Works by Rev. Solomon A. Dwinnell In the Reedsburg Free Press June 28, 1872 – December 27, 1872
Reedsburg in the War of the Rebellion
Solomon A. Dwinnell
Compiled by William C. Schuette 2025
Transcribed from the Reedsburg Free Press By John & Donna McCully 2002
Reedsburg Free Press June 28, 1872
THE DEAD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION!
(1)
There appears to be no list of those from this town, who fell in the late war, yet made out. Believing it to be due to the memory of those who sacrificed their lives in defence of their country, as well as to the future historian of the town that such a record be made, I have taken considerable pains to perfect one. This required a good deal of labor, some of the names not appearing in the Adjutant General’s report of our dead, others being misspelled. It is possible that I have failed to report all; if so, let any person having a knowledge of the facts, send to me, and I will add to this list. Wm. Miller enlisted from Winfield, WI but removed his family to this town. Hugh Collins and J. Wesley Dickens died after their discharge, from disease contracted in the army. Three families lost two each: Collins, father and son; and Miles and Pitts, two sons each.
After the following names, k stands for killed in action, w for died of wounds, and d for died of disease. The number before the name indicates the regiment.
INFANTRY
6. Geo. C. Miles, k, South Mountain, Md., Sept. 14, 1862
7. Geo. W. Root, d, Arlington, Va., Feb. 28, 1862
11. Amariah Robotham, d, Pocahontas, Ark., May 8, 1862
12. Serg’t Spencer S. Miles, w, Marietta, Ga. July 26, 1864
12. Serg’t F. W. Henry, k, Atlanta, Ga., July 22, 1864
12. J. Wesley Dickens, d, LaValle, Wis.
12. Charles T. Pollock, d, Bolivar, Tenn., Nov. 30, 1862
12. Chas. Reifenrath, k, Kenesaw [Kennesaw] Mt., Ga., June 27, 1864
19. Serg’t A. P. Steese, d, Hampton, Va., July 20, 1864
19. Corp. Alvah Rathbun, w, Fortress Monroe, Va., Nov. 5, 1864
19. Dexter C. Cole, d, Madison, Wis., March, 1864 [March 7, 1863, ten days after enlistment]
19. Hugh Collins, d, Reedsburg, Wis., Aug., 1867
19. John Cary, d, Portsmouth, Va., Feb. 19, 1863
19. Charles Day, w, Hampton, Va., June 16, 1864
19. Dexter Green, k, Fair Oaks, Va., Oct. 27, 1864
19. Ephraim Haines, w, Portsmouth, Va., July 5, 1864
19. Wm. D. Hobby, d, Yorktown, Va., July 31, 1863
19. Wm. Horsch, d, Hampton, Va., July 29, 1864
19. James Markee, d, Portsmouth, Va., Oct. 12, 1862
19. Wm. Miller, w, Richmond, Va., Nov. 1, 1864
19. Newman W. Pitts, d, Salisbury Prison, N.C., Jan. 16, 1865
19. Benj. S. Pitts, k, Drury’s [Drewry’s] Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864
23. Erastus Miller, k, Blakely, Ala., April 8, 1865
23. Jason W. Shaw, k, Vicksburg, Miss., May 28, 1863
23. John Waltz, d, Memphis, Tenn., March 9, 1863
49. John McIlvaine, d, Reedsburg, Wis., March 3, 1865
CAVALRY
1. Erastus H. Knowles, d. St. Louis, Mo., April 8, 1862
3. Henry Bulow, k, Baxter Springs, Ark., [Kansas], Oct. 6, 1863
3. Geo. W. Priest, d, Camp Bowen, Ark., Nov. 6, 1862
1st Mo. Battery. John Collins, d, Cincinnati, Oh., Aug., 1862 N.Y. Regt. Boardman Roscoe, Davids Is., N.Y., Apr. 1865
Unknown. Holden Miller, Madison, Wis., 1864
From this list we find that Reedsburg lost a larger number than any one supposed, being about one-fourth of all who enlisted. Of these, eight were killed, six died of wounds, and eighteen of disease. The 19th Regiment took more from this town than any other, and consequently lost more.
Henry Bulow was murdered, with all the Regimental Band of the 3rd Cavalry, after surrender, and their bodies thrown under the Band Wagon and burned, by order of the infamous [William C.] Quantrill, who, with 500 rebels, were disguised in Federal uniforms. [A letter by Jesse Smith that tells about the Massacre at Baxter Springs is at the end.] Reedsburg, June 24th, 1872
S. A. DWINNELL
Reedsburg Free Press July 5, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (2)
by S. A. Dwinnell
Reedsburg has a record of which she need not be ashamed too valuable to be lost. It will pass into history. It ought now to be collected, and put in form to be preserved, before it is lost from the memory of man.
There enlisted from this town, so far as I can ascertain, one hundred and forty persons. One went who was drafted. Others were drafted who commuted by the payment of three hundred dollars.
Of those who volunteered, one hundred and eleven entered the service during the first year of the war, when they received no other bounty than that paid by the United States, which was one hundred dollars.
Most of those who entered the service at a later period, were too young to be enlisted at the commencement of the war. As near as I can ascertain, this was true of about four-fifths.
Of those who entered the service as commissioned officers from this town, Capt. R. M. Strong was promoted to Lieut. Colonel; Lieut. Henry A. Tator to Captain; Lieut. A. P. Ellinwood to Captain; 2nd Lieut. Jas. W. Lusk to 1st Lieutenant; Sergt. John A. Coughran was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant; and Sergt. Chas. A. Chandler also to 2nd Lieutenant; the latter was appointed Captain, but not mustered.
It has been no easy matter to obtain the names of all our soldiers, together with the regiment in which they were mustered. I have done the best I could to make a correct list. My inquiries have been numerous. After all, it may not be perfect. Some names may have been overlooked that ought to have been set down to us. If any person knows of such, they will please oblige me, by forwarding them to me at once, together with their regiment; and if they were veterans or wounded say so.
Many families changed their residence just as the war commenced, and in some cases it is impossible to ascertain the exact time of their removal. For this reason, perhaps a wrong credit may have been given in two or three instances.
Thirty-three lost their lives eight of them were killed in action, five died of wounds incurred in battle, one by accident and nineteen by disease.
Twelve were wounded in action, and two by accident, who recovered. Of these, seven are entitled to pensions from the United States.
Twenty-nine are known to have re-enlisted as veterans, for three years, after having served two years or more. Of these, eight lost their lives, most of them in battle after their re-enlistment.
From this town there entered the army, six fathers with one son each, two fathers with two sons each, and one father with three sons. There went also, twenty pairs of brothers. In addition to this, there were five instances where three brothers went from a family, and in one case four; making seventy-nine in all, who stood in the relation of father, son and brother to each other.
This case is probably without a parallel in a town of twelve hundred inhabitants in the entire land, where they entered the army voluntarily, and shows how very heartily fathers and sons and brothers threw themselves into the work of saving the nation in the hour of danger.
The following individuals volunteered in the Army. Those who removed their families here before they were sworn into the service of the United States, I have credited in this town.
5th W. I. Carver
6th Sergt. John A. Coughran
Theodore Joy
Geo. Morgan Jones
12th Capt. Giles Stevens
Lieut. Jas. W. Lusk
Sergt. Frank W. Henry
Sergt. Spencer S. Miles
Corp. Reuben W. Green
Corp. Morris E. Seeley
John Barnhart
Levi J. Bemis
Charles Bulow
16th Alfred S. Devereaux
INFANTRY
6th Alfred Darrow
Geo. C. Miles
7th Albert C. Hunt
Geo. W. Root
12th Edward Bulow
Francis Colgan
Frank E. Dano
Wesley Dickins
Leroy Dickins
Geo. W. Dickins
John Dongal
Aug. H. Johnson
Philo Lane
8th Samuel Fosnot
11th Amariah Robotham
12th James Miles
John Oliver
Charles F. Pollock
Elias Pond
Baldwin Rathbun
Chas. Reifenrath
John Sanborn
Wm. W. Winchester
19th Capt. Rollin M. Strong
1st Lieut. Henry A. Tator
2nd Lieut. Alex. P. Ellinwood
Sergt. Chas. A. Chandler
Sergt. Eugene A. Dwinnell
Sergt. John H. Fosnot
Sergt. Alfred P. Steese
Sergt. Geo. Waltenberger
Corp. Jas. M. Hobby
Corp. Benj. S. Pitts
Corp. Alvah Rathbun
Corp. Martin Seeley
Isaac N. Bingman
Peter Brady
John Carey
James Castle
Julius Castle
Dexter C. Cole
Rufus C. Cole
Cassius M. Collins
Hugh Collins
Clarence A. Danforth
23rd Erastus Miller
Jason W. Shaw
Wm. W. Pollock
John Waltz
1st Erastus H. Knowles
3rd Oscar Allen
Henry Bulow
W. Nelson Carver
Philemon Devereaux
4th Battery Geo. Fosnot
Oliver E. Root
David Sparks
10th Battery
Edwin E. Shephard
19th Charles Day
Albert E. Dixon
Osgood H. Dwinnell
Peter Empser
Christoph Evers
Joseph C. Fosnot
Nelson Gardner
Giles Graft
Dexter Green
Martin Greenslit
Ephraim Haines
Edward Harris
Wm. D. Hobby
Chas. Holt
Thos. J. Holton
Wm. W. Holton
Wm. Horsch
Edward L. Leonard
Giles Livingston
Jas. Markee
Geo. Mead
Erasmus Miller
35th A. F. Leonard
37th Horatio N. Day
41st Zalmon Carver
43rd J. Israel Root
CAVALRY
3rd Hiram Gardner
Geo. Hufnail
Geo. W. Priest
Henry Southard
John Winchester
ARTILLERY
1st Battery Mo. Lt. Artillery
Lieut. William Miles
Q. M. Sergt. Geo. H. Flautt
John Collins
19th William Miller
Amos Pettyes
Frank Pettyes
Newman W. Pitts
Wm. Pitts
Walter O. Pietzsch
Russel Redfield
H. Dwight Root
Hiram Santus
Hermon V. V. Seaman
Dewelton M. Sheldon
Chas. F. Sheldon
Kirk W. Sheldon
Wm. Steese
Julius M. Sparks
Chas. H. Stone
John Thorn
Richard Thorn
Henry E. Waldron
Orson S. Ward
Frank Winchester
Menzo Winnie
43rd Albert Winchester
49th John McIlvaine
Russel T. Root
3rd Moses Van Camp
4th Norman V. Chandler
Milo Seeley
John Downing
Jay Jewett
M. L. Jewett
The following persons enlisted in regiments of other states, or of unknown regiments of our own state: Allen Brooks, Oliver B. Christie, S. S. Clark, John Culbert, Henry C. Hunt, Isaac Lyon, Geo. Pollock, Boardman Roscoe. Samuel Ward is said to have been drafted.
Reedsburg Free Press July 12, 1872 RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (3) by S. A. Dwinnell Fathers, Sons and Brothers Who Enlisted.
From this town there entered the union army the following named fathers with their sons: Amos Pettyes and son Frank, Erasmus Miller and son Erastus, A. F. Leonard and son Edward, Wm. Steese and son Alfred, M. L. Jewett and son Jay, Orson Ward and step-son E. Haines, John Collins and two sons Hugh and Cassius, Horatio N. Day and two sons Charles and Addison, Wm. Pitts and two sons Benjamin and Newman, and Wm. Winchester and three sons Franklin, Albert and John.
There also went twenty-one pairs of brothers: Osgood and Eugene Dwinnell, Addison and Charles Day; Holden and Erasmus Miller, James and Wm. Hobby, John and Joseph Fosnot, George and Samuel Fosnot, Henry and Albert Hunt, John and Richard Thorn, Alvah and Baldwin Rathbun, Menzo and Edwin Winnie, Rufus and Dexter Cole, Norman and Charles Chandler, Israel and Oliver Root, Thomas and Wallace Holton, Hiram and Harvey Santus, Benjamin and Newman Pitts, Orson and Samuel Ward, Hugh and Cassius Collins, Philemon and Alfred Devereaux, James and Julius Castle, Julius and David Sparks
From five families went a trio of brothers as follows: Edward, Henry and Charles Bulow; Wesley, Leroy and George Dickins; Dewelton, Charles and Kirk Sheldon; Frank, Albert and John Winchester; Charles, William and Geo. Pollock.
From one family were four volunteers all of whom entered the army early in the war, viz: William, George, Spencer and James Miles. This enumeration shows that seventy-five different individuals sustained the relation of father, son and brother to each other.
Of these, John and Hugh Collins, father and son; George and Spencer Miles, Benjamin and Newman Pitts, and Charles and Wm. Pollock, brothers; and Holden and Erastus Miller, Uncle and Nephew, lost their lives.
Thomas Rathbun had another son, Garrett, who enlisted elsewhere, making three in all. And Dea. Israel Root had two sons who enlisted in other towns, Harrison and Wade, making five in all from his family. From J. S. Strong’s family, two sons went as Captain of companies, one of which was enlisted in eleven days.
If any other town, East or West, of two hundred and fifty voters, can present a better record on this head, let them speak and they shall be heard.
THE VETERANS
The following named forty-seven soldiers re-enlisted as veterans, after a service of two years or more, receiving from the United States a bounty of three hundred dollars and a furlough of forty days. A part of these veterans gave their names to be credited to Reedsburg and received a bounty of one hundred dollars each, by vote of the town some months afterwards. Some were credited to other towns and cities, trusting to their sense of justice to grant them bounty. It is believed that nearly all of this latter class failed to receive a farthing of their expected bounty. Not one who gave to Madison their credit, received a dollar, although it cost the city at that time as it did the towns generally, three hundred dollars each to hire men from home to fill their quota.
The veteran boys felt that great injustice was done them by these towns, in which opinion we all share.
VETERANS
NINETEENTH INFANTRY
Capt. A. P. Ellinwood
Lieut. C. A. Chandler
Isaac N. Bingman
Clarence A. Danforth
Eugene A. Dwinnell
Osgood H. Dwinnell
Charles Day
James Castle
Julius Castle
Peter Empser
Edward Bulow
Leroy Dickins
Wesley Dickins
John Dongal
Frank Henry
Christoph Evers
John H. Fosnot
Nelson Gardner
Dexter Green
Ephraim Haines
Charles Holt
James M. Hobby
Wm. Horsch
Edward L. Leonard
Giles Livingston
TWELFTH INFANTRY
Aug. H. Johnson
James Miles
Spencer S. Miles
Elias Pond
Morris E. Seeley
TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY
G. Morgan Jones
FOURTH CAVALRY
Milo Seele
FOURTH BATTERY
Addison Day
Wm. Miller
Walter O. Pietzsch
Frank Pettyes
Benj. S. Pitts
Newman W. Pitts
Alvah Rathbun
Julius M. Sparks
Alfred Steese
Richard Thorn
Franklin Winchester
John Sanborn
Baldwin Rathbun
Chas. Reifenrath
THE DEAD
Of the one hundred and forty-six who enlisted from Reedsburg, thirty-three lost their lives, being about one in four. Of these, five were sons of ministers of the gospel, one of them, Wm. Pollock, died of disease at Young’s Point, Miss., Jan. 24th, 1868, whose name was omitted in the list heretofore published.
THE WOUNDED
Col. R. M. Strong and Capt. Giles Stevens were wounded in battle and recovered. Also, Clarence Danforth, Eugene Dwinnell, Joseph and John Fosnot, Geo. Fosnot, Irving Carver, James Miles and Wallace Holton. G. H. Flautt and Richard Thorn were wounded accidently.
PENSIONERS
The following named soldiers are entitled to pensions, most of whom applied for, and are receiving it. Col. R. M. Strong, E. A. Dwinnell, C. A. Danforth, Joseph, George and Samuel Fosnot, James Miles, and Wallace Holton.
PRISONERS
The prisoners of war were Col. R. M. Strong, confined at Libby prison, Richmond, VA; and Isaac Bingman, Osgood Dwinnell, Peter Empser, Nelson Gardner, Wm. Miller, Walter Pietzsch, Newman Pitts, Giles Livingston, and Franklin Winchester, all of whom were of the 19th Regiment and captured with Col. Strong at Fair Oaks, VA, Oct. 24th , 1864, confined a short time at Libby and then transferred to Salisbury, N.C., where they were kept four months. Wm. Miller died of wound, at Richmond, and Newman Pitts of disease while prisoner.*
Frank Henry was for a short time a prisoner. Albert Dixon alleges that he was for some months a captive and endured severe sufferings in rebel prisons, but his comrades did not award him a large amount of sympathy, for the reason, as they say, that it was the result of his own wrong.
In August, 1864, several of our citizens entered the service of the government as mechanics, and were sent into the South, where most of them soon were attacked with disease and were discharged. Sidney West died on his journey home. His body was brought here for burial.
HOW THEY VOTED
At the breaking out of the war, the voters of this town were divided about equally between the Republican and Democratic parties. The political attachment of the soldiers as they entered the army was as follows, classing those who were minors, with the fathers of each in political preference. Unknown, seven, Democrats, thirty-three, Republicans one hundred and six.
(* Salisbury military prison was situated in one of the best agricultural counties of the state, where there was plenty of grain, while the prisoners were starving. The United States authority and sanitary commission, forwarded for their use and comfort, through rebel hands, a good supply of clothing and blankets, which were never delivered to them. It cannot be doubted that the Southern leaders deliberately starved their prisoners in order to weaken the Federal army.)
Reedsburg Free Press July 19, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (4)
By S. A. Dwinnell
History of Company B, Twelfth Regiment. (Chapter first)
On the second day of September 1861, Giles Stevens, a lawyer of this village, having received a commission from Gov. Randall for that purpose, commenced enlisting a military company, called “The Pioneer Rifles.” At the end of the first week, forty had been enrolled and sworn into the State service. In a short time the company was filled up, mostly from the towns of Winfield, Westfield, Ironton, LaValle, Reedsburg, Wonewoc and Hillsboro, Wisconsin. This village was its place of rendezvous and drill. Giles Stevens was chosen Captain, B. F. Blackmon, of Ironton, 1st Lieut., and J. W. Lusk, of this town, 2nd Lieut., and were duly commissioned by the State.
On the evening of October 28th, a meeting was held in the Basement of the Presbyterian church, at which swords were presented to the officers by the citizens, and presentation speeches made.
On the morning of October 30th, the people and friends of the soldiers assembled to bid them adieu, and in some instances, as the result proved, a last greeting. They were taken in wagons to Spring Green, on their way to Camp Randall, at Madison, WI. As they passed out of the village, the citizens, under direction of Captain F. A. Wier, lined the street south of the flouring mill of S. Mackey & Co., and gave them three cheers at parting. This was the first company which had then left the north-western portion of Sauk County for the war, and it awakened new and sad emotions in many souls.
The company was mustered into the United States service and assigned to the 12th Regiment of Infantry as company B., George E. Bryant was their Colonel.
The Regiment left Camp Randall for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, January 11th, 1862, 1,049 in number, the largest
that had then left the state. There was considerable religious interest in the regiment. Prayer Meetings were regularly held, and a number professed conversion to Christ. It was armed with Belgian rifles and had Sibley tents and was well equipped throughout.
The Regiment was unable to cross the Mississippi at Quincy, IL on account of the condition of the ice, and marched down to Douglassville, IL, opposite Hannibal, MO, a distance of twenty-two miles. There they spent the night of the 13th, with the temperature twenty degrees below zero, and had no place of rest after their tedious march, but to lie down on the frozen ground, without tents, on the banks of the river.
Crossing the Mississippi, they rode from Hannibal to Weston, Missouri, for twenty-four hours, chiefly in open cars, without fire, lights, or warm food, and as a result over one hundred were in a few days on the list of the sick. Captain Stevens’ company being on the left of the regiment and being the last to cross the river, were detailed to take charge of the baggage and load it upon the train. This they did in a driving snow storm. The other companies having proceeded on their way as before stated, company B was left to take the regular passenger train, and thus was not exposed to the perils and sufferings of their companions in arms.
From Weston they marched early in the spring, one hundred sixty miles south, to Ft. Scott, then back to Lawrence, Kansas, which place they left April 20th, for Fort Riley, one hundred and five miles west, by way of Topeka, KS, where they shared with many other troops in a general review.
The great Southwestern expedition to New Mexico, to which they were destined, having been abandoned, the company with the whole command, was ordered back to Leavenworth, KS, which they reached May 27th, and joined in another grand review. On the 29th, they moved to St. Louis, MO on the way to Corinth, MS, landed in Columbus, Kentucky June 2nd, and were engaged for some months in repairing the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and scouring the country in search of bridge-burners and bushwhackers. They subsequently moved to Union City, TN, thence to Humbolt, Tennessee. While at that post, Captain Stevens, in command of his own and two other companies, was ordered to Huntington, in that State, to drive out a force of the enemy. This they effected, pursuing them until they crossed the Tennessee river, when they returned to camp.
On the 4th of October the regiment was removed to Pocahontas, TN to take part in the battle of Hatchie, then in progress, to prevent Van Dorn in his northward movement, which was effected. They formed the reserve and were not in action and thence marched to Bolivar, Tennessee. They continued at that place till November 3rd, when they commenced their march to the South with the “army of the Mississippi,” under General [Ulysses S.] Grant. On the 4th they reached La Grange, TN, and on the 8th the twelfth led the advance of a large force under command of Gen. [James B.] McPherson, on a reconnoitering expedition, towards Holly Springs, MS, near which a heavy rebel force was known to be encamped. They marched within eleven miles of that place, when companies A and B were deployed as skirmishers, and advanced to the supposed position of the rebels, but they had retreated, and the regiment moved up and bivouacked on the site of the rebel camp. The expedition returned the next to La Grange, having captured one hundred and fifty prisoners. November 28th, they moved southward to Holly Springs and Lumpkin’s Mill, and December 12th, to Yocona Creek, having a severe march down the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad, with the probable object of attacking Vicksburg, MS in the rear. Holly Springs, which cut them off from their base of supplies, having been captured by Van Dorn, obliged General Grant to retrace his steps, and the 12th went into camp again at Lumpkin’s Mill, on the 27th of December.
In January 1863 they moved to Moscow, Tennessee, thence to Lafayette, then to Collinsville, and March 14th to Memphis, TN. April 18th, Col. Bryant commanded an expedition to attack the rear of the rebel General [James R.] Chalmers’ forces, while General Smith should attack in front. In a skirmish in which seven rebel officers and sixty men fell into our hands, Captain Stevens’ company was under fire, but sustained no loss. The next day they came upon the enemy eight miles south of Hernando, MS in a strong position, but being too weak in numbers and awaiting reinforcements, did not attack all which movements were intended to hold the enemy in that vicinity while Colonel [Benjamin H.] Grierson made his famous raid through Mississippi. May 11th they embarked at Memphis, disembarked just out of range of the enemy’s guns above Vicksburg, MS, marched across the peninsula opposite the town, embarked again and landed at Grand Gulf, MS. After the valuable army stores had been removed from that place, the regiment proceeded up the river to Warrenton, where they joined the fourth division, under General [John G.] Lauman, and took position in fortifications before Vicksburg, MS. They were engaged in reducing that important fortress until the surrender of that place by Pemberton to Grant, July 4th
As illustrating the nature and perils of the siege, the following incidents may be related. One night Captain Stevens received orders to advance his line of works to a distance of some rods towards that of the rebels, to a certain designated locust tree. Preparatory to doing it, he detailed ten men, among them James Miles, to form a skirmish line and proceed to the spot and feel for the enemy. Giving orders to another detail of twenty men to take their entrenching tools and prepare for an advance to dig a new line of rifle pits, he proceeded alone to reconnoiter. When within some twelve feet of the tree above named, he received an order to halt, which he at once obeyed, supposing at first, however,
that it came from one of his own skirmishers. He soon discovered from the sound of their voices, his mistake, and knowing that if he allowed himself to be taken prisoner without any alarm, the details of men that were about to proceed to the spot, might one after another, suffer a similar fate, until his whole command would be “gobbled up.” He resolved to retreat at double quick at all hazards, in doing which the rebels fired a volley upon him; but he escaped unharmed.
The result proved that he had encountered a regiment of the enemy, out between the lines of the two armies on reconnaissance. Inman and his men having filed too far to the right, and having advanced to a point between the rebel works and this regiment of the enemy, had just discovered them, and mistaking them for a picket post, were preparing to take them prisoners and bring them into camp, when the firing revealed their mistake, and led them to retreat to their line of works for protection. Their rifle pits were at once attacked by the enemy, a brisk firing on both sides was kept up for two hours, when the rebels retreated to their entrenchments.
During this attack, James Miles after drawing up and firing at the flash of one of the enemy’s guns, discovered upon attempting to reload, that the ramrod of his rifle had been hit by a rebel ball, and bent the upper band being shattered, the ball glancing down to the ground, thus saving his life.
Closely related to the fall of Vicksburg was the second battle of Jackson, the Capital of Mississippi. On the 12th of July, Captain Stevens being in command of the regiment, received an order to detail three hundred men to act as skirmishers, his whole command numbering but four hundred and fifty at that time. He afterwards received orders to join his regiment to the assaulting column. In reply to the order, he asked that the three hundred detailed skirmishers might first be returned to his command, but it was found that they were three miles away. Another regiment was then ordered into the charge in place of his. That regiment was repulsed with terrible loss. Thus the 12th was Providentially saved from being fearfully decimated.
