Tenth Generation

1553. Dwight Lewis TALCOTT⁴¹¹ was born on 24 Jul 1846 in Rockton, Winnebago County, Illinois. Dwight Lewis, son of Walter Henry Talcott and Emaline McConnell, was born at Rockton, Ill., July 24, 1846, married Emily A., daughter of Charles W. Robertson, of Rockton, Ill. Oct. 2, 1869.
Dwight Lewis Talcott enlisted in the Union army at the age of 17 1/2 years, at Belvidere, Boone Co., Ill., Jan. 3, 1864. Was a member of Company I, 9th Regt. Ill. Vol. Cavalry. Was provost guard in Fort Pickering, near Memphis, Tenn., until March 18, 1864, when he came home with the regiment on "veteran furlough." Acted as courier and orderly to Capt. J. W. Harper, until the following fall. Harper commanded the regiment and afterward a brigade.
The regiment traveled by railroad, steamboat and marches over 30,000 miles, scoured the States of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, from end to end.
The following is a list of the principal battles in which it took part: Pontotoc, Miss., July 12, 1864: Tupelo, July 15 and 16, 1864; Old Town Creek, Miss., July 16, 1864; Tallahatchie, Aug. 10, 1864;Abbyville, Miss., Aug. 12, 1864; Hurricane Creek, Aug. 13, 1864; Oxford, Miss., Aug. 14, 1864; Savannah, Tenn., Oct. 14, 1864; Shoal River, Ala., Nov. 6, 10, 11, 16, 18 and 19, 1864; Lawrenceburg, Tenn., Nov. 21, 1864; Pulaski, Tenn., Nov. 22, 1864; Campbellsville, Tenn., Nov. 24, 1864, which was Thanksgiving day of that year.
The night of July 11, 1864, he saved a comrade from falling into the clutches of two rebels who were crawling upon him. The same night, was the only man of eight that stood to his post and maintained his ground until help arrived, the rest breaking for camp when the pickets were attacked. At Old Town Creek, July 16, 1864, the stock of his gun was hit by a spent ball while loading; in the same fight the breach of the gun burst while firing.
Near Abbyville, while scouting, shot two negroes mistaking them for guerrillas, happily missing them and discovered the mistake.
At White Station, Miss., in the fall of 1864, while outside of the picket lines with a comrade, gathering wild fruit, discovered several bushwhackers coming who had not seen them, but caught sight of them as they jumped for their horses, and they had a race for life, running their horses all the way to camp, something over a mile, the bushwhackers in pursuit, the bullets whistling around them all the time, but reached the lines in safety.
While out foraging one day, rode into a crowd of guerillas, taking them for our men, as they had on their uniforms. As they were busy about their breakfast, soon slipped their company, without their discovering "the Yankee."
Was in the saddle on one occasion over forty-eight hours, stopped three times to feed horses, and marched 200 miles.
In the fight at Shoal River, crossed the river three times while under a heavy fire from the enemy, they being located on high bluffs, the water fairly boiling from the force of the bullets, which fell as thick as hailstones. on another occasion got placed between two fires, that of the rebels and of the Union troops. Nov. 19, were surrounded by the enemy, and retreat across the river being impossible, cut an outlet escaped, passing down by file, a steep miry bank, obliquely 200 feet. The mortification and apparent chagrin of the rebels when they found their prey had unexpectedly escaped their snare, was made known by hideous yells, such as only rebels can make. At Lawrenceburg had some very close calls from the bullets of the enemy, but came out without a scratch. At Campbellsville while retreating, as the road passed through a narrow gorge, the enemy attempted to cut the command in two. Being ordered to hold the gap at all hazards, the regiment had scarcely dismounted, when a heavy fire was received from a brigade of the enemy. Not a particle daunted they advanced until it became a hand to hand conflict. The company of which he was a member lost twenty-four men in as many minutes, and all were killed or wounded but four. When captured he had 200 rounds of ammunition, which were not given up with gun and belt, but kept from the enemy and destroyed. Was soon stripped of hat, boots, gloves, knife and spurs, and was searched by the rebels five or six times during the first night. One of them found some photographs of his parents which he begged the privilege of keeping, but with an oath they were tossed into the fire. For eight days had no food, except the corn picked up where the horses had been fed. Were kept at Fort Columbia, Tenn., for fifteen days, living on less than an ear of corn a day. Dec. 17, 1864, after Hood's defeat at Nashville, started for southern prisons; marched to Iuka, Miss., thence by rail via Corinth and Jackson, Miss, Montgomery, Ala., and Macon, Ga., to Andersonville. The prisoners being crowded into box cars, with neither room to sit or lie down, from two to six died in each car every day. Arriving at Andersonville, saw 200 prisoners joining the rebel army, taking the oath of the Southern Confederacy, and drawing clothing and rations.
