USA > Wisconsin > An illustrated history of Wisconsin from prehistoric to present periods : the story of the state interspersed with realistic and romantic events > Part 36
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
FACTS TO BE REMEMBERED.
Before narrating the organization and service of other forces that went to the front from Wisconsin, it is worth while to call attention to a few conditions existing at the time.
General Scott, who in 1861 was in command, was a firm believer in the infantry arm of the service for fighting the rebellion. He had no
318
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
use for cavalry or batteries, or heavy artillery, except in extremely exceptionally cases. Hence the first calls made by the president on the loyal states were for regiments of infantry. All through the loyal north were thousands of horses and expert horsemen. In squads and squadrons they poured in tender of military service. The states in turn reported such offers to the general government and asked permission to organize cavalry and battery companies. They were declined. When Scott retired, McClellan, who suc- ceeded him, took a different and correct view.
Again, it was the desire of Governor Randall, Wisconsin's first and splen- did war governor, that, as far as practicable, volunteers from each state should serve together. He called a meeting of the loyal governors to consider this and other questions in which all were mutually interested, with the hope of influencing the general government. The meeting was held, and favored the scheme, but the necessities were such that the secretary of war could not reasonably grant the request made. The result was that in place of the west massing to take care of southwestern enemies, the east of southeastern rebels, and Ohio and Indiana of the foe in their nearest and immediate front, the Minnesota volunteers were transported to Virginia, and New England soldiers to Cairo, Illinois. However desirable or undesirable it may have been to mix up the troops in this way may never be known for certainty, but the shake of a dice-box could not have made the intermixture more complete. Train-loads of western troops and material going east, met and passed train-loads of men and material from the east going west.
In response to public opinion and personal inclination, each state sent to the camps and battlefields sanitary and relief committees to attend the needs of the sick and wounded, who were scattered along thousands of miles of front, much of it not easy of access. Had the general government in its arrange- ments said to Wisconsin and the western states, " You look after the Missis- sippi valley ; " to Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, " Virginia is in your charge," emulation would have worked wonders, and the aggregate cost very nominal compared to what it was.
THE IRON BRIGADE.
Governor Randall's efforts met with only slight success. But the endeavor at least demonstrated the wisdom of his advice. Hon. Rufus King, of Mil- waukee, was authorized to organize into a brigade such regiments as might arrive in Washington from Wisconsin. Ultimately the 2d, 6th and 7th Wis- consin, with two other western regiments, subsequently served under the same brigade commander, and the record made is without a parallel in the annals of the war. It missed no important campaign, and participated actively and suc- cessfully in every historic battle in Virginia and Maryland. It was always
319
WISCONSIN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
ready for a fight, and fought it to the finish. Its history is that of the Army of the Potomac, from the autumn of 1861 to the final surrender at Appomattox in April, 1865.
On its battle-flags are inscribed, among others, such well-known bloody fields as Rappahannock Station, Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Moun- tain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Fitzhugh Crossing, Chancellorsville, Gettys- burg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Reams Station and Appomattox. In a letter to a Wisconsin comrade, Gen- eral George B. McClellan, among other things, thus speaks of the Iron Brigade.
"No one remembers your heroic deeds and soldierly bearing more clearly, and with greater pride, than does your old commander, who always numbers you as among the very best of the brave soldiers with whom he had the honor of associating."
It was never better commanded than when in charge of General Edward S. Bragg, who went out as captain in the Sixth Wisconsin, and by successive promotions for soldierly conduct and ability, reached the rank of brigadier- general.
GL. P. HARVEY.
E. SALOMON
ALEX.W.RANDALL
FORWARD
AUG.GAYLORD.
JAS.T. LEWIS
MANA CUFICHEROS MIL
CHAPTER XLII.
WISCONSIN'S INFANTRY REGIMENTS.
1861-1865.
Organization of the First, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Regiments .- Campaigns and Engagements.
THE FIRST WISCONSIN INFANTRY REGIMENT.
MUSTERED into service October 8th, 1861.
Mustered out of service October 2 Ist, 1864.
Campaigned in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia.
Engagements: Granny White Pike; Brainbridge Ferry ; Munfords- ville; Chaplin Hills; Stone's River; Chickamauga; Lookout Mountain ; Mission Ridge; Resaca; Dallas; Kenesaw Mountain; Peach Tree Creek ; Atlanta.
