elections were held for officers.  Francis M. Smith was elected Captain.  Charles F. Matteson, 3^rd Sergeant.

     Charles Matteson at this time was a blue-eyed, 5’9” 26 year old blonde-haired gentleman who was single, and worked as a clerk.  He had been born in Floyd, in Oneida County, New York, in 1835.  His parents moved to Warren County, Illinois in 1837, and eventually settled in Galesburg in 1850. 

     A telegram was immediately sent to Governor Yates stating that a company had been organized and that they were waiting for orders.  Word came back that Illinois had filled its quota, and that they were to wait for another call for troops.  Arrangements were made to in the meantime quarter the members of the company that didn’t live in town in an old barn on Kellogg Street, between Tompkins and South Street.  The citizens of Galesburg provided blankets and other necessities.

     The company remained there until May 1^st when it was moved to the fairgrounds at Knoxville.  They made comfortable billets out of the horse stalls, and took their meals in the “Floral Hall,” with R. M. Hale acting as caterer.  The company remained there until May 7^th, when Governor Yates ordered the several companies that had been formed in the 5^th Congressional District to assemble in Peoria and be organized into the 17^th Regiment of Illinois Infantry.  On the morning of May 13^th they met at the Galesburg Depot and took the train to Peoria.  At 4 pm they were sworn in.  Leonard F. Ross of Lewistown was elected Colonel of the newly formed regiment, and Charles Matteson 2^nd Sergeant of his company.

      On May 27^th Sergeant Matteson was again part of a committee.  This one drafted a resolution from his company, calling themselves “The Galesburg Invincibles,” thanking the citizens of Galesburg for the many kindnesses that they showed the men while they were quartered there, and for the flag bestowed upon them.  They pledged that

          “The flag, the gift of our lady friends, shall be our rallying point, the remembrance of its fair donors our encouragement, and the principles it suggests our incentive to fight, and sooner than surrender it in disgrace to the enemies of our country, we will wall it about with the bodies of the dead and pour out our last blood in its defense.

     The 17^th first travelled to Missouri, where Charles Matteson participated in a battle in Fredrickson, Missouri, on October 21^st, then the assault on Fort Donelson from February 13^th – 16^th, and in the heavy fighting near Shiloh Church in Tennessee on April 6^th and 7^th, where he was twice wounded.  He stayed with the army for the siege of Corinth, but then was ordered north to help recruit and train a new regiment. 

     During the stay in Missouri, the 17^th was stationed at Cape Girardeau during the winter of 861-62, before the move into Tennessee.  Washington Davis, in his book Campfire Chats of the Civil War, recounts a story that Charles Matteson related to him.

          During the winter many of the boys fell sick with that greatest scourge of the army, the measles.  Among the sick was one “Bob,” full of the driest wit imaginable.  Bob was very sick, so much so, that we thought he was going to “turn his toes to the daisies” – a poetic form of saying that one was going to the Great Hereafter.  I was a sergeant in his company, and as such it was one of my duties to visit the boys, and in cases like his to learn, if possible, what disposition they wished made of their personal property; also to take any last message for their friends at home, and to say to those friends that johnnie or Jimmy was the “best, most faithful, honest and obedient soldier in the company,” and that since he was gone we did not know how we should get along without him, etc. etc.  As Mark Twain says, “It soothed them” and did not hurt us at all.  Well, I had received Bob’s “Last Will and Testament,” what I was to say to the boys for him, bade him goodbye, telling him to keep a stiff upper lip, that I would have the whole company come down when we “planted” him, which should be done up in the best style, and started for the door, when the nurse called me back, saying “Bob wants to tell you something else.”  I returned to the cot and inquired,

          “Well, Bob, what is it?  Is there anything else?

          “Yes, Charlie, I wish”—and he spoke very slow and labored, with a pause after almost every word;--“I wish—you would tell—one more thing for me.”

          “Of course I will,” I said; “what is it?”

          “I wish you would tell ‘em, when they plant me, to place me with my face down, my head to the east, and a clam shell in each hand.”

          “All right,” said I, “I’ll do it.”  Now I knew if I did not ask him why he wanted to be buried so, it would be the death of him in less than an hour, as there is nothing more fatal than an undeveloped joke.  “But why so, Bob?” I asked.

           “Well, I think, Charlie, if old Gabe would put off that horn business of his a reasonable length of time, I could tunnel through under the Mississippi, and come up from Illinois, for I’d hate like hell to rise from Missouri.”

           The relieved and satisfied smile that crept over his tired face, and the merry twinkle of his eye, satisfied me that Bob’s request would not be complied with then.  He served out his full term of enlistment, and still lives in the state that he was so anxious to rise from.  I think the effort saved his life.”

