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Reflections
A quiet man and patriot remembered on Decoration Day : Reflections : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisA quiet man and patriot remembered on Decoration Day
| by Roger Matile
| 5/31/2012
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In April, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield caused quite a splash when they announced the acquisition of a photograph of a black Civil War veteran from Illinois. It was of such great interest because identified photographs of any of Illinois' black Civil War veterans are so vanishingly rare. In fact, the formal portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Hughes of NaAuSay Township here in Kendall County acquired by the Lincoln Library is the only identified example.
For local residents it was, of course, of great interest to know that such a historic photograph is an image of a Kendall County resident. For those of us who volunteer at Oswego's Little White School Museum, it was of even more interesting since the museum has an identical print of the portrait in its collections.
And a fine portrait it is, too, taken by Sigmund Benesohn in his Yorkville studio. Neither the Lincoln Library's nor the Little White School's prints are dated, but it's possible it was taken in 1893 for the Hughes' 10th anniversary. Nathan and Jane were married in Kendall County Oct. 17, 1883.
Benensohn bought Charles Sabin's studio in April 1893. As Kendall County Record Publisher John R. Marshall reported on May 17: "Our new Yorkville photographer, Mr. Benensohn, is doing very fine work. He is an expert in his line, having learned the best points of artistic photography in Europe."
So it's not unlikely the Hughes might have decided to celebrate their anniversary with a formal portrait by Yorkville's new European-trained photographer.
The resulting portrait shows Nathan Hughes sitting comfortably with Jane standing at his left, arm resting on his shoulder. Nathan is wearing a formal frock coat with a boutonniere and, most interestingly, a Grand Army of the Republic membership pin on his left lapel.
The GAR was the Civil War veterans' organization, the American Legion and the VFW of its day rolled into one. Membership pins were bronze, symbolically cast from melted-down barrels of rebel cannons. In Kendall County, GAR posts were established at Plano and Yorkville. Nathan was a member of the Yorkville post, where he sometimes served as an officer, a tribute to his war service.
He deserved the tribute because he really had to work to serve. The first time he fought for his own freedom was as a young man who had a wife and three children, all living as slaves in Scott County, Kentucky. Nathan managed to escape from his owner, though forced to leave his family behind as he made his way north. He eventually ended up in northern Illinois.
Unfortunately, no one interviewed Hughes during his lifetime, so we don't know what his feelings were when the South attacked the Union starting the Civil War, but it's likely he wanted to do his part. At that time, blacks were not allowed to serve other than as support personnel, such as teamsters and cooks. But the times were rapidly changing and with the positive examples of such all-black military units as the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the idea that black Americans could be good soldiers began to be accepted.
It was an idea partly driven by practical need as the war dragged on and the pool of eligible recruits dwindled. So it was almost inevitable when, on May 22, 1863, the War Department issued General Order 143, establishing the United States Colored Troops.
Illinois Gov. Richard Yates began recruiting a colored regiment-designated the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment-late in 1863, but the early efforts were slow, due to factors including lower pay for black soldiers and the brutal treatment black prisoners of war received at the hands of the rebels. But gradually the regiment's companies were filled with volunteers from all over the state until it was ready to be formally accepted for service at Quincy on April 24, 1864. Eventually, some 1,400 Prairie State blacks would serve against the South.
Among those enlisting was Nathan Hughes, who was assigned to Company B of the 29th Regiment. At the time, Hughes was no youngster. His military records state he was 33 years old; family tradition, however, says he was born in 1824, which would have made him 40 at the time of his enlistment. It's possible he shaved seven years off his age in order to assure the army would take him.
After some brief training, the 29th traveled east by rail, where they marched down 14th Avenue in Washington, D.C. on their way to the front in Virginia, right past President Abraham Lincoln who was also riding down 14th. The 29th had an eventful war, participating in Grant's (unsuccessful) attempt to trap Lee's Army of Northern Virginia before it reached the fortifications around Richmond, then in the disastrous "Battle of the Crater" in the Richmond fortifications at Petersburg, Va., as well as battles at Boydton Plank Road and Hatcher's Run. As Victor Hicken observed in Illinois and the Civil War: "This was hard soldiering."
Hughes was badly wounded during the Battle of the Crater, shot in the left leg near his hip. Unlike so many of his wounded comrades however, he recovered just in time to march and fight (and be wounded in the hand) with the 29th all the way to Appomattox Courthouse where he was on hand for Lee's surrender.
After the war, Hughes went to Kentucky and brought his three children north to Kendall County (his wife apparently having died), settling on a small farm along Minkler Road. He outlived his first two wives, Mary Lightfoot and Analinda Odell, became a respected member of the Minkler Road farming community, and lived to see his grandchildren become the first blacks to graduate from high school in Kendall County. As, the Kendall County Record put it in his 1910 obituary: "It is a pleasure to bear testimony to his worth as a man and a patriot; he was loyal to his country and in all his associations was a quiet, self-possessed man of the best of traits...A good citizen, he has left a vacant place in the ranks of the 'boys in blue.'"
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