Grant County, Wisconsin - Chapter 8: Thirty-First, Thirty-Third, and Thirty-Fifth In¬ Fantry, 1900

Thirty- First Infantry

Companies A, B, C, D, E, and F went into camp at Prairie du Chien, in September, 1862, and the remainder of the regiment joined them at Racine and the organization was completed January 13, 1863. Isaac E. Messmore, somewhat notorious as a politician, went out as colonel of the regiment, but soon abandoned it and returned home.

Arriving at Columbus, Kentucky, the regiment was assigned to the Sixth Division, Sixteenth Corps, and went into camp at Fort Halleck. Here it was engaged in picket and provost duty and made sev¬ eral reconnoissances into the surrounding country. During the sum¬ mer the regiment suffered much from sickness, losing more than thirty by disease in July and August. In the fall the regiment went to Nash¬ ville, and from the 5th to the 25th of October it was Lavergne, and then it went to Murfreesboro. Companies B, G, and K were detached and stationed at Stone River, where they erected fortifications and guarded the railroad bridge. On the 14th of April, 1864, the regiment was assigned to the Fourth Division, Twentieth Corps, and was sta¬ tioned in detachments from Murfreesboro south to Normandy, a dis¬ tance of thirty miles, on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. A part of the regiment was mounted and scoured the country on both sides of the railroad. On the 6th of June the regiment was united at Murfreesboro and moved to Nashville, when it was transferred to the Third Brigade, First Division, Twentieth Corps, and joined Sherman's army in the trenches before Atlanta. - After the capture of that place, the regiment was several times engaged in severe and dangerous guard and forage duty. It took part in the march to the sea. January 18, 1865, it crossed the Savannah River and marched to Perrysburg. Heavy rains had flooded the whole country, compelling the Union army to remain at this place until the 28th. In the march through the Carolinas the Thirty-first performed its full share of destroying railroads, building corduroy roads, and foraging. It took part in the battles of Averysboro and Bentonville. On this march the men were greatly in want of clothing ; nearly ten per cent, were without shoes, and many had marched nearly two hundred miles in that con¬ dition. It rained during twenty-three of the sixty-five days of the march. The regiment took part in the pursuit of Johnston and the review at Washington, and then went to Louisville, where the first six companies were mustered out on the 20th of June, and the other companies on the 8th of July.

Thirty-Third Infantry

This was the last of the Wisconsin volunteer regiments raised un¬ der the "600, 000-call" in 1862. It was the intention to raise a Grant County regiment under the call, but the requisite number of enlist¬ ments could not be made in time, and part of the Grant County men went into the Twentieth and Twenty-fifth, leaving only three compa¬ nies and a half for the Thirty-third. This regiment contained more Grant County men than any other except the Twenty-fifth, and it nobly upheld the reputation of the county. It was to this regiment, on a general review in Mississippi, that Sherman made his noted re¬ mark : " I always count a Wisconsin regiment a brigade."

The regiment was enlisted mostly in August and early September, and spent several weeks at the several company rendezvous drilling. The rendezvous of Company D was the Red School-house in the town of Tafton, the soldiers being quartered on the farmers in the vicinity. In October the regiment went into camp at Racine. It left the State November 12, en route for Memphis. Its march through the streets of Chicago displayed so high a state of discipline and such efficiency in drill as to furnish a text to the Chicago papers on the adaptability of the Americans to soldiering.

At Memphis the regiment was placed in the Third Brigade, of the Third Division, Army of the Tennessee, and on the 26th of November it started on the expedition intended to come up in the rear of Vicks¬ burg - one of Grant's several failures, before his final successful cam¬ paign against that stronghold. The men were burdened with ten days' rations and one hundred rounds of ammunition. The regiment was too far from the front to see any fighting, but did some hard work repairing roads and building bridges. The advance was slow. Beyond the Tallahatchie, at Hurricane Creek, the commissary supplies gave out, but the regiment took possession of a little mill, and as corn was to be found, kept starvation off with a supply of corn-meal - and nothing else. The expedition reached Oxford about New Year's. As this was the date on which President Lincoln's Emancipation Procla¬ mation took effect, a regiment from Southern Illinois mutinied, refus¬ ing to serve longer "to free the niggers." The Thirty-third was placed on guard over them for several days, when the officers were cashiered and the regiment broken up, the enlisted men being distributed among, other Illinois regiments.

