USA > Wisconsin > Grant County > History of Grant County Wisconsin, including its civil, political, geological, mineralogical archaeological and military history > Part 34
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cool and orderly manner, to the ridge from which the brigade began the charge. The Rebels, coming under the fire of our field guns on the ridge, in turn fell back into their works.
The brigade then stacked arms and lay down to rest. On the left of the Thirty-third the next regiment was the Third Iowa. Its stacked muskets numbered ninety-odd. The rest of the two hundred and fifty or more that went into that charge lay on that fatal field; and their bearers lay there too, for the gallant little regiment had long been purged of all its men who would come out of a fight unwounded with- out their muskets. You have read of regiments being decimated; that means one out of every ten shot; but here was a regiment which had lost six out of ten. But that scraggy screen of black-jack shrubs saved Grant County the need of another marble cenotaph on which to carve the names of her soldier dead, for four Grant County companies were in the line thus fortunately screened from that terrible tornado of death.
The responsibility for this awful blunder was laid upon Lauman, and he was relieved from command. But it has since been asserted that the responsibility was upon Ord, who commanded the corps and who ordered the charge, refusing to listen to any reason against it. Ord was a West Pointer and a regular and Lauman was neither. Very possibly the well-known jealousy between the West Pointers and the volunteer generals may have furnished the groundwork for this terri- ble tragedy.
On the 20th of July the regiment began its return march to Vicks- burg. The weather was extremely hot and some of the men were sun- struck. A heavy storm came on in the evening of the 22d and several of the regiment were killed by lightning.
The regiment camped near the river at Vicksburg, suffering much from bad water. August 18 the regiment embarked for Natchez, where, in a quiet camp and a wholesome locality, it enjoyed a delight- ful season of rest and recuperation, until December 1, when it returned to Vicksburg.
On the 3d of February the regiment started on Sherman's famous Meridian raid. Although it was in winter, all the baggage was left behind, the men carrying ten days' rations in their haversacks, and very little more rations did they draw in their thirty days' hard march. But the country passed through was, beyond Jackson, one never be-
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fore traversed by the armies, and provisions in plenty were found, es- pecially chickens and pigs. At Meridian the army spread northward and southward, tearing up and destroying about fifty miles of the Mo- bile & Ohio Railroad in an incredibly short time, as well as a good deal of the road between Jackson and Meridian. In one of our war histories is a picture of this tearing-up of railroads, which is amusing in the ignorance displayed in it. Some men are busy with wrenches, taking off the nuts from the fish-plates on the rails, while others with crowbars are prying up the rails. In the first place, the raiders had hardly wagons enough to carry ammunition and a few days ra- tions, and could hardly be expected to carry thousands of crowbars and wrenches. Again, there was never a fish-plate put on a Western or Southern railroad until after the war, so there were none to be taken off. Sherman's men tore up railroads like this: they were strung along the road-bed and at a given signal each man grasped one end of a tie and lifted. One side of the track, ties, rails and all, would thus be lifted for a great length and the whole overturned. In falling, the weight of the rails would pull out the spikes. The ties would then be piled up, mixed with pine knots and other fuel, and fired, after the rails had been placed on top. The middle of the rails being heated, the weight of the unsupported ends would bend them so that they could not be relaid. Some of the rails were even twisted around trees.
This work accomplished, the regiment returned to Vicksburg, hav- ing no fighting and losing no men from any cause. The men were al- lowed little time to rest, and not enough time to draw new clothing, before they were sent off to join Banks's
RED RIVER EXPEDITION.
When the men from Sherman's army first encountered Banks's well- groomed Eastern men they were called "Sherman's ragged guerrillas," but after those Eastern men had been badly whipped at Sabine Cross Roads, and saved from utter rout only by the timely arrival of this fragment of a corps from Sherman's army, the latter were spoken of with a good deal of respect.
