USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 28
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
"Finally the desperate struggle was over, the government was saved intact, slavery was abolished and the Brown county boys came home with ranks sadly thinned in some cases but thankful that so many were left. Everything had changed very much in our absence-a fine bridge across the Fox, and a rail- road running into the town. Lots of work for all of us and good pay. How we did slash the timber during the next few years, how the farms grew and multiplied and how everything has flourished ever since.
"Now as we Brown county soldiers, or the few that are left of us see these things we are satisfied and feel that our work of fifty years ago was good work, that it was the right work, that it was well done and that Brown county may well be proud of its record of fifty years ago.
HENRY SMITH, Green Bay."
The following extracts are from a little pocket diary which has written on the fly leaf "R. R. Campbell. Bought at Memphis, Tennessee, Tuesday, Feb- ruary 3. 1863.
By Capt. M. E. Palmer Company H, Twelfth Regiment."
It begins, "Thursday, January 1, 1863. Was on guard near Lumpkin Mills, Mississippi. Weather fine and clear. Twelfth Regiment camped on Hominy Hill.
"January 6. Nothing of importance happens. Rumors too numerous to mention in regard to peace, etc.
"January 7. Fine and clear. Laid in camp all day doing nothing but cook my own victuals, coffee and slapjacks. These slapjacks are kind of heavy and we have to march tomorrow, it is best to cat light.
216
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"January 9. The Twelfth leave camp about 10 a. m. March through Holly Springs, Mississippi, and camp on the north side of the city. Company H is put on camp guard at night. Soldiers attempt to burn the city. Twelfth have roll call several times during the night.
"January 10. Company H still on guard. Orders to be ready to march at a moment's warning. Do not get the necessary warning until 7 p. m. March to Coldwater. Weather fine for OWLS.
"Monday 12. Company H on picket guard near Moscow. 6,000 rebel cav- alry expected in the night.
"Wednesday 14. Regiment are called out in the morning everything all wet. March in mud all day arrive at camp all wet. Camp one mile from Moscow. Rain all day. Roads indescribable. Get one spoonfull of whiskey. Snow in the night. The commissary is so liberal with this whisky that I am afraid some of us will get sober. They are more liberal to the officers, several of them get sober and the boys cry, 'Oh think of your head in the morning.'
"January 19. Regiment leave camp. March all day. Camp near Coliers- ville, Tennessee. Rain all day. Streams very much swollen. Teams have to swim. The roads in this country are something like those the boy had to travel on when he was going to school, so slippery.
"January 21. A person peeping into tent No. 6, would think that we were all cabinet makers but would be mistaken as we are only makers of our nests or only building bunks, its who's got the hammer, who's got the saw. The leviathan is built in tent No. 6 by Cook W. Whitcomb, N. B. The leviathan is a pile of bricks intended to make a fire on.
"January 28. All hands go to work on fortifications at Colierville depot. Weather fine.
"February 6. Cold and windy, not very comfortable in the cotton houses. Captain Palmer and private Curtis start for Memphis. Sent $18.00 home by express.
"February 7. Company H go out as guard for forage train. Have a good time getting honey, get purty well stung.
"February 21. Quite a scare was raised this morning, the cavalry at Coliers- ville were ordered out to go out scouting, three revolvers had been loaded for a busy time and they were bound to discharge them.
"February 27. Company H, you will begin to think is on picket every day for they are on today one day off and two days on.
"March 2. Jas. Mitchell falls. Died while playing wicket. Kimball of Green Bay and Lieut. P. Dakin make us a visit. (Paul Dakin died that year.)
"March 4. The Twelfth are honored today by a visit from Mrs. Harvey and Colonel Howe and lady.
"March 10. The First Brigade of Fourth Division is passing here today.
"March II. Fourth Division still passing here.
"March 14. The Twelfth Regiment start from Camp Butler for Memphis, Tennessee. March all day. Camp at night two miles from the City.
"March 15. Sunday I was through the City of Memphis. Was down on the Levee. Saw some of the great Mississippi passenger boats. One the 'Ruth,' a fine looking boat.
217
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"March 18. Sent $30.00 home by express. Went to the city in afternoon saw quite a number of the Bay Settlement Mountaineers.
"March 23. Went to circus in afternoon. On camp guard all night. Another sudden death in Company G.