About this time the Thirty-third was placed in the "Fighting Fourth " Division, at the special request of its commander, General Lauman. The supplies at Holly Springs were captured by the Rebels and communication with Memphis, the base of supplies, cut off, and the army was without rations. Nothing but corn could be had, and there was now no mill to grind it. It was boiled and parched, and on this alone the Thirty-third lived ten days or more. The weather was bad and the poor little "shelter- tents" hardly deserved the name of shelter. The measles broke out in camp and many died of the disease or its following affections.

The army was forced to retreat to the line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the Thirty-third being posted at Moscow, forty miles east of Memphis. The regiment was placed in the Sixteenth Corps. On March 9 the regiment began a march to Memphis, which it accomplished in continuous rain and terrible mud.

On the 18th of April the regiment left Memphis as part of an ex¬ pedition sent to attack a Rebel force on the Coldwater, forty miles south of Memphis. At Hernando the enemy was encountered and fifteen of them killed and seventy-five taken prisoners. In the advance next morning the Thirty-third was the first infantry in the column, and in the attack of the enemy on Coldwater Creek, came up on the double-quick to the relief of the cavalry, and poured in such a destruc¬ tive volley on the enemy as to force them to retire across the creek. Although the commanders of Companies H and E were killed, the only Grant County men hurt were A. P. Bliss, of Co. B, and Walter Lewis, of Co. D, slightly wounded. An expected cooperating force failing to come up, the Union troops retired, the Thirty-third being the rear¬ guard. When near Memphis reinforcements were met and the expedi¬ tion returned to Coldwater, but the Rebels had left, and the expedition returned to Memphis.

On the 17th of May the regiment embarked for Young's Point, Louisiana, to join the army operating against Vicksburg. Near Green¬ ville, Mississippi, the Rebels had two pieces of artillery concealed be¬ hind the levee, and opened fire at. short range on the transports crowded with men and horses. The boats were rapidly pushed to

Siege Of Vicksburg

From Young's Point the regiment went to Snyder's Bluff, on the Yazoo River, and on the 20th took possession of the artillery and am¬ munition which the Rebels had abandoned in their hurried evacuation of the place. The regiment then marched by way of* Haines's Bluff to near Vicksburg, but returned to guard Snyder's Bluff from an attack by Johnston's army. It held its position here until the 24th, when it marched around to the south of the city and took a position as part of the besieging line, throwing up a line of fortifications.

On the night of the 13th of June Company D, numbering fifty men, advanced on the right of the brigade front to take the enemy's riflepits immediately under a strong fort. It was supported by Company F and two Illinois companies as flankers. The enemy kept up a furi¬ ous fire on the storming party, but it passed over the men's heads, as the Rebels were considerably higher up. Company D, the men creep¬ ing on their hands and knees half way up the hill, charged and took the hill with the rifle-pits, the Rebels falling back precipitately to the fort. As tools to entrench had been neglected, the Union force was compelled to fall back at daylight, as it was exposed to the cross-fire of three forts at short range. The Rebels at once reoccupied the po¬ sition. To retake the position, at dark the next night, Companies D and A of the Thirty-third advanced, the Forty-first Illinois covering their flanks. Before the impetuous charge of these two companies the Rebels broke and fled, without injuring a man of the assailing party. The position thu9 taken was permanently held, although the Rebels made attempts to retake it.

On the night of the 21st, six companies of the Thirty-third, A, B, C, D, E, and G, most of the Grant County men, advanced the line in the center of the brigade front to within eighty -five yards of a strong fort. Company D, was in advance. On reaching the position desired for a rifle-pit the company was halted and Captain Warner, in a whisper, called for ten volunteers to come forward for some service which he did not state. The following men stepped to the front: Rufus J. Allen, William Barr, Elmer Crain, Castello N. Holford, Ed¬ ward L. Hudson, Thomas Hawks, Lafayette Lumpkin, Charles Seeber, George Trine, and Peter Vogt. They were ordered in a whisper to advance in a skirmish line half-way to the Rebel fort and remain there till daylight as a picket. It was hard position. To remain awake all night, lying still was a terrible task, and to fall asleep and be seen at daylight exposed within fifty steps of the rebel line was almost certain death. At daylight a whistle from Captain Warner brought the pick¬ ets ip. The next night the Fourteenth Illinois relieved the Thirtythird and were driven out by the Rebels with a loss of seventeen killed and wounded.