The Thirty-third participated in the capture of Fort De Russey, on Red River, March 13. After the occupation of the fort the maga- zine was blown up and the siege guns burst, and owing to the careless- ness of the officers in charge, more men were killed and wounded in this work than in the capture of the fort. The regiment proceeded up the river to Grand Ecore, some eighty miles above Alexandria. Herea
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call came for a detachment of twenty-five men from Company D, no recruits to be sent. It was supposed to be some pretty tough service, but it proved to be nothing worse than guarding a boat-load of pris- oners back to Alexandria. It was an easy and pleasant, if dangerous and responsible, service. Before this the regiment had been on a recon- noissance up the river to Camti. The division to which the regiment be- longed was then detached to guard the boatsloaded with ammunition and supplies for the expedition, and proceeded with them up the Red River to Loggy Bayou, where their progress was stopped by a steam- boat which the Rebels had sunk across the channel, completely block- ing it. Landing and reconnoitering, they found no enemy. News then came of the defeat of the army at Sabine Cross Roads, and the fleet hastened to return down the river. On the afternoon of the 12th of April, near Pleasant Hill Landing, two thousand Rebel cavalry and a battery attacked the transport on which the Thirty-third was sta- tioned. The regiment was alone and in imminent danger of capture, but it resolved to fight to the last, and held its fire until the Rebels were within a hundred yards, when the five hundred rifles of the reg- iment spoke at once and the Rebel line melted away. Twice more the enemy's line came on and was repulsed, their commander, General Green, being killed. The platoon of Company D which remained with the regiment behaved with such gallantry as to win the especial praise of the commander of the regiment, although it consisted mostly of re- cruits, for the reason just stated.
At Grand Ecore the regiment landed and was rejoined by the de- tachment from Company D. The remainder of the retreat was made by land, the brigade to which the Thirty-third belonged having the honorable position of rear-guard on the whole way. On the 23d. the Rebels dispersed the cavalry of the Union rear-guard and came fiercely upon the infantry line. The Thirty-third not only held its ground, but drove the enemy a long distance back. The next morning before day- light the Rebels again came down in force, scattering the Union cav- alry and attacking the infantry. They were decisively repulsed. In this battle, which was near Cane River, a Rebel shell burst just under the colors of the Thirty-third, killing and wounding the whole color- guard and the color-bearer and cutting the flag-staff in two. In the afternoon of May 6 the rear-guard was again fiercely attacked on the plantation of Governor Moore. The Thirty-third was on the right and was flanked by the longer line of the enemy ; but just as the situa-
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tion began to look serious, the men, looking back, saw a line of blue- coats coming up on the double-quick, and there in the middle was "Old Abe," the eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin, which had hurried back from another brigade farther ahead. The two Wisconsin regiments then advanced and drove back the Rebels several miles and were not mo- lested again that day.
At Yellow Bayou the Thirty-third was in the rear-guard that held the enemy back while Banks's enormous train was getting across the Atchafalaya Bayou, and the fight lasted many hours. The smoke of the conflict and of the burning grass was very thick, and as the Thir- ty-third was advancing on the run with very loose ranks it ran into a regiment of Rebels who were advancing. The Thirty-third quickly closed up its ranks and thus cut off a number of Rebels who had run through and got in our rear. Late in the afternoon the enemy with- drew and the regiment crossed the Atchafalaya Bayou on a bridge made of twenty-two steamboats, and soon embarked for Vicksburg, where it arrived May 24.