     Leaving Bolivar, Tennessee about the 27^th of July, he reported to Canton, Illinois with Lieutenant Stockdale.  They were both ordered to drill the companies of the 103^rd that had gathered there until they were ready to move to Peoria.  He and Stockdale were then ordered to Peoria to continue working with the regiment.  On October 2^nd of 1862 he was elected 1^st Lieutenant of Company G of the 103^rd, and moved out with the regiment when they were ordered to Mississippi.  He served with the company on the M. & C. Railroad, then with the 1^st Division at the rear of Vicksburg and at the siege of Jackson, Mississippi.

     Charles Wills, by this time, had formed a favorable opinion of his 1^st Lieutenant, and wrote admiringly of him in a letter home.

          “I think I have an excellent company, though I have but few men that I ever knew before.  Charley Mattison is my first lieutenant, and John Dorrance my second.  The 1^st lieutenant is able, willing and industrious.”

     He continued to see action, rejoining his regiment, he participated in the Chattanooga Campaign and the Missionary Ridge assault.  Then he served on Colonel Dickerman’s staff during the Dalton Campaign. 

    Continuing to accompany Sherman’s army as it moved toward Atlanta, he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster of the 4^th Division of the 15^th A. C.  This made him responsible for procuring clothing for the men of that division, and placed him for much of the time in charge of the division’s advance ordinance train.

     When the 4^th Division was broken up, Lieutenant Matteson’s ability to handle logistical assignments earned him the responsibility of being placed in charge of all the hospitals of the Army of Tennessee at Marietta as Assistant Quartermaster A.C.  Then he was ordered to take charge of the trains of that Corps until the army reached Savannah in December and Fort McAllister was taken.  Then his responsibilities increased again.  He was named Assistant Quartermaster of the Military Division of the Mississippi and Master of Marine Transportation at Savannah.  In this capacity he received all of the supplies that came in from the North, and also overseeing the Marine Machine shops and all captured property of the marine nature, Savannah being a major seaport.  He also re-pressed and shipped some 32,000 bales of captured cotton north under the direction of Samuel Draper, the Collector of the Port of New York. 

     On March 14^th of 1865 he was sent to Morehead City, North Carolina, where he performed similar duties, with the addition of railroad transportation to the front at Goldsboro and Raleigh.  After Joe Johnston’s surrender he was ordered to Alexandria, Virginia to accept similar responsibilities.  After he was finally relieved of those duties, he took a ten day leave, then joined his regiment at its encampment north of Washington D. C., finishing the war in command of his company.  He travelled with them to Louisville, Kentucky, where on June 6^th, 1865 he received his promotion to Captain.  Later that June he was mustered out with the rest of his regiment.  The Union had no further need for their services.  During his four years of service, Captain Matteson had fought in 28 battles and many other skirmishes.

     Captain Matteson was proud of his war record.  He was a member of the George H. Thomas Post No. 5, Grand Army of the Republic of Illinois, and served as its commander for a year.  He made a point to attend the annual Veteran’s Encampments, both State and National, whenever he could, despite the expenses he incurred in order to travel to them.  He also was part of a committee again.  This time in 1904 to help compile a book of Reminiscences of the Civil War from Diaries of Members of the 103^rd Illinois Infantry. 

      In 1908, in Chicago, at the home of his brother, Dr. Arthur E. Matteson, nephritis did what Rebel bullets failed to do, and fell the gallant veteran.  His illness had been a long and debilitating one.  He had been confined to his room for the past two years, and during the last year he had been unable to lie down.  When he could sleep, he slept in a chair, and throughout that time he had to endure constant physical pain.  His brother arranged to have him cremated, and his ashes buried in the family plot in Galesburg. 

    The Military Order of the Loyal Legion published his obituary, and in it paid tribute to the man.

          “It matters little to society when some men die; men who have added nothing to the benefit of their fellow man: when they are gone we feel no sense of loss.  But there are other men, and companion Matteson was one, by whose living the world has been the gainer.  He was endowed with a rare personality.  He had a large and generous nature and was ideal in his friendship.  He was of a positive and insistent character; his honesty and well-sustained self- respect was in evidence in all times and under all circumstances.

           Companion Matteson’s unfailing loyalty and his pride in his country presented itself in such a confident and forceful manner as to make him an inspiration to others.”

