USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 27
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A suggestion was made "unofficially" by the chief medical officer of the pro- vost marshal general's bureau that the examining surgeon in all districts should mark by branding each man who took the examination. It was a barbarous re- quirement and Doctor Crane, a most humane and broad-minded man, refused to have it enforced, saying that never should human beings, with his connivance, be treated as cattle. The following are the letters received by Doctor Crane, who sent in his protest against the practice. The suggestion probably raised a storm of denial throughout the country, for the last communication contains a peremptory order to discontinue the branding if in use.
"Unofficial "War Department "Provost Marshal General's Office "Washington, D. C., August 15, 1864. "DR. H. O. CRANE, "Surgeon Board of Enrolment, "Green Bay, Wisconsin.
"DOCTOR: For the mutual protection of Boards of Enrolment against fraud practiced by substitutes and substitute brokers, I would suggest, that you here- after mark all substitutes or recruits who you may reject, in the small of the back, thus : + :
"This should be done without exciting the suspicions of the substitute or re- cruit so marked; and can be easily and harmlessly accomplished with a stick of nitrate of silver moistened.
"Any substitute or recruit thus marked appearing before you for examination carries upon his person the evidence of having been already rejected by some board of enrolment.
"This suggestion is made unofficially and confidentially and should you adopt it, I think it will save much trouble, which now exists."
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"August 19, 1864 "War Department "Provost Marshal General's Office
Washington, D. C., August 19, 1864.
"DR. H. O. CRANE,
"Surgeon Board of Enrolment, "Green Bay, Wisconsin.
"DOCTOR: In addition to my suggestion to mark all rejected recruits and substitutes I would suggest that all accepted recruits and substitutes be marked thus : 1, on the small of the back .-
"This will I think prevent to a great extent the practice of bounty jumping. "Your friend,
"Chief Med. Off. Pro. Mar. Genl. Bur."
"August 26, 1864
"To the Surgeon Board of Enrolment.
Green Bay, Wisconsin.
"DOCTOR: The provost marshal general directs that in case you have marked substitutes or recruits in any way, you will discontinue the practice at once.
"I am Doctor "Very respectfully "Your obedient servant
Perhaps there was no period in the history of old Fort Howard from its first occupation by the French and subsequently by the English and Americans of greater interest and activity than the last two and a half years of the great Civil war. In addition to the veteran reserve corps, volunteers, drafted men and de- serters were quartered in the fort, and were there subsisted, uniformed, equipped and sent to service. At times the quarters were filled to their full capacity.
On May 24, 1864, the provost marshal received notice that an Oconto com- pany sixty strong would arrive at three o'clock P. M. An impromptu reception was immediately arranged for by Captain Merrill, who circulated a notice in the forenoon that the troops would arrive during the day. "On reaching Green Bay the company was escorted to the garrison of Fort Howard, where the 'Ladies Soldiers Aid Society,' under the direction of Mrs. Henry S. Baird, had hastily prepared a bountiful dinner. After dinner the company were drawn up in line in front of the hall where the ladies sang, 'We'll Rally Round the Flag, Boys,' after which W. J. Abrams was introduced and made a welcoming speech and then read an eloquent address to the company written by Mrs. Morgan L. Martin."
The first draft under the national act was made in November, 1863, in the old courthouse at the corner of Adams and Doty streets in Green Bay. The excitement and anxiety were intense and the city was full of people from the different counties constituting the district. The court room was filled with a more anxious audience than it had ever contained before, and no judicial tri- bunal, whether represented by Irving or Stowe or Howe or Cotton, was ever regarded with a more profound and breathless attention than was the blind man
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
who stood silently and passively beside the draft wheel. At the appointed hour the marshal announced the commencement of the draft. The commissioner broke the seals of the envelopes containing the tickets of each sub-district and deposited them in the draft wheel from which the blind man drew, at every turn of the wheel, a name until the quota of the subdistrict was filled. A week was required to complete the draft. The number drawn under the call was 2,840. Under the president's call of July 18, 1864, another draft was ordered and 4,816 enrolled in the Fifth district, which included the counties of Brown, Oconto, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc, Outagamie, Winnebago, Calumet, Waushara, Waupaca, Green Lake and Shawano.
The official notice read :
Head-Quarters Provost Marshal, 5th Dist., Wis.
Green Bay, Sept. 17th, 1864.
