Description
Carte view of the dashing Lieutenant Colonel Jesse J. Phillips of Hillsboro, Illinois. Upon learning of President Lincoln’s first call for troops, Phillips “hung a flag from his office window and announced that he would raise a company to aid in preserving the Union.” He was elected Captain, then Major, of his company and was attached to the Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Soon ordered to the front, the company engaged in a number of battles, where they performed admirably and acquired the name the “Bloody Ninth.”. Their first engagement was in October 1861 near Eddyville, Kentucky, where Major Phillips, commanding three companies, attacked three hundred Confederates. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he received a commendation from General Ulysses S. Grant for gallantry in the February 1862 battle of Fort Donelson. In the April battle of Shiloh, Phillips was twice shot through the thigh, and another bullet crippled his hand. In March 1863, the Ninth Regiment was mounted and served as a cavalry unit for the duration of the war. The following spring, the corps to which Phillips’ regiment was attached advanced with the Army of the Tennessee. At the battle of Resaca, he was shot through the ankle. Resigning from the service in September, “having seen, perhaps, more hard fighting than any officer in the Union army,” according to a county historian, Phillips was brevetted Brigadier General “for gallant, meritorious and distinguished services.”. “Few of the men whom Illinois gave to the armies of the union,” declared the Chicago Tribune, “displayed greater personal bravery on the field of battle. Several times his horse was shot under him as he was leading a desperate charge, and he himself was so severely wounded at Shiloh that he never fully recovered his normal health. No back mark.
