USA > Michigan > Oakland County > History of Oakland County, Michigan, a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 35
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THE THIRD INFANTRY
Although the original Third Michigan Infantry was raised in Grand Rapids, the decimation in its ranks was largely filled by Oakland county men. It was a part of Richardson's brigade at Blackburn's Ford and afterward belonged to Berry's celebrated brigade of Kearney's division. It was particularly distinguished at Fair Oaks, where its losses were heavy and Captain Samuel A. Judd was killed. It lost forty-one, killed. wounded. and missing at Gettysburg, and followed the fortunes of the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Potomac until the final siege of Petersburg in April. 1865. On June 20, 1864, the regiment was mustered out of the service, but reorganized and left for the field in Ten- nessee October 20th, following. With the Second, it afterward returned to the campaigns in Virginia being conducted by Grant through the Army of the Potomac. The reorganized Third was stationed in Texas during the winter of 1865-6 and was mustered out May 26, 1866.
THE FIFTH INFANTRY
The Fifth regiment, often called the Fighting Fifth, left Detroit for Virginia, September 11, 1861, commanded by Colonel Henry D. Terry and, as a part of Berry's brigade, had its first engagement at Williams- burg, May 5, 1862. There its conduct was gallant and its losses heavy, among the killed being Lieutenant James Gunning and the wounded, Lieutenant Colonel S. E. Beach, of Pontiac. Captain L. B. Quacken- bush and Lieutenant Charles HI. Hutchins were killed at Fair Oaks, and Lieutenant Charles Il. Traverse mortally wounded. At Chickahominy. Peach Orchard and Charles City Cross Roads, the regiment conducted itself as it should. Lieutenant W. T. Johnson being killed and Major John D. Fairbanks being mortally wounded at the engagement last named. Fredericksburg caused the death of its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Gilluby, the losses of the rank and file at these battles telling the story of general bravery. The regiment participated in the desperate charge made on the rear of Stonewall Jackson's forces, near Chancellors- ville, which threatened the destruction of the right flank of the Union army ; was at Gettysburg during the two days' battle, losing on July 2d. in one hour. 105 men and officers, and on July 2d, assisting to repel the final charge of the Confederates on Cemetery IIill. In May, 1864, under Colonel Pulford the regiment entered the great campaign of Grant against Richmond, and within the following three weeks participated in the gen- eral movement to the North Anna river, in the crossing of which Lieu- tenant Samuel Pierce was killed. On the toth of June the Third Michigan was consolidated with the Fifth. From March until April, of 1865. the regiment was engaged in the general movements around Petersburg, on the 3d of the latter month participating in the general assault and capture of the enemy's fortifications.
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Brigadier General Berry complimented the Second. Third and Fifth ( all of which regiments were_in his brigade ), most highly when he said of them: "A nobler set of men never lived. Any man can win fights with such material."
THE SEVENTH INFANTRY
More than one hundred men from Oakland county joined various com- panies in the Seventh Infantry. Francis Daniels of Company HI being promoted from a sergeantcy to second lieutenant in December, 1864. The regiment was organized under the direction of Colonel Ira R. Grosvenor at Monroe, and served through the Peninsula campaign, one of its great- est services being performed as the rear guard of the Army of the Potomac on the retreat to Harrison's Landing. It was also engaged in all the Maryland actions, and at Antietam it lost more than half its forces engaged, including Captains Allen H. Zacharias and J. H. Turrill and Lieutenants J. B. Eberhard and John A. Clark. The regiment passed through the Wilderness campaign under Major S. W. Curtis, especially distinguishing itself at Hatcher's Run by the capture of an important Confederate command five hundred strong with a force of only eighty-five. The Seventh continued in active service until the surrender of Lee, April 9. 1865, being finally mustered out on the 5th of the following July.
THE EIGHTH AND NINTH INFANTRY REGIMENTS
Only about sixty men from Oakland were with these commands. The former, raised by Colonel W. M. Fenton, of Flint, was engaged in nine battles in four states-South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Maryland- and afterward served in the several campaigns of the Ninth corps in Ten- nessee and Mississippi until the close of the war in Virginia. The only officer from Oakland county was William A. Clifford, who entered the service as sergeant major of Company B: was promoted to be first lieu- tenant October 5, 1864, and adjutant of the regiment, April 25, 1865.