On the night of the 24th Companies A, C, D, F, and H retook this important position. Company D again led the advance, rushing in on the Rebels so suddeniy that they retreated precipitately, leaving four men killed and seventeen wounded and fifteen abandoned muskets. The only loss of the Thirty-third was two men in Co. H The regi¬ ment was, for this feat, highly complimented by an order from General Lauman.

At the time of these night attacks the scene was something never to be forgotten by those who looked upon it. The artillery on both sides was playing fiercely and the air was full of rushing meteors. The lines of pits on both sides were fringed with the continuous flashes of the musketry fire. Added to the roar of the cannon, the scream and crash of the bursting shells, the horrible swish and jingle of the flying grape-shot, were the choruses of the shrill "Rebel yell," and the deepertoned swarming shouts of Union soldiers.

A Bloody Blunder At Jackson

The siege of Vicksburg was ended. For six weeks the Army of the Mississippi had been crouching closely in their narrow pits along the broken ridges in the rear of the city; sweltering and panting for breath under the high, hot sun through the long June days; the short nights illuminated by the glare of bursting shells and flashing siege guns; the heavens filled with the fiery arcs of the mortar shells from the fleet in the river; every ear wearied by the incessant musketry - now sinking into a faint and fitful sputtering and then rising into a loud and rattling crash; days when the deep throb of the siege guns was faster than a fevered pulse-beat.

Pemberton and his 32,000 Rebels were prisoners and their hun¬ dreds of hostile cannon were harmlessly parked, guarded by bluecoated sentries. But Joe Johnston's second army of Rebels had been hanging threateningly on the rear of the Army of the Mississippi during the whole siege. Without a day's rest the wearied Union army, glad to exchange for a time the narrow pits for the free fields and woods, started in pursuit of Johnston's army. That army fell back sullenly and slowly, making every ridge and hill-top the vantage ground for their artillery in the stubborn but always-failing efforts to beat back the Union advance guard.

It was the 11th of July, toward evening, when the brigade, composed of the Thirty-third Wisconsin, Third Iowa, and Forty-first and Fifty-third Illinois regiments, filed out of the road by the right flank and formed in line of battle. They knew they were near Jackson and that a line of battle meant a prospect of fight, but beyond that knew nothing certain of the situation. They halted for a short time and an Indiana regiment (the Thirty-first, I think), the "Morton Rifles," passed by with the quick, springing, eager step with which meif go into battle. They evidently had more positive orders than the First Brigade, just mentioned. The latter moved off obliquely to the front and right, slowly and cautiously, with skirmishers in front, feeling their way through the thick black-oak woods.

But no Rebels were seen, and night came down in a drizzling rain. The day had been intensely hot, scores of men falling from sunstroke, but the slow rain at night chilled the men through. Although the advance had been very slow, the commissary had failed to keep up with rations, and all that da}' the men had had nothing to eat except a few ears of green corn they had snatched from the fields by the roadside. They lav all night in line of battle, grasping their guns, without spreading a blanket or kindling a fire - a dreary, weary, hungry night it was, and the not very cheerful prospect of bloody work in the morning.

The night with its lowering clouds passed away and the morning sun shone out clear and hot. The brigade advanced slowly but did not encounter the enemy. However, it came within view of their works while crossing the railroad track. There was a long cut stretching avvav toward Jackson. Perhaps half a mile up that cut loomed up a bastion of a Rebel fort. A puff of smoke rose from a huge siege gun there and a *hel! came screaming over the Union line. To one of the boys standing in the middle of the track when that cloud of smoke arose it seemed that the narrow cut was a sort of tube which must conduct the shell straight down to him. Of course, this was only a fancy, but it was an uncomfortable one.

themselves on the crest of a ridge about half a mile from the Rebel works. The artillery belonging to the division was brought up and opened a rapid fire on the enemy. It was evident that a charge was intended, but it was delayed, and our artillery fire was worse than useless, for it could hardly harm the Rebels in their trenches, and it warned them of the coming but delayed charge; and Breckinridge massed his whole division along the short threatened front.

