Civil War hits home – a Quincy lieutenant’s fatal journey

“There
was not a dry eye on the Square” when volunteer troops were ceremoniously
hailed and left Quincy on April 21, 1861, for Cairo and Camp Defiance located
at the tip of southern Illinois where the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers join.

Not
knowing what lay ahead, young Quincy men patriotically responded to President
Lincoln’s call for Union troops and volunteered for 90 days. The likelihood of
death on the battlefield was remote from their minds as they departed for their
mission.

One of
the first to enlist was 21-year-old William Shipley. Shipley had been raised
since youth by leading Quincy pioneers Orville and Eliza Browning, long-time
friends of Abraham Lincoln. Shipley left with 175 other men in the 10th
Regiment under Capt. Benjamin Prentiss and returned in July. German-born
William came back to the community that had embraced him years earlier when he
and his mother arrived from Germany. William’s father had died in Germany, and
his mother sought help to raise her son. William was around six years old when
he moved to the Browning home in 1845. A foster daughter, Emma Lord, joined the
family in 1853.

Lt.
Shipley re-enlisted in August in the 27th Illinois Regiment for three years.
The troops returned to Cairo and Shipley was again in camp with childhood
schoolmates. One of those friends was Captain William A. Schmitt, also of
Company A. While there he contracted an illness, which kept him in the hospital
for a time.

During
the fall months, Cairo regiments primarily practiced military drills. It was
November before the untrained troops had their first war experience. The
encounter was with an insignificant Confederate garrison at Belmont in southern
Missouri located across the Mississippi River from Columbus, Ky. It was the
first combat test for Ulysses S. Grant, who had recently taken over the new
assignment at Cairo. The goal was to secure Belmont.

Because
Belmont had a small garrison, it was deemed an ideal place for the
inexperienced young soldiers to get a taste of battle. Forces engaged in battle
on Nov. 7 at what became known as the Battle of Belmont.

Newspaper
records have left a detailed account of Shipley’s fate at Belmont. Shipley’s
commanding officer, Col. Napoleon Buford, wrote that Lt. Shipley and Capt.
William Schmitt, in command of Company A of the first platoon, led the way in
the first advance. Shipley escaped injury early in the engagement when a musket
ball struck a testament in his pocket. Later in the day, while retreating at 4
p.m. And within a mile of the boats and safety, Shipley was wounded by another
musket ball that passed through his body from side to side. Wounded soldiers
had to be left on the field until morning. Under a flag of truce at dawn,
Shipley was found still lucid. During the night he had been stripped of his
money, his watch and weapons. Taken aboard ship to return to Cairo around 10
a.m., Shipley was surrounded by comrades and rational to the last moments. He
died just before reaching camp. One of Shipley’s old school friends, F.T.
Moore, said, “It was a sad sight … to see Lt. Shipley lying on his bier
still and pale with those two wicked-looking holes in his side.”

The
Brownings received the distressing word that Shipley was among the missing on
Friday evening, Nov. 8. In his diary Browning expressed fear that he may have
been killed. The next day Browning wrote that he had received news that
Shipley’s body had been recovered. Word of his death had come one week after
William’s 22nd birthday. One of the editors of the Browning diary, Theodore
Calvin Pease, wrote in the introduction that upon hearing news of William’s
death “Browning mourned … as many would have mourned for a son.”
These were dark hours for the Browning family. Eliza and Orville’s only child,
a son, was stillborn in 1843.

Shipley’s
coffin arrived on the train at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, accompanied by Gen.
Prentiss and a military honor guard. The funeral took place in the Browning
mansion at Seventh and Hampshire at 3 p.m. The community mourned. Massive
crowds, including William’s mother and an uncle, paid their last respects
filling the house William had known as home for 16 years. A crowd of mourners
also assembled on the grounds of the mansion, the sidewalks and the street for
some distance.

During
the funeral service, letters of condolence from Colonel and Mrs. Buford from
Camp Defiance were read. “Owing to his sickness,” said Mrs. Buford,
” … I became better acquainted with him than I otherwise could have
done. I persuaded him to go to the hospital, and while there I saw him nearly
every day.” When the troops were leaving, Shipley was to remain in command
of the post to assist Mrs. Buford. Mrs. Buford wrote, “I cannot express
the sorrow I felt as the companies filed by my quarters and the officers
saluted me. Lieutenant Shipley gave me one of his brightest, sweetest smiles as
he lifted his sword. I longed to say, “Stop, you are not to go.'”

After
the funeral an immense convoy of carriages with military, friends, numerous
home guard units, cadets and two companies of a Missouri cavalry participated
in the large procession to Woodland Cemetery.

Although
Quincy’s first fallen soldier happened to have come from a family of prominence
and privilege, Shipley, like any other common soldier, had been ready to do his
part. The poignant story of Lt. Shipley’s eagerness to volunteer, followed by
his untimely death, brings to the forefront a community-felt loss.

Although
Union soldiers claimed victory at Belmont, later newspaper accounts indicated
that Grant did not accomplish much in the operation. However, losses were
severe. Union losses totaled 607 men dead, captured or missing. The enemy’s
loss was 642 men.

Shipley’s
grave was originally marked with a Civil War military stone stating simply his
name and regiment. To further honor Shipley’s place in community history, a
granite stone covering his grave was added in 2006 to identify Shipley as the
foster son of the Brownings and the first Quincy Civil War casualty.

The
grim statistics of lives lost during the war is most often cited as 620,000
dead. Proportionally, this would compare to 6 million Americans today.

Iris
Nelson is reference librarian and archivist at the Quincy Public Library, a
civic volunteer, member of the Lincoln-Douglas Debate Interpretive Center
Advisory Board and other historical associations. She’s a local historian and
author.

Sources:

Pease,
Theodore Calvin and James G. Randall, eds. The Diary of Orville Hickman
Browning. Volume 1, 1850-1864. Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Historical
Society, 1925.

“Counting
Civil War Casualties Week-by-Week,” Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
and Museum, accessed August 21, 2011,

“Funeral
of Lieut. Shipley,” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 14, 1861.

“Death
of Lieut. Shipley,” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 16, 1861.

“The
Battle at Belmont,” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 23, 1861.

“From
Cairo,” Quincy Whig & Republican, November 23, 1861.

“Col.
Buford’s Report of the Battle of Belmont,” Quincy Whig & Republican,
January 4, 1862.

“Vindication of Captain Schmitt and Lieutenant
Shipley,” Quincy Whig & Republican, January 11, 1862.