Sheboygan County, Wisconsin - Chapter 10: Civil War, 1912

Chapter 10: Civil War

PRESIDENT LINCOLN CALLS FOR SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND MEN TO PUT DOWN REMXLIONH-SHEBOYGAN COUNTY INTENSELY PATRIOTIC - SENDS MANY MEN TO THE FRONT TO FIGHT FOR THEIR COUNTRY - GUSTAVUS WINTERMEYER POST GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC - THE SOLDIERS* MONUMENT - COMPANY C, SECOND WISCONSIN INFANTRY IN THE SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR.

The history of the great struggle between the states for supremacy on the questions of slavery and secession has been told and retold times almost without number. Public libraries are teeming with histories, good, bad and indifferent, on the causes that led up to the Civil war; many bloody, decimating battles have been fully portrayed and the awful loss of life, property and treasure estimating almost to the man and the dollar.

From the fact that the south was determined not only to maintain its peculiar institutions but also had in view the planting of slavery in the territories, and the equally firm determination of the people of the north to confine the traffic in human "chattels" to the southern states, it was inevitable that a resort to the arbitrament of arms should be sought by the leaders of the pro-slavery element ; and when Fort Sumter was fired upon in April, 1861, the civilized world was awakened. The loyal people of the north were horrified and aroused to bitter indignation. Abraham Lincoln, who had taken his seat as president of the United States a few weeks before, in a measure realized the gravity of the situation and called for 75,000 volunteers, with which he at the time thought he could suppress the rebellion which the first shot from the batteries at Charleston heralded to the world.

The president's call for aid met a ready and hearty response in Sheboygan. Meetings were held by its patriotic citizens, whose numbers, as compared with its population, were of such proportions as to make the southern sympathizers practically a negligible quantity. Volunteers for the army came from every section of the county, strong in the desire to show their loyalty to home and coimtry, eager to wipe out the insult to the flag and willing to lay down their liVes that free institutions should not perish and that the union of the states should not be disrupted. Lincoln's call to arms was answered by the German, the Scandinavian, the Irishman and the native bom American without any distinction or hesitancy. The land and its institutions were as dear to one as the other and hence it was, that on Sunday, April 14, 1861, meetings were held in Sheboygan and throughout the county to urge the enlistment of volunteers, and on the following Simday, the 21st of April, the first company was organized imder Captain Edmund B. Gray, afterward known as Company C, Fourth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, which regiment was subsequently reorganized as a cavalry regiment. This regiment went into camp at Racine, and on the 28th of June, Company C was ordered to Milwaukee, to aid in quelling a riot, where the first Sheboygan man was killed in the performance of his duties as a soldier. W. V. Reed is reported on the muster roll as accidentally killed in the state service on the 29th of June, 1861. On the 15th of July this company left with its regiment to go into active duty at Baltimore. The company saw severe service, and very many of its number lost their lives in the service of their company.

The First Regiment Wisconsin Infantry, as reorganized after its three months' service, contained two companies from Sheboygan county - Company H, Captain Eugene Cary, and Company I, Captain Orrin Rogers. In the Eighth Regiment, Company B, Captain D. B. Conger, was raised in this county. This company afterward enjoyed the honor of being the largest veteran company in the regiment. Company A, Captain Frederick Aude, known in the service as the "Sheboygan Tigers,'* belonged to the first exclusively German regiment which went into the war from Wisconsin, the Ninth Infantry. In the Fourteenth Regiment was Company H, Captain C. M, G. Mansfield, enlisted in this county. Company, E of the Seventeenth Regiment, was raised here, and commanded by Captain Peter Feagan. Sixty men from Sheboygan county were enrolled in Company H of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, and were accompanied by Lieutenant Joseph Wedig. The Twenty-seventh Regiment, of which Conrad Krez, of Sheboygan, was colonel, contained four companies of Sheboygan county volunteers, namely, Company B, Captain E. W. Stannard ; Company C, Captain fred Schnellen; Company E, Captain Alfred Marschner; Company F, Captain S. D. Hubbard.

Sheboygan county was well represented in Company E, Captain Jerome Brooks, Thirty-sixth Regiment; also in Company D, Captain Andrew Patcher, Thirty-ninth Regiment, which was enlisted for one htmdred days.

Besides the companies named, Sheboygan county men were scattered through many other regiments, many enlisting as recruits in old companies. Some of these regiments were the First and Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry, the Sixth, Nineteenth, Thirty-seventh and Fifty-second Infantry.

