A piece of Dixon history: Dixon’s bloodiest day of the Civil War 

Editor’s note: This is the final part of a five-part series about Dixon’s remarkable role in the Civil War.

DIXON — On May 10, 1861, after the 1,000-man regiment of the 13th Illinois Infantry was formed in Dixon, the regiment voted for its officers. They elected 43-year-old John B. Wyman of Amboy to lead the regiment as colonel.

An executive with the Illinois Central Railroad, Wyman had years of experience as a military commander. He and his wife, Maria, had four children, including John B. Wyman Jr., who was only 7 months old. The regiment loved Col. Wyman for his “undoubted personal bravery,” “executive ability of a high order” and “the ability to inspire his men” with his confidence in their success.

Leaving Dixon

After five weeks of training in Dixon, Col. Wyman announced that the regiment was ordered to Rolla, Missouri, in enemy territory. Friends and family from Sterling, Amboy, and throughout northern Illinois poured into Dixon to “extend farewell and God-speed with … a feeling that it might be the last.”

On Sunday, June 16, 1861, the regiment marched from Camp Dement, located next to Oakwood Cemetery, to the Illinois Central railroad station in Dement Town. At 8 a.m., 22 cars loaded with men and supplies waved goodbye and headed south for the war.

On July 6, in excessive heat, the Illinois 13th from Dixon became “the first regiment to cross the Mississippi River and move into hostile Missouri.” The soldiers preferred to call it “the state of Misery.”

Fort Wyman

Responding to President Lincoln’s order to “by all means hold Rolla,” the 13th built a fort at Rolla under the direction of Capt. Douglas R. Bushnell of Sterling. The men highly prized Bushnell’s engineering and leadership, and proposed to name the fort after him. But Bushnell declined and gave the honor to his superior officer, Col. Wyman.

“Fort Wyman” became a Union stronghold throughout the war. To this day, Rolla has a “Fort Wyman Road” and a historical marker noting the significance of the fort, named after the esteemed officer from Amboy.

The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou

The Illinois 13th would not encounter significant combat for another 18 months. Starting on Dec. 26, 1862, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led the Union army in its first serious attempt to conquer the strategic Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The city sat high on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River on the west and over the swampy river, Chickasaw Bayou, on the north.

The Illinois 13th was the “first engaged” of many regiments comprising more than 30,000 Union soldiers. For years following the battle, the 13th Regiment proudly claimed its distinction as “First at Vicksburg.” But the battle was far from victorious.

Sherman’s huge army faced Confederate Gen. John C. Pemberton’s force of only 13,000. But Pemberton occupied the high ground, while the Union troops languished below in the swampy terrain of the bayou.

The ‘death trap’

At Chickasaw Bayou on Dec. 28-29, 1862, the regiment endured its bloodiest battle of the entire war. After being ordered to charge, the soldiers of the 13th were met by “a storm of shell and rifle-bullets.”

The Union’s strategy was later described as “one of the most terrible blunders which has ever occurred in military affairs.” One of the soldiers of the 13th described it as “the death trap at Chickasaw Bayou.”

Col. Wyman falls

One of the first to fall on Dec. 28 was the regiment’s commander, Col. John B. Wyman of Amboy. While urging his soldiers to stay down, he stood erect to survey the enemy position with a field glass, having “already been fired at several times by rebel sharp-shooters.” He had reportedly said that “the bullet was not made that could hit him,” but he was dead wrong.

Capt. Henry D. Dement of Dixon, son of John Dement, witnessed the event, saying, “I can testify that no soldier ever received his death-wound with more sublime courage.”

Col. Wyman’s remains were soon brought back to Amboy and buried at Prairie Repose Cemetery. But after the war, his body was moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago, where the men of his regiment erected an impressive monument in his memory.

The real tally

Confederate casualties (killed, wounded and missing) at Chickasaw Bayou totaled 187, while Union casualties were 1,776, almost 10 times more. The official record for the Illinois 13th listed 27 killed, 107 wounded and 39 missing.

However, I can identify 44 soldiers from the Illinois 13th who either died during the battle or who died of wounds received at Chickasaw Bayou. Of these 44, Lee County suffered 10 fatalities: Stephen Austin, Charles Becker, James Brennan, Samuel Genung, Charles Goble and John Hayes, all of Dixon; John Dykeman, Willard Jones and John Wyman of Amboy; and George Wood of Sublette. Four fatalities emerged from Whiteside County: Thomas Comstock, Frank Johnson and John Sperry of Lyndon; and Fayette DeGroot of Morrison.

Besides these losses, about 300 Union soldiers were taken captive at Chickasaw Bayou, and “the majority” of them were from the 13th Illinois. After only three months in a Confederate prison, about 220 of the 300 died of “starvation, sickness and exposure.”

After six long months, Vicksburg surrendered to the Union on July 4, 1863, and the Illinois 13th was proudly part of that victory. The regiment would go on to participate in many more battles before returning to Illinois in June 1864.

Many more Dixon regiments

The Illinois 13th was only one of the many regiments that gathered or trained at Dixon. In all, at least 17 infantry regiments, 10 cavalry regiments, and some artillery units included Lee County men.

After 1861, most of the Civil War training in Dixon took place along the river, west of the viaducts. In 1864, the Union built barracks for 1,000 soldiers along Depot Avenue, and the building still stands today.

Pat Gorman currently is heading a project to identify about 460-plus Lee County soldiers who died in the Civil War. By Memorial Day of 2026, he hopes to unveil a new memorial plaque at Veterans Memorial Park.

By all accounts, Dixon truly held “a remarkable role in the Civil War.”

• Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.