Returning to Vicksburg, MS they suffered much from sickness. August fifteenth, the regiment embarked for Natchez, MS. September 1st they had the advance in an expedition to Harrisonburg, Louisiana, commanded by General [Marcellus M.] Crocker. November 22nd they embarked at Natchez for Vicksburg, and went ten miles east, to guard the railroad near the Big Black [River]. December 4th they returned to Vicksburg and embarked for Natchez again, where they joined a strong force sent out in pursuit of Wert Adams’ command. January 23rd, 1864, they embarked for Vicksburg, where five hundred and twenty of the men re-enlisted. In February they formed a part of Sherman’s celebrated Meridian expedition, marching more than two hundred miles eastward and back, Captain Stevens, in command of six Companies, forming the rear guard. General [William T.] Sherman had directed that the troops should subsist from the country through which they passed. On the outward march, Sergeant Inman, James Miles, and one other, man were detailed on a foraging expedition, to bring in subsistence. Passing down the Railroad track, at a point where it diverged from the traveled road, over which the troops were marching, they were soon widely separated from any support from their companions in arms, and near the confines of a little town in which rebel troops were seen. Turning aside to a neighboring plantation, they confiscated a four mule team and wagon, loaded it with bacon and other supplies, and joined their command in safety. It was regarded by all, as a feat of great daring. On the 13th of March, the re-enlisted men went home on veteran furloughs of forty days.
(NOTE. In writing this chapter, I have used in some instances, the language of “Love’s History of Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion,” without giving credit by marks of quotation his language and my own being often so intermingled as to render it difficult to do it. I may do the same in the future.)
Reedsburg
Free Press July 26, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE
WAR (5)
By S. A. Dwinnell History of Company B, Twelfth Regiment.
(Chapter Second)
On the 10th of April, 1864, General Sherman received instructions, from Lieutenant General Grant, to proceed on his campaign, from Chattanooga, Tennessee, through Georgia. His forces had been re-organized, and consisted of the army of the Ohio, under Major General Schofield, the army of the Cumberland, under Major General Thomas, and the army of the Tennessee, under Major General McPherson, and consisted of 97,797 men, infantry, cavalry and artillery, and 254 guns. The rebel army under Johnson, marshalled to meet them, numbered about 54,000 under Hardee, Hood and Polk.
The first design of the Campaign was to reach Atlanta, one hundred and thirty-eight miles distant, an important town and a large manufacturing place where an immense amount of arms, ammunition and clothing, for the rebel army, was made. The country to be passed over, was part of the way, mountainous, and at the most important points and passes on the route, such as Resseca [Resaca] and Kennesaw mountain, GA, the enemy was strongly entrenched.
The last chapter left Captain Stevens’ company the veterans at home on furlough, and the non-veterans and
recruits near Vicksburg. The latter class received orders to rejoin the former at Cairo, and all proceeded on their way to take their place again in the seventeenth corps, under Blair, in the army of the Tennessee, under McPherson, which they effected on the 8th of June, at Ackworth [Acworth], Georgia. From this time they were engaged in battle or skirmishes much of the time being under fire more or less, as Captain Stevens says, every day until early in September following.
A few miles on this side of Kenesaw [Kennesaw] mountain, Charles Reifenrath, of this town, was mortally wounded on skirmish line, and died soon after.
BEFORE ATLANTA
Jefferson Davis had long been unfriendly towards General [Joseph E.] Johnston, and desired to witness his public disgrace. His failure to hold the Federal army in check in their campaign from Chattanooga, TN, afforded Davis an opportunity to carry out his design, although it is doubtful whether any other of his Generals, with a force so much inferior to that of the Union army, would have done better for the weak and waning cause of the Confederacy.
On the 17th of July, Johnston was removed and Hood, who was one of their best fighting Generals at that time although impetuous, rash and unfit to command a large army was appointed in his place. Hood, evidently desirous of striking quick and brilliant blows upon Sherman’s army, immediately upon taking command of the Confederate troops, commenced some of the most dashing and furious onsets upon our arms, experienced during the war.
Sherman, instead of attacking the place from the south-west, as the rebels evidently expected, moved around to the north-east, where the battle of Peach Tree Creek was fought, on the afternoon of July 20th, by which the rebels were forced back to their last general line of defences, on that side of the city, on the night following.
Bald Hill, which was evidently considered by the rebels as a commanding position, is upon the East of Atlanta, GA, and the attack of the July 21st, was made from that side, where the altitude was not high, and the ascent was easy. The Twelfth and Sixteenth Wisconsin Regiments were in the first Brigade of General Leggett’s division, on the extreme left of the line, towards the South. In the assault upon the enemy’s work on that morning, by these regiments, Company B of the 12th, were deployed as Skirmishers, three rods in front of the 16th Regiment. They crossed a cornfield and charged up the hill under a withering fire from the enemy’s entrenchments. When near the works of the enemy, it is according to the rules of war, for skirmishers to drop upon the ground and allow the main body to pass over them, before uniting in the charge. But Company B, mistaking a word of encouragement, from their Captain, addressed to the men of the 16th Regiment, for a command, still rushed on, and pushed at once into the enemy’s entrenchments. But the 16th was soon to their support, and the rebels fled to another line of works.
Love’s History says of this assault: “The men pressed forward without wavering, entered the rebel works with loud cheers and then commenced a hand to hand fight, with bayonets and the butts of their muskets. When finally they drove out the desperate rebels and held the works, the ground was strewn with dead and wounded.” There was no bayonet fighting, however, on the left wing where Company B was engaged.
In this charge, L. B. Cornwell, of Winfield, WI, J. E. Wickersham and Amos Ford, of Ironton, WI were killed, and Spencer Miles mortally wounded. James Miles was severely wounded on picket duty, previous to the charge on that morning. During the night following, the captured entrenchments were changed, so as to face Atlanta. A slight earthwork was made on their left, running South, and about three feet high, after the battle of the next day commenced, to prevent an enfilading fire from that side.
Captain Stevens’ Company was on the extreme left of the line, at the angle of these earth-works, extending along those that faced to the west, and also those that faced south. The events of the following day proved their position to be one of great importance in the estimation of the rebels and one of extreme peril to themselves.
About noon on the 22nd, there were indications that Hood was about to make an attack. The infuriated rebels soon moved to a charge, both on the west and south. It was the intention of General McPherson to prevent an attack from the South, by stationing a large force on that side, but the enemy discovered a gap between General [Grenville M.] Dodge’s moving column and General [Francis P. Jr.] Blair’s line, and pouring through it, commenced a furious attack from that quarter. General McPherson heard the firing, and riding through the woods to discover the cause, came suddenly upon a body of rebels who ordered him to surrender; but he put spurs to his horse and dashed into the forest. The deadly aim of rebel bullets was too certain, and he fell. His body was taken within the Confederate lines and held for a time.* His last command was to fill up that gap; but it required most desperate fighting to do it.
The rebel, Hardee, led this attack, but General Dodge repulsed him severely and captured many prisoners. The rebel, Stuart, who succeeded Polk, swept over a hill and captured some of our men, but was met by Generals Leggett and G. A. Smith and their forces, who fought him four hours, when he was about to withdraw. But at four in the afternoon a part of our forces having become weakened, was pierced and divided by the enemy, and at once the battle was renewed with great fierceness, but the Confederates were finally again repulsed. The yelling rebels swarmed around that hill like bees robbed of their hive. The smoke of battle and the missiles of death filled the air. Captain Stevens’ Company occupied a position, which more than any other, the enemy sought to possess. They were exposed to their fire
on the East, West and South, with only a slight protection, except on the West. It was only by the most determined resistance that the enemy were prevented from taking their works. During much of the entire afternoon, the missiles of death so filled the air, that one could hardly raise a hand or head above the embankment, without its being pierced. At the close of the day the rebel troops encamped upon one side of the entrenchments and ours on the other; but during the night the enemy fell back and left us in possession of the position. Here Captain Stevens was wounded, and Frank Henry fell, pierced through with several balls; and Caleb Clark, George Ford and Evert H. Hagaman were killed, and Wm. Richards mortally wounded. Company B was reduced, in the two days fighting, from seventy-four men and three officers, to twenty-three men and one officer. Their regiment, numbering less than six hundred in all, lost in the two days, one hundred and eighty-eight men. Our army, at the same time lost nearly 4,000. The rebel loss was some 12,000, of whom 3,240 were killed.
The twelfth regiment was in the movement, by Howard, toward the Macon Railway, July 28th, and when at noon, the fifteenth corps, two miles in advance were severely attacked, they moved rapidly forward, outstripping all other reenforcements, and joined in battle just in time to save the Federals from defeat. They lost on that day, nineteen in killed and wounded. Immediately after, they took position in the trenches before Atlanta, GA where they remained nearly a month. At Jonesboro, GA, August 31st, they joined in repulsing the enemy after a severe battle. September 1st they were also engaged, and the next day pursued the retreating foe. They next defended our communications against Hood, about which time the early enlisted non-veterans returned home, leaving the veterans and recruits to proceed with Sherman in his GRAND MARCH TO THE SEA, which commenced, from Atlanta, November 24th, 1864, with 60,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry and a large amount of artillery. On the march they destroyed 320 miles of railroad, severing thus the Confederate forces in Virginia, from those at the West. They burned railroad ties, heated and twisted rails, destroyed depots, shops, engine-houses and water-tanks. They burned 20,000 bales of cotton, besides capturing 25,000 at Savannah. There escaped from the plantations of their former masters, 10,000 negroes who followed our army to Savannah. Our entire loss was nine officers and 548 men, only about one half of whom were killed and wounded.
The army subsisted from the country through which they marched, chiefly on hogs, sheep, turkeys, geese, chickens, rice and sweet potatoes, foraged mostly from the plantations, and their subsistence was not scanty, even in a country where thousands of Union prisoners were starving in rebel stockades. There were issued to the troops, 13,000 head of beef cattle, 9,500,000 pounds of corn and 10,500,000 pounds of fodder. For the use of the army, 4,000 mules and 5,000 horses were taken.
The twelfth assisted, on the march, in the destruction of the Georgia Central Railroad, and reached the neighborhood of Savannah, GA, December 12th. They took position in the trenches and remained until the evacuation of the city. Proceeding with the seventeenth corps, by water, to Beaufort, SC they took part in the battle near Pocotaligo river.
In the campaign of the Carolinas, they crossed the Edisto river, marched through deep swamps, charged upon the rebels at Orangeburg, SC and drove them out of the place. They participated in the grand review of troops at Washington in May, and arrived at Louisville, Kentucky, June 7th, where they were mustered out, July 16th, and were paid and disbanded at Madison, Wisconsin August 9th, 1865.
(Note. In this chapter, as in the last, I have made free use of “Love’s History of Wisconsin in the war,” in most cases, without the usual marks of credit. *The statement that General McPherson’s body was taken within the Confederate lines and held for a time is authorized by Love’s History; but Elder F. I. Groat, of Ironton, who was a member of Company B, says that he was near by at the time; that as a member of the Pioneer Corps, he was not in the ranks, and had a good chance for observation, and is quite sure that his body was taken within our own lines and held.)
Reedsburg Free Press August 2, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR
(6)
By S. A. Dwinnell
History of Company A, Nineteenth Regiment. (Chapter First)
In December 1861, Rollin M. Strong having received a commission from Governor Randall for the purpose, resigned the office of Sheriff of the county, which he then held, and moving to Reedsburg, commenced enlisting a company, called the “Independent Rangers.” They proposed to unite with an Independent Regiment which the War Department had authorized Colonel Horace T. Sanders, of Racine, to raise and get in if possible, as Company A. The “independent” nature of the movement, together with the personal popularity of the recruiting officer among the boys, soon filled the company to its maximum, 108 in number, fifty-eight of whom enlisted from this town. Rollin M. Strong was elected Captain, Henry A. Tator 1st Lieutenant, and Alex P. Ellinwood 2nd lieutenant.
They remained in this village, for preparation and drill, until Sunday, January 26th, 1862, when much to the
displeasure and annoyance of the Christian people here they were ordered into camp at Racine, by way of Kilbourn City, WI [now Wisconsin Dells] to which place they were conveyed in sleighs by our citizens.
On the same day, at the close of services in the Congregational Church, a committee was appointed to communicate to Colonel Sanders, an expression of our deep sorrows, that the Lord’s day should have been unnecessarily violated by taking the company from our midst at such a time; to which he gave us a very respectful reply, attributing the movement to his adjutant, Van Slyke.
The regiment entered Camp Utley, Racine, WI, January 27th. Company A was mustered into the United States service February 22nd. By an order from the War Department, of the day previous, abolishing all Independent Regiments, Colonel Sanders’ organization was entered as the 19th Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry.
While at Racine the company was quartered near the bank of Lake Michigan and suffered considerably from the chilling winds from that body of water.
On the 20th of April the regiment was ordered to Camp Randall, at Madison, WI, to guard some 2,000 prisoners, which had then recently been captured at Fort Donelson, TN. Most of these prisoners were evidently from the poor whites of the South, rough in manners, degraded in appearance, and filthy in habits. It required the most rigid discipline to prevent their breeding a pestilence in camp. One company among them, the “Washington Artillery,” was from the educated classes of New Orleans, LA and refused to associate with their fellow prisoners.
Camp Randall, being the grounds of the State Agricultural Society, was surrounded by a high and solid board fence enclosing some twenty acres. The prisoners’ barracks were near the fence, whilst the quarters of the 19th regiment were in the central portion of the grounds. A guard was constantly on duty on the outside of the camp, as also on the inside, between the prisoners and the quarters of our troops. No intercourse was allowed between them and the soldiers, except in the line of duty.
Upon the removal of these prisoners to Camp Douglass, Chicago, IL, Company A accompanied them as a guard. Joining their regiment as it passed through that city, June 2nd, they proceeded at once, by way of Washington, to Fortress Monroe, VA in the vicinity of which place, they remained four weeks, performing guard and picket duty.
AT NORFOLK
About the first of July, 1862, they were ordered to report to General Viele, at Norfolk, VA where, and in the vicinity of which, they remained, in the performance of garrison and out-post duty, until April 14th, 1863. This regiment performed more of this species of service, it is believed, than any other of our State troops.
Although the men sometimes complained that they were kept so long from more active service in the field, yet they performed their duties with fidelity.
Norfolk was a city of about 15,000 inhabitants, with the suburban town of Portsmouth, with a population of 10,000 and nearly all of them were in deep sympathy with the rebellion. The regimental guard which had proceeded the 19th, in those cities, was understood to have used a good supply of “rose water treatment,” in dealing with the spirit of rebellion among the people, in which the commandant of the Post, General Viele, seemed to have more or less sympathy. The spirit of contempt and hatred towards the Yankee soldiers was especially manifest on the part of the females the men not daring to give expression of their feelings towards them. And the women manifested their hostility, more by acts and sneers and grimaces, than by words.
An incident, related by Sergt. C. A. Chandler, will illustrate their manners. Having business through the city in the line of duty, one day, he saw in advance of him upon the sidewalk, three young women conversing together. As he approached them they spread themselves across the entire walk, evidently intending to crowd him off the curbstone into the street; but he marched directly along, upon the outer portion of the walk, brushing quite hard the clothing, and jostling the person, of the most impudent of the trio; where upon she snarled out some expression of contempt for Yankee soldiers.
The Sergeant stopped, and turning to the young women, told them that the soldiers had rights in that city as well as they that it was useless to attempt to crowd them into the gutter, and it would be much better to succumb to their fate, than to resist; to which they made no reply, and he passed on his way.
The soldiers would sometimes hang out the United States flag, over the sidewalk, in front of their quarters, if for no other purpose than to see the women leave the walk and take to the street, or pass to the other side, as they approached it. At one time, upon one of the large thoroughfares, some of their number hung a flag over the walks on each side of the street, so that to pass under it or take to the street and mingle with the passing vehicles, was the only alternative. This treatment on the part of the troops restrained these acts of hostility and contempt towards them, and their rights were some outwardly respected.
Reedsburg Free Press August 9, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (7)
By S. A. Dwinnell History of Company A, Nineteenth Regiment. (Chapter Two)
Company A, with the regiment, continued efficient service at Norfolk, VA in guard and picket duty a favorite with the law and order portion of the citizens. They were commended by the Union, a newspaper, at that time published in the city, for “their exemplary conduct and quiet bearing.” By their gentlemanly and quiet deportment they commanded the respect, and by their vigilance in the discharge of their duty they excited the wholesome fear of those who hated them.
New Year’s day, of 1863, the Slaves became free, under the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln. It was a high day in Norfolk. The negroes had a grand procession in commemoration of the event. A serious outbreak was feared by the excited populace. Extra guards were posted for preserving order and quelling the first symptoms of an outbreak; but none occurred. None need have been expected. It is not in man to avenge an act of merited justice done to themselves.
During the day the regiment called upon Colonel Viele, at his quarters, under whose command they had served for eight months. He made an appropriate address and commended them in these words: “Trusted with important duties and responsibilities, you have not in one instance failed to fulfill them. Stationed among those who felt little kindness towards you, you have daily exhibited a noble forbearance. When no courtesy was shown you, you have not failed magnanimously to show pity towards the many misguided people, whom the enemy have left here unprotected, who have made petty efforts to annoy you.”
General Dix, the commandant of that Department, had previously, in a letter addressed to Governor Salomon, of our State, made honorable mention of the regiment, and commended their conduct as creditable to themselves, and honorable to the commonwealth from which they came.
SIEGE OF SUFFOLK
Upon the banks of the Nansemond [River], VA, flowing to one of the inlets of the James river, and about thirty miles from Norfolk, is the little village of Suffolk. At the junction of the two Railways, it was an important strategic point, and was held by General Peck, with a force of 14,000 men. By the capture of a rebel mail, he learned of an intended surprise upon his forces, by Longstreet, one of the most able and daring of the rebel commanders. “Longstreet, Hill and Hood came rushing upon our lines,” says Abbott’s History, “with five divisions of the rebel army, expecting to sweep all resistance before them. They were met with solid shot, and bursting shells, and bristling steel. They had not cherished a doubt of their ability to cross the narrow Nansemond, seize the railroad in the rear of Suffolk, capture the city and its garrison, with all its vast stores, and then, after a holiday march, to occupy Portsmouth, and Norfolk.”
General Peck was on the alert, obtained a few wooden gun-boats from Admiral Lee, threw up defences, and sent to Norfolk, VA for guns and troops.
On the 14th of April, 1863, the Nineteenth received orders to move to Suffolk, to reinforce the place started by train at ten o’clock P. M. reached the place at three o’clock A. M. disembarked went two mile further in a drenching rain and Egyptian darkness, to the camp of the 21st Connecticut, a large detail of whose men were out on picket, where most of our men obtained shelter in the tents of the friendly soldiers, and others were exposed to the severity of the storm until morning. They now had 600 men on duty.
At five in the evening an order was received to march to Jericho Creek, where they pitched their tents, which had now been brought forward.
One night they spent in rifle pits on the Nansemond [River] boys had their first sight of rebs, in arms anxious to get a shot at them.
Saturday night, April 21st, a large detail was made from Company A, under Sergeant C. A. Chandler, and one hundred and sixty from the regiment, under Lieutenant Ellinwood and another officer, to build a corduroy road, three hundred yards over a miry marsh, and a rough bridge over a creek, thirty feet in width, for the transportation of cannon, to a piece of rising ground in the marsh. This was effected on that night and the one following, the soldiers carrying much of the timber for the road from half to three fourths of a mile.
On Friday night previous, company A, with five others, had marched down the river; and gone into rifle pits, under command of Major [Alvin E.] Bovay, opposite the rebel battery at Hill’s Point, on the Nansemond. The battery consisted of five splendid brass guns, four of them twelve pound Howitzers, and one twenty-five pounder. General Peck proposed to take this battery, and sent to Major Bovay for his men to join with other troops in the enterprise. Major Bovay plead that they were unfit for the dangerous expedition, having always been on guard and picket duty and never under fire, and thus obtained a countermanding order. When his men heard of this, they were fired with indignation at
their commander and called him a granny, unfit for his position. They were anxious for active work, and were just ready for such a daring feat.
Other troops two hundred in all were detailed for the enterprise, under command of Colonel John E. Ward, of the 8th Connecticut, who crossed over in a gun-boat landed unexpectedly rushed up the river-bank and along a ravine charged upon the rear of the fort, and captured men and guns without firing a shot on either side. This neat little affair has an honorable place in the history of the War and threw a halo of military glory around the actors in it. The men of the Nineteenth Regiment felt deeply chagrined, not only because they were not permitted to share in the hazard and the honor of the enterprise, but also because the conduct of Major Bovay gave countenance of a false charge preferred against them of shirking duty, and grumbling; which resulted in the publication of an order of the General commanding, soon after, relieving them from duty on the line of the river defences, and ordering them into camp at Suffolk, VA an order given, no doubt, in a moment of petulance arising from an incorrect statement of one of his staff officers, who fell out with Major Bovay.
From April 25th to April 30th, Company A, under Captain Strong, were on picket duty on the Nansemond in rifle pits the first thirty-six hours in the rain, without tents and without rest, except what they could get lying on the ground in their wet and chilled condition. Here they built and manned Fort Wisconsin, VA. There was a rebel battery on the opposite side of the river, about three fourths of a mile from them, between which and the river stretched a wide strip of marsh, covered with a growth of tall grass, through which the rebel sharp-shooters could crawl, concealed, to the river bank, and fire upon our men. Various unavailing efforts were made to shoot over combustible material and ignite the grass, when Nelson Gardner and Ephraim Haines, of Reedsburg, volunteered to swim the river, which was about twentyfive rods wide at that point, and set fire to the grass. They were accepted by Captain Strong, and concealing matches in their hair and wearing their hats, leaped over the ramparts plunged into the river swam over unobserved by the enemy set fire to the grass rested a short time under the bank and returned in safety; although subject, all the way, to a shower of balls from the enemy’s battery, and an enfilading fire from the rifle pits lower down the river. This dangerous feat has honorable mention in the history of the war; although the name of but one of the boys is given.
Soon after this, Company A, with about a brigade of other troops, were, for about two weeks, on a reconoissance [reconnaissance] towards the Blackwater their rations failing obliged to forage from the country found a crib of corn concealed in a swamp carried it to a rebel mill miller refused to grind gave him the alternative of surrendering his mill to their use, or being returned to headquarters as a prisoner he chose the former had two millers in Company A, Wm. Sweatland and Wm. D. Hobby set them to grinding the corn, confiscating pigs from the woods, lived in Southern fashion, on “hog and hominy” for several days.
From May 23rd to June 17th, the regiment were at Suffolk, performing ordinary fatigue duty and drill. June 18th at Yorktown, VA, encamped outside the old fortifications until the 25th, when they were ordered to West Point, where they remained until July 8th, when they received orders to return to Yorktown.
Reedsburg Free Press August 16, 1872
RECORD
OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (8)
By S. A. Dwinnell
History of Company A, Nineteenth Regiment. (Chapter Three)
AT YORKTOWN
Yorktown, VA is on the York river, 15 miles above Fortress Monroe. The stream at this point is about a mile in width, and the harbor will float the largest ships of war. It was strongly fortified during the Revolution. It was here that Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army of 7,000 men, with their munitions of war, to General Washington in October 1781, which in its results secured from Great Britain an acknowledgement of our independence as a nation.
The old fort contained an area of about twenty acres. In the early part of the war of the Rebellion the Confederacy built a new fort, enclosing the old one, and containing some forty acres.
With these and some other works, they frightened McClellan, when on his famous pick and spade expedition up the Peninsula in 1862, to spending a month in entrenching before he dared to move upon their works. Just as he got ready to do it, the enemy vanished, much to his disappointment and chagrin.
The last chapter left the 19th regiment at Yorktown. This village, of some half dozen homes, is within the fort. Two of them built on brick, bore the marks of solid shot thrown into their walls during the bombardment of our army, previous to Cornwallis’ surrender.
The 19th, which occupied the fort in conjunction with several other regiments, were stationed in the north-west portion of the grounds, which had been used by the rebels as a kind of Ghehenna [Gehenna] or a place for the burial of horses and mules.
The regiment were supplied with the Sibley tent. For the purpose of giving a better circulation of air, stakes were driven in the earth and the tents pitched upon the top of them. A large portion of these stakes, when driven touched upon the carcass of some of the buried animals, and the boys were obliged to breathe, constantly, the miasma arising from them. One of the members of Company A says that he drove stakes in the earth, and placing a board upon them, slept upon it; and that he was the only member of the company who escaped sickness at that time. Some of the men who were quartered there, climbed into mulberry trees and fastening boards in secure positions to the limbs, slept on them.
The old fort had been a perfect breeding place and refuge for rats, and the town was over-run with them. At night they held high carnival. A person walking the street could often toss them with his toe. The boys were obliged to cover up face and ears with their blankets when they slept, to save them from being bitten. The three or four wells in the place were cleaned out every day or two, taking out from them, from half a dozen to half a bushel of dead carcasses each time.
There was a fine spring outside the fort, but no permission could be obtained from General Wistar to bring water from it. Sickness began to prevail. Rations were given away to the colored people. One very old man, formerly a slave, who said he lived there in the days of the revolution and remembered those scenes well, received one hundred loaves at one time. The ranks were thinned and Hampton hospital filled up. During four weeks in which they were in camp there, four hundred out of about seven hundred were sent there, nineteen-twentieths of whom were sick with miasmatic fevers. Col. Sanders made several applications to Gen. Wistar, the commandant of the Post, for the removal of his regiment to a more healthy locality; and although there seemed to be no good reason why it should not be done, as there was no enemy within sixty miles, his applications were unheeded. Colonel Sanders finally succeeded through his skill as a lawyer in working up a case in obtaining an order from higher officials, for their removal to Newport News, VA, from which place one hundred and fifty more were at once ordered to Hampton, VA hospital. The few who were left outside the hospital were all partial invalids, unfit for severe fatigue duty.
It is but justice to the members of the regiment, to say that they all regarded Wistar as an unfeeling brute.
From this recital we can see that the sufferings of army life are by no means confined to the battle field, or to active service before the enemy, and that immense suffering may come to an army from the wanton disregard of the health and life of his troops by a single officer.
On the 10th of October, 1863, the regiment left Newport News, VA, on transport, for NEW BERN, N. C., at which place they landed on the 11th. This is one of the finest towns in the State, containing about five thousand inhabitants and situated at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers. The rebels considered it an important position, and had strongly fortified it early in the war. It was wrested from their hands by the bravery of the Union troops under General [Ambrose E.] Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough, in February 1862.
