Campaign of Mrs. Julia Silk

With a Concise Account of the Principal Events of the Rebellion of ’61 to ’65

This scarce account of the American Civil War was authored by Mrs. Julia Silk and published in Ann Arbor, Michigan (her former home) in 1892. A stoic portrait of the author serves as the frontispiece, followed by a title page, a poem (“The Flag of the Free”), and a preface in which Mrs. Silk notes: “It has not been my intention to write a book for the learned or critical, but to give to the public a volume written in a homely style to instruct and interest the family and the common readers as well as my comrades.”

Julia starts her narrative in 1862, when her husband, Thomas, volunteered with the 23rd Illinois (affectionately known as Mulligan’s Irish Brigade) at Detroit. Before he departed for active duty at the front, she went to visit and despaired at the shabby state of the troops: “On my arrival, seeing those poor soldiers looking so shabby and miserable, my heart melted and I concluded to follow the regiment and make myself useful in every way that I could.” She left behind a 14-month-old baby in the care of her mother as she joined the march to Annapolis, where she was officially made nurse of Company I at Camp Jessie.

What follows is a rollicking tale that does much to obscure the horrors and mundanity of war. Stories of being smuggled to battle under a bundle of tablecloths, welcoming the ‘Secesh’ back into their occupied homes, and checking a Major with proper countersigns are among her various adventures. She even gave birth to a baby boy while on campaign, shortly becoming a prisoner of war for a brief period!

There may also be a bit of bluster to the account, which relates her tending to the wounded on the battlefield of Gettysburg shortly after Lee’s retreat – even though the 23rd Illinois was stationed roughly 125 miles away at New Creek. She provides an embellished overview of the three-day engagement, accompanied by a keyed panorama. Silk also claims to have shot a Confederate housewife in the foot for refusing to share food with wounded soldiers, though they departed “fast friends,” with the stingy matron supposedly learning the error of her ways.