The First Brigade of the "Old Fighting Fourth" Division (com¬ manded by Gen. Lauman) lay a little in front of the batteries and just below them on the slope. The hillside sloped to the east, was bare and covered with flints. The sun was now high and beating down furiously. To lie upon those flints was something like lying on a gridiron, but to stand up was to be exposed to the shells from the Rebel siege guns screaming close above. Our artillery was suffering terribly. The light field pieces could do nothing toward silencing the Rebel guns, and the heavy shells of the latter did much damage. One of them struck a gun of the Fifth Ohio Battery full on the muzzle. The great brass tube went spinning backward, crushing everything in its way, while the fragments of the gun carriage knocked the gunners right and left. Another cut down three horses and their three riders on a caisson in the rear. It struck the wheel-horse and his rider about the rider's thigh ; the middle one a little lower and the leader about the rider's knee. The plunging of the mangled horses upon their mangled riders, the blood and dust and smoke, formed a scene of confusion and horror never to be forgotton, even though seen but a second.

Gen. Lauman, the commander of the Fourth Division, and his staff rode up from the rear, swept around the right flank of the Thirty-third and up in front of the regiment and halted. The General addressed them in a half-choking, half-screaming tone, evidently greatly excited :

At last the order "Forward!" came. The Thirty-third held not only the right of the brigade, but the extreme right of the Union lines. This position, if the Rebels had been aggressive, would have been one of great hazard ; as it was, it was the salvation of the regiment.

The ground over which the three. regiments on the left had to ad¬ vance bad been cleared of its growth of scrubby black oaks by cutting them down and piling them in heaps or rows, not high enough to shel¬ ter the advancing Union men, but in such a manner as greatly to im¬ pede their progress. On the other hand, the ground on which the Thirty-third advanced was still covered, in most places, with the thick, scrubby growth, hard to get through, but concealing the regiment from the Rebel works.

As the brigade swept down the slope there was not a private in the ranks so stupid that he did not know that it was a hopeless charge and that a horrible blunder was being committed. They knew there was not a supporter on the right and nothing on the left except a fragment of a regiment - the Twenty -eighth Illinois. It was twelve hundred men against an army lying hidden behind high earthworks, protected from approach by line upon line of bristling, tangled abatis and the sharp, thick-set stakes of the chevaux-de-frise. But,

At intervals through openings in the brush some of the Thirtythird could get glimpses of the field and their comrades on the left. As has been said, the shrubs cut down had been piled in long heaps with openings between them. Into these openings the Iowa and Illinois men would crowd thickly to get through, when the double-shotted charges of canister would sweep through the struggling masses with awful effect. From every Rebel embrasure rolled outward and upward a thick grav-blue cloud, pierced through at times with darting streaks of orange-colored flame, and the whole long line of earthworks was fringed with countless leaping little jets of smoke and flame from the incessant musketry. Much of the shot and shell came toward the Thirty-third, but they were for the greatest part unseen by the Rebels and most of the missiles passed harmlessly overhead.

A little further advance and another opening showed the skirmish¬ ers that the hurricane of fire, lead, and iron on the left had torn the Union line to tatters and swept it backward toward the ridge, while the Rebels were swarming out of their works, flanking the Thirtythird on the right and passing it on the left. Then Colonel Moore gave the order to retreat, and under the skillful direction of himself and Major Virgin the regiment fell back swiftly and silently, but in a cool and orderly manner, to the ridge from which the brigade began the charge. The Rebels, coming under the fire of our field guns on the ridge, in turn fell back into their works.

The brigade then stacked arms and lay down to rest. On the left of the Thirty-third the next regiment was the Third Iowa. Its stacked muskets numbered ninety-odd. The rest of the two hundred and fifty or more that went into that charge lay on that fatal field ; and their bearers lay there too, for the gallant little regiment had long been purged of all its men who would come out of a fight un wounded with¬ out their muskets. You have read of regiments being decimated; that means one out of every ten shot ; but here was a regiment which had lost six out of ten. But that scraggy screen of black-jack shrubs saved Grant County the need of another marble cenotaph on which to carve the names of her soldier dead, for four Grant County companies were in the line thus fortunately screened from that terrible tornado of death.

