SGT Byron W. Cadwell
1838 - 1864
Co. E, 113th Illinois Infantry
CW
Byron Woodruff Cadwell was born in Ontario County, New York, on May 14, 1838, to Horace and Julia (Waterman) Cadwell.
He enlisted in Palatine with Company E, 113th Illinois Infantry Regiment on October 1, 1962. During his time of service, Cadwell saw action in central Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and participated in the Siege of Vicksburg; he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. On June 11, 1864, he was captured by Confederate forces at Guntown, Mississippi, and taken to Andersonville prison.
By 1864, civilians in the Confederacy and soldiers of the Confederate Army were all struggling to obtain sufficient quantities of food, and the prisoners received less than the guards. The prisoners became severely emaciated and suffered from scurvy due to a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet, a major cause of the camp's high mortality rate, as well as dysentery and typhoid fever. During the war, 45,000 prisoners were received at Andersonville prison; of these nearly 13,000 died.
In the autumn of 1864, all the prisoners who were well enough to be moved were sent to Florence (SC) Stockade and Camp Lawton (GA). Although surely weakened, Cadwell was among those moved in September to Camp Lawton.
Sergeant Byron Cadwell died of disease while a prisoner of war in Camp Lawton, Millen, Georgia, on October 31, 1864. He is buried with his parents in Barrington’s Evergreen Cemetery.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
