USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > Past and present of Shiawassee County, Michigan, historically; with biographical sketches > Part 8
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
52
PAST AND PRESENT OF
The First Michigan Regiment was rendez- voused at Detroit and on the 25th of December left for the seat of war, going by way of Cin- cinnati and New Orleans, and arriving at Vera Cruz about the middle of January, 1847. It remained encamped outside the walls of Vera Cruz about three weeks, at the end of which time it moved with other forces to the city of Cordova, in the interior. Colonel Stockton was made military governor of the city, and remained there in that capacity until the close of the war. While there the First Michigan was engaged in garrison duty and occasional skirmishes with guerrillas, while acting as guard to supply trains, but did not participate in any general engagement, though it suffered severely from sickness among the men. The regiment was ordered home in May, 1848, and in due time reached Detroit, where it was mus- tered out of the service, July 18th in that year.
The Mexican war, however, was but a triv- ial matter when compared with that mighty struggle-the war of the Rebellion -- which opened about fifteen years later, and it is with the commencement of that great conflict that the real military history of the county begins. When on the 13th of April, 1861, the tremen- dous news ran through the wires of the tele- graph that a United States fort had struck its colors to a band of armed insurgents, and when, two days later, President Lincoln called on the states to furnish a great army of volun- teers to preserve the life of the republic, there was no state that responded with more alac- rity than Michigan, and there was no county in the "State of the Peninsulas" in which the fires of patriotism flamed up more promptly or burned more brightly than in Shiawassee.
Five days after the issuance of the Presi-
dent's call, and just one week after the day when the rebel flag supplanted the stripes and stars above the brown ramparts of Sumter, an impromptu mass meeting, the largest which had ever convened in Shiawassee county, was held in Owosso, to take measures for sustain- ing the government in its time of peril. The Hon. Amos Gould was called to the chair, and Judge Josiah Turner, B. O. Williams, and T. D. Dewey were made vice-presidents of the meeting. Resolutions were presented and adopted by the meeting without a dissenting voice, calling upon every man to ignore and bury all party differences and prejudices, and to devote life, fortune, and sacred honor to the preservation of the Union.
This meeting at Owosso was supplemented by others in many of the townships, and at all of these the same patriotic spirit was mani- fested. Enlistments commenced immediately. Men left the farm, the store, and the work- shop to volunteer in their country's service. Many of these, unwilling to wait for the or- ganization of a company in their own county, went to other places to enlist, and before the 1st of May a few men had left for Detroit, Lansing and Grand Rapids, to place their names on the rolls of companies organizing there. By that time, however, recruiting had commenced in Shiawassee, and on the 4th of May the newspapers announced that a com- pany recruited at Corunna and Owosso was already full and had been accepted by the mil- itary authorities of the state. From that time, during four years of war, the county of Shia- wassee responded well and promptly to the numerous calls for volunteers. The history of the several regiments in which men from this county served in considerable numbers is briefly traced in the succeeding pages.
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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
SECOND MICHIGAN INFANTRY
When, at the fall of Fort Sumter, the President called on the loyal states for an army of seventy-five thousand men to sustain the power of the government against a re- bellion which had unexpectedly proved for- midable, Governor Blair of Michigan re- sponded by issuing his proclamation calling for twenty companies, with field and staff of- ficers, to compose two regiments of infantry. The war department had placed the quota of Michigan at one full regiment, but the Gov- ernor very wisely concluded that a second reg- iment should be made ready for service if it should be needed, as he believed it would be.
Four days after the Governor's call, the state's quota was filled and her first regiment ready for muster into the service of the United States, fully equipped with arms, ammuni- tion, and clothing, awaiting only the orders of the war department. On the 13th of May, it left Detroit for Washington, being the first regiment to arrive at the capital from any point west of the Alleghany mountains.
The Governor's call for twenty companies had been promptly responded to, and after making up the First Regiment there still re- mained ten companies which, having failed to secure places in the First, were ready and anxious to be organized as the Second Regi- ment of Michigan. Men from Shiawassee were in four of the companies, composing this regiment. On the 25th of May the Second was mustered into the United States service for three years by Lieutenant Colonel E. Backus, United States of America. The field officers of the regiment were Israel B. Rich- ardson, colonel; Henry L. Chipman, lieuten- ant-colonel; Adolphus W. Williams, major.