"April 2. Grand review by General Hurlbut about two miles east of the City of Memphis near the County Fair Grounds.
"April 4. Fight is expected today, skirmish with the pickets. Dress parade today.
"April 12. Sunday dress parade in afternoon. Sermon by the Chaplain in the evening. Fine.
"April 16. Went to circus. Some of the Thirty-second Wisconsin were here to see us. General inspection. Orders to draw four days rations and be ready to march. Pretty sure there will be a fight this time. Rumors too numerous to mention as to where we are going and the force we will have to contend with.
"April 18. The Twelfth and Thirty-second Wisconsin, Forty-first Illinois Infantry, Fifteenth Ohio Battery 2 battalions of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry start on a reconnaissance in the direction of Coldwater under command of Col. G. E. Bryant. March as far as Hernando, Mississippi. The companies are skirmish- ing with the rebels. Camp for the night.
"April 19. Rained like ned. Marched to Coldwater. Skirmish on the banks of the creek. One of Company G shot. Pretty badly wounded. Retreat in good order. The rebels close after yet within one mile of Hernando camp for the night. Companies C, E and H were in the skirmish only one of the Twelfth wounded. The boys all sleep on cotton.
"Monday 20. March again for Hernando. Lay there in line of battle mostly all day, the cavalry having gone back to Coldwater creek. Forward again for Memphis. The boys have set fire to Hernando. Great destruction of prop- erty. Little children turned out of doors. Men threw brick at the windows. Barbarism.
"April 21. Forward to Memphis, march very slow. Get within nine miles of Memphis. Get orders and reinforcements. Have to go and try them again. The boys are tired and look down in the mouth at this. March for Coldwater, march five miles, camp for the night.
"April 23. Cavalry start for Coldwater creek. Find it evacuated. Destroy three tons of hay and plenty other property in the commissary line. Take quite a fine lot of horses and mules.
"Friday 24th. Forward for Memphis again. Rain and mud, pleasant travel- ling. The band come out to meet us on the outskirts of the city. Camp again all glad to get there once more, being almost seven days gone. We will have a good sleep tonight, so good night. Thus ended the reconnaissance.
"May 7. Papers state that General Hooker is at work on Rappahanock in Virginia.
"May 8. Extras today state that General Hooker has to retreat with heavy loss. Fears that part of his corps are bagged.
"On the Ioth orders were received to strike tents and start for Vicksburg and the following day Adjutant Proudfit reads to the company at dress parade that Richmond is taken. 'Loud cheers by the Twelfth. Afterward they get slightly inebriated or tight. Loud cheers from all quarters until a late hour in
218
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
the night." On the 11th of May, 1863, the boys belonging to the Twelfth board a Mississippi steamer, the Continental, for Vicksburg. The heat was great. "Great droves of Negroes pass on their way north they are a gay looking set, some of them on foot and some on mules."
"The rebels begin to shell Young's Point, the gun boats go up and down the river. cannonading as they go. On May 18th the Forest Queen is able to carry the whole regiment at once. Landed at Grand Gulf on the 19th. I have now seen considerable of Grand Gulf and its fortifications, I have seen the great gullies that were left by the rebels, have seen the magazines that were blown up by the rebels when they left. Negro regiments, the first I have ever seen, some of the companies are quite well drilled. Cannonading in the vicinity of Vicksburg, my position for the night is in the corner of a rail fence with the heavens above for my covering and the stars for my candles.
"May 24. The Twelfth capture a cannon near Port Gibson. Took a long stroll in the country with L. Coddington. Got what mulberries I wanted to eat. and three quarts of plums.
"May 31. Was detailed to load commissaries. Company 11 gets orders to be ready at 6 o'clock with one day rations. Where the deuce are we going now. Likely to Vicksburg to support some battery. Who knows, we don't.
"There are any amount of Negroes here but they are allowed as usual to play gentlemen while a soldier hauls rails to make fire to transport their luggage north. Foraging report to Lieutenant Langworthy. Company G, one mile beyond Port Gibson. Darkies desert their master, terrible was the hot bob. I got what molasses, chickens and preserves we wanted. Weather hot as the mis- chief picking blackberries is rather hot work down as far south as this.
