1903-04 Volume 28 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

THE SCROLL. 7once, on leaving the 11th Indiana, the young soldier returnedto his home at Danville, Illinois, and entered uponthe work of raising a company. He was successful, and onSeptember 18, 1861, his company mustered into service atChicago as Co. K, 37th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Colonel(afterward Major General) Julius White commanding. Ofthis regiment he was elected major, and was mustered inwith that rank on the same date. It was but a short timeuntil Colonel White was made a brigade commander, whenby virtue of his experience it fell to Major Black to takecharge of the drilling of the regiment, in its preparation foractive service.On March 8, 1862, in the fiercely contested battle of PeaRidge, Ark., Major Black was in command of the left wingof the regiment, and not only had his horse shot under him,but was severely wounded in the right fore-arm by a minieball. From this shot such injury resulted that eventually,in 1876 and 1877, he was subjected to two operations.However, in 1862, after a convalescence of about six weeksfollowing the battle of Pea Ridge, he returned to activeduty with his regiment, and was made lieutenant-colonelupon the promotion of Colonel White to be brigadier-general.Remaining continuously thereafter with the regimentuntil December 8, 1896, Colonel Black, while commandingthe regiment in the bloody battle of Prairie Grove, Ark.,was again dangerously wounded by a ball. It passedthrough the upper left arm, shattering the bone and carryingaway so much of it that an operation was resorted to,resulting in total disability of the member. Recovery fromthis wound was slow, but after an absence of three monthsMr. Black returned to his regiment as colonel, and servedwith it until the close of the war, taking part in the siegeof Vicksburg, the Yazoo river campaign, the Red rivercampaign, the operations of the army along the Mexicanfrontier in 1863 64, and the siege of Mobile. In this latterperiod he was promoted to the command of a brigade, andled it in person in the grand charge upon the Blakely batteries,which successfully ended the last general engagementof the great Civil War.Returning to his home in August, 1865, after a fewweeks of rest, General Black commenced, in Chicago, inSeptember, 1865, the study of the law, to practice which hewas licensed by the Supreme Court of Illinois, in January,1867. He has been in the active practice of his profession