Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum

Boys In Blue: Col. Daniel Brown Bush, 2nd Illinois Cavalry Regiment

Before Colonel Daniel Brown Bush, Jr. enlisted in the Union Army, he was the owner and editor of the “Pike County Journal” in Pittsfield, IL and was one of the first newspaper editors to endorse Abraham Lincoln as a candidate for President. On February 9, 1860 Daniel Bush published an editorial written by John Nicolay, who would go on to become one of Abraham Lincoln’s private secretaries. A section of the editorial read:

Give us Lincoln as the candidate and we can promise the electoral vote of Illinois for the Republicans as a sure result…He maintains the faith of the Fathers of the Republic, he believes in the Declaration of Independence, he yields obedience to the Constitution and laws of his country. He has the radicalism of Jefferson and of Clay and the conservatism of Washington and Jackson. In his hands the Union would be safe.

Certainly Daniel Bush believed in the cause of the Union because a year and a half later he enlisted as a Major in the Second Illinois Cavalry Regiment, taking part in the battles at Forts Henry and Donelson as well as Shiloh. As a Lieutenant Colonel, Bush commanded the Second Illinois at the Battle of Vicksburg. He was discharged as Colonel of the Second Cavalry on July 24, 1865 and would eventually find his way to Portland, OR where we would live until his death in 1913. Upon his death, the “Sunday Oregonian” wrote in his obituary:

For the past three months he has been almost helpless and, like our old friend, Colonel Newcomb, he has been living over again the stirring scenes of his early manhood, frequently imagining himself at the head of his loved regiment, and when the time came for him to answer the last roll call he answered is as placidly as did our old English Colonel, and slipped away from the troublous things of this lower life. He had fought the good fight, like the brave true soldier he was, and could well afford to go where alarums are never heard and conflicts never come.

Boys In Blue: 1st Lt. Michael F Swartzcope, 31st Illinois Infantry, Company A

Michael F. Swartzcope of Illinois stood six-foot-five and a half and at 41 years of age he mustered into the 31^st Illinois Infantry as a Private. Census records tell us that Michael worked as both a cooper and a surveyor before the war began. Over six foot tall and a surveyor…sound familiar? By the end of the war, Michael was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and Quartermaster. Michael’s Lincolnesque life continued after the war; Lincoln was a lawyer, and Swartzcope followed a law career as well, serving as a judge in Jackson County, IL from 1865 to 1869. Judge Swartzcope passed away on March 22, 1901 at the age of 80 at the Home for Disabled Veterans in Danville, IL.

BOYS IN BLUE

William H Steel, 34th Illinois Infantry, Company F

From the back of this photo:

“Steel with flag borne by 34th Illinois Infantry Company F at the Battle of Stone River, Dec. 31, 1862. Steel was shot seven times—three bullets remained in his body. All color guards and bearers of the flag were killed or wounded. The colors fell in the hands of the 2nd Arkansas regiment under the command of Pat Cleborn, Confederate States of America.”

William H Steel survived the wounds he received in battle, but would not fight again in the war. He would go on to marry and lived in Dixon, IL until the age of sixty-three years.

His obituary, at the time, reads:

“Mr. Steel entered the war in September, 1861. He enlisted in Co. F. 34th Infantry and was mustered Sept. 7, 1861. He was badly wounded at the Battle of Murphysboro, Tenn. on December 31, 1862. He had been found be his brother Charles behind rebel lines, seven bullet holes in his body. Mr. Steel was never able after that battle to do any more soldiering. He was a color bearer for his company and while he was in the army proved a brave soldier.”

“The fourth of July has not quite dwindled away; it is still a great day—for burning fire-crackers!!!” Abraham Lincoln 8/15/1855

John W. January joined the 14th Illinois Cavalry in June of 1864. He was taken prisoner the next month and spent time at the prisons in both Andersonville, GA and Florence, SC. The back of the illustrated card above (complete with misspellings and missing words) reads :

“John W. January was a Prisoner of War at Andersonville GA And Florence S.C. for about 16 months by ( ) of scurvy superinduced by starvation he lost - his feet -which he himself heroically amputated with a pocket knife. No surgeon in prison being willing to preform the opperation. He arrived at David’s Island N.Y. was a mere skeleton weighing but 45 pounds, and after seven months treatment in Hospital was restored to bodily health, all things considered, Mesr. January’s case is perhaps the most notable example of nerve and body suffering in the anals of the Man he is yet October 26, 1900 living, the Father of a large family.”

John W. January passed away on November 29, 1906 at the age of 60.