Biography - George Sanders
GEORGE
M. SANDERS. In the peaceful agricultural life which our subject now leads
there is little suggestion of the military deeds of merit by which he earned
his Captain's commission; only in the title will the stranger know that he
is a veteran of the late war. Mr. Sanders was born in Maryland, January 18,
1830. He was the eldest of a family of nine children born to Henry L. and
Mary (Hall) Sanders. Our subject's father was of German ancestry and was
born in Maryland, May 5, 1810. His maternal grandfather served in the War of
1812, and was also in the battle of New Orleans. His mother, Mary Hall, was
of Irish extraction. Aside from these brief facts but little is known of the
early history of these families. In 1837, when our subject was a boy of but
seven years, his parents made their way to Illinois and settled in what is
now Jersey County. There young Sanders grew up much the same in his habits
and the manner of rearing as other farmer lads. The intervals of attendance
at school were filled with farm duties and such pioneer sports as the
fertile minds of the young people of that day could suggest. Of his brothers
and sisters only three are living. They are: Samuel K., who served in the
late war for three years, and who now lives in California; Jesse W., who
gave his country one year's service, and who lives now at Atwater, Ill.; and
Sarah A., who is the wife of John B. Kirkland, of Litchfield.
About 1850, our subject's parents with their household effects and their children went to Montgomery County and located on the farm where T. T. Smith now lives, two miles southwest of the village of Walshville. There the parents died, the father February 28, 1863, and the mother January 8, 1864, both deaths occurring while the Captain was fighting for the honor of the country which his forefathers had fought to organize as a free and independent nation. It was on the above-named farm in Walshville that our subject was tilling the soil when the war broke out. On the first call for troops, he tendered his services, but as so many eagerly sprang forward in answer to the three months' call, some were rejected and he was among the number. On the second call, August 2, 1861, we find his name on the roll of Company L, of the Third Illinois Cavalry, Col. E. A. Carr's regiment, and was at once made Quartermaster Sergeant, and in October, 1862, was promoted to the office of Orderly-Sergeant. Later, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant and in June, 1863, he was advanced to First Lieutenant, and in May, 1865, he was promoted to the rank of Captain of his company.
Capt. Sanders was with Gen. Fremont in the Southwest in the fall of 1861, and with Gen. Curtis' army at Pea Ridge in March, 1862. He was detached from his regiment with part of his company in Central Missouri from July to October, 1862, and with the command of Col. S. H. Boyd was engaged in scouting with Gen. Sherman's army in his attack on and defeat of Hayes Bluff in the rear of Vicksburg. In January, 1863, he was detailed in his company as escort for Headquarters, Thirteenth Army Corps, where he remained through the siege and capture of Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss., and the battles of Champion Hills and Black River Bridge. He was with Gen. Banks' army in Louisiana from October, 1863, to January, 1864, and at Memphis, Tenn., when Gen. Forrest made his memorable raid. After going with his command to Ft. Snelling in the Northwest and from there on the Devil's Lake expedition in Dakota, he was finally discharged, October 10, 1865, after having served his country with marked distinction for more than four years.
August 13, 1863, while home on a leave of absence from the army, our subject was married to Miss Eveline Maryman, who was a native of this State. Of the seven children born of this union six are now living. Marcia A. died when two years of age; Nora B. is engaged in the millinery business at Salem, Ill.; William Chalmers is a graduate of the Jacksonville Business College and is now a book-keeper in the Deaf and Dumb Institute of that place; Mary A. is a teacher in the public school of Sorento and also teaches music, being a fine performer; Clara A., Rufus H. and Eunice E. are now being educated in the Sorento schools.
For twenty years after the war, Capt. Sanders was book-keeper for a large flouring mill in Carlyle, this State. He came to Sorento in 1886, and here has a very pleasant home. He owns a farm of about one hundred and eighty-seven acres in Clinton County. Political^', he was reared an Abolitionist and is now a strong Republican. Naturally, he is greatly interested in the Grand Army of the Republic. In church relations, he is an exemplary Baptist and is a life member of the American Baptist Publication Society, which has headquarters at Philadelphia. Throughout his life, he has been an advocate of temperance principles, which he supports both by example and precept.
Extracted 10 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, pages 314-316.
