I really had no idea what to expect from the “pardon from the Illinois governor” file for William Kile. I expected a petition for early release and maybe a few letters about his behavior while incarcerated, but also ran across this letter from October of 1862. Apparently Kile wanted to join his four sons  and son-in-law who were already in the Civil War.

A search of the “Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls” at the Illinois State Archives website indicated that there were actually six men with the surname Kile in Company H of the 84th Illinois. The men who were not Kile’s sons were likely his nephews as William had several brothers who also lived in Mercer County, Illinois.

As of this posting, I’m not exactly certain who wrote this letter. Hopefully a little searching will reveal the name of the author. He apparently was a Mercer County, Illinois, resident based upon his being a friend of the “prisoners relatives.”

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  1. It is likely that the letter was written by C. C. Mattock who was, according to “Proceedings of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the State of Illinois”, Secretary of the Illinois Chapter 17 at Keithsburg in Mercer County. Mattock also was a petitioner with others to the Illinois House of Representatives on January 17, 1857, for a bridge across the Mississippi River at Keithsburg.

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