USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 24
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Fawn River township-W. H. Marble (three months, Com- pany G) mustered out; John Annis (Company B), enlisted in 1861, transferred to Second U. S. Cavalry ; Edward Dutcher (Company B), enlisted in 1861, died in hospital; Daniel J. Gates (Company B), enlisted in 1864, mustered out at close of war; Henry Seals (Company K), enlisted in 1861, discharged at expiration of service.
Fabius township-Three-months' men : David A. Jones (Com- pany A), killed at Bull Run; Calvin Colgrove (Company I), killed at Bull Run; James W. Carpenter (Company A), re-enlisted; and James K. Fowler (Company K).
Fabius township-Three years' men : James W. Carpenter (Company A), died at Harrison's Landing, April 5, 1862; and Gardner Eddy (Company B), discharged for disability.
SECOND MICHIGAN INFANTRY.
Company G, of the Second Michigan Infantry, was largely recruited from Constantine township. The regiment participated in the Peninsula campaign, where it suffered severe losses, and its conduct at Fair Oaks, during which it charged across an open field against a greatly superior force, was such as to win high
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words of praise. It was also at First and Second Bull Run and Fredericksburg, but finished the last two years of the war with Grant on the lower Mississippi, with Burnside in east Tennessee and finally with Grant in the terrible battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Petersburg and Williamsburg. At the siege of Knoxville, in November, 1863, the Second charged a strong force of Confederates protected by entrenchments, and lost over half of those engaged. Among the killed were Lieuten- ants William Noble and Charles R. Galpin, while Major Byington and Lieutenant Frank Zoellner were mortally wounded.
Soon after this brilliant military feat the regiment returned with its corps to the army of the Potomac. Both at Knoxville and the battles of the Wilderness, the Second was commanded by Colonel Humphrey. It was in the latter series of engagements that Captain John C. Joss, of Company G, lost his right leg. Captain James Farrand was killed at Spottsylvania Court House, and in the preliminary engagements before Petersburg the regi- ment's losses were twenty-two killed, one hundred and forty-three wounded and six missing. In the attack following the springing of the mine, it lost six killed, fourteen wounded and thirty-seven missing, Captain John S. Young and Lieutenant John G. Busch being among the killed. Before the capture of Petersburg in April, 1865, it suffered severely in other engagements of the cam- paign of investment.
The New York Tribune thus speaks of its part at the battle of Williamsburg: "The Second Michigan took into action only sixty men, the rest being left behind, exhausted with the quick march through mud and rain. Yet they lost one out of every five engaged. The regiment was in the hottest of the fight. By the confessions of prisoners, eight hundred of Perry's men (mostly Michigan) drove back, at the point of the bayonet, sixteen hundred rebels."
The loss of the Second at Williamsburg was seventeen killed, thirty-eight wounded and four missing, and the total fatalities of the regiment during the war were eleven officers and one hundred and ninety-two men killed or died of wounds, and three officers and one hundred and twenty-eight men died of disease.