Upon the arrival of the regiment in New Bern, Company A was assigned to out post and picket duty at Evans’ Mills on Brice’s Creek, eight miles south of the city. At that place was a saw and flouring mill and a large plantation which had belonged to General Evans, of the Rebel army. The officers were quartered in the Evans mansion, and the soldiers in barracks erected for the purpose. From the west and south there was but one place of access, on account of intervening swamps, and that was across the mill-dam, and this enabled the Company to hold the position against superior numbers of the enemy.
At the time of the attack upon New Bern, NC, by the rebels, on the first of February 1864, Company A was attacked by a brigade of cavalry and a battery of artillery. They sent to New Bern for reinforcements and received three Companies of Cavalry and a twelve pound howitzer and men to work it. With this assistance they held the rebels in check three days. Captain Tator, who was in command of the out-post, and who was an efficient officer, sent out a cavalry scout several times a day, to watch the enemy and ascertain their position and what they were doing. At one time they found them building a bridge, evidently for the purpose of bringing over their artillery for an attack; but a severe shelling from the howitzer prevented their doing it. It is probable that the manifest boldness and daring of the Union troops, led the enemy to the conclusion that the force at the out-post was much superior to what it really was.
On the morning of February 3rd, Captain Tator received orders from General [John M.] Palmer, commanding at New Bern, to fall back to the city, soon after which, the rebels, guided by a Sesesh planter residing in the neighborhood, named Wood, marched around the swamps on the south, and coming in on the rear, took possession of the place. Company A was thus fortunately saved from being taken prisoners.
Upon their evacuation of the place, they burned their barracks and other property which they could not take with them. The rebels destroyed other property, and undertook to burn the Evans mansion, but the fire went out before much damage was done. The Confederates soon abandoned the position and Company A was reinstated. In rebuilding their barracks they tore down some buildings formerly used as slave cabins. In one of them was found an old rebel pay roll on which the name Wood, as a recruiting officer appeared; whereupon Lieut. Ellinwood and a small detail of men went out to his plantation and brought him in as prisoner. He was sent to New Bern, and from thence was delivered to the tender mercies of General [Benjamin] Butler, the commandant of the department at Fortress Monroe, who ordered him into confinement at the Rip Raps.
Reedsburg Free Press August 23, 1872
REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (9)
By S. A. Dwinnell
History of Company A, Nineteenth Regiment.
(Chapter Four)
In the latter part of April, 1864, the Regiment was transferred to Yorktown, VA, where a week was spent in reorganizing the army of the James. Company A was under the command of Captain Tator. The regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Strong. It was assigned to the third brigade under Colonel Sanders first Division under General Brooks the Eighteenth Army Corps under General Baldy Smith the Army of the James under General Butler. Accompanied by a few gun boats, the whole army was taken by transports, to City Point and Bermuda Hundred, where they landed May 6th, taking the rebels completely by surprise. The whole movement, up to this point, was admirably planned and executed.
From May 5th to the 9th, the army lay at Bermuda Hundred, except a portion of the troops who were engaged in digging lines of entrenchments across the peninsula, from the James [River] to Appomattox, VA, a mile or so from their confluence. On the 11th and 12th, the Nineteenth, with other troops, tore up and destroyed eight miles of the Richmond and Petersburg railroad, burning the ties and bending the rails.
On Friday, May 13th, the Nineteenth assisted in taking a line of rebel works, in front of Fort Jackson, and on the next day another line of works still nearer, where George Fosnot was wounded. These entrenchments were in the neighborhood of Drury’s [Drewry’s] Bluff, VA, on the James. About four o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, the rebels got the range of our troops and two men of the regiment were killed by shells.
On Sunday, loud cheering was heard by the Nineteenth, along the lines towards Richmond. Through rebel prisoners, afterwards taken, they learned that General [Pierre] Beauregard, with his troops from Charleston, SC had arrived, and that General R. E. Lee and Jefferson Davis were there reviewing their forces.
On Monday morning, May 16th, there was a dense fog and the rebels were early on the advance. Companies A and E, of the Nineteenth, were nearer the rebel lines than the others. Col. Strong, wishing to ascertain their position and give an order for their retreat to a position of greater safety, started out on reconnaissance. When but a short distance from his regiment, he found himself captured by four stalwart Tennesseeans. They were lost in the fog and did not know the direction of their own troops, from whom they were separated. Col. Strong at once entered into familiar conversation with them, and expressed the desire to be taken immediately within their lines, as he had been without rest for fortyeight hours and greatly needed sleep. Reposing some confidence in him as their guide, they were adroitly led in the direction of his regiment, who were lying down. When near his own men, he asked to be released from the grasp of his captors, sufficiently to take out his pocket handkerchief. The instant he was free, he bounded towards his regiment and gave the command, “attention!” in such a tone that they arose and brought their rifles upon the Tennesseeans, who cried out, “don’t fire,” and were soon sent to the rear as prisoners, expressing their satisfaction that they had fallen into the hands of the Union troops.
During the day the rebels pressed upon our troops and drove them at all points. During the afternoon the Nineteenth was ordered to dislodge the enemy, who was concealed in timber. To do it they were obliged to march across an open field, eighty rods, exposed all the way to a raking fire. For some reason they were not ordered to the charge upon the double quick as usual.
During the day the regiment lost thirty-two in killed and wounded. Company A lost 8. S. Pitts, killed, and W. T. Reynolds, J. H. Stull, A. C. Tuttle, John Fosnot, John Thorn, H. C. Feegles, and Charles Day, wounded. It was noticed that nearly all who were at this time wounded in the regiment, died, even where they suffered but slight flesh wounds, which led to the supposition that the balls of the enemy were poisoned.
The regiment was ordered to Point of Rocks, on the south of the Appomattox [River], and some ten miles from Bermuda Hundred. While there, they were out on a raid upon the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, and tore up and destroyed some six or eight miles of the track. Some of the men were detailed to guard a baggage train sent to Grant’s army at Cold Harbor.
On the 20th of June they were ordered into the trenches on the southeast of Petersburg, VA. These trenches were the advanced line of works next to the enemy. They were on duty forty-eight hours and off duty for the same length of time. They were relieved at midnight and ordered upon duty at the same hour; so they had but one night of unbroken rest in four. While upon duty, they were constantly exposed to the shells of the enemy, both night and day. During the day they suffered from sharp-shooters.
June 29th S. Searl was killed while reading the Baraboo Republic, a ball glancing from the limb of a tree, passed into his head.
July 5th W. W. Holton was wounded and Ephraim Haines mortally so the latter by a sharpshooter. About the
same time, and near the same spot, a ball from the same direction passed between the legs of Sergt. C. A. Chandler.
July 13th Corp. L. H. Cohoon wounded by a shell.
August 6th C. A. Danforth severely wounded by a sharpshooter while eating his supper, the ball passing in at the shoulder and out through the left cheek, shattering the lower jaw.
August 7th R. Cheek killed by a sharpshooter.
August 18th the Veterans, two hundred and fifty in number, left on a furlough of forty days; soon after which the non-veterans were ordered to Norfolk to engage in provost general duty.
Reedsburg Free Press August 30, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (10)
By S. A. Dwinnell History of Company A, Nineteenth Regiment. (Chapter Five)
Upon the return of the veterans from their furlough, about the first of October, they were ordered to report at Chapin’s Farm, on the north of the James, before Richmond, VA. On the evening of October 26th, the men of the nineteenth, with Butler’s eighteenth corps, moved out from their line near Dutch Gap canal, advanced northward, and the next day, in the afternoon, formed near the old Fair Oaks battlefield, VA. They would easily have taken the defences had not the enemy learned of our movement and sent reinforcements rapidly from Petersburg. The Nineteenth regiment advanced with the other troops to assault the rebel works. Lieut. Col. Strong says: “The Regiment emerged from the pines and came out on a clear open field, about two hundred yards from the works. As we broke cover, the rebels opened on us furiously with artillery, and cut us up badly. Upon seeing the rebel works, the boys cheered lustily and advanced rapidly, closing up the breaks in the ranks made by the artillery, and preserving a splendid line. Thus for about one hundred yards, where we were met by a perfect tornado of shot, shells, canister and minnie balls directly in our faces, mowing us down by scores. The regiment was decimated mere fragments of the line remained; dead and wounded covered the ground passed over. The few brave boys pressed forward with the same old cheer, and closed upon the colors. The order, ‘lie down,’ was given. Flesh and blood could go no further. Nothing could withstand the perfect blast of lead and iron that most murderous, scourging, devouring fire. We lay down and made as thin as possible. No power to move forward or backward, or to assist in the least, our wounded comrades. The same fearful telling fire was passing over us; to raise a head was death; a hand to be hit. It was raining now, fine rain-mist and the early dark of a rainy evening was slowly enveloping us, and our earnest prayer was, ‘night or Blucher,’ when beyond our left a yell was heard, and the hurried tramp of men, and we were surrounded and prisoners.” The Regiment numbered eight officers and one hundred and ninety men who went into the fight. Forty-four men only came back. Col. Strong was wounded by a sharp-shooter as he was making some observations to see if there was any chance for his men to get to the rear, after the order to lie down. His leg was amputated at Libby Prison [Richmond, VA].
Company A went in with thirty-six men and came out with thirteen. Corp. A. Rathbun was wounded so near the edge of the field that he was brought off on a stretcher. Sergt. E. A. Dwinnell was wounded in the head, thigh, left arm, and right hand, the latter severely, a minnie ball passing through it, and yet he backed off the field, some sixty rods, drawing his knapsack at his head, and escaped to a place of safety. Two balls in addition passed through his clothing.
Sergt. C. A. Chandler escaped from the field entirely unharmed in this manner. When he received the order to lie down, he saw a dead-furrow near him and he fell into that. The field had been sowed in wheat the summer previous, and a small growth of weeds grown up after the harvest. This furnished some protection. He raised up his head several times to look over the field and saw men attempt to run to the rear, but they uniformly fell after running a short distance. He discovered, also, that when he raised his head, he attracted a shower of balls, and found it necessary to keep quiet. After a time he began to back down the dead-furrow, drawing his knapsack at his head for some twenty rods, when the rising ground brought him out in full view of rebel works. He then got up and run obliquely across the field, to a ditch some twenty rods distant, which he remembered to have passed over as they advanced to the charge. During all the time he was running, there was a perfect storm of bullets whistling all around him. He has no doubt that hundreds were fired at him, and yet not one touched his person, and but one his clothing. Once in the ditch he escaped without difficulty.
Edward L. Leonard was in this battle but was in a Company of sharp-shooters. They crept along a ditch to a position about twelve rods from the rebel fort, where they lay and picked off the gunners. Occasionally the Rebs would pour an ineffectual charge of grape or canister at them. There was but one of their number wounded during the action.
Wm. Miller was mortally wounded in the battle. When the prisoners were being taken from the field, he asked the rebel guard to allow one of them to remain with him and take care of him. He was answered that it could not be allowed, but that some of their own men would be along soon and take care of him, which was no doubt done, as he is reported to have died in Richmond a few days subsequently.
Sergt. F. B. Palmer, whose family resided in this village [Reedsburg, WI] during the war, and who were highly respected, was killed during the action, but none of his comrades saw him fall. He carried the guidon on the right of his regiment and next to the 148th New York. A soldier of the latter regiment told E. A. Dwinnell that he was shot through the head. Major Vaughn escaped from the battle-field just as the rebels were charging out to secure their prisoners, and was in command of the regiment at Chapin’s Farm during the winter.
On the morning of April 3rd, 1865, the Nineteenth, with their brigade, was the first to enter Richmond, and their flag was the first to float over the captured capital of the dead Confederacy. Colonel Vaughn planted it upon the City Hall. When the regiment was ordered to advance upon the works before the city, the men expected to storm them, but found them evacuated.
The non-veterans were mustered out at the close of their term of service, April 28th. The others moved from Richmond to Fredericksburg, and on May 1st were consolidated into five Companies. They were mustered out at Richmond, and August 9th, two hundred and sixty-five in number, they started for Wisconsin, where they were entertained at the fair, in Milwaukee, and were disbanded at Madison.
Reedsburg Free Press September 6, 1872
REEDSBURG
IN THE WAR (11)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Life in Rebel Prison, at Libby, and Salisbury, N. C.
Extracts from the Diary of a member of the Nineteenth Regiment.
(Chapter One)
Oct. 27th, 1864. Near old battlefield, Fair Oaks, Virginia. Drew up in line of battle charged out of the woods into the open field, where we were welcomed by a terrible shower of bullets from the rebel infantry, and grape and canister from their fort our ranks were quickly thinned some of our best and bravest men fell still on we went nearly half a mile, until we were left alone in the open field, directly opposite the rebel fort ordered to drop down here we lay, hugging mother earth and praying for darkness and release about half an hour before dark, the rebels charged out, flanked us and took us prisoners.
After a fatiguing march of seven miles, over a muddy road it had been raining all the afternoon we arrived at Richmond, VA at eight in the evening were quartered in Libby prison, and laid down to rest on the bare floor.
Friday, Oct. 28th . There are four officers: Strong, Holley, Schurff, and Wentworth, and seventy-four men here, out of two hundred and twenty of our regiment who went into the fight. Quite a number of these are wounded. [Of these prisoners there were from Reedsburg, Col. R. M. Strong and Isaac Bingman, O. H. Dwinnell, Peter Empser, Nelson Gardner, Wm. Miller, Walter Pietzsch, Newman Pitts, Giles Livingston and Franklin Winchester. S. A. D.] At 10 A.M. we received our first meal, consisting of a piece of corn-bread and a small piece of beef. Soon after, we were ordered to give up all the greenbacks in our possession knapsacks, haversacks, canteens and rubber-blankets were taken from us most of the boys were searched. This is the manner in which this “Southern Chivalry” treats Union prisoners. Cursed be a set of men who will rob a prisoner. At 5 P.M. our second meal was brought bean-soup and corn-bread. We are in a large room, on the third floor of a four story building, formerly used as a tobacco ware-house, but since the war, converted into a prison well known as Libby.
Saturday, Oct. 29th Pleasant. Quite a number of prisoners brought in to-day. Grant is reported to have taken the Danville Railway if this be true, we shall probably be sent off ere long either to some Southern prison, or back to our lines. The latter would of course be more acceptable to us. Our meals were the same as yesterday.
Sunday, Oct. 30th Pleasant. Last night eight of Sheridan’s men prisoners-of-war confined in the next room to us made their escape, with four of the rebel guards. This prison, as well as the one on the opposite side of the street, is guarded by citizens, impressed for the purpose. They are without uniforms and some of them even without accoutrements. Seemingly they would rather be within our lines than here. Prisoners report that Grant has punished the enemy severely, south of Petersburg.
Monday Oct. 31st Pleasant. Received our rations as usual bean-soup and corn-bread. Early in the morning sharp musketry firing was distinctly heard a sign that our forces are not very far off. We are all praying for deliverance from this loathsome prison-life. Our fare is not sufficient to satisfy hunger. Notice of our being paroled would be hailed with exceeding joy by all.
Tuesday, Nov. 1st, 1864. Pleasant. Our rations just sufficient to keep us from starvation. The bean-soup is full of crocodiles, and this afternoon I found the hind quarter of a rat in it. This forenoon we espied our officers in the building opposite to ours. It was somewhat amusing to see these shoulder-striped gentlemen look at us through the grates. Such is soldier life. The mud on our floor being about six inches deep, the overseer sent some darkies prisoners like ourselves to clean it, and now we feel more comfortable. We are all in good spirits, confident that Grant will soon be
able to deliver us from our situation.
Wednesday, Nov. 2nd Cold and cloudy room airy obliged to walk the floor nearly the whole day to keep warm. The surgeon, a young, gentlemanly fellow, attends the sick once a day. About 600 Union prisoners Sheridan’s men, taken in the Shenandoah sent South this afternoon. Our turn will probably come next.
Thursday, Nov. 3rd Misty and cold. About noon the Clerk went through the several rooms, taking down the number of each regiment, brigade, division and corps to which we belonged. Towards evening we received two days’ rations. And such rations! A loaf of bread, a piece of salt fish, and a piece of what they call pork in the Confederacy.
Friday, Nov. 4th At 3 A.M. we were marched across the James to Manchester, took the cars and started for Danville officers sent ahead of us road very poor cars ran slow this the only Railroad to Richmond from the south which the rebels now have. Our guards were mostly Germans, of the Virginia militia.
Saturday, Nov. 5th Rather cold. Reached Danville in the morning changed cars arrived at Greensboro before dark camped near depot remained until morning. The appearance of the country and the people indicate that the Confederacy is anything but flourishing food and clothing very scarce Greenbacks preferred to Southern scrip by all.
Sunday, Nov. 6th Pleasant. Left Greensboro at 9 A.M. and arrived at Salisbury soon after dark received no rations to-day obliged to sell the few trinkets we had, pocket-knives, rings, handkerchiefs, gloves, and even boots and vests found a ready sale among whites and blacks another evidence that the Confederacy is crumbling to pieces. After entering the prisoners camp, we laid down upon the ground, as there were neither barracks nor tents for us to go into.
Monday, Nov. 7th Had considerable rain during the night. About 10 A.M. we received some rice soup not enough to satisfy the appetite of a rat, much less a man. There are about 10,000 prisoners here, most of whom are in a horrible condition. The majority are without overcoats or blankets their ghastly looks prove incontestably that the rebels are actually starving the Union prisoners. Has all feeling of humanity fled from this Southern Chivalry, that they can bear to see their fellow-men starve to death? What is our own government about? Can they not devise some means to ameliorate the condition of their unfortunate captured soldiers? About 10 P.M. we drew about half a pint of flour each.
Tuesday, Nov. 8th . A dark, rainy day. The camp is in a horrible state no policing done we who have no shelter are obliged to lay down in the mud. A large number of the dead are carried off every morning stripped of every article of clothing which might be fit to be worn by some traitorous scoundrel. These Rebs taking splendid care of prisoners indeed! At night several of us managed to pitch shelter tents; so we were not exposed to the drenching rain during the night.
Wednesday, Nov. 9th . Now since the election is over, we hope Old Abe and Butler will turn their attention to the humane and Christian-like business work of arranging for an exchange of prisoners. Our guards are North Carolina farmers, old and young, conscripted for that purpose. Our rations consisted of rice soup in the forenoon, and a pint of meal in the afternoon. At noon, tents were issued to our division; we received two an A tent and one fly, to one hundred men. Considerable rain during the night.
Thursday, Nov. 10th . Camp very muddy, but drying fast. One half loaf of corn bread in the morning and a cup of rice-soup, without salt, composed our rations for this day. Our life is very dull and tedious. Reading matter not to be had no letters from home to cheer us everything looks gloomy. I hope, in God, we will be delivered from this prison life ere long it is killing indeed.
Friday, Nov. 11th Cold and clear. Received a piece of beef in the morning something what they call rice-soup in this country at noon, and a half a pint of corn meal in the afternoon. Now if any man cannot live on what the Confederacy so bounteously issues to him, surely has no business to be a soldier. I believe I am growing fat on Southern fare. A teaspoonful of salt was also issued to each man another proof that Southern Chivalry feeds their prisoners sumptuously. Surely such a kind and generous people ought to be prosperous.
(Note. Salisbury military prison was in the form of a triangle, surrounded by a fence, made of posts twelve feet high, set in the ground close together. It contained seven acres. Within the enclosure was a four story brick building one hundred feet by forty, which had been used as a cotton factory, and several small brick tenement houses which were now used as hospitals. Twelve feet from the fence, on the inside, was a ditch called the dead line. Any prisoner who should cross that line was shot by the guards who walked on a platform built near the top of the fence. The bread spoken of, was corn bread, unless wheat is mentioned a half loaf equaled a pint of meal. It was made of corn and cobs ground together. The cup mentioned was less than a pint. The rice-soup was so poor that only three or four grains of rice were stewed to a cup full. The meat consisted usually of a small piece of liver, heart or lights not beef or other solid meat.)
Reedsburg Free Press September 13, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (12)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Life in Rebel Prison, at Salisbury, N. C.
Extracts from the Diary of a member of the Nineteenth Regiment.
(Chapter Two)
Nov. 12th, 1864. Night cold day very blustering every one at work banking up the canvass huts with mud which article is more plentiful in this camp than anything else. Water is very scarce the three or four wells on the grounds are either dry or so near it that the water is not drinkable have to bring the water for cooking purposes, from outside, in barrels wood also has to be brought in by the boys, on their shoulders, split with Railroad spikes, cut with jack-knives and broken with the hands they have things real handy in this Corn-federacy half a loaf of corn-bread in the morning two spoonsful of rice at noon. Whenever we get out of this we will be able to measure the fat on our ribs not by inches, but by rods. If this is not gay and festive, I have an erroneous idea of those two words.
Sunday, Nov. 13th . Clear and cold. A half loaf of bread, rice soup, and a piece of beef. Many rumors are afloat about an exchange of prisoners. Seemingly the rebel papers harbor the idea that a general exchange will take place to commence on the 15th inst.
Monday, Nov. 14th . Clear and cold. A half loaf of bread and a cup of rice-soup. I believe I could eat this kind of food a whole year and not get fat on it at least, so far, I have not gained much. Lincoln is doubtless elected President of the United States by a large majority. During the next four years, I hope he will be able to restore the Union in all its integrity. The sufferings of the prisoners are severe indeed, especially during the cold nights many being without coats or blankets, are compelled to spend the nights in walking over the camp-grounds. The wood furnished us is scarcely sufficient to cook our scanty rations much less to keep ourselves warm. Should we have to remain here during the coming winter, many of us, I fear, will freeze to death. So much for Chivalry!
Tuesday, Nov. 15th . Cloudy and cool. The Salisbury Watchman contains the news that Lincoln has called out a million of men to suppress the rebellion. Rations as usual gay living this.
Wednesday, Nov. 16th . Cold and cloudy. A half loaf of bread and a cup of soup. Time passes very slowly. No newspapers or other reading matter to be had no letters from home to make our loathsome life agreeable no letters can be sent to our friends in the north. It is hard to be stripped of everything which makes life pleasant, and then, in addition, to endure the process of slow starvation, to which we are subjected. It is enough to make us swear eternal vengeance on the instigators of all this misery. But despair not! Trust in Him who doeth all things well!
Thursday, Nov. 17th . My brother’s birthday. He too is far away from everything dear to him, exposed to death in the holy work of suppressing this wicked rebellion. Let us hope to meet when the war terminates and peace comes again. One-half loaf of bread and a cup of soup ought to have had meat today, but did not get it perhaps they fear we will break out of this camp if they feed us too highly. Several trains loaded with exchanged Rebel soldiers, passed here on their way south.
Friday, Nov. 18th A beautiful day. Rations half loaf of bread and a cup of soup. Our tent was raided upon at 11 P.M., by a number of thieving scamps prisoners like ourselves and two overcoats and one blanket were taken. Stealing is the order of the night here, and those who are so fortunate as to possess these articles, have to watch them closely.
Saturday, Nov. 19th Rainy and cold. Corn-meal and a cup of soup the meal was the poorest I ever saw cobs and husks seemed to have been ground with the corn however it is good enough for Yankee prisoners. We eat it because hunger compels us to do so. Oh! For this magnanimous and kind-hearted chivalry! Surely Savages cannot abuse prisoners-of-war any worse than this confederacy does us.
Sunday, Nov. 20th Rain. What a Sabbath! What a contrast between Wisconsin and North Carolina! Surrounded by misery, destitution and death, we are called upon to offer up our prayers to the Almighty. Prayers uttered in a place like this must be heard by the Spirit above; it cannot be otherwise. Thousands are praying to be delivered out of the hands of a miserable set of human beings who profess to be Christians. “Feed the hungry and clothe the naked” is certainly not contained in their bible. Let us hope that He will, ere long, free us from the yoke so burdensome to us. Rations the same as usual.
Monday, Nov. 21st . It still rains. The Camp is in a horrible condition. A cup of soup and a pint of corn-meal. From October 3rd to yesterday, 1,127 Union prisoners have died in this yard. We are sitting in our tents shivering with the cold.
Tuesday, Nov. 22nd . Cloudy and cold. Bread and soup as usual. Impossible to describe the sufferings of the prisoners must be seen to be realized.
Wednesday, Nov. 23rd . Clear and cold. Last night was the coldest I have experienced in Dixie. A number of men
froze to death; and this is in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four! What will be the punishment of these traitors who have caused all this misery? Will they be allowed to disgrace the halls of Congress again with their presence? Hanging is too light a punishment for these scoundrels. Bread and soup as usual.
Thursday, Nov. 24th Night cold, day pleasant. This being Thanksgiving-day, the Rebel Authorities thought to let us know it; and they did it effectually by issuing only a quarter of a loaf of bread and a reduced ration of soup. Just think of it! Four ounces of corn-bread and less than a pint of thin rice-soup to a man for a day. This is being killed by inches. Is there no humanity about these traitors? Seemingly not. But then, men who will perjure themselves before their God are also capable of killing their fellows by the slow process of starvation. And our own Government will they not awake to the duty of liberating us from the clutches of Rebel demons? Will not the Almighty inspire the Union Authorities, that they may endeavor to effect our exchange? And thus save the lives of thousands of unfortunate beings who have exchanged the comforts of home have risked their lives on battlefields, and suffered all the trials and dangers of Soldiers life, that the nation might be saved from a traitorous foe.
Friday, Nov. 25th Pleasant day. Rations quarter loaf of corn-bread, small piece of meat and rice-soup. About 2 o’clock P.M., an effort was made, by a number of prisoners, to break out; about twenty of the guard were knocked down and their guns taken from them. There being no organization throughout the camp, the affair was an entire failure and was easily suppressed. A number of innocent men were killed and wounded, and nothing was accomplished.
