USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph county, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 19
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Michigan sent out thirty regiments of infantry, eleven regiments of cav- alry, fourteen batteries of artillery, one regiment of mechanics and engineers, one regiment of sharp-shooters, besides several companies who went into or- ganizations of other States ; and, with the exception of the 18th, 21st and 22d regiments of infantry, St. Joseph county was represented in them all; consequently the history of the St. Joseph heroes is co-extensive with the history of every regiment and battery the State sent out in her noble army of ninety thousand seven hundred and forty-seven veterans, to the defence of a common country imperiled by treason.
We give in the following summary a brief history only of those regiments and batteries, of which organized companies from St. Joseph county formed a part, and must refer the reader for the entire interesting record to the complete and exhaustive reports of the adjutant-general of the State of Michigan, from whose official records the summary has been compiled, as well as the names of the gallant men which appear under the respective township histories, in another part of our work.
52
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
THE FIRST INFANTRY.
The 1st Michigan-the regiment which, under Colonel Wilcox, led the ad- vance of Michigan troops to the front-although hurriedly organized and hastily equipped, left the State a pattern regiment in every respect, none better having preceded it to the National capital from any State ; arriving there at a critical time when that place was in great and immediate danger of being attacked and captured by the rebels, whose troops then picketed the Potomac. Its presence aided much in establishing confidence among those in authority, that the capital was safe, and its appearance on Pennsylvania avenue was hailed with the cheers of loyal thousands. As it passed in review before the lamented Lincoln, it received his highest praise, and through them thanked the State for their prompt appearance in Washington.
The regiment was assigned to Heintzelman's division, and, under Colonel Wilcox, led the advance of the Union troops across Long Bridge into Vir- ginia, on the 24th of May, driving in the rebel pickets, and entering Alex- andria via the road, simultaneously with the regiment of Ellsworth's Zouaves that entered it by steamer.
At the battle of Bull Run the regiment belonged to the brigade com- manded by Colonel Wilcox, and was in the hottest of the fight, eagerly press- ing forward on the enemy, losing heavily but fighting stubbornly and gal- lantly. On that disastrous field the 1st established the highest standard for Michigan troops, so uniformly and so remarkably maintained throughout the entire war. Its dead were found nearest the enemy's works. In the en- gagement Captain Butterworth, Lieutenants Mauch and Casey were wounded and taken prisoners, and afterwards died of their wounds in rebel custody. Colonel Wilcox was also wounded, and falling into the hands of the enemy, was exchanged after fifteen months captivity.
The regiment on the expiration of its three months' term of service re- turned to the State, and was mustered out August 7, 1861, but was soon after reorganized as a three years' regiment, and left for the army of the Potomac August 16, commanded by Colonel John C. Robinson, then captain in the regular service, who continued to command it till April 28, 1862, when he was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers, and was succeeded in the com- mand of the regiment by Colonel H. S. Roberts, promoted from lieutenant- colonel. It went to the Peninsula with Mcclellan, and was in the engage- ments at Mechanicsville, June 26; at Gaines? Mills, June 27 ; at Malvern Hill, July 1, and at Gainsville, August 29.
It rendered most gallant and valuable service during the war, and suf- fered severe losses in killed and wounded. Among its numerous engage- ments, none perhaps will be more vividly remembered by the regiment than the disastrous charges so bravely made, but with such fearful loss, upon the enemy's position along the Warrenton and Centreville pike, on August 30, 1862, during the series of engagements near Manassas, now known as the second battle of Bull Run.
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The regiment, under command of Colonel Roberts, was in General Fitz John Porter's corps, and had during the day been posted in the woods front- ing the enemy's lines, and near one of his most important batteries. At 4 P. M. the order was given to advance and dislodge the enemy. The 1st Michigan, with the 18th Massachusetts and the 13th New York regiments of infantry deployed column and with cheers charged. They instantly found themselves the target of a terrific fire from ambushed infantry of the enemy and five batteries, four of which had been masked, and hitherto unseen. The charge was a murderous one, and within a few moments eight officers and fifty per cent. of the regiment fell. The men stood their ground bravely, with veteran coolness under these trying circumstances, and when the impossibility of success became a certainty, and the order to retreat was given, fell back in good order to the woods and reformed their division. Had victory been possible, their courage and persistency would have won it. Their demeanor, amid disaster and defeat, affords one of the greatest exam- ples of true courage. Colonel Roberts was killed, shot through the breast with a minie ball, and Captains Charles E. Wendell, Russell H. Alcott, Eben T. Whittlesey, Edward Pomeroy, and Lieutenants H. Clay Arnold, J. S. Garrison and W. Bloodgood, also met their death.