The Ninth Infantry was chiefly noted for the part it took in the bril- liant defense of Murfreesboro, July 13, 1862, and its participation in the battle of Stone River, in January, 1863. It was mustered out of the service September 15, 1865. Officers from Oakland county : C. C. Stark- weather, who joined Company I, as sergeant, was made second lieuten- ant May 14, 1863, first lientenant ( Company E), September 20, 1804, and Captain of Company B. April 20, 1865; John B. Gunning, sergeant of Company I, promoted to second lieutenant Company D. April 20. 1865; and William Wilkinson, Jr., who was mustered out as a non-com- missioned staff officer. September 15, 1865.
THE TENTH INFANTRY
The Tenth Infantry, organized at Flint by Colonel Charles M. Linn, contained a large element of Oakland county soldiers, and its officers were well represented among the citizens of this section of the state. The latter include the following: Sylvester D. Cowles, first lieutenant
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and adjutant ( formerly first lieutenant in Fifth Infantry), who was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter at Farmington, Mississippi, May 26, 1862; John Piersons, first captain of Company H, and promoted to be lieutenant colonel of the 109th United States Colored Troops, August 30, 1864; Alva A. Collins, second lieutenant Company C, who was pro- moted first lieutenant, June 2, 1862, and captain of Company H, August 30, 1864; Fred S. Stewart, sergeant major and promoted first lieuten- ant and adjutant, May 28, 1862; Benjamin B. Redfield, first lieutenant ; Sylvan Ter Bush, first lieutenant of Company H, and promoted to cap- tain of Company C, March 31, 1863 ( wounded at Jonesboro, Ga., Sep- tember 1, 1864), major May 20, 1865, and lieutenant colonel June 7, 1865; Joseph E. Tupper, sergeant major, and promoted second lieuten- ant, May 13, 1863, and major United States Colored Troops, November, 1863: Warren G. Nelson, sergeant Company H, and promoted first lieu- tenant of Company C, February 24, 1865; Eslie R. Redfieldl, sergeant Company C, and promoted first lieutenant Company F, September 3. 1864, and captain Company I, May 20, 1865; Charles P. Rice, sergeant, and promoted second lieutenant June 7, 1865 : Alex. H. Allen, sergeant, and promoted second lieutenant June 7, 1865; Mark H. Ridley, sergeant Company C and promoted second lieutenant Company B, June 7, 1805: and Fletcher W. Hewes, sergeant Company C and promoted first lieu- tenant Company D, May 8, 1865.
The Tenth Regiment first encountered the enemy in battle near Cor- inth, Mississippi, and among the most marked events in its splendid history were the engagement at Buzzard's Roost, Georgia, February 25. 1864: the battle of Jonesboro, September 1, 1864, and the fight at Ben- tonville, March 19 and 20, 1865.
DEATH OF ADJUTANT COWLES
The death of Adjutant Cowles was a great blow to the Oakland county boys. In company with other officers of the regiment he was riding along the picket line at Corinth examining the rebel works. He dismounted, in order to get a better view, and at first stood behind a tree. Not satisfied with that position he stepped into the open, re- marking as he did so, "I guess they won't hit me." He had scarcely uttered the words when the bullet from the Confederate sharpshooter struck him in the left breast, passing through the body obliquely and coming out through the right shoulder. Ile simply exclaimed, "I am hit," and expired.
THIE FOURTEENTH INFANTRY
The county sent more than ninety into the Fourteenth Infantry, in- cluding the following officers: Frank Powell, captain Company 1; John P. Foster, first lieutenant of Company I, who was promoted to be cap- tain January 29, 1863, and wounded at Averyboro, North Carolina, March 16, 1865: Alfred A. Parker, second lieutenant of Company I and promoted first lieutenant June 20, 1862; Frederick Banks, sergeant of Company I. and promoted second lieutenant June 20, 1862; New-
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come Clark, sergeant of Company 1, and promoted second lieutenant June 16, 1802. major First -Michigan Colored Infantry ( 102d United States Colored Troops), March 12, 1864, and lieutenant colonel June 19. 1865; Cornelius Losey, sergeant Company 1, and promoted first lieu- tenant August 10, 1864, and captain. February 13, 1865 ( wounded March 20, 1865) ; and Isaac Olive, sergeant Company I, and promoted second lieutenant Company F. March 14, 1865, and first lieutenant, July 7. 1865.
The Fourteenth Infantry left Ypsilanti, where it was rendezvoused, in command of Colonel Robert P. Sinclair, of Grand Rapids, under whose direction it had been recruited, and joined the Western Army at Pittsburgh Landing. It participated in the battle of Stone River, in De- cember. 1862, and January, 1863, and was also actively engaged in the Atlanta campaign. The battles of Jonesboro, Georgia, on September I. 1864, and Bentonville, North Carolina, March 19 and 20, 1865, were its special fields of honor.