Saturday, Nov. 26th Pleasant. Four ounces of bread and a cup of rice-soup, with little rice in it, and no salt. Being well aware of the starving conditions we are in, recruiting officers make their appearance in camp frequently, to enlist men for the rebel ranks. And there are men I am ashamed to say it in this camp, vile enough to commit perjury, and join the ranks of traitors. Starvation is their excuse for doing it. For my part I would rather be carried out of Camp on the dead-cart than to have the brand of traitor upon me. I shall be patient, trusting in God till the tide of events shall take me back under the folds of the glorious stars and stripes, that I may again raise my shout and my sword For God and Liberty For Justice and Truth. Join a traitorous foe! No! Never!
Sunday, Nov. 27th . Cloudy. Some rain. Something must have happened to the Confederacy; we received a half loaf of bread, a piece of meat and a cup of rice-soup the best we have had yet. It is rumored that Sherman has taken Milledgeville, Georgia.
Monday, Nov. 28th . Pleasant. Four ounces of bread, meat and soup. A general roll-call this afternoon. At night a man was shot dead and another wounded, close by our tent, for loitering about the bakery.
Tuesday, Nov. 29th . A beautiful day. A half loaf of bread and rice-soup.
In the afternoon, a recruiting officer raised 365 men for the rebel ranks, out of the prisoners confined here. Starvation and lack of clothing their excuse. What a life this is! This morning we stay in our tents until the call “Tenth Division for Bread” issues forth from the cook-houses. The prisoners are divided into Divisions of a thousand each, and these are sub-divided into squads of a hundred each. The Divisions are in charge of a Sergeant-Major the squads under a First Sergeant. When the bread is issued, we buy a cup of water and make dope out of it, as it is not sufficiently baked to be digestible. I say we buy our water. This is essentially so. The four or five wells in camp are nearly dry, and so deep that a man who is not fortunate enough to possess a rope, is obliged to pay some tobacco, bread, thread or buttons, for his water. Our morning meal being taken, we walk up and down Broadway an open space in the centre of the camp hear the thousand and one bulletins that are daily circulated go to the hospital and witness the most heart-rending suffering and misery that can be imagined to exist or witness the purchases, sales and trades at the “meat market,” near the hospital. Here is where the thieves and scoundrels show their rascality. A. comes along with a piece of bread in his hand B. snatches it from him and starts on a run. If A. is able to catch B., a knock-down usually ensues, and A. may get his bread back; if otherwise, B. can be seen going to some other part of the camp, offering bread for sale. Sometime in the afternoon, when soup is issued, we devour it with the remainder of our bread. Do our every-day “skirmishing after gray-backs,” and take another walk on Broadway. At dark we lie down not to rest, for that is impossible but to while away the long, dreary hours of night in thinking of home, with its many comforts, or of our fellow soldiers, who are fortunate enough to be still under the “Stars and Stripes.” When will we be released?
(Note. On the 25th of November, a regiment of North Carolina troops, consisting mostly of haughty and reckless youth, were relieved from guard duty at Salisbury, to be sent elsewhere at night, and their places supplied by North Carolina farmers, who were known to the prisoners to be mostly Union men. A plan was laid, somewhat extensively, to make an effort to overpower the guard, at the time the relief came upon duty, on the morning of November 26th. Some reckless prisoners, hearing of the plan, could not wait, but commenced a premature attack on the previous afternoon. The firing upon the prisoners was done by the young sprigs of Southern “Chivalry,” who had just been released from duty, and had not yet been sent away. They jumped upon the platform and fired upon the prisoners for some time, without restraint.
A. D. Richardson in “Field, Dungeon and Escape,” says of this tragedy: “While we were sitting at dinner, John
Lovel came and whispered to me, ‘there is to be an insurrection. The prisoners are preparing to break out.’ We had heard such reports so frequently as to lose all faith in them; but this was true. Without deliberation or concert of action, upon the impulse of the movement, a portion of the prisoners acted. Suffering greatly from hunger, many having received no food for forty-eight hours, they said ‘Let us break out of this horrible place. We may just as well die upon the guns of the guards as by slow starvation.’ A number, armed with clubs, sprang upon a rebel relief of sixteen men, just entering the yard. Although weak and emaciated, those prisoners performed their work promptly and gallantly. Man for man they wrenched the guns from the soldiers, one rebel resisted and was bayoneted where he stood. Another raised his musket, but before he could fire, fell to the ground, shot through the head. Every gun was taken from the terrified relief, who immediately ran back to their camp outside. The insurrection which had not occupied more than 8 minutes was a failure, and the uninjured returned to their quarters. The yard was now perfectly quiet; yet the guards stood upon the fence for twenty minutes, with deliberate aim firing in to the tents, upon helpless and innocent men. Sixteen prisoners were killed and sixty wounded, of whom not one in ten had participated in the outbreak; while most were ignorant of it until they heard the guns. After this massacre ,cold-blooded murders, by the guards were very frequent.”)
Reedsburg Free Press September 20, 1872
REEDSBURG
IN THE WAR (13)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Life in Rebel Prison, at Salisbury, N. C.
Extracts from the Diary of a member of the Nineteenth Regiment.
(Chapter Three)
Wednesday, Nov. 30th . Warm and pleasant. A half loaf of bread, meat and soup. The men are dying off quite fast. From thirty to fifty victims of starvation are carried off every day, and not a friend to pay their last respects to them. The falling of a chimney in one of the hospitals, crushed to death a number of the sick, and injured many others.
Thursday, Dec. 1st . Pleasant. Quarter of a loaf of bread and rice-soup. They have an improvement on bread this morning; formerly it was made of corn-meal and wheat-flour; now it is made of the poorest of meal (corn and cobs ground very coarsely) shorts and cane seed.
Friday, Dec. 2nd Cloudy and warm. Half loaf of bread, meat and rice-soup. There is a sutler in this camp who sells things remarkably cheap meal $1.50 a pint, flour or rice $2.00 a pint, salt $3.00 a pint, Southern pies (made of sweet potatoes) $2.50 each, and other articles in proportion. Since the riot, the rebels seem to be very much frightened at dark all fires are ordered to be extinguished, and all the men sent to their tents. We have no guards inside of camp, and those outside are more vigilant than usual.
Saturday, Dec. 3rd Cloudy and warm. Camp duller than usual.
Sunday, Dec. 4th Clear and chilly. Half loaf of bread and rice-soup. Some divisions drew potatoes, but there was not enough to go around, so our tenth division came out minus.
Monday Dec. 5th Pleasant. A half loaf of bread and a cup of soup. The clemency of the weather is a great blessing to us. Our sufferings would be intense should snow cover the ground. Our poor and scanty rations infuse but little warmth into our systems. But with God’s help, we will live through it and see better days.
Tuesday, Dec. 6th Cool. About 250 Union prisoners arrived here from Richmond, mostly captured near Point of Rocks, on the 17th ult. 437 more prisoners enlisted in the rebel ranks. What is going to happen? A half loaf of bread, a cup of soup and a half dozen potatoes such as we up north feed our pigs on composed our rations, and some Divisions even drew molasses. The Corn-federacy or Bran-federacy rather is getting up in the world, surely.
Wednesday, Dec. 7th Rainy during the night and forenoon. A half loaf of bran-bread and a cup of soup.
Thursday, Dec. 8th Clear and cold. Bread and soup, the same as yesterday. No more.
Friday, Dec. 9th A half loaf of wheat bread and rice-soup.
Saturday, Dec. 10th Rainy and cold, night very cold. Four ounces of bread, an ounce of poor meat and rice-soup.
Sunday, Dec. 11th Very cold. Snow covers the ground. The sufferings of the prisoners is indescribable the dead-cart at work all the day, carrying off the victims of starvation. A half loaf of bread and rice-soup.
Monday, Dec. 12th . Cloudy and cold. Camp very muddy. Bread and soup as usual.
Tuesday, Dec. 13th . Cloudy and cold. Four ounces of wheat bread, meat and soup 275 prisoners enlisted in the Rebel army. Papers are not allowed to enter the camp, and therefore we know nothing of the military situation.
[Wednesday, Dec. 14th. Nothing recorded.]
Thursday, Dec. 15th . Cloudy and more moderate. A half loaf of bread, meat and soup. Moved our tent to a warmer place.
Friday, Dec. 16th . Cloudy. Our present life is dull in the extreme. The Camp-ground is too muddy for walking,
and we are obliged to spend our time in our tents. A few prisoners brought in, report the 2nd and 5th army corps to be on an extensive raid in North Carolina. A half loaf of bread and a cup of soup.
Saturday, Dec. 17th . Pleasant. A half loaf of bread, meat and soup.
Sunday, Dec. 18th Misty but not cold. Bread and soup as usual. Three citizen-prisoners, Junius H. Browne, reporter of the N. Y. Tribune, A. D. Richardson, of the Tribune, and Wm. E. Davis, of the Cincinnati Gazette, made their escape.
Monday, Dec. 19th Pleasant a shower at dark. A half loaf of bread and soup.
Tuesday, Dec. 20th Cloudy and cold. A half loaf of bread and soup.
Wednesday, Dec. 21st -- A heavy shower during last night. Considerable water in our tent, the air chilly, consequently much suffering. Bread, soup and three spoonsful of molasses.
Thursday, Dec. 22nd Very cold. Bread and soup as usual. From sixty to seventy men are dying daily. At this rate it will take about three and a half months to put all the prisoners in camp under the sod.
Friday, December 23rd Cold and cloudy. Bread and soup as usual. Quite a number of the 19th down sick not well myself.
Saturday, Dec. 24th Clear and pleasant. Bread and soup and potatoes. Some sixteen prisoners of Stoneman’s men taken in West Virginia, brought into camp had to march all the way about two hundred and fifty miles because there was no transportation for them.
Sunday, Dec. 25th Merry Christmas we hear from every quarter this morning; but how can we be merry? Will this, our misery, never cease? Shall we be left here to die, victims of starvation? That the Rebel Government proposes to starve us is no secret; but that our own Government should bear witness to this kind of treatment and not try their utmost to ameliorate our misery, is certainly a fact that they to say the least ought to be ashamed of. Bread and soup as usual.
Monday, Dec. 26th . Cloudy and misty. Bread and soup. At night fourteen prisoners escaped through a tunnel. About two hundred Catholics left Camp to-day going to more comfortable quarters through the efforts of the Priest of Salisbury, who holds mass in camp nearly every day.
Tuesday, Dec. 27th . Misty and very unpleasant. A quarter of a loaf of corn bread and a cup of soup. A heavy rain during the night.
Wednesday, Dec. 28th . Misty and unpleasant. A half loaf of bread and a cup of soup. The inclemency of the weather confines us to out tents nothing but the cold damp ground to sit on, and so crowded that our tents hardly cover us all, unless we lie down “spoon-fashion.” This Confederacy is a gay concern in whatever light you look at it. Think I shall join it over the left.
Thursday, Dec. 29th . Clear but cold. A half loaf of bread and a cup of soup. Incessant rain for the last week or two Camp gloomy mud knee deep the men go about shivering with the cold their clothes torn and tattered, and their ghastly looks and thin, pale faces, indicate the progress the slow starvation process is making. May the originators of this rebellion, and the authors of all this misery, be cursed forever by all human beings. Most assuredly the blessing of God cannot rest upon them.
Friday, Dec. 30th . Chilly and cloudy as usual. Fixing up for another storm. Glorious country this! Have not had a pleasant day in a dog’s age. Everything corresponds with everything else in this Confederacy. Weather disagreeable grub not palatable old dead-cart gets stuck at every trip the old codgers on the fence look as if they would rather be with the old lady at home, than here guarding Yankees. Sweet looking birds they are, with a home-made quilt around them, and the gun on their shoulders. Pretty good fellows they are, however, notwithstanding their grotesque appearance. They are very quiet, and talk with the prisoners in their quaint, homespun, ignorant style their heads not bothered with too much knowledge, or their stomachs with too much nutritious food. Their rations poor and scanty. A half loaf of bread and a cup of soup as usual.
Saturday, Dec. 31st Rain during the night and a foggy, chilly day. A half loaf of bread and soup as usual.
(Note. A. D. Richardson, in “Field Dungeon and Escape” says of the Salisbury prison: “Nearly ten thousand prisoners of war, half naked and without shelter, were crowded within its narrow limits, which could not reasonably accommodate more than six hundred. It was converted into a scene of suffering and death which no pen can adequately describe. We had never been in a prison containing private soldiers, and had been skeptical as to the barbarities they were said to suffer. We could not believe that men, bearing the American name, would be guilty of such atrocities. Now it seemed to me hardly possible to exaggerate the incredible cruelty of the rebel authorities.
When captured, the prisoners were robbed of the greater part of their clothing. When they reached Salisbury, all were thinly clad, thousands were barefooted, not one in twenty had overcoats or blankets, and many hundreds were without coats or blouses.
For several weeks they were furnished with no shelter whatever. Afterwards one Sibley tent and one A tent were
issued to each hundred men. With the closest crowding, they contained about one half of them. The rest burrowed in the earth, crept under buildings, or dragged out the nights in the open air, upon the muddy, snowy, or frozen ground. They were organized into divisions of one thousand each, and subdivided into squads of one hundred. Almost daily one or more divisions were without food for twenty-four hours. Several times some of them received no rations for forty-eight hours. The few who had money, paid from five to twenty dollars for a loaf of bread.
On wet days the mud was very deep, and the shoeless wretches wandered pitilessly through it, seeking vainly for cover and warmth. Two hundred Negro prisoners were almost naked, and could find no shelter whatever but by burrowing in the earth. The authorities treated them with unusual rigor, and the guards murdered them with impunity. No Song, no athletic games, few sounds of laughter broke the silence of the garrison.”)
Reedsburg Free Press September 27, 1872 REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (14)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Life in Rebel Prison, at Salisbury, N. C.
Extracts from the Diary of a member of the Nineteenth Regiment.
(Chapter Four)
1865. In God we trust.
Sunday, January 1st . Clear and cold. Taking a retrospect of the military proceedings of the past year, we find much to encourage. Although, through the imbecility of two political Generals, the golden opportunity of striking the death blow to the rebellion was lost, yet we have torn a large tract of territory from the grasp of the traitors, and have, by the destruction of their supplies and crops, brought hunger and starvation upon them. Although we have suffered reverses in several instances, yet we find more than an offset for these failures, in the progress of Sherman’s army in the gallant conduct of Sherman’s troops and in the siege-operations of Grant at Petersburg. Rebellion is uttering its death groans; and taking in view the gigantic efforts of our government for its overthrow, we can but hope that before this year closes, the Southern Confederacy will be among the things that were. For myself I have much to be thankful for. A tedious illness confined me to the hospital for several weeks; yet, with God’s help, I recovered and enjoyed perfect health. Having encountered a storm of deadly bullets several times, I lived through them uninjured; and although I have had the misfortune of falling into worse than savage hands, I am still alive, hopeful of again living under the stars and stripes after our release from prison. A half loaf of corn-bread, a cup of rice-bean soup and three spoonsful of molasses.
Monday, Jan. 2nd . Chilly and clear. A half loaf of corn-bread and a cup of soup. The Salisbury Watchman states that the exchange of prisoners would soon be resumed on the James river. Hope our turn will come soon.
Tuesday, Jan. 3rd Cloudy and chilly. A half loaf of wheat-bread, a cup of soup and a small piece of salt beef. Camp drying up nicely.
Wednesday, Jan 4th -- Chilly and clear. A half loaf of corn-bread and a cup of soup. Camp drying up.
Thursday, Jan 5th Chilly and clear. Wheat-bread, soup and salt beef. A heavy rain-storm at night.
Friday, Jan. 6th Rainy and cold. A half loaf of bread and soup.
Saturday, Jan. 7th Clear and very windy. Bread, soup and turnips.
Sunday, Jan. 8th Clear and chilly. Bread and soup.
Monday, Jan. 9th Clear and cold. Bread and soup as usual. Rain at night. Private Wm. Goodnough died.
Tuesday, Jan. 10th A very rainy day. Since 6 o’clock last night the rain has poured down steadily. Our tent full of water and our situation anything but comfortable. Still we are of good cheer, as the news reaches us that we will soon be exchanged. The happiest day of my life shall be when I return under the folds of our own starry banner. God speed the day! A half loaf of bread, a cup of soup and fresh beef.
Wednesday, Jan. 11th Clear and windy. A half loaf of corn-bread, rice-soup and molasses.
Thursday, Jan. 12th Clear and pleasant. With the poet we may exclaim, “Thank God for pleasant weather.” The Watchman states that the Commissioners of Exchange had met at Richmond and made arrangements for an immediate exchange of prisoners, and that we would soon be taken away from here. The Lord has heard our prayers at last, and to Him will we sing praise. Bread and soup.
Friday, Jan. 13th . Smoky and pleasant. Wheat-bread, soup and salt beef.
Saturday, Jan. 14th . Clear and chilly. One pint of poor rice-soup composed our rations for this day. Reason no flour or meal on hand. Oh! Thou glorious Confederacy. Surely thou hast merited better treatment at the hands of the Yankees because thou shewest magnanimity and benevolence towards those whom the fortunes of war cast into thy hands! Go on thy way rejoicing, thou great Rebel Chieftain; but keep away from thy persecutors, for they may ornament some tree with thy body. Ornament? No! even a tree would wither and die, should the body be suspended from one of its
limbs, for thy presence is death. In the afternoon a Rebel Recruiting officer appeared in Camp, and although everyone was hungry, he had not as many customers as usual. Only about ninety committed perjury, and enlisted in the Rebel ranks. I feel quite sick to-day head aches terribly.
Sunday, Jan. 15th Clear and pleasant. A half loaf of bread, rice-soup and three spoonsful of the poorest molasses I ever tasted.
Monday, Jan. 16th Clear and pleasant. A half loaf of bread and rice-soup. Newman W. Pitts, one of our best boys, died this forenoon. Peace to his ashes.
Tuesday, Jan. 17th Pleasant. A quarter of a loaf of bread and a cup of soup. News comes that Fort Fisher has been taken by our forces. How are ye Rebellion?
Wednesday, Jan. 18th Pleasant. Bread, molasses and soup. Joab B. Conger, Co. D died at 7:30 P.M., at Ward No. 7.
Thursday, Jan. 19th A raw, cloudy day. John Witting, Co. C, died this morning at 3 o’clock. Bread and soup as usual. Maj. Gee, the Commandant of this Camp, told us this afternoon, that he had received tidings from Commissioner Ould, that we would be exchanged within a month. Good, if true.
Friday, Jan. 20th Smoky and pleasant. Wheat bread, rice-soup and molasses.
Saturday, Jan. 21st Rained all night and all day. Bread and soup.
Sunday, Jan. 22nd Cloudy and unpleasant. Bread, soup and potatoes.
Monday, Jan. 23rd Misty and dark. Bread and soup. These dark, gloomy days pass by very slowly; we stay in our under-ground dwellings, eat our scanty rations, and lay down on our soft beds, made of pine shavings. Were it not for the hope of a speedy exchange, surely we would wish ourselves under the sod.
Tuesday, Jan. 24th Clear and pleasant. John Kottinger, Co. C, died this morning. He leaves a young wife to mourn. Bread, soup and salt beef.
Wednesday, Jan. 25th . Clear and cold. Bread and soup. General roll-call in the afternoon. The Yankees are rather beating the Rebs on the ration business, and for this reason guards were placed around those who had been counted; but to no avail; the Yankees run the guards, and flanked as much as ever. The only way to stop flanking, is to give us enough to eat. As long as we are on less than half rations, we will have flankers.
Thursday, Jan. 26th . Clear and cold. Bread, soup and salt beef.
Friday, Jan. 27th . Clear and cold. Bread, soup and salt beef.
Saturday, Jan. 28th . Coldest night of the season. Day clear and cold. Bread and soup.
Sunday, Jan. 29th . Clear and cool. Bread, soup and a few frozen potatoes. Our wood allowance slim enough for the last week was discontinued entirely to-day. We were obliged to turn in and cover up, to keep our extremities from freezing. Go it Jeff.! [Jefferson Davis]. If starvation is too slow a process to kill us off, freeze us to death. Wm. Matthewson, Co. H, died this morning.
Monday, Jan. 30th . Clear and pleasant. Bread and soup.
Tuesday, Jan. 31st . Pleasant. Bread and soup. Nearly all the able-bodied negro-prisoners taken out to-day, to work, it is said, on some fortifications, in South Carolina. No wood could not cook dope had to eat our bread dry.
Wednesday, Feb. 1st . Beautiful day. A quarter of a loaf of corn-bread and soup. Meat entirely played out.
Thursday, Feb. 2nd . Pleasant. Corn-bread and soup. No wood; had to eat dry bread.
Friday, Feb. 3rd Rainy and cold. Corn-bread, soup and some poor molasses.
Saturday, Feb. 4th . Foggy morning, day beautiful. Bread and bean-soup. A Rebel came into Camp to buy United States currency, offering $1,300 for $100. The Salisbury authorities must consider their case about played. Do you smell a mice, Mr. Reb?
Sunday, Feb. 5th Clear and windy. Bread, fresh-beef and bean-soup.
Monday, Feb. 6th Cloudy and chilly. Bread, bean-soup and molasses. No wood.
Tuesday, Feb. 7th Rainy. Bread, soup and molasses.
Wednesday, Feb. 8th Clearing off. Corn-bread and bean-soup, without the beans.
Thursday, Feb. 9th Clear and cold. Bread, rice-soup and burned molasses.
Friday, Feb. 10th Clear and cool. Wheat bread and rice-soup.
Saturday, Feb. 11th Pleasant. Bread, molasses, vinegar and bean-soup.
(Note. A. D. Richardson, in “Field Dungeon and Escape” says: “That section of country (around Salisbury) is densely wooded. The cars brought fuel to the doors of our prison. If the Rebels were short of tents, they might easily have paroled two or three hundred prisoners to go out and cut logs, with which, in a single week, barracks could have been constructed for every captive. But the commandant would not consent. He did not furnish half the needed fuel. Cold and hunger began to tell fearfully upon the robust young men, fresh from the field, who crowded the prison. Sickness was very prevalent and very fatal. It invariably appeared in the form of pneumonia, catarrh, diarrhoea or
dysentery; but was directly traceable to freezing and starvation. Therefore the medicines were of little avail. The weakened men were powerless to resist disease, and they were carried to the dead-house in appalling numbers.”)
Reedsburg Free Press October 11, 1872 RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (15)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Life in Rebel Prison, at Salisbury, N. C.
Extracts from the Diary of a member of the Nineteenth Regiment. (Chapter Five)
Sunday, Feb. 12th, 1865. Windy and cool. Corn-bread and bean-soup. No wood.
Monday, Feb. 13th . Clear and cool. Bread and bean-soup. Three Union officers prisoners at Danville arrived here to-day, for the purpose of distributing clothing among the prisoners. They bring the glad tidings that we will soon be within our own lines. God grant that this may be true.
Tuesday, Feb. 14th . Hazy and cool. Bread and bean-soup. Three cheers for Uncle Sam! Woolen blankets were distributed to us to-day; other articles of clothing will be distributed to-morrow. This is a God send to us, as our sufferings have been terrible.
Wednesday, Feb. 15th . Best morning I have seen since I entered the Confederacy, because of the comfortable sleep I enjoyed last night. If our blankets had arrived two months sooner, the lives of several hundred unfortunate beings would have been saved. Cloudy and cold. Corn-bread and bean-soup.
Thursday, Feb. 16th . Clear and cool. Corn-bread and bean-soup, and a piece of stinking salt-beef.
Friday, Feb. 17th . Foggy and unpleasant. Corn-bread and bean-soup. Rebel General, Bradley S. Johnson, was in Camp nearly the whole day yesterday a tall, good-looking officer, gentlemanly in his demeanor, and converses freely with the prisoners.
Saturday, Feb. 18th . A beautiful day. A quarter of a loaf of corn-bread and rice-soup. About 500 Union prisoners came in last night, from Georgia and South Carolina look hard. At night Gen. Johnson and Maj. Gee told us that some of the prisoners here would leave for exchange within forty-eight hours. Clothing distributed by Union officers 10 pairs pants and blouse-coats, and 8 shirts to my squad (of 100 men.)
Sunday, Feb. 19th A magnificent day. The prisoners who came last night forwarded for exchange this morning. Corn-bread and meat. Some more clothing distributed. Had preaching from a rebel minister prisoners paid little attention to him.
Monday, Feb. 20th . Pleasant. The sick out of the several hospitals, and the 7th division, left camp to be exchanged.
Tuesday, Feb. 21st Pleasant. The sick outside the hospital left camp this forenoon.
Wednesday, Feb.22nd Cloudy. During last night we drew rations two loaves of corn-bread and a half a pound of raw pork to a man. At noon left camp and marched about seven miles on the Greensboro road and camped two miles north of the Yadkin river. Rain during the night. (Under guard. No shelter.)
Thursday, Feb. 23rd Rain. Marched twelve miles over a very muddy road and camped.
Friday, Feb. 24th Rain. March sixteen miles and camped one mile north of High Point Female Seminary, at Thomasville.
Saturday, Feb. 25th Rain. Marched fifteen miles and arrived at Greensboro, N. C., at 1 o’clock P.M. No transportation for us bivouacked in the woods lived on hope for our rations had given out got wet during the night.
Sunday, Feb. 26th . Rainy A.M., pleasant P.M. Drew a pint of meal, a pint of flour and molasses. Embarked on the cars for Wilmington at noon.
Monday, Feb. 27th . Passed Raleigh at daylight, and arrived at Goldsboro at 12 noon. In the afternoon we were paroled, and took the cars at night. Cloudy.
Tuesday, Feb. 28th . The happiest day of my life. Arrived at the place of exchange at noon. Were received by our Commissioner and marched across Cape Fear river, to the camp of our troops. Here hard-tack, fresh-beef and coffee were issued to us. Started for Wilmington, marched nine miles, over a miserable road through the swamp, and reached town soon after dark. Were quartered in a warehouse, that, apparently, had not been opened since the capture of the place a large quantity of tobacco, rebel clothing, canned meat, salt, rice and many other articles were found in the several rooms. And didn’t the boys go in on their nerve. It was a caution to see them help themselves. I got my share of the spoils; had turtle soup and Scotch Haggis for my supper.
