The following remarkable letter was written by Amos Reeves (1835-Aft1910) of Sterling, Whiteside county, Illinois, who enlisted as a private in Co. B of the 64th Illinois Infantry (“Yates’ Sharpshooters”) in November 1861. In his four-page letter to his cousin, Amos tells the tale of his capture along with James Fitzgerald of his company by Gen. Philip Roddey’s guerrillas in northwest Alabama on 29 May 1863. For the next several weeks the captives were shuffled under guard from one Confederate encampment to another while Amos says he tried “to make the best of a bad bargain.”

While a prisoner, Reeves learned that many of the rebels who guarded him were conscripts and had little interest in waging war. He says that he worked deceptively with his captors to gain favor whenever possible and to encourage rebels to desert, reassuring them that they would not be exchanged back to the Confederate army where they would be shot as deserters. Eventually Reeves and Fitzgerald were delivered to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, where Reeves claimed they remained but four days before being exchanged and delivered to Camp Parole in Annapolis and later to Washington D. C. where he wrote the letter in August 1863.

Reeves was eventually sent back to Illinois, reenlisted as a veteran, and then ordered to his regiment where he resumed service and mustered out on 11 July 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky. Apparently Fitzgerald had had enough, He did not reenlist as a veteran and mustered out on 31 October 1864.

It does not appear that Amos ever married. He was enumerated in the 1910 US Census and he was mentioned in The Rockford Daily Register-Gazette in April 1897 where he was credited with having invented a “shoe scraper and cleaner which can be opened and closed so that is it not dangerous when there are children around…it cleans both the sole and the side of the foot.”

[Note: This letter is from the personal collection of Richard Weiner and was transcribed and published on Spared & Shared by express consent.]

Transcription

Parole Camp, Virginia
August 11, 1863

My dear Cousin Lida.

Though far away and long silent, I often think of thee and memory and fancy bring many pleasing pictures to my mind, and though I see many dark pictures and gloomy clouds, the bright ones are the prettiest and I love to look at them.

It has been a long time since I have had an exchange of thought & sentiment with you though I have heard from you (I saw a letter Jennie sent to Stephen) and I always think you are among friends and enjoying life.

Well, my dear cousin, I am enjoying life. Life is as dear to me as ever though I remain in the army. I expect that you have heard that I have been making the Rebs a visit. So I have and had an interesting time of it though I was an unwilling guest. A sergeant of my company, Joseph Fitzgerald, and I were captured on the 29th of May and were robbed of our money, hats, and boots, &c. and we found ourselves among robbers, murderers, highwaymen, and that we would have to take things easy and not hoist false colors but keep our colors covered at times and then sometimes I could hoist before them the good old flag with all its glories and blessings and the pictures of the American Revolution, its heroes, the levers of justice, the cowboys and skinners, the tories and savages, and then I showed them their own perfidy and treachery.

But while I was with Gen. Roddey’s Guerrillas, I passed for a good Vallandigham man among the officers and most of the men and I found many of them that were conscripts and only wanted a chance to escape. They were ashamed of their crowd and as they had been told by their officer we made every deserter enlist or we sent them around for exchange so as to get one of our soldiers for them, they were afraid to come over. So I told them the truth and during the ten days that I stayed in their camp, there were over 30 of them deserted and went to our camp. Then I was taken to Tuscumbia, Alabama, where I stayed a week and found friends. Some of the men who were guarding us were good Union men and a good lady sent us a plenty of milk and some nice biscuits and butter twice and some ginger cake once. Then we were taken to Huntsville—Gen. Pillow’s Headquarters. From there to Chattanooga, then almost to Knoxville when the Yankees came in ahead of us and tore up the road and we had to go back, and then down to Atlanta, Ga., and from there to Augusta, Ga., then to Columbia, S. C., and Raleigh, N. C., Petersburg, and Richmond, Va. Stopped in Richmond in Libby Prison four days, then came by the way of the James River & Fort Monroe to Annapolis and from there to Washington D. C.

And here I found lots of friends (of whom I will tell in my next) and have been seeing the sights & learning all I could and trying to make the best of a bad bargain. I am sorry that I delayed writing so long and I wish I could give you a full history of my expedition.

Yours, — Amos