The draft will commence in this district, at these headquarters, on Tuesday, the 27th day of September, 1864. at 10 o'clock. A. M. of that day. commencing with the county of Manitowoc.
in accordance with a letter of instruction from the provost marshal general of the state. dated August 30, 1864, volunteers will be credited on the quotas of the present call up to the last practicable moment before the drafted men are accepted and forwarded to the rendezvous. A statement of the quotas and credits of each sub-district has been forwarded to each county.
C. R. MERRILL,
Capt. and Prov. Marshal, 5th Dist., Wis.
On November 7, 1864, Captain Merrill received the following note from the mayor's office in Green Bay: "Sir :- In consequence of the belligerent state of our country I feel it my duty as guardian of the city of Green Bay to call upon you for the veteran corps under your command. in putting down any riotous conduct on the day of election. Tuesday 8th, inst .. should there be occasion to resort to arms.
I am unwilling to think that there will be any cause or sufficient cause to call upon the military department for assistance, but caution is considered generally the better part of valor.
Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, N. GOODELL, Mayor.
Once again in February. 1865. the following order was issued by Captain C. R. Merrill :
Green Bay, Wisconsin, Feb. 25, 1865.
Headquarters Provost Marshal's Office,
5th District Wisconsin.
The following order was this day received from A. A. Prov. Mar. Gen. Lovell, and is published for the information of all concerned.
CURTIS R. MERRILL, Provost Marshal,
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
Madison, Wisconsin, February 25, 1865.
Captain C. R. Merrill,
Provost Marshal, 5th District, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Captain: The provost marshal general directs that the draft be commenced on Monday, the 27th inst., in such sub-districts as are making no effort to fill their quotas.
I am Captain, Very respectfully your obedient servant, CHARLES S. LOVELL, Lt. Col. 18th Inf'y A. A. Prov. Mar. Gen. Wis.
In pursuance of the above order the draft in this district under the call of the president, dated December 19, 1864, for 300,000 inen, will commence at these headquarters on Wednesday, March Ist, at two o'clock P. M.
C. R. MERRILL,
Capt. and Prov. Mar. 5th Dist. Wis.
The announcement of a draft no longer caused disturbance or wild excite- ment. The foreign colonists were by 1864 as deeply interested in the preserva- tion of the Union as were the native born Americans. The German, Irish and Scandinavian population of Brown county had from the first been ready in of- fering aid and the Oneida Indians, always a warlike people, organized a company of sharpshooters under command of Cornelius Doxtater.
The news of the assassination of President Lincoln was first received at the provost marshal's office by the following telegram :
War Department Provost Marshal General's Bureau Washington, D. C .. April 15, 1865.
Captain C. R. Merrill,
Provost Marshal, Green Bay, Wisconsin.
It is believed that the assassins of the president and Secretary Seward are attempting to escape to Canada. You will make a careful and thorough examina- tion of all persons attempting to escape from the United States into Canada and will arrest all suspicious persons. The most vigilant scrutiny on your part and the force at your disposal is demanded. A description of the parties supposed to be implicated in the murder will be telegraphed you today, but in the meantime be active in preventing the crossing of any suspicious persons.
By order of the Secretary of War
(Signed ) N. L. JEFFERIES,
Brevet Brigadier General and Acting Provost Marshal General.
That same day, April 15, 1865, a description of Wilkes Booth was received from Washington.
"The following is a description of the assassin of President Lincoln, Hon. W. H. Seward, secretary of state, and Hon. Frederick W. Seward, assistant secretary. You will use every exertion in your power and call to your aid the entire force under your control to secure the arrest of the assassin. Height, 6 1-12 feet, hair black, thick, full and straight, no beard nor appearance of a beard, cheeks red on the jaws, face moderately full. 22 or 23 years of age. Eyes, color Vol. 1-14
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IIISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
not known; large eyes not prominent. Brows not heavy but dark. Face not large but rather round. Complexion healthy. Nose straight and well formed, medium sized. Mouth small, lips thin, upper lip protruding when he talks. Chin, pointed and prominent. Head of medium size and neck thick and of medium length. Hands, soft, small and fingers tapering ; show no signs of hard labor. Broad shoulders, taper waist, straight figure, strong-looking man. Manner not gentlemanly but vulgar. Overcoat double breasted, color mixed of pink and gray, spots small. Was a sack overcoat, pockets in side and one in the breast, with lapels or flaps. Pants, black cotton stuff. New heavy boots. Voice small and thin inclined to tenor.
