Information Sheet
R Carnahan, Robert Huston.
627 Letter, 1861.
One item.
This is a letter
from an officer in the 3rd Illinois Cavalry at Rolla in Phelps County, Missouri,
3 December 1861. Carnahan commented on
winter quarters and camp life.
Robert Huston
Carnahan, a native of Pennsylvania,
enlisted in the 3rdIllinois Cavalry on 24 August 1861 and was
commissioned captain of Company K. The
regiment organized at Camp Butler,
Illinois, and was mustered in on
27 August 1861. Its first service came
in the fall of 1861, during Frémont’s campaign to capture Springfield, Missouri,
after which it moved to Rolla. In
December 1861, the 3rd Illinois Cavalry became part of General
Samuel R. Curtis’s Army of Southwest Missouri.
Carnahan wrote
to his daughter, Clara, from the regiment’s camp near Rolla. He commented on riding sixty miles in a
day’s scout, and speculated on the possibility of going into winter quarters. He also wrote of rations, his black servant,
and camping arrangements.
The 3rd
Illinois did
not enjoy the comforts of winter quarters.
The regiment was part of the cavalry expedition which began the Pea
Ridge campaign, and participated in several skirmishes and engagements
culminating in the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862. The 3rd Illinois Cavalry remained
with General Curtis until the army reached Helena, Arkansas,
in the summer of 1862. Once away from
the Department of the Missouri, the 3rd
Illinois Cavalry served in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana,
and Tennessee. Carnahan remained with the regiment during
its entire length of service. He was
commissioned lieutenant colonel and colonel in 1864 and 1865. The regiment spent the summer of 1865
operating against the Sioux in Minnesota and
the Dakotas, then was mustered out in October. Carnahan was brevetted brigadier general upon
his muster out in October 1865.
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