USA > Wisconsin > Eau Claire County > History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present; including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county > Part 15
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The next day, or soen thereafter, we all gathered on the East Side Hill (University Square), where lumber wagons waited for us with boards across the boxes for seats in most cases, and where friends, sweethearts and wives gathered to bid ns bood-bye. We traveled in those rigs to Sparta, where we took railway passage for Madison. We had our own improvised band. I. II. Shane, with his fife, and a couple of drummers. Every stop we made was enlivened, if there was anybody to look on, by getting in line with the flag floating and the band playing martial airs. Mr. Shane was very good with the fife and served for a while in the regimental band, but did not like the service and came back to the company and was with it until mustered out of the service. Shane was one of the best soldiers in the service, tall, muscular, but not fat, active, kindly, faithful and strictly honest. On ac- count of his height he was always near the right of the line and so at the front. His feet were large and strong, a quality that helps in a long or forced march. At one time, when drawing clothing, he had to have a pair of shoes. There wasn't a pair in the whole supply that came to that post for the army large enough for him. He marched and did every duty ealled for, barefoot, good naturedly and just as faithfully as any man in the army. Years afterward, while in the employ of the Daniel Shaw Lumber
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Company as teamster, hauling supplies to the woods, he was killed in being accidentally thrown from a load.
The company reached Madison and went into quarters at Camp Randall the latter part of August or early in September, 1864, and was there some time. Camp life in Camp Randall was very demoralizing, much more so than in the field. Although guards were stationed at all times at the entrance, yet everybody was allowed to enter and also go out, except those dressed in uni- forms of the common soldier. Some of those wearing officers' uniforms were among the most drunken and worst gamblers there. As soon as our company was organized we began company drill, spending from one to four hours daily. After drawing our uni- forms and guns and accoutrements we then drilled dressed in uniforms.
The Fifth Wisconsin Infantry, all told, in officers and men, from its first organization until it was mustered out, numbered over 3,000 men. When we joined it, it was reorganized, the old numbers were consolidated into Companies A, B and C, and we went out as one of the seven new companies, carried a new flag and a new state banner. The colonel of the regiment was with us. The balance of the regiment was then in the Shenandoah Valley. The seven new companies left Madison by rail to Chi- cago, thence to Pittsburgh, to Baltimore and on to Washington, all the way by rail. We were in barracks at Washington some time, and one Sunday morning about twenty-five of our company formed and under the leadership of one of our number, marched up to the White House and saw President Lincoln. Shortly after this visit to the President the regiment was sent across the long bridge into Alexandria, Va., in barracks next the railroad station and held ready for any emergency call, all dressed and arms at hand.
One afternoon late Company K and two other companies of the Fifth were ordered to draw five days' rations and report at the railroad station in five minutes. We rolled up our blan- kets, buckeled on our belts, slung on our knapsacks, canteens and took our guns and haversacks in hand and lined up before the commissary sergeant, took each his rations of hard tack, pork, coffee, sugar and doubled-quicked for the station. An engine with steam up coupled to a train of box cars was there. We climbed in in a hurry and away we went. We were run out to a siding on the old Bull Run battle-ground, fifteen miles in fifteen minutes. When we stopped at the siding army wagons hauled by mules and driven by niggers were coming toward the station
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on the dead run, drivers yelling and lashing their teams with all their might. Some of the darky drivers were so scared that they had turned pale. . We tumbled out of the cars before they had fairly stopped and formed in line between the siding and timber, abont 80 rods away, where the teams had been gathering wood for the use of the government at Washington. Mosby and his men were raiding the teams. Two horsemen rode out of the woods and looked us over and rode back out of sight. We dug trenches and were in line of battle for several days, and did some sconting, but there was nothing doing. Returned to Washington.
A GRUESOME CAMP GROUND.
