The Black Experience: Ann Stokes, Union Nurse-- Part 1

From the July 27, 2017, Southern Illinoisan by Marlene Rivero.

Ann Stokes was a slave and a volunteer nurse on the first U.S. Navy hospital ship, the Red Rover, stationed at Mound City, Illinois.

She was paid regular wages and rated as a first class boy.  She also became the first black woman to receive a military pension of her own accord.

She came aboard a Union ship in 1863 as a contraband who could not read or write.  She worked under the direction of the Holy Cross nuns.

She was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee i  1930 and enlisted in the U.S. navy along with several young black women.

--Old Secesh

Fort Defiance, Illinois

From Aug. 21st WSIL Channel 3 News.

Spring floods have left the site, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in really bad shape. It is now overgrown.

During the Civil War, Fort Defiance, also called Camp Defiance, was very important strategically. U.S. Grant once commanded the place. In May 2011, the whole city of Cairo, Illinois, just to the north of the fort, was evacuated. Levees to the south of town were breached by the Army Corps of Engineers to save the place.

During the war, there were ironclads built 6 miles up the Mississippi at Mound City. These ironclads patrolled it.

A Forgotten Civil War Site? --Old B-R'er

Southern Illinois in the Civil War

From the May 14th Southern Illinois History Examiner by Haley Kochling.

There were no major battles fought in Illinois, but the war touched home just as well.

Parts of southern Illinois actually had talk of secession themselves. Williamson County even had a rally calling for "Egypt" to secede and join the Confederacy. Egypt refers to the very southern part of the state around the Cairo area.

Over 250,000 men from Illinois served in the Union military. Fort/Camp Defiance was hastily built at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to serve as a base of operations to expedite food, ammunition and other supplies to Union forces.

U.S. Grant was there from September 1861 to February 1862.

Seven miles northeast of Cairo is the town of Mound City. A shipyard was built there. At least three Union gunboats were outfitted there including the USS Cairo and USS Mound City. Ships could often be repaired there as well.

In 1862, Lincoln gave the authorization to purchase land in Mound City and in 1864, the Mound City National Cemetery became one of the 12 original national cemeteries.

More Than You Thought Happening in Illinois. --Blockade-R