Sources

Campfire Chats of the Civil War             Washington Davis, 1884

Army Life of an Illinois Soldier                  Letters and Diary of Charles W. Wills

Memorials of Deceased Companions      Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1912

Reminiscences of the Civil War                 from diaries of the members of the 103^rd Illinois Inf. Illinoiscivilwar.org

Charles F. Matteson Papers                      Galesburg Public Library Special Collections

Illinois Civil War Detail Report                   Civil War Soldiers and Sailors system search/    Illinois.gov/genealogy

Peoria Daily transcript 5/28/1861

Six Hours of Heavy Fighting

Henry Emrich & The Battle Of Jenkins’s Ferry                    By Rich Hanson

          The large red granite stone in Galesburg’s historic Hope Cemetery says nothing about Henry P. Emrich’s Civil War record.  The slightly askew G.A.R. near it has to be studied closely for one to discern that Mr. Emrich was a member of Company A. in the 13^th Illinois Cavalry.  Fortunately, Henry Emrich was one of the lucky ones who survived the war.  The account that he wrote of the Battle of Jenkins’s Ferry that appeared in Washington D.C.’s National Tribune on April 29^th, 1886, gives a vivid picture of the fierce fighting in the eloquent prose of a man who spent his life mustering his words into newspaper columns.

     Henry Emrich was born on January 26^th, 1844, in a German village in Hesse-Darmstadt, just a few miles from Bingen-on-the-Rhine.  His mother died when he was six years old.  Two years later, his father took him and his brother to the United States, first settling in New York State, and then coming to Galesburg in 1856.  In December, 1858 he was hired as an apprentice at the Free Democrat printing office.  His training in the art of printing continued until he reached the age of 18, when on the day after his birthday in 1862, he enlisted in the 13^th Illinois Cavalry.  The regiment was organized at Camp Douglas, in Chicago, where they trained until they were deemed ready to be sent to the front.  At that time, with only halters to guide their steeds, they rode barebacked to the Alton Depot.  The bitter cold temperature had plunged to below zero by the time the 13^th arrived there.  From Alton they were sent to St. Louis.  The weather evidently wasn’t on their regiment’s side, as Henry remembered that they arrived in St. Louis during a drenching rainstorm, and that it rained every day they were there.  Despite that, their training continued.  Emrich remembered that at Benton Barracks they were drilled, equipped, then formed in a line.  Then the orders came to “move forward,” to “do or die for the grand old flag.”  The first’s day’s ride, during which they had to endure severe rain, finally had them retiring at Jefferson Barracks without any supper.  By the time the regiment arrived at Pilot’s Knob, Missouri, its young recruits had become adept at the time-honored military practice of “foraging.”  The boys of the 13^th were soon assigned the tasks of scouting, and of keeping the 200 miles of rail from Pilot Knob to Pocahontas open, a task that involved hundreds of hours in the saddle and countless skirmishes.  The men of the 13^th soon knew the trails in and out of  Mingo Swamp, and the Lone Jack and Ozark Mountain region as well as they did the village streets and country lanes of their native Illinois.

     During the winter of 1862-63 they were assigned to a failed expedition to take Little Rock.  Upon their return they did constant foraging for the infantry and were good enough that they boasted that the infantry had become “fat and sassy” due to their efforts.  In July of 1863 they moved to Clarendon, Missouri, where they became part of General Frederick Steele’s command.  Again, they set out to take Little Rock.  As an advanced scouting detail, the men of the 13^th had some incredible adventures.  One evening at about 2:30 am, Henry was part of an advance scout of 14 men, who ran head on into an ambush set up by about 200 rebels.  The men were surrounded, and a rebel officer demanded their surrender.  This demand was rejected, and punctuated with a volley from their revolvers.  Soon a fierce firefight ensued; hearing the noise of battle, the remainder of the battalion came up at a run and drove off the Confederates, rescuing the scouting party that had managed to take cover, hold their ground and avoid capture.  After weeks of other unnamed and unrecorded skirmishes such as this, Henry Emrich participated in the Battle of Bayou Metor and the capture of Little Rock.  During the fight for the Capitol, Henry and the men of the 13^th swam the Arkansas River, and after a desperate fight in a cotton field, the enemy retreated, and the dismounted cavalry took possession of Little Rock at a dead run.  This success, on September, 10^th, 1863, erased the stigma of the previous failed campaign.

