Unknown to Richard Yates

Granville Dec 7th 1864

Most Honoured Sir

Governer Y of Illinois

Permit me to lay my troubles before you and pray your assistance your friends and mine advise me to write to you they say you have a fathers kindness towards our poor soldiers my son John Whisner of Company Pa 6 L Reg Yates Sharp Shooter He is now lying on the bare floor at the Guard house in St Louis at Schofield Barrack No 1 he came home on the 14th day of August last he has for the last four or five years been a poor afflicted boy apparently well in health but afflicted with a nervous disease that at times has rendered him insane he volunteered in the year 62 he has always been

happy and contented in the Army loving all his Officers and comrades he has been afflicted with very sore eyes for the last ten months his eyes were so bad that in the month of May last on the 11th day of May he was sent to the Hospital for treatment the seemed to get som better and in the month of July last he was sent to Chatanooga he nursed and took care of Doctor Plummer untill he died when ordered to the front Doctor Barnes at Chatanooa gave him a certificate of Disability his complaint be a Consumptive Palpitation of the Heart he grew worse and yielding to his fears of death he came home to die he said without permission without money or papers of any kind he came begging his way alone he was entirely out of his mind the following

Monday I reported him to his Major Samuel Thompson and his Lieutenant and his Capt Robert B. Gibbons I received then answers and directions I called Physician McKnigh in and he tended him some six weeks when the Deputy Provost Marshal Wardlaw came to arrest him I in the meantime I wrote to Surgeon Steward of the 6th he was then at Peoria wounded he said he could not give my son a certificate of disability without him be he would tell me what to do which would answer the same purpose he instructed me to get a certificate of Disability from doctor McKnight and have it certified to by a Justice of the peace and have the County seal affixed and send one to the Adjudant General at Washington one to Major Thompson

and keep one myself I did this but previous to this my neighbours two in number came to me and told me to take my son to Chicago Hospital and leave him there for Mr Wardaw was treacherous and he would take him and send to the front he was then in a most miserable condition he was not able to travel yet I took him to Chicago when there we could not see the Principal Pysician and I was advised to bring him home and await the action of Surgeon Steward at Peoria who said in his letter to me that he would be in Granville in a few weeks and would do all in his power for my boy I kept him here quietly awaiting the letter from the Major and Dr Steward last Monday morning a week Wardlaw came and arrested him he jumped out of a sick bed and got out

the window in his sudden fright but immediately returned he has had ample opportunity of deserting but never had the least intention of acting dishonourably he is now lying on the bare floor in a Guard House he has not even a blanket and he is suffering with Bronchitas in addition to his other ailments he met Surgeon Steward at Peoria and he promised him papers that would have admitted him to a Hospital but this man Wardlaw did not give them to him he is cruelly treated I appeal to your kind sympathys for a poor sick soldier his Grandfather and father voted the democratic ticket but he is a good republican my four brothers are all Lincoln me I have nine relatives in this war and my youngest brother died in this war

will you for God and Humanitys sake see to my poor sick suffering son I know you will my heart tells me you will your friends say you will he is not considered a deserter in Granville they tell me you are kind I appeal to you for Gods sake fail me not and God will bless you Your own friends have advised me to write to you they say I can trust you and I feel that I can I leave my troubles in your hands my hopes are in God and you to send my Sufferer home

Your Humble Servant