Generation
Series I. Part II, Vol. XVII. p. 212. " " " " XXIV. " " " " XXIV. (p.643) Rep. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan. (Battle of Port Gibson, Miss.)
"and the Forty-fifth and One hundred and Twenty fourth Illinois Infantry, Col. Maltby and (Col. Thomas J. Sloan?) commanding respec- tively, forming the second or reserve line, 200 yards in the rear." (p.700) Brig. Gen. John E. Smith.
"As a precautionary measure I ordered the Forty-fifth Illinois, Col. Maltby, on the left." (Engagement at Raymond, Miss.) (p.708) "Col. Maltby of the Forty-fifth Illinois, although so unwell that he was obliged to ride in an ambulance, as soon as the enemy was known to be in force to dispute advance, mounted his horse and assumed command of his regiment." (Series I. Vol. XXIV, Part II. p. 207)
"Siege of Vicksburg, Miss." Letter from S. R. Tresilian, Div. Eng.
"Having the pioneer corps in readiness, I immediately repaired to the crater and began to fill up the opening through which the enemy was firing volly after volly. I was supported while personally superintending this work by a company of the Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry under command of Colonel Maltby, his lieutenants, colonel, having been mortally wounded and his Major killed a few moments be- fore the first volley."
(Record - Herald?) "The Memory of Colonel Maltby"
With the passing of the old year there died at St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, a little snow-haired woman who had borne life's for just the time allotted by the Psalmist. If during the days that this woman lay ill at the hospital of the Beloved Physician her eyes wandered about the walls of her room they probably for the first time in forty years, when within any room chosen by their owner as an abiding place, failed to rest upon the folds of an American flag.
The flag and a husband's memory were the most cherished things in the life of Mrs. Malvina A. Maltby. Neither was ever long absent from her mind. In the parlour of every residence which she occupied and in her own particular room were a picture and a soft silken ban- ner of her country. In Mrs. Maltby's heart there dwelt a great pride in the memories which her mind treasured. How forgetful are people and how forgetful always are republics. Mrs. Malvina A. Maltby was the widow of Jasper A. Maltby of Galena, Ill., colonel of the Forty- fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, more familiarly known in the darker days of the country's history as the "Washburn Lead Mine Regiment."
How many men are there today, bar a few old soldiers, to whom the name Jasper A. Maltby would mean anything unless it were coupled, as it is above, with some specific information? Yet this man, Jasper A. Maltby was chosen by General Grant, on the advice of McPherson and Logan, to lead, with his single regiment, the most desperate enter- prise at the siege of Vicksburg, and, as the historians have it, one of the three most desperate enterprises of the entire war of secession.
There are today a few surviving members of the old Forty-fifth Illinois in whose veins the words "Fort Hill Mine" will make the blood tingle. It was only a week before the glorious Fourth on which Pem- berton surrendered the confederate city. In Logan's front lay Fort
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