THE FIFTEENTH AND THE SIXTEENTII
Both the Fifteenth and the Sixteenth Infantry regiments received a number of recruits from Oakland county, each about sixty, and several officers were also drawn from her citizens. Dr. Levi M. Garner, surgeon of the Fifteenth, died May 17, 1862; W. H. Hubble, sergeant of Com- pany F, was promoted to the first lieutenantcy October 1, 1862, and to the captaincy, March 4. 1863. Most of the recruits of this regiment were received during the later days of the war, the engagements in the At- lanta campaign and "Sherman's March" being the only actions in which they participated.
The Sixteenth was raised and organized during the summer of 1861 by Colonel T. B. W. Stockton, and was for some time known as Stock- ton's Independent Regiment. 1ts active service began with the siege of Yorktown in April, 1862, and ended at Appomattox Court House, after having passed through the various campaigns of the Army of the Poto- mac with highest credit, as a part of the Third brigade, first division. Fifth corps. Among the battles in which it participated none are per- haps more to its credit than Gaines Ilill and Peebles' Farm. In the for- mer engagement Captain Thomas C. Carr and Lieutenants Byron McGraw and Richard Williams were killed, and Colonel Stockton had his horse shot from under him. Captains Mott and Fisher and Surgeon Wixom were taken prisoners. At Prebles' Farm, Colonel N. E. Welch was instantly killed while going over the enemy's works sword in hand.
THE TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY
Of all the regiments which went to the front, the Twenty-second created the most widespread interest throughout the county. More men from Oakland county joined its various companies than those of any other regiment ( something like 560) and its commanding officer was Moses Wisner, who had already served as governor of the state and was among its most honored and popular citizens. It was largely through
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his efforts and personal influence that it was raised. His command left the state of Kentucky September 4, 1862. and Colonel Wisner died of typhoid fever at Lexington, Kentucky, January 5. 1863. It is thought that his unremitting labors in the raising, organization and drilling of the regiment brought about such a nervous condition as to make him an easy victim to the disease which caused his death.
GOVERNOR MOSES WISNER
Governor Wisner was an able lawyer and a broad minded public man, and as he was a thorough disciplinarian and deeply read in military tactics his friends and the public at large looked confidently to see him make a splendid reputation as a soldier. He not only possessed the true temperament for a military leader, but he inherited the ambition to be such from his father (also Moses), who was a colonel in the War of 1812 and brave and masterly in battle. Colonel Wisner was buried in Oak Hill cemetery on January 9, 1863, without military display, but as unostentatiously as he had lived, The legislature, the supreme court of the state and the bar of Oakland county all adopted resolutions of respect and affection, and, as expressed by a local publication, "the resolutions passed by his own regiment were like the wailings of orphans for a dead father."
The deceased was succeeded in the command by Colonel Heber Le- Favour, who first led the regiment against the enemy at Danville, Ken- tucky, March 24, 1863. At Chickamauga, on September 9th, it formed part of Whittaker's brigade, and played a leading part in coming to the rescue of Thomas' imperiled line. The Twenty-second lost on that day 372 in killed, wounded and missing, and among those mortally wounded were Captains W. A. Smith and Elijah Snell. Most of the missing were taken prisoners, including Colonel LeFavour. The regi- ment also participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge, November 26, 1863, its last action being before Atlanta, Georgia, July 22 and 23, 1864. Elijah Snell, captain of Company D, died of wounds received at Chicka- mauga, September 20, 1863. Altogether sixteen officers of the regiment hailed from Oakland county.
TWENTY-NINTH INFANTRY
Over one hundred men were recruited in Oakland county for the Twenty-ninth regiment, one of the latest to enter the service. Under command of Colonel Thomas M. Taylor it arrived at Nashville, October 3, 1864, and, although "new at the game of war," when it met the enemy at Decatur, under Hood, on the 26th of the month, it behaved with great coolness. The regiment moved out from the breastworks behind which it was sheltered and, in the face of a hot fire of musketry and artillery took possession of a line of rifle pits. Colonel Doolittle, who was in charge of the Union force, had but five hundred men but with them he successfully resisted five thousand Confederates-Waltham's division of Stewart's corps. The Twenty-second was mustered out of the service September 6, 1865.
