Litchfield, IL to Cape Girardeau, MO
Today we started following the Civil War journey of JBS. This trip has been such a long time in the making and the family historian in me was I was totally geeking out to finally be doing it. In the morning, I reminded the kids about JBS and we went over the part of his journey we would cover today. They are not nearly as excited about it as I am but there was no complaining, so I take that as a win.
Before we could start to follow JBS, however, we had to get to his starting point. Along the way, we passed though Mount Vernon, IL, where we have family and we had a nice visit over lunch. We had a few extra minutes and decided to drive by the courthouse. I have grown up seeing this on my many visits to Mount Vernon, even the kids have seen it before, but it fit in with the theme of the trip -- in that it was around during the Civil War -- so we took the kids to see it again.
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| Historic Appellate Courthouse in Mount Vernon |
Our next stop was Hamilton County, IL, where JBS lived most of his life and where he was buried at Blooming Grove Cemetery in McLeansboro. We had visited his grave before and were able to quickly locate it again today to pay our respects and officially kick off the part of the road trip that will follow his journey.
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| Blooming Grove Cemetery in McLeansboro |
After JBS enlisted for service with the 87th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, he left his family and his farm in Hamilton County to go into camp in Shawneetown, IL. The military camp, Camp Logan, was located on the Eddy's farm. My husband researched the location (finding some terrific documents in the process) and was able to add the stop to our trip. We pulled to the side of the road to see the field that was once Camp Logan where JBS trained and mustered into service.
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| The Field That Was Camp Logan |
Next we headed to Old Shawneeton, IL, which was the original Shawneetown at that time. That site suffered many floods and the town relocated further north, leaving a ghost town by the river. The impressive bank building still stands -- JBS would have seen the very same building back in 1862.
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| Historic Bank in Old Shawneetown |
We had printed photos for our trip binder of what the downtown area looked like when it was a thriving port town, of the building where Abe Lincoln once had a law office, and also of the big flood in 1937, to show the kids -- they were mildly interested. They were slightly more enthusiastic when we walked up the berm to get a look at the Ohio River, where JBS boarded transport steamboats as his regiment set off for Memphis, TN, in 1863.
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| Ohio River at Old Shawneetown |
I am not at all bothered that I am more excited than the kids for this part of our road trip. I know they are gaining something from it, if nothing more than to share in my passion for family history. And, as I said, they haven't been whining or complaining, so that is good enough for me!
They were probably more excited when we played Pokémon GO on our breaks than anything else today. I know I got a kick out of putting all ghost-type Pokémon in the gym at the ghost town bank in Old Shawneetown.
Next we headed towards the Mississippi River, stopping in Wolf Lake, IL, to visit with family and have a delicious home-cooked dinner. Then, we crossed the Mississippi River into Missouri (state #2 of the trip), followed our GPS the most back-roads way possible to get to a gas station that was less than 2 miles away, and are now at our hotel in Cape Girardeau, MO, for the night.
Looking forward to what tomorrow will bring!