The responsibility for this awful blunder was laid upon Lauman, and he was relieved from command. But it has since been asserted that the responsibility was upon Ord, who commanded the corps and who ordered the charge, refusing to listen to any reason against it. Ord was a West Pointer and a regular and Lauman was neither. Very possibly the well-known jealousy between the West Pointers and the volunteer generals may have furnished the groundwork for this terri¬ ble tragedy.

On the 20th of July the regiment began its return march to Vicks¬ burg. The weather was extremely hot and some of the men were sunstruck. A heavy storm came on in the evening of the 22d and several of the regiment were killed by lightning.

The regiment camped near the river at Vicksburg, suffering much from bad water. August 18 the regiment embarked for Natchez, where, in a quiet camp and a wholesome locality, it enjoyed a delight¬ ful season of rest and recuperation, until December 1, when it returned to Vicksburg.

On the 3d of Februarv the regiment started on Sherman's famous Meridian raid. Although it was in winter, all the baggage was left behind, the men carrying ten days' rations in their haversacks, and very little more rations did they draw in their thirty days' hard march. But the country passed through was, beyond Jackson, one never be- fore traversed by the armies, and provisions in plenty were found, es¬ pecially chickens and pigs. At Meridian the army spread northward and southward, tearing up and destroying about fifty miles of the Mo¬ bile & Ohio Railroad in an incredibly short time, as well as a good deal of the road between Jackson and Meridian. In one of our war histories is a picture of this tearing-up of railroads, which is amusingin the ignorance displayed in it. Some men are busy with wrenches, taking off the nuts from the fish-plates on the rails, while others with crowbars are prying up the rails. In the first place, the raiders had hardly wagons enough to carry ammunition and a few days ra¬ tions, and could hardly be expected to carry thousands of crowbars and wrenches. Again, there was never a fish-plate put on a Western or Southern railroad until after the war, so there were none to be taken off. Sherman's men tore up railroads like this: they were strung along the road-bed and at a given signal each man grasped one end of a tie and lifted. One side of the track, ties, rails and all, would thus be lifted for a great length and the whole overturned. In falling, the weight of the rails would pull out the spikes. The ties would then be piled up, mixed with pine knots and other fuel, and fired, after the rails had been placed on top. The middle of the rails being heated, the weight of the unsupported ends would bend them so that they could not be relaid. Some of the rails were even twisted around trees.

This work accomplished, the regiment returned to Vicksburg, hav¬ ing no fighting and losing no men from any cause. The men were al¬ lowed little time to rest, and not enough time to draw new clothing, before they were sent off to join Banks's

Red River Expedition

When the men from Sherman's army first encountered Banks's wellgroomed Eastern men they were called "Sherman's ragged guerrillas," but after those Eastern men had been badly whipped at Sabine Cross Roads, and saved from utter rout only by the timely arrival of this fragment of a corps from Sherman's army, the latter were spoken of with a good deal of respect.

The Thirty-third participated in the capture of Fort De Russey, on Red River, March 13. After the occupation of the fort the maga¬ zine was blown up and the siege guns burst, and owing to the careless¬ ness of the officers in charge, more men were killed and wounded in this work than in the capture of the fort. The regiment proceeded up the river to Grand Ecore, some eighty miles above Alexandria. Here a call came for a detachment of twenty-five men from Company D, no recruits to be sent. It was supposed to be some pretty tough service, but it proved to be nothing worse than guarding a boat-load of pris¬ oners back to Alexandria. It was an easy and pleasant, if dangerous and responsible, service. Before this the regiment had been onareconnoissance up the river to Camti. The division to which the regiment be¬ longed was then detached to guard the boats loaded with ammunition and supplies for the expedition, and proceeded with them up the Red River to Loggy Bayou, where their progress was stopped by a steam¬ boat which the Rebels had sunk across the channel, completely block¬ ing it. Landing and reconnoitering, the}" found no enemy. News then came of the defeat of the army at Sabine Cross Roads, and the fleet hastened to return down the river. On the afternoon of the 12th of April, near Pleasant Hill Landing, two thousand Rebel cavalry and a battery attacked the transport on which the Thirty-third was sta¬ tioned. The regiment was alone and in imminent danger of capture, but it resolved to fight to the last, and held its fire until the Rebels were within a hundred yards, when the five hundred rifles of the reg¬ iment spoke at once and the Rebel line melted away. Twice more the enemy's line came on and was repulsed, their commander, General Green, being killed. The platoon of Company D which remained with the regiment behaved with such gallantry as to win the especial praise of the commander of the regiment, although it consisted mostly of re¬ cruits, for the reason just stated.

