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I recently picked up the following letter on Ebay, written by Thomas Kimber Mills, who served in Company C, 124th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War. He was writing to his friend and fellow veteran John I. White, who had served with him in the 124th regiment. I really like this letter because it gives a wonderful description of the joys and heartaches of one veteran who was living in the mid-west during the late 19th century. In transcribing this letter, I have left the spelling, mistakes and all, just as Mills wrote it; The only editing I have done is to break the writing up into paragraphs to make the letter easier to read.
OFFICE OF
GRAND SECRETARY
IOWA LEGION OF HONOR
Cedar Rapids, Ia. October 26th, 1888
John I. White, Esq.
Jerseyville, Ill.
Dear Comrad,
Your kind & welcome letter duly at hand and carefully noted. Glad to hear that you are still living and enjoying some of life's blessings. A
happy home, wife, children and friends. Mrs. Mills is still living and joins me in kind regards and best wishes to you and yours.
We have had 5 children born to us. 3 daughters & 2 sons. Our eldest 3 daughters & one son are still with us. Our youngest son died when only about 15 months old with diptheria in Dec. 1882. Our youngest daughter who was at that time nearly 16 years old was drowned July 29th, 1885, at which time I came very near being drowned & was so reported in the papers. I was unconsious for a full half hour after I was taken from the water.
We were camping out several miles below Cedar Rapids at the time and were in bathing when the terrible accident happened. There were some 9 or 10 young ladies from 15 to 20 years of age with us. Mrs. M. and myself being the only married persons present. There were also 2 or 3 boys 15 to 18 yrs. old in the party. We went up above the camp about ¼ mile where a large ravine came down to the river & at the mouth was a large sand bar. This sand bar was covered with water. The river being pretty well up, and we not knowing there was any danger, selected that place to go in bathing.
Several of the girls wanted to learn to swim and I took them one at a time out where the water was waist deep and hold them up and let them try to swim back to the edge of the water. I had held 5 or 6 of the girls up in this manner when my youngest daughter Hollis who was up near the high rock at the upper side of the sand bar called to me and says, “Papa you have not taken me out yet, I want to learn to swim.” I told her to come to me and I would take her out next. She started towards me & I went to meet her. When we met we started out towards the river and went over the ledge into a whirlpool 22 ft. deep.
We called for help, and Miss Grace Noll come to try to help us but got in as did also her sister. The latter was rescued by a young gentleman & lady who were in a skift near where we were. They with others rescued me also after I had raised & floated over 100 yards from where we went down. Our daughter Hollis & her friend & schoolmate (who was about the same age) were drowned. This was on Wednesday evening and we did not find their bodies until Saturday about noon. I never had anything to so completely take away all my strength and leave me so completely helpless. It was a terrible blow to Mrs. M. who was on the bank and saw all without being able to render any assistance until I was brought to shore. God grant that you nor any other of my friends may ever be called upon to pass through a similar experience.
After I came home from the army I was not able to do much for a year or two. We went on a farm where we remained until the spring of 1874, when we sold out & went to Lincoln, Ills., lived there until the summer of 1877, when we mooved to Cedar Rapids where we have since resided. The first 2 or 3 yrs., we were here I was in the subscription book business as Genl. Agent for the Western Publishing House of Chicago, Illinois. In March 1879, we organized a mutual life insurance society called the “Iowa Legion of Honor,” of which order I was elected the Secretary, and have been re-elected at each Grand Lodge meeting since that time. We now have nearly 5000 members, and have had to make during the entire time 98 assments on our members of #1 each, out of the proceeds of which we have paid to the widows & heirs of deceased members of our order 226 claims of #2000, each or #452,000, all of which we know has gone where it was intended and has done a vast amount of good to those dependent upon our Bro. Members.
For the past 7 or 8 years I have given my entire time & attention to the order. For the past 4 or 5 years my second daughter has helped me in my office work. For the past year & ½ my oldest daughter has been book – keeper and cashier for the Cedar Rapids Pump Co., and Charles the youngest of our children that are living. (He was 21 last march) is a civil engineer and is now located at Bisbee, Cochise Co., Arizona, where he has the position of Asst. Engineer for the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co., the largest copper mining Co in the U.S. and seems to like his situation well.
I recd. a postal card to day from Capt. H.L. Field, which gave me the address of comrad C.B. Thatcher, he is located at Wichita, Kansas. I should be very glad indeed to meet any comrad of the old 124th. Please give my kindest regards to any and all of them you may meet, and tell them that the latch string always hangs out for any of them who can & will come & see me, and if living & well, will try and meet as many as possible at the next reunion of the regiment.
Comrad H.W. Beck was killed by the kick of one of his horses at his farm near Benton, Butler Co., Kansas, Mch. 5Th, 1886. He left a wife & 3 children in comfortable circumstances. Shall be glad to receive the copy of original roster of Co. “C,” & a letter from you or any of the other comrads whenever convenient to write me.
Truly Yours,
T.K. Mills
Thomas K. Mills enlisted in Company I, 124th Illinois Infantry, on August 13, 1862; on October 1 of that same year he transferred to Company C. His service with the regiment was rather short, as he was discharged for disability on June 3, 1863. (https://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/r155/124-c-in.html) His regiment, the 124th Illinois, spent much of its service in Mississippi. They took part in the 1863 Vicksburg campaign, and afterwards remained in and about Vicksburg on garrison duty until February 1865.
I did some research, and was able to find some background on some of the soldiers that Thomas K. Mills mentioned in his letter. The missive was written to John Irving White, who had served as 1st sergeant in Company C, 124th Illinois Infantry. He enlisted September 10, 1862, and was discharged for disability on June 10, 1863. He went home to Jerseyville, Illinois, where he lived until his death on April 10, 1924.
Another soldier that the letter spoke of was Henry L. Field, who was Mills' company commander. Field was slightly wounded during the battle of Champion Hill, but survived the war and was promoted to major of the 124th Illinois in 1865. In a supplement to the regimental history of the 124th Illinois, Field wrote,
"that he had never thought so much of the old regiment, to which he had the honor of belonging, as since reading over, in this connected way, the record of its history. And as he now casts about and has the evidence that a large number of its surviving members are filling places of honor and trust in the various walks of life, the conviction deepens that every man who belonged thereto has reason to recall, with pride, his connection with the regiment." (History of the 124th Regiment by R.L. Howard, 1880, page 494)
The next person mentioned was C.B. Thacher, and that name immediately sounded familiar the first time I read the letter. I did some looking through my collection, and sure enough, I turned up the following postcard:
Charles B. Thacher enlisted in Company C, 124th Illinois Infantry, on September 10, 1862. He was discharged from the regiment in July 1864 to take a promotion to 1st Sergeant in Company L, 5th United States Colored Heavy Artillery. By November of that same year, he had been promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in Company I of the regiment. Born in New York, but raised in Canada, Thacher moved to Illinois before the start of the Civil War, and when the conflict started "he shouldered a musket and marched out in the defense of his country." (Wichita Daily Star, September 27, 1897)
Thomas K. Mills moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, after the war, where he was a valued member of the community. When he died on August 29, 1893, the local newspaper said of him in his obituary:
"Mr. Mills was one of our best citizens, and had won a wide circle of friends by his honest, straightforward manner of dealing with people and by his pleasant and agreeable address, as well as by a broad liberality of thought and action that stamped him as a man of unusual intelligence and force of character." (The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, August 30, 1893)