tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63685024741802452802024-03-05T01:46:43.656-08:00The Iron Brigade and Kindred Matters, by Lance J. HerdegenAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-19193582545164292942015-07-31T12:25:00.001-07:002015-07-31T12:25:14.986-07:00On more fields than the Old Guard of Napoleon...
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One of the interesting rewards when a book is reprinted (in
this case <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In The Bloody Railroad Cut at
Gettysburg </i>with William J.K. Beaudot, by Savas Beatie) is the chance to again
go over materials used in the writing so long ago. Among the items I
rediscovered is a letter written by Rufus Dawes to those attending a Grand Army
of the Republic reunion in Mauston, Wisconsin, where he was the first captain
of a company of infantry raised to put down the rebellion. It became the
Lemonweir Minute Men, Company K, of the Sixth Wisconsin Infantry in the famous
Iron Brigade of the West.</div>
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The camp fire at Mauston in Juneau County that January
8,1885, was a great success despite temperatures that dropped to 20 below.
There was music by the Cornet Band and singing by the Glee Club as well as
several speeches, including one by Phil Cheek of nearby Baraboo, an old comrade
in the Sixth Wisconsin. Young Arthur Patterson used a drum carried from Atlanta
to the sea for his drum solo. The supper was “good, substantial repast, and was
partaken of by a large number of people. But the reading of a letter from “Gen.
R.R. Dawes” received the closest attention.</div>
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It was written November 23, 1884, from Marietta, Ohio, where
Dawes as living, and included his regrets that he would not be able to attend
the camp fire at Mauston. He went on to say that he did want to recall the
memories of his old Company K. He wrote:</div>
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”Glancing this morning at the official record of Wisconsin
in the war, I find that from one devoted company, 21 men were actually killed
in battle, and 51 shot besides; of those wounded men you have many in Juneau
County. I can think of Eugene Rose, Jim Barney, Dan J. Miller, Eugene Anderson,
James Sullivan, Wm. H. Van Wie, Franklin Wilcox, Erastus Smith; and there are
doubtless others. </div>
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“These are now your plain fellow citizens, but they were
heroes tried and true as ever offered life on a field of battle. The young
generation can hardly realize that their modest neighbors are soldiers who have
fought on more fields of battle than the Old Guard of Napoleon, and have stood
fire with far greater firmness. Where has the firmness of the Iron Brigade at
Gettysburg been surpassed in history? Two thousand muskets were carried into
battle and for four long hours these men breasted the billows of rebellion
until twelve hundred were shot down under the colors. Then, with colors flying
and an broken front, they retired to the Cemetary Hill. But that four hours
time saved for our army the Cemetery Hill, and that enabled it to save the
nation. Here, as everywhere, upon fifty fields of battle, Company K held its
portion of the line.</div>
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“But it was my purpose to recall,” Dawes went on, “rather
the memories of my friends who died in battle. They lie scattered over the
land, and their names should be gathered up around your campfires, and their
character and deeds presented….”</div>
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In so many ways, those few sentences are an explanation of
why I write about days long ago and the “plain fellow citizens” and “modest neighbors”
of my home state of Wisconsin who fought on more fields of battle than the Old Guard of
Napoleon. </div>
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Rest in Peace, Black Hats.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-18531963303255897422014-08-08T11:49:00.001-07:002014-08-08T11:50:21.823-07:00Rifle-muskets, paper cartridges, and a cherished memory<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the latest trends in the Civil War hobby is the use
of original style paper cartridges to live fire rifles, rifled muskets, and
rifle-muskets in the “traditional” manner, and I must admit I have crossed the
river. After the recent Muskets and Memories Civil War weekend at Boscobel,
Wis., I find myself left with an empty wooden St. Louis Arsenal box that was
once full of 30 wrapped packets of 10 cartridges each, a work space littered
with snippets of paper and string, and a sore left elbow from rolling tubes. It
is all the fault of my grandson, Gabriel, and—bless him—my desire to show him a
different side of musket shooting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The use of paper
cartridges for as been around for a time and a number of shooters have enjoyed
taking a step back in time to roll paper tubes, tie one end shut, then load a
Minie ball and powder before folding the tale. It takes a while longer produce
such cartridges then it does to type those words, however, and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the practice has been limited to the few individuals
interested in trying to replicate the Civil War experience of live firing an
1861-65 style shoulder arm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I must confess I have long been a member of the North-South
Skirmish Association, Inc., the organization which holds marksmanship
competitions for all sorts of Civil War firearms and artillery, first with the
old Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers and now the Union Guards, as well as a longtime
member of the American Civil War Shooters Association, a similar organization
based in the Midwest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The N-SSA is in
the process of developing a “traditional” match for five-member teams using
issue-style paper cartridges and firearms with original sight
configurations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ACWSA actually put
the idea to a test in a recent demonstration at Boscobel, Wis. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Nineteen participants, a mix of about a dozen living
historians and a handful of ACWSA members, shot more than 240 paper cartridges
in two five minute relays. The first target was a 4x4 foot sheet of drywall at
100 yards and the second a mass of mounted clay pigeons on a backer at 50
yards. The first event was by volley fire and the second rapid fire. The
cartridges were issued in arsenal packs of 10 each from a replica wooden
arsenal box. The cartridges contained a Burton-style hollow-base bullet of the
type developed in the late 1850s along with an internal powder tube and 60
grains of Goex FFg black powder.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The living historians, with little live fire experience, seemed to be fascinated with the paper
cartridges and the live fire experience. They were quick to point out how much
they had learned about how potent the old rifle-muskets proved to be and how
the ramming of actual bullets slowed the loading procedure. The shooters
quickly adapted to the paper cartridges and some skirmishers with experience
said they found them just as fast as the plastic tubes used to quick loading.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The chawing of cartridges and furious loading was a sight to
see. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As my comrade from the old Sixth
Wisconsin, Pvt. Johnny Dunn, likes to say, “Once you shoot paper you can never
go back.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As for my grandson, who began his reenacting as a drummer
boy in the “Seeing the Elephant” in-the-round video for the Civil War Museum at Kenosha, Wis.,
and now plays “the devil’s tattoo” for Co. K, Second Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry, the live fire of paper cartridges experience is a memory he will long cherish. The
same can be said for his grandfather and the others who participated or
watched. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A special thanks to the ACWSA for hosting and developing this event, and a
nod to my friend N-SSA Commander Phil Spaugy and others for encouragement and
help in making it a reality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now I am wondering how this traditional shooting of Civil
War style muskets is going to develop. I know one thing—it sure is a lot of
fun. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Videos of the traditional shooting can be seen at:</span></div>
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<a href="http://acwsa.org/Pages/SkirmishPhotoPages/2014Boscobel.htm"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://acwsa.org/Pages/SkirmishPhotoPages/2014Boscobel.htm</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-78371609918573263782014-07-26T11:58:00.000-07:002014-07-26T11:58:19.578-07:00A story of the Iron Brigade<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One of the interesting incidents of book signing is having a
descendant of some of the Iron Brigade people you are writing about show up. It
happened again a couple of weeks ago at the Walworth County Historical Society
in Elkhorn when a very nice lady showed me a small silver key <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>chain-like device with the name “Franklin
Wilcox” engraved on it with a date in the 1890s. “He was in the Mauston Minute
Men of the Iron Brigade,” she explained, and had been severely wounded at South
Mountain in Maryland on September<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>14,
1862.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That’s when the fun began. The name was familiar. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I made a quick check of the index of my book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory:
The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter</i>, and there he was—Frank
Wilcox, Lemonweir Minute Men, Company K, Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was on the skirmish line moving up the
National Road when shot, and nearby an Irish private by the name of James P.