Company G, as raised in Constantine township, consisted of the following: Captain John A. Lawson, cashiered September 10, 1861; First Lieutenant Richard T. Morton, resigned March 6, 1862; Sergeant John C. Joss, first lieutenant and captain, lost a
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leg in one of the battles of the Wilderness; Sergeant Peter S. Bell, re-enlisted December 10, 1863, died of wounds June 25, 1864; Sergeant David M. Rumbaugh, re-enlisted December 31, 1863, died of wounds near Petersburg, July 20, 1864; Sergeant Elisha P. Clark, discharged at expiration of service; Corporal Jesse A. Gaines, re-enlisted and reported missing at Petersburg; Corporal Theodore Rumbaugh, discharged for disability; Corporal Charles W. Dryer, Corporal Clinton Snyder, discharged at expiration of service ; Corporal Marcus D. L. Train, died of of typhoid fever at Yorktown, Virginia, May 28, 1862; Corporal William H. Wool- worth, discharged for disability; Regimental Musician Addison R. Conklin, mustered out August 1, 1862; Regimental Musician Abner Thurber, mustered out August 1, 1862; Silas T. J. Abbott, discharged at expiration of service; John M. Adams, killed at Knoxville, November 24, 1863; William H. Clark, died January 13, 1864; Forrest Doolittle, discharged; George Darlison, dis- charged at expiration of service ; O. F. French, enlisted in regular army; George Green, discharged for disability; Washington Georgia, re-enlisted December, 1863, mustered out, lost knapsack at Bull Run and found it again at Petersburg; Albert Harwood, lost right arm in Peninsula campaign, discharged for disability ; Charles Henderson, discharged at expiration of service; David H. Knipple, shot accidentally at Camp Arlington, Virginia ; Cyrus Knight, killed at Knoxville, November 24, 1863; Fred Lang, killed at Knoxville; Daniel F. Motley, discharged at expiration of service; Charles Morton, lost right arm at Williamsburg, Vir- ginia, discharged for disability; Benjamin F. Morton, enlisted in regular army ; Philo R. Stewart, discharged at expiration of serv- ice ; Ernst Schinkle, re-enlisted and mustered out; Benjamin Stell, discharged at expiration of service; John L. Taylor, discharged for disability ; Francis E. Thurber, killed at Campbell's Station, Tennessee, November 16, 1863; Jacob Welshes, discharged at ex- piration of service; and Arthur Williamson, discharged.
Lockport township-Company F: Edwin P. Arnold and Martin V. Moore, mustered out; Henry Henner, discharged for disability. Company G: Corporal Samuel D. Southworth, lieu- tenant in regular army; William G. Bennett, Augustus Flint, Hiram Hutchinson and Alonzo Wescott, discharged for disability; Gilbert Bloveldt, died of typhoid fever at Yorktown, Virginia, May 6, 1862; William S. Woodhead, discharged at expiration of service.
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Fabius and Lockport townships furnished most of the soldiers who went from St. Joseph county into the Thirteenth infantry, which was raised and organized by Colonel Charles E. Stuart, of Kalamazoo. At Stone River it lost out of a total of two hundred and twenty-four men who went into that bloody action, twenty- five killed or died of wounds, sixty-two wounded and eight miss- ing. At Chickamauga, then commanded by Colonel L. B. Culver, it again displayed stanch and dashing fighting qualities, especially on September 18th and 19th, when it rejoined its brigade some distance to the left of Lee, under a heavy fire of the enemy, on the double quick and with the mercury above ninety. Soon after- ward, the regiment charged and effectually checked the onslaught of the Confederates who were forcing back a portion of the brigade. In this engagement the Thirteenth lost fourteen killed, sixty-eight wounded (eleven fatally) and twenty-five missing, out of a total of two hundred and seventeen engaged. It joined Sherman's forces in his march to the sea and fought bravely and almost in- cessantly through the campaigns of the Carolinas. At Benton- ville, North Carolina, the engagement lasted the entire day, the casualties of the Thirteenth including one hundred and ten killed, wounded and missing and the death of Colonel W. G. Eaton, the commanding officer. Besides Captain Norman H. Hoisington, of Fabius, who commanded Company E, Captain William McLaugh- lin, of Sturgis, held a command in the Thirteenth.
The roster of the recruits from Fabius township is as fol- lows: Captain Norman E. Hoisington, mustered out; Jasper Eddy, Jr., died at Savannah, Ga .; Edward R. Hutson, Thomas P. Carr, Josiah M. Hopkins, John Harvey, Solomon Kaiser, George Jackson, Stephen P. Manley, Miles A. Pulver, George Shultice, Isaac W. Steininger, William H. Tando, James Avery, John W. Blodgett, William B. Eddy, Solomon Reish, Isaac E. Wing, John Yager, Peter Yager, Omar W. Hunt and Albert F. Keiser, all mustered out; and George Shultice, discharged for disability. All of the foregoing were members of Company E. In Company D was George Phertanbaugh, and in Company H, Omar W. Hunt, who were both mustered out at the expiration of their terms of service.
