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****Civil War Archives of William Hawkins Wickersham, Company C 124th Illinois Infantry. William Hawkins Wickersham, Sr., served in Company C, 124th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War. Mr. Wickersham, for many years a well-known and popular journeyman printer. A collection of 70+ letters from William Hawkins Wickersham to his wife Margeret G. Wickersham "Maggie" while he was in service. The letters date from October 12,1862 to 1865 and contain many interesting elements of daily life in the field. We just scratched the surface on some of the content that we listed by date. There are also about 12 or more letters are from 1870-1885 between relatives of the Wickersham's including Eubanks, Osborn & Rogers & Between William Wickersham and friends from December 9,1862-1885,and a few other fragments of letters without dates or heading too mutilated to read, The regiment was organized at Camp Butler, Illinois, and mustered in on September 10, 1862. It later mustered out at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 28, and was discharged in Chicago, Illinois, on August 16, 1865. His first letter home to his Wife Maggie from Jackson Tennessee on October 12, 1862, he tells Maggie " Iam very well and am getting heartier than at Camp Butler. Jim has not written yet, but says he will as soon as he gets time. He is a hard case and I don't like to tent with him at all. Perhaps i will go into another tent soon. Most of the tents have four men in them, but some have only two or three... You can rest assured we have a good floor in out tent. Some of the boys have not. They were afraid to take the boards as the Major had made them carry then back one day. I had a talk with some contrabands yesterday. They are working for Uncle Sam and like it very much. One said his master lived 24 miles from here and was a Union Man,but was afraid to take the oath. When he told his master he was going up with the Yankees the Master said he was a fool and that the Yankees would Kill Him. But he did believe it. It would take 75000 Rebels to take this place and they haven't the 20th part of that number to spare to send up this far. It costs $11 to come down here, twenty-two dollars for the trip here and back to Springfield rather heavy aint it" On October 15,1862 from Jackson, Tennessee he writes his wife " Gen. Williams and John Cook both from Springfield were in Camp yesturday. but i did not get to talk to them. We are circulating a petitioin to have out 1st and 2nd Lieutentants resign. We dont know how it will turn out. They are very incompetant men. October 30th, 1862 Camp Jackson, Tennessee (In the field),"I was so glad to hear from you, but sorry to hear that Franky was sick. Dont let him get too sick before you get the doctor. poor little fellow. I expect him and Cecil will together soon. Kiss Franky again for me and I will kiss you myself before long....... I will now tell you how me and my 3 tent mates are fixed. we started to build a cabin. Built it four logs high (about four feet) and then stretched the tent over it, built a fireplace and chimney and now have a nice, comfortable, cozy little place, and can sit by our fire and laugh at cold weather November 2, 1862, Camp Jackson, Tennessee, We were called in from Pickel-Guard at 8 o'clock under marching orders for Bolivar 25 miles from here. I put a latter in the officve this morning for you and this is the 2nd today. KOn November 8, 1862 at Camp Lagrange Tenn. 3 miles from Mississippi he says" I went down town , bough a pie from a Dutch woman and had to wait in her kitchen til it was made. Her husband is a good Union man , and says he was offered 300 dollars in confederate money for 100 dollars in "green backs" just before we boys got here, but he woudlnt take it, He says that price cant posibly master over 40,000 men if as many, and that if we have 40,000 and he had a hundred thousand that we would whip them. To my knowledge 6000 of ouir men whipped 23,000 rebels right close by here on teh river. The same man says he knows of southern men who have laid in the woods for months and months to avoid the Conscript Law. The rebels heard we were coming here but didnt believe we would dare do it. He knew we were coming but didnt say anything about it. He says that they didnt used to pray for peace but he says they are at it now in all the churches in their prayer. They are getting sick of rebellion. If it wasn't for the of their leaders about the great victories, they (the rebels) achieve they would have no energy or hear to fight at all December 10, 1862 from Oxford Mississippi he writes "this printing operation is not what i alluded to. I write to Ben Richards to see if Capt. Bailhache couldnt get me some position under Gen. Brayman at Bolivar. The General is Bailhaches father in law. I might get something of that kind. Beu Richards it seems had done all the work though. He took it upon himself to write tot