Sullivan, known to one and all as “Mickey, of Company K.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sullivan was in discomfort at the time from a case of the
mumps and his cheeks had reached “a respectable rotundity.” Lt. Lyman Upham had
loaned “a big silk handkerchief” and the young private had tied it around his
face. He soon discovered, however, the handkerchief obstructed his shooting and
took it off and stuffed it in his pocket. Sullivan was fighting along with George
Chamberlain of Mauston, Ephraim Cornish of Lindina, and Franklin Wilcox of
Lemonweir. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dusk was near and the light was fading. The four were behind
a large boulder, said Sullivan, two firing from each side. Sullivan was working
with Chamberlain, the boyish private who may have been his best friend in the
army. Chamberlain had left a circus to enlist and it was said that he joined
the army seeking relief from a hard life. Sullivan and Chamberlain were
regarded as the “stray waifs” of Co. K and had “to suffer all the misdeeds or
mistakes, no matter by whom committed.” It was a common statement, Sullivan
said, that if Capt. Rufus Dawes would “stub his toe he’d put Mickey and
Chamberlain on Knapsack drill.” Consequently, Sullivan said, he and Chamberlain
were “inseparable companions and fast friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The skirmish line of Company K men pushed forward. “Chamberlain,
who was brave as a line, kept continually rushing forward leading the squad
[and the skirmish line] and of course we had to follow up and support him"
said Sullivan. “It was now sundown and being in the shadow of the mountain, it
was getting dark very fast, and our fellows pushed the rebel skirmishers up to
their line of battle, and our squad took shelter behind a big bounder and two
of us fired from each side of it."<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sullivan was in a cluster of large boulders and found the
air around him full of projectiles that splattered off the rocks and clattered
around him. "When the crash came, either a bullet split in pieces against
the stone or a fragment of the boulder hit me on the sore jaw, causing
exquisite pain, and I was undetermined whether to run away or swear," he
said. Somewhere in the shadow of the rock Eph Cornish cried out, "Mickey,
Chamberlain is killed and I'm wounded." Then there was another
"crashing volley" of musketry, said Sullivan, and "a stinging,
burning sensation in my right foot followed by the most excruciating
pain." Frank Wilcox, who was next to him, "toppled over
wounded." Around him, the skirmish line was falling back and Sullivan,
using his musket for a crutch, hopped downhill "a good deal faster than I
had come up."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I must admit there is a kind of satisfaction passing that
story along to a descendant of one of three men fighting with Sullivan that day
long ago. Such occurrences happen every now and then and one of the most enjoyable
was when I was able to give Sullivan’s account of Gettysburg to his elderly son
who was unaware of his dad’s role in the Civil War. But I will let that bide
for another time… <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-42926173055335341452014-07-04T04:38:00.000-07:002014-07-04T04:38:47.970-07:00Gettysburg and a distant voice calling out "Come on, Johnnie! Come on!"
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Civil War Trust announced recently it is purchasing a parcel of land at Gettysburg
by where units of the Iron Brigade made their last stand the afternoon of July
1, 1863. Long attached to the unit, Battery B of the 4th U.S. Artillery was
formed by half battery on both sides of the railroad cut closest to the present
day motel and abreast of what is known as Gen. Robert E. Lee’s headquarters. The
right half battery under Lieutenant James Stewart was on the north side of the
cut, slightly forward and facing west. The left half battery, under Lieutenant
James Davidson, was in open order along the space between the turnpike and the
railroad and faced southwest. In a small grove to the north were the 11th
Pennsylvania and the 6th Wisconsin. The Wisconsin regiment was detached from
its famous brigade for a successful attack against the railroad cut.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
heavy brass Napoleons were firing with a fury late the afternoon of July 1 when
heavy lines of Confederates began to close on the town. “Feed it to ‘em! God
damn ‘em, feed it to ‘em,” Davidson was yelling in the smoke and confusion.
Each of the heavy guns quickly fired savage blasts of double-canister that
staggered the advancing Confederates. “Up and down the line men were reeling
and falling,” one battery man wrote later of Gettysburg. “Splinters were flying
from wheels and axles where bullets hit," said one gunner. "In the rear, horses were rearing and
plunging, mad with wounds or terror, shells were bursting, shot shrieking over,
howling about our ears or throwing up great clouds of dust where they hit; the
musketry crashing on three sides of us; bullets hissing everywhere, cannon roaring,
all crash on crash and peal on peal, smoke, dust, splinters, blood, wreck and
carnage indescribable; but the brass guns of old B still bellowed and not a man
or boy flinched or faltered.”</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
Confederate line came on under the storm of canister, “creeping toward”
the battery “fairly fringed with flame.” The soldiers of the 6thWisconsin and
11th <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:state>
crawled up over the bank of the railroad cut in rear of the caissons and added
their musketry to the canister. Lieutenant Davidson was twice wounded and was
so weak one of the men held up him. He could not stand because one ankle was
shattered. The rebels fired volley after volley into the battery hitting men
and horses. Finally Davidson was unable to stay in command and Sergeant John
Mitchell took over the half battery. The water in the buckets used for sponging
was “like ink,” one gunner remembered, saying a comrade nearby was smeared with
burnt powder and “looked like a demon from below.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>North of the railroad cut, the three guns of
the other half battery under Stewart “flashed the chain-lightning…in one solid
streak.”</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lt.
Col. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin
stood amid the guns watching the fighting. When the Confederates slowed under
the canister and musketry, one of his infantrymen jumped forward, waving a
fist, and calling over and over again, “Come on, Johnny! Come on!” It was going
to be very close. Finally the order came from the rear to retreat. One Badger
remembered how the Wisconsin men turned and poured in a volley to the
Confederates who were so close “that we could hear them yelling at us to halt
and surrender.”</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
orders were to retreat beyond the town and “hold your men together.” Dawes said
he was astonished as the cheers of defiance along the line by the Lutheran
Seminary buildings “had scarcely died away.” But a glance to the right and rear
was sufficient: “There the troops of the eleventh corps appeared in full
retreat and long lines of Confederates, with fluttering banners and shining
steel were sweeping forward in pursuit of them without let or hindrance. It was
a close race which could reach <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Gettysburg</st1:place></st1:city>
first, ourselves, or the rebel troops….” The officer wrote later that his
regiment marched away with flag high and a steady step. One of his soldiers in
the big hats said the order was more direct—run for it. “We obeyed this
literally, and how we did run! As we came out of the smoke of the battle what a
sight burst upon our gaze! On every side our troops were madly rushing to the
rear. We were flanked on the right and on the left. We were overwhelmed by
numbers. My heart sank within me. I lost all hope.”</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With
his infantry supports retreating, Stewart of Battery B also gave the order to
limber up. The left half battery withdrew along the Chambersburg Pike with the
enemy within 50 yards, losing more men and horses. Stewart had to move his
three guns across the railroad cut. When his three guns were clear, he rode
back to check on the left half battery and found it gone and the place full of
rebels. They called on him to surrender and fired, but Stewart jumped his horse
over a fence and suffered only two bullet holes in his blouse. Stewart said the
6thWisconsin and his battery were the last to leave the field.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
the south, just before the line gave way, the fighting at a make-shift
barricade in front of the buildings of the Lutheran Seminary was furious. It
was there the other regiments of the brigade—2nd and 7th<sup> </sup>Wisconsin,
19th Indiana and 24th Michigan—stayed until the end. But despite defiance in
the face of defeat, the famous Iron Brigade of the West, which marched to the
fighting with such a confident step at mid-morning on July 1, 1863, was
wrecked.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It
is fitting that that small parcel of land is finally being conserved by the
Civil War Trust. The soldiers who fought there so long ago have made it a hallowed
place. The modern buildings will soon be removed and the land made to look as
it did more than a century and a half ago. Perhaps, in the near future, when a visitor goes there, they will still be able to catch the distant voices of the past,
especially a soldier in a battered black hat calling out, “Come on, Johnnie!