From Vicksburg the regiment went to Memphis, and on the 22d of June accompanied General A. J. Smith's expedition into the interior of Mississippi. At Lagrange, Tennesssee, on the 4th of July, the force abandoned all communication with its base of supplies at Memphis, and after a six days' march in very hot weather, reached Pontotoc, Mississippi. From there the Union force moved across the Tupelo, allowing the enemy to mass in its front, then it wheeled, took the Tu- pelo road, and left the Rebels in its rear. The Thirty-third had the ar- duous duty of guarding the supply train, which was attacked by the Rebels on the 13th at Camargo Cross Roads. About two hundred men of the Fourteenth Wisconsin were guarding the rear of the train and were nearly overwhelmed by fifteen hundred Rebels, when the Thirty-third came to the rescue and, advancing through a corn-field, poured such a fire upon the Rebels as to drive them from the field, leaving behind them their dead and wounded and a stand of colors. The captured flag was borne off the field by a captain of the Four- teenth Wisconsin, but it was generally acknowledged by both regiments that it was rightfully the trophy of the Thirty-third. In this fight the regiment lost one killed and six wounded. Another attack was made by the Rebels, but it was soon repulsed and the march was con- tinued to Harrisonburg.
At three o'clock on the morning of July 14 the enemy attacked the
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Union pickets. At sunrise the battle began, the Thirty-third being on the extreme right in the front line. Massing eight thousand men, the enemy, after an artillery fire of an hour, advanced to the charge in three lines. The position of the regiment overlooked an open field. On the left was a strip of thick woods. Firing began on the left of the Union line and rolled rapidly down toward the right, where the Thir- ty-third lay flat on their faces, reserving their fire until the enemy was within two hundred yards, when the regiment rose and fired. The Rebel ranks, whose front line was the Texas Legion, were filled with gaps and they retreated. A pause of half an hour ensued, when the enemy rallied and charged again with the familiar "Rebel yell," but they were repulsed as before. A third assault was made and re- pulsed, and then six regiments of Union troops, including the Thirty- third, charged and drove the Rebels from the field, compelling them to abandon their dead and part of their wounded. In the evening an- other attack, but a feeble one, was made by the Rebels, and was easily repulsed. The battle of Tupelo was ended and the impetuous Rebel General Forrest and his terrible Texans were defeated, beaten by the superior coolness and steadiness of aim of the Union troops.
On the 15th the return march was begun. When about to camp at night, the enemy attacked and drove in the rear-guard. The Thir- ty-third quickly turned back and drove away the enemy with severe loss. At the close of this fight Captain Burdick, of Company G, fell from sunstroke. The march was continued on the 16th. From La- grange the regiment went by rail to Memphis, which was reached on the 22d. For its part in this campaign the regiment was highly com- mended by the commanding general.
On the 3d of August the regiment embarked for St. Charles, Ar- kansas, and there was employed in guard duty and building fortifica- tions. On the first of September the regiment went up White River to Duvall's Bluff, and thence, on the 8th, to Brownsville in pursuit of Price's force, leaving the camp equipage and baggage in camp. March- ing northeasterly over a rough country, the regiment, on the 23d, built a bridge over Black River, crossed and marched up the river, building another bridge over it on the 28th, and crossing into Missouri. It now marched through swamps almost impassible for the train, forded the St. Francis at Greenville on the 2d of October, and on the 4th made a forced march of twenty-nine miles to meet a train of supplies coming from Cape Girardeau. Many of the men were barefoot and
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footsore. On the 5th the regiment reached Cape Girardeau, having, on ten days' rations, marched 324 miles in nineteen days, built two long bridges, and forded four rivers. On the 8th it embarked for Jefferson City, Missouri, where it arrived on the 15th. On the 17th it took the cars for Lamine River, where the bridge on the Missouri Pacific Rail- road had been burned, and remained there until the 22d, assisting in carrying rations and ordnance stores across the river and repairing the bridge. It then went to Warrensburg. On the 3d of November eight companies were sent to St. Louis, as guards for the Rebel Gen- erals Marmaduke and Cahill and seven hundred prisoners, captured at Mound City. At Herman a spy was shot by a detachment of the regiment. On the 7th the ten companies reached St. Louis, and Com- panies B and G on the 12th.
