Information Sheet

 

 

R         Bolon, Leonard Valentine, 1847‑1915.

313                  Papers, 1865‑1866.

                                    One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

These are two Civil War letters, from Rolla and Benton Barracks in St. Louis, written by Leonard V. Bolon of Co. F, 49th Wis­consin Infantry.  Also included is verse written at Cuba, Il­li­nois, Bolon’s home town, in 1866.

 

Leonard V. Bolon was born on 23 December 1847, at Cuba, Il­linois, and died on 4 Novem­ber 1915 at Prairie City, Illinois.  He was the son of William J. Bolon and Lydia Louisa Bonney Bolon.  Lydia Louisa married Abraham Kaler after the death of her first husband.

 

Leonard enlisted in Co. F, 49th Wisconsin Infantry, at Liberty, Wisconsin, on 23 February 1865.  The regiment was organized at Madison in late 1864 and early 1865, and was assigned to the Department of the Missouri.  Bolon and the men passed nearly their entire enlistment guarding government property at Rolla and St. Louis, from March to November 1865.  They were mustered out on 8 November 1865.

 

Bolon’s wartime letters from Missouri were written to his mother, Louisa Kaler.  The first is dated 15 March 1865, two days after his arrival at Rolla.  The second was written on 5 No­v­ember 1865, shortly before muster‑out at St. Louis.  In his brief missives, Bolon mentioned his satisfaction with rations and camp life.

 

Included with the letters is a short poem, perhaps a fun­erary piece, composed on 15 Sep­tem­ber 1866, at Cuba, Illinois.

 

 

 

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