The following were from Lockport township, mostly in Com- pany E: Samuel Stamp, missing at Bentonville, Ark .; Otlando J. Bradley, mustered out; Herbert L. Chadwick, Charles Jackson, John Quake, Joseph S. Stamp, Conrad Wagner, Daniel F. Stamp,
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Garrett J. Wise, Philo Arnold and Charles C. Flint, all mustered out; and Corporal George W. Buck, discharged June 16, 1862.
FOURTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY.
The Fourth Michigan Infantry was raised at Adrian and went into the field in command of the brave and lamented Colonel Wood- bury, who met his death while leading his regiment at Malvern Hill, during the Peninsula campaign under Mcclellan. Captain A. R. Wood recruited Company C, at Sturgis, and joined it, while the townships of Mendon and Burr Oak also assisted to fill its ranks.
The regiment was in the first Bull Run battle and helped to cover the retreat of the Union army. Its greatest fame, however, was won in the Peninsula campaign. The Fourth was the first Union regiment to open fire on the enemy at New Bridge, May 24, 1862, five of its companies crossing the Chickahominy, a short dis- tance above, under a heavy and continuous fire. This was the open- ing movement of the great seven-days' battle, and General McClel- lan thus refers to the Michigan regiment in his despatch to the war department: "Three skirmishes to-day; we drove the rebels from Mechanicsville, seven miles from New Bridge. The Fourth Michigan about finished the Louisiana Tigers-fifty prisoners and fifty killed and wounded."
At Malvern Hill the Fourth was conspicuous in resisting the numerous and desperate charges of the Confederates, the men fight- ing until their cartridges were exhausted and then taking from the boxes of their fallen comrades. As stated, it was on this battlefield that Colonel Woodbury fell; also Captains Du Puy and Rose. From June 26th to July 1st, inclusive, the loss of the regiment was fifty-three killed, one hundred and forty-four wounded and forty- nine missing. Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg came, in order, one hundred and seventy-one men being snatched from its ranks during the awful engagements included in the "bat- tle of Gettysburg." The casualties included twenty-six killed, six- ty-six wounded and seventy-nine missing. Colonel H. H. Jeffords was killed by a bayonet thrust while rescuing the colors of his regi- ment and Captain French, of Sturgis, and Lieutenant Sage, of White Pigeon, were wounded. In the battles of the Wilderness another commander was killed, Colonel Lombard; also Captain W. H. Loveland.
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The Fourth acquitted itself, at Petersburg and Chancellors- ville, in a way to uphold the reputation for valor and tenacity which Michigan soldiers had long before earned. In this connec- tion a little story is apropos; a story which some might pronounce more forcible than elegant. It is said that General Meade at Chan- cellorsville directed General Griffin to send two regiments to hold an important point.
The general reported that he had sent them.
General Meade asked, "Can they hold it?"
Griffin replied, "They are Michigan men."
Meade insisted on a direct answer; "Can they hold it?" he repeated.
Griffin : "General, they can 'hold it against hell."
The regiments sent to "hold it" were the Fourth and Six- teenth Michigan ; and they held the position, as asserted by General Griffin.
The total loss of the Fourth Michigan in the war was one hun- dred and sixty-eight men and twelve officers killed or died of wounds, and one hundred and five men and one officer died of dis- ease.