Original strength, 945. Total strength, 1,508. Death loss, 235. Killed and wounded, 386.
Being ordered to report to General W. T. Sherman, at Louisville, Ken- tucky, this regiment, after having returned from its brief but victorious four- months campaign in Virginia, moved from old " Camp Scott " in Milwaukee, October 28th, 1861, and found its brigade-commander, Gen. W. T. Sherman, the same officer who had lead the Second Wisconsin into battle at the First Bull Run, in July 1861. By way of Salt River, Elizabethtown and Bacon Creek, it went into camp at Munfordsville, Tennessee.
The middle of February, via Bowling Green, the regiment marched to- wards Nashville, and arrived March 2, 1862; a week later it met the enemy. Shortly afterwards, its colonel was assigned to command the brigade, which performed severe marching and fatigue duty, often having minor brushes with the confederates in the meantime. The battle of Chaplin Hills, or Perryville, was fought October 8th, 1862, where the regiment was for long hours in the severest of the two-days battle, in which it cost one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded. Three months later, December ,30th, Starkweather's brigade, at Murfreesboro, assailed the confederates, recapturing an immense supply and ammunition train which had been surrendered to the rebel General Wheeler's cavalry forces, and with the prisoners, trains and guns there taken, the First moved forward to take part in one of the most desperate and decisive engagements of the war-Stone's River-moving into line at mid- night, December 31st, and holding the position assigned, under constant fire of the enemy, January Ist, 2d, 3d and 4th.
321
322
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
After this prolonged battle, the regiment, while doing active duty com- mon to our soldiers while in the enemy's country, was not again in serious conflict with the rebels until the enemy, having secretly massed its most veteran troops from the east, south and west, assailed the union army, with fully two men on the confederate side to one on the union side, at Chica- mauga. The confederate general, Braxton Bragg, had in his command one hundred thousand men, most of whom had seen previous service, and nearly one half being paroled prisoners captured at Vicksburg and elsewhere, who had never been exchanged. To meet these tried and battle-scarred men, the union general had barely fifty thousand men in line, which included five of Wisconsin's decimated regiments, among them the First.
This vital contest opened during a dense fog on Saturday morning, Sep- tember 19, 1863, and continued until the night of the 20th, with a total loss on both sides of nearly thirty-five thousand men, substantially equally divided except that the enemy, as the assailing party, suffered a small percentage in excess of half. It was a fight to the finish, with charges and counter-charges, retreats and advances, giving and gaining ground, in which brave men on each side showed their metle, and others their lack of that element. While at Perry- ville, the regiment met a loss of fifty per cent. of its members ; here it equalled eighty per cent. before the overwhelming forces of the confederates who were successfully resisted and driven back. It was a battle against heavy odds, and the minority won. It was the staying quality of the north against the hot dash of the south, the dash that swept almost everything before it the first day of the fight, but which had exhausted itself before the second day's battle was over. Although not in conflict, the First, as a supporting regiment, is entitled to its share of the victory at Mission Ridge, won under the command of Gen- eral Joe Hooker, November 25th, 1863, sometimes called the "Battle Above the Clouds."
Then the First was hastened forward to relieve Burnside, who was entrapped at Knoxville, but the enemy having taken flight, the regiment hastened on towards Atlanta with Sherman, first engaging the enemy at Resaca, then at Dallas, afterwards at Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Jonesboro and Atlanta.
Its term of service having recently expired, it was shortly afterwards mustered out, excepting some veterans and recruits, who were transferred to the Twenty-first Wisconsin, and the regiment proper returned to Wisconsin during October, 1863, and closed its record as an organization.
THE SECOND WISCONSIN INFANTRY REGIMENT.
Mustered into service June 11, 1861.
Mustered out of service July 2, 1864.
Campaigned in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland.
323
WISCONSIN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Engagements : First Bull Run, Blackburn's Ford, Gainesville, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Laurel Hill, Hatcher's Run, Weldon Railroad, Petersburg.
Original strength, 1,051. Total strength, 1,266. Death loss, 261. Killed and wounded in action, 787.
