Casualties of War

Casualties of War. .

"I hastened back to find Sammy but Oh was too late. He was to far gone too recognize me I could but fall beside him and weep bitter tears."

, Friends and Neighbors , The 122nd Illinois Infantry mustered in at Carlinville in Macoupin County, Illinois, on September 4, 1862. Most of its members resided in the county, and many in Company D were from the small town of Brighton. Among them were three close friends: nineteen-year-old George E. Finch; twenty-year-old Samuel W. Peter; and Samuel's brother, William Henry Peter, then twenty-one. , By October, the three young men were in Tennessee guarding the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. On December 18, 1862, they marched with their regiment to Jackson, Tennessee. On December 31, William, Sammy and George were on the field at Parker's Crossroads., A Sorrowful Letter Home , On January 4, 1863, William Peter wrote his parents and siblings from his tent in Jackson. The fighting at Parker's Crossroads on December 31, he told them, began at eight o'clock in the morning and three hours later they were behind a fence where they came under a "terrific fire of shell grape and canister." About fifteen minutes later a shell struck George Finch and carried away his legs below the knees. George died twenty minutes later. , The regiment turned to attack the Confederates, who had gotten behind them. As they charged, William's brother Sammy fell. William could not get to him until after the battle, and when he found him, Sammy was dying. William wrote: "I hastened back to find Sammy but Oh was too late. He was to [sic] far gone too [sic] recognize me I could but fall beside him and weep bitter tears." , United in Death , William buried his brother, Samuel, and George Finch in the same grave. Later, the Peter family removed the remains of both to Brighton City Cemetery where they rest today. William survived the war only to die in October 1865. He, too, rests in Brighton City Cemetery. The 122nd Illinois suffered more casualties at the Battle of Parker's Crossroads than any other Union regiment. , (map caption) , William Peter drew this map showing the grave where he buried his brother, Sam, and George Finch. It is on the right side of the map, just north of the split-rail fence.