WAR OF THE REBELLION
(Transcribed by Sharon Wick)

     Our nation has passed through four great wars, viz:  The Revolutionary War, waged in behalf of national independence; the War of 1812, in defence of the rights of American seamen and the national commerce; the Mexican War, caused by the annexation of Texas; and lastly, the War of the Rebellion, whose rise, progress and results are still fresh in the memory of the present generation.  To enter upon a discussion of the causes which plunged the country into the last of these great struggles, the fiercest and bloodiest civil conflict known in ancient or modern times, would entirely transcend the aim of the present chapter.  That is a duty incumbent upon the general historian.  It is our purpose, rather, to collate and compile, in a succinct form, all the accessible facts pertaining to the part taken by Macon county in the war of the rebellion.  No county in the State has greater cause to be proud of its military record.  When the nation was in peril and called for defenders, the sons of Macon county responded nobly to the call, and their brave deeds, on scores of bloody fields, extending from Gettysburg to Shiloh, will ever constitute the brightest pages in the annals of the county.  The total number of men furnished by Macon county during the war was bout twenty-five hundred; the amount of bounty money raised and paid to the soldiers, $180,000.  To the sketch of each regiment here given is appealed as complete a roster of the members recruited in this county as it is possible to make from the data preserved.  Taking the regiments in numerical order, the record begins with the

SEVENTH (7TH) ILLINOIS CAVALRY

.