     No doubt his skill with the English language and his printing background were considered as he was next detailed to serve on the staff of General Samuel Allen Rice, an Oskaloosa, Iowa attorney and Iowa Attorney General before the war. His brigade consisted of the 29^th and 33^rd Iowa, 9^th Wisconsin, 50^th Indiana, and the 3^rd Iowa Battery.   After the 1864 spring campaigns began the first major battle took place on April 2nd, Henry followed Rice on horseback into battle at Terra Noir Creek, and discovering that the 29^th Iowa was falling back due to an assault by Jo Shelby’s rebels, the General spotted a gentle rise at the edge of some timber with a clear field in front of him.  He figured this would be a good place to make a stand.  A line of battle was formed with a section of the 3^rd Iowa’s artillery there as well.  General Rice sent orders to bring the 50^th Indiana up, and they had just arrived when the rebels charged the new position, their impetus carrying them up to the bayonet points of the two regiments.  The charge was repelled though, but during this action the horse that Henry Emrich was riding was hit in the neck by a canister shot.  During the remainder of the day the Confederates harassed Rice’s rear guard, but were never able to make any headway against the boys in blue.  It was a costly day’s battle though.  Losses in Rice’s brigade totaled near 50 in killed, wounded and missing.

 After a day of rest, they crossed the Little Missouri on April 4^th in the face of the enemy who had swung around to their front.  General Rice just missed becoming a casualty here, as a bullet cut the skin on the back part of his head.  The Rebels had thrown up some temporary breastworks on their side of the river, but were driven from them with a bayonet charge.  On the 6^th the brigade was joined by Thayer’s Brigade, which had been sent from Fort Scott. With their arrival another forward movement was undertaken.  This fight, the Battle of Prairie D’Ann, ran through April 10^th, 11^th and 12^th, as the two forces maneuvered for position.  On the 12^th Henry witnessed a colored regiment from Thayer’s Brigade handsomely repulse a charge of rebel cavalry, which raised them much in the eyes of many of the Union soldiers, who had before that questioned their fighting ability.  It was during this battle when a shell burst near Henry Emrich inflicting some injury to his eyes.

     On the 15^th Rice’s Brigade was ordered to jettison their packs and embark on a forced march to Camden, Arkansas.  General Steele had heard that the Rebs were moving as quickly toward it in order to establish defenses there.  After making good time for four or five miles, they began to run into more determined resistance.  Skirmishing continued for several more miles, then the cavalry which had been scouting ahead fell back and the infantry took up a line of battle.   The Battle of Poison Springs began with an artillery duel which shifted to the bluecoat’s favor when the 3^rd Illinois Artillery was brought up.  The Confederates retreated down a side road, and the capture of Camden was accomplished on April 15^th.  Henry Emrich said that they found the city pretty well fortified, and that it would have cost the Union a great many lives to have driven the rebels out had they occupied it first. 

    On the 18^th a forage train guarded by the 18^th Iowa and a colored regiment was attacked some miles from Camden, and the entire train and four pieces of artillery were captured, the entire escort being overwhelmed.  About this time General Steele received the information that General Banks had been decisively beaten and was in full retreat.  The Rebels were now free to move their entire force against General Steele’s command.  Knowing that he did not have the troops to successfully defend Camden against such a disparity in numbers, he contemplated ordering his Union command, including Rice’s Brigade, to retreat back to Little Rock.  More unwelcome news came on the 25^th, when it was heard that a brigade that had been escorting a train of wagons had been attacked; the entire lot of wagons and artillery pieces falling into rebel hands.  That clinched it.  On the night of the 26^th, the artillery wheels were wrapped to muffle them, a pontoon bridge was built, and Steele’s command commenced their retreat.  General Rice’s Brigade had the post of honor, and it was reported that he was the last man to cross the makeshift bridge before it was pulled up.  The retreat was unhindered until the evening of the 29^th, as the retreating army neared the Saline River.  A loud report, then an artillery shell fell close to General Rice and his staff, which included young Emrich, causing no damage.  This was answered by the Union guns.  Some minor skirmishing ensued, but Rice’s men, who again held the position of defending the rear of the retreating army, beat them back.  Soon everything became quiet.  A note of regret enters Henry Emrich’s reminiscences at this point.

          Had the army crossed the Saline that night all would have been well.  But darkness came early, the sky being black with clouds, and a heavy rain began which continued all night, and this probably explains why we did not cross that night.  Rations had been given out on the 27^th, and the troops made themselves as comfortable as they could on empty stomachs upon the wet and muddy ground of the swamp upon which we were camped.”

     Work continued on a pontoon bridge to cross the Saline during the night’s miserable weather; eventually the nearest troops began to cross to the opposite shore.  In an evening’s consultation at Headquarters, General Steele ordered General Rice to hold his position until the rest of the army had crossed the makeshift bridge.  This was a critical responsibility, as Steele’s army would be very vulnerable at this time, separated by the river.  General Rice promised to do so, and immediately took steps to make his task easier.  He asked for Colonel Englemann’s Brigade, and placed it next to the 33^rd Iowa.  With his usual good eye for terrain, Rice placed the men in the edge of some timber with a partially cleared field in front of it for a clear line of fire.  On their right was a dense forest, through which rolled a creek swollen by the heavy rains.  On their left was an impassable morass of swamp. 

