History of the 4th Illinois Cavalry

4th Illinois Cavalry
Regiment History


Adjutant General's Report

August 1861, Judge T. Lyle Dickey, of Ottawa, LaSalle county, was 
authorized by the Secretary of War to raise and organize a regiment of 
cavalry.

Some time afterwards, but before the Regiment was complete, a 
controversy arose between the Secretary of War and Governor Yates, in 
the settlement of which it was conceded that the Governor should 
commission the officers selected by Dickey, and the organization went 
upon the record as the Fourth Illinois Cavalry.

On the 26th day of September 1861, the Regiment was mustered into the 
U.S. military service and soon after took up its line of march for 
Springfield where it received its arms, which were not removed from 
their cases, however, until the command arrived at Cairo.

Upon the arrival of the Regiment at Cairo, it went into camp upon the 
highest ground that could be found where and immense amount of labor was 
done by the command in the way of log rolling and clearing before a 
decent camp could be arranged.

Very shortly after getting settled Company C, commanded by Captain Chas. 
E. Townsend was detached and sent to Big Muddy as a bridge guard, and 
Company A, commanded by Captain E. D. Osband, was detached to serve as 
escort to General U.S. Grant, in whose service it continued until August 
1863.

In December 1861, when the reconnoissance of Columbus was ordered, the 
Fourth Illinois Cavalry, having been assigned to General McClernand's 
Division, moved with the rest of the army and became the advance body 
where it kept its place during the entire movement.

At the little village of Milburn, a short distance east of Columbus, 
Company H was selected to carry dispatches across the country to 
Mayfield, where it was supposed General C. F. Smith would be found, who 
had left Paducah at the time that General Grant had left Cairo. General 
Smith was found encamped a short distance from Mayfield, with whose 
force the Company camped until the next morning, and with which it moved 
back as far as the town. Company H then took up its line of march for 
the Headquarters of General McClernand.

Upon the return of the army to Cairo the Regiment went back to its old 
quarters, where it remained until the order for a movement upon Fort 
Henry, when it was loaded on steamers and went as far as Parsons' Ferry 
on the Tennessee River, and from thence by land to Panther Island, just 
below Fort Henry.

Early on the morning succeeding the arrival of the army below Fort Henry 
the Fourth was ordered to take the advance of General McClernand's 
Division and drive in the rebel pickets, which proved to be a light 
affair. Following them over the outer works, we were immediately 
followed by Colonel Oglesby's brigade of infantry, which took possession 
of the forts and a few prisoners, while we pursued the retreating rebels 
toward Fort Donelson, meeting with our first loss in the death of a 
private of Company I.

A few days afterward Colonel Dickey made a reconnoissance, with a part 
of the Regiment, of Fort Donelson, capturing a picket of about a dozen 
men. The Regiment moved in advance of General Grant's army upon Fort 
Donelson, and under General McClernand's command was engaged in that 
affair of snow and sunshine, rain and sleet.

Immediately following the surrender of Fort Donelson it moved out to 
Randolph Forges and encamped in and on the property of the Hon. John 
Bell & Co., one of the largest iron companies of Tennessee, where it 
remained until ordered back to the Tennessee River, opposite the mouth 
of the Sandy, where it encamped on the farm of a Major Grey, who had 
fought under Jackson at New Orleans.

It was loaded on steamers and started for Pittsburg Landing, stopping a 
short time at Savannah, and arrived in good time at the lower landing of 
Pittsburg, where it was disembarked and went into camp on the bluff just 
back of the graves of some rebels who had been killed by a part of the 
Thirty-second Illinois Infantry, which had been sent up the river as 
scouts a short time before.

At Pittsburg Landing it was removed from Gen. McClernand's Division and 
assigned to a brigade command by Brigadier General Louman, except 
Companies B, C and D, which were assigned to General Hurlbut's command, 
with which they remained until the week before the battle of the 6th and 
7th of April, when Companies E, F, G, H, I, K, L and M were assigned to 
General Sherman and were moved out to the extreme front on Saturday and 
went into camp on the left of the old church near the Fifty-third Ohio 
Infantry.

On the morning of the 6th, while eating breakfast, under quite a shower 
of bullets, the Regiment was ordered to mount at once and report to 
General Sherman.

Major M.R.M. Wallace, who was sick at the time, was ordered to proceed 
to the rear with such of the company and garrison equipage as could be 
loaded, and the writer, commanding Company H, was ordered to take 
command of the Second Battalion, consisting of E, F, G and H, which he 
retained until the close of the engagement.

After the battle of Pittsburg Landing,-or, more properly, Shiloh,-the 
Fourth was kept pretty constantly at work, scouting the front, and led 
the van in a raid upon Purdy and the railroad, capturing a train, 
destroying a considerable amount of track and several bridges.

When the army commenced its movement upon Corinth, after the arrival of 
General Halleck, that portion of the Regiment under Sherman took the 
advance upon the right, and continued to work day and night, until the 
explosion of ammunition in Corinth convinced General Halleck that 
Beauregard had succeeded in withdrawing his entire army from the place.

After entering Corinth, still in front of Sherman, the Regiment was 
slowly sent towards the west, finally reaching Memphis in August 1862, 
from which place it was moved in September to Trenton, on the line of 
the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, where it remained, scouting in every 
direction, until the movement down the line of that road and the 
Mississippi Central began, when, under Colonel Lee, of the Seventh 
Kansas, commanding a Brigade of Cavalry, it struck Vandorn and Price 
near Holly Springs, and followed them to near Coffeeville, where it lost 
Lieutenant Colonel McCullough in a night fight, and fell back to Water 
Valley, and with the withdrawal of General Grant back to the line of the 
Memphis and Charleston road, Moscow and Collierville.

From Moscow the writer, with Companies C, E, G and F, was sent to 
Bolivar, with orders to report to Brigadier General Brayman, who was in 
command at that point, and at the time of our arrival was obtaining 
forage by sending out a regiment of infantry and two pieces of artillery 
as a protection to his trains.

After staying at Bolivar about three weeks, the Regiment returned to its 
headquarters, then stationed at Collierville, where it remained until 
August 1863, when it was ordered to Vicksburg, where the Regiment was 
united, and remained until the expiration of its term of service.

After staying a few days at Vicksburg, the Regiment was sent to the 
Black River, and was brigaded with the Fifth Iowa Cavalry and Tenth 
Missouri, with Colonel Winslow for Brigade Commander.

From Vicksburg the Regiment was sent to Natchez, in the winter of 1863-
4, and kept busy scouring the country on both sides of the river, for 
wandering bands of the enemy generally, commanded by Colonel B. B. 
Farrar.

In the latter part of October 1864, we received an order covering that 
part of the Regiment that had not re-enlisted under the order for 
Veterans, to proceed to Springfield, Ill., to be mustered out of 
service.

When we left Cairo in February 1862, we had about 1,100 men. When we 
came back to that point in 1864, we had 340, who were mustered out at 
Springfield, November 1864.

The Veterans and recruits were consolidated with the Twelfth Illinois 
Cavalry at a later date.


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