"June 8 was detailed to chop wood for the transports pressed a negro in service and seated myself, believe I could make a good slave driver. Droves of colored folks come in from the country. Ordered to march. Reach War- rentown at sunrise. Boys crawl under old shed out of the rain this being the only building the city affords after the siege in which every house was burned.
"June 11. March from Warrentown to the rear of Vicksburg. Ordered into the rifle pits, some sharp shooting done. Some shelling done in the even- ing. one came near hitting us, how we do dodge. Weather hot enough to make the sweat run especially when carrying knapsack. Sharp shooting all day the rebels make some close shots but hurt no one. We are relieved by Company .1. Splendid sight last night shells thrown from mortar boats on the Mississippi river, they shoot up into the air leaving sparks of fire in the air, then when they burst louder than the report of a cannon. Francis Couvillon, Company F. Seventeenth Wisconsin came over to see me.
"July 3. Peter and I start. Every minute a person can hear the thug thug of rebel bullets as they strike the trees that shade the camp. Peter and I started to take a sort of reconnoitre. When we get to the forts we find all the men standing on their forts and talking to the rebels. A flag of truce has been raised by the latter-an officer comes mad enough to strike his father and orders us down, and the officer in command to report at his headquarters immediately. Detailed at night for picket fine time no shooting.
"July 4. Still on duty in the rifle pits. Oh! here it comes-the white flag- while cheer after cheer rises from our forts and rifle pits. This is the sur-
219
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
render of Vicksburg on the 4th day of July. What a glorious old fourth for the Union Troop under' command of U. S. Grant. The rebels are all for trade. Relics is what they are after. I try a piece of their roast mule. "The 12th now marches to Raymond, fifteen miles, where there were two jails and a court- house and a battle was fought here in June.
"July 22. We are roused this morning at I a. m. as we are to be on the lead of our division. We start pretty early and get pretty well along by sunrise but we have a long road to travel today. We march all day have a small jigger of whiskey issued at noon. Camp twelve miles from Vicksburg. We are allowed to snooze this morning until daylight have a comfortable march into camp today but I would rather have not marched so far yesterday and marched a little farther today. We are glad to get into camp and more glad to find 3 large pails full of beans. How they did disappear.
"July 29. Orders this morning to be ready to move camp at I p. m., we move inside of the (used to be Rebel ) Fortifications and camp in a sort of Basin surrounded on all sides but one with large hills.
"August 6. Went down to the city to see Joseph Tonnard of Company A who is sick in the Hospital Boat. Nashville. The Boat looks clean and airy and although it is very warm outside it is cool and nice inside the boat. The sick all look very clean some look very sick.
"August 17. I understand that our division now belongs to the Seventeenth army corps under command of General McFerson. Capt. M. E. Palmer gets his resignation papers today and starts for home without as much as letting the company know that he is going.
"August 15. Get orders at 10 a. m. to get ready to move at 12 o'clock, we are ready at the appointed hour and off we go for the boat. We marched aboard the Steamer Rocket. Stack Arms and go to work pretty hard to find room enough to sleep.
"Sunday, August 16. Arrive at the city of Natchez in the morning. Melons are plenty here and the boys are hungry for them. March through the city which is the prettiest I have seen in the south. September 16. Always on the march, with rebels just in sight. Walk with W. Mitchell, regimental walk after grapes.
"September 17. Went on picket on the Washington road, something excit- ing going on all day. Lieutenant Linell in command. There is plenty of girls on the road, some pretty good looking but a person wants a commish to have any show-commish is the chap, Lieut. C. B. Wheelock commanding Company H, Twelfth Wisconsin. Visits from General Crocker and Brig. General Gre- sham. General Crocker compliments Twelfth very highly. Col. Bryant back at Natchez in hourly anticipation of a fight Rebs 8,000 strong it is said. Cold as Greenland, Arnold and 1 start out to Jayhock some boards to fix our tent.
"December 25, 1863. Today is Christmas, had cabbage for dinner, cab- bage and oysters, little Lager Beer and cigars. Went down into the city in after- noon with McFarnum to Nig dance, in the evening saw some of our officers dance with the cullod population. Sent out on Woodville road to Mr. Nutt's residence, two and half miles from camp, have a fine time rolling on the 10-pin alley. 1863 goes out howling ; got permission to stay in small cottage at night ; so cold that we could not sleep.
