Sergeant Toms War

In August of 1861, nearly a thousand men left their homes in an obscure part of what was beginning to be known as "Little Egypt". They answered the call of their country's leaders and enlisted in the 40th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The regiment marched through the mid-nineteenth century apocalypse that would leave its mark on them and their homeland forever. Friends and neighbors, fathers and sons, mostly farmers and day laborers met "the elephant" for the first time at bloody Shiloh and mainatained his aquaintance at places like Corinth, Vicksburgh, Jackson, Missionary Ridge, and Kennesaw Mountain. They followed their beloved leader William Tecumseh Sherman who they fondly called "Uncle Billy" through the mountains of Tennessee and Georgia as he chased Joe Johnston from Chattanooga to Atlanta. Most would re-enlist and follow Sherman on the "March to the Sea". A fourth of the regiment would not make it home and those who did were different from the ordinary men they had been when they marched off.These men served under legendary leaders like Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman, and "Black Jack" Logan as they waged the sad and bloody conflict. They faced off against men like Albert Sydney Johnston, Beuregard, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joe Johnston, and John Bell Hood.One of these Midwestern warriors was Thomas B. Richardson, a carpenter and farmer, who signed up along with his son Joe Gill. To Tom's surprise his company elected him Sergeant. He hoped he could use his position to help keep Joe and the other young men in his charge in line and alive even though he himself was burdened with the premonition that he would never see his home again.