Come on!”</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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The </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-65853214222717714552014-04-01T16:36:00.000-07:002014-04-01T16:36:16.820-07:00Belle Boyd and the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
is a warm story about Confederate girl spy Belle Boyd and a forgotten Wisconsin
monument in Virginia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The rectangular granite
stone stands on a slight rise of ground near what is the Richmond-Henrico Turnpike
in Hanover County. The marker is 10 feet tall and is overgrown with weeds,
brush and honeysuckle vines. The inscription reads: “This monument has been
erected by one of their comrades, Charles A. Storke, in memory of the members
of Companies B, E, F and G of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry who
fought here on the first day of June 1864.” Around its sides are carved the
names of the 137 soldiers who were captured, wounded or killed in the battle.
Storke’s name is one of the 137. He was 18 when he was captured during an
attack on the Confederate lines. He was a member of Company G and later wrote
an account of the attack in his memoirs. He remembered 44 men were killed or
mortally wounded, 60 suffered from serious wounds and 33 were captured. Storke
was captured and spent time in various Confederate prisons before being
released in 1865. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Storke moved to
Santa Barbara, Calif., after the war where he was district attorney and mayor. He
later started the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Santa Barbara
News-Press</i> newspaper. In the early 1900s, Storke revisited the site of his
capture and began to make arrangements to buy the land. “I tried to look up
their graves and could not find a trace of them,” he said. “I determined then
to put up a monument where they had received their wounds.” The project was
completed in October 1924 and the plot deeded to Hanover County. However,
County officials said later they knew nothing of the deed and that it was
apparently lost in the files. The monument stood mostly forgotten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Then in the
1930, something changed. A neighbor, Lucile Luck, said in a newspaper interview
in 1987 that a group of ladies would come out every year on June 1 and had some
sort of service. She identified them only as an “auxiliary.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>While
touring battlefields near Richmond in 1956, I was taken to the Thirty-sixth
Wisconsin monument by a contingent from the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
The lead was Mrs. T.J. Nelson of Richmond, a kind gentlewoman with a keen since
of the past. She proudly proclaimed her chapter of the UDC placed flowers at
the Wisconsin stone each year after learning that a Grand of the Republic
chapter had taken up the task of annually marking the grave of Belle Boyd, the
famous spy of the Confederacy who is buried in the cemetery at Wisconsin Dells.
She had died their while on a speaking tour about the turn of the century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Mrs. Nelson also
told of how she and several other UDC members traveled to Wisconsin one year to
take part in the Wisconsin memorial for Belle Boyd and how much she was moved
by the ceremony. The UDC delegation brought a container of Virginia soil to be
spread over the gravesite to Belle would be buried beneath ground from home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Is it not
curious how the past can tie us together?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My, my… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-9015254909212174292014-02-01T09:41:00.003-08:002014-02-01T09:41:21.464-08:00The last man alive to see Lincoln in his coffin
<br />
When I was a young reporter working for United Press International, I found
this story among the yellowing teletype files of the Milwaukee Bureau. <br />
<br />
It was
an interview with John Bowlus of Milwaukee, who may have been the last man
alive to see the body of Abraham Lincoln in his coffin. It occurred during a
little known event almost four decades after Lincoln died, and Bowlus recounted
the story 90 years after the "Illinois Railsplitter" had been assassinated.
The story was written in 1955. Bowlus was 68 at the time and died shortly
thereafter. <br />
<br />
Bowlus was present at Springfield, Illinois when the remains of Lincoln were
unearthed for the last time before being permanently interred in steel and
concrete at the base of the Lincoln Monument in Oak Ridge Cemetery at
Springfield. <br />
<br />
Bowlus said it was a cool evening that night of September 20, 1902, when a
neighbor, a "Mr. Freeman," who was Illinois Superintendent of
Education, asked him to drive "somewhere." <br />
<br />
Lincoln's body had been moved several times to protect it from souvenir
hunters who had raided his tomb. Bowlus said he drove through the gathering
dusk to Oak Ridge where he and Mr. Freeman were met by a small group of
Illinois officials. There he learned the body was to be uncovered for the last
time and taken for permanent burial after the tamper-proof crypt had been made
ready. <br />
<br />
The party descended into the dark catacomb under a mausoleum where the
remains of Lincoln lay hidden under a pile of loose board. In silence, Bowlus
helped remove the top of three lids on the coffin. <br />
<br />
"I can see his face as if it were yesterday," Bowlus recalled.
"Even in death he was an awe-inspiring figure." A boy of 14 at the
time, Bowlus said he had stood on tiptoe and gazed, awestruck, on the majestic
features of Lincoln, almost too afraid to peer into the glass-topped casket.
"The body was almost perfectly preserved," Bowlus remembered.
"The face was darker... he lay with his head and shoulders and tips of his
hands visible where they were crossed on his chest." It was awe-inspiring,
almost frightening," he said. "The beard appeared to have grown
longer, but the dignity of the great man could almost be felt through the
air-tight casket which had preserved his body," Bowlus said. <br />
<br />
A short while later, the body was sealed in the monument to rest undisturbed
forever. <br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-15494873230764733812013-12-02T02:43:00.000-08:002013-12-02T02:43:04.431-08:00A poem from the Iron Brigade One of the fun things of historical research on the Iron Brigade is discovering the boys of the past were in truth just boys and not mystical figures of some fanciful epic. Today's case in point, this brief poem sent to the <em>Wisconsin State Register</em> newspaper by Charlie Dow of the Second Wisconsin. Young Dow was many of the "prints" or former newspapermen now serving in uniform with the Iron Brigade and had not lost his way with words. This "Soldier's Prayer" was printed in the <em>Register</em> on April 18, 1863:<br />
<br />
Our Father, which art in Washington, Uncle Abram is thy name; <br />
Thy victories won, Thy will be done in the South as it is in the North; <br />
Give us this day our daily pork and crackers; <br />
And forgive us our shortcomings, as we forgive our Quartermaster; <br />
And forgive us not by traitors but deliver us from Skedaddlers; <br />
For thine is the power over...the soldier "for the period of three years or during the war."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-66062408711487805502013-09-26T08:18:00.000-07:002013-09-26T08:18:02.058-07:00A New Banner for the Black Hats
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
One of prized holdings
of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison is the flag presented to the
regiments of the Iron Brigade 150 years ago this month. The new flag was the
effort of a group of citizens. They were proud of the brigade’s record at
Gettysburg and elsewhere (“one of the most glorious organizations in the entire
army,” a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> correspondent
called it), raised $1,000, and commissioned Tiffany & Co. of New York to
produce a banner of the richest construction “as a testimonial of the
appreciation in which the Brigade is held for its bravery, gallantry and
valor.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The flag carried the names of
the five regiments and the various battle honors. It was mounted on a special
staff with a massive silver spear head. It was to be presented on September 17,
1863, the one year anniversary of Antietam, with a great flourish. Before the
event occurred, however, orders put the brigade on the march. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Nevertheless, on the
appointed day, W. Yates Selleck of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s military agent at
Washington caught up with the brigade at Culpepper, Va. The regiments were
drawn up in a square. The presentation had “no splendid bower nor distinguished
guests,” said one officer, but the “victuals” were on hand and “the liquors.”