On Thursday, June 6th, the Second Regi-
ment, one thousand twenty strong, left Detroit on three steamers, arriving at Cleveland the following morning. From there it proceeded by railway to Washington, reaching the cap- ital on the 10th. The regiment made a stay of several weeks in the District of Columbia, but later moved into Virginia and was engaged in the fight at Blackburn's Ford, July 18th, and in the battle of Bull Run, Sunday, July 21st. The regiment remained in Virginia the re- mainder of that year, going into winter quar- ters at "Camp Michigan" three miles from Alexandria. In March, 1862, it moved with its brigade and the Army of the Potomac to Fortress Monroe, and thence up the peninsula, to Yorktown and Williamsburg, at which lat- ter place it took active part in the severe en- gagement of Monday, May 5th, sustaining a loss of fifty-five killed and wounded.
The next engagements in which the Second fought were the battle of Fair Oaks, May 31, and June 1, 1862, where its loss was fifty- seven killed and wounded; Glendale, June 30th, and Malvern Hill, July 1st. August 15th it was sent with other troops to the assistance of the imperiled army of General Pope in the valley of the Rappahannock. Remaining in that vicinity until March, 1863, the regiment then moved with the Ninth Army Corps, of which it was a part, to Baltimore and thence to Louisville, Kentucky. The corps remained in Kentucky until June, when it was moved to Mississippi to reinforce the army of General Grant, near Vicksburg. After the surrender of Vicksburg, on the 4th of July, the Second took part in several engagements, remaining in Mississippi until August 5th, when the Ninth Corps started on its return to Kentucky. Arriving August 30th, it spent twelve days in camp and then again took the road for Cum-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF
berland Gap and Knoxville, Tennessee. From that time the regiment was moving from one point to another until November 8th, when it began the building of winter quarters at Le- noir, Tennessee. The strength of the regi- ment was then reported at five hundred and three, present and absent.
However, it was learned that the enemy, under General Longstreet, was moving up the valley of the Tennesee in heavy force, and the First Division of the Ninth Corps, of which the Second Michigan was a part, was ordered out to meet him, on November 14th. During the three days following, the regiment was occupied with a number of stubbornly fought encounters and with heavy marches through mud and rain. Then it took a position on a hill below Knoxville, at Fort Saunders, where it remained during the siege which followed. In the eighteen days of the siege, the Second lost nearly one-half its men who were actively engaged.
During the year 1863 the regiment moved a distance of more than two thousand five hun- dred miles. In February of 1864 it was moved by slow degrees to Detroit, where the veteran furlough was given to those who had re-en- listed. Mount Clemens being the place of ren- dezvous. In April it rejoined the Ninth Corps at Annapolis, and during the rest of that year took part in much of the serious fighting in Virginia, including the battle of the Wilder- ness, and remained in that vicinity until the end of the war and for some time afterward. The regiment was mustered out, at Washing- ton, July 28, 1865. It reached Detroit August 1st, and was soon after paid and disbanded, after four years and a quarter of honorable service.
Soldiers of the Second Infantry from Shia-
wassee county : Company C,-Andrew Allen ; Company E,-Orren C. Chapman, Frank Col- lins, Sanford Haddenn, George W. Keyes, James D. Mills ; Company F, -- Dennis Bir- mingham ; Company K,-Charles C. Loynes.
THIRD MICHIGAN INFANTRY
The Third Michigan Infantry was recruited in May, 1861, and had its rendezvous and camp of instruction at Grand Rapids. Most of the Shiawassee men in the Third were originally members of the "Ingersoll Rifles." The regiment was mustered in June 10, 1861, under Colonel D. McConnell. It arrived at Washington on the 16th and was soon after assigned to the brigade commanded by Colonel Richardson, of the Second Michigan. Its movements were closely connected with those of the latter regiment up to the battle of Mal- vern Hill, July 1, 1862. In December of that year the Third fought at Fredericksburg. At Chancellorsville, on May 1, 2 and 3, 1863, it sustained a loss of sixty-three men, killed, wounded and missing.
At Gettysburg, July 2 and 3, 1863, the Third fought bravely, with a loss of forty-one men. In August the regiment was sent to New York city to aid in preserving the pub- lic peace. It proceeded thence up the Hudson to Troy, where it was stationed two weeks, returning to its brigade, in the Army of the Potomac, in September. Before the end of the year it took part in several engagements. with serious loss. May 4, 1864, the regiment was at Chancellorsville, and during the three following days was in the midst of the terri- ble battle of the Wilderness, sustaining heavy loss.
At Cold Harbor, on the 9th of June, 1864, the regiment, with the exception of one hun-
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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
dred and eighty members who had re-enlisted as veterans, the previous December, and cer- tain designated officers, was ordered home for the purpose of being discharged. The re- maining three hundred and fifty officers and men were formed into a battalion of four com- paines and attached to the Fifth Michigan Infantry. The order consolidating these regi-, ments was confirmed by the war department June 13th, and June 20th, 1864, the old Third, which had been one of the first to take the field in defense of the government, was for- mally mustered out of the United States serv- ice.
The Third Infantry was reorganized and mustered in some time in October, 1864, but the Shiawassee men known to have served in the regiment were all enlisted in the earlier organization .-
Shiawassee county soldiers in the Third In- fantry : Company B,-John N. Foster, Rich- ard Herrington, Aaron Herrington, Reuben Hopkins, Theron Janes, Mortimer Markham, Lyman McCarthy, Ezra Ransom; Company C,-William Choates, Christian Foster, Henry Renbelman, Abijah Southard, Casper Thener ; Company D,-Willard Mckay ; Company F,- James Gunnegal ; Company G,-Charles T. Goodell, Eben D. Jackson, Patrick Kilboy, Francis Maguire, Lemuel Smith, Charles Shaft, John Shaft, James Trimmer, Arthur Walkins, Philo H, Wier.
FIFTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY
One of the companies of the Fifth Infantry was raised in Shiawassee and two others con- tained a number of men from the county. The Shiawassee company-originally known as the "Ingersoll Rifles"-was the first one raised in the county for actual service. By the last of
May, 1861, its ranks were filled to about twenty men more than the maximum number. This excess of men afterward joined the Third Infantry, at Grand Rapids. The commanding officer of the "Rifles" was Captain Louis B. Quackenbush, who had been principally instru- mental in recruiting the company. The other two original commissioned officers were First Lieutenant William Wakenshaw and Second Lieutenant William K. Tillotson.
On the 10th of August the "Ingersoll Rifles" left Owosso, one hundred and ten strong, and proceeded to the regimental rendezvous at Fort Wayne, Detroit, where it lost its recruit- ing name and was designated as Company H of the Fifth Michigan Infantry. The regiment was mustered into the United States service August 28, 1861, with a total strength of nine hundred officers and men, under command of Colonel Henry D. Terry. Reaching Washing- ton on the 15th of September, the Fifth was directly afterward assigned to Colonel Rich- ardson's brigade, to which the Second and the Third Michigan belonged. The brigade's win- ter quarters were at "Camp Michigan," near Alexandria, and there the Fifth remained un- til the general movement of the Army of the Potomac, in March.
Williamsburg was the first battle field of the Fifth Michigan, and a wild initiation it was. The regiment went in with about five hundred men and out of the force its loss was one hun- dred and fifty-three in killed and wounded. The Second, Third and Fifth, with the Thirty- Seventh New York formed Berry's brigade of General Phil. Kearney's division. The heroism of these regiments was attested by a special order of General Berry, the brigade com- mander, of which the concluding words were "They have done themselves great honor, have
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PAST AND PRESENT OF
honored the states of Michigan and New York, and have now a name in history that the most ambitious might be proud of."
On the 31st of May, 1862, the Fifth fought in the battle of Fair Oaks, and again suffered terribly, its loss in killed and wounded being one hundred and forty-nine out of about three hundred men who entered the fight. Among the killed at Fair Oaks was Captain Louis B. Quackenbush, commanding the Shiawassee company. The Prince de Joinville, an eye-wit- ness of this battle, said : "As at Williamsburg, Kearney comes to re-establish the fight. Berry's brigade of this division, composed of Michigan regiments and an Irish battalion, advances firm as a wall into the disordered mass which wanders over the battle field, and does more by its example than the most powerful rein- forcements."
During the "Seven Days" battles the Fifth fought bravely at Charles City Cross Roads, losing thirty-three killed and wounded and eighteen missing. It was also engaged at Mal- vern Hill, July 1st, with slight loss. Later it went with other troops to the succor of the sorely pressed Army of Virginia, under Gen- eral Pope. In this duty it was engaged at Manassas and at Chantilly, where the gallant Kearney fell, on the 2nd of September. The regiment took gallant part in the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, December 13th, in which it lost its commanding officer, Lieuten- ant Colonel Gilluly. On the 1st of January, 1863, it numbered less than seventy men fit for duty, but this number was soon after in- creased by recruitments and returns from hos- pitals.
In the spring campaign the Fifth moved up the Rappahannock. May 3rd it took part in the great battle of Chancellorsville, where it
again lost its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Sherlock, killed in action. It arrived on the field of Gettysburg the morning of July 2nd, after having been engaged for several days in terrible forced marches, through intol- erable heat and dust, and in the afternoon of that day lost one hundred and five men killed and wounded, and five missing in one hour's fighting. In August, the regiment was sent by steamer to New York to assist in quelling the draft riots and, with the Third Michigan, was ordered up the Hudson to Troy, where the two regiments spent two pleasant weeks in camp.