Wednesday, March 1st Misty. Marched to the depot to draw three days rations coffee, sugar, soap, hard-tack and salt-pork, as much as we wanted. This looks natural again.
Thursday, March 2nd . Misty. About 500 paroled officers and some of the men went north to-day. Many prisoners here, mostly in a horrible condition.
Friday, March 3rd . Foggy. Still in Wilmington. How different this from prison, where famine and starvation reigned here the necessities of life are bounteously dealt out. To the Almighty, my thanks are due for the preservation of my life during that struggle with misery, hunger and death.
Saturday, March 4th Abraham Lincoln is this day inaugurated for another Presidential term. We have no doubt he will be able to crush the rebellion, but that he will punish the originators and leaders of it as the law prescribes, we are rather doubting; but if he keeps in mind the many lives lost by rebel bullets and in rebel military pens, he can but hang every conspirator, even if every tree in the South is to be converted into a gallows. Let him look at Salisbury, where 5,021 Union prisoners died of starvation and nakedness in less than five months.
Sunday, March 5th Cloudy. Still in Wilmington.
Monday, March 6th Clear. Embarked on the Lady Lang changed at the bar to the Charles C. Leary, the most miserable transport I have ever seen, and arrived, after a tedious voyage, at Annapolis, Md.
Friday, March 10th Cold. Disembarked. Received new clothes throughout and new eating utensils. Everybody feels good and so do I. We are new men indeed. The filth of over four months accumulation is washed off, the old clothes, with their “grey backs,” [body lice] are cast away; bean-soup, meat, wheat-bread and coffee fill our empty stomachs. Is not this enough to make one shout for the Stars and Stripes and swear eternal enmity toward Traitors. Thank God we are now in a land where men are treated as such.
Saturday, March 11th Started for Benton Barracks, at St. Louis.
(Note The writer of this diary of prison life says that he thinks it to be the only one kept by any prisoner at Salisbury while he was there. Had he supposed that it would have been given to the public, it would have been made much more specific in many particulars than it is that, in fact, many of the most awful scenes witnessed there are not noticed at all having been so indelibly stamped on the memory as to need no daily record to recall them. It has been to me a matter of surprise, as I have copied it, to see how perfectly it was kept amidst such surroundings every sentence being ready for the press, even to the marks of punctuation. It shows how mind can triumph over suffering from cold and hunger and nakedness, and scenes of destitution and misery all around.
A. D. Richardson, in “Field Dungeon and Escape” says: “When a Subordinate at Salisbury asked the post Commandant, Maj. John H. Gee: ‘Shall I give the prisoners full rations?’ he replied: ‘No G d d n them, give them quarter rations!’ Yet at this very time, one of our Salisbury friends, a trustworthy and Christian gentleman, assured us in a stolen interview:
‘It is within my personal knowledge that the great commissary warehouse, in this town, is filled to the roofs with corn and pork. I know that the prison commissary finds it difficult to obtain storage for his supplies.’
After our escape we learned from personal observation, that the region abounded in corn and pork. Salisbury was a general depot for army supplies.”
“To call the foul pens where the patients were confined, ‘hospitals,’ is a perversion of the English tongue. We could not obtain brooms to keep them clean; we could not get cold water to wash the faces of those sick and dying men. In that region, where every farmer’s barn yard contained grain stacks, we could not obtain clean straw enough to place under them. More than half the time they were compelled to lie huddled upon the cold, naked filthy floors, without that degree of warmth and cleanliness usually afforded to brutes. The wasted forms and sad, pleading eyes of these sufferers, waiting wearily for the tide of life to waste away without the commonest comforts, without one word of sympathy or one tear of affection will never cease to haunt me.”
“At all hours of the day and night, on every side, we heard the terrible hack! hack! hack! in whose pneumonic tones, every prisoner seemed to be coughing his life away.”
“The last scene of all was the dead cart, with its rigid forms piled upon each other like logs the arms swaying, the white, ghastly faces staring, with drooped jaws and stony eyes while it rattled along, bearing its precious freight just outside the walls, to be thrown in a mass into trenches and covered with a little earth.”)
Reedsburg Free Press October 18, 1872
REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (16)
By S. A. Dwinnell Individual Experiences.
(Chapter One)
The first to enter the Union army from this town was Washington Irving Carver; and for this reason a more extended notice of his services to the country will be given in this record, than would otherwise be accorded to him. He was attending the Commercial College in Milwaukee at the opening of the war and enlisted in the Company of Zouaves
then being raised in that city.
Before uniting with the fifth regiment, to which they were assigned, they were called upon, by Gov. Randall, to disperse the anti-bank rioters who were destroying property and defying the city authorities. This they effectually accomplished in a bayonet charge, with loaded rifles, the mob fleeing before them; and thus they secured the city from further violence. They were assailed by the rioters with brick-bats and other missiles. One of the rioters was mortally wounded by a sword-cut from one of the company’s officers.
They were mustered as Company B, Captain E. C. Hibbard, under Colonel Cobb, left the State July 24th, reached Washington August 8th, and were assigned to General Hancock’s division. During the following eight months they were in McClellan’s army on the Potomac [River], VA March, 1862, embarked for the Peninsula campaign, in McClellan’s army, nearly 100,000 strong the best drilled, dressed, armed and equipped troops of modern times.
The first considerable battle in which the fifth regiment was engaged, was that of Williamsburg, VA, May 6th They had received orders to storm Fort Magrunder [Magruder] the night previous; but in the thick woods they missed the fortress. At 11 P.M. enveloped in darkness, the rain descending in torrents, without knapsacks or blankets, exhausted by long wading through deep mud, and chilled by the weather and want of food they received orders to lie down and rest for the night which they uncomplainingly did. In the morning the fort was in full view at their right, strongly manned, and they were thankful that, by their mistake the night previous, they had been saved from throwing themselves away by a useless attack upon the position.
Their services in this battle were so valuable, though we have not space to mention them, that General McClellan, on dress parade, two days afterwards said to them: “My lads, I have come to thank you for your gallant conduct the other day. You have gained honor for your State, your country and the army to which you belong. Through you we won the day, and Williamsburg shall be inscribed on your banner.”
The rebels retreated to the Chickahominy [River], VA, between forty and fifty miles distant, our army pursuing. The fifth regiment was occupied chiefly in picket and skirmish duty in the extreme advance, and often within a short distance of the enemy’s pickets. The barbarous practice of shooting pickets had been renewed by the rebels, whilst our men had been forbidden to fire upon anything less than a squad of the enemy, which rendered the condition of the men one of extreme peril, being obliged to hide behind trees or become marks for the heartless rebel sentry. A group of our men, trading with a sutler, were fired upon from a Confederate picket line and one killed and three wounded.
During this campaign the fighting fell upon the infantry service, the cavalry being kept by McClellan in gathering up stragglers, and especially in guarding the plantations, springs of water, orchards and potato fields of the rebels, to save them from intrusion from his own men too tender-hearted thus to hurt the enemy.
McClellan having lost two opportunities to make a bold push upon Richmond, VA, at the end of the Seven Day’s Battles, while the enemy was retreating in one direction, he, on the second of July, retreated in the other, to Harrison’s Landing many of his officers and soldiers being thoroughly disgusted with his course.
Marching his army down the Peninsula, he embarked them on transports at Fortress Monroe, Newport News and Yorktown, VA August 23rd, for Acquin Creek, on the West bank of the Potomac [River], thence proceeded to Alexandria, VA, where he was ordered to send a portion of his troops to the assistance of Gen. [John] Pope, who was in danger of being flanked by Jackson, at Centreville. Irving Carver, with the fifth regiment, was there, a witness of the delay of McClellan in obeying the order, was with them when the troops did finally move, witnessed the tardy march, heard the order to halt for the night at three o’clock in the afternoon, although within sound of the battle then going on and reached Pope’s retreating troops, only after their defeat. He is confident that, had McClellan moved promptly as directed by General [Henry W.] Halleck and the War Department, Pope might have been saved from defeat in the second battle of Bull Run, VA.
The subject of this notice, with his regiment, was at South Mountain, found the rebels in strong force at the point where they crossed, but they ran after firing a few rounds which did little execution, the balls passing over the heads of our troops. In the battle of Antietam, MD, the fifth was stationed to guard a pass and were not in action until near its close. They were, however, encamped upon the field for several days, no effort being made to pursue and capture Lee’s discomforted army, until, the stench from the bodies of the dead became so intolerable as to compel them to leave. Lee in the meantime had made a safe retreat across the Potomac [River], with his entire army and munitions of war.
On the 27th of April, 1863, he was engaged with his regiment, under Gen [Joseph] Hooker in the celebrated charge at Marye’s Heights, near Fredericksburg, VA, having left their camp at Belle Plain the day previous. The same evening they took part in carrying pontoons down to the Rappahannock [River]. After crossing, they were exposed to a heavy artillery fire, but with small loss to the regiment.
They were ordered to advance to an attack upon the Heights, which one brigade had just failed to capture and which General Burnside had, a few months before, tried all his power to reduce losing 5,000 men in the attempt without success.
In this charge, Carver, when about three rods from the celebrated stone wall, was wounded by a ball through the thigh and was assisted from the field. His company went in with forty-four muskets and lost thirty-two in killed and wounded. The wound confined him to the hospital for nine months the ball having carried shreds of clothing into the flesh, which were only removed by frequent probings. For a time, it seemed as though he must lose the use of his leg entirely; but it was saved. He was unable to rejoin his regiment until after the terrible conflict at Gettysburg, in which they were engaged.
Reedsburg Free Press October 25, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR
(17)
By S. A. Dwinnell Individual Experiences. (Chapter Two)
W. I. Carver recovered from the wounds received near Fredericksburg, VA, however, in time to join his regiment in the great campaign of Grant, from the Wilderness to Richmond, VA, in the Spring of 1864, under a leader who did not believe in any “rosewater treatment” of the Rebellion, but who was disposed to deal it heavy and decisive blows. The design was not merely to capture Richmond but to break, effectually, the military power of the Rebellion. Crossing the Rapidan [River] without resistance, our army entered the Wilderness, which was a large table-land much of it old fields seamed with ravines and densely covered with a dwarfish growth of trees and clumps of bushes, and crossed by three or four good roads and numerous cart tracks.
The two armies consisted of over 100,000 men each. Lee had chosen a position where our artillery and cavalry could do little execution no doubt expecting to drive our forces back to the river, where they could easily be cut to pieces. But “Turk met Turk” when the two armies met and ours was victorious.
The Fifth Wisconsin was early engaged in this battle, and performed effective service. At the close of the second day, the army turned the flank of the Sixth Corps, and this regiment, with the Sixth Maine, changed the title of disaster, and saved our army from serious loss. They lost, in the two days fighting, one hundred and forty-two in killed and wounded. The like losses of the Union army were 14,000.
SPOTSYLVANIA
His regiment moved to this place on the 8th of May, in a flank movement with the whole Union army during the night were engaged two days in rifle pits, and on the evening of the 10th, in the second line, charged upon a rebel battery and rifle pits. The front line of our men gave way, and the 5th regiment, in second line, charged through them and took the enemy’s works. Owing, however, to want of support, they were obliged to abandon them; having lost seventy of their number in killed and wounded.
In this battle a few men of his regiment, seized a rebel cannon and fired it upon the enemy as long as the ammunition lasted, losing but three of their number. By the first discharge, surprising the rebels by a flank fire, they killed and wounded forty-six; as Confederate prisoners afterwards stated.
Alvah Burgess, of the 5th regiment, in attempting to seize a rebel flag on the breast-works, was thrown on the rebel side, and lay in the ditch for several hours; a prisoner. At night he persuaded a few of the Confederates to desert, and together they escaped to the Federal lines.
From Spotsylvania, VA, General Grant continued to advance to Richmond, by a series of adroitly planned flank movements to the left at North Anna and other points avoiding as far as possible an assault upon Lee, who managed, by taking shorter routes, to keep in front of our army. Flank movements in the presence of a vigilant and determined enemy, are always hazardous; but Grant was equal to the occasion. The eagle-eyed Lee could take no advantage of them.
June 1st, the 5th Regiment arrived at Cold Harbor, as one writes, “barefooted, ragged, and almost exhausted with fatigue and lack of sleep.” They charged the enemy, capturing a portion of their works and some prisoners. During the night following they threw up slight earthworks for their protection, with bayonets and tin-plates, and were constantly exposed to the fire of the enemy until evening of the 12th. When the regiment crossed the Rapidan [River] for the battle of the Wilderness, Mr. Carver thinks it numbered six or seven hundred. After the series of battles, exposures and sufferings of the campaign, to the close of the engagements at Cold Harbor, it was reduced to a little more than one hundred. His own company numbered but seven men, with not one commissioned officer, and but one noncommissioned officer and that was himself.
PETERSBURG
The regiment took position in the trenches before Petersburg, VA, June 19th, and were engaged in the determined charge on the 22nd, capturing a portion of the enemy’s works near the South Side Railroad, and a few prisoners. July 11th they moved to Washington, to assist in the defence of that city. Their original term of service expired on the 10th, but they volunteered to remain to defend the Capital. On the 16th they left for home, were warmly welcomed by
the State authorities when they reached Madison, WI and were mustered out August 3rd, 1864.
A FEW ITEMS IN THE EXPERIENCE OF MORGAN JONES
G. M. Jones enlisted in May, 1861, among the first from this town, and was assigned to the 6th regiment, which was sent forward to join the army of the Potomac. He performed good service to his regiment until he was disabled by disease and discharged. He returned home. Upon his recovery he enlisted again and was assigned to the 23rd Regiment, whose field of important service was the Mississippi valley. He was in the celebrated Red River expedition, under Gen. [Nathaniel P.] Banks, and ascribes the salvation of the army, to a great extent, to Gen. Andrew J. Smith.
He was present when the Confederates, on their retreat down the river, flushed with their successes, were hotly pursuing our troops. Gen. Smith poured into their ranks as they were marching on unsuspectingly, in solid columns, a most murderous fire of grape and canister from masked Batteries, and rifle balls from concealed Infantry. Such was the position of the rebels, that this mowed them down by hundreds and hundreds, punishing them terribly and obliging them to fall back. Thus was the Federal army saved from severe loss if not from utter defeat.
Gen. Smith became very popular with the army, and the loud cheers of the boys resounded through the air, whenever he rode along the lines.
Morgan was with his regiment at the taking of Ft. Blakeley, near Mobile, AL. The 23rd Regiment marched into the vicinity of the Fort, during the darkness of the night previous, and were laying upon their arms under orders. Jones was sitting upon his heels, with his back against a tree, and his feet resting upon a large root which ran out upon the surface of the ground. The cannon opened upon them from the fort and he at once felt a sensation in his feet and ankles, as though they had been cut off, and it was only by taking hold of them with his hands, that he satisfied himself that it was not so. He did not know the direction of the fort from them when he took his position, and supposed himself on the opposite side of the tree from it. But when they commenced firing he was in range of their guns, and grape shot had passed through the root about an inch under his feet, paralyzing them as described.
A soldier at Wagram, one of Bonaparte’s battles on the Continent in 1809, had a similar, though more serious experience. He suddenly lost all sensation in feet and ankles and dropping down about a foot, supposed they had been cut off by a solid shot. He fell over upon his side and lay there till morning, not daring to move lest he should start the blood, which he supposed had been staunched by the force of the blow. A surgeon passing over the field among the wounded the next morning, came to this soldier and enquired the cause of his lying there. He replied, “handle me with care, my legs are off.” The surgeon laughingly responded, “get up my good fellow, you are all right.” The soldier was much surprised to find that he had been twelve hours without legs in imagination only. It was found that a cannon ball had struck immediately under his feet and plowed a furrow a foot deep, into which he had sunk, which together with the paralysis of his legs, had led to this mistake.
The grape shot which came so near depriving Morgan Jones of his feet, as it passed on, killed Erastus Miller, from this town [Reedsburg, WI], who was lying on the ground near by.
Reedsburg Free Press November 1, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (18)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Hospital life. Extracts from the diary of a member of the 19th Regiment with notes.
June 26th, 1864. At Point of Rocks, on the Appomattox [River], Va. Sick sent to the Corps Hospital, located a mile and a half from our quarters. The management here is miserable. Soon after dinner the surgeon came into our tent to examine the patients. The worst cases he sent to the General Hospital, and prescribed for others. He hardly took time to inquire into the cases of each, and made prescriptions without knowing much about the diseases. Surely, were it not for the Christian Commission many would die here for want of medical attendance.
Tuesday, June 28th . Very warm. Terribly dusty. There was preaching in our tent by a member of the Christian Commission.
Wednesday, June 29th . Pleasant. Had a burning fever all day. Sent to the newly established 18th Corps Hospital, four or five miles down towards City Point, on the South of the Appomattox.
Thursday, June 30th . Pleasant. Was pretty sick all day. Feel very weak.
Friday, July 1st . Capt. Nichols, Sergt. T. Elliott and Corp. Gates brought in wounded, last night.
Saturday, July 2nd . Very warm. The dust is unendurable. Feel considerably better.
Sunday, July 3rd . Pleasant. Very weak.
Monday, July 4th . Warm. Quite weak. No appetite.
(Note. The Corps Hospitals usually consist of from fifteen to twenty large tents, capable of holding from eight to ten cots each, arranged on each side of a central aisle. Two tents pitched side by side and opening into each other,
constituted a ward, under the charge of a ward master. Chronic and obstinate cases of the sick, and the severely wounded, were forwarded from these to the General Hospitals.)
Thursday, July 7th -- Warm. Transferred to the 10th Corps Hospital, at Point of Rocks. This hospital appears much better than the 18th Corps.
(Note. The 19th Regiment was temporarily connected with the 10th Corps at this time, and for this reason the transfer was allowed. Dr. Porter, from a Connecticut Regiment, was appointed assistant surgeon here. He was a thorough, active fellow, and put wrongs to rights at a fast rate. He found some of the nurses and convalescent officers who messed together, using portions of the sanitary stores intended for the sick. He put a stop to these abuses at once told the officers that the Government paid them for supplying their own table, and if they were known taking sanitary stores again he would report them to be cashiered.
The Christian Commission had, among its agents there, a Miss Perkins, a sprightly girl who, accompanied by a colored boy with a basket of various kinds of fruit, apples, peaches, lemons and oranges, passed through the Hospital quite frequently, distributing her gifts, under the direction of the ward master, to the patients, according to their needs. On Sunday her basket was filled with religious reading, writing paper, envelopes and stationary, for gratuitous distribution to patients.)
Saturday, July 9th . Cloudy and cool. Feel weak. The Doctor prescribed low diet; that is, toast for breakfast, toast for dinner and toast for supper. I am well satisfied with it.
Sunday, July 10th . Very warm. No better. Have eggs with our toast.
Monday, July 11th Very warm. Slowly improving.
Tuesday, July 12th . The doctor is doping me with quinine, which makes me feel quite sick.
Saturday, July 16th The sick are continually coming in. Am better Should I continue to improve, as for two days past, shall start for the front Monday morning.
Sunday, July 17th Morning cool. Divine service at 3 P.M. Do not feel as well.
Monday, July 18th Burning fever. The doctor chalked me down for an extra dose of quinine; the only medicine I have taken since I came here. Seems to do me more harm than good.
Tuesday, July 19th Rains most of the day. The Doctor has changed my medicine at last. No quinine continued head-ache appetite good. Nice fare here soft bread, good coffee and tea, butter often. For dinner we have soup or meat, potatoes and pickles. The lady nurses are all gone, much to the chagrin of the sick.
(Note. The lady nurses were in the employ of the Sanitary Commission and were sometimes removed from one Hospital to another. Among them was a widow whose husband had been an officer in the Army of the West. She accompanied him, and in caring for the wounded, had twice been wounded herself once severely in the foot or ankle, which caused her to limp in walking. She was a noble woman and an excellent nurse. The sick became much attached to her.)
Wednesday, July 20th . The new doctor seems to be doing well think he will soon straighten me out.
Thursday, July 21st . Heartily sick of hospital life. Wish I could go to the front. Some of the boys are wounded and brought in nearly every time they are on duty in the trenches.
Sunday, July 24th . Our new physician is doing well. Boys all improving. Some going to their regiments every day.
Monday, July 25th . Left 18th Corps Hospital, walked across the Appomattox [River], some three or four miles, to the 10th Corps Hospital. Rode in ambulance five or six miles to field hospital of the 19th Regiment, and from there walked two miles to the camp of the 19th. Feel very weak.
Tuesday, July 26th Unwell.
Wednesday, July 27th . Feel worse.
Sunday, July 31st Went to our field hospital stopped about fifteen minutes and proceeded by ambulance, about seven miles to the 18th Corps Hospital. The ride made me quite sick.
(Note. The field hospital consisted of several large hospital tents, suitable for eight or ten cots each, and a large number of fly tents, open at each end. Cots are provided for the severely sick and wounded only. The others lay upon straw. The small tents will hold from ten to fifteen, and the large ones from twenty to thirty each. The severely sick and wounded are forwarded to the field hospitals ambulances running continually for that purpose.)
(Note. Dr. Devendorf, surgeon of the 19th Regiment, from Delavan, was appointed Medical Director of the 18th Corps at this time, and came down to the hospital in his blouse and slouch hat, without any insignia of his office upon his person, on a tour of inspection. He found several young surgeons having a soldier, with a flesh wound in his arm, upon the dissecting table, preparing to amputate. Dr. D. looked on and quietly remarked, “that arm can be saved.” The
surgeons paid little attention to the remark and were again preparing their knives, when he spoke again, more sternly, “that arm can be saved.” They then stopped and made another examination, probing the wound. There was no bone broken, but they again decided to take off the arm. Dr. D. then spoke with authority, “that arm shall be saved.” The young surgeons then looked up and enquired, “and who are you?” Dr. D. replied, “I am Medical Inspector of the 18th Army Corps.” The young surgeons dropped their knives and concluded to dress the wound and save the limb.)
Monday, Aug. 8th Very warm. After dinner embarked on hospital steamer, Monitor, and proceeded down the James river. This boat is fitted up with cots and all the appendages of a general hospital.
Tuesday, Aug. 9th Warm. Landed, went ashore and took quarters in Ward number two, Hampton General Hospital. Am quite comfortable. Have good clean bed, beef-steak, potatoes, bread and tea for dinner; bread, butter, apple sauce and tea or gruel for supper.
Friday, Aug 12th Feel right smart. Had toasted-bread, codfish, ham and coffee for breakfast; rice and milk, potatoes, fried-onions, beef and bread for dinner; bread butter, applesauce and tea for supper.
Saturday, Aug. 13th Not as well. Heat unendurable. Two men died in our Ward to-day. In the afternoon a party of six gentlemen and five ladies went through the several wards and sang two pieces of sacred music. One of the men read several passages of Scripture.
Monday, Aug. 15th . Started for Wisconsin with the 19th Regiment, which goes on Veteran furlough.
(Note. Hampton Hospital consisted of twenty-five long wooden buildings each one story in height. Each building was a ward. In one part was a cook room, a dispensary and officers’ and nurses’ rooms. The remainder was filled with cots arranged on each side of a central aisle. Many hospital tents were in use on the grounds for the convalescents the whole accommodating many hundred patients.
In the Corps Hospitals there were convalescent camps, where soldiers pitched their own tents, and many of them were employed in police and other duties.)
Reedsburg Free Press November 8, 1872 RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (19)
By S. A. Dwinnell
The work of the women of Reedsburg for furnishing Hospital supplies.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 29th, 1861, a few of the ladies of this village met at the Alba House Hall and commenced making bandages, lint &c., for the use of the army, in pursuance of the proclamation of Governor Randall, calling upon the women of the State for aid in that way. At the next meeting, held at the same place, on the 7th day of June, the Ladies Soldiers Aid Society, of Reedsburg, was organized, and a Constitution adopted, which was signed by Mrs. S. A. Dwinnell, Mrs. A. Seeley, Mrs. J. F. Danforth, Mrs. S. H. Chase, Mrs. N. V. Chandler, Mrs. John Kellogg, Mrs. Ambrose Smith, Mrs. Frank Sanford, Mrs. E. G. Wheeler, Mrs. V. Ayres, Mrs. W. W. Henderson, Mrs. G. W. Henderson, Mrs. Dr. S. Hall, Mrs. W. B. Griswold, Mrs. A. O. Hunt, Mrs. J. F. Sanford, Mrs. Geo. Barnes, Mrs. R. W. Green, Mrs. Wm. Johnson, Mrs. Horace Carver, Miss Maria Martindale and Miss Della Griswold.
Mrs. A. Seeley was chosen President, Mrs. J. Kellogg Vice President and Mrs. J. F. Danforth Secretary.
Meetings were held weekly during the continuance of the war for the first few months in the Alba House afterwards, for a time, at the dwellings of the members of the Society. In the spring of 1862 they were removed to the Congregational Church, where goods and supplies were prepared and packed and forwarded to Kilbourn City, to be put on their way to the hospital, through the Sanitary Commission. Among the goods and supplies forwarded by the Society were the Following: 166 feather pillows, 139 pillow cases, 18 sheets, 34 bedquilts, 58 shirts, 27 pairs drawers, 13 pairs socks, 10 pairs slippers, 31 handkerchiefs, 51 towels, 11 boxes lint, 1,986 yards of bandages, 16 havelocks, 4 double gowns, 3 bags onions, 6 barrels potatoes, 3 jars jam, 2 barrels pickles, 1 barrel sour krout [sauerkraut] and ½ barrel horse radish. The record shows that it took seven days work to prepare this half barrel horse radish.
The valuation of supplies sent was $360.73. This is a noble record when we consider the comparatively small number of women actively engaged in the work.
The following officers were elected June 2nd, 1864 and re-elected April 13th, 1865: Mrs. J. H. Roscoe President, Mrs. S. A. Dwinnell Vice-President, Mrs. J. F. Danforth Secretary and Mrs. W. Shumway Treasurer. Mrs. Danforth served the Society with great efficiency, as Secretary, during nearly the entire period of the war. The active, reliable workers in the Society did not exceed twenty on an average. If all the women in the village, and within four miles of it, had been as actively engaged in the work as they were, the contributions would have been worth not less than $4,000.