eh general and recommended me as competent to fill any position he might have for me..... but to lay that all side i am satisfied to stay where i am at present. March 4th,1863 Lagrange, Tennesse every evening I feel an aching in my left jaw. It is so provoking. I am getting as fat as a buck. We live pretty well, now but not on rich food....Beans we all love, dearly. This evening though we had some doughnuts. We have but one article of queensware on our table and that is out "thundermug" which holds our beans, rice, soup etc.... much nicer than to have one of the black, rooty kettles, which black our fingers in passing".March 15,1863 Lagrange Tennessee, "... I have just been told you can get trasportation from Gov. Yates, and sot you nothing to come and see your sick husband (you can get it that way, and probably without). It can be stated to (mr. Lee) that you deserve the 5 dollars a month from Goot, that you are not drawing it and that your husband is stationed at the Port of Lagrange in the Goot Printing Office. If that is done it wont cost you a cent. Or Capt. Bailache can give you transportation but the Governor can send you all the way through without any outlay. So you can come right along hon. Get transportation from the governor and you can stay down here for several months". May 18, 1863 Lagrange, Tennessee, "Our regiment has been in a fight and only one man was wounded and he was Capt. Potter.... I saw those who were sent out of St. Loius. There were escorted from here to Holly Springs with a "Flag of truce" by a squad of our cavalry. They will find it dry picking down there and wish themselves back in St. Louis before long. They had been rich but were not allowed to take but $200 each with them, the balance of their property was confiscated. They had been detected corresponding with the Rebels. Served 'em right."June 4th 1863 Lagrange Tennessee, " Mit said something about Joe joining cousin buds 10th Cavalry or going to Ohio wher he could get one or two thousand dollars for going as a substitute.... Mit said for you to write Joe and it might be that you could influence him to do it....... I told my Lieut. again the other day that i wanted to go to my regiment and he flatty told me no i couldn't and that i had to stay for three years or during the war. He won't let me go unless he can get as good a printer as me and that hell not be able to do in these parts.June 11,1863 Lagrange Tennessee, " at this Post there has been an entire change of the Commanders and troops. Major General Oglesby is here. So is Acting Brigadier General James M. True, of the 62nd Ills. Infantry. It was thought for a while that our office would be ordered away when Smith left, but it was not, and i guess we will stay now. I do not care much. I would about as leave be with my Regiment. I would there stand some chance of promotion, but dont in this "chebang". June 21st, 1863 Lagrange Tennessee,"... they cleaned everything out effectually and what they could not take away they gave to some of the Brethern. Gowtird (thats the way they pronounce it in the Captains office) gave me that pretty straw hat and i use it for a pis-pot. That was all he gave me. He could have got all my extra pay just as well as not. but he was mad because i was the only one out of the seven chosen to stay. He could hardly shoke hands and wish me success. He told Harriet and Henry a private couldn't draw rations for them and they would soon be on the point of starvation and told them to go to the Correl and not to cook for me". July 1st, 1863 Lagrange Tennessee, " Vicksburg is as good as doomed, and the invasion of Pennsylvania will be a good incentive to make the folks in that region enlist under Uncle Samuel. They can have a few horses, etc. if it will be the means of raising us 50,000 troops....Let them come on Northern soil. The quicker the better for us". July 5,1863 lagrange Tennessee, " General Oglesby has left here and Col. True is in command. My friend Cd. Wiley will still be the A.A.A. General and will be the sub-commander so you see i will all right..... Lees remark that i was only a temporary concern has proven to be a lie thus far. I guess he and the rest of them only hoped so.... I would not be surprised if they would try in teh regiment or division to have me ordered back. Let them.....August 25, 1863 Memphis Tennessee, "Here Iam in Memphis... I have been working in an office here picking out some new type to take out to my office. I have b een getting some work from Memphis from the Commissary of Masters at G H Headquarters, and they talk like they would have me move the office down here and set up a big concern to do all the printing for all the towns between here and """""", but I dont know whether they will or not. I went to see E. W. Wickershaw in the Post Office here. He says the big P.O. building is owned by a Wickershaw. I could get into the Post Office here by the proper amount of care in that particular, but i prefer the printing".March 24,1864 Vicksburg, Mississippi, " I wrote you a letter just after coming from Black River telling you that Jim was somewhere in the city. but i cant find him. I have been uptown three or four times on purpose to see him but he as so far off the last time i went and it was so late in the evening that i did not get to see him. He commands a squad of what are called "skulkers"....I wanted to see him particularly in reference to the Co. Records I am about to print. Whether he wanted a copy and whether he wanted his promotion ... in it or not........ Nearly all the 17th Army Corps will soon be off to some others point, leaving only the 1st Division. If our regiment goes it will not affect one in my present for it so long as any of the Corps remain here". April 21, 1864 from Post Printing Office Vicksburg, Mississippi, " I told you in my last that I was a detailed in a printing office. I am working for a citizen who owns the office. He is allowed to have one soldier printer and for that reason he has to do Head 2, work free. I will get $12 a month extra from the Post fund". May 13, 1864 from Vickburg, Mississippi, " The Steamboat "Mississippi" arrived today and i purchased a late paper.... The Rebels hereway look chopfallen. The Red River affair was a great disaster to me, but no failure elsewhere can compensate the Rebs for their defeat in Virginia if the news we have with northern papers of the 11th be true. Did you see the piece from the Richmond """" stating this is the last year of the war whichever way it ends?".July 12, 1864 from Vicksburg, Mississippi, " I said in my last that our Regi had gone out towards Jackson, Miss. Well they have come back to the city again. There were five or six other Regiments with it. All the rest were badly cut up by the Rebels in superior numbers attacking them while they were on the way back. Our Regiment was extremely lucky. The 16th """" lost about 85 killed and wounded. and the 46th over a hundred. The 124th had one man shot. One of our company Bill """"" whose brother was killed during the seige had his canteen bursted and didnt get hurt by the shell at all. Capt. Field had a narrow escape. All the Regiments went out again but the 8th and ours, and they will probably remain a while". July 31,1864 from Vicksburg, Mississippi, " In consequence of each Trade Regulations and hostile Batheries along the river, boats do not come down as often as usual. Now if we have a boat once a week we feel lucky. Since the """ was sunk, i have been informed several others have been stuck on sand bars and the Olive Branch sunk. Navigation at the present taking all things into consideration is extremely hazardous". August 27 1864, from Vicksburg , Mississippi, " There is some talk of this place being attacked soon. But we are ampily prepared for them. They will not get out as they did at Memphis.... End of letter states, "Since writing the above i have been detailed in the "District Head Quarters Printing Office and there are only two of us and we have two large rooms and an outer kitchen in a nice brick house.... I stand pretty high at the head quarters and that notice of me in the paper is partly the cause of it. I have been placed in charge of it hon, and can do as i please. (Blue paper card mentions The District head quarters printing office).October 4, 1864 at headquarters District Printing Office Vicksburg, Mississippi, " As i marked in my last, i want you to use all your influence in the selection of the OLD ABE as out Next President. You will then be some help towards subduing our enemies. end of letter says " so aunt says you wont come down here. I know the reason it is because Lincoln will be elected and the Rebels will quit fighting and i can go home to you, thats it". March 25, 1865 at Headquarters Department of Mississippi Vicksburg," I received a paper i suppose Mit sent me containing the notice (such a good notice too), of dear little Franks funeral William Wickersham to his father Milton F. Wickersham on December 9, 1862, "Prisoners continue to arrive every day and a good many are taking the oath. the kind i sent in Maggies letter which your humble servant printed for the poor deluded fellows. Our office is getting in working trim and we turn out more work ever day.... Yesterday Grants portable printing office arrived in a state of "py" and one of the boys wanted to drive us and had already received a specimen of our work, was not going to see us "ousted" in that manner notwithstanding the boys claimed authority from Grant to take possession of the establishment over the way".Martha Osborn to her half-sister Margaret G. Wickersham on March 23, 1864, "I think you ought to stay with Sue if she wants you to if you can be any help to her. I suppose that Hawkins will draw his pay pretty soon, but you are so impatient you think you cant have all of your wants and i dont think you ought to complain so much and write all your little trouble to Hawkins for he has trouble enough of