On the 23d, the regiment left Benton Barracks and embarked for Nashville, where, on the 2d of December, it took a position on the ex- treme right of the line of defenses of that city, which was soon invested by the Rebel army under Hood. On the 15th the regiment took part in the battle of Nashville. At three in the afternoon it captured two of the siege batteries of the Rebels, charged across an open field, wad- ing a stream of icy water, and charged upon the Rebel line posted on the opposite side of Granny White Pike, behind two stone walls. The charge of the regiment was so impetuous that the enemy, with a corn- field behind in which the mud was almost knee-deep, were unable to get away, and the whole line surrendered. On the 16th the regiment was in the second line, on the right of the Sixteenth Corps, with the Twenty-third Corps on its right. From its position on a high hill it watched the struggle without taking an active part in it. Joining in the pursuit of Hood's broken and fleeing army, the regiment reached Pulaski on the 27th, and there turned westward and went to Clifton, Tennessee, which it reached on the 2d of January. The march was a terrible one. The weather was a succession of rain storms, turning into sleet and followed by severe freezing. The roads were cut up by long trains. Many of the men were practically barefoot and marched with their bare soles on the frozen, sleety and stony ground, lying at night on the sleet with frozen clothes and blankets, or in the mud with water-soaked garments.
From Clifton the regiment went to Eastport, Mississippi, and was detailed to escort the train to Savannah, on the Tennessee River. A portion of the train had to be left at Fairview, as the roads were so
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bad. The regiment returned to Eastport and camped, remaining un- til the 6th of February, when it embarked and went by steamer to Vicksburg, near which it encamped until the 20th, when it again em- barked and went to New Orleans, camping a few miles below the city, on the old battle-ground where the British were defeated in 1815. On the 11th of March the regiment embarked for Mobile and the next day landed at Fort Gaines. Moving from point to point and occasion- ally skirmishing, on the 27th it drove the enemy into his works at Spanish Fort, and established a line about seven hundred yards from the fort, with a loss of nine men wounded. The siege of the fort then began. On the 29th Company D occupied a rifle-pit so far advanced as to be only two hundred yards from the Rebel fort. In this position it was exposed to a terrible artillery fire from daylight until dark. Ser- geant John Leighton and Merritt Pember were killed and Sergt. James Delaware severely wounded. The company that day fired the enor- mous number of 26,000 cartridges, which were brought up at great risk by members of the company. The regiment steadily advanced its lines until the night of the 8th of April. That evening a heavy mus- ketry and artillery fire began. The Eighth Iowa, on the extreme right and near the Thirty-third, charged into a ditch which the Rebels had projected diagonally in front of their fort, and held it until the Thirty- third charged up on its left. Continuing on into the fort, the Thirty- third, which was the first to enter, found that the Rebels had just evacuated.
On the 13th of April the regiment started for Montgomery, which was reached on the 25th. At this place the regiment encamped in comparative ease until the 23d of May, when it went to Tuskegee and was on duty there as provost guard until the 19th of July, when it started for Vicksburg. The journey was performed partly on foot, partly by steamboat, and partly by rail. The regiment was mustered out at Vicksburg on the 8th of August and started for home, reaching Madison on the 14th, when the men were discharged. Colonel Moore was brevetted Brigadier-general.
THIRTY-FIFTH INFANTRY.
This regiment contained the following Grant County men :
Company B-Wm. H. Gossett, Geo. O. Quillers, John F. Smith, Wm. Tyler, Boscobel. Company C-Dudley D. McCloud, James McMahon (both deserted), Boscobel. Company D-Wm. Remy, David E. Whita- ker, Beetown; August Wachtler, Boscobel. Company E-First Lieut.
24
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John Smail, John Douglas, Sylvester L. Gillam, Benj. F. Louthain, Absalom T. Louthain, Wm. F. Martin, Wm. H. Vannatta, Joseph Van- natta, Thomas H. Vannatta, Abraham Williams, Polk Williams, Ed- ward S. Williams, Robert Wilson, John H. Wilson, Platteville; John W. G. Woods, Smelser; Byron W. Breed, Homer M. Lewis. Company K- James Lyons, Boscobel; Charles L. Maxfield, Henry T. Melvin, Platte. ville; Daniel M. Taft, Tafton.
