I Want To Join My Boys

I really had no idea what to expect from the "pardon from the Illinois governor" file for William Kile. I expected a petition for early release and maybe a few letters about his behavior while incarcerated, but also ran across this letter from October of 1862. Apparently Kile wanted to join his four sons  and son-in-law who were already in the Civil War.

letter dated 10 October 1862 to Illinois Governor Yates from C. C. [---],
 Executive Clemency Files, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Illinois.

A search of the "Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls" at the Illinois State Archives website indicated that there were actually six men with the surname Kile in Company H of the 84th Illinois. The men who were not Kile's sons were likely his nephews as William had several brothers who also lived in Mercer County, Illinois.

As of this posting, I'm not exactly certain who wrote this letter. Hopefully a little searching will reveal the name of the author. He apparently was a Mercer County, Illinois, resident based upon his being a friend of the "prisoners relatives."

Stay tuned.