At Grand Ecore the regiment landed and was rejoined by the de¬ tachment from Company D. The remainder of the retreat was made by land, the brigade to which the Thirty-third belonged having the honorable position of rear-guard on the whole way. On the 23d* the Rebels dispersed the cavalry of the Union rear-guard and came fiercely upon the infantry line. The Thirty-third not only held its ground, but drove the enemy a long distance back. The next morning before day¬ light the Rebels again came down in force, scattering the Union cav¬ alry and attacking the infantry. They were decisively repulsed. In this battle, which was near Cane River, a Rebel shell burst just under the colors of the Thirty-third, killing and wounding the whole colorguard and the color-bearer and cutting the flag-staff in two. In the afternoon of May 6 the rear-guard was again fiercely attacked on the plantation of Governor Moore. The Thirty-third was on the right and was flanked by the longer line of the enemy ; but just as the satua- tion began to look serious, the men, looking back, saw a line of bluecoats coming up on the double-quick, and there in the middle was "Old Abe," the eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin, which had hurried back from another brigade farther ahead. The two Wisconsin regiments then advanced and drove back the Rebels several miles and were not mo¬ lested again that day.

At Yellow Bayou the Thirty-third was in the rear-guard that held the enemy back while Banks's enormous train was getting across the Atchafalaya Bayou, and the fight lasted many hours. The smoke of the conflict and of the burning grass was very thick, and as the Thir¬ ty-third was advancing on the run with very loose ranks it ran into a regiment of Rebels who were advancing. The Thirty-third quickly closed up its ranks and thus cut off a number of Rebels who had run through and got in our rear. Late in the afternoon the enemy with¬ drew and the regiment crossed the Atchafalaya Bayou on a bridge made of twenty-two steamboats, and soon embarked for Vicksburg, where it arrived May 24.

From Vicksburg the regiment went to Memphis, and on the 22d of June accompanied General A. J. Smith's expedition into the interior of Mississippi. At Lagrange, Tennesssee, on the 4th of July, the force abandoned all communication with its base of supplies at Memphis, and after a six days' march in very hot weather, reached Pontotoc, Mississippi. From there the Union force moved across the Tupelo, allowing the enemy to mass in its front, then it wheeled, took the Tu¬ pelo road, and left the Rebels in its rear. The Thirty-third had the ar¬ duous duty of guarding the supply train, which was attacked by the Rebels on the 13th at Camargo Cross Roads. About two hundred men of the Fourteenth Wisconsin were guarding the rear of the train and were nearly overwhelmed by fifteen hundred Rebels, when the Thirty-third came to the rescue and, advancing through a corn-field, poured such a fire upon the Rebels as to drive them from the field, leaving behind them their dead and wounded and a stand of colors. The captured flag was borne off the field by a captain of the Four¬ teenth Wisconsin, but it was generally acknowledged by both regiments that it was rightfully the trophy of the Thirty-third. In this fight the regiment lost one killed and six wounded. Another attack was made by the Rebels, but it was soon repulsed and the march was con¬ tinued to Harrisonburg.

