By Dale Thomas
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2001, 2008, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in The Charger in the winter of 2001.
I did not have any ancestors who fought in the Civil War since they were still back in Europe, but my wife, Lea, had a great grandfather, John J. Babbitt, who served three years in the 50th Illinois. A farmer living in St. Augustine, Illinois, Babbitt was twenty years old when he and his uncle, along with a number of cousins, volunteered on September 24, 1861. After less than a month of training in Quincy, Illinois, the Regiment crossed the Mississippi River and began operations against guerrillas in Missouri that continued until late January of 1862. In February, the 50th Illinois was reassigned and ordered to Tennessee where it saw action at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson and then took part in the occupation of Clarksville and Nashville. At the end of March, the Regiment was sent by river boat to Pittsburg Landing.
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