The soldiers of the Fourth regiment sent from St. Joseph county were as follows :
Sturgis township (Company C)-Captain Abraham R. Wood, shot on picket near Yorktown, April 18, 1862; First Lieutenant Ebenezer French, wounded at Gettysburg, promoted to captain (September 1, 1862, and mustered out at end of service; Sergeant Gordon Bates, discharged for disability; Sergeant John McAfee, discharged at expiration of service; Sergeant James W. Vesey, sec- ond lieutenant (November, 1862), died of wounds near Richmond, June 30, 1864; George A. Chandler, discharged at expiration of service ; David F. Dudley, discharged at expiration of service; Nel- son Field, discharged for disability, June 1, 1861; Fayette Howk, discharged for disability; Joseph Thompkins, discharged for dis- ability ; Thomas B. Whittlesey, discharged at expiration of service.
Burr Oak township-Charles F. Carnes, discharged for dis- ability ; Mahlon Fry, Alonza Kilmer, discharged at expiration of service; Henry Low, died; James Livingston, discharged for dis- ability; Charles M. Scirvin, mustered out.
Mendon township-George Cook, discharged at expiration of service ; Addison J. Carpenter, discharged at expiration of serv-
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ice; Eugene Garvin, discharged at expiration of service; James K. Rockwell, discharged for disability; William Stevens, discharged for disability; and John Sargeant, discharged at expiration of service.
THE ISOLATED SIXTH.
The Sixth Michigan was denied the comradeship and moral sup- port of its fellow soldiers of the state during the entire period of its service. The scenes of its splendid career were mostly laid in the extreme south, largely in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, and one of the brightest chapters in its history is the part it played as an organization of heavy artillerists in the reduction of Mobile. It was raised by Colonel F. W. Curtenius and left the state in Au- gust, 1861, under his command. It did not sail from Baltimore for Ship Island, Mississippi, until April, 1862, leaving that point for New Orleans. It was one of the first of the Union regiments to enter that city when it surrendered to General Butler.
The battles of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson were the most conspicuous in which it was engaged as an infantry command. At the former engagement (August 5, 1862) it was in command of Captain Charles E. Clark, receiving and repulsing the principal attack made against the right wing of the Union forces by a Con- federate division of some six thousand men. The great import- ance of the repulse was acknowledged by General Butler in a con- gratulatory order issued soon after the engagement.
At Port Hudson, the Sixth was to the fore during the entire siege, Colonel Clark commanding the regiment in the assault of May 27, 1863, when the Michigan men led Sherman's division. One-third of the regiment was put out of action, Lieutenant Fred T. Clark receiving his mortal wound while leading Company D to the charge. Sergeant M. O. Walker was wounded in the assault of June 29th, and at the conclusion of the disastrous campaign Gen- eral Banks formally thanked the Sixth for its faithfulness and bravery throughout.
At the reduction of Mobile, the Sixth did most gallant and ef- fective service as heavy artillerists doing fine execution with bat- teries of ten-inch mortars at a range of fourteen hundred yards. After Spanish Fort was taken, Companies A and K manned and turned the heavy guns captured from the enemy on Forts Huger and Tracy, and materially assisted in their reduction and the cap- ture of the city.
Vol. I-18
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY
The losses of the regiment during the war were sixty-three men and two officers killed or died of wounds, and four hundred and fifty-two men and five officers died of disease; its fatalities in the last named particular far exceeded that of any other Michigan regiment, its service being largely laid in the far south, then es- pecially subject to malarial diseases.
Company C, of the Sixth regiment, was all raised in St. Jo- seph county, Lester Fox, of Flowerfield, going out as corporal and being mustered out as first lieutenant. Corporal George W. Hice, from the same township, died at Ship Island, Mississippi, May 15, 1862. The privates of the company who went from Flowerfield were: W. W. Bullock, discharged at expiration of service; David R. Johnson, re-enlisted ,and mustered out; William McCumsey Samuel H. Hepworth and James Osmer, discharged for disability ; John Reis, discharged at expiration of service; Nelson Straw, died at Carrollton, Louisiana, March 4, 1863; William J. Smith, re-en- listed and mustered out ; John V. Thurston, died at Port Hudson, Louisiana; Jacob H. Hopkins, discharged.
