CIVIL WAR
On April 12, 1861 South Carolina seceded from the Union. A week later President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to enlist for 3 months. At 10:00pm April 17, 1861 the first military company in the State of Illinois was tendered to Governor Yates by Daniel Gold while the proclamation was yet passing over the wires. The men (and boys) making up that first military company were from Lawrence County, Il. Over the course of the next four years more than 1200 men from the county signed up to fight for the Union.
The Society is researching and preparing biographies for each one of those soldiers as well as identifying their graves and those of the other Civil War Veterans who moved here after the war.
If you have an ancestor who either fought from Lawrence County or is buried here, please contact Mike Neal jmnlaw@frontier.com or John King john.m.king1947@gmail.com