Selleck gave a brief speech and presented the flag to Col. William Robinson of
the 7th Wisconsin, then the brigade commander. As fitting, the oldest regiment,
the 2nd Wisconsin, served as the official escort for the new colors. One of the
highlights was the reading of a letter by Selleck from the army’s old
commander, George B. McClellan: “My heart and prayers are ever with them, and
that, although their new colors can witness no more brilliant acts of
patriotism and devotion than those which the old torn flags have shared in, I
know that on every future field, they and the whole Army of the Potomac, will
maintain their part, and the honor of their country and their colors.” </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
Afterwards, the
officers made for the full tables and a Wisconsin officer noted for his
temperance views wrote his sweetheart that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>it soon turned into “an affair that conferred little honor on the
brigade, as gentlemen. I feel glad to say there were a few exceptions.” He also
reported that the brigade officers and visiting generals “and staff officers within
any convenient distance of us were almost unanimously drunk last night. We will
see an account of the presentation in the New York Times, as I saw the ‘graphic
and reliable’ correspondent of that paper guzzling champagne and wine with the
rest of them.” </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
One Badger called it
“a most disgraceful thing that spoiled the whole.” The officers had secured
several barrels of whiskey and “most all got drunk.” A guard was posted by the
whiskey barrels, the soldier said, but ‘the guard got drunk and the tables kicked
down and the result was that most of the whole Brigade was drunk and the supper
that was prepared for us was spoiled.” It was a spree of such epic proportions
that it went on for two days and disturbed the sleep of the enlisted men. The
rank and file, one private said, “got what they could swipe, which was not a
small amount.” Another private called it “a gala day.” The new glorious flag
had no official place with the brigade, however. Unable to keep it because
regulations forbad all but official banners, the officers of the five regiments
resolved to send the flag to Washington with Wisconsin Agent Selleck.</div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-16210998960418354432013-09-18T11:16:00.002-07:002013-09-18T11:16:14.540-07:00My, My...A FREE Copy of The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is this?--A FREE BOOK
OFFER: Each person who views the book trailer for my book “The Iron Brigade in
Civil War and Memory: The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and
Thereafter” and posts a comment about it here will be entered into a drawing.
My book publisher Savas Beatie will choose one person at random who will win a
FREE copy of the book. They will select a winner five days after this is
posted, so don’t delay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Link to trailer on YouTube: </span><a href="http://youtu.be/1NxoiCBfFvU"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: blue;">http://youtu.be/1NxoiCBfFvU</span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-33781955605884778582013-07-03T12:09:00.003-07:002013-07-03T12:10:31.123-07:00We knew that the rebs were scooped<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
In Gettysburg at midday July 3, 1863,
one of the wounded Iron Brigade men--Pvt. James "Mickey" Sullivan of the 6th Wisconsin--found one of the band members to help him and, hanging onto the
railing on the stairs, climbed to the cupola of the railroad depot. “I saw what
appeared like the whole Rebel Army in a chunk start for our lines with their infernal
squealing yell. It seemed as if everything stood still inside of me for a
second or two, then I began to pray.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
An officer of his division, </span>watching from Culp’s Hill with the Iron Brigade regiments, called it an irresistible sight: “On
they came, banners waving in the battle smoke, cannon roaring, men shouting,
horses neighing, small arms crashing in volleys! Still they came on…nothing
stops them…. They almost reach our main line of battle with a fairly
well-filled line of their own, as it seemed from our location.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sullivan’s prayer (though he
admitted he “was, and am not yet noted for the frequency and fervency of my
prayers”), was that the Confederates would “catch h—l.” It seemed after a few
long, anxious minutes he said, as “if the fire from our lines doubled and
doubled again, and I could see long streaks of light through the Rebel columns,
but they went forward. I was afraid they would capture our guns.” Another
Wisconsin soldier said later watching the heavy Confederate losses that he
“felt bad for the poor cusses who went down, but it had to be.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
Sullivan watched as the Confederate infantry seem to melt as the Union infantry opened
on them. “…[W]e could hear the Northern cheer. We knew that the rebs were
scooped, and the old Army of the Potomac was victorious. The dozen or so
wounded soldiers around Sullivan “were wild with joy, some cried, others shook
hands, and all joined in with the best cheer we could get up. I forgot all
about my wound and was very forcibly reminded of it when I went to shout as I
had to sit down to keep from falling.” A Confederate officer came to see what
the clamor was about and “when told that Lee was cleaned, he growled out if we
d---d Yankees were able to cheer we were able to go to Richmond,” said
Sullivan, who<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>admitted “our fellows felt
good anyway, and the reb went out and we saw no more of him.”<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-13119453603656092172013-07-02T14:59:00.000-07:002013-07-02T14:59:23.646-07:00To all appearances they saved the field
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
The survivors of the Iron Brigade watched the fighting of July 2, 1863, at Devil's Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard from their lines on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg. <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“We could plainly see that our
troops were giving ground,” said a Wisconsin officer. “Our suspense and anxiety
were intense. We gathered in knots all over the hill watching the battle…. As
the sun was low down a fine sight was seen. It was two long blue lines of
battle, with twenty or thirty regimental banners, charging forward into the
smoke and din of battle. To all appearances they saved the field.” Suddenly, in
the fading light, about 7 p.m., the rebel yell went up in front of Culp’s Hill
and the far right of the Union line was attacked by forces under the command of
Confederate General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson. Another attack centered on
Cemetery Hill, but it flared sharply and quickly stalled when it was not
supported. Johnson’s men were more successful on the far right of the Union
line. Most of the Culp’s Hill defenders from the Union Twelfth Corps, had been
sent to the left and only a brigade of New Yorkers under General George S.
Greene remained in position. Greene insisted on constructing defensive works
proved the difference, although a portion of the abandoned Federal works on the
lower part of Culp’s Hill were occupied. Just as the lines on the far left
were firing volley after volley, an officer came looking for Rufus Dawes of the 6th Wisconsin with
orders to report to Greene. The 6th Wisconsin and the 14th Brooklyn were sent
to the right to assist in repelling an attack. In the brush and darkness,
Wisconsin Color bearer I.F. Kelly remembered struggling in the brush, darkness,
and trees with his 11-foot flag staff. The first mounted officer Dawes
encountered in the darkness was Greene, who took a card from his pocket and
wrote his name and command, handing it to the young officer. He told Dawes to
take his regiment into the breastworks hold. Dawes ordered, “Forward—run!
