The Chicago Light Artillery at Vicksburg

Abstract

On December 14, 1862, in army camps surrounding city of Memphis, Tennessee, Israel Parsons Rumsey, young artillery officer, put pen to paper to write chatty letter to his young brother, Franke. Life in occupied Southern city was rough, and featured plenty of street crime, gambling, prostitution, and overcrowding due to presence of thousands of soldiers and refugees. People of all colors and conditions fled to Mississippi River city from ruin of war. Parsons Rumsey took break from all of that to tell Franke about his favorite horse, Doctor.Doctor was spirited mount, a good sized bay without white hair on him, which Rumsey had trained for all kinds of tricks. Doctor responded only to his owner. The animal would lie down on command to let Rumsey step on or off him. He would kick on command. Laughing at him would result in wild attempt to throw his rider. Rumsey's men, the boys, kept their distance, but also enjoyed gathering to watch their lieutenant and Doctor play. Writing for his childish audience, Parsons concluded that Doctor is pet... and I have lots of fun with him.1Five months service at Memphis had been fairly easy on veterans of Battery A and Battery B, First Illinois Light Artillery, better known to their hometown as The Chicago Light Artillery. There were camps to lay out, and maintenance of guns and equipment provided daily chores. The officers did not let up on drill. A number of expeditions into interior, chases after elusive guerillas or Confederate cavalry raiders, provided diversions, but no action. The veterans welcomed quiet time because year-and-a-half in service provided as much combat as any glory-hungry youth could wish. Between them batteries fought in five battles, including rough affair at Fort Donelson and breathtaking slaughter of Shiloh. A month of constant maneuver and entrenching, interspersed with several dangerous engagements, characterized successful campaign against Corinth, Mississippi. A scorching summer operating in thick forests and fetid swamps of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi finally brought them to period of rest in Memphis.Rumsey and the boys enjoyed plenty of time for writing, and for noticing world as it changed around them. Few of youngsters met person of African descent before entering army, much less an enslaved person. A fiery but abstract patriotism swept them into ranks in 1861, combined with wrath at what they viewed as treacherous Southerners who dared to break up United States. They felt lucky to win billets with famous pre-war militia unit, The Chicago Light Artillery. As members of this proud unit they represented, perhaps more in some minds than thousands of infantry hailing from Chicago, burgeoning metropolis.But season spent in Memphis gave them peek at seemingly foreign society within their country. In this city, and in all of country around it, slavery was ubiquitous, and part of everyday life, not political issue open for debate. Yet, quick look at local contraband camps, crowded with refugees of all colors subject to enslavement, brought slavery issue to fore as single and obvious cause of conflict, and slavery's overthrow as key to concluding it. Enoch Colby of Battery A acknowledged as much when admitting to his father that almost every man in army supported using black men, in some way, to put down rebellion, even though many would have mutinied at commencement [of war] if such policy had been adopted. All eyes, Colby thought, were now opened to exigencies of case. How that would be done was anybody's guess, although all were aware that on first of January President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect. By that date war would, somehow, change radically.2Change for Battery A, Captain Peter P. …