Published March 29, 2024
By Phil Reyburn
This illustration of Henry Castle is from the book,
History of the Seventy-Third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, The Preacher Regiment.
(Illustration Courtesy of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County.)
The idea to raise regiments of short-term service troops was first voiced by Ohio’s governor William Dennison Jr. who was a Whig and Republican. Dennison was soon backed by four more Midwest governors and Charles Smith Olden, the governor of New Jersey, who all sent a letter to Washington, D.C. The plan was for 100-day regiments to free-up veteran troops for combat.
Secretary of War Stanton liked the proposal, and President Lincoln approved it. Veteran regiments would be relieved from guarding railroads and key cities, and thus allowing the veterans to be forwarded to the front lines where they were needed.
In the West, the Hundred Days Men would take over much of the Union Armies’ lengthy supply and communication lines. Parts of the occupied South, however, was infested with guerillas, bushwhackers, and still subject to an enemy calvary raids. Thus, a large military presence was a necessary deterrent. Overall, the Union soldiers found this a dull, boring, but relatively safe duty.
The Quincy Herald, Monday, May 2, 1864 said: “In response to a call of the President of the United States . . . twenty thousand volunteers from the State will be accepted for Government service for one hundred days provided they are offered within twenty days from this date.” While the May 3rd Daily Whig reported that “The call for 20,000 hundred-day men from Illinois has thus far met with a most gratifying response.” The editor wrote that other State newspapers are filled with “encouraging accoun
ts of monster war meetings and vigorous volunteering. Indications are that we shall furnish our quota by the appointed time.”
It may not have been a monster meeting, but the Daily Whig for May 5th reported “a large and enthusiastic war meeting was held in Camp Point,” and one of the speakers was H. A. Castle. The 22-year-old Castle was more than words. His ad in the Daily Whig read: “HENRY A. CASTLE, late . . . of the 73d Illinois is raising a company for the Hundred Days Service. Let the young men of Quincy embrace this opportunity to form a company that the city will be proud of.”
In a letter to the Daily Whig dated May 9th, John Wood wrote: “To the Citizens of Adams County, Ill.—I have been authorized to recruit a Regiment infantry for 100 days. Being aware of the necessity of this force being organized within a short time, I respectfully urge all loyal citizens to aid me in this move, that Adams County, my home, may not be remiss in responding to the call made by the governor.”
The same issue announced that not only had “the venerable and patriotic Ex-Gov. Wood has been authorized by Gov. Yates to raise a Regiment . . . for 100 days service” he will also be the colonel.
At age 65 John Wood was still a vigorous man and considered the patriarch of Quincy and Adams County. If John Wood wanted to raise a regiment of Hundred Day Men, he had the prestige to do it. Wood was a proven doer.
John Wood had been elected Illinois’ first Republican Lt. Governor in 1856, and he became the state’s 12th governor when Henry Bissell died on March 18, 1860. In April 1862, Gov. Richard Yates appointed Wood the state’s Quartermaster General. Wood made several trips to the War Department, some with Yates, where he and Senators Trumbull and Browning pulled the necessary strings to equip the Prairie State’s volunteers.
The May 16th Quincy Daily Whig gave a local update on the progress of enlistment of One Hundred Day Men. The Whig wrote: “Recruiting for the one-hundred-day service is going on quite lively hereabouts. Almost every evening last week, war meetings in aid thereof were held in various parts of the county.” The Whig reported that “Last Saturday night a . . . meeting was held at Mendon under the auspices of Captain Castle, where some eight or ten men, we understand, were recruited for his company.”
A meeting at Augusta on Monday evening, May 16th, was addressed by General Prentiss and Henry A. Castle. The Whig claimed, “twenty or twenty-five recruits were obtained, who will make first rate soldiers. . ..”
The Quincy Daily Whig and Republican announced that on Friday, May 20th, the Quincy company, in John Wood’s regiment, “now numbers ninety men in camp . . ..” And that afternoon, the company elected officers. “On the first ballot Henry A. Castle was unanimously elected captain.”
The Whig and Republican wrote that “the company is composed about as follows: —Forty men from Quincy, twenty-five from Warsaw, fifteen from Augusta, and ten from Mendon—all being the picked men of their respective localities, recruited by Capt. Castle . . ..”
On June 5th, the John Wood’s newly raised regiment of 100-day men were mustered into federal service. Late afternoon on June 7th, with Col. John Wood riding at their head, the regiment marched to and formed at Washington Square. There the ladies of Quincy presented “a magnificent new regimental banner” to the now number 137th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After several speeches and cheers the men returned to Camp Wood.
On June 9th, the regiment was ordered to and left for Memphis, Tennessee. On arriving in Memphis, the 137th settled into a routine of guard and picket duty, leaving no time to drill and prepare for a fight.
Sources
“Citizen’s Present to Col. Wood.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, June 8, 1864, 3.
“Death of Mr. T. H. Castle.” Quincy Daily Whig, June 23, 1864, 8.
Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion. Des Moines, Iowa: The Dyer
Publishing Co, 1908.
“Fall In! Fall In! “ Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 5, 1864, 2.
“Flag Presentation.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, June 8, 1864, 3.
“Flag Presentation.” Quincy Daily Herald, June 13, 1864, 2.
Find a Grave. Henry Anson and Timothy Hunt Castle.
“Henry Castle Dies.” Quincy Daily Herald, August 17, 1916, 2.
A History of the Seventy-Third Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers. Springfield, Illinois, 1890.
“The Hundred-Day Men.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 3, 1864, 2.
“Hundred Day Men.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 16, 1864, 3.
Ives, Gideon S. “Captain Henry A. Castle.” Minnesota History Bulletin. Vol. 2, No. 1 (February 1,
1917).
The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White & Co., 1918.
“Recruiting.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 3, 1864, 2.
“Recruiting.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 4, 1864, 3.
Reyburn, Phil. “John Wood: Illinois’ Quarter Master General.” Quincy Herald-Whig, January 26,
2014, 5.
“The Quincy Company.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 23, 1864, 3.
“Who Wouldn’t Go.” Qunicy Daily Whig-Republican, May 14, 1864, 3.
