Information Sheet

 

 

R         Bushnell, Douglas Ritchie, 1824-1863.

675                                    Letters, 1861-1866.

One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

These are the letters of an officer of the 13th Illinois Infantry, written during campaigns in Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.  Bushnell was killed in ac­tion at Ringgold, Georgia, in November 1863.  There are also a few letters from his wife, Emily, and other correspondents.

 

Douglas R. Bushnell was born 17 June 1824 at Norwich, Connecticut.  He was educated as a civil engineer, and moved to New Hampshire as a young man to begin a career in railroad engi­neering in that state and in Vermont.  Bushnell married Emily Joanna Catherine Edson at High­gate, Vermont, on 16 September 1849.  Shortly after the birth of his first child, Emma Louise, in 1850, Bushnell and his family moved Illinois, where he worked on several railroad projects.  In 1855, the family moved to Sterling, Whiteside County, Illinois.

 

Bushnell enlisted in Company B of the 13th Illinois Infantry on 10 May 1861, and was elected captain.  The regiment completed organization at Camp Dement and Camp McClellan at Dixon and Caseyville, Illinois.  In July, the regiment was sent to garrison Rolla, Missouri, the rail­head of the South West Branch of the Pacific Railroad.  With the exception of Gen. John C. Fré­mont’s advance on Springfield, the 13th Illinois remained at Rolla from 7 July 1861 to 6 March 1862.  Among his other duties, Bushnell organized construction of an earthen fortification that was ultimately named Fort Wyman after the regimental commander of the 13th Illinois, Col. John B. Wyman.

 

The 13th Illinois remained at the railhead in 1862 when Gen. Samuel R. Curtis’s army began the campaign into southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas, but was ordered to reinforce the Union army after its victory at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in March.  The regiment marched with the Army of the South West as it ranged eastward along the Missouri border, made a futile attempt to capture Little Rock, and finally marched to the west bank of the Mississippi River at Helena, Ar­kansas, on 14 July 1862.

 

From Helena, Bushnell and the 13th Illinois became part of the Army of the Tennessee and participated in various movements against the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Operations included the bloody repulse in December 1862 at Chickasaw Bluffs, where Col. Wyman was killed in action, capture of Arkansas Post in January 1863, and assaults on the Vicks­burg lines in May 1863.

 

Bushnell received a promotion to major in January 1863 and served thereafter as a staff offi­cer in the 13th Illinois.  Following the capture of Vicksburg, the regiment moved to Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the fall of 1863.  After operations against the Memphis & Charleston Railroad in October 1863, the 13th Illinois embarked on the Chattanooga-Ringgold campaign.  Bushnell was involved in the fighting at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge near Chatta­nooga in November, then joined the pursuit of defeated Confederate forces abandoning Tennessee.  On 27 November 1863, during an action with the Confederate rearguard near Ringgold, Bushnell was shot through the head and died instantly.  Fellow officers advanced the money to have his body returned to Sterling, Illinois.  Bushnell is buried in Riverside cemetery in Sterling.

 

The Bushnell collection consists of seventy-two letters.  Most were written by Bushnell to his wife and family from various camps.  There are also five letters written to him by his wife, Emily, and a plea for leniency from the mother of a young soldier in the 13th convicted of a mili­tary offense, and other correspondence.

 

Bushnell’s letters reveal a well-educated, conscientious officer who missed his family dread­fully.  Although the 13th Illinois did not see any combat during its time in Missouri and Arkansas, the intensity of operations increased markedly once the regiment was drawn into movements in the Mississippi River valley directed at Vicksburg.  Bushnell’s awareness of the increasing danger is obvious in his letter of 10 May 1863, written before the battle of Big Black River, Mississippi.  His letters also contain a considerable amount of camp news that would be useful in writing a modern regimental history, and details that will be useful for research on Missouri and Arkansas, as well as the Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns.  Of particular interest are the plat of Camp Rolla (see letter of 11 July 1861), and sketch maps of the battlefields at Arkansas Post (13 January 1863) and Chickasaw Bluff, Mississippi (15 February 1863).

 

There are five letters in the collection written by Emily Bushnell from Sterling, Illinois, to her husband.  They show the terrible anxiety she felt for her husband’s safety and the burden she bore caring for two young children, one of whom was born while he was Rolla.  Her last two let­ters were written after his death, but before notification had reached her.  The last items in the collection are a letter concerning Bushnell’s death from Lieut. Col. Partridge, commanding officer of the 13th Illinois, extracts from a private letter concerning disposition of Bushnell’s remains and personal effects, and two letters to Emily Bushnell concerning payments due her husband by the United States.

 

Additional information on Bushnell and his family may be found in Ringgold: A Civil War Story (Santa Fe, N.M.: privately printed, 1999), published by Lawrence W. Wheeler, a descendant and the donor of the Bushnell letters.  A copy photograph of Bushnell in uniform is available in the Information Folder.

 

 

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