March!” As the 6th Wisconsin reached the line, rebels in the dark rocks rose up
and fired a volley. Greene was unaware the Confederates were occupying the
breastworks and the rebels were just as surprised by the arrival of the
Wisconsin men. After the volley, the Confederates went back down Culp’s Hill.
“This remarkable encountered did not last a minute,” said Dawes. “We lost two
men, killed—both burned with the powder of the guns fired at them.” One of the
wounded was Color bearer Kelly, struck by a spatter of lead off a rock that cut
his neck. The wound bled freely. Soldiers around him found a rag and wet it
from canteens before wrapping it around his neck. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The 6th
Wisconsin remained in the line until midnight when they were relieved by troops
of the Twelfth Corps who returned to the works after supporting the far left of
the Union line. The Wisconsin and New York regiment returned to their original
positions without further incident.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-75018587774324712402013-07-02T14:46:00.001-07:002013-07-02T14:59:57.903-07:00A hard day for mothers<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
One hundred and fifty
years ago tonight, the weary survivors of the 6<sup>th</sup> Wisconsin of the
Iron Brigade reached Culp’s Hill. They were greeted with friendly helloes from
the Black Hats of the 2<sup>nd</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> Wisconsin, 19<sup>th</sup>
Indiana, and 24<sup>th</sup> Michigan. From a regimental wagon, a dozen spades
and shovels were pulled and the soldiers began constructing earthworks. It was
believed by some in the army that such breastworks made a soldier cautious and
sapped his will to fight, but any such notions were knocked out of the Black
Hats on McPherson’s Ridge earlier in the day. “The men worked with great
energy,” one officer said. “A man would dig with all his strength till out of
breath, when another would seize the spade and push on the work.” The spades
were also passed to men from the other regiments and soon a strong defensive
line was in place. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Iron Brigade regiments occupied
the far left of the Union line along Culp’s Hill, almost facing north. A 7th
Wisconsin officer remembered the “rocky faced hill” as “not hard to hold
against attack. We piled stone along our front. Dandy for defence, and got
water…from springs at the foot of the hill.” Rations were issued, but coffee
fires were banned. The men quietly ate sugar and hardtack and “water was our
helper with the cold grub.” With the work finished, the men settled in and
reflected on what had befallen their Western Brigade.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The officers of the regiments called
the rolls on Culp’s Hill and were staggered by the grim final numbers. The
brigade had taken 1,883 into the fighting that morning. Now only 691 remained
around the battle flags. The 6th Wisconsin, which escaped the heavy fighting on
McPherson’s Ridge, sustained losses of 48 percent. The 7th Wisconsin lost 42
percent, the 19th Indiana 72 percent, and the 2nd Wisconsin 77 percent. The
newest and largest regiment of the brigade, the 24th Michigan, suffered an 80
percent loss—the largest number of casualties of all the Union regiments in the
battle. Among the captured and wounded were three of the five regimental
commanders—Lucius Fairchild of the 2nd Wisconsin, John Callis of the 7th
Wisconsin, and Henry Morrow of the 24th Michigan.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rufus Dawes of the 6<sup>th</sup>
Wisconsin tried to put the somber night into words: “Our dead lay unburied and
beyond our sight or reach. Our wounded were in the hands of the enemy. Our
bravest and best were numbered with them…” </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>July 1, 1863, had been a hard day
that would be long remembered by mothers in faraway Wisconsin, Indiana, and
Michigan.... </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-41865158780307957082013-06-30T08:37:00.001-07:002013-06-30T08:37:21.530-07:00June 30 -- A day of reflection<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A century and a half has
passed and it is a time of reflection and
memory about the Iron Brigade of the West at Gettysburg. </span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span><span lang="X-NONE">The
Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan soldiers camped at Marsh Creek </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">south of town that night of June 30th some 150 years ago were
</span><span lang="X-NONE">much changed since being called to Washington.
Later it was said to be a sight never seen again—the </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Western regiments <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="X-NONE">swinging along with
an easy stride toward the Marsh Creek camp, the famous </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">black hats </span><span lang="X-NONE">now more
serviceable than showy. One who saw them said they “looked like giants with
their tall black hats,” and recalled </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">the veterans of the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2<sup>nd</sup>,
6<sup>th</sup>, 7<sup>th</sup> Wisconsin, 19<sup>th</sup> Indiana, and 24<sup>th</sup>
Michigan </span><span lang="X-NONE">moved with a “steady step” and fil</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ling</span><span lang="X-NONE"> the “entire
roadway, their big black hats and feathers conspicuous….”</span><span lang="X-NONE" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;"> </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="X-NONE">Two years of
service, the letters, journals, and diaries they left, revealed the bright
hopes of 1861</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> and 1862</span><span lang="X-NONE"> were gone for the veterans. The survivors gathered in close, tight
messes to share food, drawing on each other support. While they marched and
died, enduring unspeakable hardship, the homefolk “growled” about high prices,
short money and hard times. The army tossed out the used-up soldier and the
“patriotic” speculators fleeced them of their pay. The soldiers fought well,
but were denied victory by incompetent generals. Officers used their rank to
get through sentry posts to forage and their authority to execute a weak soldier
unable to face combat. </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="X-NONE">Only
one of three soldiers was still in ranks from the regiments formed in 1861; the
others dead from battle or illness or even homesickness. Scores of the early
volunteers were sent home sick and disabled; some gone only God knows where or
why. The survivors were first dependent on the men of their campfires and then
to their small companies and then to their regiments. They were isolated from
the homefolk, misused by their generals and the country’s leaders, cheated by
sutlers, snubbed by Easterners because of their Western origins. They trusted
only their comrades and the few officers who have proved to be skillful and
brave. They are a hard lot, good soldiers, and proud of their reputations.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span lang="X-NONE"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Only the men of the </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">24<sup>th</sup> </span><span lang="X-NONE">Michigan,
even after 10 months in service, marched toward Gettysburg feeling they still
had something to prove. The Michigan regiment and its famous brigade saw only
limited service at Fredericksburg when the Wolverines first came under fire and
their colonel called out, “Steady, men, those Wisconsin men are watching you.”
