Units Guarding the Alton Military Prison

Units Guarding the Alton Military Prison. Units assigned to guard the Alton Federal Military Prison, 13th U.S. Regular Infantry , Ordered to Alton February, 1862, 77th Ohio Volunteer Infantry , Ordered to Alton August, 1862, 37th Iowa Volunteer Infantry (The Greybeard Regiment) , Ordered to Alton May, 1863 , Formed as a garrison unit by the fathers and grandfathers of Iowa volunteers. Average age was around 50, 10th Kansas Volunteer Infantry , Ordered to Alton January, 1864, 17th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry , Ordered to Alton May, 1864, 144th Illinois Infantry (The Alton Regiment) , Ordered into service at Alton October 1864 , Comprised almost entirely of area recruits and served only at Alton and St. Louis, Pvt. George Tracey , Co. A, 10th Kansas Infantry , Although only 15 at the outbreak of the war, George Tracey was big for his age and went from one enlistment station to another until he was accepted. He fought in several significant battles including Newtonia, Fort Wayne and Prairie Grove before the unit was assigned here in January of 1864. Duty at Alton at that time was as dangerous as a battlefield assignment because of a severe winter and a bad outbreak of smallpox. Ten of the regiment died during service at Alton., George T. Tracey was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas September 10, 1865. He married Anna Eliza Kenhart and they raised 12 children in Miami County, Kansas. George Tracey died in 1918.