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History of the 85th Illinois Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry by Henry J. Aten |  |
ERRATA
On page 68, James A. Mallory should be John A. Mallory
On page 368, David Cornham should read David Cornman.
On page 229, James Moslander should read Joseph Moslander
On page 374, the name of James W. Tippey appears twice. The first or upper name
is correct, but the other should read Henry Tippey.
FROM: EUGENE F. WARE, PRIVATE, FIRST IOWA INFANTRY; CAPTAIN SEVENTH IOWA CAVALRY, and AUTHOR OF THE "RHYMES OFIRONQUILL."
Topeka, Kansas, June 12, 1901.
My Dear Mr. Aten:-
Under the guise of a regimental history
you have written a remarkable book. It is more interesting than
Xenophon and recounts the greater hardships of braver men through more
perilous services in a more honorable cause. From the beginning of the
book to the very end the interest is unflagging because the regiment
was always for duty in the most exposed positions, and it had the good
fortune to be relied upon and selected for the most interesting and
arduous occasions. The book is the book of the soldier - a history of
what he did, what he endured, and what he felt. A man who reads this
book knows what kind of stuff was in the Federal army, and knows why
the country was saved, and why the Confederacy collapsed. As --ng
{long} as our youths can read such books no detriment will befall the
common weal.
E. F. Ware.
Eugene F Ware poem in book
FROM: MAJOR HOLMES, OF THE 52nd OHIO.
Law Offices, Columbus, O., June 13, 1901.
My Dear Aten:—
I have read your history of the 85th Illinois.
The style is clear; the pictures are vivid; the facts are of absorbing
interest and their simple direct recital rises often into genuine
eloquence.
The surviving members of your famous regiment,
who do not secure copies of this memorial, will miss from their
libraries the greatest of books for them, next after the Bible,
Bunyan's Pilgrim and Shakespeare, and the families of those who fell
during or have died since that war, should treasure it as an heirloom.
Believe me, I have reason to know and do fully
know and appreciate the "infinite" labor and pains involved in the
production of such a book and you will know that I am not wasting words
when saying I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the privilege
of buying, reading and placing on my library shelves your History of
the 85th Illinois.
You remember one of the English reformers sold
all his clothing, except enough to hide his nakedness, that he
might buy books with the money. I was not of the 85th, but was
one of the brothers of its men and officers, and, if need were, I
should, reformer like, sell a garment to buy this history.
A member of the Third Brigade will, as he
reads, see with your eyes and most of the time resee with his own eyes,
while a lay friend of any soldier of the brigade can never miss your
exact meaning.
I wish that every comrade of the 52nd and the
family of every dead comrade could secure a copy and read it. It is a
reviviscene for co-actors with you and a history for the friends of
co-actors, living or dead, unsurpassed by any writing 1 have read,
touching our immediate service.
The book brings to me a fund of information touching
individuals, officers and men of the regiment, whom I knew personally,
and whose post bellum history has hitherto been a blank in my
mind. I observe with sorrow that the reaper has been steadily at
work in their scattered ranks.
Very sincerely yours,
J. T. Holmes.
From the Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 12, 1901
"The History of the Eighty-Fifth Illinois," by Henry J. Aten, of
Hiawatha, Kan., is not only one of the most interesting regimental
histories ever published, but one of the most interesting histories of
the great campaigns of the civil war. Mr. Aten, in describing what the
Eighty-Fifth Illinois did in any particular campaign, gives the
operations of the brigade, division, and corps, so that his story of a
regiment becomes in fact the story of the army in which that regiment
served.
The narrative is not merely a record of
marches, maneuvers, and battles, but covers the personal adventures,
the humorous and other episodes, the romantic incidents, and the whole
anecdotal literature of army life. The author, who, by the way, is
the "Sergeant" of "Curbstone Crayons," has preserved in attractive garb
all the best anecdotes of officers and men in the armies of the
Cumberland and the Tennessee.
This in itself is a great work, but in
addition he has told in a soldier's way the full story of great
campaigns, and, like Judge Tourgee in his "Story of a Thousand," has
given the history of each company in the regiment and of every man in
each company. The literary quality of the book is of a very high order,
the author writing with the exactness of the historian and yet with
soldierly freedom and enthusiasm.
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