The Michigan regiment joined in the spirited river crossing during the
Chancellorsville Campaign, but it was not the kind of fighting endured at
Second Bull Run, South Mountain and Antietam. It was only after
Chancellorsville that the Michigan regiment’s coveted black hats arrived. “They
made our appearance,” a Wolverine said, “like the name of the brigade, quite
unique.”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span lang="X-NONE"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Western men would regard the </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">upcoming </span><span lang="X-NONE">fighting at
Gettysburg as the turning point of the Civil War. In many ways it was the last
great fight for the “Boys of ’61,” those bright volunteers who flocked to the
National flag in a swell of patriotism after Fort Sumter. The army itself was
changing into something that seemed more sinister. In the camps, the veterans
were unsettled by recruits who enlisted to collect bounties and newspapers
reporting lack of support for the war back home. After the first three days of
July 1863, it would all be different, partly to a change in the way the war was
fought and partly because of the men brought in fill the battle-diminished
regiments.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But on that quiet evening of June in 1863
at Marsh Creek, all that was yet to come…</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-31778026708649313742013-06-23T11:14:00.003-07:002013-06-23T11:14:30.636-07:00Men of the Cloth in the Civil War
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b><br />
<br />
Religion in the army was largely a personal matter. Many soldiers carried
their own bibles and religious objects. The more formal service was left to
regimental chaplains, who usually received appointment by the unit commander on
the vote of field officers and company commanders. Such chaplains had to be a
regularly ordained minister of a Christian denomination and received the pay
and allowances of a captain of cavalry. The chaplain’s main duties included
overseeing the moral condition of the men in their regiments, conducting Sunday
services, and assisting at the burial of soldiers. Conscientious chaplains also
visited hospitals and guard houses and ministered to the individual needs of
soldiers. Military officials made regular efforts to weed out the incompetent,
but were often unsuccessful. The proportion of Catholic to Protestant chaplains
was one to 20 although Catholic historians believe the ratio of their faith to
Protestants in the Army was at least one in six. There was little friction
between the Catholic and Protestant chaplains and most men of the cloth were
regarded as sincere, hard-working religious men. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-15079180842742820382013-06-07T16:25:00.003-07:002013-06-23T11:14:55.014-07:00<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hardtack, Salted Pork
and Soldier Food<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>Now I sit me in my seat,</em></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>And pray for something fit to eat.</em></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>If this damn stuff my stomach brake,</em></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>I pray that God my soul will take.</em></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><em> </em></o:p></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>Oh, thou who blessed the loaves and fishes,</em></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>Look down upon these old tin dishes;</em></div>
<em>
</em><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>By thy great power those dishes smash,</em></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em>Bless each of us and damn this hash.</em> </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
Volunteer’s Prayer</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Rations for the soldiers had to be easily transported as
well as resistant to spoilage. Fresh cuts of beef, soft bread and vegetables
could be issued in established camps, but soldiers on the march existed on what
they could carry in their haversack—coffee, salt, sugar, hard bread and salted
beef or salted pork. Regulations called for a daily issue of 16 ounces of
hardtack, 20 ounces of salt beef or 12 ounces of salt pork. The meat was packed
in a brine solution sufficient to preserve it for two years.</div>
By late 1863, desiccated potatoes and desiccated vegetables,
which were scalded and then pressed and dried into sheets, were issued as an
antiscorbutic to prevent scurvy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
soldiers in the Iron Brigade called them “desecrated vegetables” and generally did not eat them.<br />
Coffee, usually issued in bean form, was always popular and
was pounded or crushed, then boiled in water in tin cups.<br />
Hardtack was a square biscuit made of salt, flour and water
and then baked. It could be soaked in water and fried in the sizzling fat of
the issue salt pork which was called “sowbelly” by the soldiers. <br />
Soldiers on both sides took to “foraging” to supplement
their food rations. Orders generally prohibited the theft of private property
in the form of pigs, chickens, corn and sweet potatoes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A brigade commander requested his men not
steal, but added, “Boys, do not go hungry,” which, one Black Hat private observed, “in war
time means take what you want whenever you can get it.”<br />
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"> One French officer
with the Army of the <st1:place w:st="on">Potomac</st1:place> in 1862 an
estimated 2,000 wagons, drawn by some 12,000 animals, were necessary to feed an
army of 100,000 men and 16,000 horses at only two days march from a base of
operations.<o:p></o:p></span></strong><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></strong></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></strong></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-292407227350779592013-04-09T14:02:00.000-07:002013-04-09T14:02:15.718-07:00Moses Ladd of the 21st Wisconsin One Badger soldier always catches my interest is Pvt. Moses Ladd of the 21st Wisconsin. <br />
He was was born June 28, 1828
in what is now Wisconsin. His mother was a Menominee and his father of Ojibwa/Ottawa
mix. He married Mary Grignon sometime before the Civil War. She was the
daughter of Charles Grignon, a well-known fur trader for the Hudson Bay
Company. The Grignon family included the Langlade and Brunette families, all
active in settling northeast <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:place></st1:state>.<br />
Ladd, despite his mixed
Menominee/Ojibwa/Ottawa heritage, enlisted in the 21st Wisconsin Infantry in
1861. He suffered a minor wound at the battle of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Perryville</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Kentucky</st1:state></st1:place>,
where he was cited with saving the life of Jeremiah Reardon, who later became
Manitowoc County Sheriff. Near the end of the war, he served as a chief scout
for General William Sherman on the March to the Sea. Ladd mustered out with his
regiment in 1865 and returned to the Poygan area.<br />
He was singled out by
Sherman in 1880 when the general visited in the Winneconne and Oshkosh
area. Seeing Ladd in the audience, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sherman</st1:place></st1:city>
stopped a speech to go over and greet him. He also offered Ladd a home in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>.
Ladd refused, however, saying he could not leave his hunting and fishing
grounds. <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sherman</st1:place></st1:city>
again stopped Ladd during the 1889 <st1:place w:st="on">Reunion</st1:place> in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Milwaukee</st1:place></st1:city> telling him,
“Moses, you are one of the best men I had.” Ladd died <st1:date day="30" month="5" w:st="on" year="1920">May 30, 1920</st1:date> at the Soldiers Home in
King, <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:place></st1:state>.
He is buried in the 21st <st1:place w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:place> plot.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-13807212221542285322013-02-05T10:04:00.001-08:002013-02-05T10:04:18.515-08:00Western Style and Prairie Manners....
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;"><strong>
<br />
</strong>
<strong>---From the <em><st1:city w:st="on">La Crosse</st1:city> Democrat</em><br /><br />Re-printed in the <em>Prairie du Chien</em> [<st1:place w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:place>] <em>Courier</em>, Thursday, June 17, 1864</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /> </strong></span><br />
<strong></strong><div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;">Since the opening of the present war we have watched with the closest eye and
careful scrutiny the conduct of our Northern troops. Before the May battles
began, the Western men were more than in advance of those in the East, and the
events of the present month have faded the laurels for the East and brightened
those of the West till the latter are truly entitled to the proud title of
American Heroes. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;">The battles fought lately in the West have been of terrific
carnage. The victories Western men have successfully won have been at the
bayonet point, after a display of courage and endurance like that of the
ancient Romans who used the shield less for defense than to rest the heads of
dying braves on. The troops under Grant - the divisions of Logan, Steele,
Sherman, Quimby, McClernand, McArthur, and McPhereson in the late battles
before <st1:city w:st="on">Vicksburg</st1:city> have covered themselves with
glory enough for a lifetime, no matter what reverses in the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place></st1:city> of the war may overtake them in
the future. Where death held highest revel - where the bursting shell -
screaming rifle ball and howling rifled shot dealt destruction the brave troops
of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio and Kansas have
with unfaltering firmness and unfinishing bravery beat back the pride of the
rebel forces and made the rebel chivalry forces to acknowledge the superiority
of Western pluck, muscle, bravery, and endurance.<br />
<br />
When the full accounts of the battles of Jackson, Raymond, Edward's Depot, <st1:placename w:st="on">Big</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Black</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype>, Barker's Creek, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vicksburg</st1:place></st1:city> and other fields are given, each
one will be a chapter of bravery which will make Grant's army the envied of the
war. All through this war, the entire record of Western troops is one of
undaunted spirit. In defeat or victory they have never become demoralized, or
given up in despair. Western men don't know the meaning of defeat. At
Boonville, Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Springfield, Lexington, Frederickstown,
New Madrid, Cape Giradeau [sic] - at Corinth, Fort Donelson, Columbus, Pea
Ridge, Pittsburg Landing - at Boston Mountain, Fayetteville, Island No. 10,
Bowling Green, Shiloh, and Murfreesboro our Western men have proved themselves.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;">While the West has fought to win, with a life, pluck and energy to make us feel
more than proud, the armies of the East have become demoralized, politicalized
and manipulated that no one dare bet on them for fighting. The retreats,
flights and foot races in and out of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>
have caused us to lose much of the respect once felt for the eastern troops.
