HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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Kane County, whose position and duties involved great property trusts and responsibilities.
Careful study of the published reports of the State Adjutant-General accredits to each of the townships of Kane County the following number of volunteers. As in many instances the place of enlistment is not given, the number here stated is more probably too few rather than exaggerated: Aurora, 1,297; Batavia, 288; Geneva, 229; St. Charles, 453; Elgin, 1,138; Dundee, 249; Sugar Grove, 53; Kaneville, 124; Campton, 46; Plato, 171; Rutland, 39; Big Rock, 63; Virgil, 43; Blackberry, 162; Burlington, 72; Hampshire, 148-making a total of enlisted men of 4,338, and of commissioned officers, 287-grand total, 4,575. There were enlisted in the regular army and accredited to Kane County fifty men. making a grand total of 4,625 young men volunteering from a population of about 30,000 in 1860. Classifying these figures, there were 3,365 men credited to the county in the infantry service, just 1,000 in the cavalry, 210 in the artillery and fifty in the regular army.
It is sincerely regretted that the scope of this brief work does not permit giving an honorary roll of the names of those heroic and patriotic men in the ranks, hundreds of whom actually died for their country, and each one of whom voluntarily surrendered all that life holds dear and, for months and years, amid the toils and perils of war, again and again, times almost without number, tendered life itself in defense of the Union and of liberty. It is eminently proper and well to emblazon high upon the roll of immortal fame, the names of those matchless soldiers who, with steady advance, rose by demonstrated ability to the topmost summit of military success and renown in the conduct of our stupendous war; yet it was the patriotic devotion, the steady valor and the resourceful intelligence of the vast host in the ranks that, under the directing orders of the profoundest military genius, marched to final and complete victory. Generations yet unborn shall say with exultant pride, "My ancestor was a soldier in the great war that preserved the Nation."
As an indication of the quality of the men who filled the ranks of the Kane County volunteers, it is recalled that one soldier who carried a musket in Company "A," Seventh Illinois Infantry, subsequently became Superintendent of Public Instruction in the great State of New York; another is now Deputy Commissioner of Pensions at Washington, and a third was Paymaster with rank of Major in the late war with Spain. So, also, in the last regiment recruited in Kane County (the One Hundred Forty-first Infantry), one of her boys, John M. Hamilton, marched with his musket upon his shoulder and, in later years, occupied the Governor's chair of our own grand State worthily and well. By direction of President Lincoln a gold medal bearing the following inscription was awarded a brave Kane County soldier, now residing at Monticello, Minn.: "The Congress to Sergeant Andrew McCornack, Co. I, 127th Ill. Vols., for gallantry at Vicksburg, Miss., May 22, 1863."
In a list of names of soldiers receiving the special thanks of Congress for meritorious service, we find that of private and Captain Leverett M. Kelley of Company A, of the gallant Thirty-sixth. In grateful recognition of his patriotic services, the great Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company presented Col. Nicholas Greusel of the Thirty-sixth a life-pass over all the lines of their system, beautifully engraved upon a plate of solid gold.
It has long been the custom of nations at peace to send the most complete and powerful of her armored vessels on visits of comity to the open ports of the world. It displays the mailed hand of War clad in the silken glove of Peace. The United States was at peace with Spain when, early in 1895, the Cuban revolution began. For three long years, while our ears were assailed with authentic reports of Weyler's atrocious cruelties perpetrated against the Cuban people; while the cruisers of other nations paid the usual visits of courtesy to the Spanish ports in Cuba; not once during this period did the unhappy people of the beautiful island behold the inspiring flag of liberty "floating from the masthead of an armored vessel in Cuban waters, Early in President McKinley's first administration official suggestion was made that these national courtesies be resumed; and, a little later, Admiral Cervera brought the gracious greetings of the Queen Regent of Spain to the President of the United States, and his majestic battleship, the Viscaya, was moored in the harbor of New York. He was received with every salute and ceremony of naval honor, and himself and officers entertained with the most elegant hospitality, while
