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	Henderson County, Illinois
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Letter from Patrick Cadle of Sagetown (Gladstone)
written from Shiloh, 1862

This is an accurate typewritten copy of a letter sent by Patrick Caddle (or Cadle as the name is spelled on the Civil War Memorial in Oquawaka) to his father, Thomas Cadle in 1862. Patrick was one of a group of volunteers from the Sagetown (later Gladstone) area who crossed the river to join Co E of the 7th Iowa Infantry in August 1861.

Tom Cadel, who submitted this, has typed the letter (copied from the original in the National Archives) as closely as possible. He notes: "Patrick did not use capitals to start sentences nor did he use periods to end them. There is just a little more space between the words to indicate when a sentence ends and another begins. Paragraphs were not important either, I guess."

The original of this letter, written by Patrick Cadle to his father, is in the National Archives in the pension file. Patrick was later killed in action at the Battle of Corinth in October, 1862. He is listed on the Civil War memorial in the small park in Oquawka.

Images of the actual letter are also available: Page 1 | Page 2

Camp at Shiloh April 10, 1862

Dear father,

I take my pen in hand to write you a few lines to let you know that I am still on the land of the living thank God for his mercy I thought belmont and fort donaldson was a pretty hard road to travel there was no more to the two days fighting here than if there was no battle at all for shot and shell fell heavier than a hail storm in the north the union boys contested every inch of ground though the rebels was five to one and at last we had to retreat to the river a deal of people gives credit to bueles forces the saved the day but the credit is due to the gun boats for if it was not for them the army was drove in to the tennessee and drowned or made prisoner dear father I am just here alone as if I droped out of the heavens my only comerade Jim Beck he is missing we went over the battle ground and cant find him dead or alive hugh Allen is gone bob kilPatrick is gone hen robins(?) Is gone and out of the little squad of us that left sagetown there is not a man of them in the compy but myself the compy is only a skeleton now tell Robert Beck that his brother James is missing

Dear father. I expressed you forty dollars for money is no use to me here for I dont know the minute I will be knocked off I hope you will have your money before this reaches you father I will come to a close no more at present from your affectionate

son Patrick Caddle

write and direct
to Patrick Caddle Co E 7 Iowa Volunteers

Good-by

Letter contributed by Tom Cadell

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