When war broke out, John Fiegen was already 43 years old, and living with his wife and children in a farmhouse on Illinois Road in what was to become the Village of Gross Point (now west Wilmette). He joined Mulligan’s 23rd Illinois Infantry in Chicago on March 2, 1862, along with neighbor Mathias Selzer. Fiegen was captured in the same battle that claimed the life of James Mulligan, and sent to the notorious Confederate prison at Andersonville, Ga. He died there on August 20, 1864. The tintype shown here was treasured by his widow – the Wilmette Historical Museum has a photo of her holding it – and passed down in the Fiegen family for generations. Some of John Fiegen's descendants still live in Wilmette today.

Narrative and photograph courtesy of the staff of the Wilmette Historical Museum.