Military Resources for DeWitt County Illinois

This page is designed for sharing information about the men and women of DeWitt County who served the United States during wartime. If you wish to share DeWitt County information related to veterans and military service, please include "DeWitt Wartime" on the subject line of your message.

Click HERE to submit wartime information.

The Military Reading Room

Thanks to the hard work of Judy Simpson, our county coordinator, we can share with you these newspaper gleanings regarding the Civil War. Come read the stories of the brave men who fought as told in their letters home or read articles regarding the reunions held. These are valuable resources for researching your DeWitt county and surrounding area ancestors who served in the Grand Army of the Republic, their families, and the stories written about them. Feel free to browse a while or search for YOUR surnames!

CIVIL WAR NEWS AND CORRESPONDENCE

Select news items and letters posted in the Clinton Public

REUNION NEWS

Articles appearing in the Clinton Public regarding Civil War Regimental Reunions

Searchable Index - Spanish-American War Veterans

This database of Illinois Spanish–American War Veterans indexes the portion of the ninth volume of the nine volume publication, Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois, which lists veterans of that war. (The remainder of the ninth and the other eight volumes list veterans of the Black Hawk, Mexican, and Civil Wars.) This 1902 publication, originating from the rosters maintained by the Illinois Adjutant General, is the result of an 1899 Illinois statute mandating that the rosters of Illinois volunteers be printed. The names of approximately 11,000 men, organized into 10 regiments, are found in its pages. The volume includes a roster and history for each regiment. - Provided by the Illinois State Archives -

The Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls database is a transcription of each soldier's entry in the record series, Muster and Descriptive Rolls (RS 301.020). The database contains information about over 285,000 soldiers from Illinois who served in the Union Army during the War of the Rebellion. Each entry includes all of the information that was recorded by the Illinois Adjutant General in the original Muster and Descriptive Rolls. Entries for each roll include soldier's name; rank; age; height; colors of eyes, hair, and complexion; occupation; marital status; birthplace; residence; date, place, and term of enrollment; name Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Civil War Veterans' Memorial at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield of individual who enrolled soldier; date and place of muster into service; name of mustering officer; date and place of muster out; name of mustering-out officer; and remarks concerning transfers, promotions, injuries, or special duty. - Provided by the Illinois State Archives -

Civil War - Regiment Websites

Medal of Honor Citations

The President, in the name of Congress, has awarded more than 3,400 Medals of Honor to our nation's bravest Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration's creation in 1861. For years, the citations highlighting these acts of bravery and heroism resided in dusty archives and only sporadically were printed. In 1973, the U.S. Senate ordered the citations compiled and printed as Committee on Veterans' Affairs, U.S. Senate, Medal of Honor Recipients: 1863-1973 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1973). This book was later updated and reprinted in 1979. The breakdown of these is a duplicate of that in the congressional compilation. Likewise, some minor misspelling and other errors are duplicated from the official government volume. These likely were the result of the original transcriptions.

1929 Roll of Honor

This database indexes the 1929 publication, Roll of Honor, which contains the locations of the burial places of soldiers, sailors, marines, and army nurses who served in any of the wars of the United States and are buried in Illinois. The database contains more than 72,000 names. The General Assembly mandated in 1927 and 1929 that Illinois publish the Roll of Honor as an aid to patriotic and veteran organizations honoring deceased veterans on Memorial Day. The Grand Army of the Republic, United Spanish-American War Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans of the World War, and the 33rd Division War Veterans Association were among the various organizations that gathered the information. - Provided by the Illinois State Archives -