Events

1862 Sixty-Ninth Infantry Regiment

In the summer of 1862, at least four residents of Dundee enlisted in Company B of the Sixty-ninth Illinois Infantry Regiment, a three-months unit organized at Camp Douglas, Chicago. The regiment mustered into federal service on June 14, 1862, and spent its term of service on duty at Camp Douglas, guarding the post and its Confederate prisoners. All four known Dundee men were mustered out together on September 27, 1862, upon the expiration of their enlistment. (Source: *History of Kane County, Ill.*, Vol. 1 (Joslyn, 1908))

Date & Context

The Sixty-ninth Infantry Regiment was organized and mustered into service at Camp Douglas, Chicago, on June 14, 1862, for a term of three months. According to the History of Kane County (Joslyn, 1908), the regiment did not see field combat; instead, it remained stationed at Camp Douglas performing guard duty over the camp and rebel prisoners held there. (Source: History of Kane County, Ill., Vol. 1 (Joslyn, 1908))

The summer of 1862 was a period of intensive recruitment across Illinois, as the federal government called for additional short-term troops to meet immediate manpower needs. The three-months structure of this regiment reflects that urgency, and the assignment to Camp Douglas — one of the Union's principal prisoner-of-war facilities — represented a practical deployment of home-state volunteers without committing them to distant campaigning.

Participants

The following Dundee residents are recorded as having served in Company B of the Sixty-ninth Infantry Regiment. All were mustered out on September 27, 1862, completing their three-months term of service. (Source: History of Kane County, Ill., Vol. 1 (Joslyn, 1908))

NameRankMustered Out
Michael J. DunneSergeantSeptember 27, 1862
Edgar HoxieCorporalSeptember 27, 1862
Charles CranePrivateSeptember 27, 1862
John CampbellPrivateSeptember 27, 1862
Michael J. Dunne served as a Sergeant, the highest rank among the Dundee contingent in Company B. Nothing further is known about his service record beyond what is listed here.

Edgar Hoxie served as a Corporal in Company B. His relationship to other Dundee families of the period has not been confirmed from available sources.

Charles Crane and John Campbell both served as Privates in Company B. Whether either man went on to further military service after mustering out in September 1862 is not recorded in this source.

The names of any additional Dundee residents who may have served in other companies of the Sixty-ninth Regiment are not recorded in the source consulted.

Significance

The service of these four men represents a documented instance of Dundee's participation in the broader Civil War mobilization of Kane County, Illinois. Though the Sixty-ninth Regiment's assignment — garrison duty at Camp Douglas rather than battlefield service — was unglamorous by the standards of the war, guarding Confederate prisoners was a genuine military function that freed other units for active campaigning.

The fact that Dundee contributed men at the sergeant, corporal, and private levels to a single company suggests some degree of community organizing in the enlistment process, though the specific circumstances of their recruitment are not recorded. Their collective mustering out on the same date, September 27, 1862, confirms they served together for the full term of the regiment's existence.

This record, drawn from the History of Kane County compiled by Joslyn in 1908, represents one of the earlier systematic attempts to document Kane County's Civil War military participation and should be regarded as a secondary compilation; the underlying muster rolls at the Illinois State Archives may contain additional detail.

Sources

  • History of Kane County, Ill. (Joslyn), Vol. 1 (1908). Chicago. Available at: https://archive.org/details/historyofkanecou01josl#offset-629957 — Primary source for all personnel listings and regimental details on this page.