Colonel of the regiment, Colonel Willich, its former commander, having been promoted to a brigadier-generalship. After the departure of the army from Louisville to check the movement of Bragg, serious illness compelled him to ask for a leave of absence, which was granted. He repaired to his farm at Arcola, Illinois, but never returned to the field. After a long and painful illness, the patriot farmer died on the 6th of August, 1863, and was buried near his home. Death summoned him when his sword was sheathed, but that sword had done good work, and there was no stain of dishonor upon its blade. He died a hero în the service of his country though not upon the bloody field. None the less his memory claims the love and gratitude of those for whom he fought.

Colonel Sheridan P. Read was born in Champaign county, Ohio, in 1829. He was educated at the Ohio University at Athens, Ohio, and graduated at the law school of the Indiana University, at Bloomington, under the instruction of Judges McDonald and Otto. He first commenced the practice of law at Terre Haute, Indiana, but in 1853, he removed to Paris, Illinois. When the call was made for troops in 1862, he volunteered as a private soldier, and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the 79th Illinois, and on the 18th of October following was commissioned Colonel of the regiment. He was a skillful and gallant officer and brought his regiment to a high degree of soldierly bearing and skill. He fell at Stone River, as we have before stated, his head pierced by a musket ball while bravely leading his men, and died instantly. His remains were brought to Paris, and interred near his home. Colonel Read was a lawyer from an ardent attachment to the profession in which he held a high rank. He was always active in everything which pertained to the good of his own community. He was zealous in the cause of education, and for several years the school commissioner of Edgar county. In the mechanical and agricultural interests of his county and the State at large, he took a deep and abiding interest. In politics, he was a Democrat, and was for some time editor of a Democratic paper in Paris. When the war broke out, however, he dropped the pen, took up the sword for his country and died in its defence.

Col. Geo. W. Roberts was born at Chester, Westchester county,

in the State of Pennsylvania, October 2, 1833. He completed his school studies at Poughkeepsie, in the State of New York, and entered the sophomore class, of Yale College, graduating with high honors in 1857. He was admitted to the bar and practiced his profession in his native county until 1859, when he removed to Chicago and at once entered the office of E. S. Smith, Esq., where he continued until June, 1861, when, in company with Col. David Stuart, he helped to organize the 42d Illinois regiment. On the 22d of July, he received his commission as Major, on the 17th of September was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, and, upon the death of Col. Webb, in December, 1861, who had succeeded Col. Stuart, he was appointed Colonel. He took part with his regiment in Fremont's march to Springfield, Mo.; afterwards commanded Fort Holt, at Cairo; thence was ordered to Columbus, Ky., after its evacuation by the rebels; thence proceeded to Island No. 10, where he performed one of the most gallant feats of the war by spiking the upper Kentucky battery with four boats' crews of picked men, in a dark, stormy night. He was next ordered to Fort Pillow, and left there with Gen. Pope, to go up the Tennessee River. He participated, with distinguished honors, in the battles at Farmington, was in the advance at the occupation of Corinth, commanding a brigade, his old regiment being the first to plant the flag on the rebel works. Thence he was ordered to Memphis, where he again distinguished himself by breaking up the guerrilla bands infesting that part of Tennessee and capturing many of their most daring and dangerous chiefs. From thence, with his regiment, he was transferred to Gen. Rosecrans' army, and participated with his regiment, in the bloody battle of Stone River. The 42d was attached to Sherman's division, and crowned itself with glory by its magnificent bravery and the desperation with which it strove to repel the terrible onset upon our right wing on Wednesday. The men fought worthy of their fame which they had won at Corinth, Farmington, Island No. 10 and scores of lesser fields. Every man was a hero, and splendidly they fought against fate. Not a man receded although the odds were overwhelming and their numbers were rapidly lessening, until their gallant leader fell mortally wounded with his face to the foe. The heroism, the splendid presence which had inspired them was gone.

The strong arm was powerless, and the brave heart which he had bared to the pitiless storm, was lifeless.

Col. Roberts was a magnificent specimen of a man physically and mentally. His frame was almost herculean and he laughed at toils and privations. His presence was commanding and his deportment dignified. Morally and intellectually he preserved a strict rectitude and never stooped to a low or mean action. He was manly in the broadest and best acceptation of the term. As a lawyer he was eminently successful and had achieved an enviable fame, although comparatively a stranger at the Chicago bar, when he adopted the military profession. As a soldier he was a model for all men. In the language of a speaker at his funeral obsequies, who knew him intimately and well: "When the long catalogue of disasters which this wicked rebellion has entailed upon our country comes to be made up, prominent among these disasters shall be the martyrdom of our friend, and when the record of glorious names who have testified their loyalty and sealed their devotion to their country with their blood comes to be written, high on that record shall his name be inscribed and gather new luster with each succeeding year."

