Scope and Contents:
This collection contains typescripts of William E. Dunaway's letters to his wife, Henriette Boone, while Dunaway was a soldier in the United States Civil War. This collection contains 31 letters from him to his wife as well as one from her (Dec. 25, 1864) and another from her brother, John F. Boone (July 23, 1865). The collection also includes copies of official documents relating to Dunaway in the National Archives.
In some letters Dunaway remarked on military matters. On May 8, 1863, for example, he noted Grierson's Raid. He often referred to opposing troops under Sterling Price and Nathan Bedford Forrest, like on September 11, 1864 when he said, "I expect we will take up our old trade a running after Old Forrest. Dunaway occasionally mentioned Capt. Milton L. Webster, Co. H, of Shelbyville, but no higher officers. Repeatedly expecting the war to come to an end sooner than it did, he attacked Copperheads at home for extending it. He was also critical of abolitionists (Aug. 8, 1862).
William E. Dunaway (1842-1865) enlisted in Co. H. 7th Illinois Cavalry on August 14, 1862 from Shelbyville, Illinois. Dunnaway (as his name was first spelled in the muster rolls) provided his own horse and horse equipment, having enlisted when he was 32. Except for a furlough early in 1864, and occasional detached service, Dunaway was fully active in his regiment. On February 26, 1865, he died of chronic diarrhea at the general hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Ida Frimodig, great-granddaughter of Dunaway, donated his letters and papers to the Illinois History and Lincoln Collections in 2012, at the suggestion of Donald Chaput of Los Angeles.
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