This was the first three-year regiment to reach Washington. It had been organized and equipped (except arms) by the state before any call had been made on the governor for another regiment. When that call came, it was for three-years instead of three-months men. Excepting a single company, it re- enlisted for the longer term, and the place of the excused company was at once filled. On the 20th of June, 1861, it left the state, and just a month later to a day, as a part of Colonel Wm. T. Sherman's brigade, made a splen- did record during the unfortunate First Bull Run fight. Limited space pre- vents the details of the marvelously heroic service rendered by this regiment on this dreadful field. Mistaking orders and without officers to command, it was the first to meet and resist the onslaught of Jackson's fresh troops, those who had escaped from Patterson in the Shenandoah, the very men whom the First Wisconsin had only a few days before driven from their isolated position and captured their camps.
General Patterson's failure to destroy or follow Jackson's rebel force doubt- less lost the first battle of Bull Run to the federal cause. Had the Wisconsin's earliest regiment been permitted to assail the enemy on the rear when Jack- son's troops, as fresh troops fell upon the Second Wisconsin in its eighth hour of active and severe battle on the bloody crest of Bull Run, which had been captured and recaptured three times during the day, at frightful cost, and was in possession of the rebels when Jackson's rebel column who had escaped from Patterson's command drove them from the prize so often gained, a different result might have been witnessed.
Its heroism and fighting qualities are attested by its frightful losses in scores of battles, for, when mustered out of service, it numbered only one hun- dred and thirty-three all told. No other union regiment has a record like this. The commanding general of the corps, departing from the usual policy, issued a special order from which the following sentences are here selected :
"Three years ago you entered the service more than a thousand strong. You have never failed in any duty required of you. You have a right, and your state has a right, to be proud of the record you have made, in camp, in campaign and in battle. Those living honor the memory of the dead, and the memory of those dead honors the living."
The history of the " Iron Brigade," heretofore outlined, and the Sixth and Seventh regiments following, substantially give the record of the Second, after the first Bull Run fight, for they constituted a most material factor of that famous organization.
324
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
This regiment being so sorely reduced at the expiration of its three-years' service, made no attempt to veteranize the new recruits, whose enlisted term not having expired, were assigned to and served in the Sixth Wisconsin regi- ment, while the remnant, less than one hundred in number, of the battle- scarred Second, were mustered out of their never-to-be-forgotten heroic service, July 2, 1864, amidst the battles and scenes they had so bravely made historic.
THIRD WISCONSIN INFANTRY REGIMENT.
Mustered into service, 1861.
Mustered out of service, 1865.
Campaigned in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York City, Ala- bama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina.
Engagements: Bolivar, Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Strasburg, Antie- tam, Kelly's Ford, Chancellorsville, Beverly Ford, Gettysburg, Resaca, Dallas, Powder Springs Grove, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Savannah.
Original strength, 979. Total strength, 2,156. Death loss, 247. Killed and wounded in battle, 636.
Rendezvoused at Fond du Lac, and departed for the front from there, just as the First had done from Milwaukee, and the Second from Madison. Charles S. Hamilton, was its colonel, he having been graduated at West Point, and served as a company officer in the Mexican war. No one ever questioned his bravery, for he was in conflict with some one all the time. His associates suggested promomotion to cure the malady, and he was ultimately made a major-general. He resigned repeatedly, in fact, once too often. The attempt of his many friends to get him back into the service failed, the war progressing to a successful termination without his help. His son, who was not born when the war commenced, is a prominent practitioner before the courts, and a member of the military order of the Loyal Legion.
It was a most excellent regiment. Relieving the First Wisconsin at the expiration of its short term of service, at Harper's Ferry in August, 1861, and after dispersing the rebel legislature at Frederick, Maryland, it served with the army of the Shenendoah, having frequent engagements with the enemy, always doing its full duty, advancing and retreating up and down that beauti- ful valley of Virginia, as the fortunes of war favored, first one and then the other side. Its repeated losses were so severe, that at the close of the battle of Antietam, whither it had been rushed to help McClellan save Washington from Lee's invasion of Maryland, less than fifty men were able to do duty. This was September 17, 1862. Thereafter, the regiment was a part of the Army of the Potomac, and participated in all its campaigns and battles, in- cluding Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, until August 1, 1863, when it was sent to New York city to suppress the draft riots.
