In autumn of 1861, Charles J. Stolbrand, an immigrant from Sweden, recruited men from northern Illinois to form the DeKalb Horse Artillery. Twenty different northern Illinois counties were represented in its ranks, with the majority of men coming from DeKalb, Cook, Ogle, Lee and Winnebago Counties.
Renamed Battery G, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery, the unit saw service in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri and Alabama. This collection of transcribed records is a thoroughly documented history of this Army unit, which contains the following valuable data: complete muster roll information (physical descriptions, age, marital status, birthplace and place of residence for many soldiers): a complete and nearly daily account of the battery’s service, including marching routes, maladies, disciplinary actions and other trivia not found in other records; a complete transcription of the battery order book, containing promotions, court martials and other orders; and finally two indices, one containing the names of individual soldiers of Battery G, and a general index containing names of individuals who are not members of the battery plus general topics like desertions, deaths or disease. We Enlisted as Patriots fills a missing gap in Illinois and Civil War research because the records of Battery G, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery are difficult to find. This book brings together three of the most important and detailed of the original records: the unit muster roll, the morning report book and the order book.A thoroughly documented history, which contains complete muster roll information, an account of the battery’s service, and a complete transcription of the battery order book.
Linda Barnickel
(1998), 2008, 5½x8½, paper, indices, 172 pp.
ISBN: 9780788409158
101-B0915