After the death of Colonel Roberts, Lieutenant-Colonel Franklin W. Whittlesey was promoted to the command of the regiment, but was absent from the field on account of injuries received in the Peninsular campaign.
The regiment was engaged at Antietam, September 17; at Shepherdstown Ford, September 20, and at Fredericksburg, December 13 and 14, at which latter place it was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Ira C. Abbott, of Burr Oak, who went out in August of 1861 as captain of Company B, and was promoted to the position of major, April 28, 1862. It was heavily en- gaged at Fredericksburg, and lost one officer-Captain J. B. Kennedy-and seven men killed, together with seven officers and thirty-three men wounded.
At Chancellorsville, April 30, 1863, it went into action under command of Colonel Abbott, who had been promoted a short time before, with twenty- three officers and two hundred and forty muskets, and was in the various engagements in that vicinity. From the 28th of May to the 2d of July, it skirmished nearly every day with the enemy's cavalry, and after severe and laborious marches, it reached Gettysburg at 1:30 A. M. of the last day above named, and entered into battle with twenty officers and one hundred and twenty-five men, sustaining a loss during the engagement of Captain Amos Ladd and four men killed, with six officers and twenty-five men wounded, among whom was Colonel Abbott, disabled early in the action, the command devolving upon Lieutenant-Colonel W. A. Throop. It joined in the pursuit of the enemy on the 5th, and on the 18th recrossed the Poto- mac into Virginia, and aided in driving the foe through Manassas Gap, and went into camp at Warrenton.
In the battles of the Wilderness, commencing May 5, 1864, the regiment, in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Throop, especially distinguised itself. It was in Bartlett's (3d) brigade of Griffin's (1st) division, 5th corps, in the van of General Grant's celebrated movement on Richmond, which ultimately culminated in the fall of the rebel capital and the surrender of Lee's army. It fired the first musket of that glorious campaign, and its brigade checked the rebel advance on the road leading to Orange Court House, and thus opened the last act of the great drama. In the opening engagements of the campaign, so constantly was it under fire, and so perilous were the duties to which it was assigned, that on the evening of the 8th of May, after a bril- liant and successful charge at Alsop's farm, its gallant commander was able to muster but twenty-three men fit for active service. But this handful still pressed forward, undaunted and fearless, and participated in the battles of Spottsylvania, Jericho Mills and the engagements near Cold Harbor, and on the 17th of June sat down before Petersburg and went into the trenches. On September 30, was in the desperate fighting at Poplar Grove church, and, unaided, stormed and carried the strong fortifications and a portion of one line of works. During this action its commander, Captain James H. Wheaton, was killed. On December 6 it raided the Weldon railroad, and February 6, 1865, was at Hatcher's Run, and lost three killed and three taken prisoners. March 25 it was engaged again at Hatcher's Run, having several wounded. On the 29th it engaged the enemy on the White Oak road, and also on April 1, at Five Forks; the 5th at Amelia Court House; at High Bridge on the 6th, and at Appomattox on the 9th.
The total losses of the regiment during the war were one hundred and forty-six men and fifteen commissioned officers, killed or died of wounds received in battle, and ninety-six men and one officer died of disease.
THE SECOND INFANTRY.
The 2d regiment, under command of Colonel J. B. Richardson, was also in the first engagement, and opened fire on the enemy at Blackburn's Ford, July 18, 1861, in Richardson's division, which covered the retreat of the army from Bull Run on the 21st.