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THIRTIETH INFANTRY AND "MECHANICS AND ENGINEERS"
The citizen soldiery of Oakland county was slightly represented in the Thirtieth Infantry, a home regiment which was stationed at differ- ent points in Michigan during the last year of the war, and the "Mechanics and Engineers," who so distinguished themselves in Kentucky, Tennes- see, Georgia and North Carolina both as fighters and bridge builders.
CUSTER'S MICHIGAN CAVALRY BRIGADE
Of the cavalry regiments, the First, Second, Third, Fourth. Fifth. Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth, all received considerable acces- sions from Oakland county. The First Cavalry was organized during the summer of 1861 by Colonel T. F. Brodhead, of Detroit ( formerly of Pontiac), and left that city for Washington, December 29th. It partici- pated in the campaigns on the upper Potomac, in the Shenandoah valley and on the slopes of the Blue Ridge in 1862, Colonel Brodhead being killed at the second battle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862. He was an edu- cated lawyer, a member of the Oakland county bar, and after moving to Detroit served for some years as postmaster of that city.
The First Michigan Cavalry was in the Gettysburg campaign of 1863. With the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh regiments of cavalry, it was incorpor- ated into what became widely known as the Michigan Cavalry Brigade in command of the lamented Custer. After the death of Colonel Brodhead the First Cavalry was commanded by Colonel Charles H. Town, and at Gettysburg his command successfully resisted a full infantry brigade of the enemy, putting them to route with drawn sabers. It was also at this terrific battle that the Fifth went to the relief of the Seventh Mich- igan Cavalry.
The history of the four brigades composing the command which Cus- ter led forms a bright chapter in the Union operations of this branch of the service in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac from Win- chester to Appomattox. Colonel John T. Copeland of the First cavalry organized the Fifth, but in November, 1862, being promoted to the rank of a brigadier, he was succeeded in the command of the regiment by Col- onel Freeman Norvell. Major R. A. Alger, of the Second Cavalry, was commissioned colonel of the Fifth on the 28th of the same month. and served in that capacity until September 20. 1864, when ill health com- pelled him to resign.
The sixty or seventy men from Oakland county who joined the Sixth and Seventh Cavalry regiments were generally transferred to the First : so that the record of the Fifth and First virtually covers all of interest to the readers of this history.
THE EIGHTH CAVALRY
More than two hundred men from Oakland county enlisted in the Eighth Michigan Cavalry, under command of Lieutenant Colonel G. S. Wormer. It formed part of the Union forces who pursued Morgan on his raid through Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio in 1863, and whose sixteen
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days' chase resulted in the rout of the Confederate leader at Buffington Island, in the Ohio river, July 19th of that year. The Union troops cap- tured 573 prisoners, 487 horses and mules and a large quantity of arms, but Morgan himself avoided capture for a week. A detachment of the regiment in charge of Lieutenant Boynton led a force commanded by Major Rue, of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, which captured the famous rebel cavalryman near New Lisbon, Ohio, on the 26th of July, 1863. The Eighth was raised by Colonel John Stockton, who commanded it until his health failed. During the war it was opposed by such brilliant leaders as Forrest and Wheeler and invariably held its own against them. Its achievements are most conspicuous while checking the advance of Long- street's army and in the defense of Knoxville. One of its last engage- ments was that of November 28, 1864, at Duck Creek, Tennessee, where the Eighth Michigan and the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Illinois Cavalry dismounted, fixing bayonets and charged through the surrounding enemy, driving one hundred of the rebels into the river. In the following month, followed the engagements around and in front of Nashville, lasting from December 14th to 22d, the decisive battle between Hood and Thomas being fought on the 15th and 16th.
NINTHI AND TENTH CAVALRY REGIMENTS
Oakland county contributed over one hundred men to the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry. The former was the only regiment in this branch of the service which had the honor of accompanying Sherman in his entire march from Atlanta to the sea, composing the escort of General Kilpat- rick when he opened communication between the army and the Atlantic coast. The Ninth also bore a conspicuous part in the pursuit and capture of General Morgan in his raid through Indiana and Ohio.
The operations of the Tenth Cavalry were mainly in Tennessee and ex- tended from January, 1864, to April, 1865, the last three months of ser- vice being in North Carolina and Virginia. The regiment left Grand Rapids in December, 1863, in command of Colonel Thaddeus Foote, and was afterward led by Lieutenant Colonel L. G. Trowbridge. Among the officers contributed by Oakland county was James H. Cummins, who joined the Tenth as first lieutenant of Company L; was promoted to be captain April 1, 1864; and was breveted major of United States Volun- teers March 13, 1865, for capturing with one battalion at High Point, North Carolina, on April 10, 1865, $3,000,000 worth of property and de- stroying it.
