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Against the flow of Northern opinion: Illinois Rebels and Iowa Confederates

“The Heartland” conjures an image of waving fields of corn under wide-open skies.  True-blue Midwesterners enlisted by the thousands in the Union Army.  It’s also true that some Illinois and Iowa men served the Confederacy. 

Thirty-four Southern Illinoisans enlisted in Company G, 15th Tennessee Infantry. Company G was “sometimes characterized as the Confederate Army’s Southern Illinois company,” although two-thirds of men in the unit were from other states.

Illinois Rebels

Historian Ed Gleeson tells their story in Illinois Rebels.  He focuses on the two men who led fellow residents from Marion and Carbondale into the Confederate service. 

Other Illinois residents served the Confederacy, too.  Gleeson estimates that no more than a few hundred of them served the Confederacy.

Comparing Iowa and Illinois Confederates

The 76 documented Confederates from Iowa were never as concentrated as the Southern Illinoisans in Company G.   Iowa Confederates had lived in 23 different Iowa counties, and they served in units ranging from Texas to Virginia.

Desertion

Gleeson states that 18 percent of the Southern Illinoisans in Company G deserted.  In contrast, 14.4 percent of Iowa Confederates deserted. Both of these figures are much higher than the overall Confederate desertion rate of 9.6 percent (citing Provost Marshal General James B. Fry’s estimate).

Digging a little deeper, most of the 11 Iowa Confederates who deserted were from two families of brothers. Nine of those men deserted in 1862 or 1863, but the other two deserted in April or May 1865, when many Confederate troops melted away.

The rest of the book

Much of the book is a history of Company G, focusing on the battles of Belmont, Shiloh, and Perryville. Gleeson includes the Confederate service records (and other biographical data) of the 34 Southern Illinoisans and the other 65 members of Company G.

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David Connon

David Connon has spent nearly two decades researching dissenters in Iowa: Grinnell residents who helped on the Underground Railroad, and their polar opposites, Iowa Confederates. He shares some of these stories with audiences across the state through the Humanities Iowa Speakers Bureau. He worked as an interpreter at Living History Farms for eleven seasons. Connon is a member of Sons of Union Veterans, an associate member of Sons of Confederate Veterans, and a member of the Des Moines Civil War Round Table. His articles have appeared in Iowa Heritage Illustrated, Iowa History Journal, Illinois Magazine, and local newspapers in both states.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Eddie Vaughn

    14 Mar 2019

    Enjoyed reading your post. Informative.

    1. David Connon

      14 Mar 2019

      Hi, Eddie Vaughn. Thank you for your kind comment.

    2. David Connon

      8 Apr 2019

      Thank you for your kind comment, Mr. Vaughn.

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