Union pickets. At sunrise the battle began, the Thirty-third being on the extreme right in the front line. Massing eight thousand men, the enemy, after an artillery fire of an hour, advanced to the charge in three lines. The position of the regiment overlooked an open field. On the left was a strip of thick woods. Firing began on the left of the Union line and rolled rapidly down toward the right, where the Thir¬ ty-third lay flat on their faces, reserving their fire until the enemy was within two hundred yards, when the regiment rose and fired*. The Rebel ranks, whose front line was the Texas Legion, were filled with gaps and they retreated. A pause of half an hour ensued, when the enemy rallied and charged again with the familiar "Rebel yell," but they were repulsed as before. A third assault was made and re¬ pulsed, and then six regiments of Union troops, including the Thirtythird, charged and drove the Rebels from the field, compelling them to abandon their dead and part of their wounded. In the evening an¬ other attack, but a feeble one, was made by the Rebels, and was easily repulsed. The battle of Tupelo was ended and the impetuous Rebel General Forrest and his terrible Texans were defeated, beaten by the superior coolness and steadiness of aim of the Union troops.

On the 15th the return march was begun. When about to camp at night, the enemy attacked and drove in the rear-guard. The Thir¬ ty-third quickly turned back and drove away the enemy with severe loss. At the close of this fight Captain Burdick, of Company G, fell from sunstroke. The march was continued on the 16th. From La¬ grange the regiment went by rail to Memphis, which was reached on the 22d. For its part in this campaign the regiment was highly com¬ mended by the commanding general.

On the 3d of August the regiment embarked for St. Charles, Ar¬ kansas, and there was employed in guard duty and building fortifica¬ tions. On the first of September the regiment went up White River to Duvall's Bluff, and thence, on the 8th, to Brownsville in pursuit of Frice's fotce, leaving the camp equipage and baggage in camp. .March¬ ing northeasterly over a rough country, the regiment, on the 23d, built a bridge over Black River, crossed and marched up the river, building another bridge over it on the 28th, and crossing into Missouri. It now marched through swamps almost impassible for the train, forded the St. Francis at Greenville on the 2d of October, and on the 4th made a forced march of twenty-nine miles to meet a train of supplies coming from Cape Girardeau. Many of the men were barefoot and footsore. On the 5th the regiment reached Cape Girardeau, having, on ten days' rations, marched 324 miles in nineteen days, built two long bridges, and forded four rivers. On the 8th it embarked for Jefferson City, Missouri, where it arrived on the 15th. On the 17th it took the cars for Lamine River, where the bridge on the Missouri Pacific Rail¬ road had been burned, and remained there until the 22d, assisting in carrying rations and ordnance stores across the river and repairing the bridge. It then went to Warrensburg. On the 3d of November eight companies were sent to St. Louis, as guards for the Rebel Gen¬ erals Marmaduke and Cahill and seven hundred prisoners, captured at Mound City. At Herman a spy was shot by a detachment of the regiment. On the 7th the ten companies reached St. Louis, and Com¬ panies B and G on the 12th.

On the 23d, the regiment left Benton Barracks and embarked for Nashville, where, on the 2d of December, it took a position on the ex¬ treme right of the line of defenses of that city, which was soon invested by the Rebel army under Hood. On the 15th the regiment took part in the battle of Nashville. At three in the afternoon it captured two of the siege batteries of the Rebels, charged across an open field, wad¬ ing a stream of icy water, and charged upon the Rebel line posted on the opposite side of Granny White Pike, behind two stone walls. The charge of the regiment was so impetuous that the enemy, with a corn¬ field behind in which the mud was almost knee-deep, were unable to get away, and the whole line surrendered. On the 16th the regiment was in the second line, on the right of the Sixteenth Corps, with the Twenty-third Corps on its right. From its position on a high hill it watched the struggle without taking an active part in it. Joining in the pursuit of Hood's broken and fleeing army, the regiment reached Pulaski on the 27th, and there turned westward and went to Clifton, Tennessee, which it reached on the 2d of January. The march was a terrible one. The weather was a succession of rain storms, turning into sleet and followed by severe freezing. The roads were cut up by long trains. Many of the men were practically barefoot and marched with their bare soles on the frozen, sleety and stony ground, lying at night on the sleet with frozen clothes and blankets, or in the mud with water-soaked garments.

