The 116th Illinois Infantry, Colonel N. W. Tupper, belonged almost exclusively to Macon County.  The regiment was organized at the fair grounds, near Decatur, during August and September, 1862.  On the sixth of September, the companies, not yet being full, were sworn into the United States service and mustered as a battalion.  September 31st, the ranks having been filled up, the regiment was mustered, and November eighth was ordered to Cairo; thence, November ninth, to Memphis, remaining at the latter place till the 26th; the Fifteenth Army Corps having meanwhile been organized under command of Gen. W. T. Sherman, and the 116th assigned to the first brigade, second division.  Gen. Morgan L. Smith was assigned to the command of the division, and Gen. Giles A. Smith to the command of the brigade.  The regiment marched from Memphis and reached Tallahatchie December 13th; December 20th started down the Mississippi river; December 26th entered the Yazoo river, and landed fifteen miles above its mouth.  For the next three days the regiment received its first baptism of fire in the battle of Chickasaw.  January, 1863, passed down the Yazoo and up the Mississippi and the Arkansas to the Arkansas Post, where, January tenth and eleventh it fought its second battle; January 22nd, landed at Young's Point, Louisiana, opposite Vicksburg and during the winter took part in the attempt to construct canals around that strongly fortified city.  In the spring crossed the river near Port Gibson, and participated in the battles of Black river and Champion Hills, and the bloody charges upon the works in the rear of Vicksburg, May 18th and 22nd, and in the final siege of that city, which resulted in its surrender, July 4th.  July 5th started in pursuit of the rebel general Johnston, and followed him to Jackson, Mississippi; afterward drove him beyond Pearl river.
     July 25th, went into camp, called Camp Sherman, near Black river, remaining there until October; then moved back to Vicksburg; thence to Memphis and Corinth, whence the regiment marched to Chattanooga, reaching that place November 21st.  During the night of November 23rd, the 116th and the 6th Missouri floated down the Tennessee river on pontoons, and landed at the mouth of the Chickamauga, distant less than a mile from the rebel entrenchments on Missionary Ridge.  Holding the position there till the remainder of the corps had been brought over, and all of Bragg's pickets had been captured, the regiment marched to the foot of the Ridge, on the evening of the 24th, and engaged in a skirmish in which Gen. Giles A. Smith was wounded, leaving Col. Tupper to command the brigade.  November 25th took part in the storming of Missionary Ridge, and after this victory, marched to the relief  of Knoxville, being constantly on the move till January ninth, 1864, when it went into winter quarters at Larkensville, Alabama, remaining there till May 16th; was afterwards engaged in the charge and capture of Resaca; was, also, in the battles of Dallas and Big Shanty, from May 25th to 28th; June 27th fought the battle of Kenesaw mountain; thence crossed the Chattahoochie, and participated in the battle of Stone mountain, driving the enemy to the vicinity of Atlanta where the severe battles of July 20th, 22nd and 28th were fought, the federal forces recapturing the works after the enemy had taken them; shortly after fighting the battle of Ezra Chapel, beating the rebels badly and repulsing them at every point; August 3rd, formed battle line within eight hundred yards of the Atlanta fortifications, and took part in the siege of that place, fighting the battle of Jonesboro' August 14th, thereby virtually ending the siege; went into camp at Atlanta and remained there till orders came for Sherman's famous "March to the Sea," in which the regiment bore a conspicuous part, participating, on the way, December 13th, in the capture of Fort McAlister; marched to Savannah and went into camp there, December 21st; next moved by water to Beaufort, S. C., and marched thence to Pocotaligo, where a battle was fought, and general skirmishing ensued until the city of Columbia was reached; after the burning of the city, the regiment went into camp there; moved thence to Bentonville, N.C., where a heavy battle was fought; marched then to Raleigh, which surrendered without opposition; thence, the great rebellion being virtually crushed, the regiment was ordered to Washington, where it remained till mustered out of the service, June 7th, 1865.  For some cause, unknown to the writer, no record of this noble regiment and its memorable deeds appears either in the Adjutant General's Reports or in the Patriotism of Illinois.  The data for the foregoing imperfect sketch were partly taken from Smith's History of Macon County,  to which indebtedness is hereby acknowledged, and partly furnished by the kindness of some of the surviving members of the regiment, who, are we hope, may live many years yet, to enjoy the rich blessings of a united country, in defense of which they, with thousands of other patriots, endured untold hardships in camp and field.  The brave Colonel Tupper, after having faced death in many a hard fought battle, died at Decatur, March 10th, 1864, and beneath the beautiful monument in Greenwood cemetery, Decatur, erected to his memory by the citizens of Macon county, his remains now repose in the bivouac of the dead.  Peace to his ashes, and to the other noble dead of the regiment whose patriotic deeds, though no pen may portray, or tongue describe, are emblazoned in golden letters of immortality on freedom's eternal scroll.

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