Grant County, Wisconsin - Chapter 6: Eleventh, Twelfth, Sixteenth, and Nineteenth, 1900

Eleventh Infantry

On the 29th of November the regiment left the State for St. Louis. It was stationed most of the winter at Sulphur Springs, on the Missippi River. March 13, 1862, it marched, reaching Reeves's Station on* the 27th. On the 19th of April the regiment marched southward and suffered much from wading through swamps and bad water and lack of rations, and also from disease produced by malaria. It joined the army of Curtis on White River and took the advance on a southward march. On the 7th of July a detachment of the Eleventh and the Thirty-third Illinois had a hot skirmish with a force of about two thousand Texans and Arkansans near Bayou Cache. They were at first compelled to fall back, but being reinforced, again advanced and routed the enemy, who left about a hundred and fifty of their dead on the field.

the regiment went down the river to Oldtown and was engaged in collecting cotton, having some skirmishes. In October the regiment went to Pilot Knob, Missouri, and thence to Patterson. During the winter it was chiefly occupied in patrol and guarding the railroad and forage trains. In March, 1863, the regiment embarked at St. Gene¬ vieve and went, by way of Memphis and Helena, to Milliken's Bend, Louisiana, near Vicksburg. Crossing the peninsula, the Eleventh took part in the famous campaign by which Grant shut Pemberton's army up in Vicksburg, being engaged in the battles of Anderson Hill, Fort Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, and the desperate assault on Vicksburg. It then took a position in the trenches in the central part of our force and was occupied in the siege until the 2d of July, when it marched toward Warrenton, to intercept a Rebel raid, soon returning to the trenches.

After the surrender of Vicksburg the Eleventh marched to Jackson and on the 18th and 19th of July was engaged in tearing up the track of the Mississippi Central Railroad. On the 13th of August it went to New Orleans and thence marched to Brashear City, and thence to Ber¬ wick, Franklin, and New Iberia, where it arrived on the 6th of Sep¬ tember. It soon moved on to St. Martinville, having a skirmish there and taking some prisoners. Going on to Opelousas, it returned to New Iberia, which it reached on the 30th, having suffered much from heavy rains and lack of clothing and blankets, having left its baggage and knapsacks behind. The regiment then returned to Berwick and joined in Banks's expedition to Texas. Four companies, A, C, E, and G, landed at Point Isabel; a violent storm prevented the rest of the regiment from landing and it went on to Aransas Pass, where it land¬ ed, suffering much from a "norther" with sleet to which the men were exposed without shelter or wood. On the 7th of December the four companies landed at Point Isabel joined the regiment and then it went into camp at Matagorda Peninsula. On the 13th it went tolndianola. Here more than three-fourths of the regiment reenlisted and went home on furlough. Returning to duty, on the 2d of May, 1864, the regiment moved on an expedition from Memphis into northern Missis¬ sippi, having an engagement with Forrest's cavalry on the 4th, and returning to Memphis after a march of a hundred miles. It went then by way of New Orleans to Brashear City, whence it made several reconnoissances, and had several sharp skirmishes witb-the Rebels. On the 26th of February, 1865, the regiment embarked for New Orleans, whence it went to join the expedition for the capture of Mobile and took part in the severe siege of Spanish Fort. On the capture of that place, the Eleventh went over to Blakely1 and assisted in the reduction of that fort. On the 3d, 5th, 6th, and 9th of April the regiment, in advancing its lines, had sharp work and did it nobly. On the 9th it made a desperate charge quite into the enemy's works, losing fiftynine killed and wounded. After the reduction of Fort Blakely the Eleventh went to Montgomery, returning to Mobile on the 23d, re¬ maining there on provost duty until the 3d of September, when it was mustered out and soon started for home, reaching Madison on the 18th, where the men were discharged.

Twelfth Infantry

This regiment went into camp at Camp Randall in October, 1861, Co. K was enlisted partly in Grant County, and the men from this county were as follows :

The regiment left the State January 11, 1862, for Fort Leaven¬ worth, Kansas. It was unable to cross the Mississippi at Quincy, on account of floating ice, and marched twenty-two miles to Douglasville, opposite Hannibal. There it spent the night of the 13th, with the thermometer twenty degrees below zero, lying on the frozen ground without shelter, although not yet inured to hardships. From Hannibal to Weston, Missouri, the regiment rode in open hay-cars, twenty-four hours without fire or warm food, and soon more than one hundred were on the sick list. On the 15th of February, the regi¬ ment moved to Leavenworth, and on the 1st of March toward Fort Scott, Kausas, a march of 160 miles.

On the 27th of March the regiment started for Lawrence, and on the 20th of April left that city for Fort Riley, Kansas, a march of 105 miles. At this place most of the regiment allotted to their families all their pay except three or four dollars a month, more than any other Wisconsin regiment.

