HISTORY OF FORD COUNTY
WAR OF THE REBELLION.
Ford county, at the breaking out of the war of 1861, being so recently formed and having a population of less than two thousand, did not organize any company of soldiers. However, many of our patriotic citizens enlisted in commands organized in adjoining counties and elsewhere in the state. It would give us pleasure to publish their names in this work, but the difficulty of obtaining a complete list is insurmountable, and a partial list would be very unsatisfactory.
BOUNTIES.
At a meeting of the supervisors, August, 1862, a resolution was introduced by Supervisor Button and duly adopted, providing for a county tax of five mills on the dollar for the purpose of paying each volunteer sixty dollars and to create a fund for the support of soldiers' families during their absence.
The following committees were appointed to disburse the funds for soldiers' families: Patton Township — William Walker, J. H. Flagg, J. F. Hall; Drummer's Grove — J. H. Kendall, J. E. Davis, Leonard Pierpont; Stockton — S. K. Marston, T. W. Pope, G. B. Winter. In December, 1863, the bounty was increased to three hundred dollars to each volunteer.
In April, 1864, a draft having been ordered to fill the quota of this county for seventy-eight men, an order was adopted by the supervisors offering a bounty of one thousand dollars to each man drafted, who should be accepted by the government.
However, it transpired that bounties by counties exceeding the sum of three hundred dollars were illegal, and efforts were made to legalize this one thousand dollars bounty by a special act of the general assembly. It did not succeed, and consequently but three hundred dollars could be paid to each man. February, 1865, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars was appropriated by the supervisors to procure volunteers to fill the county quota, the amount for each volunteer not to exceed three hundred dollars.
The adjutant general's report, Vol. 1, page 194, makes the following showing for this county:
Prior to December 31, 1865.
Total quota 300
Total credits 222
Deficit of men 78
December 31, 1865.
Total quota 272
Total credit 271
Deficit 1
On page 276 of said report is the following, showing "expenditures and liabilities incurred by Ford county in aid of the suppression of the late rebellion, as reported to the adjutant general's office:
Bounties $72,426.15
Transportation 10,000.00
Soldiers' families 3,861.94
Total $86,288.09
Extracted 26 Oct 2016 by Norma Hass from History of Ford County, Illinois, Volume 1, pages 309-310.
