CIVIL WAR LETTERS - 105th Illinois Infantry, "Our Regiment has Lost Great Many"

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
Near Dallas, Georgia
June 8th 1864
Dear Ellen,
I received your letter yesterday dated May 23rd & will write you a few lines just to let you know that I am still living although it is as much as ever. I am well with the exceptions of a bad cold that has settled on my lungs which I fear I shall not get rid of right away. We have been exposed so much of late. It has rained every day for a week and nights we have to sleep in our wet clothes. But such times as these one must endure everything.
I have seen all of war I wish to if I could stop now. But the rebs still hold out with a great deal of determination and this campaign will probably last some time yet. Yes indeed, I have seen war in all its horrors & pen nor tongue cannot describe the suffering the soldiers endure. I wish I had time and paper to write you all about it thus far, but I have not so you must be contented with what little I do write and if I am spared, you shall know all about it sometime. If I am killed, you may have this assurance—that it was while doing my duty. Our Corps has lost more than all the rest of this army and our Division as many as all the rest of the Corps. Our Regiment has lost a great many. It only numbers 280 fighting men now. Lieutenant [John M.] Smith that you have the picture of was shot through the body but is getting well. He was shot at Resaca where our Brigade made that charge and captured that Rebel Battery. Oh! that was an awful slaughter! It makes my blood run cold to think of it. How I ever got out of that is more than I can tell. The balls flew like hail and I was right in front of the Battery when they fired three charges of grape and canister. Was only saved by falling flat on my face. About half of our regiment was exposed to it. ¹
I will write as often as I can. I don’t know whether the mail goes to you or not. Write often. Ever yours till death, — John
We have got no pay yet and are on half rations & sometimes out entirely. When the thing will end is more than I can tell.
¹ The captain of
Corput’s Battery
which the 105th Illinois and the other regiments in Ward’s Brigade assisted in capturing at Resaca wrote a letter to his wife after the battle which stated, “The Yankees charged on my battery this P. M. and captured 2 sections of it and many of our men and attendants were wounded. It was as daring an exploit as when my brothers was charged at Antietam Va by Co New York Reg. They threw themselves into the front as unconscious of danger as ducks into a pond.” [
Past and Present of DeKalb County
, page 233.]  As a consequence of the Captain’s description of the assault on the battery, the men of the First Brigade came to be called, “Ward’s Ducks.”  Readers may also want to peruse, “
They All Wore a Star–In the Fight for the Four-Gun Battery,”
by Robert G. Miller. In Miller’s book, we learn that Ward’s Brigade was formed in column by regiment, with regimental front at 44 paces interval. Leading the assault was the 7th Indiana, followed by the 102nd Illinois, then the 79th Ohio, then the 129th Illinois, and finally the 105th Illinois. According to George F. Cram of Co. F, 105th Illinois, however, the 105th soon found themselves near the front, however. In his account of the battle, written to his mother on 27 May, 1864, the regiment entered to assault in a “perfect shower of shot, shell and grape” and they “flew down the hill, crossed the road at the front, climbed over some breastworks the rebels had left and began the run of the hill where they were posted. The 105th was the last regiment, but the two in front odf us (79th Ohio and 129th Illinois) immediately laid down at the foot of this hill and our regiment ran right over them. They were behind and in among us which so mixed us up that
amidst
the tangled underbrush  it was impossible to distinguish our lines and keep together, so it was every man for himself.” [
Soldiering with Sherman
, pp. 99-100]
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