Lockport township sent the following into the ranks of Com- pany C: John R. Cowden, John P. Graham, Day Hicks, James M. Smithey and Solomon Sugars, re-enlisted and mustered out; George P. Sterling, mustered out; Jacob W. Monroe, discharged for disability ; Jacob Feagles, died at New Orleans, August 14, 1863; Walter I. Hunter, died at Port Hudson, Louisiana, February 4, 1864; Ray Hicks, died at regiment hospital, October 2, 1862; Ru- dolph Mohney, died at Camp Williams, Louisiana, September 9, 1862; and Samuel P. Babcock died at Memphis, Tennessee.
Constantine township supplied the following to Company C, Sixth Infantry : Ezra Florence, re-enlisted and mustered out; Thomas B. Hill, mustered out; James Syas, mustered out and afterward died from disease contracted in the service; Hiram Dris- coll, died of disease at Fort Gaines, Alabama; Garrett E. Moyer, died at Baton Rouge, June 21, 1862; David H. Simonds, dis- charged for disability.
Nottawa township sent the following men to Company C: Mor- timer J. Barkman, discharged; Jason B. Taylor and Nelson Wells (musician), discharged for disability ; Isaac Gince, Henry C. Wal- ters, re-enlisted and mustered out; Hiram Hill, Joseph W. Rolfe and Francis Douglass, mustered out; Albert A. Jones, enlisted in
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regular service; Andrew W. Morrison, died in Michigan, March 1, 1864; and George W. Walters, died in regimental hospital, Octo- ber 3, 1862.
THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY.
Company A, of the Fifteenth Infantry, was largely organized in Burr Oak and Colon townships, its first commander being John A. Waterman, of the former place. The regiment was in command of Colonel J. M. Oliver, by whom it was organized, and fought its first battle at Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862, losing therein two officers and thirty-one privates killed, one officer and sixty-three men wounded and seven missing. Before the general engagement at Corinth in October, 1862, it has the credit of checking the advance of the Con- federates under Price, for twenty-four hours, and thus enabling Rosecrans to so dispose of the Union forces as to assure them vic- tory. It first held the outpost of the northern army at Chewalla, ten miles from Corinth, its pickets being finally driven in on the morning of October 1st. After holding the enemy in check dur- ing the day, it was re-enforced by the Fourteenth Wisconsin and a battery section, the entire command under Colonel Oliver. The command fought during the 2d and 3d against overwhelming num- bers, several times being completely flanked, but stubbornly falling back on Corinth and giving ground only inch by inch to an oppos- ing army of forty thousand men.
The Fifteenth was also at Vicksburg, and on July 6, 1863, crossed the Black river and led the advance on Jackson. It was veteranized and participated in the Georgia campaign of 1864. At Resaca, July 15th, it is fully credited with having averted a disastrous break in the Union lines by driving a strong Confeder- ate force from a position which it had occupied in the flank and rear of the Fifteenth corps. Upon this occasion it struck the enemy on the flank, and in the rout which followed captured seventeen officers and one hundred and sixty-seven men, as well as the colors of the Fifth Confederate Infantry and the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Texas.
The Fifteenth was a part of the splendid Sherman campaigns and its fine record was earned at the expense of seventy-five offi- cers and men killed or died of wounds, and one hundred and thir- ty-two succumbed to disease.
Burr Oak township sent to the Fifteenth regiment Captain John A. Waterman, who resigned September 21, 1862, and the
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following privates of Company A : Samuel Betz, Stephen Upham, Joseph Watson, and Chester Ward, discharged for disability ; Joseph Z. Carnes, John Floro, David Tyler, Stephen Whitney, Artemas Ward and Crosbey C. Whitney, re-enlisted and mus- tered out; and Calvin Marvin, veteran reserve corps. Andrew L. Hogaboom, from the same township, joined Company K and was mustered out at the expiration of his term of enlistment.
