Letter: Adam Hetfield to George Waterman
January 29, 1866

Am now selling "in memory of's"

Watseka Ill
Jan 29th 1866

Friend George

Will you be kind enough to get and forward to me at this place a certificate from the Adjt Genl of this state, stating where and when I first enlisted. He will see by the rolls on file in his office that I enlisted on the 20th of Sept/61 at Middleport Ill.

The object for which I want the certificate is to assist me in obtaining my local bounty. My name was omitted in the list furnished the clerk of this county. I presume the certificate will cost [page torn]... please pay the same and [page torn]... the amount. I will remit as soon as [page torn].

I received a letter from Tilt* a few days since. He spoke of having heard from you. I saw Genl B—* in Chicago about five weeks since. I presume you have heard from him since then.

I've gone into the marble business and am now selling "in memory of's" which don't suit me very well. I expect to close my present business within a few months and go to some place farther west — have not yet decided on the place I will go to. I think some however of Idaho.

Haven't heard from Magee or Boyd* for a coon's age.

Yours Truly
Ad S. Hetfield

Sources:
Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Illinois.
Adam S. Hetfield, Compiled Service Record, 51st Illinois Infantry, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

Notes:

• "Tilt" refers to Albert Tilton, who also signed up for service at Middleport, as first lieutenant of Nathaniel Petts' Company C. Petts' company formed in Iroquois County.
• Genl B— referred no doubt to Brigadier General Luther Bradley, second colonel of the Fifty-First Illinois and later commander of the brigade of which the regiment was a part. Bradley resigned from volunteer service in June, 1865 and then spent some time in Chicago before taking a commission in the regular army.
  
• Thomas L. Magee was the last regimental surgeon of the Fifty-First. After the war Magee practiced medicine in Prairie City, Illinois. In 1883, he moved his family to California and continued practice there for decades in San Diego. James Boyd was the last commanding colonel of the regiment, mustered as lieutenant colonel, promoted to colonel but not mustered at that rank before the order to go home finally came to the Fifty-First.
• Hetfield himself was initially first sergeant of Company C. He was later promoted second lieutenant and regimental quartermaster. Just before the regiment was mustered out in September 1865, Hetfield became captain of Company E. His service records show him to have been born in Indiana circa 1839; his occupation was listed as civil engineering. We cannot yet tell whether Hetfield ever made it to Idaho. The 1900 census found him living in McLean County, Illinois with his wife Emma and two sons.