The Discovery

It all began years ago when my father passed away in 2003, shortly after my mother. As we readied his home for the estate sale, I found an old jewelry box in a cubby hole deep in my Dad's closet. Inside were an antique  pair of mother-of-pearl cufflinks, and a small bible, crudely, but carefully carved from a palm-sized block of reddish wood. The initials, H.I. BANks  were carved in neat serif characters on the front. I recognized the Banks name as my Grandmother's maiden name, so I knew it was a family heirloom, but assumed that it was fashioned by a child. I packed it away, and didn't see it again, until about 4 years later while I opened a box as my wife and I prepared for a move to another home.

Walter Ray Enyeart and catch

I couldn't recall ever seeing this little curio before I discovered it in my father's closet. Dad was an avid outdoorsman, who enjoyed fishing, camping and hiking: a gene that I thankfully inherited. I accompanied him on many fishing trips, camping, hiking and climbing all over the North Cascade mountains where he spent much of his time as a youngster. His love of the outdoors and nature was paralleled by his enthusiasm for literature and history, especially when it came to our ancestry.

He regaled me countless times with old family stories, which were interesting, but seemed to always be peppered with rumor and conjecture. There were wonderful photos that he cherished, and other keepsakes he produced for my curious eyes to marvel at, which were handed down from this relative or that. For this reason, I was confused why he never shared this small souvenir with me. It is my sincere belief that he most likely wasn't aware of the true significance of this possession, only that it offered some connection to his mother's lineage.

As I held the bible once again, I studied it with more attentiveness. Upon the spine, below the words HOLY BIBLE was carved the date: "1862 Dc.6." On the back of the bible was the following inscription: "Co E 102 RE ILL Vo." I quickly deciphered this as the abbreviation for "Company E, 102nd Regiment, Illinois Volunteers."

I decided to look “H.I.” up online, whoever he was. After a little detective work, I found his regiment’s roster on rootsweb.com, transcribed by Teresa Davis of the Illinois GenWeb Project, ©2000. I clicked forward under the heading of 102nd Infantry Regiment to Company E. ...sure enough, there he was: Henry I. Banks, Private, Resident of Suez, Illinois, Mustered in Sep 2, 1862, Mustered out: Jun 6, 1865.

Okay, one thing became clear. Henry was one of the lucky ones that made it through the war, and lived. Good for him. Further research led me to a book written in 1865, called “Our Regiment, A History of the 102nd Illinois Infantry Volunteers with Sketches of the Atlanta Campaign, the Georgia Raid, and the campaign of the Carolinas”. The book was written by Stephen.F. Fleharty, who I later learned was a Captain, and former newspaper man from Illinois. His book was in the Harvard Library, and scanned to a pdf which was a fortuitous find at Google Archives. I ordered a hardcopy on Amazon.com as well.

I had never read such a copious collection of dates, places, and events, so fresh in the author’s mind. I felt as if I was moving right along with the 102nd, from their mustering in Illinois in 1862, through marches and skirmishes in Kentucky and Tennessee, and finally, at Sherman’s side during the victorious, and destructive raid of Atlanta.

I couldn’t march alongside the 102nd, so I had to settle for the next best thing, (here’s what a tech/history nerd I am) I read through the book while tracing the regiments’ steps by way of “GoogleEarth” satellite imagery. It was kind of like following the troops’ movements in a digital hot air balloon...only 145 years forward in time.

My first objective was to learn where Henry was on that date, inscribed on the spine of his little wooden bible. Apparently, the Regiment was camped out at a little burg called Gallatin, Tennessee. Though the events of the exact day of Dc. 6 are not mentioned in the book, Henry and his company would be stationed here for the long haul.

Fleharty wrote a journal entry just 11 days before the date on Henry's bible: “We reached Gallatin in the evening—Nov. 26th—little thinking then that we would remain there six long months. But such was to be our destiny.”

I concluded that during this period, Henry had some time on his hands to do a little whittling, but why a bible? Why not? It may have been a source of comfort, strength, faith. He would later need it.

The book, “OUR REGIMENT” —a thoroughly engaging read from beginning to end— held a nice surprise within its final pages. A complete list of the enlisted was included, each according to their company.

Discovering the only place in the book where Henry is mentioned by name was worth reading every page that led to the appendix. Under the heading of “ROLL OF COMPANY “E” under the listing of PRIVATES is where I found him again.

“Henry Banks, North Henderson, Ill—wounded at New Hope Church.”

So now it was clear that Henry didn’t make it through the war completely unscathed, though Fleharty did not describe the nature of Henry's wounds.

Scanning through the pages of Fleharty's testimony again, my next objective was to learn what part Henry played in the action. In Chapter VII, Fleharty witnessed Company E on May 26th, 1863 being deployed to protect a work party charged with building the regiment’s Winter quarters which was later to be called "Fort Thomas."

An over-zealous Captain D.W. Sedwick led the company too close to the enemy in a morning fog, and seven men were wounded in a close-range skirmish with a rebel detatchment. Not before Henry’s company “let fly with their Spencer rifles in such an effective manner, that the rebels were compelled to retire, temporarily abandoning two field pieces which they had placed in an advanced position.”

I like to believe that Henry carried this little wooden bible that I am holding now, as a small source of inspiration along a brutal path of destruction and carnage during our country’s senseless period of civil conflict. A small symbol of strength for a 24 year old Union Private, who was a long way from home.