The seven new companies of the regiment were sent from Washington via Harper's Ferry to Winchester, where we joined the balance of the regiment and went into camp on the battle- field. It was a desolate sight. Every living thing was destroyed. Not even a weed could be seen. The ground was gouged and pounded. A fitting place for new recruits to camp. Shallow trenches had been dug, the dead laid in and covered with earth rounded up a little. Here and there a shallow place had been scooped out and a body twisted and stiffened in its contortions, so that it could not be laid in the trenches with its fellows, was placed in the shallow grave and covered. Rains had come and washed off some of the covering and here an arm and there a foot was pointing mutely toward the heavens. The stench was sickening. One of our boys saw a shoe almost new lying on the field. It looked to him to be about his fit. He thought he had made a good find. He rushed to it and picked it up. He found that it had a human foot in it, which had began to decay. There was no other place for our camp and there we camped for a few days. We formed in groups of fours, buttoned our pieces of tents together, making our tent large enough for four men to sleep in and huddle under during a storm and a shelter for our extra clothing and provisions. Each group of four owned a coffee pot and spider and usually cooked its coffee in common, while each man cooked his own meat. We had fresh beef and salt pork regularly and our rations were abundant and gen- erally good. From Winchester we moved up the valley to Red Cedar Creek, where we became a part of the army under Sheri- dan, near the battle-ground where the battle of Cedar Creek was fought. Here we became a part of the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, Wright commanding, and remained in that corps
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until the close of the war. The Fifth Wisconsin was not in that battle, although it had been a member of the Sixth Corps from the time of its organization. While at Cedar Creek I became indisposed and was sent to the field hospital, which was located in a beautiful place in large tents. My care was very good there, and I was soon able to walk. The presidential election was com- ing on and I happened to be the only one in the company who had any experience in conducting an election, so the captain wanted me to come back to the company and take charge. The surgeon-in-chief advised against it, but did not forbid it. I took my belongings and went back to the company the day before the election and sat at the polls in the open air at the head of the company camp and polled votes all day. That night when I turned in, after making up the returns, I was about played out again.
The morning after election, before I had a chance to return to the hospital, the army was ordered to fall back, the hospital well in front. I was hardly able to march without any load, so with my gun, accoutrements and outfit, I struggled. The army made out a half day's march and it was night when I got in. I got some help in carrying my load by a wagon carrying supplies. The army, as the retreat began, was so severely harrassed by guerillas and rebel cavalry that it went into camp here and sent out strong picket lines. We stayed here until after Thanks- giving Day. The day and night before Thanksgiving snow began to fall and on that day the ground was covered and the weather was severe. The people in New England had sent down a ship- load of turkeys, geese, ducks and chickens for a Tranksgiving dinner for the Army of the Potomac. A lot of "fixings" that go with them was sent too. The part that came to the army in the valley reached it the night before. The advantage of holding commissions was well shown in the distribution. Every group of four enlisted men got one chicken. Every officer a pair of chickens, a turkey or a goose or duck and fixings.
Sharp and deadly work was being done on the pieket linc. Strong picket posts behind rail and timber barricades composed of the best shots were shooting every enemy in range and many. of them in turn were hit and brought in. Although I was not detailed on picket duty, I went out to see them work. Our camp was in the timber. There was no cooking or serving meals by companies or in groups. Each enlisted man usually received five days' rations, consisting of hardtack, a piece of side salt pork, coffee, C sugar, salt and pepper. Also generally fresh beef. The
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cattle were driven with the army and when in camp enough were slaughtered for one to two days' rations and distributed. We were transferred by rail back to Washington to our old quar- ters in the shadow of the capitol, and soon marched across the long bridge again to Alexandria, thence by transport down the Chesapeake Bay and up the James river to City Point. At this place, which was then General Grant's headquarters, a train of flat cars was ready for us, on which we took passage for the left. This road was known as "Grant's Railroad," and extended from City Point, behind the lines as far to the left as the army reached, and was used to transport supplies and men baek and forth. The road was level and graded but little. At places where the hostile lines were close to each other, a high bank was raised along the track on the side towards the enemy for protection. As we were whisked past these places the engineer pulled the lever wide open and we went by at a clip that made it very difficult for us to retain our footing. Each car was loaded to its capacity with standing men, holding on to each other. The noise of the rushing train provoked a storm of shot and shell, but all passed over us or fell behind us. The sharp rattle of musketry and the heavy roar and smoke and flash of artillery all along our right as we speeded along the track showed that the fighting was on all the time. We landed at General Meade's headquarters, some dis- tance to the left of Petersburg, and moved out to the breastworks occupied by the Fifth, or Warren's Corps, and relieved it. Our pickets were detailed and sent out to the front, relieving their piekets and Warren's Corps fell back to the rear of Meade's head- quarters and became a part of the reserve. The Second Corps, that we relieved, had built their winter quarters, which we occupied.