From Clifton the regiment went to Eastport, Mississippi, and was detailed to escort the train to Savannah, on the Tennessee River. A portion of the train had to be left at Fairview, as the roads were so bad. The regiment returned to Eastport and camped, remaining un¬ til the 6th of February, wlien it embarked and went by steamer to Vicksburg, near which it encamped until the 20th, when it again em¬ barked and went to New Orleans, camping a few miles below the city, on the old battle-ground where the British were defeated in 1815. On the 11th of March the regiment embarked for Mobile and the next day landed at Fort Gaines. Moving from point to point and occasion¬ ally skirmishing, on the 27th it drove the enemy into his works at Spanish Fort, and established a line about seven hundred yards from the fort, with a loss of nine men wounded. The siege of the fort then began. On the 29th Company D occupied a rifle-pit so far advanced as to be only two hundred yards from the Rebel fort. In this position it was exposed to a terrible artillery fire from daylight until dark. Ser¬ geant John Leighton and Merritt Pember were killed and Sergt. James Delaware severely wounded. The company that day fired the enor¬ mous number of 26,000 cartridges, which were brought up at great risk by members of the company. The regiment steadily advanced its lines until the night of the 8th of April. That evening a heavy mus¬ ketry and artillery fire began. The Eighth Iowa, on the extremeright and near the Thirty-third, charged into a ditch which the Rebels had projected diagonally in front of their fort, and held it until the Thirtythird charged up on its left. Continuing on into the fort, the Thirtythird, which was the first to enter, found that the Rebels had just evacuated.

On the 13th of April the regiment started for Montgomery, which was reached on the 25th. At this place the regiment encamped in comparative ease until the 23d of May, when it went to Tuskegee and was on duty there as provost guard until the 19th of July, when it started for Vicksburg. The journey was performed partly on foot, partly by steamboat, and partly by rail. The regiment was mustered out at Vicksburg on the 8th of August and started for home, reaching Madison on the 14th, when the men were discharged. Colonel Moore was brevetted Brigadier-general.

Thirty-Fifth Infantry

The regiment left Milwaukee on the 18th of April, 1864, for Alex¬ andria, Louisiana, arriving at the mouth of Red River on the 1st of May. Unable to get transportation to Alexandria, the regiment went to New Orleans, and thence to Port Hudson, arriving there on the 7th of May and remaining there until the 26th of June, when it went to Morganzia, and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Nineteenth Corps.

The First Brigade was sent to St. Charles, Arkansas, arriving there on the 24th of July. The Thirty-fifth was engaged here in gar¬ rison duty and scouting expeditions until August 7, when it returned to Morganzia.

On the first of October the brigade set out on a scouting expedi¬ tion to Simmsport, on the Atchafalaya Bayou, the regiment having several skirmishes on the way. Returning to Morganzia, the regi¬ ment went by water to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas, landing there on the 18th of October. On the 9th of November it left Duvall's Bluff for Brownsville, about thirty miles west. It returned to Duvall's Bluff on the 1st of December, and was soon assigned to the Fourth Brigade of the Reserve Corps. It was employed in picket duty and work on the fortifications until February 7, 1865, when it embarked to join the army about to make an attack on Mobile. On the 26th the regi¬ ment landed at Mobile Point and was assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Thirteenth Corps. On the 27th of March the regi¬ ment took a position in front of Spanish Fort, where it was engaged in the siege until the Rebels evacuated the place on the 8th of April. On the 9th of April it marched ten miles to Fort Blakely, and on the 11th returned to Spanish Fort, The next day the regiment crossed the bay, passed through Mobile on the 13th, and marched forty-five miles to the north, encamping at Nannahubbah Bluff on the 21st, and on the 26th moved ten miles up the Tombigbee to McIntosh Bluff, where it was engaged in building fortifications until the close of the war. On the 9th of May the regiment went to Mobile and remained there until the 1st of June, when it sailed to Brazos Santiago, and thence to Clarksville, at the mouth of the Rio Grande. On the 2d of August it marched up the river and the next day reached Browns¬ ville. The Thirty-fifth was here assigned to a command known as the "Separate Brigade/ 1 Army of the Rio Grande, and remained here dur¬ ing the rest of its term of service, employed in guard duty in and around the town and upon government steamers plying between Brownsville and Brazos Santiago. On the 15th of March, 1866, the regiment was mustered out, and ten days later started for home, reaching Madison on the 10th of April.