Among the efficient workers of the Society, whose names do not appear upon the Constitution at the organization, were Mrs. T. Williston, Mrs. J. H. Roscoe, Mrs. W. Shumway and Miss Sarah Shaw. There might have been others, whose names the writer has not obtained.
Several women, in the town of Winfield, WI, showed their appreciation of the work of the Society by contributing to its funds from time to time.
The Bible informs us, “that as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall be his part that tarrieth by the stuff, they shall part alike.” The truth taught here is evidently this: that those who remain at home in the performance of duty, bear as important a part in securing an object of national importance, as those who are actively engaged in the field, and their honor and reward is as great. It is important, therefore, for every one to enquire in what position they can do the most for the common cause, and be willing to work in that position whether it be one of honor or otherwise.
The women who were engaged in this patriotic work, here, probably suffered more from indifference and opposition than any others similarly engaged in the State. This announcement will appear strange to many readers, and will be read with astonishment in the ages to come. To the future generations it will seem incredible that any one could be indifferent in such a benevolent work as this much more incredible that any could be opposed. Yet we are obliged to record the fact that there were women here, at that time, who refused to contribute even a rag for the sick and wounded. Several times when the funds of the Society were low and needed money for specific purposes, sent out special messengers to solicit from the men of the village. Whilst the solicitations met with a cordial response from many of our citizens, as the records of the Secretary show, they were refused by some. One of the prominent business men here, at that time, responded to their calls, in repeated instances, not only by a refusal to assist, but by swearing at them and cursing their work. It must be a source of bitter reflection to that person, that he should have allowed his political prejudices to carry him to such a length of opposition to a just and holy cause.
The women who were engaged in this work must ever look back upon it with pleasure, as they will upon every benevolent enterprise pursued under like difficulties. It is believed that no person ever did or ever can regret the performance of a benevolent act, whilst a neglect to do good, when our services are needed, will ever be looked upon with sadness and self-reproach.
Reedsburg Free Press November 15, 1872 RECORD
OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (20)
By S. A. Dwinnell Religious efforts for the Soldiers.
Provision was made by each State to supply the moral and religious wants of the troops sent into the field, by the appointment of a Chaplain for each regiment, who held an honorable rank, and received a liberal salary, paid by the Government of the United States. It was his duty to preach to the members of his regiment, on Sunday, when practicable, collect the pious of their number, and others if possible, for prayer meetings, and combine, when practicable, the religious element around him, for the advancement of piety, the suppression of vice and promotion of virtue.
So far as can be ascertained by us, these objects were secured only to a very limited extent in the regiments to which most of the soldiers from this town were attached. The reason for this want of success were no doubt numerous. Some of them were that many Chaplains were sent into the field who were poorly qualified for the work. They were often appointed by the Governor, upon recommendation of the Colonel and line officers. Some favorite of theirs was often recommended without much regard to his fitness for the position. As the Colonel and his associate officers were seldom religious men, and sometimes were far otherwise, they would not be very desirous that a gospel minister, of established piety and faithfulness, should fill the place. Hence, many were appointed who proved to be of little use to the army. They became, in the estimation of the soldiers, mere sinecures holding their offices for mere position and pelf.
There can be no doubt that many of our Chaplains entered upon their work well qualified for the office, and with a decided purpose to perform the duties faithfully; but the want of co-operation of the line officers the decided opposition of some of them the difficulty of collecting the soldiers for worship when engaged in active warfare, and various other obstacles disheartened and discouraged them. Some resigned and returned home, and others continued with their regiments, rendering such service as they could perform. A few Chaplains from our own, and many from other States, performed excellent service and were widely known and respected.
Chaplains were often useful in caring for the wounded in time of battle in social intercourse with the soldiers, especially, with those in trial and suffering, writing letters for them when unable to do it for themselves attending to receiving and distributing the mails and furnishing religious reading.
In the early history of many of the regiments, the Christian members, of all denominations, united together as churches, founded upon the prominent doctrines of the Bible and the fundamental principles of Christianity. These organizations were often quite efficient in promoting the interests of religion in camp holding frequent meetings for conference and prayer, oftentimes of great spiritual interest and power to those who participated. In Love’s History of
Wisconsin in the War, it is said that, “there was considerable religious interest in the 12th Regiment soon after its organization. In one Company there were fifty who openly professed to be Christians.”
Various causes conspired to break up these organizations, or render them inefficient. It was generally difficult and often impossible to hold meetings at the front, amidst the commotions and changes of camp life. Inroads upon their membership were constant, by reason of transfers, sickness, wounds, discharges and death. During a large portion of their army life, it is believed that few of our soldiers enjoyed these much needed means of grace. It is feared that not many of our Christian soldiers had attained to such strength and experience in the Divine life as to maintain such a devout spirit and daily walk with God, in the midst of the evil surroundings of camp life, as to desire and maintain efficiently, social religious meetings. There were a few Christian men, however, of large experience and devout lives, who enlisted, not only to serve their country, but also to serve their God, in labors for the religious interests for their fellows.
The Christian Commission organized January 28th, 1862, under the leadership of George H. Stewart, of Philadelphia; a man of large wealth and benevolence, performed an immense work for the spiritual as well as the temporal well being of the army. It commissioned large numbers of gospel ministers, and others who volunteered to serve them gratuitously, in army work, for at least eight weeks, their expenses only being defrayed. Very many of the most pious and able ministers of the nation, some of them pastors of our large city churches, gave themselves to this work.
Their labors were largely confined to hospitals and convalescent camps. There they preached, held prayer meetings, read portions of scripture aloud in the various wards adapted to the needs of the sick sung spiritual songs, consoled the sick and dying at their couches, and sent the last message of the departed to their anxious friends.
The services rendered by the various agents of the Christian Commission will ever be held in grateful remembrance by thousands of soldiers who survived, while the dying benedictions of the multitudes consoled and blessed by their care, rest upon them. The interesting incidents of their work, aside from its general history, would, no doubt, fill a volume.
We cannot forbear mentioning one related to us by Rev. Milton Wells, of Beaver Dam, soon after his return from Petersburg, Virginia, as an agent of the Commission. It was in April, 1865, just after the evacuation of the place by the rebels. One day as he walked out to look at the deserted fortifications of both armies, he found a soldier on duty in charge of the field, who kindly gave him all needed information. As they walked together over the grounds between the forts of the late contending armies, large numbers of the Union dead lay upon the surface, with a little mound of dirt thrown over them. They had fallen in an unsuccessful attack upon the rebel works some weeks or months previous. The dead were unburied and the soldier on guard said that the wounded were uncared for, some of them being seen, from the Union forts, to move for several days before they finally expired. As Mr. Wells and the soldier were walking among the dead, they saw an arm protruding from one of the mounds with a ring on one of the fingers. The picked it up and found the name of its owner, with his company, regiment, and the State from which he came marked upon it. The soldier preserved it. Mr. Wells returned to his quarters and in relating the incidents of his trip mentioned that of the ring. A member of the Commission from the State of Maine who was present and to a regiment of which the dead soldier belonged, at once, upon hearing this, exclaimed, “I knew that soldier! He came from my home. When a lad he was a pupil in my school. I knew his relatives. They do not know of his fate and never would have known, probably, but for that ring. We must go out and give the body a decent burial.” Several members of the Commission accompanied him and Mr. Wells the next morning, found the soldier guard, identified the body and buried it with Christian rites. The soldier gave the ring to the Commissioner from Maine to carry to his relatives. And he gave assurance that, upon his return home he should hold a religious service in commemoration of this death relate the particulars of the burial and deliver the ring.
Reedsburg Free Press November 22, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (21)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Odds and ends. Items and incidents.
There enlisted in Captain Stevens’ Company, when it entered the army, Lehiel D. and Evert H. Hagaman, brothers, of LaValle. The former died of disease at Natchez, Miss., Aug.21st, 1863; and the latter was killed at Atlanta, July 22nd, 1864.
There also enlisted, as recruits, in Captain Stevens’ Company, Amos and George Ford, brothers, of Ironton. They were both killed at Atlanta, GA, the former July 21st, and the latter July 22nd, 1864. Both were farmers and left families.
There also enlisted in Captain Stevens’ Company, when it was made up, Horace, Lewis, George and Dennis Curtis, of Winfield. They were all brothers, more than six feet in height all having families. George died of disease at Holly Springs, Miss., December 1862, and Horace, of disease, at Vicksburg, MS, in June, 1863, and Lewis, of disease contracted in the army, at Winfield, WI, in February, 1867. Their families are all entitled to pensions.
In Captain Strong’s Company, when it was made up, there enlisted from the town of Wonewoc, WI, Jesse Mallow and three sons, Jesse, William and Adolphus. The father died of disease at Hampton, VA hospital, April 4th, 1864. The three sons all re-enlisted as veterans, served through the war and returned home in safety.
When Captain Stevens’ Company were on the march from Lawrence to Fort Scott, Kansas, in March, 1862, they came to the Osage river, which at that point was about five rods in width. The ferry boat was on the opposite side of the stream and frozen in. John Kivel and Clifford Carnes volunteered to go up the stream to some rapids, where the water was about three feet deep, and wade across and bring over the boat. This they effected, although one of them came near being swept down by the current into deep water where he must have lost his life.
Irving Carter relates that, when his regiment was at Spotsylvania Court House, Virginia, there was, not far from them, an oak tree, measuring twenty-two inches in diameter, which had been entirely cut away, little by little, by rifle balls from our troops. The tree had fallen and two or three dead rebels were under it. The tree was afterwards taken, it was reported, to Richmond and manufactured into canes to be sold as relics.
George Miles was killed by a rifle ball at South Mountain, Maryland, September 14th, 1862. John Starks, son of Gen. A. W. Starks, who was a companion of George, informed Mrs. Miles that her son, who was usually very fearless and courageous in prospect of a battle, had a presentiment that he should be killed when he went into that one and so declared to his comrades. He was shot through the breast in the region of the heart, and lived but a few minutes. His dying message was, “Tell my friends that I died doing my duty.”
Sergeant Spencer S. Miles was wounded in the knee in the charge at Bald Hill, Atlanta, July 21st, 1864. As he was being assisted from the field, he sat down to rest upon a log and while there a cannon ball, passing between his legs, struck the log and gave him such a terrible shock as to cause his death, as was supposed, rather than the previous wound which he had received. The same cannon ball took off the leg of a wounded man who was near him at the time. These facts were given to the family by Colonel Morrill who was with him at the time.
On the morning of July 21st, 1864, James Miles was on picket duty near Bald Hill, Atlanta. A sharp shooter at his left got his range. The ball shattered his left elbow and passing around his back was afterwards taken out of his right side.
When the 19th regiment was on Nansemond, near Suffolk, Virginia, in the Summer of 1863, they were awakened one morning by a heavy cannonading from a rebel battery on the opposite side of the river. They were firing at some of our transports passing down the stream. A solid shot which struck the water and glanced, passed just over the top of the head of Christopher Evers, of this town, [Reedsburg, WI], taking off his hat and greatly exciting his brain. He jumped upon the top of the breastwork and ran to the signal station and performed various antics, in full view of the enemy, which was a source of amusement to his companions, whenever the matter was referred to, all through the war.
Reuben W. Green first enlisted in the Delton Company, in the 12th Regiment, and was discharged for disability after two years service. He afterwards re-enlisted and was Orderly Sergeant in the 6th Mississippi Infantry, which was changed to the United States Colored Cavalry, in which he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, March 31st, 1864. His family resided here at the time of his re-enlistment, consequently he was a soldier and officer from this town. He was not set down as such in the original list.
THE MILITARY IN CONFLICT WITH THE CIVIL AUTHORITIES
When the 19th Regiment was about to proceed from Warrenton to Richmond, Virginia, in April, 1865, the conductor of a rail road train was requested by Colonel Vaughn, then in command, to take his troops through. This the conductor utterly refused to do. Colonel Vaughn at once ordered his men to place obstructions upon the track in front of the engine, which was done. He then told the conductor that his orders were to proceed to Richmond at once. If he would take his men by the regular train it was all right; otherwise he should take possession of the road and run the train himself, as he had the men in his command to do it. The conductor yielded and took the troops.
Albert C. Hunt, during a large portion of his service in the army, was attached to a battery of light artillery, in which he served as guidon. His position was a perilous one. He rode a pony to which he was much attached. As he was on duty one day, in time of battle, the pony suddenly threw up his head, which was pierced by a rifle ball which killed it at once. From the range of the ball it was evident that the pony’s head saved the life of his rider.
Reedsburg Free Press November 29, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (22)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Origin of the conflict and the results secured.
(Chapter One)
It may be well, before concluding these papers, to inquire into the causes which operated to bring on the war and the results which have been achieved by it. It is due to those who fell in the struggle, as well as those who survived the conflict, that we look candidly into this matter, that it may be shown that the former did not throw their lives away and that the latter did not risk their lives and suffer in vain.
The war of the rebellion, in which more than a million of men were called into the field, in awful combat, was but one act in a fearful drama which has often, in the history of nations, deluged the earth in human blood. It was a conflict between patrician aristocracy on the one hand and plebian resistance on the other between insolent, domineering, purse-proud tyrants on the one part, and the demand for equal rights on the other. It was a struggle of the laboring masses, to rise and assert their manhood, when the iron heels of despots, sustained by corrupt political parties and perverted human governments, was upon their necks.
Let us look at a few instances as recorded upon the pages of history. More than two thousand years ago Cnecus [Gnaeus] Pompey, espousing the interests of the aristocracy of Rome, placed himself at the head of an army to sustain their cause. Julius Caesar took the part of the common people. He unfurled the banner of right against might, of justice against injustice. After wading through seas of blood the two armies met in final conflict on the field of Pharsalia, in Western Greece, and Caesar was triumphant. Aristocracy was overthrown and its domineering pride subdued. Its haughty arrogancy trailed in the dust. An imperial republic was reared upon the ruins of an aristocratic commonwealth. Democracy, although exceedingly imperfect in its development, became victor.
More than two hundred years ago the aristocracy of France were its barons, housed in fortified castles and surrounded by armed men who rode, rough-shod, over every right of the masses and trampled upon humanity until humanity could endure it no longer. Their feudal slaves lived in mud hovels, their wives and daughters driven to the field bareheaded and barefooted, and yoked with donkeys to drag the plow. They were kept in the most profound ignorance that they might not know their wrongs or be able to avenge them.
A peasant was not allowed to bake his own dough by the fire of his own hovel, but must take it to his lord and pay an enormous tariff for baking it. He was not allowed to dip a cup of water from the Ocean and let it evaporate to get salt for his family, it must be bought, at a high price, from his master. An American historian says of them, “The masses of the people were deprived of every privilege but that of toiling for their master. That the lords might live in castles and fare sumptuously and be clothed in purple, the people were doomed to hovels and rags and black bread.”
Every effort was made to blot out the individuality of their serfs, not even giving them separate names. They were driven to the field in herds, and called jacks, as every slave in a gang on a southern cotton-field was called “boy.” But the pent up vengeance of ages at length burst forth. Humanity could endure no longer. They arose by millions upon their oppressors, like infuriated wild beasts, and wrecked upon them every atrocity which fiend-like ingenuity could devise. France run red with blood.
At length the lords, sustained by the treasury, the bayonets and the disciplined valor of the government prevailed. The serfs were overcome and millions of them slain. Feudal slavery was again fastened upon the people. But the spirit of liberty never dies in the human heart. It is a part of human nature. These outraged serfs, though crushed, watched their chances to rise upon their oppressors and assert their rights. Though the opportunity was long delayed, it came at length. It was this horrible oppression that prepared the way for the French Revolution of 1793 the most terrible that has been enacted in all the ages.
“Twenty millions of people,” says John S. C. Abbott, “trampled in the mire, rose ghastly and frenzied, and the flames of feudal castles, and the shrieks of haughty oppressors, appalled the world. The story of this outburst of enslaved humanity is the most instructive in the annals of nations. That struggle was the most memorable in the long series of conflicts between aristocratic assumption and popular rights.”
“All aristocratic Europe then combined to crush the people, demanding equality of privilege in the eye of the law, with their lords. The courts of Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria, England, Spain all the kings and nobles of Europe rallied. The people of France arose with all the energies of despair, in defence of equality of rights. Such combats earth never saw before, and probably will never see again. Two worlds, as it were, came clashing together. All the combined aristocracy of Europe were on one side, and all the masses of the people on the other side. It was because they believed, right or wrong, that the motto of equal rights for all men was beaming from banners of the (French) Empire, that they marched so heroically to the victories at Marengo, Wagram and Austerlitz. And in the final victories of the despots, aristocratic privilege again triumphed and ‘Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell.’ ”
“A similar, though less sanguinary conflict had previously taken place in England between the united courtiers and cavaliers under Charles I, and the Puritans under Cromwell. It was the same irrepressible conflict. The common people of England, slowly emerging from feudal servitude and gradually acquiring intelligence and property, grew restive under the yoke which the lords had for ages imposed upon them. With prayer and fasting and hymn, they drew the sword in defence of the equal rights of all, and met their foes at Marston Moor and Nasby. Before the sturdy blows of the Round-heads, the Cavaliers bit the dust. But aristocracy triumphed as Charles II returned to the throne. Our Puritan fathers were again humiliated, and the foot of the oppressor was upon their heads.”
“Then it was, in this dark hour of apparently hopeless defeat, that our fathers adopted the heroic-resolve to abandon home and possessions, to cross a stormy ocean of three thousand miles, to exile themselves to the wilderness of a new world, and here, struggling against famine, a savage foe and hardships of every kind, to found a republic where all men, in the eyes of the law, should be equal. No privileged class was to be allowed. Education was to be as widely diffused as possible. The poor and the rich were to be alike eligible to all offices of honor and emolument.”
“The aristocracy of England, when they found that a Republic was established in this country, growing rapidly in wealth and power, made a desperate effort to bring this partially emancipated people under subjection to their privileged class. They endeavored to tax us, without allowing us to be represented in parliament to place the appointment of all important officers in the hands of the King, who would send over sons of England’s nobles to be our governors and our judges, and who would fill the posts of wealth, dignity and power with the children of the Lords.”
“Hence the war of the Revolution. It was a continuation of the irrepressible conflict between aristocratic usurpation and popular rights. We, the people, conquered, and established our Government independent of all the world. Proudly we announced to the nations of Europe, as the corner stone of our edifice, that ‘all men are born free and equal, and are alike entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ ”
Reedsburg Free Press December 6, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR
(23)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Origin of the conflict and the results secured.
(Chapter Two)
In the continuation of this subject we shall mainly make up this chapter with extracts of statements made by one of the most clear and forcible writers in the nation, upon the cause of the war those of John S. C. Abbott.
“Our Constitution, in its spirit and legitimate utterances, is, doubtless, the noblest document which ever emanated from the mind of man. It contains not one word hostile to liberty. Even now, with the light of three-fourths of a century shed upon its practical workings, it requires not the change of a single paragraph to make it true to humanity.”
“But yet, ingloriously, guiltily, under sore temptation, we consented to use one phrase, susceptible of a double meaning, ‘held to labor.’ These honest words, at the North, mean a hired man, an apprentice. At the South they mean a slave, feudal bondage. So small, apparently so insignificant, were these seeds sown in our Constitution, which have resulted in such a harvest of misery. A privileged class at the South assumed that by these words the Constitution recognized domestic slavery and right of property in man. With persistence never surpassed, the Slaveholders of the South endeavored to strengthen and extend their aristocratic institution, which was dooming the ever increasing millions to life-long servitude and degradation. All wealth was rapidly accumulating in the hands of a few who owned their fellow-men as property. The poor whites, destitute of employment, unable to purchase negroes, and regarding labor, which was performed mostly by slaves in their region, as degrading, were fast sinking into a state of beastial misery.”
“The sparse population which slavery allowed, excluded churches, schools and villages. Immense plantations of many thousand acres, tilled sometimes by a thousand slaves, driven to their toil by a few overseers, consigned the whole land to apparent solitude. The log hut of the overseer was surrounded by the miserable cabins of the negroes; and in the workshops of the north were manufactured all the rude implements of their toil. The region of the Southern country generally presented an aspect of desolation which Christendom could nowhere parallel. The Slaveholders, ever acting as one man, claimed the right of extending this institution all over the free territories of the United States. Free labor and slave labor cannot exist together. The New England farmer cannot work his sons in fields surrounded by negro hands, where labor is considered degrading, where his wife and daughters find no congenial society, no education, none of the institutions of religion, none of the appliances and resources of high civilization which freedom secures. The admission of slavery to the Territories effectually excluded the freemen from them. The introduction to those vast realms of a privileged class, who were to live in luxury upon the unpaid toil of the masses, rendered it impossible that men cherishing the sentiment of republican equality should settle there.”
“It was upon this point that the conflict, in its fierceness, commenced. It was to avoid this very trouble of an aristocratic class, in the enjoyment of exclusive privileges, that our fathers fled from Europe. Almost every nation in
Europe was represented in our land, by refugees from feudal Europe, seeking liberty and equality of rights upon the free soil of the United States. These men could not consent that they and their children should be excluded from the Territories by the extension over them of the curse of human bondage. They came to this new world, expressly to establish and to maintain free institutions, where every honest man, the poor man’s son as well as the rich man’s son, the son of the day laborer as well as the son of the merchant prince, the boy born in the log hut as well as the boy born in the mansions of splendor, should be entitled to equal rights in the eye of the law.”
“All feudal privileges were here to be abolished. The boot black was to be as much entitled to his dime as the lawyer to his fee. The poor woman who should wash a gentleman’s linen was to have her shilling of pay just as surely as that gentleman was to receive his thousands when occupying the senatorial or presidential chair. The servant who groomed the horses and polished the coach of his employer, was to claim his wages as effectually through the law, as that employer could claim his salary when occupied in the most responsible posts of the Government.”
“How just this democratic principle, overarching, as with a sunny sky, all humanity! This was the contemplated corner-stone of our Republic. Thus was the democracy, sacred, heaven-born, which Jesus Christ taught, and over which our national banner, of the stars and stripes, was intended to be unfurled. But Satan sent the serpent of aristocratic usurpation into our Eden, to wilt its flowers and poison its fruit. The execrable spirit in the most malignant form it has ever developed, came over here, demanding that the rich man should live in splendor at the expense of the poor. The rich man’s boots were to be polished, as in old baronial Europe, and the poor boy who blacked them was to have no pay. The rich man’s coach was to roll luxuriously through the streets, and his linen to be washed, and his fields to be tilled, while the coachman, the laborer and the washerwoman were to be defrauded of their wages.”
“The daughter of the rich man, with cultured mind and polished address, was to move through saloons [salons] of magnificence, robed in fabrics of almost celestial texture; while the daughter of the poor man, dirty and ragged, and almost naked, with one garment scarce covering her person, was to toil in the field from morning till night and from youth to old age and death; that her aristocratic sister, very probably in blood relationship her half-sister, the child of the same father, might thus cultivate her mind and decorate her person.”
“It is impossible that two such antagonistic systems as democratic equality and aristocratic privilege, should live in peace under the same Government, or even side by side. Through all the ages they have kept this world in commotion, and will until dooms day trump shall sound, unless one or the other shall gain undisputed ascendancy. When France attempted to establish a Republican Empire upon the basis of equal rights to every man who trod her soil, all aristocratic Europe rose in resistance and millions were marshaled in arms to crush this heaven-born fraternity.”
“It is true that there must be gradations in society. There must be diversity of rank. There must be bootblacks, and coachmen, and day laborers. There must be men to swing the sledge-hammer, as well as to rule in the senate. There must be men to split rails, as well as to occupy the presidential chair. True democracy only demands that the smith and the rail-splitters shall have fair wages for their work, with unobstructed opportunities to improve their condition if they can; that every man shall have fair scope for industry and talent.”
“The antagonism between these two systems is deadly and universal. The history of the world has proved that there can be no reconciliation between them. From the foundation of our government they have been in constant battle, growing hotter and hotter every year, until culminating in the rebellion. They have kept Congress, both the Senate and the House, in one constant scene of warfare. And there can be no peace in our land until the aristocratic element is entirely banished.”
Rev. Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, speaking of the antagonism of these two systems, said in the Senate of the United States, on the 5th of Dec., 1860: “Sir, disguise the fact as you will, there is an enmity between the Northern and Southern people, which is deep and enduring, and you can never eradicate it never. There is a hostile feeling existing between the two sections. We are enemies as much as if we were hostile States. We have not lived in peace. We are not now living in peace. It is not expected that we shall ever live in peace.”
Hon. Mr. [James M.] Mason, of Virginia, said, in continuation of the same debate: “This is a war of sentiment and opinion by one form of society against another form of society.”
The remarks of the Hon. Garret Davis, a Senator from Kentucky, are instructive on this point. “The Cotton States, by their slave labor, have become wealthy. This wealth has begot pride, and insolence and ambition. As a class, the wealthy cotton growers are insolent, they are proud, they are domineering, they are ambitious. They have monopolized the Government, in its honor for forty or fifty years, with few interruptions. When they saw the scepter about to depart from them, in the election of Abraham Lincoln, sooner than give up office and the spoils of office, in their mad and wicked ambition, they determined to disrupt the old Confederation and erect a new one, in which they would have undisputed power.”
“There is one cause and but one cause for this animosity. It is the antagonism between the system of aristocratic privilege and democratic equality. It is not one that affects the African race alone. It is as broad as humanity itself.”
Reedsburg Free Press December 13, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (24)
By S. A. Dwinnell
Origin of the conflict and the results secured.
