Frederick's Journal

The 92nd Regiment was enlisted in Stephenson, Joe Daviess, Ogle and Carroll counties.  Company E was enlisted in Ogle County August 15, 1862.  Went into camp at Rockford on Rock River and was organized into the 92nd Regiment with Smith D. Atkins as Colonel.  The camp was pleasantly situated in a grove with board barracks, but the boards were hard under one blanket and our bones ached.  A change from the feather beds at home.  In after years we would have been glad to have been placed in such quarters.  Drilling commenced at once:  first, the awkward squad, then the company, finally the regiment.  Company E before receiving its company letter was called The Applington Avengers.  We were routed out of our beds in the morning by the orderlies called “Applington Avengers, fall in line for roll call”; and later on by the same voice, “Applington Avengers, fall in for breakfast”; our movements were all made by the call of drum or bugle. 

On September 6, Lieut. Tibbets, U.S.A. paid the Regiment  $13.00 each - one month’s pay.  While in camp friends of the boys came bringing with them baskets of provisions, turkeys, chickens, pies, puddings, etc, with the result that the boys learned the double-quick step.  It was never a popular march but sooner or later every officer and man learned it.

On the 11th the Colonel returned from Springfield with Enfield rifles for the Regiment.  The 14th was Sabbath and the first regimental inspection was held.  There was preaching in the grove attended by the entire encampment; dress parade with a religious song by Captain Becker’s Glee Club closed the day.  On Monday dress coats were issued and by a good deal of swapping between big and little men, a tolerable fit was obtained.  On the 1st of October knapsacks, haversacks and canteens were issued.  The regiment was now completely equipped and ready for business.  The days were filled with drilling and fitting the men for their year’s work as soldiers.

On the morning of the 9th the 92nd received its first marching orders.  There was no drilling - fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and sweethearts were in to bid the soldier boys farewell.  It was no ordinary journey those thousands of men were about to take.  It was a march to battle and to many, to the grave.  No one could tell who would come back or who would fall by the way.

On the morning of the 10th with full strength, knapsacks packed and blankets rolled and colors flying, the 92nd marched down the streets of Rockford and embarked on a special train for Chicago, reaching there at 3 P.M.  Marched through the streets of Chicago to Illinois Central depot and stacked arms.  At 6 P.M. took a special train for Cincinnati, arriving there on Sunday morning at daylight.  Marched through the streets of Cincinnati, crossing the Ohio River on a bridge of floating coal barges through the city of Covington.  Treading for the first time the sacred soil of Kentucky.  One wondered, of the boys that so proudly marched across the Ohio River that Sabbath morning, how many would be alive to cross that stream again?  Some would sleep in Kentucky graves, some in Tennessee, some in Georgia, the Carolinas, but few would cross back after their soldier days were over.  Marched four miles south of the Ohio and camped in the valley of the Licking River.  As we went into camp the first sounds of battle were heard in the southwest.  It was the Union Advance after Kirby Smith, whose near advance had frightened the citizens of Cincinnati.  On Monday the regiment drew bell tents and a six-mule team and wagon for each company; the day being spent in breaking in the little three year old mules and pitching tents.  The companies were divided into five squads - from fifteen to twenty in each tent.

At noon, October 18th, the regiment received orders to be ready to march at 4 P.M.  Some regiments that had been guarding Cumberland Gap came in foot sore, ragged and hungry.  A great contrast in their appearance and the 92nd, with their new uniforms and bright equipment, and the boys began to wonder how soon they would be reduced to that condition, which they soon learned was often to be their lot.

The commencing of the march was fine, with colors flying, drums beating, arms at a right shoulder shift, stepping to the tap of the drums.  The men were loaded down with two suites of clothes, knapsacks full of useless stuff that was soon scattered along the road.  In a short time the drums quit playing,