The History of Company A, Second Illinois Cavalry

A member's regimental narrative recounts the formation, training, and wartime service of a Union cavalry company, tracing its movements from muster and early campaigns through engagements at Forts Henry and Donelson, the fighting around Pittsburg Landing, the Corinth operations, and the Vicksburg campaign and siege. It blends battle descriptions, scouting and skirmish accounts, hardships of camp life, foraging, scouting missions, and anecdotes of individual daring and suffering, alongside reflections on leadership, discipline, morale, and the causes that led men to enlist. The text serves as a tribute to comrades, documenting casualties, daily details of soldiering, and the unit's role in larger operations.