The regiment marched back to Leavenworth, which it reached on the 27th of May, and took part in a grand review. On the 29th the regiment went to St. Louis, on the way to Corinth, and landed at Columbus on the 2d of June. There it was engaged in repairing the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, not going to Corinth. It afterward moved to Union City, and thence to Humboldt, Tennessee, and in July made a junction with the troops engaged in the siege of Corinth. While at Humboldt the regiment was partly mounted, having seized all the serviceable horses for sixty miles around. The regiment was busy in scouring the country in search of bushwhackers. A Rebel force of a thousand cavalry and a battery was at this time reported to be in the vicinity of Humboldt. This village would have been a rich prize for the Rebels, as it contained $60,000 worth of cotton and $11,000 worth of sugar and molasses, which had been seized, by the regiment a few days before. The men took possession of a printing office and issued a paper called the Soldiers 9 Budget . The constant scouting of the Twelfth had a wholesome effect in suppressing the guerrillas, and the citizens were little molested by marauders.

On the 4th of October the regiment moved to Pocahontas, to take part in the battle of Hatchie, then going on. It formed part of the re¬ serve, and was not in action. Thence it moved to Bolivar, Tennessee, where it remained until November 3, when it began a march south¬ ward with the Army of the Mississippi, under General Grant, in the abortive attempt to cajpture Vicksburg. On the 4th the Twelfth reached La Grange, and on the 8th led the advance of a large force on a reconnoitering expedition toward Holly Springs, near which a heavy Rebel force was known to be encamped. They marched to within eleven miles Qf that place, and Companies A and B were deployed as skirmishers. On arriving at the place where the Rebels had been, it was found that they had retreated, and the Twelfth occupied their abandoned camp. The expedition returned the next day to La Grange, having captured 150 prisoners.

On the 28th of November the Twelfth moved to Holly Springs and thence to Lumpkin's Mill and Yocona Creek, near the Mississippi Central Railroad. Grant's communications having been cut by the capture of Holly Springs by the Rebels, the expedition was abandoned and the Twelfth marched northward, going to Moscow, Tennessee, on the 12th of January, then to Collinsville, and reached Memphis on the 14th of March. On the 18th of April the Twelfth formed part of an expedition to attack the rear of Chalmers's force on Coldwater. The first day the Twelfth had the advance and captured seven Rebel officers and sixty men. The next day an attack was made on the Rebel force at Coldwater, the Twelfth being in reserve.

On the 11th of May the regiment embarked for Vicksburg, disem¬ barked opposite the city and marched across the peninsula, and embarked again for Grand Gulf, below Vicksburg. In a short time the regiment came up to Warrenton, where it was placed in the Fourth Division and took a position in the trenches in the rear of Vicksburg, on the left, where it had one man killed and five wounded during the siege.

After the surrender the regiment marched to Jackson, having a skirmish on the way, in which two men were killed by a Rebel shell. When the First Brigade of the Fourth Division charged the Rebel works at Jackson, the Twelfth protected the left flank. A further account of this charge and of the siege of Vicksburg will be found in the history of the Thirty-third Infantry.

On the 15th of August the regiment embarked for Natchez. Sep¬ tember 1 it took the advance in an expedition to Harrisonburg, Louisiana. November 22 it embarked for Vicksburg, and went ten miles east to guard the railroad at the Big Black. On the 4th of December it returned to Vicksburg and embarked for Natchez, where it joined a force sent in pursuit of Wirt Adams's cavalry. January 23, 1864, it embarked for Vicksburg, where 521 men reenlisted. In Feb¬ ruary the regiment formed a part of Sherman's Meridian Expedition. At Bolton it had two men killed and four wounded by a Rebel shell. The regiment was complimented by Gen. Kilby Smith for its gallantry in charging across a bridge at Baker's Creek. It returned to Hebron, near Vicksburg, March 4, having marched 416 miles. On the 13th the reSnlisted men went home on a furlough, rejoining the regiment at Cairo, May 3. Moving by way of Huntsville, Decatur, and Rome, it joined the Army of the Tennessee at Ackworth, Georgia, on the 8th of June, 1864. It moved to Big Shanty on the 10th, and the next day was in line of battle, charging two miles through the timber and capturing the first skirmish line of the enemy in front of Kenesaw Mountain. The regiment threw up intrenchments, and on the 14th another line was constructed, a quarter of a mile nearer, on the crest of a hill, a thousand yards from the enemy's rifle-pits. Six companies performed a desperate feat m driving a Rebel brigade out of its rifle-pits, which had kept up a galling fire on the Union men from a piece of pine woods in front of the position. The detachment penetrated through brush, young pines, and briars, until it reached the rifle-pits, which were full of men, and opened an etffilading fire on them, compelling them to fall back to their reserve force. The pits were emptied for forty rods. A Rebel brigade then charged on the little detachment, which fell back in good order. The regiment took part in the movement of the. Seventeenth Corps to the right of Kenesaw Mountain, on the second of July, taking position near the Chattahoochee, at the mouth of Nickajack Creek. Its loss at Kenesaw Mountain was thirty-four, killed, wounded, and missing.

