Civil War Soldiers of the 10th Illinois Infantry
They left as neighbors.
Farmers. Clerks. Apprentices. Sons of early settlers.
Men who had walked Main Street, attended church in town, and worked fields just beyond its edges.
When war came in 1861, Sandwich answered.
The town sent volunteers into Company C and later Company H of the 10th Illinois Infantry Regiment. What began as a three month enlistment soon became four years of marching, fighting, enduring, and waiting.
They went south along the Mississippi River.
They stood in the mud near New Madrid.
They marched through Tennessee and Georgia.
They climbed Missionary Ridge.
They fought toward Atlanta.
They crossed Georgia in Sherman’s March.
They advanced into the Carolinas.
Some returned in 1865.
Some did not.
The Fallen from Sandwich
Company H, 10th Illinois Infantry
- Captain Lindsay H. Carr — Killed March 12, 1862
- Edward Hoag — Died February 6, 1862
- Milton Sanders — Died January 8, 1862
- Cornelius Hagerty — Died August 31, 1862
- John Stan (or Stall) — Died November 6, 1862
- Augustus Snyder — Died March 4, 1863
- William Duyar — Died February 25, 1864
- Kipps Baldwin — Died of wounds July 20, 1864
These names represent more than casualties in a regimental report. They represent households in Sandwich that felt absence at the table. They represent letters that stopped arriving.
Those Who Returned
Many of the Sandwich Guards did come home.
They returned older, tested, and marked by years of campaign life. Some resumed farming. Some entered business. Some carried physical wounds; others carried memories that never entirely faded.
Their experience connected Sandwich to battlefields far beyond Illinois — from the Mississippi River to Georgia and the Carolinas.
What It Meant
The Civil War is often told in terms of armies and generals.
But for Sandwich, it was personal.
It meant watching neighbors depart.
It meant waiting for news.
It meant mourning losses.
It meant welcoming survivors home.
When Sandwich went to war, it did not send strangers.
It sent its own.
And they carried the name of their town with them.
Research & Sources
Service records for Sandwich soldiers of Company C and Company H were compiled from the Illinois Adjutant General’s Reports and official rosters of the 10th Illinois Infantry Regiment. Campaign context referenced official War Department records and materials available through the National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database, along with regional archival sources.
Explore the full regimental history in Company H – The Sandwich Guards