The Mexican War in 1846 to 1848 was fought with a large proportion of regular troops. Our early settlers had almost no part in it, although several who moved here afterward had seen service south of the border. Those buried in our cemeteries are on the Legion's Graves Registration Lists, as are those from all of our other wars.
The great Civil War saw almost every able bodied man in service, although the evil of allowing a drafted man to hire a substitute let some escape their plain military duty. It was an error not repeated in later wars. The service included many "loyal" or "Stephen Douglas" members of the Democratic Party like Capt. Wingfield M. Bullock, then of Eureka, and Panola farmer Charles Kingdon, who left his wife and three babies to run the farm to which he did not return. These men believed as did Democratic Congressman John A. Logan, that in spite of Whig and Republican bungling through the years, the UNION MUST BE PRESERVED and that they should help their political foe, Abraham Lincoln, preserve it. Logan became a Union general during the war and a Republican senator from Illinois after the war, speaking on the site of the V. F. W. building on October 6, 1872.
Local soldiers served notably in the Civil War. The outstanding combat record was probably by the all-Woodford County Company A of the 86th Infantry that contained fourteen men from El Paso and six from Palestine Townships. Almost all the others were from Eureka or Olio Townships. Between 9 A. M. and 11:30 A. M. on Monday, June 27, 1864, this unit, having only about sixty men present for duty, had ten men killed and many others wounded in a bitter assault on the slopes of Kenesaw Mountain in Georgia. Four El Pasoans died: Corp. Caleb Chenoweth, Pvt. William H. Howell, Pvt. Thomas Dougherty and Pvt. Fenton Sutton. In addition, Frank Horn and Eber Hotchkins were captured and died later in a Confederate prison. Other local men who came through this bitter fight with sparkling credit included Edwin A. Childs, Abraham Mohr, S. P. Cable and John Robeson. The second in command was Lt. Samuel T. Rogers, for whom our Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 531 was named.
Company A had spearheaded this assault on Kenesaw. The 86th was of a division commanded by a general in the Union Army named Jefferson C. Davis, but who was no relation to the Confederate president. They were of John M. Palmer's Corps of Gen. George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, and their terrific fight that fateful morning is best described by an eyewitness, Gen. O. O. Howard in Battles and Leaders: