COMMENTS
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SCARCE antique Civil War memoir - from a soldier in the 7th Illinois Cavalry.
Henry Eby of Mendota, La Salle County, Illinois spent most of his enlisted time during the Civil War in the 7th Illinois Cavalry.
He participated in battles including Stones River and Chickamauga. Then he was confined to Belle Island Prison in Virginia, later transferred to Libby Prison, and then Smith Prison. Later, he was again transferred to Danville, Virginia, where he contracted smallpox. He tells how he was captured and what prison life was like.
He escaped in January 1864 only to be recaptured 35 miles from the Union lines and sent back to Belle Island. In March 1864, as a part of a prisoner exchange, he and 400 Union soldiers were released.
The book also includes reminiscences of George W. Westgate, also the the 7th Illinois Cavalry, and a letter from Calvin W. Hudson to the author about his escape, recapture and escape of a second time.
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