LCGHS members hear about the 114th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War

[June 20, 2025]  At the June 16 Logan County Genealogical and Historical Society meeting, the program was about Civil War soldiers from Logan County. Stan Buckles of Mt. Pulaski presented the program.

LCGHS program chair Marla Blair introduced Buckles, who wrote a book called Not Afraid to go Anywhere. 1862-1865. A History of the 114th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Blair said the book talks about Logan County men who became soldiers and fought in the Civil War.

As Buckles started his presentation, he asked if anyone there was a Civil War buff. A few people nodded their heads. Buckles’ interest in the Civil War began when he was ten and visited Vicksburg, Gettysburg and other Civil War sites.

When Buckles started college, he first went to Bradley University then transferred to Millikin University where he got a degree in history. He has worked for the Department of Conservation as an interpreter, at Mt. Pulaski Courthouse and at Postville Courthouse.

In 1979, Buckles joined the reactivated regiment to get a feel for what the average soldier did, what they ate, what they carried and things like that.

Buckles always wanted to write a book but was not thinking about regiment history. He was actually researching to write a biography of John A. Mclernen, but someone else beat him to that.

Therefore, Buckles began researching the 114th regiment. Reactivations of the regiment started in 1969. Tuesday nights during the summer, the group does a flag lowering ceremony at Lincoln’s tomb. Buckles said they are the only group in the country who does anything like it.

2019 was the 50th anniversary of the reactivated regiment and Buckles discovered nothing special had been planned. He found out most of the reenactors knew nothing about the original regiment.

In just eight months, Buckles researched and wrote a book about the 114th regiment. He self-published, which took a lot of work. Buckles only published 200 copies of the first edition. He said they are almost sold out, but can be found at Books on the Square.

For the second edition, Buckles did a paperback copy, added an index and made some minor corrections.

After the book was first published, Buckles said people contacted him and said they have pictures and letters from family members who were in the regiment. Unfortunately, not many of the regiment’s letters survive.

The 114th (Sangamo) regiment was formed in September 1862 when Abraham Lincoln called for an additional 500,000 troops. Members of the regiment were from Sangamon, Cass, Menard and Logan Counties. Buckles said Logan County had fewer in the regiment than the other counties. Many from Logan County joined the 106th Regiment under Colonel Robert Latham and did not see much action.
 
James W, Judy, an auctioneer from Tallulah, was the Colonel of the regiment but resigned after they fought in Vicksburg. Buckles said Judy was fighting both the Confederacy and the U.S. War Department.

Colonel Judy had to pay for his men’s food and lodging to get to Camp Butler and tried to get reimbursed. An attorney told Judy to contact the war department and file a claim.
 
Unfortunately, Buckles said what Judy did was not the proper procedure. Judy should have gone to Governor Richard Yates and fought that way. The U.S. War Department not only held Judy’s pay but also were taking him to court for trying to bilk the U.S. government.

As Judy tried to get everything straightened on, he talked to Grant, Sherman and Ralph Bucklin from Ohio, but Buckles said none of them could get anything done. Finally, in 1867, Judy was compensated.

Lieutenant Colonel John F. King from Clearlake was the next officer to lead the regiment. King was a competent man, but Buckles said he was sick quite a bit.

Something Buckles learned as he did research was that not everyone who fought for the Union was a friend of Abraham Lincoln. Many in the regiment knew Lincoln personally, but did not agree with Lincoln’s politics. Several of the soldiers were Democrats.

There was one man from Springfield named John Gibson who hated Lincoln with a passion. Buckles said Gibson was fighting the war to put down the confederacy and wanted nothing to do with freeing the slaves.

Gibson spoke strongly against the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln. Buckles read one of Gibson’s angrily worded statements that was filled with swearing. Gibson wanted to get out of the service and did not even care if he was dishonorably discharged.

Buckles said Private Gersham Greening and another buddy heard Gibson’s diatribe and reported what Gibson said to Lieutenant Colonel King. Others refused to serve with Gibson.

King filed charges and went all the way up the ranks to General [William T.] Sherman, who said the officer needed to learn to keep their mouths shut whether they agree with what the president said or did. Sherman said when you work with the army, you do what we tell you and keep your mouths shut.