     At roughly 5:30am on the 30^th, the Rebel army began to advance on General Rice’s position.  General Fagan, leading the Arkansas troops, led the first general assault, and….well; let’s tell the account of the Battle of Jenkins’s Ferry in the words of Henry Emrich.

          “for an hour and a half made charge after charge upon our thin line, only to be repulsed each time.  Fagan then gave up and fell back, and for a short time there was only light skirmishing.  About 7:30, however, the storm burst anew, and General Parsons with his Missouri troops tried to accommodate what Fagan had failed to do.  Our thin line had in the meantime been reformed, ammunition had been replenished and General Parsons was met with a fire that no mortal man could withstand. Again and again did he lead his men across that fatal field, and each time he was hurled back, while the field was strewn with dead and wounded rebels.  During this attack a few prisoners were taken, from whom we learned that the whole of Kirby Smith’s army was in our front (or rear).  The enemy had brought several pieces of artillery up during this attack on our right and began to throw shell; but they did not do it long, for after two or three shots had been fired the 29^th Iowa led by Colonel Benton, and the 2^nd Kansas (colored), led by Colonel Crawford, promptly charged the rebel battery and brought the guns into our lines, turning the rebel cheers upon the appearance of the battery into howls of dismay.  After Parsons had withdrawn, General Steele ordered General Rice to withdraw and cross the pontoon, but the latter did not deem it safe to do so, and prepared to charge the enemy before retiring from the field.  It was well that he did not obey the order to retreat, for while making preparations to charge, another column of fresh rebel troops appeared on the other side of the clearing, and with fearful yells charged upon our line .This was General Walker’s Texas Division.  Bravely did they come, but they met the same undaunted courage and withering fire that had destroyed their comrades, and, after doing all that brave men could do, fell back into the shelter of the woods.  During this charge General Rice was shot through the ankle, and Colonel Solomon, of the 9^th Wisconsin took command of the field.  For another hour did the enemy make charge after charge upon our now wearied and rapidly-thinning line, but no one thought of faltering, as knee deep in mud and water, hungry and wet, our boys stood as firm as a rock; and at last the rebel leader, seeing the utter uselessness of slaughtering his men by hurling them against the Union line, retreated and left us in possession of the bloody field.  As soon as this was discovered our troops started to cross the river; for, with a largely superior force in point of numbers close to us, a deep and rapidly rising river to cross, a swamp to which the water, now a foot deep, was running, our only safety was on the north side of the Saline.  Those of our wounded who could not help themselves were quickly placed out of reach of the rising water and surgeons left to care for them, and our victorious troops crossed the river unmolested, and were safe from further pursuit. 

         The rebel loss was terrific.  A rebel account of the battle, acknowledged a loss of 1,500 killed and wounded, and in that division Generals Ward and Scurry were killed, and General Randel was twice wounded and had two horses shot from under him.  Our loss, too, was heavy, being over 500 killed and wounded, nearly all the latter being captured. 

     Henry Enrich went on in his article for the National Tribune, was justifiably proud of the heroic stand his brigade made, and went on to elaborate on how much he believed the battle at  Jenkins’s Ferry meant to the Union cause. 

          Had the rebels brought the Union army to bay on the uplands, it is likely that Steele’s army would have been annihilated; for the large number of the enemy, some 25,000 men, would have been enabled to out flank us on both flanks.  The Battle of Jenkins’s Ferry saved the state of Arkansas to the Union arms at that time.  Had Steele’s army been defeated and captured, nothing could have saved Little Rock and Pine Bluff, and every point in Arkansas, except Helena, would have fallen into rebel hands.  The results of the “Camden trip” were a loss to the Union troops of about 2,000 men killed, wounded and captured, a loss of 8 cannon, and about 400 wagons with wheels and harness.  The writer has no intention to slight General Steele or General Solomon, but it is but justice to General S. A. Rice, who was formerly colonel of the 33^rd Iowa, and who died from the effects of his wound, to say that to him belongs the credit in winning the Battle of Jenkins’s Ferry.  Where all the regiments engaged in so nobly, it would be unjust to particularize, but I would instance the terrible fighting by giving the loss of the 50^th Indiana, which was 150 killed and wounded, Company D loosing 23 out of 39 engaged.  Colonel Wells of this regiment, was everywhere in the thickest of the battle cheering and encouraging his men, and had two horses shot.