A statement furnished by the adjutant general shows that Sheboygan county furnished 2,215 soldiers for the war, of which number only 479 were drafted. There were, then, 1,736 volunteers, besides those who enlisted outside the county, and for which the county did not get credit. The population of the county was 27,082 in i860. Separate out of the population the men capable of military duty, and the 2,215 who actually went into the war, would certainly exceed one-half of the whole number capable of bearing arms. No further commendation is needed of the patriotism of the citizens of Sheboygan county than such a statement. The number who did not return and who sealed their devotion with their lives, was large. Many of the companies enumerated above were in the thickest of the fight and some of them suffered exceptionally. Hundreds of homes in Sheboygan county could testify with tears to the havoc of war. Very many of those who served their country from this county were not bom on American soil, or were sons of those who were citizens of the United States by adoption only. But here, as elsewhere, throughout the nation, foreign bom citizens showed their love for the land which had given them homes by being in the forefront of battle.

Roster Of Company C, Fourth Regiment Cavalry

George W. Durgin, Jr., Sheboygan, September 21, 1862. Enlisted April 21, 1861, sergeant; second lieutenant, April 11, 1862, not mustered; first lieutenant, April 12, 1862; promoted major, June 19, 1864.

Henry Brooks, Plymouth, June 27, 1864. Enlisted April 21, 1861 ; sergeant, first sergeant; second lieutenant, September 21, 1862; first lieutenant, June 24, 1863 ; major, May 4, 1866, not mustered; absent at muster out of regiment.

Gustavus Wintermeyer, Sheboygan, September 21, 1862. Enlisted April 23, 1861 ; sergeant, first sergeant; second lieutenant, April 12, 1862; promoted adjutant, May i, 1863.

Hiram H. Bradford, Hymouth, October 22, 1864. Enlisted June 10, 1861; veteran, corporal, sergeant, commissary sergeant, first sergeant; second lieutenant, August 31, 1864; mustered out August 22, 1865.

Aaron C. Bush, Sheboygan Falls, June 24, 1863. Enlisted April 21, 1861; corporal, sergeant, first sergeant; first lieutenant, June 27, 1864, not mustered; discharged, August 30, 1864, wounds.

Leon C. Bartlett, Lyndon, October 28, 1864. Enlisted May 26, 1861 ; veteranized, corporal, quartermaster sergeant, first sergeant; first lieutenant. May 4, 1866, not mustered ; mustered out May 28, 1866.

Company H, First Regiment Infantry

Eugene Carey, Sheboygan, October 11, 1861. Enlisted September 16, 1861 ; second lieutenant September 18, 1861 ; first lieutenant. October 8, 1861 ; resigned October 27, 1863.

John McMuUen, Sheboygan Falls, October 27, 1863. Enlisted September 16, 1861 ; second lieutenant, October 8, 1861 ; first lieutenant, March 20, 1862; wounded; mustered out October 14, 1864.

George W. Buffum, Lyndon, May 12, 1863. Enlisted September 17, 1861 ; sergeant; second lieutenant, February 8, 1862; prisoner Chickamauga; mustered out October 13, 1864.

Sylvester Colwell, Lyndon, May 13, 1863. Enlisted September 17, 1861 ; first sergeant ; wounded Chickamauga ; first lieutenant, March 29, i8C54, not mustered; mustered out October 13, 1864.

Cqmpany B, Eighth Regiment Infantry

Charles P. Stewart, Greenbush, May 17, 1865. Enlisted June i, 1861; veteran; sergeant, first sergeant; first lieutenant, January 14, 1865; wounded Nashville; mustered out September 5, 1865.

Company A, Ninth Regiment Infantry

Henry Stocks, Sheboygan, May 11, 1864. Enlisted September 14, 1861 ; sergeant; second lieutenant, January 17, 1862; first lieutenant, August I, 1862; mustered out December 3, 1864, term expired.

Adam Maass, Sheboygan, May 11, 1864. Enlisted September 16, 1861; veteran, sergeant, first sergeant; transferred to Company C, January 17, 1864; rejoined as second lieutenant, January 29, 1864; mustered out December 3, 1864, term expired.

Michael A. Miller, Sheboygan, May 11, 1864. Enlisted September 14, 1861 ; corporal, sergeant, first sergeant ; mustered out December 3, 1864, term expired.

Soldiers' Moximext Ix Rhixe

Carlos M. G. Mansfield, Greenbush, February 6, 1862. Enlisted September II, 1861 ; first lieutenant September 24, 1861; commanded regiment from March 8 to May 19, 1864; mustered out December 7, 1864, term expired.

John F. Prosser, Forest, September 17, 1862. Enlisted September 11, 1861 ; sergeant; second lieutenant, July 20, 1862; mustered out June 13,

Charles W. Gibson, Forest, July i, 1865. Enlisted September 11, 1861 ; veteran, corporal, sergeant, first sergeant ; second lieutenant, June 24, 1865 ; mustered out October 9, 1865.

