THREE YEARS SERVICE IN THE 16TH KY. VETERAN CAVALRY!! Akerstrom, John C. AMERICANA,BROADSIDE,CIVIL WAR,KENTUCKY,SOUTHERN

Oblong broadside on faintly lined paper, 10-3/4" x 11-3/4. " Signed in type at the bottom, "JOHN C. AKERSTROM, Lieut. 16th Ky. Veteran Cavalry", and dated in type, "Princeton, Ky., October 28, 1863. Some ghosting to blank verso. Bold type in varying sizes and styles. Title separated from text by a bold rule. Very Good. This rare, evidently unrecorded broadside seeks to recruit Union veterans for a Kentucky Veteran Cavalry. "Soldiers honorably discharged from the service of U.S. of nine months or more service, are wanted for the 16th Kentucky Veteran Cavalry. The liberal bounty of 402 dollars in installments during the service will be paid to such men. New recruits will receive One Hundred Dollars bounty, $25 of same at mustering in to service.| The 1st and 2d Lieutenants of one company to be appointed by the recommendation of the undersigned. Apply before the 15th of November next in person or writing to." John Charles Akerstrom [c.1830-1864], a/k/a Charles John Akerstrom, was born in Stockholm, Sweden. According to immigration records, he immigrated to the United States sometime in the mid-1850s, applied for citizenship in January, 1856, and became a citizen on April 23, 1858. The 1860 United States Federal Census shows him living with the Mitchusson family in Long Pond, Kentucky, and working as a master mason. He must have been married before the War, as military records show a widow applying for veterans' benefits years later. Akerstrom enlisted with the 16th Kentucky Veteran Cavalry, Union, around 1863, and was requisitioned to work in recruitment into early January, 1864, when he was discharged. He then joined Co. A, 13th Regiment Tennessee Cavalry, "Bradford's Battalion" on January 20, 1864; was immediately stationed at Fort Pillow, Tennessee; and promoted to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant on February 20, 1864. Akerstrom met a particularly ugly fate at the Fort Pillow massacre just months after being stationed there. According to an investigative subcommittee appointed by the Committee of Congress on the Conduct of War, men were shot in cold blood, drowned, crucified, buried alive, and nailed to the floors of houses which were then set on fire. The committee stated, "From three to four hundred men are known to have been killed at Fort Pillow, of whom at least three hundred were murdered in cold blood after the post was in possession of the rebels, and our men had thrown down their arms and ceased to offer resistance." Akerstrom was shot after surrendering, then nailed through his hands [or wrists] and feet to the side of a house which was then set on fire. Several black sergeants were nailed through their hands to logs which were then set on fire. Akerstrom did not survive. His body was identified by Mrs. Ann Jane Rufin, wife of Thomas Rufin, a fellow member of the 13th TN Calvary, and was also recognized by James R. Bingham of New York who had been a clerk in a store at Fort Pillow for over a year prior to the massacre. Our research uncovered speculation that rebels may have mistakenly believed Akerstrom to be a Kentucky Confederate deserter, rather than a former Kentucky Union soldier, causing them to be extra brutal with him. This has not been substantiated. [FORT PILLOW MASSACRE, Report No. 65, House of Representatives, 38th Congress, 1st Session, pp. 5, 40, 87, 105-109; Draper, John William: HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, VOL. III, pp. 216-219; military and census records accessed at websites of Fold3, National Park Service Civil War Soldiers and Sailors; American Civil War Research Database, and Ancestry.] Not in LCP, Bartlett, Sabin. Not on OCLC or online AAS, U KY, U EKY, Filson as of September 2025.