(Chapter Three)
In this number we shall notice some of the blessings secured by the war. In the first place the system of chattel slavery, the great crime and curse of the nation, was entirely swept away. Four million of human beings in the land were held as slaves at the opening of the war. Slavery, as a system, denied God’s right to rule those slaves. The slave master was the only god the slave was allowed to obey. The commandments, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me” “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” “Honor thy father and thy mother,” were all set aside at the will of the slave master. Slavery was a system of down-right atheism. God was deprived of His right to govern the slave, as far as slavery could do it.
In the penal laws of every slave State, except Maryland and Kentucky, it was made a crime to teach a slave to read even the Bible; and the Presbyterian Synod, of Kentucky, in 1834, in speaking of the condition of the slaves in that State says: “Slavery dooms thousands of human beings to hopeless ignorance. Throughout the whole land there is but one School, so far as we can learn, in which, during the week, slaves can be taught. The light of three or four Sabbath Schools is seen glimmering through the darkness that covers the black population of a whole State. Nor is it to be expected that this state of things will grow better, unless it is determined that Slavery shall cease.”
In many of the Slave States it was made a criminal offense for slaves to assemble for religious worship. The Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky, in 1834, said: “Slavery deprives its subjects, in a great measure, of the privileges of the gospel. The law, as it is here, does not prevent free access to the Scripture, but ignorance, the natural result of their condition, does. The Bible is before them; but it is, to them a sealed book. Very few of them enjoy the advantages of a regular gospel ministry.”
The Presbyterian Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in 1833, published a statement in which they said of the slaves: “There are over two million of human beings in the condition of heathens, and some of them in a worse condition. They may justly be considered the heathen of this country, and will bear a comparison with the heathen of any country of the world. In the vast field extending from an entire State, beyond the Potomac, to the Sabine River, and from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are not, to the best of our knowledge, twelve men exclusively devoted to the instruction of the negroes. They have no Bibles to read by their own firesides. They have no family altar, and when in affliction, sickness and death, they have no minister to address to them the consolation of the gospel, nor bury them with appropriate services.”
Slavery denied the rights of marriage to its victims. It classed them with animals, and they do not marry. Judge Stroud, in his sketch of the Slave Laws, page 61, says: “A slave cannot contract matrimony; the association which takes place among slaves, and is called marriage, being properly designated by the word contubernium, a relation which has no sanctity, and to which no civil rights are attached.”
Where slaves were united in marriage under the divine law and had children, slavery sundered the family at pleasure, selling husband from wife and children from parents.
In Wheeler’s Law of Slavery, page 41, he says: “Slaves may be sold from one to another without any statutory restriction as to the separation of parents and children, except in Louisiana.”
Goodell, in his slave code, page 115, says: “It is the common understanding at the South, that slaves do not constitute families. It is the common understanding of the country at large. The American Bible Society, many years ago, proposed to supply every family in the United States with a Bible. After a long effort, it was announced by the Society that the great work was completed. It was afterwards ascertained that no part of the supply went to the then two and a half million of slaves. The Society made no apology for its mistake, nor acknowledged that it had committed any. Public sentiment, in general, (with the exception of abolitionists) attributed to them no error. The nation knew nothing about families of slaves.”
The practice sustained the theory, and the nation, as a whole, sustained the practice and the laws which allowed it. But of a large number of cases which might be cited, we quote one from Sarah M. Grimke, a member of the Society of Friends and a daughter of the late Judge Grimke, of Charleston, S.C.: “A slave who had been separated from his wife, because it best suited the convenience of his owner, ran away. He was found upon the plantation where his wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, then lived. His only object in running away was to return to her; no other fault was attributed to him. For this offense, he was confined in the stocks six weeks, in a miserable hovel, not weather-tight. He received fifty lashes weekly during that time, was allowed food barely sufficient to sustain him, and when released from confinement was not permitted to see his wife. His master, although himself a husband and father, was unmoved by the touching appeals of the slave, who entreated that he might only remain with his wife, promising to discharge his duties
faithfully; his master continued inexorable, and he was torn from his wife and family. The owner of this slave was a professing Christian, in full membership with the Church, and this circumstance occurred to him while he was in his chamber during his last illness.”
We have mentioned only a part of the sins and crimes of slavery, which was exterminated by the war.
Another blessing secured by the war was the removal of slavery from the Capital of the nation and from the District of Columbia, which was under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress. This made it, in an especial manner, a national crime, and its removal a national repentance.
Another blessing secured by the war, was the removal from the free colored people, of various disabilities under which they suffered from the spirit of slavery and caste. We have room to mention but a few of them. In the city of Washington no free colored person could leave his house after ten o’clock at night, without a pass. Some years ago a man left his house to get assistance for his sick wife. He was arrested by the police. He pled the urgency of his business to no effect, was thrown into the calaboose only to come out in the morning, pay his fine and go home to find his wife dead.
Colored children were shut out of most of our schools, and those which were established for their special instruction, were often broken up. Miss Prudence Crandall established a Christian School for colored girls in Cantabury [Canterbury], Connecticut, in 1833. She was arrested and thrown into prison for the act, her school room mobbed and the school broken up.
“In the city of Norfolk, Va., in the month of June, 1852, Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a Christian lady of Southern birth and education, opened, in her own house, a school for the gratuitous instruction of free colored children, who were running neglected in the streets. She did not venture to interfere with law and prejudice by admitting any children of slaves into her room. The colored people were so overjoyed at this opportunity of having their children taught, that her room was soon crowded and she received a small compensation for her services for each pupil. This effect of a Christian lady was deemed so dangerous, lest the mental illumination thus afforded might extend to the slaves, that public meetings of indignation were held, mobs were roused, the school violently broken up, the lady was dragged before the Circuit Court, and, after a protracted trial, was found guilty of the crime of having unlawfully assembled with divers negroes, for the purpose of instructing them to read and write, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia. For this crime she was punished by a fine and by imprisonment among the felons of a common jail for one month. This penalty was mercilessly inflicted upon her.”
As a result of the war the infamous black laws, found upon our National and State Statute Books, of which these are specimens, were repealed.
The Republic of Liberia and St. Domingo [Dominican Republic], which the United States had refused to recognize, the latter for more than fifty years, lest colored diplomatic ministers should be sent to Washington, were received and their ministers accepted as a result of the war.
In conclusion, without giving any more particulars as a result of the war, all of the people of the land have the right to their own personal liberty, when not forfeited by crime, to education, to the ballot box, to eligibility to office, to trial by jury and to appear in court as suitors and witnesses, to carry the mails and perform any service, civil or military, for the government, to read the bible, to assemble to worship God, to unite in marriage and to rear families. None of these things could be done legally by a slave, and some of them not by free blacks before the war. Now all are put upon the same level before the law, without distinction of race or color. Who is ready to say that the blessings resulting does not pay the cost, fearful as it was?
Reedsburg Free Press December 20, 1872
RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (25)
By S. A. Dwinnell
The Gospel of Jesus Christ on the side of the oppressed masses.
The Bible is the poor man’s charter of liberty and equal rights. It declares that God has made all men in his own image. It demands that we should honor all men, as all alike are made in the Divine image. That we should neglect, oppress and abuse none on account of their race, condition or color. It declares that God has made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth. He has given to each the right to life, its privileges and enjoyments. The special mission of the Lord Jesus Christ to our world was to the poor and suffering. He said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” His gospel is the gospel of mercy. It guards the rights of the oppressed and enslaved.
Rev. John S. C. Abbott, in his Civil War in America, Vol. 1, page 17, says: “Christianity is the corner stone of true democracy. All men are brothers in its fundamental doctrine. Consequently, nowhere, the world over, will
aristocratic intolerance allow democratic servitude to read the Bible. It is a curious fact, illustrative of this general truth, that even in republican America, those who were in favor of the servitude of the masses, and of a privileged, aristocratic class, roused their utmost endeavors to prevent the preachers of Christianity from teaching that doctrine of man’s brotherhood which Christ so fervently and unceasingly has inculcated. ‘You are preaching politics’ was the cry which drove many a minister of Jesus from his pulpit.”
In the Church of Notre Dame, in Paris, in the year 1789, the Abbe Fauchet preached to an immense audience, crowding every nook and corner of the vast Cathedral. The noble prelate, unintimidated by frowns, was the bold enunciator of that equality of rights which Christianity inculcates. Taking for his text the words of Paul, “Brethren ye have been called unto liberty,” he said: “The false interpreters of the divine oracles have wished, in the name of heaven, to keep the people in subjection to their master. They have consecrated despotism. They have rendered God an accomplice with tyrants. These false teachers exult because it is written: ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.’ But that which is not Caesar’s is it necessary to render unto him that? And liberty does not belong to Caesar. It belongs to human nature.”
“Notwithstanding the presence of the king and his frowning court, this annunciation of the pure spirit of the gospel of Christ was received with a burst of applause which shook the venerable pile to its foundation. Yes more! It caused the very throne of despotic power at the Tuileries to tremble, and finally toppled it into ruins. When the preacher left the door of the church, the people, delighted to hear such sentiments in feudal France, so long overridden by princes and priests, seized him in the exuberance of their gratitude and bore him to his home in a triumphal chair, decorated with wreaths and garlands, and then the vast multitude, surging through the streets, raised three cheers for Jesus Christ. Jesus is indeed the friend of the poor man and the helper of the oppressed. Did the masses but appreciate his sympathy for them, they would indeed feel that he was their friend.”
“If a peasant, toiling with his wife and child in the field, in the cultivation of forty acres of land, raised crops to the value of $640, the King, the lord and the church took $600 of this, and left for the peasant and his ragged, emaciated family, but forty dollars. No allusion was allowed to be made to such wrongs. King, noble, ecclesiastic, alike rose in vengeful remonstrance, exclaiming: ‘It is political preaching.’ ” The old hypocrites! Thomas Jefferson, in the year 1785, wrote from Paris to Mrs. Trist, of Philadelphia: “Of twenty million people supposed to be in France, I am of the opinion that there are nineteen million more wretched, more accursed in every circumstance of human existence, than the most conspicuously wretched individual in the Whole United States.”
“And yet the Christianity of that day was not allowed to make the slightest reference to such outrages. It was this state of things which inaugurated the French Revolution, the most terrible of all Time’s tragedies. Twenty millions of people, trampled in the mire, rose ghastly and frenzied, and the flames of feudal castles, and the shrieks of haughty oppressors, appalled the world. The story of this outburst of enslaved humanity is the most instructive in the annals of nations. That struggle was the most memorable in the long series of conflicts between aristocratic assumption and popular rights.”
In the contest between Charles I and the Puritans, the same principles were involved. It was popular and religious rights against the usurpations of tyrants the king and the aristocracy of the realm. They had dethroned the Lord Jesus, the head of the Church, and had set themselves up in His place. They decided how the church should be governed, who should be admitted to its communion and who should be rejected. The king issued his bill of Sunday sports and required all his ministers to read it from their pulpits on penalty of being ejected from their places and their livings. Two thousand of them refused and were driven from their people. They preferred to be loyal to their Divine Master and suffer persecution for “preaching politics.”
In the contest of the American Revolution between kingly intolerance and popular rights, the pulpit was not silent. The ministers of the Episcopal Church were generally on the side of the British crown. Others, including the entire Puritan ministry, sustained the cause of the Colonies, and we owe to them more than to all other agencies, our independence. They suffered, and one of them was slain for “preaching politics.”
The American pulpit exerted a wide influence in the contest with the slave power in our land, which terminated in the late civil war. A very large number of the clergy of the South were among the most earnest advocates of the system of slavery. They endeavored to sustain it from the Bible, as Divine institution. They did this while familiar with all its atrocities. The slave shambles, where men, women and children were sold to the highest bidder, where parents and children, husbands and wives were separated as so many cattle and sheep, and “maidens who professed the name of Christ and whose cash value depended on their beauty,” were put upon the auction block, were almost within the shadow of their church spires. So corrupt had become the Christianity of the South, through the influence of slavery, that their ministry, generally supported apparently by their churches represented the system as sustained by the divine approval, and that it was their great mission to extend and perpetuate it. But there were many and noble exceptions. There were ministers and private Christians who were true to Christ and suffered the violent persecutions to which their faithfulness to the Spirit of Jesus subjected them.
And all over the north a majority of the ministry and the churches bowed the knee to this American Baal, and were silent as to its atrocities. They sustained an emasculated gospel which ignored the rights both of God and the slave. There were many, however, who were abolitionists true to Jesus and his afflicted poor, and they suffered the consequences of thus “preaching politics.” There are probably few intelligent and candid people now in the nation but what believe that had the churches of the whole land been faithful to Jesus and his gospel in dealing with slavery, it would have been removed without the terrible cost of our civil war. How great the guilt of withholding God’s truth against giant wrongs! Against any wrong!
Reedsburg Free Press December 27, 1872 RECORD OF REEDSBURG IN THE WAR (26)
By S. A. Dwinnell Conclusion.
We now conclude our record. Its origin was this: On the 30th of May last, a few of us were at our cemetery, to decorate the graves of our soldiers. It was there ascertained that no record of those from this town who fell in battle, was in existence. As there was no probability that our town would erect a monument to perpetuate their names, it was thought to be due to them that at least a permanent record should be made to go down to posterity with the history of the town. For this purpose we collected their names and prepared the first article of this record. While doing this the idea was suggested to our own mind that a history of what the town did in the war, ought also to be written. As a result this work was commenced, expecting to embrace the whole in four or five numbers; but it enlarged to the present dimensions.
It has required an amount of hard work and patient inquiry which we are sure no other person would have given it. The difficulties in our way have been numerous. Not a printed document could be found which it would be safe to rely upon. Company lists of their soldiers, the Adjutant General’s report, Martin’s Record and even Love’s History of Wisconsin in the War, which is as nearly perfect as possible, apparently were more or less in error, and therefore could not be relied upon; but by extensive inquiry of the living actors in the war, we think that a reliable record has here been made. In a work of this kind, accuracy is the first thing to be sought. If it abounds in errors, it is worthless. There have been two names sent to us to be added to our list of soldiers, which has been done heretofore. There is one correction yet to be made: Clarence A. Danforth was reported as a re-enlisted veteran. He was not such.
In writing this history we have been made to comprehend, as never before, the terrible cost of the war. The privation of homes, its comforts and blessings the loss of liberty and manhood, inseparable from strict military discipline exposure to sickness from the miasma of Southern swamps suffering in hospitals, often homesick, surrounded by disease and death the terrible carnage of battle fields and the awful sufferings of rebel military prisons, make up a series of trials which no mind can grasp and no pen describe.
We have realized as never before, the patient endurance with which these trials were borne by he larger portion of the officers and soldiers. Our indignation has been repeatedly aroused against some of the officers, through whose incompetency, drunkenness or debauchery these sufferings were greatly augmented.
Many of these officers ought to have been deprived of their commission and sent home in disgrace. That some of them who held important positions were in sympathy with the rebels there can be no doubt. Before the war they were in political union now they were in practical sympathy. They protected their property; they returned their slaves when they came to their camp they handled them with padded gloves and refused to follow up a successful battle with an overwhelming victory. They chose to deal with rebels tenderly, by sprinkling them with a slight effusion of rosewater, rather than overwhelm them with sterner arguments of grape and canister, solid shot and rifle balls. It cannot be doubted that several of our political generals deserved the halter as truly as did Benedict Arnold we do not say that it would have been wise for the Government, at that time, however, to have inflicted the penalty of treason upon them. Tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of treasure, were no doubt wasted through their treachery. Impartial history will assign them to their proper place.
How manifest was the hand of God in the war. The rebels rushed into it for the purpose of establishing and perpetuating a great slave-empire, with the hope of extending it all over the land, except New England, which was to be left out in the cold. God made the Rebellion the means of entirely extirpating slavery from the nation, and of preparing the way to carry the educational, moral and religious principles of New England throughout the entire land.
At the opening of the war the nation was entirely indisposed to do justice to the slaves it was unwilling to allow the black man to take any part, however humble, in putting down the rebellion. It virtually said to the man of color, bond and free, we are well able to do this work without your help, and we will do it. But God decreed that the slaves should all go free, and he gave us only limited success in the war, until it was done. He would probably have left the nation to destruction, had we refused to obey the clear direction of His providence in this matter. From the time of the
promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation, success has crowned, almost uniformly, the work of our armies, until the final overthrow of the rebellion.
God decided that the black man should have an honorable part in the overthrow of the rebellion, which had been inaugurated to perpetuate his enslavement and degradation through all the ages. And so he brought the nation into such straits that we were willing to call upon the man of color for help. Most nobly and heartily did he respond to the call in rendering all the assistance in his power to the Union cause, both in the army and out of it.
As we have considered anew the condition of the Union prisoners, dying in Southern Military Pens, the conviction has been forced upon us, that the administration failed in its duty to them. Our Government was too mild and trustful. It was accustomed, month after month, to send, by truce boats, tons of private boxes for Union prisoners, every pound of which was stolen by the rebels and appropriated to their own use. These truce boats, on their return, were loaded with boxes sent to Rebel prisoners by their friends in the South; and our Northern express-lines were crowded with supplies from their sympathizers in the North, all of which was promptly delivered. President Lincoln ought to have demanded, it seems to us, that these supplies should have been delivered to our prisoners, through the agency of our paroled officers, as the clothing afterwards furnished by our government was.
It was clearly the duty of our Government to exchange our prisoners who were in rebel hands, or to protect them, not by indiscriminate cruelty to prisoners in our hands, but by well-considered, systematic retaliation in kind, until the Richmond authorities would treat prisoners with ordinary humanity. A nation, in dealing with savages, must pursue a different line of policy than with civilized men. The rebels needed to be handled sternly. They were more than savages. Our Government might have selected a number of Rebel officers, one for twenty or one for a hundred Union prisoners in their hands, and put them upon precisely the same amount of food, clothing and shelter. As one says who was himself a sufferer in Rebel prisons: “When the Confederate Government placed certain of our negro prisoners under fire, at work upon the fortifications of Richmond, General Butler, in a brief letter, informed them that he had stationed an equal number of Rebel officers, equally exposed and spade in hand, upon his fortifications. When his letter reached Richmond, before that day’s sun went down, the negroes were returned to Libby Prison and ever afterwards treated as prisoners of war. But by the mawkish sensibilities of a few northern statesmen and editors, our Government was encouraged to neglect the matter, and thus permitted the needless murder of its own soldiers a stain upon the nation’s honor, and an inexcusable cruelty to thousands of aching hearts.”
There was never a clearer case of right against wrong than in this war against the rebellion. The question which was settled by the arbitrament of the sword, was, whether aristocratic usurpation in its most low, vulgar and groveling form that of the slaveholder wielding the plantation lash was to be established upon the ruins of our free constitution; or whether that glorious charter of human rights, destined to lift up the down-trodden to dignity, culture and religion, shall make the United States the pioneer nation in the dawn of millennial glory.
As we look upon the contest in the light of history, it seems astonishing that there were large numbers in the north who were in such sympathy with slave-holders as to seriously embarrass the administration in the conduct of the war, by demanding that our government should settle the contest upon terms dictated by the rebels.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, in the following extract, very frankly states the terms which the Peace portion of the Democratic party were ready to make with rebels to win them back again to the Union: “If the Southern Confederates would lay down their arms and come back again into the old Union, we would not haggle very closely about the terms. We are pretty good unconditional Union men. We would be willing to repeal, for instance, all abolition personal liberty bills that nullify the fugitive slave law. We would allow the South to take all their property, slaves included, into the common Territories of the Union, and hold it while the territorial condition lasted. We would not molest the slaveholder, traveling and temporarily sojourning in a free State. We would repeal the law abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, and we would pass all necessary acts to prevent an interference by Northern families with Southern property of any description. All this we would give if the rebels would lay down their arms and come back again under the old flag and be once more loyal members of the Union.”
This party, as late as 1864, declared the war a failure, that the constitution had been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down. They demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities, for the purpose of calling a convention to patch up a peace, thus strengthening the hands of the rebels and encouraging them to protract the struggle, while at the same time the rebellion was only an empty shell, as Gen. Grant asserted.
Can we regard it as wonderful if God, in his righteous government, should consign such a party to destruction, and its active supporters to lasting infamy upon the pages of history.
(The Civil War articles were written by Solomon Ashley Dwinnell. The articles were typed into the computer by Bill Schuette and John McCully in 2002. States were added after names of cities and rivers. Some extra details were also added in brackets by John & Donna McCully, summer 2002. John McCully is a Dwinnell descendant.)
Reedsburg Free Press July 5, 1872
MASSACRE AT BAXTER SPRINGS, ARK. [KANSAS], OCT., 1863 Excelsior, July 1st, 1872
Friend Chandler: In your last issue [published June 28, 1872], I noticed a very valuable article from the pen of S. A. Dwinnell. “The Dead of Reedsburg in the war of the Rebellion” in which, alluding to the massacre at Baxter Springs, [Kansas], he says that Quantrill and his 500 rebels were disguised in Federal uniform.
As I was present at the massacre and was one of the 75 men captured and shot, the allusion of Mr. D’s, brings vividly to my mind, the scenes of that bloody day, and if not infringing too much on your space, I would like to give my impression of the affair.
Gen. [James G.] Blunt, with Co. I, 3rd Wis. Cav. and Co. A, 14th Kansas Cav. for a body guard, was en route from Fort Scott, Kansas to Fort Smith, Ark., and when near Baxter Springs, discovered a force of Cavalry in advance, and heard heavy firing at the Springs, where Co. C, 3rd Wis. Cav. and two companies of colored infantry was intrenched.
A rebel captain Cy. Gordon and perhaps a dozen of the men, were in Federal uniform; and some others had blue overcoats, but the greater part of the force were clad in “butternut” and Confederate gray. This motley “uniform” deceived Gen. Blunt, but not the soldiers, who had been in many a conflict with them before. The General gave orders not to fire, asserting that they were Federals, while at the same time we were receiving a galling fire from them.
Soon the rebels, to the number of five hundred charged on us in two lines, and the company of Kansas men, with the exception of two or three, fled without resistance, leaving our company of fifty men, to contend with ten times their number.
Our boys delivered two well directed volleys, and then attempted to retreat in good order; but the rebels were in our midst in an instant and it became a hand to hand struggle.
A few of the boys were shot down while fighting, but the most of us were surrounded and captured, and after being disarmed and robbed of money and other valuables, were shot in cold blood.
I was taken by Shelby’s men, who promised to treat me as a prisoner of war, and pledged me their protection if I would surrender. There being no alternative, I did so. But I was turned over to the tender mercies of Quantrill’s Bushwhackers, and those chivalries Southrons quickly sent two bullets through me. Then, examining me and finding me still alive, they proceeded to kick and trample upon me in the most brutal manner; and when tired of this pastime they sent another leaden volley at my head, wounding me again in several places; after which they withdrew, saying that they guessed they had finished me. But God, in his infinite mercy, spared my life.
Gen. Blunt, in his report to the Secretary of War, said that Company I ran without firing a shot; and that he, with a few men whom he rallied, drove the enemy to the timber.
Had this been so, he would probably have hit the dust. The fact is, that the short resistance we made enabled him to escape. Instead of his ‘driving’ the rebels, they remained on the field for four hours, robbing and stripping the dead, and killing all who showed any signs of life. And I afterwards learned that it took a great deal of urging on the part of the soldiers and scouts to induce him [Gen. Blunt] to return and look after the wounded.
Company C of our regiment, and the two companies of colored infantry had held the post of Baxter Springs [Kansas] against the assault made on it, and after lying on the field for seven hours, myself and four or five others who survived the barbarities of that dreadful day, though wounded nigh unto death, were removed thither and our wounds dressed.
JESSE SMITH
Reedsburg Free Press August 2, 1872
PRESERVE FILES. Mr. Dwinnell’s articles, “Record of Reedsburg in the late war,” will grow more interesting as he proceeds, and will probably continue through eight or ten numbers more. Those who preserve the Free Press for binding, or otherwise, will possess a history of these events, which, years hence, will be of untold value. The following from the Kilbourn Mirror, is a deserved compliment to Mr. Dwinnell and shows how this matter is viewed by sensible people in other places:
REV. S. A. DWINNELL, of Reedsburg, is compiling a “war record” of the participants in the late war from that town. It is being published in the Free Press and is the best prepared of all similar productions we ever saw concise, plain, well arranged, statistical, and very readable and entertaining to even those who know none of those of whom he writes; to that community it must be of great and manifold interest. An organized vote of thanks and material testimonial of gratitude is certainly due Mr. D. for the labor he has bestowed in thus condensing the town’s “record” in preservable shape; and the town authorities should order copies thereof filed in their archives. Posterity would thank Sauk County if each town would employ Mr. Dwinnell to compile the annals of all the doings of its volunteers.
ROSTER OF COMPANY A 19th REGIMENT WISCONSIN INFANTRY VOLUNTEERS ENLISTED FOR 3 YEARS, AND MUSTERED INTO UNITED STATES SERVICE FEBRUARY 22 AND APRIL 29, 1862 AT RACINE, WISCONSIN.
(The Roster was compiled in January 1926 and credits are given after the listings of the men.)
1. Captain Rollin M. Strong. Promoted to Major Oct. 1863 (Sept. 30); to Lieut. Col. Dec. 1863. Commanding Reg’t from about May 1864 till Oct. 27, 1864 when he lost his left leg, and was taken prisoner at Fair Oaks, Va. Exchanged Feb. 1865. Discharged March 1865 (April 11). Died Sparta, Wis., 1897. Buried at Reedsburg, Wis.
2. 1st Lieutenant Henry A. Tator. Prom. Capt. Nov. 1865. Must’d out Apr. 29, 1865. Died on train near Denver, Sept. 24, 1869. Buried at Reedsburg, Wis.
3. 2nd Lt. Alexander P. Ellinwood. Prom. 1st Lt. Nov. 1863 (Sept. 30). Capt. May 1865. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis., Feb. 6, 1900.
4. 1st Sergeant Emory Wyman. 2nd Lt. Feb. 1864. Must’d out Feb. 22, 1865. Residence North Freedom, Wis.
5. 2nd Sgt. Charles A. Chandler. Veteran. 1st Sgt. March 1864. 2nd Lt. Feb. 22, 1865. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died San Jose, Cal., July 4, 1902.
