As the Chicago Mercantile Battery spent the rest of the War crisscrossing Louisiana and Mississippi in support of Generals Davidson and Canby, its leaders and colleagues were immobilized for fourteen months in the squalor and oppressiveness of Camp Ford in Tyler, Texas. On May 27, 1865, Patrick White and Pinckney Cone were released along with the other Mercantile Battery survivors to join their comrades in New Orleans. Together once again as a full Battery, they all learned in June that they were finally going home. The Mercantile Battery arrived in Chicago on July 3, 1865 and enjoyed a festive reception held by their sponsors, the Mercantile Association. Of the 130 soldiers who were mustered out, only thirty-five of the original members remained to participate in the celebration.

Sources: "Report of the Illinois Adjutant General, Volume VIII," revised by Brig. Gen. J. N. Reece, 1901, and "Patriotism of Illinois," by T. M. Eddy, D. D.

• Before Vicksburg

• Vicksburg Campaign

• Red River Campaign

• Red River to New Orleans

• Camp Ford, Tyler, TX

• The Return to Chicago