325
WISCONSIN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Soon after, the Twelfth corps to which it belonged, was by order assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and the regiment lost all connection with the eastern army. In Alabama and Tennessee it bore its share of the military operations until Christmas, when, having veteranized, the officers and men re- turned to the state on the prescribed thirty-days' furlough. By recruits and returns, the regiment numbered nearly six hundred men in February 1864, when it rejoined its brigade, then in Georgia, and began that famous "Sher- man's March to the Sea," which resulted in the surrender of the last rebel army of any proportions. Its heroism elsewhere was superb, and its losses dreadful. It was the only regiment on whose blood-stained banners could properly be inscribed some of those most important battles fought by those two widely separated-armies, the Potomac and the Cumberland.
THE FOURTH WISCONSIN INFANTRY AND CAVALRY REGIMENT.
Mustered into service, July 15th, 1861.
Mustered out of service, May 28, 1866.
Campaigned in Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Texas.
Engagements : Quarantine, New Orleans, Grand Gulf, Bayou Black, Baton Rouge, Bayou Teche, Brashier City, Port Hudson, Clinton, Liberty, Highland Stockade, Laredo.
Original strength, 1,047. Total strength, 2,305. Death loss, 350. Killed and wounded in battle, 211.
The reader should remember that Wisconsin, during the first two years of the war, prepared in advance for expected calls for troops. Within the re- quired time to fill a quota, its regiments in numerical order went forward during 1861, excepting the Ninth and Twelfth, which although organized and ready, did not get away until January, 1862. According to population and calls, this response is without precedent among the other states.
BOTH INFANTRY AND CAVALRY.
No regiment had a more varied experience than the Fourth. It was organized at Racine, each company from a different locality, and with a differ- ent name, the "Oconto River Drivers" being one of the ten. From a personal acquaintance with many of the survivors, the writer may truthfully say, it is difficult to describe any one of them. Its colonel, Paine (repeatedly under arrest for insubordination or disobedience of orders), subsequently became a brigadier-general, and afterwards served six years in congress, while an enlisted man (Geo. W. Carter), by successive promotions became a colonel, and served six years in the state prison, as superintendent and manager. These may be regarded as " samples."
1
326
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
While it is also true that the First, Second and Third cavalry regiments from the state, were organized (in a hap-hazard way) the next became the Fourth cavalry without any such action.
The regiment, as infantry, went from its camp at Racine direct to Balti- more, Maryland, and in that vicinity performed various guard duties, with occasional excursions against the enemy, until the 19th of February, 1862, when it embarked in crowded transports, and a month later, after great suffer- ing, during which many were buried at sea, took part in the capture of New Orleans, being the second regiment to land after the surrender of the city. It was actively engaged in various expeditions, against Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, Grand Gulf, Carrolton, and other places and camps held by the rebels, whom it often engaged and drove; the last important and severe engagement in which the regiment took part, as infantry, being on the 12th of April, 1863, at Bayou Teche, where the enemy, mostly cavalry, fell back under cover of darkness. It was a stern chase, with Wisconsin infantry following Texas horsemen, and the Fourth was ordered to skirmish the surrounding country and secure horses and such equipments as could be found. In three days it was mounted and again in pursuit. This exploit has no parallel in history. On the 7th of May, 1863, it entered Alexandria, as the enemy vanished from the other side of town. Conflicts and skirmishes continued for months, many prisoners and considera- ble property being captured.
June Ist, following, it was attached to General Grierson's cavalry com- mand, and thenceforward took part in that fearless rider's excursions and expe- ditions against bands of guerrillas, that so long infested the country. Subse- quently, during the same year, the state supplied the regiment with full cavalry equipments, and it is known on official records as the Fourth cavalry. As such it served in the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas, reaching as far south as the Mexico line. It was nearly always in the sad- dle and never met defeat.
Congress having enacted that no troops could be used to return escaped slaves to their former masters, Colonel Paine, on that ground, refused to obey the order of his superior officer by which every regiment was directed to expel from within its lines all colored refugees. The masters stood on the outside ready to re-enslave and convey back to bondage all who might be thus forced out. For this he was arrested, but the order was modified so as to permit him to take command of his men whenever an active campaign or battle was under way. The danger or emergency over, the order again deprived him of his command, and this sort of thing was permitted to go on for months. Mean- time, no slaves were driven from the protecting folds of the Fourth Wisconsin banners.
327
WISCONSIN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
THE FIFTH WISCONSIN INFANTRY REGIMENT.
Campaigned in Virginia, Maryland, New York City, Pennsylvania.
