2020/2021
Collection 16

Eye Was Left for Dead

1862–1894; near Minonk, Illinois, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, USA

When the U.S. Civil War started, my great-great-great-grandfather Alma Rogers was twenty-three years old. Alma was a farmer in central Illinois. On August 13, 1862, Alma volunteered to fight for the Union Army(1) in the 77th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In September 1862 his army troop began to make their way from Illinois to Kentucky to Memphis, Tennessee, and then down the Mississippi River. Their goal was to secure the Mississippi River so that Union boats could travel safely and cut off enemy supply lines to the Confederacy, also known as “the South.”

The biggest battle that the 77th Illinois Infantry fought was the Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi — to gain possession of a city way up on a bluff. Vicksburg was an important strategic point for the South, because it meant control of the Mississippi River. From Vicksburg, the Confederacy could bomb Union boats trying to attack from the river. The Battle of Vicksburg was extremely bloody. In the end, the Union Army prevailed at the Battle of Vicksburg, but not before my great-great-great-grandfather had the fight of his life.

During the battle on May 22, 1863, Alma was shot in his left eye. His obituary stated that he had shot his gun so many times with his right hand that his right shoulder got sore, so he switched hands. On the day that he was shot in his left eye, he was firing with his left hand. He fell to the ground, and everyone thought he was dead. Alma went several days without food or water — just lying there, still alive.

Days later, the Union Army started the sad task of picking up dead bodies. They discovered that Alma was alive, and they put him on a boat that took him to a hospital in Memphis. Then they later moved him to a hospital in St. Louis. The doctors stabilized him but couldn’t remove the bullet from his head because it might have injured him further — or worse. So Alma lived the rest of his life without a left eye.

After Alma recovered, he went back to farming in Illinois. He got married to Joanna Kerrick and later had six children. My great-great-great-grandfather died in 1894 at the age of fifty-six years. It was only after his death that the bullet was removed from his head.

Alma’s sacrifice helped to end slavery and make the United States whole again. If Alma Rogers had died during the Civil War, I wouldn’t be here today.

Juniper Colbert; Missouri, USA

1. In the U.S. Civil War, the Union Army fought for the United States, or “the North.” The Confederate States Army fought for the Confederacy, a group of Southern states that had formed a new country.

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