Excerpt from Memorials of Deceased Companions of the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States: From May 8, 1879, When the Commandery Was Instituted, to July 1, 1901

Probably none of the surviving members of the Illinois Commandery will fail to find in these pages names of some at least of the men we think of with tears; those side by side with whom they marched, with whom they bivouacked, shared rations and blankets by many a camp fire, and shoulder to shoulder with whom they breasted storms of battle. There are others also, whom we first met as members of the Com mandery, but whom we came to know and love not only be cause Of honorable records as soldiers, but because of what they were as men; men whom we would not willingly forget while life endures.

It may not be amiss to call attention to the honorable careers In c1v11 life of those whose names appear in this vol ume. If proof were needed Of the high character Of the citizen soldiers who in the years from 1861 to 1865 responded to the call of country, it can be found in the brief life records here reproduced.

This volume owes its existence to the generosity of our Companion Lieutenant Oliver W. Norton. Believing that these notices should survive in more enduring form than as originally published in general orders, he has himself met the expense of their publication The funeral services of an Old soldier are appropriately closed at the grave with the bugle call, known as taps, than which none more musical nor impressive fell in days Of war upon the soldier's ear, as at the close Of day its melody floated upon the evening air from camp to camp. The call as it now exists was first played by Companion Norton when he was still serving as a brigade bugler. It has replaced the call originally in use at the outbreak of the Civil War, and we cannot better close this introduction than by giving in his own words an account Of its origin.

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