Gibson was placed in solitary confinement in a tent until after the Vicksburg Campaign. Buckles said Grant then convened a court martial. Gibson was stripped of his rank and dishonorably discharged.
 
Most who did not agree with the Emancipation Proclamation often just left. Buckles said some soldiers went to find those who left and brought the deserters back in chains. Some rejoined the regiment and got an honorable discharge after coming up with a believable story. Buckles said others did hard labor at the military prison in Alton.

The Battle at Vicksburg was baptism by fire for the regiment though they performed well there. Buckles said Brice’s Crossroads was a “whole different animal.”

Sherman was beginning his march to Atlanta and did not want [Confederate Major General Nathan Bedford] Forrest getting on his supply lines and busting up his railroad.

Therefore, Sherman picked fellow West Pointer [Brigadier General] Samuel Sturgis to lead the expedition. Buckles said Sturgis did well at Fredericksburg and was at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek after General Lion was killed. Sturgis and John Scofield helped manage the retreat decently.

Buckles said the problem with Sturgis was that he was an alcoholic who was drinking and carousing at a hotel in Memphis the night before the regiment was to leave.

Another leader named Colonel William McMillen was also drunk. The next morning, two of McMillen’s aides had to hold him up. Buckles said the aides had to take McMillen to a house to sober up before leading the troops to Atlanta.

Benjamin Grierson of Jacksonville led the cavalry, but Buckles said Grierson hated Sturgis with a passion. Grierson was a raider and not a fighter. Buckles said when Grierson had a grudge, he stuck his head in the sand and ignored problems.


[to top of second column]

The 114th regiment marched to the Mobile and Ohio Railroad to tear it up. Buckles said when General [Robert E.] Lee got wind of it, he told the regiment to get the men to Tupelo, Mississippi.

It took the regiment ten days to for the Union infantry and cavalry to march down to Brice’s Crossroads. Buckles said there was about 8500 troops altogether.

The battle was doomed from the beginning. Buckles said the infantry started marching from the camps around Lagrange, Tennessee. The skies opened up and it started pouring. From Tennessee on, there was rain every day. For eight days, the men had to walk in mud that was sometimes knee deep. Buckles said they were losing their brogans [boots] in the mud and some were barefoot. Some had so much mud on their wool pants that the men cut them off so they could walk.

The temperatures were in the 90s and humidity was 100 percent. Buckles said these men were dying as they were marching.

Forrest planned a strategy, which Buckles said was West Point to a T. Forrest sucked the men in to Brice’s Crossroads, saying he was going to get their cavalry and take them out. It stirred Sturgis’ troops up to move faster. The soldiers ran on the muddy roads about three to five miles from the battlefield. Some fell off on the side the road and others were dying of heatstroke. Buckles said the regiment lost a quarter of its men.

Grierson showed up and Buckles said the infantry tried to save the day. King was told by the drunk McMillen not to shoot the guys in front of them because they were Union Cavalry pot shotting with Confederate Cavalry.
It turns out the information was not true. Buckles said the men looked like Union soldiers because Confederates had stolen Union uniforms and put them on. Because Sturgis’ soldiers were being shot at, they wanted to shoot back. Finally, Sturgis told his men to fire at will.

Forrest told the men to flank the enemy, but Buckles said thick foliage hid their enemies. Fortunately, the enemies’ dark uniforms were visible.

When King retreated to Brice’s Crossroads, Buckles said it was utter chaos as other units fell back for the same reason. There was smoke, humidity, yelling, screaming and artillery going off and there was utter confusion.

McMillen rides up to King and told King to hold the Crossroads at all cost, so King planted the color guard right in the middle of the crossroads.

The men were surrounded by confederate soldiers and cavalry. Buckles said one of King’s captains said if they stayed five minutes longer, they would be going up. King started to order the retreat, but the color guard did not hear when they were told to retreat.

The color guard stood at the crossroads and Buckles said it was literally them against the Confederate Army. The regiment still had soldiers on their left and their right.

Finally, Gershom Greening realized they were the only unit there. The men were getting shot at, the flag was getting riddled and the uniforms had bullet holes in them. Buckles said the guy to Greening’s left took a bullet and went down, so Greening decided to get out of there. Sturgis led the retreat to Memphis and the men were furious.