Peter Feagan, Sheboygan April 6, 1865. Second lieutenant, November 16, 1861 ; first lieutenant, February 18, 1863; mustered out July 14, 1865.

Joseph F. Wigmore, Milwaukee, April 6, 1865. Enlisted October 9, 1861 ; sergeant ; second lieutenant, February 18, 1863 ; mustered out July 14, 1865.

Company H, Twenty-Sixth Regiment Infantry

Carl Schmidt, Milwaukee, June i, 1863. Enlisted August 14, 1862; first sergeant; second lieutenant March 15, 1863; promoted captain Company B, November 24, 1863.

Joseph Maschauer, Milwaukee, November 24, 1863. Enlisted August 21, 1862. Sergeant, first sergeant; second lieutenant, June i, 1863; wounded Gettysburg; promoted captain Company D, October 19, 1864,

Company B, Twenty-Seventh Regiment Infantry

Julius Schlaich, Plymouth, November 30, 1863. Second lieutenant, September i, 1862; first lieutenant, June 13, 1863; A. A. Q. M. 7th A. C. since November 16, 1864; brevet major United States Volunteers, November 24, 1865 ; mustered out March 7, 1866.

Conrad F. Smith, Sheboygan, July 2, 1863. Enlisted August 21, 1862; sergeant; first sergeant; second lieutenant, March 17, 1863; mustered out August 29, 1865.

Carl E. W. Struve, Jefferson, May 3, 1864. From Company F, Twentyninth Wisconsin Infantry; assigned to Company C as second lieutenant, March 7, 1864, to rank from October 22, 1862; injured railroad accident, November 26, 1864; discharged April 18, 1865, disability.

Company

Josiah Piatt, Scott, July 26, 1864. Enlisted August 15, 1862; first sergeant ; promoted first lieutenant Company B, ^Iovember 30, 1863 '» from first lieutenant Company B; mustered out August 29, 1865.

Company E, Thirty-Sixth Regiment Infantry

Jerome F. Brooks, Cascade, March 8, 1864. On detached service at Elmira, New York, from September, 1864, to July, 1865 ; resigned July 7, 1865, disability.

James Greeley, Cascade, October 19, 1864. Enlisted February 24, 1864; veteran volunteer; first sergeant; wounded Ream's Station; mustered out July 12, 1865.

Company G, Thirty-Ninth Regiment Infantry

Besides the companies named Sheboygan county men were scattered through many other regiments, many enlisting as recruits in old companies. Some of these regiments were the First and Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry and the Sixth, Nineteenth, Thirty-seventh and Fifty-second Infantry.

Fifty-Third Regiment Infantry

Most of the Permanent Guard, though formally assigned to regiments in the field, actually performed their entire service in Camp Randall, and were mustered out at that post. May 17, 1865. Those from this county were as follows:

Guard

The Sheboygan Post of the Grand Army was organized November 28, 1884, by Commander Cumberlidge, and Past Commanders Cone and Anderson, of Manitowoc, with forty-four members, and assumed the name of Gustavus Wintermeyer Post in honor of a volunteer member from Sheboygan, of Company C, Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry, who was killed in the storming and capture of Port Hudson in June, 1863. The meetings of the post were in Schiller Hall until 1892, when the headquarters were removed to the hall of the Spanish-American war veterans and there remained until 1906, when the post was given a room in the courthouse. For some years, while the membership was at a high mark, meetings were held twice a month. Now that there are scarcely enough of the veterans to make a corporal's guard, once a month is deemed sufficient.

The first commander of Wintermeyer Post was Watson D. Crocker and his successors have been in the order following: Henry Stocks, 1886; Watson D. Crocker, 1887; Adolph Feurstake, 1888; Henry Stocks, 1889; Charles Osthelder, 1890; Dr. Clark, 1891; S. D. Hanchett, 1892; A. Feurstake, 1893; James Cumberlidge, 1894; Eli Cone, 1895; Ben Collins, 1896; John Rohwer, 1897; W. M. Root, 1898; John Nuss, 1899; John Steffen, 1900; John Dietsch, 1901; Eli Cone, 1902; James Forkins, 1903; Charles Brickner, 1904; John Nuss, 1905; W. M. Rott, 1906; who has remained in office until the present time.

At a meeting of the post held in July, 1888, a resolution was unanimously adopted to take steps in the direction of securing funds for the purchase and erection of a soldiers' monument. A committee for the purpose of raising the necessary money, which was estimated at $6,000, was appointed and consisted of J. H. Mead, George End, Thomas Blackstock, M. Winter and J. M. Kohler. All of these are now gone to their reward, with the exception of Comrade Blackstock.

