The Civil War Records of

Battery G,

2nd Illinois Light Artillery

“We enlisted as patriots. Let us maintain and continue to deserve the name.”
– Major Charles Stolbrand, Special Order No. 1

In the fall of 1861, Charles J. Stolbrand, an immigrant from Sweden, recruited men from northern Illinois to form the “DeKalb Horse Artillery.” Twenty different northern Illinois counties were represented in its ranks, with the majority of men coming from DeKalb, Cook, Ogle, Lee and Winnebago counties. Renamed “Battery G, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery,” the unit saw service in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, and Alabama.
This collection of transcribed records is the most complete history of the unit in print. Nowhere else under a single cover will you find:

  • Complete muster roll information (including physical descriptions, age, marital status, birthplace and place of residence for many soldiers).
  • Complete and nearly day-by-day account of the battery’s service, including routes of march, illnesses, disciplinary action, and other minutae not found in any other records.
  • Complete transcription of the battery order book, containing promotions, court martials, and other battery orders.
  • Two indexes – one containing the names of individual soldiers of Battery G, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery; and a general index containing names of individuals not members of the battery, as well as general topics such as “desertions,” “deaths,” or “disease.”

Records for Battery G, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery are difficult to find; this book fills a void in Illinois and Civil War research by gathering three of the most important and detailed types of records together in one volume.
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