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;">Had it not been for the Western troops, the forces on the Potomac, Rappahannock
and about <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>
would have been a mob long since. There is contagion in example. The pride of
Western men has kept them from following the lead of Eastern army styles - we
hope the pride of Eastern men will enable them to emulate the glorious example
of Western soldiers from this time on. Hair-oiled Bostonians, black-coated New
Yorkers and white-necktied Philadelphians may turn up their noses at the
brusqueness of the Hoosiers, Badgers, Pukes, Buckeyes, &c, of the western
prairies - they may laugh at western style and s<st1:personname w:st="on">mil</st1:personname>e
at prairie manners, but when it comes to making a country, to whipping rebels,
or otherwise proving title to the name of MAN, the "uncouth" sons of
the west take front seats.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10pt;">(Thanks to my friend Mike Thorson)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-89020054778780661832013-01-13T11:32:00.002-08:002013-01-13T11:33:26.596-08:00How the Minie-ball changed war in 1861-1865I used to spend a good amount of time on the firing line
with the North-South Skirmish Association shooting Civil War era weapons in
marksmanship competitions. Along the way I picked up some thoughts on whether
the new so-called “Minie-ball” (my friend Phil Spaugy would say “Burton bullet”)
of the Civil War era changed the war. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Technology had stepped ahead of the tactics and experience
in the 1861-65 and the officers of both sides—trained in the linear infantry
movements of Napoleon—were slow to catch up. The foremost innovation was the
new "rifle-musket “which became standard for both armies. Rifles had long
been used in war, but they were slow to load and the basic infantry firearm
until the mid 19th century was the muzzle-loading smoothbore musket. The
smoothbore was quick to load, but its effective range was limited.<br />
<br />
The new .58-caliber "rifle-musket" (with the length of a musket and
the rifling of the rifle) was adopted for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> service in 1855, just six
years before the start of the Civil War. It was still a muzzle-loader, but had
grooves in the barrel to spin and stabilize a new hollow-based bullet the
soldiers called the "Minie-ball" and it produced surprising accuracy
and velocity. Accepted tactics of the day, however, were based on massed
formations that could deliver dense swarms of bullets. The training was
designed to bring soldiers quickly and in good order to a place where they
could fire. The regiments fought with companies abreast, forming a long, double
rank of men.<br />
<br />
It all was based on the accepted theory a regiment was able to advance within
100 yards of an enemy position without taking significant causalities (given
the limited range of smoothbores), then make the quick dash to close with
bayonets. The emphasis in the volunteer camps was on marching in well-closed,
disciplined formation; bayonet drill, and instruction for the individual
soldier in loading quickly and firing on command. Marksmanship training was
limited.<br />
<br />
While the new rifle-musket made much of such training obsolete, it would be
easy to overstate the importance of improved accuracy and point to it as the
reason for the terrible casualty rates of 1861-65. The technology did not
increase the rate of fire by individual soldiers (about two or three shots per
minute) and, in fact, there was a drawback. If a soldier under ideal conditions
was able to hit a man-sized target at 500 yards, the lobbing arc of the
"minnie-ball" (as it was called by the soldiers) was about 12 feet above
the point of aim at mid-range—causing infantrymen to over or under shoot at the
longer distances. Even clear-eyed marksmen would find it difficult to
consistently strike a moving line of infantry at distances of more than 300
yards.<br />
<br />
The tragic significance of the rifle-musket and Minie-ball came at ranges less than 200
yards—it was there massed fire knocked apart battle lines with brutal
efficiency. The point-blank killing range became 150 yards (not 50 yards) and
all the previous experience of officers and the training of soldiers involved
the short effective range of the smoothbores.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Other observations can be made on the subject, but let those bide for another time.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-52782848972057705562012-12-29T10:19:00.000-08:002012-12-29T10:24:24.120-08:00A soldier cemetery at Gettysburg<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Frank Haskell of the 6th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade was serving as a aide to Gen. John Gibbon when the two went to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in November 1863. They were there to represent the Army of the Potomac at the special dedication of a new federal soldier cemetery. The neat row of stones of the fallen was troubling to Haskell. He wrote his brother a short time later:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">“…[W]hat
is so appropriate for the soldier’s rest as the spot where he died nobly fighting
the enemies of the country,--where perhaps the shout of victory went up with
his spirit to Heaven—where his companions in arms, his survivors, had lovingly
wrapped him in his blanket, and wet with brave men’s tears, had covered him
with the earth his blood had consecrated…. But no,--these things were not to
be. The skeletons of these brave men must be handled like the bones of so many
horses, for a price, and wedged in rows like herrings in a box, on a spot where
there was no fighting—where none of them fell! It may be all right, but I do
not see it…but as it is now…we have instead a common, badly arranged grave
yard, in which names, and graves, if designated at all, are as likely to be
wrong as right. But read the newspapers,--Every body says this is splendid,
this making the ‘Soldiers’ Cemetery,’ and I suppose it is.” </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"></span><span style="font-family: "Palatino Linotype","serif";"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Frank Haskell was himself killed in 1864
leading a charge of the 36th <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wisconsin</st1:place></st1:state>
near <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Cold Harbor</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Virginia</st1:state></st1:place>. His body was returned to Wisconsin for burial at Portage.</span> </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-35900639314561476902012-12-11T10:40:00.000-08:002012-12-11T10:40:15.020-08:00Terrible would have been the fate of the 19th Indiana
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.4in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
Thinking today about Fredericksburg in December 150
years ago, and of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Iron Brigade and
Lt. Clayton Rogers: </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0.4in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
Left
behind a mile beyond what had been the Iron Brigade line in the retreat from
Fredericksburg was the 19th Indiana, whose job it was to watch the Rebels and
keep them at a distance. General John Reynolds had made the decision to abandon
the Hoosiers to prevent an alarm during the withdrawal, but Colonel Lysander Cutler
pleaded with the general and gotten permission to make an effort to save the
regiment. When the Iron Brigade began marching for the bridges, Cutler sent his
aide, Leutenant Rogers, with an order for the commander of the 19th Indiana to
call in his pickets and march for the pontoon crossing. The splendidly mounted
Rogers, a man with an eye for good horses, “rushed to the extreme left with no
regard to roads but straight as a bee flies.” “The left once gained,” a friend
wrote, “he moderates his pace and whispers into the ear of each astonished
officer.” The order is passed by whispers and Rogers moved out to the picket
line in a movement hidden by the stormy weather. A witness described the scene:
“One by one our drenched boys are falling back and drawing in together. Silently
as shadows the whole picket line steals across the plain. And now as the ranks
closed up for rapid marching, ‘double double quick’ is about the pace.” One bridge
remained at the crossing point, and engineers were standing by with axes to cut
it loose. It is only after the last of the 19th Indiana has passed that the
mounted Rogers, “grimly smiling,” rode onto the bridge himself. The rearguard of the regiment arrived a short time
after the bridge lines were cut. They climbed into skiffs the engineers had
held back for them and began paddling for the north bank. “[I]f we had been
left as our head General at first designated terrible would have been our fate,”
a private in the 19th confessed in his diary, “or we would have known nothing
of the retreat, and when the enemy advanced the 19th is not the Reg’t
to surrender without any fight.” The consequence, he added, “would have been a
wiping out of the old 19th.”</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-24899505045688731972012-11-30T06:22:00.001-08:002012-11-30T06:31:07.985-08:00Old Mickey Sullivan returns for a story or two...Sgt. James Patrick
Sullivan made an appearance at Freedom Hall in the Civil War Museum at Kenosha,
Wis., a few days back and it was the same old “Mickey, of Company K”—sharp of
tongue, a glint in his eye, and full of Irish blarney.<br />
<br />
It was good to see the old veteran of the
Sixth Wisconsin and listen as he talked about attending the 1883 reunion of the
Iron Brigade Association at La Crosse.<br />
<br />
Mickey
was to give a talk, he explained, and was trying to catch a few words on paper.