Buckles said Sturgis’s favorite line was if Mr. Forrest will leave me alone, I will leave him alone. Forrest continued to dog the men until Collierville, which is near Memphis.
 
Though it had taken ten days to get there, Buckles said it took the men just two days to get back. A lot of the 114th were captured. The regiment ended up splitting at Ripley, Mississippi with part of them following King and others following the column.

The 114th Regiment was in the first division under Alexander Wilkin, formerly a colonel in Minnesota. Buckles called Wilkin a brilliant man who decided not to go with “the rest of those idiots” and instead took their own route back.

It was a good thing they took a different route, because Buckles said they probably would not have survived otherwise. The group tied in with two other "colored" units, the 55th and the 59th USCT and they covered the rear. He said the black soldiers changed a lot the minds of the 114th. Though the 114th had not wanted anything to do with those units until then, without those units, the 114th would not have made it back.

John Meyer, a 114th Regiment member from Mt. Pulaski, had once hired Abraham Lincoln as an attorney to settle some business. Buckles has photos of Meyer and would love to know more about him.

Buckle’s dad was a boy scout, and boys would call Meyer Uncle Johnny. Meyer would sit on the square and tell the boys he survived at Andersonville after being captured at Brice’s Crossroad. Meyer said, “the reason I survived is because I always boiled my water before I drank it and I always cooked my food before I ate it.” Buckles said Meyer was transferred out of Andersonville when the Confederates thought he was dying and was sent to the Naval hospital in Annapolis, Maryland.

When Meyer got home, he weighed under 98 pounds and his own mother carried him up the lane. Buckles said Meyer appears to have been the last survivor of the 114th Regiment and also the last Mt. Pulaski resident to personally know Abraham Lincoln. Meyer died in 1940 at age 99.

Something Buckles works with is an organization called the Brice’s Crossroads Foundation. The group put up a monument at Brice’s Crossroads to honor the 114th Regiment. They later put up monuments to honor all the Illinois regiments who fought shoulder to shoulder in the area.

Eventually, Buckles said the foundation hopes to get artillery pieces put in. The foundation published a battlefield guide with maps of how the battle progressed. Buckles said the foundation is getting help from other organizations in Mississippi. He thinks it could soon be the premier battlefield site.

Once Buckles had finished his presentation, he asked if anyone had questions.

LCGHS member Diane Farmer asked if there was a directory of regiment members and whether they were all from the area. She wondered if her great great grandfather was in the regiment.

Buckles said there is an Adjutant General’s Report has an online directory, though it is not completely accurate. No one from the regiment appears to have been from Lincoln. He said it was not likely that her ancestor was in the regiment, but was probably in the 72nd or 117th Regiment.

LCGHS member Tom Larson asked whether there are archives available In Washington, D.C.

Though there are archives available, Buckles said it is costly to get access to them. You have to make reservations to get in to see the archives.

LCGHS President Bill Donath said the National Park Service has a registry of the 114th Regiment you can find online.

Next, there was a question about how far south the Illinois troops got.

Buckles said the troops got to Nashville, Vicksburg and Mobile. Because of their illustrious service, A.J. Smith made the 114th pontoniers and took them off the front lines. The regiment had heavy casualties in Nashville. There is a monument to them on Shy’s Hill.

LCGHS member Curt Fox asked about the original point of the battle [at Brice’s Crossroads].

Buckles said they wanted to keep Forrest off of Sherman’s supply lines by keeping him occupied. The troops accomplished it, but not the way they had planned.

After the war, Buckles said Sturgis tried to become head of a soldiers’ home in Washington, D.C. A physician from the 72nd in Ohio who heard about it was livid and convinced people to write letters to keep Sturgis from getting the position. King wrote about seeing Sturgis sitting on a porch with a bottle of whiskey on the table as the men were loading their muskets and getting ready to go into battle.

John Meacham, originally from New Holland said he had a distant relative in the 114th Regiment who died of wounds he received at Nashville. Meacham has some of the relative’s letters and showed them to Buckles.

In July, Blair said Jeff Salsberry, manager of the David Davis Mansion in Bloomington will be speaking. David Davis was a judge and good friend of Abraham Lincoln. Next month’s meeting will be Monday, July 21 at 6:30 in the LCGHS building.

[Angela Reiners]

Back to top