The regimental organization was completed at Camp Washburn, Milwaukee, February 27, 1864.
The regiment left Milwaukee on the 18th of April, 1864, for Alex- andria, Louisiana, arriving at the mouth of Red River on the 1st of May. Unable to get transportation to Alexandria, the regiment went to New Orleans, and thence to Port Hudson, arriving there on the 7th of May and remaining there until the 26th of June, when it went to Morganzia, and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Nineteenth Corps.
The First Brigade was sent to St. Charles, Arkansas, arriving there on the 24th of July. The Thirty-fifth was engaged here in gar- rison duty and scouting expeditions until August 7, when it returned to Morganzia.
On the first of October the brigade set out on a scouting expedi- tion to Simmsport, on the Atchafalava Bayou, the regiment having several skirmishes on the way. Returning to Morganzia, the regi- ment went by water to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, landing there on the 18th of October. On the 9th of November it left Duvall's Bluff for Brownsville, about thirty miles west. It returned to Duvall's Bluff on the 1st of December, and was soon assigned to the Fourth Brigade of the Reserve Corps. It was employed in picket duty and work on the fortifications until February 7, 1865, when it embarked to join the army about to make an attack on Mobile. On the 26th the regi- ment landed at Mobile Point and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Thirteenth Corps. On the 27th of March the regi- ment took a position in front of Spanish Fort, where it was engaged in the siege until the Rebels evacuated the place on the 8th of April. On the 9th of April it marched ten miles to Fort Blakely, and on the 11th returned to Spanish Fort. The next day the regiment crossed the bay, passed through Mobile on the 13th, and marched forty-five miles to the north, encamping at Nannahubbah Bluff on the 21st, and on the 26th moved ten miles up the Tombigbee to McIntosh Bluff,
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where it was engaged in building fortifications until the close of the war. On the 9th of May the regiment went to Mobile and remained there until the 1st of June, when it sailed to Brazos Santiago, and thence to Clarksville, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. On the 2d of August it marched up the river and the next day reached Browns- ville. The Thirty-fifth was here assigned to a command known as the "Separate Brigade," Army of the Rio Grande, and remained here dur- ing the rest of its term of service, employed in guard duty in and around the town and upon government steamers plying between Brownsville and Brazos Santiago. On the 15th of March, 1866, the regiment was mustered out, and ten days later started for home, reaching Madison on the 10th of April.
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CHAPTER IX.
FORTY-FIRST TO FIFTIETH INFANTRY.
Forty-first Infantry-Forty-second Infantry-Forty-third Infantry- Forty-fourth Infantry-Forty-seventh Infantry-Forty-ninth Infantry-Fiftieth Infantry.
FORTY-FIRST INFANTRY.
This regiment contained the following Grant County men :