The regiment, under command of Colonel O. M. Poe, participated in all the engagements on the Peninsula, first meeting the enemy in that campaign at Williamsburg May 5, 1862, and lost seventeen killed, thirty-eight wounded, and four missing. It was at Fair Oaks on the 27th, at Charles City cross- roads on the 30th, and at Malvern Hill July 1st. At Fair Oaks it lost ten killed and forty-seven wounded, while its bravery was so marked as to re- ceive the following notice in the published history of the time :
" Meantime Heintzelman had sent forward Kearney to recover Casey's lost ground, and a desperate fight was going on at the extreme left. The enemy had been successfully held in front of Couch's old entrenched camp until Kearney's division arrived, when he stayed the torrent of battle. One after another his gallant regiments pushed forward, and pressed back the fiery rebels with more daring than their own. Here the 55th New York won new lau- rels, and Poe's 2d Michigan was bathed in blood. Five hundred of them charged across the open field against ten times their number, and stopped them in mid career, losing seventeen brave fellows in that one desperate essay."
Immediately following the battles of the Peninsula, it entered on the cam- paign of General Pope, and was engaged with the enemy at Bull Run August 28, 29 and 30, at Chantilly on September 1, and at Fredericks- burg December 12, following. In 1863 the 2d was transferred to another field of operations with the 9th corps, and served with distinction on the Grant campaign in Mississippi, terminating with the fall of Vicksburg, and the defeat and route of Johnston at Jackson. It was also with Burnside in East Tennessee, actively engaged in the defense of Knoxville against Longstreet, and in the various battles with his forces in that vicinity.
53
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Among the numerous battles of the regiment none will hold a more promi- nent place in the memories of its survivors than Jackson and Knoxville. Colonel Humphrey was in command in the former fight, and thus reports:
" At 7 A. M., the order came down the line from the right to 'forward, double-quick !' The men at once advanced with a cheer, drove in the ene- my's skirmishers through their camps and into their reserves strongly posted in a deep ravine; charged and broke the reserve, and drove it up out of the ravine into its main support, drawn up in line of battle on the top of the south bank of the ravine ; charged under a hot fire of musketry and artillery, up the steep bank against the main body, broke this line and drove the enemy within its works. We now waited for our support to come up, but on sending for it, were surprised to find we had none."
Finding it impossible to hold the ground they had won without support, and the enemy being reinforced, Colonel Humphrey ordered the regiment under cover of the bank of the ravine, and held the position until the wounded were carried to the rear, and then following the movement of the regiment on the right, fell back to the line from which he had advanced an hour before.
" By some mistake," Colonel Humphrey reports, "the three companies (C, F and H) on the left, did not advance with the rest of the regiment in this charge, which was made with about one hundred and seventy men. Fifty of these had fallen."
In this charge nine were killed, thirty-nine wounded, and eight taken prisoners. On the 24th of November, 1863, the regiment, under command of Major Cornelius Byington, (Colonel Humphrey being in command of the brigade) at the siege of Knoxville gallantly charged a strong force of the enemy protected by entrenchments and a house they occupied, driving them from the position and leveling the house and works to the ground. In the charge the regiment lost in killed and wounded out of one hundred and sixty- one officers and men engaged, eighty-six. Among the killed were Lieutenants William Noble (adjutant) and Charles R. Galpin, and Major Byington and Lieutenant Frank Zoellner mortally wounded. This charge is handed down in the history of the day as among the most brilliant of the war.
In 1864 the 2d returned with its corps to the army of the Potomac, and on the 5th of May crossed the Rapidan, and on the 6th, under Colonel Humphrey, participated in the battles of the Wilderness, losing six killed and thirty-two wounded. Among the latter was Captain John C. Joss, in command of Company G, who lost his right leg. On the 10th, 11th and 12th, it was in the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, where Captain James Farrand was killed. On the 3d of June it was at Bethesda Church, June 17 and 18 it was in the engagements before Petersburg, losing twenty-two killed, one hundred and forty-three wounded, and six missing. On the 30th of July, 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. March 25, 1865, the 2d suffered heavy loss at Fort Steadman, and on the 3d of April was en- gaged in the capture of Petersburg. The 2d was at the battle of Williams- burg, of which the New York Tribune thus spoke:
"The 2d 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 Berry's men (mostly Michigan) drove back, at the point of the bayonet, sixteen hundred rebels."
The loss was seventeen killed, thirty-eight wounded, and four missing. The total losses of the regiment during the service 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 was recruited largely from Constantine, and was commanded by Captain John A. Lawson.