Engagements : Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Savage Station, Crampton Gap, Antietam, Marye's Heights, Bank's Ford, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Station, Locust Grove, Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Charleston, Cedar Creek, Hatcher's Run, Ft. Fisher, Appomattox.
Original strength, 1,058. Total strength, 2,285. Killed, 285. Wounded, 227.
This regiment went into its first camp at Madison, Wisconsin (Camp Randall), the latter part of June, 1861, and left for the front a month later, arriving at Washington the third day following its departure. Here, on the Virginia side of the Potomac, it remained performing the usual duties until the commencement of McClellan's operations in the spring of 1862, then, with that noted general, took an active part, being engaged in the campaign with the enemy as often as any other organization, and always with glory to its name. The unfortunate Peninsula campaign having been brought to an end, the Fifth left its camp near Washington, September 6th, 1862, and marched to the battle- field of Antietam, and did its full share in driving back Lee's army from its first invasion of northern soil.
At Marye's Heights, near Fredericksburg, on the 3d of May, 1863, the regiment performed prodigies of valor in that long and desperate struggle, which no historian can ever fully narrate.
A month later, Lee again invaded the north, and the Fifth was hurried forward to oppose the rebel general's advance on Washington. It was present at the famed battle of Gettysburg, where the rebellion received the most ser- ious blow dealt during the war, and from the effects of which it never recov- ered.
After serving in New York city in suppressing the so-called draft riots, until the latter part of October, 1863, the troops were returned to Virginia, and at Rappahannock Station, on the 7th of November, fought a hard battle, capturing many of the enemy with much field artillery.
The next serious engagement was at the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864, dur- ing which three day's battle the contending forces met with greater losses than in any other conflict of the Civil War.
From this time on, the Army of the Potomac fought as a unit and our Fifth was always with it at Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Ream's Station. On July 11th, 1864, by transports it moved to Washington for the protection of the capital, which was then menaced by a confederate column. After the danger was over, most of the men, whose term of service had pre- viously expired, returned to Wisconsin, where they re-organized, and, October
*
328
HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.
2d, 1864, again started for Virginia. After campaigning in the Shenandoah Valley, under Sheridan, they again joined the forces about Petersburg, taking part in the fight at Hatcher's Run, in February, 1865, and in the movements under General Sheridan, which culminated in the final surrender of all the con- federate forces. They moved to Washington and took part in the grand review. Here a portion of the regiment was sent home for muster out, while the balance accompanied the Sixth corps to Louisville, Kentucky, reaching Madison, Wisconsin, July 13th, and was discharged.
-
WALTER SANGER .- CHAMPION BICYCLE RIDER.
J. ALDRICH LIBBEY .- THE PEERLESS BARITONE.
Wisconsin's
Historical Magazine.
September, 1893.
CONTENTS.
GEORGE W. PECK, GOVERNOR OF WISCONSIN,
Frontispiece
WISCONSIN IN THE CIVIL WAR, CONTINUED,
-
-
- Col. C. K. Pier
ADMINISTRATIONS OF WISCONSIN GOVERNORS,
-
-
C. S. Matteson
Illustrated.
CHILDREN'S CORNER -- BOTH SIDES OF LIFE-A STORY, -
C. S. Matteson
MILWAUKEE. THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1893. FOND DU LAC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Entered at the Post-Office at Milwaukee, Wis., as Second-Class Matter.
GOVERNOR GEORGE W. PECK.
CHAPTER L.
Condensed History of the Celebrated Berdan Sharpshooters .- Organization and En- gagements of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Cavalry .- Milwaukee Cavalry .- The First Heavy Artillery Regiment.
COMPANY G, BERDAN SHARPSHOOTERS.
Mustered in, September, 1861. Mustered out, 22d of September, 1864. Campaigned in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Engagements : Great Bethel, Cockledown, Yorktown, Hanover Court House, Mechanicsville, Gaines Hill, Charles City Court House, Malvern Hills, Bull Run, Antietam, Blackburn Ford, Fredericksburg, Ely's Ford, Chancellors- ville, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, Auburn, Kelly's Ford, Locust Grove, Mine Run, Wilderness, Todds Tavern, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopoto- moy Creek, Cold Harbor, Jerusalem Plank Road, Charles City Road, Deep Run, Petersburg.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.