Returning to Washington, the Fifth rejoined the Third Corps, Army of the Potomac. In November it moved to the Rappahannock river - and remained in that vicinity, taking part in a number of engagements, until the 28th, when the requisite number of re-enlistments having been obtained, it left for Michigan on veteran furlough. In February, 1864, the regiment again proceeded to Washington and took posi- tion with its old command in the Army of the Potomac. It was thenceforth in the Third Di- vision of the Second Corps and under com- mand of the brilliant General Hancock. In May it took part in the campaign around the old battle ground of Chancellorsville, in which, on the 6th, Captain Wakenshaw was severely wounded, losing his right arm ; and also in the fight at Spottsylvania Court House, when it was highly complimented for gallant conduct by both General Hancock and General Meade.
The Fifth arrived in front of Petersburg June 15th and on the following day was en- gaged with the enemy, carrying the assaulted line of works. During all the memorable but monotonous siege of Petersburg, from the time when the regiment reached the front of that
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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
stronghold until the close of the great drama of the Rebellion, the service of the Fifth Mich- igan embraced a series of movements, changes of position, life in the trenches, marchings, skirmishes, and battles, which it would be too tedious to follow or enumerate. From October, 1864, to the middle of January, 1865, the Fifth occupied Fort Davis, in the front line of works at Petersburg. In the final assault on Peters- burg the Fifth took part, and is said to have been the first to plant its colors on the captured works, and at last, on the 9th of April, it was present in the front, in line of battle, at the surrender of the Confederate army by General Lee.
The regiment took its place in the great re- view of the Army of the Potomac, at Wash- ington, May 23d, and remained in the vicinity of the city until June 10th, when it left for the west. Moving to Jeffersonville, Ohio, it re- mained there until July 14th, when it was mus- tered out of the service as a regiment. It ar- rived at Detroit on the 8th, and July 17th, 1865, the men of the "Fighting Fifth" received their pay and discharge.
Officers and men of the Fifth Infantry from Shiawassee county : Field and staff,-First Lieutenant and Quartermaster, William H. Al- len, Byron; Non-commissioned staff,-Hos- pital Steward, William H. Allen, Byron ; Com- missary Sergeant, George A. Winans, Middle- burg. Company A,-Samuel M. Atkins, Ed- ward Burgoyne, David Hines, John Little, Isaac Lovejoy ; Company B,-Abraham Van- dermark; Company C, -- John W. Cook; Com- pany D,-Captain James O. Gunsolly, Second Lieutenant William H. Allen, Edgar Calkins, Anthony Clees, Charles Condon, John Hol- comb, Hiram Johnson, David Johnson, Patrick Keveny, William Kinters, Sylvester Nearing,
Asahel Rust, James M. Shippey ; Company F, -- Joseph H. Bennett, Andrew Bliss, Ashley B. Clark, Robert Campbell, Thomas Elgin, Daniel Hurley, Bradford F. Smith, William R. Whit- ney ; Company G,-Otis B. Fuller ; Company H,-Captain Louis B. Quackenbush (Owos- so), Captain William Wakenshaw (Owosso), First Lieutenant William K. Tillotson (Owosso), First Lieutenant James O. Gun- solly (Owosso), First Lieutenant George A. Winans (Middlebury), First Lieutenant David B. Wyker (Owosso), Second Lieu- tenant John Shontz (Byron), Sergeant Hiram L. Chapman, Sergeant Morton Greg- ory, Sergeant Lucien A. Chase, Ser- geant Washington Howard, Corporal Wil- liam Bowles, Corporal Orpheus B. Church, Corporal Alpha A. Carr, Corporal Charles Ormsby, Wagner Jerome Trim, John C. Adams, Chauncey W. Anible, William H. Barst, John Beebe, Augustus Breekell, Frank- lin S. Church, Charles H. Collier, Jeremiah Cassidy, William Cummings, Levi Clark, Eg- bert Campbell, Alfred B. Crane, Charles Cole- man, Marcius S. Cranford, Thomas M. Clay. John W. Close, Benjamin C. Cook, John Q. A. Cook, James Carmody, Isaac Felter, Amos Finch, Clark Fineout, Dwight D. Gibbs, William H. Harrington, Melvin Houtelin, Martin N. Halstead, Myron E. Halstead, Allen Herrington, William H, Herrington, Michael Helms, William F. Her- ring, Christopher Haynes, William A. Hall. Oscar F. Halstead, Henry Herrick, George W. Harris, Stephen M. Hammond, Benjamin Hoag, Richard Haley, Ebenezer M. Isham, Joel M. Jackson, Jefferson Kinney, Henry A. Keyes, John K. Kelly, John D. Keyes, John V. Lindsay, Isaac Lovejoy, Thomas Law- rence, Edgar M. Leonard, Daniel Martin-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF
dale, Orlando Matson, William F. Mc- Divit, Lyman McCarthy, Peter McLean, Alexander McDivit, Edward McNeal, Thomas Murlin. Amos Moore, Jacob Manshaw, Mer- riam Morehouse, Milton Matoon, William Murlin, William Munshawee, Herman T. Newman, Theodore Odell, Andrew J. Pat- terson, John M. Ross, James N. Peck, Wil- liam H. H. Shulters, Charles C. Scott, Abram K. Sweet, George A. Shelley, Samuel A. Sutherland, Oren S. Skinner, James Shulters, William Taylor, Howard Worthington, John Weis, Marcus Wakeman, Patrick Waters.