220
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"Number of miles marched in 1863: January, 24; February, 7; March, 231 ; April, 122; May, 135: June 46; July, 77; August, -; September, -; October, 54; November, 89; December, 74. Total, 852 miles.
RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM R. MITCHELL.
Mitchell was attached to the drum corps and became a very expert and spirited performer.
"I received my education at the public schools of Green Bay, and at Ripon College. When I had reached the age of sixteen, the Civil war broke out, and the entire population of Green Bay-men and women-were aroused by the news that our southern states had seceded, our flag had been dishonored, and the prediction was made by many in both north and south that the country was about to be broken up and divided into smaller principalities. Public meetings were held and finally the military spirit became so strong that a company of sol- diers was organized, called the Green Bay Union guards. Milo E. Palmer was elected captain, N. A. C. Smith, first lieutenant, C. C. Lovett, second lieutenant, Carlton B. Wheelock, orderly sergeant, and a full line of eight corporals and five sergeants in the non-commissioned list. We were very energetic in drumming up recruits and when we reached the 100 standard we were accepted by the state and assigned to the Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, to serve for three years or during the war. When I asked my dear, sainted mother for her permission to go to the war, her eyes filled with tears and, embracing me fondly, she told me that I was too young to undertake such a life of hardship and pri- vation, and she could not consent. But finally, after many days of argument, and when she saw how intent I was upon going, she yielded reluctantly upon receiv- ing the captain's promise that he would allow me a discharge at any time that I found myself unable to endure the life of a soldier, as I was so far below the age limit.
"My brother Blish, only fourteen years of age, thought that if I was old enough to go to the war, he was also. My parents, however, could not see it in that light and so the young lad ran away and hid himself on the steamboat and when we arrived at Madison he called upon the colonel of the regiment and told him that he would like to go to the front. The colonel, seeing that he was a solid, robust, well-built young fellow, took a fancy to him and made him the guidon of the regiment whose duty it was to carry a small flag and place it at the posi- tion designated by the commanding officer for the regiment to wheel or turn from their former direction when out on drill or parade. I seemed to catch everything going- measles, mumps, malarial fever, swamp fever, chills, ague, and finally the smallpox which nearly finished my earthly career. But thanks to my brother Blish, and to my dear old friend Henry Smith, now living at Green Bay, who nursed me back to life on the banks of the old Mississippi at Vicksburg, I am still able for duty and doing a man's work every day. But no matter how long I live I shall never cease to give them the credit for saving my valuable life at that time.
"When my brother Blish first joined the regiment he wore a shaggy black overcoat that looked like a bearskin. We had a young bear cub with the regi- ment, good natured and as playful as a kitten. The bear took a fancy to my
-
Y. M. C. A. BUILDING
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ANTJA, LEARN AND
221
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
brother on account of that black coat, I suppose, and they would amuse the soldiers by wrestling and rolling over each other. The soldiers built a plat- form for the bear on top of a post about ten feet above the ground and with fifty feet of rope attached to his collar he went through all sorts of acrobatic tricks. The Negroes used to come in from miles around to see the bear. When they would get up too near his platform he would let himself down and run at the crowd who, with piercing screams would scatter in all directions, much to the amusement of the soldiers, for they knew that the bear would not harm any one but enjoyed this part of the performance as much as the audience. When my brother Blish would run in and wrestle with the bear, the colored people considered him a great hero.
"The Green Bay Union guards were unique in that they belonged to the Twelfth Wisconsin Regiment called the marching regiment, with a record of 3,900 miles on foot and 9,300 on railroad and steamboat, whose campaigns took them through every southern state except Texas and Florida-13,500 miles. They were also unique in having the record of losing more men killed and wounded in battle than any other regiment in Sherman's entire army, during the famous Georgia campaign where his army was too days and nights continu- ously under fire, where men were shot in their sleep in the middle of the night, and where his casualties amounted to 51,000 killed, wounded and missing. The southern troops lost 31,000 in the same campaign, they having the advantage of fighting behind breastworks and fortifications most of the time did not lose as many men as we did.
