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ELI C. HARBERT is a brave veteran of the late war. He is carrying on farming in Wheatfield Township, and is one of its successful grain raisers. He was born in Sangamon County, Ill., in 1832, and is a son of Eli and Mary Harbert. His father died when our subject was a youth and it developed upon him chiefly to support the family. At the early age of thirteen years he began an independent life on a farm near Dawson, and continued farming till after the war broke out. He finally threw aside his work with the patriotic determination to give his services to his country, and with that resolve he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois Infantry, becoming a member of Company I, of which J. W. Judy was the Colonel and Egbert O. Mallory was the Captain. He was mustered into service September 18, 1862, and accompanied his regiment to Memphis, Tenn. From there he went with his comrades on the Tallahatchie campaign and at its close in December arrived at College Hill Miss. >From there the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois was sent to Jackson, Tenn., which it reached after two weeks of hard marching. Then it returned to Memphis, and did duty there till it was dispatched to Young's Point, La., to join the army of W. T. Sherman. The boys went with that famed commander to Jackson, Miss., and bore a gallant part in the capture of that city, and then took part in the siege of Vicksburg.
On the fall of that city our subject and his fellow soldiers went to Oak Ridge, Miss., and had many exciting skirmishes with the guerillas. The regiment was chosen repeatedly to do scout duty, and was in the battle of Guntown, Miss., where it was captured by the enemy in June, 1864, and was taken to Andersonville. There our subject suffered all the horrors of life in a rebel prison till he was paroled and allowed to return home. He was exchanged in the spring of 1864 and rejoined his regiment in Alabama. He then took an active part in the movements in that State till the close of the war. He was mustered out August 3, 1865, having won an admirable military record as a courageous, fearless soldier, who did his duty on every occasion regardless of the consequences.
After the exciting and trying life he had led upon Southern battlefields our subject returned home and quietly resumed farming. From time to time he bought land till he now owns one hundred and twenty acres of as good and highly productive land as can be found in Wheatfield Township. He is a man of tireless industry, looks carefully after his interests, and keeps his farm up to a high state of cultivation and improvement.
The wife of our subject has been an important factor, not only in his happiness, but in his prosperity. Her maiden name was Mary E. Griggs, and she was of McLean County. Her wedded life with our subject began December 20, 1871, and has been blessed to them by children, of whom they have six, namely: Minnie P., Henry Otis, Nancy Luella, Anna Myrtle, Charles Abner and Verda Frances.
Mr. Harbert has always done his duty as a man and a citizen, and is highly thought of in the community where he makes his home. He attends strictly to his own business and is straightforward and manly in his dealings with others. He is a consistent member of the Christian Church. His career as a soldier is commemorated by his connection with the Grand Army of the Republic as a member of the Morgan Post. Politically he is an ardent Republican. No one is more ardently interested in the welfare of Wheatfield Township than he, and as one of its School Directors, which office he has held for many years, he has striven to advance the cause of education within its borders.