The end of the siege of Vicksburg. Lieutenant Mark M. Bassett, Company E, 53rd Illinois, wouldn’t consider the irony of his situation until over a year later. “The negotiations were going on slowly. During the 2d and 3d of July we would get up on the works three or four times a day when the white flags were up and visit,” scribbled Private Ranstead of Company D, 53rd Illinois in his diary. The men in blue and the men and… Read More »Vicksburg – July 4, 1863
The flag or colors of the 53rd Illinois with the blood of Sergeant George Poundstone still visible in the bottom right.The restored Civil War flag hangs on display at the Streator Public Library, Streator, Illinois, where it is on permanent loan from the Illinois State Military Museum. – Photo courtesy of David Reed At around 9AM on the morning of Sunday, July 12, 1863, the incessant heat radiated down from the Jackson, Mississippi sun onto the men of the 53rd… Read More »Flag Day
All indications pointed to a man who live in Peoria, Illinois after the war as the source for the copy photographs found at the Library of Congress, Chicago History Museum and Peoria Public Library. His name was Mark M. Bassett and he was a lieutenant in the 53rd Illinois. Promoted to Captain at the end of the war but never mustered. Bassett’s name is found with either the rank of Captain and Lieutenant attached to it in later years. Lieutenant… Read More »Mark Bassett; 53rd Illinois
