Information Sheet

 

 

R         Pratt, Benjamin Franklin, 1843‑1898.

329                  Letters, 1861‑1862.

                                    One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

These are Civil War letters written at Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri, by Benjamin F. Pratt of the 13th Illinois In­fantry.  Pratt commented on the march to and skirmish at Linn Creek in Cam­den County, camp life, rations, and sickness.

 

Benjamin Franklin Pratt was a son of Truman Pratt and Rebecca Warner Whitney Pratt, both of Maine.  They moved to Illinois in the 1840s.  Truman died in 1844 and Rebecca in 1847.  Ben­jamin was taken in and raised by his older brother, Truman Leonard Pratt, and T. L.’s wife.

 

The 13th Illinois lnfantry was organized April‑May 1861 at Dixon, Illinois, by Col. John B. Wy­man.  It was posted at Rolla, Missouri, from June to October 1861, when it was ordered to join Gen. John C. Frémont's army advancing on Springfield.  En route, Wyman’s brigade skir­mished with the enemy at Wet Glaize and Linn Creek in Camden County on October 13 and 15, respec­tively.  The 13th Illinois returned to Rolla when Frémont’s army was dispersed in Novem­ber 1861.  The regiment remained at the railhead until March 1862, when it was or­dered to join the Army of the Southwest after the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas.

 

Copies of three of Benjamin Pratt’s wartime letters have survived.  The three are dated No­vember 1861 ‑‑ January 1862.  All were written at Rolla and are addressed to Benjamin’s brother, Truman Leonard Pratt, a captain in another Illinois regiment.  The letters are brief but quite newsy.  Pratt commented on the skirmishes at Wet Glaize and Linn Creek, the march to Spring­field and return to Rolla, sickness in the regiment, cooking arrangements, ra­tions and tents.

 

 

 

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