D. Gray Purman, Major, Lancaster.
Company A-Peter J. Schloesser, Captain, Lancaster; John Grin- dell, 1st Lieut., Platteville; Geo. L. Hyde, 2d Lieut., Lancaster ; Henry Alcorn, Frank R. Angell, Amherst W. Barber, John J. Barber, Charles H. Baxter, John Beck, Jacob Bertschinger, James C. Blanding, Daniel T. Brown, Samuel Caley, Collins Chapman, Thomas R. Cheseboro, Mitchell J. Coyer, John C. Curry, David Cutshaw, John Q. Dillon, Theron Dixon, Thomas F. Dudley, H. Clay Evans, Hewlett W. Fisher. James Gilbert, David B. Gordon, William Halferty, Adelbert Higgins, Wm. Higgins, Henry A. Hyde, George Landon, Joseph Lathan, Lou. P. Lesler, Geo. H. Lewis, John P. Lewis, Robert E. Murphey, Adolph Nathan, Frank A. Reed, Edmund W. Richardson, Charles D. Shrader, William Sincock, William Starr, Allen Taylor, Samuel M. Tracy, Wm. W. Waddle, Geo. W. Works, Lancaster; Green B. Brent, Wm. A. Mc- Donald, Beetown; Charles Barnett, Jeffrey Kee, Alfred E. Tracy, Bos- cobel; King S. Barger, David Bartle, Otis A. Boynton, Wm. B. Burke, Herbert Burwell, Mack Burwell, Geo. E. Cabanis, Charles C. Cheever, Jerry Cooper, Wm. Crockett, Samuel T. Dixon, John Gillham, Robert H. Graham, Wesley F. Grindell, John Hale, Joseph C. Hollman, Rob- ert Jones, James Kelly, Jacob Knouse, Geo. W. Kays, Daniel McArthur, Morris F. McCord. John McQuestin, Augustus Nasmith, Bennett Nie- haus, Henry O'Hara, Olney H. Payne, Frank F. Parker, John N. Pat- terson, Henry Potter, Andrew P. Potter, George A. Richardson, Wm. Rowitzer, Jesse P. Smelker, Theodatus Smith, Samuel A. Stein, Perley Stiles, Walter L. Wannemaker, Erwin M. Wilson, Platteville; Thomas J. Clark, Potosi; D. A. McLin, Fennimore.
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FORTY-SECOND INFANTRY.
The Forty-first was the last of the one-hundred-days men from the State. It was organized at Milwaukee. It left for Memphis June 15, 1864. Before leaving the State it was presented with the State colors by Gov. Lewis. The regiment took part in the fight at Memphis when the Rebels made a raid into that city in August, but suffered no loss in the action. It was posted in the rear of the Fortieth Wisconsin. The Forty-first suffered from sickness while at Memphis, losing six men. The regiment was mustered out at Camp Washburn in the latter part of September.
FORTY-SECOND INFANTRY.
The following Grant County men were in this regiment :
Company B-Anthony Hill, Millville.
Company D-John H. Barnett, Captain, Boscobel; Fletcher S. Kidd, 1st Lieut., Lancaster; Bunk Craven, Nelson B. Moody, Bosco- bel; Thomas Oleson, Wm. M. Sylvester, Targe Targeson, Nels Thomp- son, Charles R. Walker, Blue River; Wm. Mccluskey, Charles Wams- ley, Cassville; Henry Brodener, John Dixon, Henry I. Landon, Lewis Patton, Richard Pigg, Fernando Roddick, Henry Spargo, Ellenboro; Andrew Folger, Ambrose W. Geer, George Gillett, Albin Jackson, Hor- ace Jewell, Ole O. Johnson, George A. Lance, Orson R. Richmond, John R. Smith, George Stone, John Walters, Fennimore; Robert Calvert, Jo- seph S. Kidd, Richard A. Kidd, Wm. E. Kidd, Wm. S. Metcalf, Jere- miah Wamsley, Glen Haven; Andrew J. Renshaw, Hickory Grove; Samuel Beck, John G. Crabtree, Henry Muhler, Albert Ross, Conrad Schmitt, John N. Shepherd, Lancaster ; Jacob Woolstenholme, Liberty ; John H. Brown, Wm. Mayo, James B. Mumford, George W. Richison, Jacob C. Richison, Thomas A. Thompson, Thomas Thompson, Ly- man M. Watrus, Marion; Franklin Austin, Ellery Babcock, George Brown, James J. Dodds, Charles Evans, Richard H. Foster, Edward A. Hackett, George W. Harmon, Wm. N. Harrison, Sylvester Keys, David Morden, Samuel Neely, Thomas Parland, John Pearson, Ira Phillips, Corydon Russell, Charles Stimpson, Robert Harrower. Mill- ville; Peter Adams, Jesse C. Crow, Potosi; Eli J. Altizer, Nathaniel Head, Watterstown; Ove Martin, Wingville.
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