Wesley Blalock in the Civil War

Second great-grandfather (2GG) Wesley Blalock (1825-1895) joined the 31st Illinois Infantry Regiment, Company K, on 10 August 1861 in Centralia, Marion, Illinois.^[1]Wesley named one of his daughters after the town in which he enlisted.  The nickname of the 31st was the Dirty First.

Wesley was about 36 years old at the time and employed on a farm near Carlyle, Clinton, Illinois as a laborer (and carpenter, most likely).^[2]Based on 1860 census, which described Wesley as a laborer residing at the Tunnicliff family farm near Carlyle.  See: 1860 U.S. Census, Clinton County, Illinois, population schedule, Carlyle post … Continue reading  Carlyle is only 18 miles from Centralia.

Geographically and culturally, the 31st regiment represented Little Egypt in the Civil War, the southernmost section of the state of Illinois.  Little Egypt was known for its southern sympathies because most of its population had migrated from the upland South.  That includes Wesley, who was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  There was even concern at the start of the war that the area might defect to the Confederate cause and some men, particularly from Williamson County, did defect and helped form the 15th Tennessee Regiment.  Many thought the congressman representing Little Egypt, John A. “Black Jack” Logan, would also join the Southern rebellion but he chose to support the Union, and became the commanding officer of the 31st Illinois regiment.

Logan returned to politics after the war and became a U.S. congressman, then Senator, and was the losing Republican candidate for Vice President in 1884.  He is credited with creating Memorial Day.  Logan Circle in Washington D.C. is named for him.

Because of Wesley’s roots in Kentucky and the North and South Carolina origins of the Blalock surname, it is interesting that Wesley fought on the Union side.  Far more Blalock men served the Confederacy than the North.  Approximately 30 men with the last name Blalock/Blaylock fought for the North; probably six or seven times that many fought for the South.  It is conceivable, in other words, that Wesley may have faced some of his own cousins during combat.

Wesley Blalock was mustered into service on 18 September 1861 and spent nearly two months in training at Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Wesley’s first taste of combat occurred at the Battle of Belmont on 7 November 1861.  Gen. Ulysses S. Grant directed an expeditionary force of 3,100 men to attack a Confederate outpost in Missouri overlooking the Mississippi River – across from Columbus, Kentucky.  Belmont is an odd little engagement because so many rookie mistakes were made by officers on both sides and it is difficult to say who won.

After a fight lasting about three hours, Grant’s men routed the rebel soldiers, mostly Tennessee boys, and overran the Confederate camp. However, the troops began to celebrate, drink liquor, and lost unit cohesion.

Grant’s inexperienced soldiers became, in his own words, “demoralized from their victory.” Brig. Gen. McClernand walked to the center of the camp, which now flew the Stars and Stripes, and asked for three cheers. A bizarre, carnival-like atmosphere prevailed; the troops were carried away by the joy of their victory, having captured several hundred prisoners and the camp.^[3]David J. Eicher, The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War (New York: Simon and Shuster, 2001), p. 144.

Grant reestablished order and was beginning to march the troops back to the Mississippi when Confederate reinforcements brought over the river from Columbus attacked and forced him to hasten the departure.^[4]As a side note, among the reinforcements was the 15th Tennessee Infantry regiment, the same regiment in which a number of southern Illinois men served.  Some confusion resulted, but nonetheless, Grant was able to get the bulk of his force back on their riverboats in good order.  He was the last Union man to leave the field.  Union losses were 607 and Confederate losses 641.

As the accompanying battle map shows, the 31st Illinois regiment was given the honor of leading the initial morning advance along with the 30th Illinois.  (Note the movement of the Union Army from one cornfield to the next.)  Wesley’s company – Company K – was chosen as the skirmish company for the advance, meaning that Wesley and his comrades would have been placed 100 yards or more in front of the main force, experiencing first contact with the enemy.^[5]Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), p. 69.  I wish Dad had known that detail before he died.

There is nothing in this world that is more exciting, more nerve stirring to a soldier, than to participate in a battle line of skirmishers, when you have a fair field and open fight. There it takes nerve and pluck, however, it is allowed each skirmisher to take whatever protection he can in the way of tree or stump. Then on the advance you do not know when to expect an enemy to spring from behind a tree, stump, or bush, take aim and fire.^[6]D. Augustus Dickert, History of Kershaw’s Brigade (Newberry, South Carolina: Elbert H. Aull Co., 1899), p. 421-22.

Later in the advance, a devastating volley from the 31st Illinois was partially responsible for the final demoralization of the Rebs, along with some well-placed cannon shots.^[7]Website, Fandom (www.military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Belmont : accessed 15 June 2022).  If you follow the directional arrows for each regiment on the map, you can see that the 31st ended up on the left wing during the Union assault on the camp.