When we relieved the Fifth Corps in the long line investing Petersburg, the Union forees were opposed by the line of the enemy extending as far to the left as ours reached. Each line was protected by breastworks in which at every eommanding or high point a fort stood, mounting from one to more pieces of artillery, and the field in front of the breastworks were gen- erally cleared of timber. The breastworks were protected by abattis, rows of tree tops stripped of bark and sharpened tops lying with butts set in ground, tops pointing out. The ditches in front of the works were deep and at this time of year, early winter, were mostly filled with yellow, muddy water. The picket posts were rail barricades, the more exposed with earth thrown up against them in front. They were about sixteen feet front
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with a wing at each end and from twenty-five to one hundred yards apart; eaeh post manned with from five to twenty men. The picket lines were fighting all the time when we relieved War- ren's Corps. Every man exposed on either side was shot at by some one or several men on the other side. Casualties were numerous. When we went in there we followed the old custom of the Sixth Corps not to try to kill an opponent unless necessary for the protection of our own lives. We had no personal feeling to gratify by wantonly killing. So after repeatedly firing at our picket posts, at a cap poked up in sight on a ramrod, a blouse with a hat above poked into view and getting nothing but chaffing in return, shooting at each other mostly eeased. Instead some- thing like this took place: "Hello, Yank." "Hello, Johnnie." "Got any coffee to spare, Yank ?" "Got any tobac, Johnnie ?" "Leave me some coffee at the foot of that tree and I'll leave some tobac." And so the trading habit was put in force. The men from each going to the stump or tree sometimes got together and talked over their lots. Soon deserters began to come, some- times one aud later in squads. After a while they came so thick that the enemy attacked us several times, drove in our picket line, and drove us back to the breastworks, where the alarm of the attack had ealled up the entire army with reserves. We had several of these attacks during the winter, but none of them proved to be very serious. They were made to induce us to shoot deserters who made a run for our lines. They resulted in our capture of some of the attacking men, and as we could not shoot the one or half dozen men running to our lines, the desertions became more numerous. The practice of shooting at every one in sight by the troops, both to our left and right, continued as before we relieved Warren's men. The desertions to our corps were greater than those to the entire balance of the line. Desertion by them was a serious matter. Trusted men were stationed all along their line, good shots, with instruction to shoot every man leaving their line coming toward ours without a flag of truce and escort. Many tried it and were shot dead and the report of the effort and death circulated among the men of the rebel army.
During the winter an execution for desertion in front of the enemy while in battle took place in front of our regiment, out- side the breastworks. Two men had been condemned to be shot. Their graves were dug in the field in our front. The men were brought through the lines in ambulance open wagon, sitting on their coffins ; each man's legs were tied together at the ankles and knees and hands tied together behind their back. Each man's coffin was
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placed across his grave and he was seated on the foot. His eyes were bandaged; ten men of the provost guard, with loaded mus- kets, faced the condemned men. The officer in charge took his station by one of the men and instructed the guard that when the word fire was given, they must fire at the man aimed at, aiming at his breast. He gave the command: "Gnard ready, aim, one, two, three, fire." Before he gave the command "fire," he jerked the man next to him off the box and the shots were at the other fellow. He fell backward off his coffin with his bound legs still on the coffin, lying on his back, face to the sky, dead, his breast stove in. This was the only execution by court martial in the Sixth Corps while I was a member of it. Major General Humph- rey, who executed so many men in the Nineteenth Corps, was re- puted to be a brave commander, very rigid and austere. I had a personal taste of his austerity and promptly put his bravery to test, and it was wanting. I was stationed with a squad of men at the picket post on our extreme left. The next one to the left was the Nineteenth Corps post on the extreme right. In the picket posts along our front we had not been required to turn out the guard, form in line and present arms to the general officer of the day of the army, though the rules of war required it, and it was all a soldier's liberty was worth not to do it.
