Went from the State into other State organizations, 30,700 men, swelling the grand total to the figures given above. Of the Illinois soldiers, nearly one thousand died in the prison pens of Andersonville; many thousands of disease contracted in the line of duty, and many thousands fell in the many fearful struggles which characterized our war. It is to be regretted, that the whole number of Illinois soldiers who died in the field, and from causes produced by the war, cannot readily be ascertained. True, the very able report of Adjutant General Haynie contains all that information, but to obtain it one must wade through the entire report of over 6,000 pages, and gather the items from the personal history of 256,000 men-a work so appalling that we must beg to be excused. As a further evidence of the patriotism and devotion of our noble State during the dark hours of the war, we find that there was paid by its citizens, in bounties and aid to soldiers' families, the sum of $15,307,074.48. This speaks with ten-fold force for Illinois. It might have been said that the loyal men who went out to do battle, were not the true representatives of the State; but when back of them, the pain-throbbing hearts smothered back their cries of anguish, and bent all the energies of the soul in giving moral and material aid and support to those at the front, there remains no place whereon to pin a cavil. All stand alike; all entitled to equal honor. The war-bronzed soldier ; the grey-haired sire, within whose eye age has not dimmed the fires of patriotism; the mother, weeping the loss of her darling; the maimed and broken victim of war's dread power; the sombre-clad widow; children, desolate in their orphanage ; the strong man, whose shoulders bear the burdens of taxation, and the countless dead; all, all may stand in motley throng before earth's great tribunal, and receive the plaudits of an admiring world. In Part II of our work we shall be called upon to give a more extended record of the war, in connection with the his LOTHROP'S CHAMPAIGN COUNTY DIRECTORY. 99 tory of the County, and will therefore dismiss this subject for the present. We have no room for the great men of our State. To undertake a sketch of their lives in this work must result in injustice to their memory; and this is our apology. The names of Illinois statesmen and warriors are familiar throughout the State and nation. They have rendered the State of Illinois illustrious by their profound learning and deeds of daring. They stand as bright monuments, landmarks alike to the humble and the ambitious, presenting examples worthy of imitation. |