MICHIGAN LIGHT ARTILLERY
The regiment of Michigan Light Artillery was composed of twelve six-gun batteries, and was commanded by Colonel L. C. Loomis ; but from the character of that arin of the service the batteries were never brought together as a regiment. About a hundred men were scattered through its several batteries-A, C, D, G, H, I, L and MI-and also through the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth. Battery \, the first to leave the state, was originally designated Loomis's. It departed for western Virginia, under Colonel Loomis, on July 1, 1861, first engag-
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ing the enemy on the urth of that month at Rich Mountain. Thence it was transferred to Kentucky, and did its full share in defeating a flanking movement launched against the right wing of the Union army. At Stone River it lost heavily, but won distinction, and at Chickamauga suffered little short of annihilation in defense of its guns. Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 25, 1863, was its last battle.
Battery H had quite a contingent from Oakland county, both of offi- cers and gunners. Marcus D. Elliott was promoted through two grades to the captaincy on January 8, 1864: William Garner became first lieuten- ant May 29, 1865, and William King, second lieutenant June 10, 1865. This battery rendezvoused in Monroe in connection with the Fifteenth In- fantry and left that place March 13, 1862 under command of Captain Samuel DeGobyer, to report to General Halleck at St. Louis. Thence it was ordered to New Madrid, Missouri, and afterward served in Ken- tucky, west Tennessee and northern Mississippi, taking an active part in the Mississippi campaign which preceded the siege of Vicksburg, during which Captain DeGobyer received a wound from which he died August Sth following. The operations of Battery H were conducted entirely in Mississippi and Georgia, its last engagement being at Lovejoy's Station, in the latter state, September 1. 1864.
ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND U. S. COLORED TROOPS
Forty citizens of Oakland county joined the only colored regiment raised in Michigan during the war. It was known as the 102d United States Colored Troops, was raised by Colonel Fleury Barus of Detroit, and organized by Lieutenant Colonel W. T. Bennett. In March, 1864, it took the field in command of Col. H. L. Chipman, then a captain in the regular army who had procured a leave of absence for that purpose. The colored troops first faced the Confederates at Baldwin, Florida, in Au- gust, 1864, and decisively repulsed the attacking force of cavalrymen. The men there proved that they were gallant and stanch fighters, and fully sustained that reputation in the Carolinas and other states in which they were engaged in their progress northward. The regiment was mus- tered out of the service with honor on the 30th of September. 1865.
MILITARY MATTERS OF LATE
Pontiac is proud of her armory, as she should be. It came after years of effort and waiting, and is largely the result of the consistent work of D. L. Kimball. Alderman Henry Pauli and Charles A. Fisher. An independent company was organized soon after the Spanish-Amer- ican war, in which Captain Kimball commanded a company (Thirty- fifth Michigan Infantry ). It originally occupied quarters in the Brad- ley block on East Pike street and the third floor of the Howland build- ing on West Pike. Along in 1907 a keen agitation was started for the erection of a separate armory, the original plan being for the state to appropriate $10,000 and the city to raise SS.000. The final decision was $15,000 for the state and $6,000 for the city, and the bonds which were issued for $21,000 were sold chiefly through the exertions of Alder-
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man Pauli, in April, 1910. The armory was opened to Company E, Third Infantry (as the command was then known ), December 22, 1911.
On June 23, 1905, the original company was mustered into the reg- ular service as a part of the First Battery, Michigan National Guard. In June, 1906, it was transferred from the artillery to the infantry, by action of the military board of the state, and was incorporated into the First Infantry, with William Marjison as captain, C. L. Allen as first lieutenant and H. Il. Ross, second lieutenant. Late in 1900 Mr. Allen resigned, Mr. Ross was promoted to the first lieutenantcy and Fred Thorpe to the second lieutenantey. In December, 1906, Captain Marji- son resigned and on the 13th of the month, David L. Kimball received his commission as captain of Company E. Third Infantry. He is one of the best disciplinarians in the state and one of the most popular cit- izens of Pontiac. In 1909 First Lieutenant Ross resigned and Second Lieutenant Thorpe was promoted to the vacancy. Max Hodgdon was made second lieutenant. Company E has forty members in good standing.
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CHAPTER XX
VILLAGE OF PONTIAC
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