The future looked dark to the new arrivals, but they took new courage when they found that a native born American was in the lot. In the prison met fellow prisoners, mere walking skeletons covered with filth and vermin. Had no protection from the weather in the shape of clothing, but the few rags they were allowed to keep. Had no wood, no food, no wholesome water, not even pure air to breathe, for the odor of the stockade was detected before it was reached. A railing around the inside, about one rod from the stockade, constituted the "dead line," which to touch or pass was "death." Receiving no notice of it, came near being shot within an hour after arrival by an attempt to pass under it, but was pulled back and saved by a comrade. Burrowed in the ground for several weeks, taking a severe cold became sick, lost flesh very rapidly and could hardly crawl. Had not any medical treatment, nor had any prisoners, so far as known, and no religious privileges. The prisoners seemed crazed by their condition, and the stronger preyed upon the weaker. The prison covered about thirty acres, and part of the time was densely crowded. Sometimes two wagons loads of dead bodies were hauled out in one day. Twenty-eight per cent of all the prisoners received died in the prison. Their last resting place was called the "bone-yard," by their fellow prisoners, for they were generally mere skeletons, and died from starvation. Having the scurvy, accompanied with diarrhea, became so weak were necessarily transferred to another stockade, called a hospital, about one-fourth as large as the former, surrounded on three sides by wet swampy land, very little, if any better than the big stockade. Here were some old worn-out tents to help protect from the weather. The rations were some better but insufficient, received some medical treatment, but had no chance to wash or keep clean.
The keeper of the prison was Capt. Henry Wirz (a native of Switzerland), usually called by the prisoners "the old Dutch captain." He was a tool and a murder in the hands of prominent rebels, dealing out with an unsparing hand all the horrors of disease, pollution and death, that he possibly could, and was vulgar and profane in the extreme.
March 18, 1865, came a day of deliverance to 1,000 of the prisoners, still leaving 7,000. He, being nearly dead, was allowed the choice to go or stay, decided to go. Many of his comrades begged of him to give them his place, saying "you can never live to get home." To their earnest entreaties his reply was, "I may not live to get home, but I wish to die as near home and God's country (as we called the North) as I can." He was about twenty-third man of the one thousand called out. Although weak and scarcely able to stand, how he ever got to the station, one mile distant, God only knows, for at every attempt to walk he reeled and fell, but most of the times nearer the objective point; so by rolling, crawling and dragging himself along, after six hours struggle, reached the desired goal. Started in box cars for Vicksburg, Miss., with plenty of hard crackers and pork, the first food of the kind he had seen or tasted since he was taken prisoner. After twelve days' travel arrived at the Big Black River twenty miles east of Vicksburg, where they were paroled March 30, 1865. Never before did the flag of the stars and stripes have so much significance as it floated in the breeze. It was a touching sight to see the men, with tearful eyes, gazing at that precious emblem of freedom. Many of the men who had been buoyed up with hope and excitement, now found themselves weak and perfectly helpless.
At Vicksburg they were placed on a hospital steamboat, reaching Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, April 8, 18656, when for the first time in four months, he had on a pair of shoes and a hat, being still weak and unable to walk or sit up.
His father, who went to bring him home, found him in the hospital April 11th, and started for home on the 14th, picking him up and carrying him in his arms to the cars as he would a child, the merest skeleton of his former self, weighing only 75 pounds, just about one-half as much as when he entered the service, his weight then being 147.
He was covered with scurvy sores, some so large as the palm of the hand, and hip bones badly protuberant. Arrived at home April 15th, the day the news of President Lincoln's assassination was received. Was confined to his bed several weeks, and the cough he had contracted hung around him for fifteen months. His hair fell out, and his skin, which was of a yellow clay color, did not appear healthy for a long time; could not partake of food with salt in it, or highly seasoned, for over two months, and was unable to do manual labor of any kind for over a year.
He received his discharge June 5, 1865, at Chicago, Ill., and also a notice from the War Department, dated June 20th, that he was duly exchanged.
In the spring of 1872, he settled in Osage, Mitchell Co., Iowa, where he now (1876) resides engaged in farming.

Dwight Lewis TALCOTT and Emily A. ROBERTSON were married on 12 Oct 1869 in Rockton, Winnebago County, Illinois. Emily A. ROBERTSON (daughter of Charels W. ROBERTSON) was born in Rockton, Winnebago County, Illinois. Dwight Lewis TALCOTT and Emily A. ROBERTSON had the following children:

2185	i.	Norris Dwight TALCOTT was born on 27 Jul 1870 in Rockton, Winnebago County, Illinois.
2186	ii.	Wait TALCOTT was born on 5 Mar 1873 in Osage, Mitchell County, Iowa.