EIGHTH MICHIGAN INFANTRY
The Eighth Michigan Infantry was organ- ized in the summer and fall of 1861, by Colonel William M. Fenton, who became its com- mander and led it bravely on many bloody fields. It was called the "Wandering Regi- ment of Michigan," and during its existence moved more than seven thousand miles by land and sea. It was engaged in thirty-seven bat- tles and skirmishes, in seven states of the Union. More than nineteen hundred men marched in it ranks. One company of this regiment was distinctly a Shiawassee company, and volunteers from the company were in the ranks of five of its other companies.
The Shiawassee company was recruited in August, 1861, under Captain J. L. Quacken- bush, of Owosso, and First Lieutenant Albert Bainbridge, of Byron. The Eighth arrived at Washington September 30th. In October it moved to Annapolis and was ordered on board a steamer which accompanied Admiral Du- pont's fleet to South Carolina, arriving off Hil- ton Head, November 4, 1861. After the en- gagement in which the fleet reduced the two forts guarding the channel to Port Royal har-
bor, the regiment landed and occupied Fort Walker. Moving soon afterward to Beaufort, it remained in that neighborhood during most of the following winter, taking part in occas- ional engagements. During May, 1862, the Eighth was detailed for picket duty on Port Royal island and early in June was moved to James island where it took part in the battle fought on the 16th of June. In that battle the Eighth Michigan had a more prominent part and suffered more severely than any other regiment, and its losses were more terrible than it sustained on any other field during its long and honorable career.
General Stevens' command evacuated James island on the 5th of July, the Eighth Regiment being the last to leave, as it had been the first in the advance. July 13th it embarked with other regiments for Fortress Monroe. In Au- gust it moved to the Rappahanock river, tak- ing part in the campaign of General Pope. Soon after it moved with the Ninth Army Corps, to which it had been attached, into Maryland, fighting at South Mountain, Sep- tember 14th, and again on the 17th, in the great battle of Antietam, in which its loss was severe.
The following winter the Eighth was sta- tioned at various points in Virginia. On the 20th of March, being again under marching orders, it embarked at Newport News, on the steamer "Georgia," preparatory to the long series of movements and marches in the south- west which gave it the name of the "wander- ing regiment." Going to Baltimore, it pro- ceeded thence by railroad to Parkersburg, West Virginia, and again by steamer to Louis- ville, Kentucky. There it joined the First Brigade, First Division, Ninth Army Corps, which was then a part of the Army of the
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SHIAWASSEE COUNTY
Ohio. This corps had for its immediate mis- sion in Kentucky the holding in check of the forces of the guerrilla chief, John Morgan, who at that time seemed to be omnipotent in all that region.
About the 1st of June the Ninth Corps, which had been scattered in detachments' at various points in Kentucky, was ordered to Mississippi to reinforce the army of General Grant, then operating against Vicksburg. The Eighth Regiment moved with the corps and remained near Vicksburg until the operations against that stronghold ended in its capitula- tion, July 4th. By the middle of August the regiment was again in Kentucky, and in Sep- tember moved by way of Cumberland Gap to Knoxville, Tennessee. Then, after some en- gagements and much marching and counter- marching, came the siege of Knoxville by Longstreet, which continued eighteen days, during all of which time the regiment occupied the front line of works. On Sunday, Novem- ber 29th, two veteran Georgia brigades, be- longing to McLaw's rebel division, made a furious assault on Fort Saunders and were re- pulsed and driven back with a loss of nearly eight hundred men, the Eighth Michigan be- ing one of the regiments which received and repelled the assault.
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