THE FOURTH INFANTRY.
This regiment went to the field with great dispatch, in command of the lamented Colonel Woodbury, who recruited and raised it at Adrian. Cap- tain A. R. Wood recruited a company (C) at Sturgis, and joined it.
The regiment was in the first Bull Run engagement, and retired from the field in good order, covering the retreat of the Union army from that dis- astrous affair. It went to the peninsula with Mcclellan, and was the first regiment to open fire on the enemy at New Bridge, May 24, 1862, the com- mencement of the seven days' battle, when five companies of the regiment crossed the Chickahominy a short distance above New Bridge, wading the stream under a heavy fire. The gallantry of the regiment was made at the time the subject of a dispatch to the War Department, from General McClellan, which mentioned the matter thus: "Three skirmishes to-day ; we drove the rebels from Mechanicsville, seven miles from New Bridge. The
4th Michigan about finished the Louisana Tigers,-fifty prisoners and fifty killed and wounded,"
The 4th gained imperishable honor in the Peninsular campaign, being in all of the engagements, and conspicuously and specially noticeable in the sanguinary conflict of Malvern Hill, in resisting the numerous and desperate charges of the rebels on its lines, the men fighting until all their cartridges were exhausted, then using those taken from the boxes of their fallen com- rades.
Colonel Woodbury fell on this field at the head of his regiment, and Cap- tains Du Puy and Rose were also killed. From June 26, to July 1, both inclusive, the loss of the regiment was fifty-three killed, one hundred and forty-four wounded and forty-nine missing.
The 4th at Shepherdstown Ford, September 21, forded the Potomac in face of a battery, killed and drove off the enemy, and captured the guns; and December 13 and 14 was at Fredericksburg, suffering severe loss. May 4, 1863, it participated in the battle of Chancellorsville, losing thirty in killed, wounded and missing. At Gettysburg its loss was most severe, twenty-six being killed, sixty-six wounded and seventy-nine missing. Among the former was its noble commander, Colonel H. H. Jeffords, who was killed by a bayonet-thrust while rescuing the colors of his regiment from traitor- ous hands ; and among the wounded were Captain French of company C, of Sturgis, and Lieutenant Sage of White Pigeon.
In the battles of the Wilderness, the 4th was heavily engaged, and suf- fered severely ; losing another commander, Colonel Lombard, also Captain W. H. Loveland.
On July 8 and 9, 1864, it was engaged with the enemy at Laurel Hill, and on the 24th at Jericho Mills, and at Bethesda Church, August 3; on the 19th it was in the engagement before Petersburg.
General Meade at Chancellorsville directed General Griffin to send two regiments to hold an important point. The General reported to him that he had sent them. General Meade asked, "Can they hold it ?" Griffin re- plied, " They are Michigan men " ; Meade insisting on being assured, said emphatically, " Can they hold it ?" Griffin quickly and emphatically ans- wered, " General, they can hold it against hell !" They were the 4th and 16th Michigan.
Its total losses in the war were one hundred and sixty-eight men, and twelve officers killed, or died of wounds ; and one hundred and five men, and one officer died of disease.
THE SIXTH INFANTRY.
The 6th regiment of infantry, afterwards organized as heavy artillery, was the peculiar regiment of Michigan, by reason of its entire isolation, almost amounting to exile, from the rest of the Michigan troops during the whole term of its faithful service.
It left the State in August, 1861, commanded by Colonel F. W. Curtenius, under whose direction it was raised and organized, to join the army in the field ; but was detained at Baltimore, where it remained on duty most of the following winter ; thence sailed to Ship Island, Mississippi, and in April, 1862, left that place for New Orleans, and was one of the first regiments to occupy that city on its surrender to General Butler. Serving during, its whole term of service in the extreme south, it lost more men by disease than any other regiment from the State.
The 6th was engaged at Sewell's Point, Virginia, March 5; at Port Jack- son, Louisiana, April 25; at Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 20; at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, May 27, and at Amity River, Mississippi, June 20. The battles of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson, prominent in the history of the rebellion, are among the most conspicuous in which the 6th was engaged.
