The Bonds of War:
A Story of Immigrants and Esprit de Corps
in Company C, 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by Diana L. Dretske
“Engaging the Civil War” Series
Southern Illinois University Press,
2021
Click here for ordering information
When curator Diana L. Dretske discovered that the five long-gone Union soldiers in a treasured photograph in the Bess Bower Dunn Museum were not fully identified, it compelled her into a project of recovery and reinterpretation. Utilizing an impressive array of local and national archives, as well as private papers, the author’s microhistorical approach records events that often go unnoticed, such as a farmer enlisting in the middle of a crop field, a sister searching her brother’s face for signs of war, and an immigrant dying in an effort to become a good American citizen.
This book, the most intensive examination of the 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry since the regiment’s history was published in 1887 centers on immigrants from the British Isles who wished to be citizens of a country at war with itself. Far removed from their native homelands, they found new promise in rural Illinois. These men, neighbors along the quiet Stateline Road in Lake County, decide to join the fighting at its most dangerous hour. The bonds of war become then the bonds of their new national identity.
The Bonds of War uncovers the common soldier from the cataclysm that is the American Civil War by offering a collective biography of five soldiers of the 96th in the Western Theater. The human drama of their lives unfolds before the reader on battlefields such as Chickamauga and within the high pine stockades of Andersonville. Their lives argue that those who seem to matter least in military history are the very ones who can tell us the most about the experience of war and the reasons for remembering.
The “Engaging the Civil War” Series is published by Southern Illinois University Press in collaboration with Emerging Civil War. Click here for a full list of our titles and ordering information.
Publications in this Series
The Bonds of War
by Diana Dretske * * * The Bonds of War offers a unique look at the esprit de corps between men from the same Illinois hometown with similar but dissimilar immigrant experiences. More than a regimental history, Diana Dretske’s book provides a window into the wartime experience of an entire community. Here are […]
The Bonds of War: Edward Murray’s Pension Application
by Diana Dretske * * * Copy of Edward Murray’s “Application for Increase of Invalid Pension.” The application dated March 5, 1867, gives an account of Murray’s disability due to wounds suffered at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863. On the form, Murray noted that he had been “shot between the […]
The Bonds of War: Edward and Nancy Murray home
by Diana Dretske * * * Edward and Nancy Murray home on Stateline Road in Lake County, Illinois When Edward Murray and Nancy Dixon married in February 1853, they lived with Edward’s parents on the family’s homestead along Stateline Road in Lake County, Illinois. After the birth of their second child in spring […]
The Bonds of War: John Y. Taylor letter to his sister
by Diana Dretske * * * John Y. Taylor letter to his sister Isabella Low Days before the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, on September 20, 1863, Scottish immigrant, John Y. Taylor of Company C, 96th Illinois, wrote a letter to his sister Isabella Low in Lake County, Illinois. John and his older brother, […]
The Bonds of War: Lt. Col. Isaac L. Clarke
by Diana Dretske * * * Lt. Col. Isaac L. Clarke (1824-1863) Isaac L. Clarke, was an associate principal and teacher at the abolitionist-leaning Waukegan Academy in Waukegan, Illinois from 1848-1850, and subsequently a lawyer. In 1862, he raised a company of men, and on the formation of the 96th Illinois was elected […]
The Bonds of War: New Flag for 96th Illinois
by Diana Dretske * * * “New Flag for 96th Ill.,” Waukegan Weekly Gazette, November 7, 1863 Article in the Waukegan Weekly Gazette announcing a subscription to raise money to procure a new flag for the “glorious 96th Reg’t.” After the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863, the citizens of Lake and […]
The Bonds of War: Mother of the Regiment
by Diana Dretske * * * “Mother of the Regiment,” Mrs. Gen. John C. Smith Mrs. Charlotte Gallagher Smith was affectionately called the “Mother of the Regiment” by the soldiers of the 96th Illinois. Charlotte Smith (1838-1915) was the wife of Lt. Col. John C. Smith (1932-1910) of Galena, Illinois. Mrs. Smith and […]
The Bonds of War: Imprisoned Members of the 96th Illinois
by Diana Dretske * * * List of 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Soldiers from Lake County Imprisoned at Camp Sumter/Andersonville “Some of our men, taken prisoners, endured all that could be endured, and cannot be described, of the miseries and horrors of Libby and Andersonville. How many of the wounded, how many of […]