N. L. JEFFERIES, Byt. Brig. Gen. and Acting Prov. Mar.
Four days later at Green Bay, appeared the following notice :
Order of the day for the FUNERAL OBSEQUIES of PRESIDENT LINCOLN Wednesday, April 19, 1865
The procession to form at 2 o'clock p. m. in front of the Beaumont House, on Main Street in the following order : MARSHAL, COL. BUGH Ist Assistant Marshal, C. E. Crane 2d Assistant Marshal, Anton Klaus 3d Assistant Marshal. M. J. Meade 4th Assistant Marshal, C. J. Bender Veteran Soldiers Clergy PALL BEARERS
Hon. T. O. Howe
=
Dr. H. O. Crane
Capt. C. R. Merrill
A. Guesnier
Joseph Taylor
D. M. Whitney
Hon. F. S. Ellis
R Hon. W. J. Abrams
J. P. Dousman S C. D. Robinson
E
Band Committee of Arrangements National Flag. Draped in Mourning Mayor and City Council Masonic Lodge Independent Order of Odd-Fellows Good Templars FIRE DEPARTMENT Turners German Benevolent Society Citizens on Foot Carriages
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
The line of march was then given, and all public places of business, it was re- quested, should remain closed from 10 o'clock a. m. to 4 o'clock p. m. on that day and draped with mourning and that the flags in the city and on the shipping be at half mast and similarly draped. Bells were to be tolled during the time of the procession and citizens generally were requested to wear a badge of mourning "on left lappell of coat, a rosette of black crape, with red, white and blue ribbon for the space of thirty days."
Shortly after war was declared soldiers aid societies were formed in the towns of De Pere, Green Bay and Fort Howard. The work done at these meet- ings was of all sorts ; but first and foremost lint was scraped and for this purpose old table cloths, rags, and even linen brought from former homes in the old country were used. One method of preparing the lint was to lay a plate bottom upward on a table or on the lap of the operator and to place a piece of linen on it ; this was vigorously scraped with a case-knife until it was transformed into a fluffy mass of fibre. Thousands of bandages were likewise sewed and rolled up ready for use, for absorbent cotton was unknown, and after each battle bales of lint and bandages must be ready for the surgeon's hand.
Among the articles made at the aid societies were quilts and blankets, many of which had some cheering message or the name of the maker sewed in them. One of these patriotic quilts from the Ladies Aid Society of Green Bay, which was organized at the outset of the war with Mrs. Henry S. Baird as president, was discovered in 1884, in the cabin of a negro family near the battle -. field of Bentonville, North Carolina. Only a few blocks were left. In the center of each square of colored calico was a white cross running diagonally and on this was written the name of the maker of the block and an inscription. Mrs. George G. Ginty's (at that time Miss Flora Beall) bore the following verse :
"If rebels attack you, do run with this quilt. And safe to some fortress convey it ; For o'er the gaunt body of some old secesh We did not intend to display it ; 'Twas made for brave boys who went from the west, And swiftly the fair fingers flew, While each stitch as it went to its place in the quilt.
Was a smothered 'God bless you, boys,' too."
Another patch proclaimed the following lively sentiment but with nothing to identify the contributor :
"For the gay and happy soldier, We're contented as a dove ; But the man who will not enlist Never can obtain our love."
The only names of the donors decipherable beside that of Mrs. Ginty, were Mrs. J. V. Suydan, Mrs. Mary C. Mitchell, Miss Mollie Chapman, Mrs. Joshua Whitney and Mrs. Clara F. Shepard.
Mrs. Eliza C. Porter, wife of Rev. Jeremiah Porter was induced to assume the office of manager at the headquarters in Chicago of the Northwestern Sani- tary Commission.
"Lovely, gentle and refined yet courageous, heroic and devoted, she here commenced a series of self-denying labors for the army that finally took her to
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
'the front.' where she faced privation, sickness and death; and neither paused nor rested from her work, so long as the war lasted."
The Reverend Mr. Porter had for many years been pastor over the Presby- terian church in Green Bay, where both he and his wife had endeared themselves to the people of Brown county. Mrs. Cotton, wife of Captain John Cotton, also went to the front as a nurse in 1862 and did excellent service.