          General Rice’s staff on starting from Little Rock consisted of himself, five officers and four Orderlies.  Of these General Rice was wounded twice, the last resulting fatally; Captain Townsend was killed, one Aide’s horse killed, Adjutant

 Lacey’s horse and the writer’s wounded and one of the Orderlies captured.  The writer is also suffering from the effects of a shell passing close to his eyes on Prairie De Ann.  This will speak better words of the work this brigade was engaged in on this fatal trip, which for the defeat of Banks, would have resulted in sweeping the rebels from the State.  There are, of course, many things that I have omitted or forgotten, and hope that some other comrade will supply what is lacking in the above—H. Emrich, Co. A, 13^th Illinois Cavalry, Orderly at General Rice’s Headquarters.   Galesburg, Illinois.”

     After the death of General Rice during surgery to remove portions of a spur that had been driven through his boot into his ankle, his headquarters family was broken up and sent to serve elsewhere.  Henry Emrich was transferred to the headquarters of General Frederick Steele, and received fulsome praise and thanks form that officer for special duties that he undertook while under a flag of truce.  He remained with Steele’s headquarters until he was mustered out on January 27^th, 1865, still only a 21 year old, but a man now, one who had served his country for three years and had been under fire on eighteen different occasions.

     Henry Emrich returned to Illinois and took a job as a printer in the office of the Quincy Democrat, but after a few months there he was able to return to Galesburg and take a position in the office of the Free Democrat, where he had first learned the printer’s trade. 

     In 1867 He married Miss Caroline Rolf.  Eventually five children would swell the union of the two into a family.  It must have been a happy marriage.   His obituary mentions what a severe blow the sudden death of his wife in 1898 was to him.  In 1870 with a partner, he began the publication of the Galesburg Republican, but that endeavor didn’t continue for long.  In 1872 he was again back in Quincy working for the Quincy Democrat.  Looking to improve his lot, he returned to Galesburg again in December of 1879 and purchased an interest in the Plain-Dealer Printing Company.

       With the immigration issue at the forefront of our century’s political discussions, it’s a good time to reflect upon Henry Emrich, and what this German immigrant brought to his new country.  He fought three years to preserve the Union, and after the war involved himself as a concerned citizen in many Galesburg organizations.  He joined the Republican Party, and played an active part both politically and editorially in 30 plus years of elections.  He and the Plain-Dealer thrust forward General Philip Sidney Post for the Republicans of the then 10^th Congressional District to nominate to run for Congress in 1886.  General Post was elected and served in that legislative body until his death in 1893.  Emrich then used his newspaper to promote the candidacy of George W. Prince, who also was elected to Congress.  He was a member of the Congregational Church, the Galesburg Club, for which he was one of the driving forces in their efforts to erect a new building to meet in, and of Post 45 of the Grand Army of the Republic, having been commander of that post, Junior Vice-Commander of the Department of Illinois, and a frequent delegate to the national encampments.  He was also a long-time member of the Typographical Union.

     This young man from Germany proudly supported his adopted land in later his later life during the “War to End All Wars” in 1917-18.  He was conspicuously active in the Liberty Bond drives and a liberal purchaser of them as well.  One of his sons, Roy Emrich, became a U.S. Navy commander, and another died of illness while serving his country in China.  Yes, Henry P. Emrich has left an interesting personal history and a legacy of patriotism behind him.  Galesburg is the richer for him chosing to settle there.

    SOURCES

Find Grave Entries for S. A. Rice and Henry P. Emrich

Generals in Blue   Ezra Warner

National Tribune article   “Fighting Them Over” an account of the Camden Campaign by Henry Emrich

Galesburg Republican Register  Henry Emrich obit; November 14^th, 1919

History of Knox County Vol II   by A.J. Perry

History of the 13^th Illinois Cavalry  Frederick Behendorff

Wikipedia   The Battle of Jenkins’s Ferry

Henry P. Emrich’s Gravesite At Galesburg’s Hope Cemetery

Fourteen Months as a Rebel Prisoner

The Capture, Sufferings of and Daring Escape of Captain Orville Powell

     The life that led Orville Powell to a series of Civil War adventures began in New York in 1837.  His father, John Powell, had been a soldier during the War of 1812.  In 1851 John Powell took his family to Illinois, where he settled about a half mile north of the village of Oneida.  The Powell brothers, including young Orville, soon chafed at the boring routine of farm life, and in 1857 caught the lust for gold and headed out to California to make their fortune.  His brothers soon discovered that riches weren’t so easy to come by as they had been imagining.  Disillusion fostered homesickness and they soon returned to Illinois.  Orville’s spirit of adventure wasn’t so easily doused.  He remained in Colorado and took a job as a teamster.  His work took him through Colorado and New Mexico.  Later in his life one of the stories that he liked to relate from this adventurous time occurred near Bento, Old fort Buffalo, where his wagon train had to remain idle in camp for an entire day to allow a huge buffalo herd that extended for many miles to pass.  Powell, in his later years, noted with sadness that in 50 years that these noble beasts that he had seen in such abundance had been driven nearly to extinction.

