Civil War Letters

William S. Craig did not mind life in the 116th Illinois
Infantry regiments, but, he wrote his wife, he didn't like
what it was doing to many of his fellow soldiers. It was
thoughts of his family kept him from following their path:

"This rebellion will be the ruination of thousands
of men. They have become hardened to everything. Neither
cares for God nor man and I among the rest but I still feel
for my fellow man. I have not forgotten the kind words and
sweet invitation that has been offered to me even from my
loving wife. Still I have become hardened more than ever
I did in my life. Still I am a believer of everything that
is good."

Introduction

The writer of the letters, William Samuel
Craig, was born in Nicholas County, Kentucky on January 8,
1832. He is my great-grandfather. His family moved to McLean
County, Illinois when he was around 15 years old. After 1852,
he went to the state of Missouri where he married Levica Payne
on July 11, 1858. They raised a family of three children.

During an economical panic soon after his
marriage, William Samuel Craig was said to have done farm labor
four miles from his home for $10 a month which supported he
and his wife, but only by strict budgeting.

He enrolled in the Illinois Infantry Volunteers
on August 11, 1862 at Cheny's Grove and was mustered in on
September 6, 1862 at Decatur, Illinois as a private in Captain
Bishop's Company, 116 Reg't Ill.Inf. which subsequently became
Co. F, 116 Reg't Ill.Inf. From the original records received
from the National Archives Trust Fund in Washington, D.C.,
I was able to track William Samuel Craig's military facts.
For instance, on the Company Muster Roll for October 31, 1862
he was reported absent and "sick and on furlough seven
days." Again on the Muster Roll for September and October,
1864, he was "absent on furlough of 30 days from East
Point, GA." There were many others, of course, but one
of the most interesting to me was the one which said he was
mustered out in Washington, D.C. on June 7, 1865 which ties
in with the last letter he wrote to his wife.

There was also a Company Descriptive Book
which gave this personal information on him:  He was 5'
6" tall, dark complexion, grey eyes, dark hair, born Nickolas
(sic) Co., Ky., and was a farmer by occupation.

On June 19, 1880, he applied for "Original
Invalid Pension" and further states that while in the
service and "in the line of duty at Vicksburg, Mississippi
on or about the tenth day of June 1863" he received two
gunshot wounds, one in his right leg 4" below the knee
joint, and the other in the right hip. On or about the 28th
day of July 1864, he was again wounded in the Battle at Atlanta,
Georgia with gunshot wounds in his left shoulder, the bullet
striking him in front and passing over his shoulder cutting
some of his [unreadable part of record]. He was wounded the
third time on August 18, 1864 by a gunshot wound into his right
eye at Atlanta, Georgia.

On November 29, 1909, he was in the National
Military Home in Leavenworth County, Kansas. On March 13, 1913,
William Samuel Craig died in Norborne, Missouri. He was laid
to rest beside his wife in the "Old Stemple Cemetery" and
on April 13 dropped from pension records.