The women of De Pere were even more active than their Green Bay sisters in packing and forwarding boxes of useful clothing and appetizing comforts for the sick and wounded. The names of officers of the Aid Society in De Pere were: Mrs. G. F. Marston, president ; Mrs. Reuben Wheeler, vice president ; Miss Lucy Wheeler ( now Mrs. M. Burnett ), secretary. Between the years of 1861 and 1865 the Milwaukee branch of the United States sanitary commission received about fifty boxes each from Green Bay and other Wisconsin towns. It received during 1864, 2,142 boxes, containing such articles as shirts, sheets, pillows, blankets, wearing apparel of all kinds, canned and dried fruits, wine, eggs, butter, cheese and groceries. The quantity of onions sent from Brown county was phenomenal and pickled onions were packed and sent in glass jars by the thousand. Brown county has always been a great onion growing dis- trict and the vegetable was used freely during the war as a preventive of scurvy among the soldiers. The grand total of pickled onions sent from Wisconsin during the war amounted to over $19,000.
All this generous giving to the soldiers meant added economy at home for most of the work on the farms throughout Brown county was during war times clone by the women who stayed at home. The newspapers congratulate the public on the large yield of maple sugar during 1862, which will enable the people to do without the southern grown sugar cane. All kinds of grain was used in place of coffee, and stringent closeness in the purchase of clothing was the order of the day. The Bay City Press notes that the young ladies are learning to make their own shoes, and the necessity for foot wear really forced this trade upon the needy women.
From the adjutant general's report of 1866 we find that the number of inhabitants of Brown county at that period was altogether 15,282 and that the "amount of money actually paid by the several towns for war purposes during the rebellion was $68,965.99," a fine and patriotic showing for a district of coun- try not wealthy nor well cultivated and which had been impoverished by finan- cial reverses.
In the grounds surrounding the city hall stands a small brass cannon which was brought from the south after the Civil war. Cast in 1861. it illustrates the artillery used in the great rebellion, and is a reminder of those days of stress and patriotic activity in Brown county.
BROWN COUNTY DURING THE WAR OF THE REBELLION By an Old Soldier
"AAny well constructed and truthful story of Brown county during a period of say the ten years, dating from 1857 to 1867. will seem so strange to the present residents of the county, that they might well be excused for calling it a pipe dream, and refusing to give it any credence whatever.
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1. .. . VDAZONA
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"To begin with the county was almost a primeval forest. Three small towns Green Bay,-the largest-Fort Howard and De Pere were each sitting on the Fox river and each was only a little gap in the forest. Until 1860 the railroad ended at Fond du Lac and mails were carried in stages in winter and boats in summer. We had a steamer running between here and Buffalo, making a round trip every two weeks.
"Nearly the whole business of the county was making lumber and shingles, the latter being split and shaved by hand. There was no bridge across Fox river, and only one poor floating concern across East river. Loose bands of Indians were encamped all around. The waters swarmed with the finest fish, the woods were alive with the finest of game, the marshes raised annually thou- sands of bushels of wild rice. In short it was an Indian paradise.
"In the latter half of the fifties the county began to settle up rapidly. Irish came in large numbers into the south part of the county. Belgians came in big bunches into the north part. Scandinavians into the southwest. Germans, Hol- landers and Flemish settled in and near to the towns. In 1857 there came a most distressing panic, which hit the county very hard; nearly all the business men were ruined and the condition of the farmers and laborers was something hard to be believed at the present time. Fifty cents a day was considered first class pay for several years. Men in the sawmills from the engineer down to the slab carrier all got fifty cents a day. The carpenters and brick layers that built the Beaumont hotel got fifty cents a day. A Mr. Davis who was the architect and superintendent got seventy-five cents, and they all had to take their pay in store trade too. I heard Mr. Pelton who ran the store and paid the men say that he paid out less than a hundred dollars in money for labor on the building.
"Business had improved a little but not much when the war broke out. In the beginning the optimistic said it would be over in three months and that there would be little or no real fighting. Each county was called on for its quota of men and Brown county sent hers almost over night. I have always thought that the depression in business and the condition of labor helped to send the men out on those first calls. While the soldier's pay looks small to us now, at that time it was really better than many of the men could do at home.
"At the end of the three months it became plain that the country was in for a desperate struggle and people began to feel and look very serious. Now right here it must be understood that Brown county was nearly solid democratic, but it soon developed that there were two kinds of democrats and that one kind was very different from the other. On one side they stood for the govern- ment and did everything they could to uphold it; I should say the bulk of these were found voting the republican ticket at the close of the war. The others we called copperheads, and they threw their whole influence against the gov- ernment, discouraged enlistments and at times made a good deal of trouble.