Company A gathered from Colon township the following : Second Lieutenant Jonathan Snook, resigned; Daniel E. Decker, George B. Wilkinson and Edward E. Decker, discharged for disability ; Joseph Lepley, re-enlisted and mustered out; Abram Snook, died at Camp Sherman, August 25, 1863; Charles Sixbury, veteran relief corps, mustered out; and Reuben Everhard, dis- charged at expiration of service.
THE ARTILLERY.
St. Joseph county made good contributions to the artillery branch of the service, both from the standpoints of quantity and quality. Battery D, one of the twelve batteries comprising the First Regiment of Michigan Artillery, was largely filled up with men from this county, although it was officered by Branch county men. The townships of White Pigeon, Nottawa, Constantine, Sturgis and Lockport were mainly drawn upon to supply its ranks. Battery F received quite a portion of its recruits from White Pigeon, Constantine and Lockport; and White Pigeon, Constantine and Nottawa sent men into Battery G. Flowerfield and White Pigeon were the only townships in the county to fur- nish recruits for Battery N.
Battery D (Bidwell's) left the state in 1861, and first got into action in the Rosecrans campaign at Hoover's Gap, Tenn., but its most desperate fighting was at the battle of Chickamauga, where its commander, Captain J. W. Church, was wounded, and several of its men wounded and missing. It was also in the subsequent assault on Missionary Ridge, covering Hooker's ad- vance up Lookout Mountain.
Norman F. Andrews, of White Pigeon, officially represented the thirty or more men who joined Battery F from St. Joseph county, and went into the service with the organization as junior first lieutenant. Its first engagement was at Henderson, Ken-
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tucky, in 1862, but it was during Sherman's Atlanta campaign, in 1864, that it gained especial distinction. At Otoy creek, Georgia, while in command of Lieutenant Miller it met with considerable loss of men, and although two of its guns were dismantled the battery not only held its own but finally silenced two Confederate batteries. It also did splendid service on the North Carolina coast early in 1865, being marked for especial efficiency and gal- lantry at the Wise Forks engagement.
Battery G was raised by Captain C. H. Lamphere in 1862, in connection with the Thirteenth Infantry. It followed the for- tunes of that regiment, first engaging the enemy at Tazewell, Ken- tucky, in May, 1863. In the fall and winter of that year it was actively engaged in the operations in Mississippi, and suffered considerable losses at Chickasaw Bayou. It also participated in the Vicksburg campaign of the following spring, General Mc- Clernands's report on the battle of Port Gibson (May 1st) con- taining the following: "The splendid practice of Lamphere's and Foster's batteries disabled two of the enemy's guns and con- tributed largely to our success."
The St. Joseph county roster of men who joined Battery D, by townships, is as follows:
White Pigeon-Corporal Josiah Flumerfelt, discharged at expiration of service; and Peter H. Stitzell, William Connor, Jo- siah Mosier, Daniel Saunter, John W. Swartz and Benjamin Win- slow, all mustered out.
Nottawa-Sergeant Frederick C. Knox, mustered out; Wag- oner David Hazzard, mustered out; Samuel Cady, Justin Sinclair, Chauncey Veder, Daniel W. Williams, Nathan Adams, Horatio Allen, Samuel Mansfield, Abel L. Russell, William Waters and Daniel Williams, mustered out; Andrew Shafer, discharged at White Pigeon, December 6th; Elias H. Shummel, died at Gallatin, Tennessee; and Burton S. Howe, discharged for disability.
Constantine-Adelbert Chittenden, William Draper and Spencer King, mustered out.
Lockport-George C. Meade (artificer), Columbus Fulker- son, Sylvester C. Smith, Joseph H. Dunworth, John Taylor, Sam- uel Pugh and John McClymont, mustered out; Charles Crachy and John H. Donahue, discharged for disability.
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Sturgis-Corporal Silas W. Allen, discharged at expiration of service; Charles A. Bates, Asahel B. Hill and James D. Ridge, mustered out.
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