At the battle of Bald Hill, on the 21st, the Twelfth and Sixteenth Wisconsin were in the First Brigade of General Leggett's Division, on the extreme left of the line, and south of the Augusta Railroad. In the assault that morning on theenemv's works, these regiments had the advance. They crossed a corn-field and charged up a hill, under a withering fire from the Rebel intrenchments in front and on their right. Pressing forward without wavering, they entered the Rebel works with loud cheers, and began a hand-to-hand fight with clubbed muskets ; finally driving out the enemy, they held the works. The bri¬ gade pursued the Rebels sixty rods, when it was compelled to fall back to the hill it had taken, and which it held, in spite of repeated attempts by the enemy to recapture it. On the next day the Rebels moved around and attacked the hill from the front and rear almost simultaneously. The Wisconsin men held their ground, fighting the enemy in front until they were in disorder, and then, leaping over the breastworks and taking shelter on the other side, they repulsed the Rebels coming up in the rear. This remarkable feat they accom¬ plished four times. The Rebels were swarming all around like enraged bees. Finally they marched down the works in a compact column, capturing batterj' after battery and turning them on the Union men, thus enfilading the whole Union line. Moving triumphantly forward to the key position held by the First Brigade, they reached a position within a few rods of the Twelfth and Sixteenth Wisconsin, who poured in a terrific volley. But in spite of the dreadful carnage, the Rebels pressed on, and even into the works, only to be slain. The Sixth Corps now fell upon their rear and compelled them to relinquish the attack. During this battle the regiment fought at times back to back, the enemy in front, rear, and flank. A part of the regiment fought a party of Rebels who were under the works until daylight of the 23d. The enemj' abandoned their dead and severely wounded about the Union position. The Twelfth, numbering less than six hundred men, lost in the two days' fighting 188 in killed, wounded, and missing. On the 21st it captured forty -eight prisoners and sev¬ eral hundred small arms. Five color-bearers were shot and both flagstaffs shot off. The heaviest loss was on the 21st. In fifteen minutes nearly one-fourth of the regiment's numbers fell. The Sixteenth lost 116* killed and wounded and seven missing in the two days' action.

The Twelfth was in the movement by Howard toward the Macon Railroad, on the 28 th of July, and when at noon the Fifteenth Corps two miles in advance, was attacked, the regiment moved rapidly forward, outstripping all other reinforcements, and joined in the battle just at the moment to save the Federals from defeat. It lost on that day nineteen killed and wounded. Immediately afterward it took a position in the trenches in front of Atlanta, where it remained nearly a month. At Jonesboro, August 31, it joined in repulsing the enemy, after a severe battle. On the first of September it was also engaged, and the next day pursued the retreating foe.

In the march to the sea, the Twelfth assisted in the destruction of the Georgia Central Railroad, and reached the vicinity of Savannah on the 10th of December. It took position in the trenches and re¬ mained before the enemy's works, with only one change of location, until the evacuation of the city.

Proceeding with the Seventeenth Corps by water to Beaufort, it took part in a battle near Pocotaligo River. In the campaign through the Carolinas, it crossed the Edisto River, marched through deep swamps, charged upon the Rebels at Orangeburg, and drove them out of their place. It was present at the battle of Bentonville, partici¬ pated in the grand review at Washington, and arrived on the 7th of June at Louisville, Kentucky, where it was mustered out on the 16th of July, reaching Madison on the 9th of August, where the men were discharged.

Sixteenth Infantry

The regiment left Madison, March 13, 1862, and disembarked at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, March 20. In the battle of Shiloh the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Wisconsin were in General Prentiss's divi¬ sion, on the extreme left. The Eighteenth had reached the place only the night before, and had not even put up its tents. Saturday night four companies, A, B, C, and D, of the Sixteenth, went on picket. At 4:30 on Sunday morning these companies advanced to reconnoiter. Going on half a mile, they found the enemy's pickets behind the fence.

A force of about three thousand of the enemy was immediately behind and it opened on the Union men, who fell back, pursued by the Rebels. The Sixteenth was immediately formed in line of battle, with the Eighteenth on its left. The enemy soon approached in great force and the Wisconsin men opened fire, which was replied to by a terrific fire from the Rebels, who advanced on the front and flanked the left of the Union line. There was no panic, but the regiment had to fall back under overwhelming numbers, doing so slowly, fighting as it went. The flank movement of the enemy resulted in the capture of General Prentiss and about two thousand Union soldiers, some of them of the Eighteenth Wisconsin. Of Company I, Sixteenth, William Austin and A. Clifford were killed. Among the wounded was Lieutenant D. Gray Purman.