"Well, Brown county sent her men as fast as they were called for for the first year, and then the volunteering grew slack and a draft was ordered. The parts of the county that had done the least, and where the draft struck the hardest, were the Belgians in the north part of the county, and the Irish in the south and southeast. In fact, the matter grew so serious among the Bel- gians that the authorities senf two companies of troops here and put them in
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
quarters at Fort Howard and kept them there until the trouble was over. They never had to do any fighting, however. I have never considered the people in those outlying towns much to blame for their actions. The fact was they were nearly all fresh immigrants, and had not been in this country long enough to know really what the war was about; they were really not Americanized at all. Added to this the Belgians could not even talk English, at least but very few of them and such men could not be expected to volunteer to fight, nor to accept the results of a draft either if they could help it.
"After results prove this to be true, for the first draft was for nine months service, and of those men who went out and served their time the bulk of them reenlisted and spread the patriotic ideas home in letters and communications to their friends and families, so that we got full quotas of men from these towns all the latter part of the war, with very little drafting. They were all Catholic too, and their priests being foreign like themselves, did not always help to enthuse them. Should a similar call to fight for the flag come to the county now, the volunteers would come from the descendants of those same men by the train load, who were so lukewarm at that time.
"I can not say that Brown county made any special record in the war ; her men were so scattered. I think the county had men in every big fight during the war. The bulk of Company Il of the Twelfth Infantry were Brown county men. The Fourteenth, Eighteenth and Thirty-second Infantry had nearly a company each from the county. Company H of the Thirty-fourth were all from Brown county. The Ninth had nearly a full company. So it will be seen that they were scattered all over the country from the Potomac to the Mississippi and from the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico.
"Sitting in our post hall at a social meeting a couple of months ago, 1 noticed one man who was at Antietam and Gettysburg, another who was at the siege of Petersburg, several who were through the Vicksburg campaign, one who was at Chickamauga, one who went through the Fort Donelson campaign, several who were through the long bitter Atlanta campaign, and afterward on the march to the sea and up through the Carolinas. One who was at Shiloh, one with Banks in the unfortunate Red River mess and so on, there were not more than forty of the old scamps present in all-and this after fifty years.
"It is sure that Brown county men saw a lot of the war. We did not send out many high officers, I can only remember two colonels, J. H. Howe of the Thirty-second and Colonel Jacobi of the Ninth.
"Carlton B. Wheelock, who for years ran the ferry across Fox river went out as orderly sergeant of Company H, of the Twelfth, and worked his way up, ending as major of the regiment. His brother-in-law, Colonel William Chap- man, was a retired regular army officer, who did much good work in organiz- ing, etc. Palmer, Lovett and Meade went out as captains, and of course there were many more that were line officers, whose names I do not remember.
"Mention should be made of many men who were most useful, who did not go to the war at all. It will be remembered as I said before, that the pecuniary condition of the county was something desperate at the breaking out of the war. Of course this made it necessary that good and efficient aid should be given to those families left without a protector. This work was nobly done. Often done quietly, sometimes even secretly, to save the pride of the recipients
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
-but it was done. I will give one instance typical of many. John Bruce of Big Suamico was a prominent lumberman and was at that time pretty well king of that river. When one of his men would show a desire to go to the army. but did not know how to provide for his family, John would say, 'You go, I will see that your family does not suffer.' Bruce was a widower and had a crippled arm and always kept a man to wait on him personally. This man told me some years after the war. that at one time the old man had seventeen soldiers' fam- ilies in charge; that his instructions were to visit those families as often as might be necessary and see that they lacked nothing to make them comfortable. He used to go to the store and take what was needed for them and no charge was ever made. Bruce's store was the postoffice and general headquarters for the neighborhood. Such men as Bruce were very useful, in fact the rebel- lion could not have been put down without them and they deserve fully as much honor as those who carried the muskets. And what shall I say of the women through that terrible time. One thing I can say, I don't believe there were any copperheads among the women; I certainly never knew one. They simply backed us straight through. If there was a young woman who did not have from one or two to a dozen soldier boys that she was writing to and encourge- ing in every way to be manly and soldierlike it was because she could not write at all, and if there was an old woman who did not have a husband or son of her own in the army to write to,-my mother had both husband and son, and there were many like her-why she wrote to some other woman's husband or son and helped cheer him.
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