For July 4: Two colonels of the 21st Illinois

On this date in 1861, the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment observed Independence Day festivities before and after a 17-mile march. They were en route from Springfield to Quincy, in the west of the state on the Mississippi River, across from the disputed slave state of Missouri. Grant, the regiment's new colonel, had elected to march rather than going by rail "for the purpose of discipline and speedy efficiency for the field," as he reported after the war (by then a lieutenant general) to the adjutant general of Illinois.

July 4 was notable in Grant's life for the birth of his daughter Nellie in 1855, and the surrender of Vicksburg in 1863.

Grant was promoted to brigadier general on Aug. 5, 1861, and his replacement as colonel of the 21st Illinois was Lt. Col. John W. S. Alexander, from Edgar County in eastern Illinois. He had joined up as a captain, and had prior volunteer experience in the Mexican War.

The regiment would go on to suffer more than 300 casualties at the Battle of Murfreesboro at the end of 1862, and another 238 at Chickamauga in 1863. Alexander was among the wounded at Murfreesboro (also known as Stone's River). Grant was not present at either battle.

Grant ended his postwar report by referring to "that gallant and Christian officer, Colonel Alexander, who afterwards yielded up his life whilst nobly leading it [the 21st] in the Battle of Chickamauga." Alexander's grave marker at Edgar Cemetery is shown at the top of this post.