The regiment took part in the siege of Corinth, being constantly engaged in the trenches and on picket duty. After the siege it re¬ mained at Corinth until the 17th of September, when it marched for Iuka, being in the left wing of the army advancing to meet Price. On the 2d of October the Sixteenth reinforced the troops that were en¬ gaged in obstructing the advance of the enemy near Corinth. For this purpose it marched out on the Chewalla road three miles and lay there all night, waiting for the Rebels, and early the next morning marched back to camp. The regiment advanced again with the bri¬ gade two miles and met the enemy, when a severe conflict ensued. At the first fire some regiments near the Sixteenth broke and ran, and the Sixteenth itself began to waver; but it was soon steadied and bravely held its position for about fifteen minutes in a galling enfilading fire, right and left, without any support whatever. At last it was ordered to retire, and did so in good order. On the next day the regiment cap¬ tured many prisoners in an engagement.

Immediately after the battle of Corinth the regiment was consoli¬ dated into five companies. February 1, 1863, it was transferred to Lake Providence, Louisiana, where it remained until August, when it went into camp near Vicksburg. In September it moved to Red Bone Church, near the Big Black, and guarded the fords of the river. Dur¬ ing the winter detachments of the regiment had frequent skirmishes with bands of Wirt Adams's cavalry. On February 6th the regiment went into Vicksburg. On the 4th of March it was joined by three full companies which had been recruited for the regiment, and on the 6th the reSnlisted men, about three-fourths of the regiment, went home on veteran furlough. On the 5th of April the non-veterans and recruits embarked for Cairo, where they were joined by the veterans and one new company. The regiment was then assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Seventeenth Corps, and went to join Sherman's Army at Ackworth, Georgia, June 8. On the 10th it went to the front, the division occupying a position on the extreme left of the arm}', which was in front of the enemy's works at Lost and Kenesaw Mountains. The regiment remained here, occupying the trenches and constantly skirmishing, until the 19th, when the division moved forward to Brush Mountain, east of Kenesaw, without much opposition. On the 23d it went on a reconnoissance to the left, and on the 28th took part in a demonstration against the enemy's right. It left Brush Mount¬ ain on the evening of July 2, marching toward the mouth of Nickajack Creek and threatening the enemy's communications at Turner's Ferry, across the Chattahoochee.

The heroic action on the regiment at Bald Hill is described in the history of the Twelfth Wisconsin, pages 331-2. On coming before At¬ lanta, the regiment was occupied in picket and fatigue duties until the 9th of September. On the 3d of October it began a march to Chatta¬ nooga, in pursuit of Hood's army.

On the march to the sea the Sixteenth destroyed the railroad build¬ ings at Millen, on the 2d of December. On the 7th it crossed a large swamp and on the 11th took a position on the edge of a rice-field which had been overflowed, a few miles southwest of Savannah. It enteied the city on the 21st and remained in camp there until January 4, 1865, when it marched to Fort Thunderbolt, and on the next day embarked for Beaufort. On the 30th the northward march was begun. On the 2d of February the regiment took part in the action at Whippy Swamp, and at Orangeburg crossed the North Edisto, waded through swamps, and aided in driving the enemy from his position. It took part in the battle at Bentonville and in the pursuit of the Rebels under Johnston, after which it marched through Richmond to Washington, and took part in the grand review of the army. On the 7th of June a part of the regiment was mustered out, and on the 16th of July the remainder were mustered out, and discharged at Madison on the 1st of August.

Nineteenth Infantry

The number of Grant County men in the regiment was too small to justify an extended history of the regiment here. It guarded Rebel prisoners at Madison until June 2, 1862, when it started for Washing¬ ton, and went thence to Fortress Monroe, where it was engaged in garrison and provost duty until April 14, 1863, when it went to Suf¬ folk, where an attack by Longstreet's corps was expected. It spent the summer on the York peninsula.

October 8, 1863, the regiment started from Newport News, for Newberne, North Carolina, where it did garrison dutjr. On the 26th the regiment moved to Yorktown and thence with Butler's arm\r up the James River.

On the 13th of August 250 reenlisted men went home on furlough and the remainder were assigned to Norfolk as provost guards. On the return of the veterans, the regiment joined the army before Rich¬ mond. It took a distinguished part in the battle of Fair Oaks. After the battle, the regiment served on the lines near Chapin's Farm until April, 1865. During the previous year heavy details were made from the regiment to serve as sharpshooters. The regiment took a promi¬ nent part in the capture of Richmond The non-veterans were mustered out at the close of their term of service, on the twenty-eighth of April. The rest moved on the 27th from Richmond to Petersburg. They were mustered out at Richmond and started, on the 9th of August, 265 in number, for Wisconsin and were discharged at Madison.