     The animosity that had been simmering for decades between the North and the South boiled over into Civil War with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April, 1861.  Young Orville Powell had returned to Illinois by this time, and swept up in the patriotic fervor, he enlisted in Company C. of the 42^nd Illinois Infantry.  Powell’s regiment was first sent to St. Louis, then to Springfield, then the following spring down to Island Number 10 on the Mississippi.  From there, their orders took them to Fort Pillow, then to Hamburg Landing shortly after the Battle of Shiloh.  Then his unit took part in General Halleck’s ponderously slow siege of Corinth.  From there they moved into Alabama, then to Nashville, Tennessee, then to Stone’s River where he survived unscathed the terrible battle that took place there from December 31^st to January 2^nd, 1863.  Orville Powell proved his bravery by accepting the role of the Regiment’s color bearer.  Brandishing the flag made him an inviting target for the enemy to train their sights on.  His bravery in this engagement earned him a promotion to lieutenant.  After Stone’s River he was part of General Rosecrans’s masterful Tullahoma expedition and survived many skirmishes with the enemy.  Then came the fateful two day battle of Chickamauga, a crushing defeat that cost General Rosecrans his command and Orville Powell his freedom. 

     During the second day of the battle he was wounded in the left foot by a rifle ball.  His Colonel, seeing that he was unable to walk, put him on his horse and started him for the rear.  He sought refuge in a home nearby.  When Confederate General Longstreet’s Corps broke through the Union line and put the army to rout, Orville Powell was trapped within the Rebel lines.  Realizing that he was likely to be captured, he managed to hide his sword and belt behind a log before the Rebels took hold of him.

     Mr. Powell was taken prisoner and sent to the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.  He occupied an east corner room in the old tobacco warehouse.  Unable to walk, he had to remain behind when some of his fellow inmates engineered a daring plan to tunnel out of the prison.  The risks of attempting to escape were compounded by the brutality of the guards.  Captain Powell (during his captivity the paperwork had come through conferring on him yet another promotion) talked of one instance when a prisoner sitting near a window to read a newspaper in the daylight that it let into the gloomy surroundings was observed by a guard out on the road and shot in the head for sport.

     In the Spring of 1864 he and several carloads of other prisoners were sent into North Carolina, then down to Macon City, Georgia, where they were placed in a stockade.  During the journey south two men managed to escape during their transfer.  Captain Powell though was unable to make an attempt as he was still obliged to use a crutch to keep the weight off his wounded foot.  Powell later said that the suffering and hardships endured by the prisoners during their transfer and time incarcerated in Macon City defy description.  He and his fellow prisoners were grateful when they were transferred to Savannah.  There they were treated better than any time during their imprisonment.  Escape is the duty of every good soldier though, and despite the better treatment it was still constantly plotted.  Some of the prisoners began to dig a tunnel out of their Savannah compound, but after several weeks of back-breaking work broke through on the other side of the fence.  Regrettably the first prisoners who exited the tunnel looked up at the face of an armed guard who was awaiting their breakout attempt.  This earned the prisoners exile to Charleston, South Carolina where they were housed for about a month in the old jail. 

     After about a month they were again transferred.  This time to Columbus, South Carolina where the prisoners were turned out into a field.  A new stockade was to be constructed.  By this time Captain Powell’s foot had healed, and he and some of the other prisoners set about devising a means of escape.  It was soon noted that the guards would temporarily parole prisoners if they would volunteer to gather wood.  Powell and three other prisoners, including a man named Gordon, took advantage of this opportunity to make an escape.  They risked a bullet in the back if they were pursued and caught, but by this time even death seemed a better alternative than their continued wretched existence as Rebel prisoners.  At about noon Powell made his move.  He wrapped a blanket around himself as though he was sickly yet still willing to help to go out and gather wood, then slipped into the woods and was met by the three other men.  Their destination was Knoxville, Tennessee, some 400 miles away.  The Rebels pursued them, and one of the escapees was captured.  The others hid in the thick underbrush and managed to elude their pursuers.  The suffering that they underwent during their slow trek back toward the Union lines was terrible.  During a four day stint as they crossed a mountain range, they went hungry.  Another time they were stopped by recruiters who thought they were local slackers and strongly urged to join the Rebel army. 

     One evening they were following a road and approached a plantation.  Seeing two riders approaching they dived for cover, but weren’t quick enough and were noticed by the men on horseback who asked them who they were and why they were so anxious not to be seen.  One of the escapees replied that they were resting.  At this point Captain Powell decided to risk the truth, and admitted that they were escaped prisoners from Columbus, Georgia and that they were very hungry. 