This major general commanding the Nineteenth Corps was general officer of the day when I was in charge of this post, and really before I was aware of it (the timber here was rather thick) he rode up at a sharp gallop from my left, just in the rear of my post with the big red sash across his breast and over his right shoulder and a long retinne of aids and orderlies following him, indicating his rank for the day. My post was not in sight of the post either to the right or left, nor of any of the posts of the enemy. Rebel pickets were shooting our way often. This com- manding officer halted and called to the one in charge of the post. I stepped out. He told me in no uncertain language in a loud voice, showing anger, what was coming to me for not showing due respect for the general officer of the day by not turning out my guard. I went up close to him and told him that in his big red sash and bright equipment he was a good mark for a rebel sharpshooter over in front and that I did not turn out the guard as it would direct attention to him and he might get hurt. Just then a Johnnie's gun went off and the bullet struck the tree top overhead. He went to the rear like a rocket, leaving his retinne far behind, not even stopping to thank me for being so con- siderate of his safety. Several times during the winter the regi-
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ment was ordered to break camp. We fell in, usually in the evening, marched down to the left a few miles, around and back again, or marched to the right towards Petersburg, and after a march of an hour or two, came back to our old camping ground and again pitched our tents in the same plaees we occupied before. The colonel told me that the army was full of spies and these moves were to mislead the enemy. The point we occupied in the line, with the line generally to the left of Petersburg, had been advanced and we were over a mile in front of its former location. A fort, Davidson, just back of Meade's headquarters and ad- joining Warren's headquarters, occupied a commanding position and was cared for. A guard and a lieutenant from our regiment, part of Company K and others, were detailed for this job and stayed there until about the latter part of March. While we were doing guard duty at this fort the battle of Hatcher's Run was fought, way down on the left. Company K and the regiment took part, but only as reserves to the Fifth Corps. Company K lost one man, who dropped dead from heart failure. Warren's entire corps passed close by the fort in moving down to the left. We could plainly hear the guns. General Warren was there relieved of his command by Sheridan, who came back to his quarters looking a broken man. I was out in front of his quarters when he returned without his aids and orderlies, with only one orderly. He gave me the first tidings of the battle. From the accounts the boys gave me later, it appeared that Company K and the regiment were under a heavy artillery fire, but the shell and shot, though fall- ing all about, did not hurt Company K. Shortly after the return of the regiment from Hatcher's Run, the guard in Fort Davidson was relieved and we went back to the old camp and took part in drills, maneuvers and dress parades, battallion, regimental, brig- ade and division. All winter, ever since we went into the trenches, the battle had been carried on between the picket lines, and the lines where they were too close together to put out pickets. The roar of musketry and artillery day and night was heard nearly all along the lines. The troops engaged on both sides were always alert to take advantage of any carelessness or weakness shown on either side. Assaults on the Sixth Corps were more frequent than elsewhere, because our troops were not keep- ing up a constant fusillade. These assaults were by a relatively small foree, usually less than five hundred men. They came with a rush and noise that would call out the whole corps. After the shock and shake-up they would retreat with as great a rush as they came. The casualties were very small, two or three wounded
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and once or twice a man killed. They never got off so cheap. Several of these assaults were made upon the line in our front. In one of them we captured a lientenant and a bunch of enlisted men. The lieutenant was very despondent at being taken alive. I think he was slightly wounded, and that he would rather have been killed.