"The Twelfth was unique also in having the only black bear from the Lake Superior country, that followed our regiment when we left the state, and when the people of Chicago heard that this black bear would march with the regiment through Lake street, men, women and children turned out to see it and to hear our splendid brass band play, 'The Girl I left. Behind Me,' the Battle Hymn of the Republic' and 'The Okl Folks at Home.' The regiment also had a unique experience in trying to sleep on the frozen ground without tents on the banks of the Mississippi, when the thermometer was 20 degrees below zero, the ferry- boats were frozen in and we could not get across to, our destination at Han- nibal, Missouri. Our only consolation was that we had plenty of good fence rails and big trees to build fires with.
"After marching 22 miles over the frozen ground, many of the men having had their ears frozen, we halted on the banks of the Mississippi river where we received rations of hard crackers and raw salt pork. I did not wait to have my pork cooked but ate it right away, and I do not think I ever had a meal that I relished so much. The pork was very fat and was just what we needed on that cold night. During the night some of the soldiers brought in turkeys, chickens, honey and other good things to cat with which we made a royal midnight sup- per. The night was so cold we could not sleep but had to walk around trying to keep from freezing. The next day a large force of men succeeded in cutting a passageway for the ferry boats and we were ferried across the river to Han- nibal, Missouri, where we spent the balance of the day and the next night in thawing out and preparing for a 200-mile railroad trip in Pullman cars that had no doors except the big door at the side and no seats but the floor. The boys found some haystacks, however, and they soon prepared beds with the
222
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
hay that were as thoroughly appreciated as if made by Geo. Pullman himself, even if he was the prince of railroad bed makers.
"At one of the stations I slid the door open to take a look at the beautiful scenery in that part of Missouri. Our big Captain Palmer came along and not seeing me tried to slide the door shut from the outside ( fearing that we might fall out ). My head was caught in the jam and for a few minutes I had a headache, but I soon recovered after they had brought me some warm tonics. The men sometimes complained about this primitive form of transportation but when we had to march from 25 to 30 and 40 miles per day, day after day for a week at a stretch, they often said that if they could only have the primitive Pullman's on the HI. & St. Jo. Railroad back again they would be very happy to make the exchange.
"At Vicksburg our regiment took part in the campaign which for actual results accomplished more toward bringing the war to an end and which is claimed by military men to have been the most brilliant campaign of the Civil war. General Sherman claims that it was this campaign at Vicksburg where General Grant showed him from his original strategy how to subsist an army without any regular base of supplies that gave him his idea about making his great march from Atlanta to the sea. At Vicksburg our regiment was assigned to General Lauman's division and in their fatal charge at Jackson this division lost 500 men out of the 1,500 who went into the fight in K. W. & M. The Forty-first Illinois lost 202 of their number out of 338 men, or 59 per cent ; the Twenty-eighth Illinois lost 48 per cent. The position they attempted to take was strongly fortified and manned by double their own number and the dread- ful slaughter of the Union troops without any beneficial results has placed this charge on a parallel to the charge of the light brigade at Balaklava.
"When we left Vicksburg for Natchez, nearly every man in the regiment was on the sick roll, suffering from the effects of the bad air and water from the swamps around that famous stronghold of the south where the river would rise fifty feet above low water mark, inundate the lowlands, leaving a thick coat of vegetable deposit which, when exposed to the rays of the southern sun, would decompose and fill the air with malaria. My uncle, Lewis Irwin, was the quartermaster for a Texas regiment and was taken prisoner. During the truce which led up to the surrender of Vicksburg, many of the soldiers from both the northern and the southern army laid down their arms and advanced to a blackberry patch loaded with fruit down in the ravine half way between the lines of battle. Eager to get some of the fruit, I joined the advancing party, meeting the enemy on as friendly terms as if we had all been brothers, and we all chatted and picked blackberries together as if we had been out on a picnic excur- sion. I learned from them where the Texas regiment could be found and the next day after the surrender, July 4, I took my haversack well filled with army rations and hunted up my Uncle Lewis. He told me that he was never in his life so glad to see a relative as he was to see ine with my full haversack, as they had eaten up everything in Vicksburg and were now nearly starved. I gave him $15 in gold pieces, as he was going north as a prisoner and had none of our northern money, although plenty of the southern currency, in which he said he had paid as high as $1,000 for a sack of flour, $900 for a side of bacon, $750 for a cow. $500 for a razor back Louisiana pig, $1,300 for a mule, $300
223
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
for a calf, $100 for a pound of coffee or tea, $5 each for eggs and other things in proportion.
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.