The expeditionary force returned to Cairo, Illinois, where the troops stayed in camp over the winter.  Grant’s next engagements were in February 1862.  The 31st Illinois was present at the Battle of Fort Henry on 6 February 1862, although the infantry saw little action and it was the gunboats that forced the Confederate surrender.  In taking the fort, Grant achieved the first Union victory in the West.

The much larger Battle of Fort Donelson took place a week later.  Donelson was a sister to Fort Henry, only twelve miles away.  Again, Grant was victorious.  This was the first large scale engagement in the West, involving over 40,000 men.  The Union had 2,691 casualties, of whom 501 were killed and 1,976 wounded.  Wesley Blalock was among the wounded.

In the map above, the 31st Illinois regiment was assigned to the brigade of Col. Richard J. Oglesby, which belonged in turn to the division commanded by Gen. John A. McClernand.^[8]Although later promoted to major general, Oglesby successfully ran for Governor of Illinois in 1864 and left service.  He was present in the room across from Ford Theatre when Pres. Lincoln died on … Continue reading

Wesley’s injury occurred on 15 February during an attempted Confederate breakout.  The Rebels attacked the Union right wing at dawn just as Union soldiers were preparing breakfast and pushed them back significantly, almost two miles, but the Union recovered in the afternoon.  The Confederates surrendered the next day after Grant famously told them:

No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.

Because of its position on the extreme right, the 31st Illinois was one of the regiments most severely impacted by the surprise attack.  The regiment lost 260 killed or wounded, its highest one-day loss of the war.  In Wesley’s case, he was shot in the left knee by a musket ball while “kneeling in formation and facing the left oblique of the enemy.”^[9]“Medical Report,” 20 March 1862, Union Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, in Wesley Blalock (Pvt., Co. K, 31st Ill. Vol. Inf.) pension no. Inv. 58388, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications …, … Continue reading  It is impossible to determine precisely where and when Wesley was shot, but it is plausible that it occurred at the very beginning of the assault.

At the beginning of the firing, Colonel Logan, in order to bring his men to the crest of the hill in front of his line, had ordered the line to move forward forty paces.  Here they dropped upon their knees in the snow and here at very close range they received and gave their first fire, and here the ranks were torn by canister and plowed by bullets.^[10]W.S. Morris, L.D. Hartwell, J.B. Kuykendall, History, 31st Regiment Illinois Volunteers (Evansville, Indiana: Keller Publishing, 1902), p. 36.

That was the extent of Wesley’s warfighting.  He was shipped upriver to a military hospital in Cincinnati, where he remained for five months.  He was discharged from service on 25 July 1862, maimed for life.

Army Surgeon John Moore stated at the time of discharge that Wesley was “half disabled to gain his subsistence.”^[11]“Discharge Certificate,” 25 July 1862, Union Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, in Wesley Blalock (Pvt., Co. K, 31st Ill. Vol. Inf.) pension no. Inv. 58388, Case Files of Approved Pension Applications … Continue reading  This caused no end of grief for some years because his disability was actually worse than that.  A couple of army doctors suggested amputation of his left leg but for whatever reason it was never performed.  Medical examinations suggest he was barely able to walk and was often in pain.  Wesley’s pension file is replete with requests for rating upgrades and stipend increases.

Wesley resided in a boarding house in Cincinnati after discharge, but by November 1862 had moved to the small hamlet of Nicholsville in Clermont County, about 25 miles east.  It’s not clear why he didn’t move back to his hometown of Collinsville, Madison, Illinois, but loss of mobility was a likely factor.  He married Harriet Kennelly (1835-1906) on 16 November 1864 and they had 2 daughters, Cedelia and Centrilla (my great-grandmother).  After moving to nearby Williamsburg in 1867, Wesley worked at a chair factory the rest of his life, and died in 1895, about age 70.

Wesley was a carpenter by trade, so making “chair splits” at a factory represented a substantial decline in fortune.  The family was mired in grinding poverty.  They never owned a house and the value of their personal estate in 1870 was a mere $100.^[12]1870 U.S. census, Clermont County, Ohio, population schedule, Williamsburg Township, p. 55, dwelling 457, family 423, Wesley Blalock; digital image, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : 1 July … Continue reading  By 1880, even his 11 and 13 year old daughters were employed at the chair factory.^[13]1880 U.S. census, Clermont County, Ohio, population schedule, Williamsburg Village, ED 53, p. 387C, dwelling 438, family 448, Delia and Centrilla in household of Wesley Blalock; digital image, … Continue reading  His military pension must have been critical to the family’s survival.

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