At Baton Rouge, August 5, 1862, while that place was being heavily at. tacked by the rebel forces in very superior numbers under Breckenridge, the regiment, then in command of Captain Charles E. Clark, received and re- pulsed the principal attack made on that day by the troops led by General Clark of Mississippi, against the right wing of the Union forces. The at- tacking forces of the rebels were fully six thousand, while the Union forces. engaged were not over two thousand.
The importance of the repulse was acknowledged by General Butler, in a congratulatory order issued soon after the engagement, in which the regiment was highly complimented for its gallant and valuable services, conspicuous bravery and most determined fighting.
At Port Hudson, with General Banks, the 6th fought with the most de- termined coolness and desperate intrepidity, being, during the whole siege, in the most advanced position. In the assault of May 27, 1863, the regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Clark, led the division of General T. W. Sher- man, and lost more than one-third of the men it had engaged, including:
54
HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
Lieutenant Fred. T. Clark, who fell while gallantly leading Company D to the charge. Captain Montgomery also led a forlorn hope of two hundred volunteers from the regiment. An assault was made June 14, when the 6th, then commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bacon, advanced by three detach- ments. June 29, the regiment, commanded by Captain Cordon, again ad- vanced to the assault, when thirty-five of the regiment, composing a forlorn hope, assailed the enemy's works at the point known as the citadel. The party gained the ditch, but were overpowered and driven back with a loss of eight killed and nine wounded, among the former Sergeant M. O. Walker, who led the detachment. General Banks thanked the regiment for its gal- lant and meritorious conduct during the siege.
The 6th was at the reduction of Mobile, and did most gallant and efficient service as heavy artillerists, doing very fine execution with batteries 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 captured guns of the rebels, consisting of seven inch Brooks' rifled and one hundred pound Parrott's, on the rebel forts Huger and Tracy, and did excellent service on all the works within range. 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. Company C was raised in St. Joseph county ; Lester Fox, of Flowerfield, going out as corporal, and being mustered out as its first-lieutenant.
THE SEVENTH INFANTRY.
The 7th Michigan-the gallant forlorn-hope regiment at the battle of Fredericksburg-was recruited and organized under the direction of Colonel Ira R. Grosvenor, at Monroe. Leaving for the field September 5, 1861, first encountered the enemy at Ball's Bluff, Va., October 21st following, and gained credit even in that disastrous engagement. It passed through the peninsular campaign with Mcclellan, participating, in common, in its vic- tories and defeats, and served as rear guard of the army on the retreat to Harrison's Landing.
At the battle of Antietam, it lost more than half its force engaged, in- cluding Captain Allen H. Zacharias, who died of his wounds on January 1, following, and Lieutenant John P. Eberhard, Company K, of Colon, who was killed. " But one of the great feats of the war than which none will appear brighter in history, was reserved for the 7th at Fredericksburg, on December 11, 1862, when Burnside concluded to cross the Rappahannock and attack the rebels in that stronghold. The upper pontoon had been laid part of the way by the engineers during the night of the 10th. Daylight exposed them to the fire of the enemy's sharp-shooters, which drove them off. Volunteers were called for to cross the river and gain a position to protect the laying of the bridge. Immediately the 7th Michigan, under the gallant Baxter, rushed to the boats, crossed the stream in full view of both armies, under a most terrific fire from the enemy's sharp-shooters, losing heavily, but vigorously charging the rebels on the opposite bank, drove them from their rifle pits, taking a number of prisoners and holding the ground. Colonel Baxter having fallen severely wounded, recrossed the river while the regi- ment, with the 19th and 20th Massachusetts, which had crossed by the second trip of the boats, dashed up the hill into the city, driving the enemy from house to house, and from stronghold to stronghold, capturing nearly as many prisoners as the regiment numbered, and inflicting a severe loss in killed and wounded ; their own loss also being heavy, including Lieutenant Frank- lin Emery of the 7th. The river thus protected, the laying of the pontoons was speedily accomplished and a portion of the army was crossed.
"At Gettysburg the regiment arrived, after fatiguing marches, July 2d, and was immediately sent to the front on Cemetery hill, having fourteen officers and one hundred and fifty-one men. It occupied the same position until the close of the battle on the 3d, losing twenty-one killed and forty-four wound- ed. Among the killed were Lieutenant-Colonel Amos E. Steele, command- ing the regiment.
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