A SILENT NIGHT MARCH.
On the night of April 1, 1865, after dark an army silently marched in and occupied our breastworks and we were ordered to strike tents and prepare to march. The orders were given in a whisper or very low. We were told to put our cups in our haver- sacks, move our bayonet scabbards around toward the back, so that no metal parts would strike and rattle, to keep perfectly still, no talking nor noise in marching. After forming in line we moved out a little way toward the left and rear. Our guns were loaded and bayonets fixed. We each had sixty rounds of am- munition. We moved a little way in one direction and halted; then moved again and halted. The night set in misty and so dark that we could not see except by the uncertain light of campfires and that made by burning fuses from shells passing overhead from both sides. Just before ten o'clock at night of the first, I noticed by the fitful glare of the light made by the burning fuses of the shells, that we were elose to the dark walls of a silent fort. This was Fort Fisher. We passed through a narrow opening to the left of the fort and against its wall, in the breast- works, just wide enough for one man, and out to the picket lines. Moving as still as we possibly could, yet a body of seven or eight hundred men make some noise in walking, though we moved slow and picked each step as carefully as we could in the dark and rain. The mist of the evening had developed into a light, driz- zling Virginia rain, which kept falling nearly all night long. The rebel picket line was alert and at every unusual sound fired to- ward us and cursed and swore and abused the Yanks. We at once laid down and kept perfectly still. We saw the vicions flashes of their guns, heard the bullets cut the air about us, the thud when they hit, and all but two or three of the officers hugged the ground. Sharp picket firing had been going on this place for days and the breastworks on both sides had been held by a strong force. The two armies were strongly entrenched all along the lines for miles, but our men, while it was expected they would attack at some point, were trying to keep the point of attack secret. So every noise on our side was magnified by the enemy
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into an assault, so when we made any noise their whole force manned their works and began firing at us savagely as long as there was any possibility in their minds of there being any force there other than the picket line. They had the range and if we were standing their fire would have got a good many of us, and as it was we lost a number of men during the fusillade. We lay flat on the ground in the darkness and the rain from about ten o'clock for an hour and a half. The firing upon us gradually ceased. Those hit made no outcry. No other noise than the thud of the bullets when they struck the victims. Two soldiers with a stretcher would noiselessly lay the man shot upon it and carry him away. All those hit, whether killed or wounded, were re- moved at once.
A mistake had been made when we moved out through the breastworks. We passed our left in front and when we faced the enemy the rear of the regiment was in front, so about midnight a whispered order was passed along the line, we got up and fell in, formed in rank, and changed front or countermarched. Al- though we were as still as we could be, yet the little noise we made roused the Johnnies again and they again began to shoot us. As soon as we were right in front we laid down again. In lying down we broke ranks and this time I laid down just in front of Lieutenant Squires of Company G, from Black River Falls. The rebels shot more accurately this time and we lost more men. I felt the air cut by a bullet which passed over me and struck the lieu- tenant; a flesh wound in the lower part of his body. He yelled, jumped up and ran the whole length of the regiment and fell and they put him on a stretcher and carried him to the rear. The noise of the lieutenant aroused the whole rebel line opposite and gave them our location. They fired on us a continuous rat- tling volley of musketry and yelled and yelled. The anguishing screams of the wounded lieutenant made them cheer, laugh, damn us and fire at us with all their might. They hit a number of our meu, but the others did not cry out. We hugged the ground closer than before if possible. The surface sloped slightly downward toward the enemy and we moved ahead a little to be on a lower level and laid perfectly still while the bullets pounded the earth and cut the air about us. About two o'clock the firing upon us gradually slackened and finally ceased altogether. About 2:30 a. m., of April 2, we carefully and silently got to our feet and stood ready, each man a little way from his fellow waiting. The rain had almost ceased to fall. We were waiting for the order or signal to charge. Our feeling was intense. Nothing could be
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