The monument committee went to work valiantly and persistently. Another committee was appointed to inaugurate and manage a monument fair and their work was done so efficiently and successfully that $1,891.06 was turned into the post's treasury. With subscriptions raised by the initial committee, which included a magnificent donation of $1,000 by Thomas Blackstock, the necessary amount was secured and the monument, a beautiful stone shaft, topped by the heroic figure of a soldier standing at parade rest, was placed at the southeast corner of Fountain Park and enclosed by a substantial iron fence, a gift from the Woman's Relief Corps. This beautiful work of the sculptor's art cost something over $5,000 and was dedicated with elaborate and impressive ceremonies on the 17th day of October, 1889. Among the honored guests were United States Senator John C. Spooner, speaker of the day ; Governor Hoard, State Treasurer Harshaw, Secretary of State Tinne, and Colonel Conrad Krez.

The Spanish-American War

The Student of history well knows that for many generations the inhabitants of Cuba had been struggling to rid themselves from the Spanish yoke and ^tablish autonomy on the island. In 1897 many bloody skirmishes had taken place among the islanders and Spanish troops, all in the nature of guerilla warfare on the part of the Cubans, with such success to the Cuban arms as to arouse general sympathy throughout the United States. From various sources here the Cuban patriots received material assistance, which was known to the Spanish government and so enraged certain of the lo}ral Spaniards, residents of Cuba, that the lives of the American consul. General Fitzhugh Lee, and Americans on the island, became imperiled. To increase the bitterness between the libertyloving people of the United States and the blood-thirsty Dons, a magnificent war vessel, the Maine, was blown into fragments while in the harbor of Havana on a February night in 1898. This so aroused the war spirit throughout the length and breadth of the Union that the McKinley administration was practically forced into a declaration of war against Spain, it being taken for granted throughout this nation that the destruction of the Maine was the inhuman handiwork of Spanish sympathizers; hence, it was, that on the 23d of April, 1898, President William McKinley issued a call for 125,000 volunteers to assist the r^fular army and the Cuban soldiery to whip the Dons and drive them forever from American soil. Five days later, on the 28th of April, Company C of the Second Regiment of Wisconsin National Guard, including a number of volunteers, numbering in all 155 men, went into Camp Harvey at the Wisconsin State Fair grounds near Milwaukee, where, on the 12th of May, they were mustered into the United States service as members of the Second Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers under the command of Colonel Charles A. Bom of Sheboygan. On the isth of May the reg^ent was entrained and on the 17th arrived at Camp Thomas in Chickamauga Park, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. On the 4th of July, orders were received to proceed to Charleston, South Carolina, and after a march of ten miles to Ringgold on the following day they boarded the cars and arrived at their destination on the 8th. On the 21st of July the regiment left Charleston on the transport "The Grand Duchess," for Porto Rico and arrived at Ponce, the largest city on the island, on the 28th. On the ist of August, the company became part of an expedition under the command of General Stone, chief of the Signal Corps.

The conquest of Porto Rico from a military standpoint was practically a bloodless affair. There were a few engagements and some lives lost but in none of these was Company C represented. However, the organization experienced many hardships. It was in a strange country, in a foreign land, and a climate that breeded for the alien malaria and other diseases. The men were also on short rations, which consisted chiefly of hardtack, "sow belly" and unsweetened coffee. These conditions generated a great deal of sickness in the camps, and were the primary causes of the death of Willie Trier, a member of the regimental band, who died in a hospital at Ponce, and Albert Doege, who died shortly after his arrival in Sheboygan, at the home of his parents, from a disease contracted in Porto Rico.

The regiment left the island on the ist of September and arrived in the harbor at New York on the 7th. Two days later they were received with open arms by a multitude gathered in Sheboygan to welcome them back to their homes. It was a great demonstration. Speeches were made by prominent citizens, bands played patriotic airs and to top it all off, a magnificent spread was served that was certainly relished by the men who had been regaled for so long a time on hard tack and salt pork.

There is now in the city a Spanish American war veterans camp, which was named in honor of the two boys who gave up their lives for "Cuba libre," Comrades Doege and Trier. Doege-Trier Camp No. 66, Frank Kempf, quartermaster, meets the first Friday of each month at Modem Woodman Hall.

Spanish American War, May 12, 1898

LIST OF OFFICERS AND PRIVATES OF COMPANY C, SECOND WISCONSIN INFANTRY MUSTERED INTO THE UNITED STATES SERVICE FOR THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR, MAY 12, 1898