     The owner of the plantation invited them up to the house to take supper, remarking that “the old woman will be very anxious to see some live Yankees.”  They readily accompanied the planter, as they were almost starving and willing to take almost any risk in order to fill their stomachs. 

     The host and his companion soon left the house.  The old woman was so deeply interested in talking to the Yankees that she insisted upon remaining in the room where they were.  She seemed to be in little hurry to prepare a meal for them.  The escapees suspicions were aroused, and they soon surmised that the planter and his companion had gone to round up some of his neighbors to help recapture them.  They wisely resolved not to wait for the promised meal.  Distracting the old woman with spirited conversation, one of the escapees managed to steal a couple of loaves of bread.  Then they bid her adieu and slipped into the darkness. 

     They were soon flagged down by an old negro who warned them that his master had indeed gone for help in apprehending them.  He offered to pilot them the quickest way possible to the river which was nine miles away.  They gladly accepted his services, although the old negro walked with a bad limp, and they feared that he wouldn’t move quickly enough to aid them to escape.  So anxious though was this old man to aid the Union cause that he fairly bounded along in his irregular, limping gait, rendering it difficult for the soldiers to keep up with him.  Soon the soldiers heard the baying of bloodhounds which their pursuers had set on their trail.   The soldiers put their faith in the wisdom of their lame yet resolute guide, following him through timber and underbrush, over fences and across creeks and swamps.  The baying of the hounds kept sounding louder and louder though, sending a shudder through Captain Powell and his companions each time that they heard them.  As the hounds closed in, the escapees resolved to attempt to hide themselves, fearing that it would be futile to attempt to continue to try to outrun the barking pack.  The old negro remonstrated with them, saying that he was familiar with the ways of the hounds and would get the soldiers safely away from them.  Being familiar with the country, he led the escapees through a cow-yard, figuring that the scent of the manure would distract the hounds and throw them off the trail.  Sure enough, the smell of the cows clung to the men, as it did to the fenced in pasture, and this massive assault on the dog’s olfactories made them oblivious to all other scents, including those of the escaped men, who were hiding in the nearby timber, trembling with fear after being pursued like wild beasts.

     It took twenty-eight days of semi-starvation occasionally alleviated by the generosity of loyal negroes, who would risk punishment to aid soldiers who were fighting for their freedom, hard walking in a state of almost constant trepidation; hiding by day and making what progress they could in the cover of night before they finally neared the Union lines.

     Their travails weren’t over yet though.  They came upon their regiment as it was engaged in a spirited battle near Spring Hill, Tennessee.  The escapees had to hide all day behind the rear of the Rebel army, then skirt around it at night before they could finally rejoin their comrades.  The tale of their escape was widely heralded and their regiment rejoiced greatly at their sudden and totally unexpected re-appearance.

     Captain Powell accompanied his regiment to Texas, where it remained along with other U.S. troops in the event that they would be needed to persuade the French to leave Mexico.  After the Mexicans deposed and executed the Emperor that the French had foisted upon them, the troops were withdrawn and Orville Powell was able to return home to Oneida. 

     The Powell family did their fair share during war to quash the rebellion.  Captain Powell had four brothers who served in the Union army as well, one of whom, J. Brainerd, was killed while leading his company at the Battle of Resaca in the Atlanta Campaign.  Orville went on to marry Adella l. Moore in 1867, and spent the remainder of his life engaged in farming and handling stock. He was elected to serve as a Constable in Oneida in 1878.   He was a member of the Republican Party, a Free Mason, and a proud member of the Grand Army of the Republic.  He died in June of 1907.  The Oneida News paid tribute to him upon his passing.

     “of his life as a citizen, no word of praise need be said.  Captain Powell was a man of strong convictions of right and was characterized by a rugged honesty and an unwavering sense of justice.  He has played an important part in the life of his community and left an impress for good upon those with he came in contact.  The same patriotic zeal which led him into the hardships of war abided with him as an everyday citizen and made his career one of the highest type of Christian citizenship.  He will be sincerely mourned by a great number of people.”

     Captain Powell is another Civil War notable who is buried in the cemetery at Oneida, Illinois.

               Bibliography

Sketch of Captain Orville Powell, The Daily Republican Register, June 15^th, 1907. 

Roots Web World Connect Project: Pat Thomas gedcom

Roots Web World Connect Project: US GenWeb, Knox County, Illinois.

Find A Grave, Captain Orville Powell Memorial

Chapman’s 1878 History of Knox County

Knox County Biographical Album: Soldiers and Patriots