Col. Joseph R. Scott, of the 19th Illinois, was only twenty-seven years of age at the time of his death, and cue of the youngest colonels in the service. He was born in Canada, and inherited from his parents the military ardor and impulsive bravery which characterized and so honorably distinguished him. Col. Scott was emphatically a self-made man. Whatever of education, of reputation, or of military knowledge he possessed, was due to his own exertions. Although deprived of the advantages of an early education, he managed in the intervals of labor, from boyhood to manhood, so to perfect himself in his studies, that at the period of his enlistment he was considered an excellent English scholar and a young man of more than ordinary promise. The trait which perhaps peculiarly distinguished him par excellence was his military talent. He had a peculiar aptness for military studies and pursued them with enthusiastic assiduity.

There was a remarkable resemblance between Col. Scott and Col. Ellsworth, both in physique and in military accomplishments. They were of about the same age, the same height, the same compactness of frame, resembled each other in the face sufficiently to have passed

for brothers, and both were apt students of military science, espe cially as it pertained to drill and soldierly bearing, and both were strict disciplinarians. These qualities combined to make the Zouave Cadets probably the best drilled company that was ever organized in the United States, both in the ordinary school and in the more elaborate and intricate movements of the French Zouave school, designed more for ornament than use. In drill, the company was reduced to the harmony and unity of action of the finest regulated machine and carried off the palm, not alone at home, but even in the large eastern cities that boasted of finely drilled regiments. They created a furore throughout the entire country, and were the originators of scores of Zouave companies that rapidly sprang up, but never reached the excellence of the Zouave Cadets of Chicago. In point of morals the two young officers were equally agreed, and the practice of vice in any of its branches, repulsive or fashionable, was sufficient and immediate cause for dismissal. These stringent notions of discipline, Col. Ellsworth used with great effect in the government of the New York Fire Zouaves, which regiment he organized, and in spite of the wild, ungovernable, almost ferocious material with which he had to deal, he reduced it to a comparatively well disciplined body. He was the earliest victim of the war and died while trampling on the rebel flag against which he had drawn sword. It seems sad that a young officer of so much promise had not been permitted to live and win his way to distinction.

In 1856, while a clerk in a leading dry goods house of Chicago, Scott organized a company of young men called the National Cadets, and for a time commanded them. When Colonel Ellsworth desired them to adopt the drill and practice of the French Zouave school, Col. Scott warmly seconded his effort, and under their joint labors the Cadets were reorganized as the "United States Zouave Cadets." Of this company Col. Ellsworth became the first commander and Col. Scott the 1st Lieutenant. In the brilliant career of the independent command-a command which achieved a national reputation for its splendid drill, nearly every man of which is or has been an officer in the present war, Col. Scott bore a prominent and honorable part, he and his lamented coadjutor little dreaming that they were establishing a nursery of officers who would shortly after be needed in the real din and strife.

In April, 1861, when the whole country was ablaze with indignation at the outrage offered our flag at Sumter, young Scott was one of the first to offer his services to the government. In the hastily improvised expedition to the Big Muddy bridge, at the time Illinois was on the point of being invaded, Col. Scott did most excellent service in guarding the bridge at that place.

When the 19th Illinois was organized, he was elected its first colonel but subsequently resigned in favor of Gen. Turchin and accepted the Lieutenant-Colonelcy. In all the battles in which the 19th participated, up to the time of his decease, he was present. Through all their useless marches and countermarches, put upon them by a regime which was seeking to break them down and impair their usefulness, he accompanied them, sharing their toils and privations and never finding fault with indignities heaped upon them, confident that in its own good time vindication would come. When Col. Turchin was commissioned brigadier-general, he was appointed colonel of the regiment and led them through the bloody and terrific battle of Stone River. We have already detailed the splendid conduct of his regiment and his own heroic bearing; how the regiment vindicated itself and won a name and fame which will be immortal; how they made the fearful charge which saved the left and the day. In that charge he was wounded in the groin and was brought to Chicago, where, under the attentive and devoted care of his wife and excellent surgical aid, he was in a fair way to recover and hoped soon to rejoin his command. That hope, however, was crushed. He was unfortunately thrown from his carriage, and his wound reopened and commenced to bleed. Mortification ensued and he died on the 8th of July, 1863. His funeral obsequies were attended with military honors on the 10th. The officiating clergyman closed the funeral discourse with the following just tribute to his worth: "He was a noble, youthful soldier, calm and dignified, and a resolute defender of the right. A man of his years, who can say to his regiment, No spirituous liquors, and not one oath to be used,' it would seem to mortals should be spared to his men. The country, in the hour of her peril, but just as the dark clouds were widely fringed with silvery light, and just closing her festivities appropriate to the national anniversary, has lost a youthful soldier, but a calm and brave leader."

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