Letters home to La Salle: Peru, Lake in the Hills residents edit book on life in the Civil War

Rachael Mellen plunged into state archives hoping to answer a lone question: Had one of her husband’s ancestors had a leg blown off during the Civil War?

The answer turned out to be yes, but Mellen’s search turned up a treasure trove of letters and fascinating stories that demanded book-length treatment. Mellen decided that she was up for the challenge and published it.

The Peru resident is co-editor with David Powell of “From Camp Douglas to Vicksburg: The Civil War Letters of William J. Kennedy, 55th Infantry, 1861-1863.”

Although Mellen had published two previous books on genealogy, she had never aspired to publish one about the U.S. Civil War. One day, however, she set about completing the Mellen family tree and stumbled across Kennedy’s wartime correspondence.

“Once I started transcribing some of the letters,” Mellen said, “I thought, ‘Gosh, it’s a pity that I’m the only one that knows what’s in these letters.’”

Mellen is a British expatriate from Birmingham, England, who settled in the Illinois Valley after marrying Robert Mellen in 1977. They met when she was on holiday, and he on shore leave, in Rome.

Robert Mellen, who died in 2023, had been a Civil War reenactor, and Rachael had cultivated an interest in the American Civil War during her studies at the former Maria Assumpta College of Education (affiliated with the University of London), where she graduated in 1974. She also holds a master’s degree in humanities from California State University-Dominguez Hills.

Robert’s interest in the Civil War may have stemmed from the fact that he had an ancestor who’d fought on the Union side and lost a leg in combat. That was the hand-me-down lore, anyway. Robert was never quite sure if the story was true.

After she retired from the Illinois Center for Independent Living, Rachael finally had the time to visit Springfield and pore over state records to verify whether Robert, in fact, had a wounded Civil War ancestor.

She found him, too. John Mallon (the surname would later morph into “Mellen”) died in 1887 as a disabled Civil War pensioner. She wanted to learn more about John, however, and one day ran across preserved letters written by a fellow veteran named William Kennedy, to whom John was related. Although the handwriting could be tough to read, some of Kennedy’s stories were flat-out gripping.

“Kennedy gives you almost a day-by-day account of what’s going on, what these soldiers saw and what the conditions were like,” Rachael said, “but you also get an idea of what things were like back home in La Salle, because you could tell by his letters what his wife was upset about.

“I got to the point where I thought, ‘I think I might have a book here because the letters are really compelling.’”

Once Rachael completed a manuscript, she inquired about several university-based publishers and finally found a taker in Savas Beatie.

“So, the publisher was really keen,” Rachael recalled, “but because I was an unknown person, he asked me if it was OK if he could pair me up with one of his other authors, who was much more well known in the Civil War world.”

The author in question was Powell, a resident of Lake in the Hills and a lifelong student of the American Civil War.

As well versed as Rachael was in the history and politics of the Civil War, she wasn’t as familiar with the military terms and strategy needed to complete the picture. She welcomed a collaborator who could supplement her narrative and catch any inconsistencies.

Powell, for his part, has always loved drawing on primary sources and was familiar with the 55th Infantry. He was easily persuaded to collaborate.

“There were a lot of interesting backstories,” Powell said of reading through Kennedy’s letters. “I also found Kennedy’s political views interesting. A lot of the Irish were Democrats, typically, but Kennedy was a Lincoln Republican, and I found that very interesting.”

Rachael signed the deal in March 2020 – just as COVID-19 was sweeping the nation – and, predictably, the newest title was considerably delayed.

“The prices of everything went up,” Rachael recalled. “The price of printing paper went up, and I think it created a bottleneck for the publisher, so the publishing timeline got slowed down a lot.”

To hear Powell tell it, the finished product was worth the wait. The appeal of the book, he said, is by no means limited to those steeped in the history of the Civil War.

“It’s definitely for anybody,” Powell said. “The writing is on a very personal level. You understand Kennedy’s life and his observations on life in the regiment.

“But if you’re a more knowledgeable student of the Civil War, I think you’ll be fascinated by the interplay between Kennedy and the officers. When Americans went to war in 1861, they took their politics with them. Political infighting and jockeying for power were the norm.”

Purchase the book at savasbeatie.com.