The Death of George Bond Jr.

In the spring of 1864, as the War of the Rebellion entered its fourth year, both the North and the South were finding it difficult to raise troops. To fill the ranks, the Northern states offered bounties, but they still were forced to draft men. The draft was unpopular, as was allowing drafted men to hire a substitute. A solution for the manpower dilemma the Governor of Ohio suggested, and the Lincoln Administration adopted, was the recruitment of regiments to serve 100 days. These short-term troops would release veteran regiments from non-combat rear echelon duty. The Hundred Days Men, as they were now called, would guard railroads, supply depots, and key cities. Their presence would hopefully deter rebel calvary raids and keep bushwhackers and pro-rebel guerillas under control.

Quincy’s Herald announced on May 2, 1864, that State of Illinois offered to provide 20,000 Hundred Days Men in 20 days. By May 5^th, Henry A. Castle, former sergeant major of the 73^rd Illinois Infantry and honorably discharged due to a wound received at the Battle of Stones River, held a recruitment rally at Camp Point. More gatherings took place in Quincy and the surrounding communities. The Daily Whig for May 14^th printed a letter from John Wood stating that he had been authorized by Governor Yates to recruit a regiment of infantry to serve for 100 days. Former Governor Wood wrote that it was necessary to raise the regiment in a short time frame; and he therefore urged the loyal citizens of Adams County to aid him in this endeavor and respond to the governor’s call.

Coming forward and enlisting in Henry Castle’s company was 18-year-old George Bond, Jr. In 1834, his father along “with a party of Eastern people” came to Quincy. Over time George Bond, Sr., became one of Quincy’s leading businessmen. At times he was a partner with James D. Morgan, who during the Civil War rose to the rank of brevet major general. With his father’s wealth and influence, there was no reason for Bond, Jr., to join this last call for volunteers. However, he did. Whether his decision was due to a feeling of patriotism, honor, or duty, he chose to enlist. Bond, Sr. may have had misgivings about his only son’s decision, but by the summer of 1864, the war’s end looked near. Grant had Lee tied down in a siege at Petersburg, and Sherman was slowly surrounding Atlanta. What harm could come to his son? He would spend the summer far away from the fighting and be home in 100 days.

John Wood’s regiment, the 137th Illinois Infantry, was mustered in on June 5^th. Two days later, in their new uniforms, the regiment with Wood leading marched to Washington Park where the ladies of Quincy presented the men with a regimental flag. A large crowd turned out on June 16^th to see the regiment’s 928 men depart on the steamer Die Vernon for Memphis, Tennessee. The Quincy Herald wrote that “company [A] raised in this city comprised some of our finest young men and the sons of some of our very best citizens . . ..” It is safe to say that the men who headed down the Mississippi River that day just wanted to do their bit in stamping out treason and putting an end to slavery.

The summer of 1864, saw six thousand Union soldiers and sailors garrisoned in Memphis. The city was also a major medical center for wounded Union soldiers, who were shipped to Memphis’s 15 military hospitals. The Federal government housed Confederate sympathizers in the hell-hole Irving Block Prison. Memphis was a large military cantonment. The 137^th was assigned picket duty on the Hernando Road which led south to Northern Mississippi. The regiment settled into a routine of drill and guard duty.

Even in the backwaters of the war, camp life was fraught with danger. A Civil War soldier was more apt to die of disease than a Minnie ball. The Daily Whig and Republican reported that the 137^th’s first death came on June 25. The regimental surgeon, Dr. William A. Huston of Macomb, died after a short, four-day illness. The 137^th would lose 32 men to disease. Like every day since the 137th’s arrival, Memphis was surrounded by mounted cavalry sentinels and infantry pickets placed to give warning of enemy intruders or an attack. But all of this was to no avail. In the predawn hours of August 21^st, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest, using a thick fog and a ruse that his men were Union cavalry coming in, led 2,000 horsemen thundering down the Hernando Road.

In an August 22^nd letter to the Daily Whig and Republican, Capt. Castle wrote that Co. A was camped next to Hernando Road when “the advance of the rebel raiders came dashing past, at full speed, firing upon us as they passed . . .. We formed on the company parade ground, loaded our guns and fought them for some time . . . until ordered down to join the regiment . . ..” The regiment, though unorganized at first, checked the rebel advance and turned them into another road.

Firefights erupted wherever Union forces held their ground. Fifty or so 137^th men took refuge in the State Female College, where, coincidently, Col. John Wood lay sick. Fortunately, for Col. Wood the men held off the rebel attackers. By noon, the rebels were gone, and Capt. Castle stated the raid was a failure. The 137^th’s Chaplain H. P. Roberts reported 7 were killed on the field, 10 died from wounds, and one prisoner was bayoneted to death. One of those fatally wounded was George Bond, Jr. His body was returned to Quincy laid to rest in Woodland Cemetery.

The September 12, 1864,Quincy Herald: “Though but nineteen years of age, he died a hero, for he died in the path of duty and honor and has consecrated on all our hearts an imperishable memory of an undrafted, voluntary and noble patriotism, who, at the first possible opportunity, sought to serve his country.

“The ‘vacant chair’ will tenderly recall his absence in the sorrowing home. We shall bury his mortal remains in the beautiful cemetery near by the Father of Waters, where birds in summertime will sing his requiem, and the wind shall sound his dirge, and the waters murmur their melancholy lay.”

Phil Reyburn is a retired field representative for the Social Security Administration. He authored Clear the Track: A History of the Eighty-ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, The Railroad Regiment, and co-edited “Jottings from Dixie: The Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleharty, U.S.A.”

Sources:

“Death of Mr. George Bond.” Quincy Weekly Whig, August 30, 1877, 8.

“Death of the Surgeon of 137^th Illinois.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, July 11, 1864, 1.

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.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, June 8, 1864, 3.

“Flag Presentation.” Quincy Daily Herald, June 13, 1864, 2.

“From the 137^th.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, July 20, 1864, 2.

“From the 137^th.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, August 27, 1864, 2.

“From Memphis Raid.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, September 3, 1864, 2.

“The Hundred-Day Men.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, May 3, 1864, 2.

“The Hundred Days’ Regiment.” The Quincy Herald, June 20, 1864, 1.

“The late George Bond.” Daily Quincy Herald, August 23, 1877, 3.

“Later from the 137^th Regiment.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, September 5, 1864, 2.

“Obituary.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, September 12, 1864, 3.

“Who Wouldn’t Go.” Quincy Daily Whig-Republican, May 14, 1864, 3.