his own you ought to help him to hear his in the place adding your to his he knows how hard it is for you to live the way ou do with you continually reminding him of it you ought to try and do the best you can and write as cheerful letters to him as you can he will think a good deal more of you for your patience think how he must feel when he gets a letter from you full of your troubles when perhaps he has been on a long march and is tired and hungry and wants something to cheer him".Stuber a friend in service to William H. Wickersham on January 29, 1865, "Since you left us, we was sometimes pressed very hard with work and i could not get a half a day for my own private business. Applications for my relief has been made to the General by the Command Officer.... I have made up my mind to serve my time out in a printing office. Abe and I were both very much pleased with your kind offer but we could not come off from here just now. I am compelled to have another man detailed in our office for about ten days, to help me to work out about 8 or 10 pages of Court Martial. after this we can spare him again. The mans name is James Thomas, private Company B... if you should be able to send him a detail from Memphis he would state off immediately". Margaret G. Wickersham to her husband William H. Wickersham on April 25,1865, " You know what is good for me and i know you will make it all up when you come. which i hope will not be long, by the time you get this letter April will be gone and the next month you will be home. You had better wait until the last of the month and then get a forty days furlough. Dont be to Buckward to tell them that you have not been home in three years. Send me the Vicksburg paper hone i dont get much news here but i suppose from what i have heard that many are on the way from Washington with Lincolns body, now i would like to be in Springfield to the burring but i cant be in two places at once.... I read out the fight in Spanish Fort and the names of the killed and wounded,and was glad to see that there was none of Company C. but one and his name was Bruce if i am not mistaken Margaret Wickersham to William H Wickersham May 18, 1865, "I hope the next letter will when you will start home, oh hon i dont believe you try hard enough or you certainly could get a furlough you are entitled to one......Your old friends are very anxious to see you and seem disappointed when i tell them that i dont know when you will be home. I cant help but feel uneasy about the long trip you have to take on the steamboats, but you are in gods hands. and i pray for your safe arrival daily...... O i thought i never could feel good again after Franks death but all things are possible with god and with his help i now enjoy good health and peace of mind".William H Wickersham to his wife Margaret Wickersham during his service (unknown date)," I cant get a furlough no way i can fix it. The Colonels cant either. I dont really know where to direct this letter, but i will send it to Pa and he will forward it to you. We have got sick and tired of looking for teh Paymaster. He is reported every day that he is near. I am almost afraid to risk sending money through the uncertain channel we have now. It is particularly unsafe to send it as soon as we are paid and to any Mrs. I will direct it to Maggie Wickersham to drive off suspicion Letter to unknown on written on unknown date," The news of President Lincolns assassination struck the hearts of every loyal person in Memphis like a Thunderbolt in my life has anything affected me so deeply and in common with every soldier and citizen."Letter to unknown unknown date from William Hawkins," I am very glad to be able to get rid of the cold rainy weather to camp life, as it has happened that our boys have been in no fight, but i should Lote it they were in a fight and me safe in the office.....Im for the "inoloted military posts" by that about stant that we are not ready for a fight for we have our guns all ready for Rebel Raids..... I would like to get about a months furlough , but it cant be "did:. There is no chance of rising any higher in this branch of the service". letter to unknown unknown date," I hear that the Banks Expedition has turned up at Newborn, North Carolina. Also that Burside had to fall back from the Rappahannock and that Bragg had been fighting our boys at Jackons Tennessee.The troops are passing through here as i write... The citizens here never have believed that we had so many soldiers". William Hawkins Wickersham was born March 7, 1833 in Versailles, Woodford County Kentucky. Married Margaret Green Wickersham (Eubank) on January 30,1861 in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois and had 9 Children William Passed in his residence at East Adams Street in Springfield, Sangamon County Illinois after a week long illness (paralysis of the stomach)... ............See Images**** (Condition: Pre-Owned)

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