He is the first enlisted man asked to formally address the annual gathering,
and he admitted looking back to his soldier days triggered a flood of memories.<br />
<br />
Sullivan laughed in telling how his new company—the
Lemonweir Minute Men—drilled at the Mauston Park in Juneau County before the
call to go to Camp Randall at Madison in 1861. School children, fathers,
mothers sisters, friends and girls that had not yet been left behind stood
watching, he recalled with a smile, and “if they judge by the loudness of the
tones of command and our ability to charge the school house or church, they
must have felt the rebellion would soon be a thing of the past.” <br />
<br />
A couple of darker memories gave Mickey pause. It was at
Gettysburg, in the bloody railroad cut, that he was shot in the shoulder and
taken to the town on the back of a cavalry horse ordered up by Gen. James
Wadsworth himself. At the Court House, he said, he found doctors “busy cutting
up and patching up the biggest part of the Sixth Regiment, A good number of the
Company K boys were in the same fix I was, and some a great deal worse.” <br />
<br />
And there were other memories as well—of “Old Boo” the
famous pet jackass of Company K, and a drill session with two new recruits, one
German and one Irish, and, of course, Sullivan had to pull from an old chest
his faded blue coat and the misshapen famous Black Hat of the Iron Brigade. The
old coat was a little tight around the middle and the hat had seen better days,
he admitted as he put them on, and then pulled himself up erect soldier fashion
to begin his poem:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are hats in the closest, old, ugly to view,</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of very slight value they may be to you.</div>
But
the wreath of the Astors should not buy them to-day,<br />
<br />
With
letters of honor, old Company K.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At the end, Sullivan saluted the way the old boys,did in
1861, and then he was gone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>His return was a funded by a grant given to the Civil War
Museum from the Wisconsin Humanities Council. The 40-minute performance
featured actor T. Stacy Hicks as Mickey Sullivan. The script was written by
Playwright Jim Farris from Sullivan’s Civil War writings as found<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An
Irishman in the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs of James P. Sullivan,
Sergt, Company K, 6th Wisconsin Volunteers</i>, by William J.K. Beaudot and
Lance J. Herdegen.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-33074171472084579282012-11-28T10:53:00.001-08:002012-11-30T06:23:41.775-08:00Was it a lock of hair of President Lincoln?While I was working at the Institute for Civil War Studies at Carroll College, a visitor came to show me a small rectangle of glass with a lock of hair inside and tied with a red ribbon. On a card on the opposite side was the note: "A lock of Lincoln's Hair." The relic had been found in an old trunk left at a Milwaukee hotel the family had operated long ago. It was discovered after the fellow living there, Charles King, the famous author, died and trunk was left. A quick comparison showed the handwriting on the note was similar to that of Charles King. He was the son of General Rufus King of the Iron Brigade and served as his father's "aide" early in the war. He was one of four cadets appointed to the U.S. Military Academy by President Lincoln. (Another of the four was William Upham of the Second Wisconsin after he was severely wounded at First Bull Run.) I asked the visitor for just a few hairs from the lock, but was turned down with a smile. For the record, the hair was dark brown and very coarse. Was it the real hair of Abraham Lincoln? I like to think so, but we will never know for sure.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-8703667878240753632012-11-20T00:48:00.000-08:002012-11-20T00:48:24.072-08:00The Black Hats meet Old Abe, the War Eagle.As the Seventh Wisconsin was at Camp Randall at Madison preparing to leave for Washington and the warfront, companies of the Eighth Wisconsin were arriving. The one from Eau Claire in north central Wisconsin caught the attention of the Western boys. It included the "proud form" of a live bald eagle perched on a painted shield and carried by a bearer. The eagle liked to spread its wings to retain its equilibrium while being carried, presenting a martial tableau. "It was the center of attraction during the day," said a Seventh Wisconsin man. "The [Eau Claire] boys say they were going to take him with them and are not going to return until he shapoos his head in the Gulf of Mexico." Of course, the bird became famous as "Old Abe, the War Eagle" and was carried into skirmish and battle over the coming years. The Seventh Wisconsin was soon a part of the storied Iron Brigade.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-85016216077915276762012-11-06T07:26:00.000-08:002012-11-06T07:26:47.604-08:00He too wanted to vote for LincolnOne unexpected development in the presidential election of 1864 was that 71 percent of the vote in the Army of the Potomac went to Abraham Lincoln and not its old commander George McClellan. In a strange turn of events that war year, Wisconsin and Michigan men of the Iron Brigade were allowed to vote while those from Indiana could not. The Indiana legislature had voted against soldiers from their state being allowed to vote in the field. "We all agreed that what the Rebels liked was just what we had no right to like, and if it was going to do them so much good to elect McClellan, we just wouldn't do it," one Badger wrote home. In the end the old Iron Brigade regiments voted 749 for Lincoln and 147 for Little Mac. In the 6th Wisconsin, the very satisified Sgt. Frank Wallar wrote in his diary the vote of his Company I was "unanimous for Abe. I am going to have two canteens of whiskey tonight." During the day-long balloting a lone Confederate deserter stepped into the Michigan picket line to announced that he too wanted to vote for Lincoln. It is not recorded whether he was given that opportunity.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368502474180245280.post-26352642295508756832012-10-23T01:00:00.001-07:002012-10-23T01:00:37.647-07:00I could have hugged the necks of them allIn all of the letters written by members of the Iron Brigade I think none is as poignant as that written by Lt. Frank Haskell to his family the morning of August 29, 1862. The late afternoon of the day before the four regiments of Gibbon's Black Hat Brigade-the Second, Sixth, Seventh Wisconsin and Nineteenth Indiana-had fought in its first battle at a place they called Gainesville, but we know today as Brawner Farm. "None of the officers could look upon our thinned ranks, so full the night before, now so shattered, without tears," Haskell penned. "And the faces of those brave boys, as the morning sun disclosed them, no pen can describe. the men were cheerful, quiet and orderly. The dust and blackness of battle were upon their clothes, and in their hair, and on their skin, but you saw none of these, - you saw only their eyes, and the shadows of the 'light of battle,' and the furrows plowed upon cheeks that were smooth a day before, and now not half filled up. I could not look upon them without tears, and could have hugged the necks of them all." Haskell himself would be shot dead at Cold Harbor in 1864 and his body returned to Wisconsin.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12652754029561449683noreply@blogger.com1