6. 3rd Sgt. George Waltenberger. Disc. Jan. 1863 (Nov. 16, 1863, disability). Died at Baltimore, Md. soon after war closed.
7. 4th Sgt. Robert T. Warner. Must’d out April 29, 1865 (1864). Res. Everett, Wash. Died March 28, 1924, Everett.
8. 5th Sgt. Hamer Sutcliffe. Prom. 1st Lt. 1st Loyal Virginians Jan. 1863. (Mustered out Nov. 3, 1864) Res. Portland, Oregon. Died Portland, Ore., 1914.
9. Corporal Martin Seeley. Disch. March 1863 (April 6, 1863, disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis.
10. Corp. Ezra Burton. Vet. Prom. Sgt. May 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died in Texas about 1907.
11. Corp. Eugene A. Dwinnell. Vet. Sgt. 1863. Wounded Fair Oaks, Va. Oct. 27, 1864. Disch. Feb. 13, 1865, (disability). Res. No. Freedom, Wis. Died Baraboo, Wis., May 7, 1901.
12. Corp. Russell Redfield. Deserted May 1862. Returned Feb. 1864. Private. Must’d out April 29, 1865. Died Warsaw, Minn., 1908.
13. Corp. Alvah Rathbun. Vet. Wd. Fair Oaks Oct. 27, 1864. Died of wound (Hampton hospital) Nov. 2 (5), 1864.
14. Corp. John Faller (Fuller). Vet. Taken prisoner Fair Oaks Oct. 27, 1864. Paroled Feb. 1865. (Mustered out May 17, 1865) Died No. Freedom, Wis., May 12 1881.
15. Corp. George B. Gibbon. Disch. Aug. 1862 (July 31, disability). Died Baraboo, Wis., Oct. 28, 1913.
16. Corp. Alfred P. Steese. Vet. Sgt. July 1863. Died June 1864 (July 20, disease) at Fort Schuyler, N. Y. Harbor (Hampton, VA).
17. Drum Major Amos G. Johnson. Disch. Aug. 1862. Dead. (Albert G. discharged Nov. 3, 1862, by order.)
18. Fifer Henry Dwight Root. Des. May 5, 1862. Died Walla Walla, Wash., 1912.
19. Drummer Frank Pettyes. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Camp Douglass, Wis. Died Reedsburg, Wis. Aug. 15, 1918.
20. Wagoner Rufus C. Cole. Must’d out April 29, 1865. Died Redwood Falls, Minn., June 14, 1914.
21. Ackerman, Dewitt C. Recruit. Must’d. out Aug. 1865. Dead.
22. Apker, James. Vet. Corp. Dec. 1863. Pris. Fair Oaks. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 15). Res. Wonewoc, Wis. Dead.
23. Bingman, Isaac N. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 30). Res. Mt. Tabor, Wis. Died Oct. 27, 1925, Hillsboro, Wis.
24. Brown, David D. F. Disch. Jan. 7, 1864 (disability). Dead.
25. Brady, Peter. Disch. June 1863 (Jan. 19, 1864, disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Jan 16, 1907.
26. Bush, Cassius M. Prom. 1st Lt. Co. C, 42nd Wis.(2nd Lt. July 29, 1864). Res. Mexico D. F., Redondo Beach, Cal. Died April 30, 1923 at Soldiers Home, Southern Cal.
27. Brooks, Albert J. Recruit. (From Co. G to Co. D) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis., Jan. 19, 1922.
28. Castle, Julius. Vet. Corp. Nov. 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Dallas, Wis. Dead.
29. Castle, James C. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis., Jan. 31, 1896.
30. Cohoon, Lewis H. Vet. Corp. Feb. 1864. W’d Petersburg, Va. July 16 (13), 1864. Sgt. Dec. 1864. (1st Lieut. June 21, 1865) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Kissimmee, Fla., 1918.
31. Collins, Hugh M. Disch. 1862 (May 11, 1863, disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis. (Aug. 1867).
32. Cary, John. Disch. 1862. Died Reedsburg, Wis., Feb. 26, 1863 (Portsmouth, VA, Feb 19, 1863). (Casey, John. Discharged Feb 12, 1863, disability; died Feb. 24, 1863, Macon Hospital, VA from Reedsburg).
33. Curtis, James. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 23, 1865. Dead.
34. Cheek, Robert. Vet. Killed in trenches at Petersburg, Va. by a sharpshooter Aug. 7, 1864.
35. Cooper, George W. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (July 31). Died Soldier Home, Minneapolis, Minn.
36. Cole, Dexter C. Died March 7, 1863 at Madison, Wis., ten days after enlistment.
37. Day, Charles. Vet. Des. June 1863. Returned Sept. 1863. W’d Proctor’s Creek May 16, 1864, (right leg amp). Died of wd. Hampton Hospital, Va., May 24, 1864 (June 16, 1864).
38. Danforth, Clarence A.. W’d Petersburg, Va. by a sharpshooter Aug. 6, 1864. Must’d out April 29, 1865. Res. Beaver City, Nebr., Tacoma, Wash.
39. Dwinnell, Osgood H. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 21). Died at Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, Oct. 17, 1906.
40. Dickson, Albert E. Vet. Des. Dec. 1863. Pris. (New Bern) Prld. and returned Dec. 1864. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (July 23, 1865). Dead.
41. Evers, Christopher. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died at Soldiers Home, Milwaukee, Wis.
42. Empser (Emser), Peter. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 21). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Jan. 20, 1898.
43. Fosdick, James. Vet. W’d and Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 11). Died Logansville, Wis.
44. Fosnot, John H. Vet. Corp. July 1862. W’d Drewry’s Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864. Sgt. Nov. 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Reedsburg, Wis.
45. Fosnot, Joseph C. Recruit. W’d Drewry’s Bluff, Va. May 13, 1864. Disch. May 20, 1865 (wounds). Res. Reedsburg, Wis. Died Reedsburg, Wis., June 18, 1925.
46. Fosnot, George W. Rct. Transferred from Co. E 1864. W’d at Drewry’s Bluff May 16, 1864. Disch. July 1864. (July 21, 1865) Died Sparta, Wis., Aug. 16, 1920.
47. Fry, Algernon. Recruit. (From Co. E) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Baraboo, Wis.
48. Fry, Ziba. Rct. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 23, 1865). Res. Baraboo, Wis. Dead.
49. Feegles, Henry C. Rct. (From Co. E) W’d Drewry’s Bluff May 16, 1864. Trans. To Vet. Reserve Corps March 1865 (April 24). Must’d out Aug. 25, 1865. Res. Wonewoc, Wis. Died at Madison, Wis., about 1884.
50. Fowler, Henry D. Recruit. (From Co. E) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Elroy, Wis. Dead.
51. Ford, Lorenzo D. Must’d out. (March 30, 1864, disability). Dead.
52. Graft, Giles. Disch. May 27, 1862 (disability). Dead.
53. Greenslit, Martin C. Disch. May 1862 (June 25,1862, disability). Dead.
54. Grote, Henry. Vet. W’d Fair Oaks, Va., Oct. 27, 1864. Must’d out Aug 9, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis. Jan. 1916.
55. Gardner, Nelson G. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 11). Died Aberdeen, So. Dakota, July 24, 1908.
56. Godfrey, Albert. Rct. Trans. from Co. E, June 1863. (Trans. to 2nd U. S. Vols., March 1, 1865.) Must’d out Aug. 1865. Dead.
57. Gerrigan, (Garrigan) Patrick. Vet. W’d Drewry’s Bluff May 1864. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 21). Died at O’Neal, Nebr.
58. Hobby, James M. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 30). Died in Boston, Mass. many years ago.
59. Hobby, William D. Died in hospital at Norfolk, Va., Aug. 1863 (Yorktown, VA, disease, July 31, 1863).
60. Hunter, George S. Discharged (March 12) 1863 (disability). Dead.
61. Harris, Edward. Disch. 1863 (Nov. 24, 1862, disability). Died Chetek, Wis.
62. Hudson, John L. Trans. to Vet. Res. Corp (Sept. 2, 1863). Must’d out (April 29, 1865). Died Loganville, Wis.
63. Hurly, Timothy. Deserted. March 1862.
64. Hollingshead, John L. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks. Prld. Feb. 1865. Des. to enemy Jan. 1865, and returned to Co., Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
65. Haines, Ephraim. Vet. W’d Petersburg July 5, 1864. Died of wound, about July 10, 1864, in hospital at Portsmouth, Va.
66. Horsch, William. Died in hospital, 1864 (Hampton, VA, disease, July 29, 1864).
67. Holt, Charles. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
68. Holton, William W. Rct. W’d Petersburg, Va. July 5, 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis. June 9, 1893.
69. Holton, Thomas J. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis., Dec. 13, 1922.
70. Hoefer (Hoefle), Michael. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
71. Howard, Sidney A. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
72. Howard, Harry (Harvey) G. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
73. Hopkins, Newton James Rct. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (disability). Died at Baraboo, Wis., March 31, 1910.
74. Harbel, (Herbel) Jacob. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
75. Harseim (Harsum), William. Rct. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Atkin, Minn., April 28, 1904.
76. Johnson, Thomas J. Trans. to Co. E, June 1, 1863. (Pris. Oct. 27, 1864). (Must’d out June 23, 1865). Dead.
77. Kyle, Henry H. (Pris. Oct 27, 1864 Fair oaks). Must’d out April 29, 1865. Died Sparta, Wis., Sept. 1, 1924.
78. Kivell, Michael. Disch. Nov. 6, 1862 (disability). Died Winfield, Wis. March 27, 1872 103 [70] years old.
79. Kipp, Benjamin S. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Dallas, Wis. Died Barron, Wis., Sept. 25, 1924.
80. Kennedy, Chauncy. Substitute. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Sparta, Wis., Sept. 10, 1887.
81. Kennedy, Clark H. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
82. Kennedy, Benjamin. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 31, 1865). Died Rhinelander, Wis., Feb. 1924.
83. Livingston, Giles. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 15). Dead.
84. Leonard, Edward. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Minneapolis, Minn. June 18, 1913. Buried Reedsburg, Wis.
85. Lee, Byron B. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Baraboo, Wis., June 15, 1906.
86. Miller, William. Vet. W’d and pris. Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864. Died of wound in Richmond, Va., Oct. 29, 1864 (Nov. 1, 1864).
87. Millard, Eleazer. Vet. Corp. Nov. 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Chetek, Wis. Died June 1918.
88. Mallow, William. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
89. Mallow, Jesse M. Vet. W’d Petersburg, Va. June 22, 1864. Corp. Nov. 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Minneapolis, Minn.
90. Mallow, Adolphus P. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Hillsboro, Wis.
91. Mallow, Jesse, Sr. Recruit. Died Hampton Hospital, Va., April 4, 1864.
92. Mead, George. Disch. May 1862 (Sept. 7, 1862, disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Feb. 15, 1907.
93. Markee, James. Died in hospital Norfolk, Va., Oct. 2, 1862 (Oct. 12, 1862, disease).
94. Mallon, (Mallow) John. W’d June 22, 1864 in siege of Petersburg. (Prisoner Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864.) Must’d out April 29, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis., Jan. 13, 1914.
95. Pitts, Benjamin S. Vet. Corp. Dec. 1863. Killed at Drewry’s Bluff, Va., May 16, 1864. (Missing in Action).
96. Pitts, Newman W. Vet. W’d at Proctor’s Creek, Va. May 13, 1864. Pris. Fair Oaks, Va., Oct 27, 1864. Died Salisbury, NC Prison, Jan. 16, 1865 (disease).
97. Pitts, William. Rct. Died Hampton Hospital, Va. 1864. ( ? Mustered out June 23, 1865).
98. Paddock, George J. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Baraboo, Wis., March 18, 1924.
99. Paddock, Edwin B. Rct. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died at Soldiers Home Hot Springs, So. Dak., Sept. 11, 1913.
100. Pettyes, Amos. Vet. Fifer May 1862. Disch. Feb. 1864 (Feb 22, 1865). Died Endeavor, Marquette County, Wis., July 4, 1880.
101. Palmer, Ferris B. Vet. Sgt. Aug. 1864. Killed Fair Oaks, VA, Oct. 27, 1864.
102. Palmer, Edgar L. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Baraboo, Wis.
103. Pietzsch (Peitzsch), Walter O. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 23, 1865). Res. Madison, Wis. Died Madison, Wis., April 22, 1924.
104. Reynolds, William T. Vet. W’d Drewry’s Bluff, Va. May 16, 1864. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (Sickness). Dead.
105. Robinson, Henry. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Soldiers Home, Chicago, Ill.
106. Sheldon, Charles F. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (April 29). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Feb. 27, 1922.
107. Sheldon, Dewelton M. Must’d out April 29, 1865. Died Reedsburg, Wis., 1921.
108. Sheldon, Kirk W. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Eddyville, Neb.
109. Sheldon, Harlow. Disch. Apr. 1862. Res. Reedsburg, Wis. Dead.
110. Swetland, Seth. Disch. July 21, 1863 (disability). Died Minnesota.
111. Swetland, William. Vet. Corp. Nov. 1864. Sgt. Jan. 1865. (2nd Lt. Aug 31,1865.) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Dead.
112. Swetland, William T. Recruit. (Wounded April 22, 1864.) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. Reedsburg, Wis. Died Reedsburg, Dec. 10, 1923.
113. Swetland, Artemus G. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 19). (Musician). Dead.
114. Sanborn, Daniel, Jr. Vet. W’d and pris. Fair Oaks, Va. Prld. Feb. 1865. Died Feb. 1865 (March 20, 1865). at LaValle, Wis (Annapolis, VA).
115. Sanborn, Reuben. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. LaValle, Wis. Died LaValle, Wis., Oct. 2, 1924.
116. Street, Samuel. Died in hospital, July 2, 1864 (disease).
117. Street, Henry. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Tomah, Wis., Dec. 11, 1923.
118. Stowe, Henry E. Disch. 1862 (Feb. 12, 1863, disability). Dead.
119. Stone, Charles H. Disch. Jan. 7, 1864 (disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Oct. 16, 1894.
120. Stocks, John H. Recruit. Must’d out Sept. 1865 (June 23). Died Chicago, Ill.
121. Steese, William. Disch. 1862 (Feb. 13, 1863, disability). Dead.
122. Searles, Sylvester. Vet. Killed Petersburg, Va. by a sharpshooter June 29, 1864.
123. Stull, James H. Recruit. W’d Drewry’s Bluff, Va. May 16, 1864. Disch. Feb. 20, 1865 (wounds). Dead.
124. Seaman, Harmanus V. V. Disch. May 24, 1863 (disability). Dead.
125. Santos, Hiram. Recruit. (From Co. G). Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 16, 1865). Died Wonewoc, Wis.
126. Sprowl, James. Recruit. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Res. No. Freedom, Wis. Died No. Freedom, March 1, 1924.
127. Tuttle, Albert C. Recruit. W’d Drewry’s Bluff, Va. May 16, 1864. Disch. Jan 30, 1865. Died Baraboo, Wis. Dec. 6, 1903.
128. Thorn, John. W’d Drewry’s Bluff, Va. May 16, 1864. Must’d out April 29, 1865. Died New London, Wis. Feb. 1888.
129. Thorn, Richard. Vet. W’d Fair Oaks, Va., Oct. 27, 1864. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Sugarbush, Wis. Feb. 12, 1925.
130. Townsend, Richard C. Disch. May 1863 (June 17, 1863, disability). Dead.
131. Tillotson, Oliver E. Trans. to Vet. Reserve Corps 1863 (Feb. 15, 1864). Died St. Clair, Minn.
132. Taylor, James A. Disc. 1862. Died Soldiers Home Port Orchard, Wash., 1918. (Musician).
133. Wheeler, Edson. Corp. Aug. 1862. Must’d out Feb. 22 (25), 1865. Dead.
134. Weidman, Alexander. Disch. Jan. 1864 (Feb. 4, disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Oct. 1905.
135. Winnie, Menzo. Disch. Jan. 21, 1864 (disability). Died Reedsburg, Wis., Feb. 14, 1892.
136. Ward, Orson S. Disch. May 1862 (July 24, disability). Dead.
137. Waldron, Henry E.. Deserted May 30, 1862.
138. Werron, John. Vet. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died No. Freedom, Wis., Oct. 26, 1893.
139. Winchester, Franklin S. Vet. Pris. Fair Oaks, Va., Oct. 27, 1864. Prld. Feb. 1865. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (May 13). Res. Reedsburg, Wis. Died Baraboo, Wis., 1916.
140. Wisner, James. Recruit. (From Co. E) Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865. Died Baraboo, Wis.
141. Lamphier (Lamphear), Samuel (Silas A.). Transferred from Co. G. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865.
142. Sewell, Samuel. Transferred from Co. G. Must’d out Aug. 1865.
143. Sheridan, James. Transferred from Co. G. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 11, 1865).
144. Shankland (Shanklin), James. Transferred from Co. G. Must’d out Aug. 9, 1865.
145. Smith, James. Transferred from Co. K. (Sergt.) Must’d out Aug. 1865. (Prisoner Fair Oaks, Oct. 27, 1864). (Died June 14, 1865, Sheboygan, WI).
146. Smith, Frank. Transferred from Co. K. Must’d out Aug. 1865.
147. Rathbun, Ernest (Everett) C. Transferred from Co. K. Must’d out Aug. 1865 (June 23).
148. Richards, John. Transferred from Co. K. Must’d out Aug. 1865.
There are five of Co. A now living (January 1926). Lt. Emery Wyman of No. Freedom, Wis., Sgt. John H. Fosnot, Reedsburg, Wis., Algernon Fry and Edgar L. Palmer, Baraboo, Wis., and the writer (C. A. Danforth), Longbranch, Wash. We know nothing more about the last eight named.
This is to acknowledge the assistance rendered and to thank those who have helped to make this Roster possible, although necessarily incomplete. First, the late Robert T. Warner of Everett, Wash. a company comrade, helped me to make a roster of the company in 1908 out of such information as we then had. Second, Allen S. Brooks, formerly a member of Bat. D, 2nd Pa., H. Art., but for many years called the “adopted member of the 19th Wis.” and his wife, Narcissa E. Brooks. Also Mrs. May Pelton and her son Roger, all of Reedsburg, Wis. and Company comrades Algernon Fry and Edgar L. Palmer both of Baraboo, Wis. and Velda Danforth (my granddaughter) Tacoma, Wash.
REGIMENTAL HISTORY
After organization, muster in, and some drill, the Nineteenth was ordered to Madison Wis. on the 25th of April to guard Confederate prisoners. That was easy. May 30, Co.’s A and B with all the prisoners were sent to Camp Douglass, Chicago. In a few days the other eight Co.s came on and the entire regt. went on to Washington D. C. From there to Fort Monroe by boat, and then out to Old Hampton where we drilled some more. June 18 were sent to Yorktown, and in a few days back to Hampton. June 27 to Norfolk and the Nineteenth was the main regt. guarding the city with its large stores of Quarter Master goods for the army and the navy. Co. A was stationed on Ferry Point. Ten happy months in Norfolk, barring a little ague now and then. April 15 we were in the siege (?) of Suffolk by Gen. Longstreet. More ague, and more fever. June 16 back to Yorktown again. In a few days to West Point, Va. and in July back to Yorktown again.
In Aug. there were not enough well men in the regt. to take care of the sick. On this report we were sent to Newport News for our health. This was Aug. 10. Newport News was absolutely nothing then but a name, and a fine sandy beach for bathing. But it was a healthy place, and about the only one we found in all the “Old Virginny low lands low.” Oct. 9 we started for New Bern N. C. Oct. 14, Co. A was detailed to guard Evan’s Mill, an outpost 8 miles south of New Bern. In the six months we were there, the Johnnies attacked us but once, but the ague was with us all the time. April 28, 1864 we were in Yorktown again, assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Div., 18th A. C. and May 4 were at Bermuda Hundred with the 10th A. C., all under Gen. Butler. Co. A lost quite a number of men on the Ft. Darling expedition, Proctor’s Creek, and Drewry’s Bluff, from May 13 to May 16. June 15 and 16 the Army of the Potomac began to join us, and the preliminary battles in front of Petersburg were fought on those days. After that, the 9 months siege. Often, too often, one of Co. A was killed or wounded in the trenches. I got mine from a sharp-shooter Aug. 6, 1864, and never saw the Regt. afterward. The greatest loss to Co. A was at the 2nd battle of Fair Oaks Oct. 27, 1864, when nearly all the Regt. present were killed, wounded or captured. Lt. Col. Strong, commanding, was captured and lost a leg.
The Non-veterans were mustered out April 29, 1865. The Veterans (those who re-enlisted for the war) and the recruits in Aug. 1865.
The silent figures of the Roster tell a tale not written in the histories. The story of the company, their sacrifices, losses in young lives and shortened years of many more, are all told after their names in this Roster. This Volunteer Co., perhaps the average, was one of many thousands of that army which carried the Union Cause through to victory in the four years of Civil War. The people of this nation have treated us well, given us much honor, but we have deserved it, as this Roster shows. And now, who will say, that the peace, happiness, prosperity, power and influence, of the people of this greatest of all nations is not largely due to the efforts of this Grand Army during, and since the Civil War.
Longbranch, Wash. C. A. Danforth [Clarence Danforth] January 1926
(All of the articles, including the 26 written by Solomon A. Dwinnell, were typed into the computer, corrections made & a few items added in brackets by John & Donna McCully in 2002. The items in parenthesis on the “Roster of Company A, 19th Regiment, Wisconsin” was information from: Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, Vol. 2, compiled by J. M. Rusk & C. P. Chapman, 1886, pages 112-139. The copy of the Roster of Company A, 19th Regiment document was passed down in the family from Eugene Dwinnell who was a member of this company. John McCully is a Dwinnell descendant.)
[Spelling and punctuation errors were part of the original articles as published in the newspaper.]
Green Wood Cemetery, Reedsburg, WI
Reedsburg Free Press
July 3, 1879
Obituary
Rev. S.A. Dwinnell
DIED: At his residence in the village of Reedsburg, June 15th, 1879, Rev. S.A. Dwinnell, aged 66 years, 10 months and 6 days.
Mr. Dwinnell was born in Lee, Berkshire Co., Mass., and was the eldest of a family of ten children. His mother was an earnest Christian woman, who carefully instructed him in the Scriptures and taught him to pray. At the age of nineteen, while attending school at Springfield, Mass., he was converted and began a life of Christian service which was [devoted] and steadfast to the end.
He walked from the time forth in the light of God’s countenance, never doubting that his sins were pardoned, and that he was adopted into the family of God.
The next year he entered Philips’ Academy at Andover, Mass., and while there united with others in forming a society called “The Missionary Fraternity,” for the purpose of gathering information about the condition of heathen nations, and of preparing themselves for missionary work if God should call them to it. Among the members of this society were Champion and Grout, afterwards pioneer missionaries to the Zulus in south Africa.
On account of ill health, Mr. Dwinnell was compelled to leave school and to give up his purpose to preach the gospel. Sometime previous to this he had become convinced that total abstinence was the true ground to be taken against the evils of intemperance, and so he signed the temperance pledge, although he stood entirely alone among his companions in doing it.
In 1834, after a careful and candid examination of the subject, he came to the conclusion that slavery as it existed in the United States was a sin against God and a great wrong to the enslaved, and that it ought to be abolished at once. From that time he cast in his lot with the little band of reformers who were called abolitionists, and with tongue and pen advocated the cause of emancipation.
In 1835 he came west to Indiana, and three years later moved to Walworth county, in this state. While residing there Mr. Dwinnell organized the first Sabbath school ever held in the county, held religious meetings at his own house, and when called upon conducted funeral services; he also spoke frequently on the subject of temperance.
On his first visit to Reedsburg, in the fall of 1848, he gathered together the entire population of the village (twenty-nine in all) on the evening of the Sabbath, and spoke to them upon the duty of obeying the law of God. Two years after this he sold his farm in Walworth county and became a citizen of Reedsburg, then a little hamlet of twenty-five families. Here his interest in the cause of Christ led him to active work for the salvation of souls. When there was no other preaching he spoke the words of life unto the people. As a result the Congregational church of the village invited him to become their pastor, and he was licensed by a council of ministers called together at Baraboo in August, 1852, and a year later he was ordained to the gospel ministry.
Mr. Dwinnell’s work as a preacher extended through about fifteen years, ten years of which time he was installed pastor. His labors were abundant. He preached in the school houses far and near. During the period of his ministry he delivered over sixteen hundred sermons, attended about nine hundred other meetings, conducted one hundred and twenty-two funerals, and traveled thirteen thousand, five hundred and forty miles. In all these years he left his people but five Sabbaths without providing for the supply of his pulpit.
As a preacher, Mr. Dwinnell was plain and practical, dealing faithfully with the sins of the day and setting forth the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. He spoke boldly against Sabbath breaking, profanity, intemperance, and slavery. No consideration of silf-interest, no fear of pecuniary loss ever kept him silent when he felt that he ought to speak, or made him endeavor to soften the repulsive features of what he believed to be a wrong.
A man of thoughtful mind and courage strong
And, conscience keen to feel the force of right. He struck hard blows ‘gainst every form of wrong, Doing what’er he did with all his might.
During the war he taught the duty of supporting the government in its struggle for existence; and when the war was finished he rejoiced that the shackles were stricken from the limbs of the slave, and that our land was free in fact as well as in name.
He preached his last sermon in 1867. Since that time, thought laid aside from active work, he has done much with his pen, writing sketches of the pioneers of our state and tracing the growth of our towns and cities. The material which he has gathered will be a rich treasure to the future historian of our state. The last two years of his life he was confined mostly to the house, and at times suffered intense pain; but he bore his sufferings with Christian patience, and, when the hour of death came, fell asleep in the full assurance of blessed immortality.
He leaves behind the faithful wife who has been his companion for more than forty; years, three sons and three daughters. May they all be gathered, an unbroken family, into the home of the blessed. H.L. Brown
