CIVIL WAR LETTERS - 105th Illinois Infantry, Sick Prisoners Camp Douglas Chicago

Description

CIVIL WAR LETTER
CIVIL WAR SOLDIER LETTER - 105th Illinois Infantry
John Thomas Becker (1838-1917) was a young teenager when his father, Richard Becker (1813-1881) moved his family from New York State to the undulating Illinois prairie in 1852, settling in South Grove township, DeKalb county. Here, near Owen’s Creek and not far from the town of Franklin, John grew up working the land, raising wheat and livestock, hoping one day for a farm of his own. The family’s means were meagre and John’s opportunity for education severely limited in this rural farm community where most children attended school only when they weren’t needed in the fields. We learn from John’s letters, however, that he gained sufficient knowledge in the “three R’s” to teach younger children part-time for at least three years prior to 1861 but he readily acknowledged his own limitations.
A CDV of John Thomas Becker (1838-1917) taken after his discharge from the 105th Illinois Infantry
Sometime in the late 1850’s, John had an occasion to meet a young green-eyed, red-headed teen named Eleanor Belt (1840-1932) of Sylvester, Green county, Wisconsin. Eleanor—or “Ellen” as he called her—was living with her Aunt Amelia Wood in nearby Hicks Mills, Franklin Township, DeKalb county, Illinois. Perhaps she was teaching school there when they met. In any event, they became fast friends and developed an understanding between them that set them apart from other acquaintances. It seems clear they considered marriage before the Civil War erupted but Ellen thought it best they wait until the war was over. It would not last much longer, she contended, and she didn’t want to risk being a “war widow.”
CDV of Eleanor Belt (1840-1932) taken by Wm. H. Owen who opened a studio in Evansville, Wisconsin in 1866. Eleanor married Sgt. John T. Becker on 24 August 1865 just weeks after he was discharged from the 105th Illinois Infantry.
And so John enlisted in
Co. G, 105th Illinois Infantry
in August 1862 after the failed Peninsula Campaign convinced the North the rebellion could not be suppressed without a surge of troops. John was 24 years old when he enlisted, his induction record stating that he stood 5′ 10″ tall with black hair and black eyes. When he left home to join his regiment at Dixon, Illinois, John and Ellen pledged to write each other faithfully and, for the most part, John lived up to his end of the bargain.
John survived the war though he did not escape unscathed. He took a bullet in the arm at the Battle of Taylor’s Hole Creek in March 1865 and then contracted painful erysipelas in the military hospital at Fort Schuyler in New York before his discharge in July 1865. He then returned home to Illinois, married (24 August 1865) his beloved Ellen, and enjoyed a life in farming.
NOTE - The images shown in this description do not come with the letter.
A Ruby Ambrotype of John Beck and Eleanor Belt which is presumed to be their “wedding photograph.” The couple standing behind them may have been their older siblings who stood up with them at the wedding?
Transcription
[Camp Douglas, Chicago]
September 15th 1862
Dear Ellen,
I wrote you a letter the 13th but having nothing much to just at present, I will write a few lines more. (You must excuse me for writing with a lead pencil. It is rather inconvenient to carry pen & ink.) I was Sergeant of the Guards that was detailed to come to Camp Douglas this morning to guard the prisoners though there is but few here now and they are mostly all sick. I shall have to be here in this miserable hole until tomorrow morning 9 o’clock. I call it miserable because of the filth. The barracks are as thick as they can stand & just vacated by the prisoners about seven or eight thousand & left in the most filthy manner. They was going to put us in here but our Colonel said we should not go (thanks be to him) so we went out in Cottage Grove about half a mile from here. We had no tents the first three or four nights but have now.
We are under marching orders but don’t know when we shall leave. I don’t care how soon we go for if I have anything to do, I want to do it & have it done with. I have not been homesick yet and don’t expect to be. As for me, I am going “root hog or die.”  “That is what’s the matter,” as the boys says.
But Ellen, you don’t know how I want to hear from you
. I am getting impatient but I shan’t say anything about it. Ellen, give my best respects to all enquiring friends & my
style
to all others.
Ellen, it must be a long time before I see you again perhaps, but the time will come, I hope. In fact, something seems to ensure me it will be so. Be patient, dear girl. This is a trying place for a young man but I shall put a check (or at least try to) to my hitherto foolishness & do the best I can—though good promises are often broken, you know. Now Ellen,
write often
. Your letters may some of them find some difficulty in reaching me so you must write the oftener. I wrote the directions in my last but fearing that you might not have got it, I will write it again.
Co. G, 105th Regt. of Illinois Volunteers in care of Captain J[ohn] B. Nash, Chicago, Illinois
I saw Smith, our Debater, here this morning. He is Sergeant Major & is quite a good officer. I can’t think of anything more that will interest you at present as there is nothing very exciting going on at present so I will close, leaving you to expect another from me soon.
From your best friend & well wisher, — John T. Becker
Be sure to go to school and don’t you work out.
I send you a kiss on one corner of this if you can find it & wish I could see you. You should have one from where this originated. “Think of me when day is dawning.” That is all. I can’t make up any poetry today. Don’t criticize my writing. I never look it over after I have written.
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