Rare & Fine - Jesse Fell's Civil War

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Jesse Fell's Impact on Bloomington-Normal

Jesse Fell is a local legend in the Bloomington-Normal community. He was an integral piece to the growth and development of the area from its early days and was also responsible for organizing the effort to establish what would become Illinois State University. Fell raised funds and donations of land for founding the Illinois State Normal School for teachers, which would evolve into Illinois State University.  Jesse Fell also brought over William Hovey to be the school’s first president. Hovey had previously established Peoria High School (Central High School), one of the oldest high schools west of the Allegheny Mountains,  in Peoria, IL in 1856.  

In his early days, Fell was a lawyer who shifted his focus from a legal practice to buying and selling real estate throughout central Illinois. Milner Library’s Special Collections contains a couple ledgers of his real estate holdings that are available for viewing. As can be seen from the image below, the handwriting is hard to read. Both ledgers contain a wealth of information, for those who can decipher the writing, on a surprisingly long number of pages. 

Jesse Fell maintained extensive details about property ownership

Paymaster General, Yankee

Beyond his property ledgers, Milner also maintains a series of correspondence and materials from Jesse Fell’s time during the American Civil War as a paymaster for the Union army. These materials reveal some interesting nuggets of information  among the bureaucracy of paperwork and forms that filled up Fell’s involvement with the war effort.  

Correcting errors for over-payment seemed to be a common task for Jesse Fell

For example, in October 1862, Union soldiers could submit their mileage for reimbursement. The 1862 rate was 6 cents per mile, compared to the IRS business mileage reimbursement rate of 54.5 cents per mile in 2018.   

Military members were compensated at a rate of $.06 per mile

Another note revealed that Union commissioned officers who were detailed for extra duty in hospital settings were not eligible, per decree of the Adjutant General of the Army, for extra duty pay. I was not familiar with the title of “Adjutant General”, but a web search revealed the title refers to the position of a chief administrative officer in the military. 

Hospital detail wasn't eligible for extra pay, even for extra duty

Other forms revealed a somewhat jarring indifference to human suffering as part of the bureaucratic process. For example, the form below is for a required correction in pay for a Union lieutenant colonel who was overpaid. A note of explanation casually mentions “Lieut Col Henry, when last heard from, was a prisoner of war in the hands of the rebels”. Apparently being a POW was not good enough to prevent the Army from trying to correct for accidentally overpaying a soldier by a month’s time. 

"when last heard from, was a prisoner of war in the hands of the rebels.--"

Jesse Fell's History at Milner Library

A news story on Illinois State University’s website in 2015 discussed Milner Library’s acquisition of Jesse Fell’s Civil War documents. If interested in learning more about this collection and others, including Jesse Fell’s connections to Abraham Lincoln, check out the Special Collections at Milner.