Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
October 9, 1897



26th Wisconsin
Chapter 17

From Averysboro, the Twentieth Corps turned east and marched toward Goldsboro, and on the 18th, encountered Gen. Johnston's army near the village of Bentonville, and on the 19th, fought the battle of Bentonville with the assistance of the Fourteenth Corps. This was the last battle in which Shermanís army was engaged, and was very stubbornly contested by his veterans, they being greatly outnumbered that day. As all readers of history know, victory did not belong to either side at the close of that day, but our boys had gallantly held their line in the face of large odds. The next day, the Right Wing came upon the field and there was some hot skirmishing while the lines were being deployed and advanced. Sherman did not wish to bring on a battle until he had a base of supplies established, and simply held his ground. On the night of the 21st, Johnston's army fled from the field.

The Union loss at Bentonville was 191 killed, 1,117 wounded and 696 missing; total 1,604. Johnston reported his loss at 223 killed, 1,467 wounded and 653 missing; total 2,343; but Sherman did not consider the figures correct, as the Union army captured 1,625 prisoners from Johnston. The Twenty-sixth Wisconsin went into the fight with its old time gallantry, and stayed where it was put without flinching. Luckily it escaped with the small loss of one man killed and one wounded. None of the Ozaukee members were injured in this battle.

There was no necessity on the rebel side for the battles of Bentonville and Averysboro. Their "cause" had already been lost beyond redemption and no amount of fighting with the men at their command could change the result in the least. It was too bad to see so many fine, heroic young men, who had passed through so many years of campaigning, had survived so many battles, and had withstood so many long and weary marches shot down just as the dawn of peace was brightening the whole land. If man has to suffer after death for the sins committed in this life, that old scoundrel and murderer, Jeff. Davis, will spend eternity suffering for the murders committed through his orders and influence in March and April, 1865. When the fortunes of war drive either side into a corner from which there can be no escape, they should throw down their arms at once, and acknowledge their defeat like men; further resistance is not war but murder!

The rebel army retreated towards Raleigh, and Sherman's, after burying the dead and caring for the wounded, marched to Goldsboro, crossing the Neuse river enroute, where it met the forces under Terry and Schofield, the latter fresh from the battle of Kingston, which he had fought and won on the way from Newbern, and thus ended the greatest campaign of the war.

Gen. Sherman thus writes of the conclusion of the march from Savannah to Goldsboro: "Thus was completed one of the longest and most important marches ever made by an organized army in a civilized country. The distance from Savannah to Goldsboro is 425 miles, and the route traversed embraced five large navigable rivers, viz. the Edisto, Broad, Catawba, Pedee and Cape Fear, at either of which a comparatively small force, well handled, should have made the passage most difficult, if not impossible. The country generally was in a state of nature, with innumerable swamps, and with simply mud roads, nearly every mile of which had to be corduroyed. In our route, we had captured Columbia, Cheraw and Fayetteville, important cities and depots of supplies, and had compelled the evacuation of Charleston City and Harbor, and utterly broken up all the railroads of South Carolina, and had consumed a vast amount of food and forage, essential to the enemy for the support of his armies. We have in mid-winter, accomplished the whole journey of 425 miles in fifty days, averaging ten miles a day, allowing ten lay days, and had reached Goldsboro with the army in superb order, and the trains almost as fresh as when we started from Atlanta. It was manifest to me that we could resume our march and come within the theatre of General Grant's field of operations in all April, and that there was no force in existence that could delay our progress, unless General Lee should succeed in eluding General Grant at Petersburg, make a junction with General Johnston, and thus united, meet me alone; and now that we had effected a junction with Generals Terry and Schofield, I had no fear even of that event."

The railroad from Newbern to Goldsboro was repaired and in working order by the evening of the 25th of March, but it took some time to bring up enough of supplies -- food, forage and clothing -- to supply the great army encamped around the latter place, and the weary troops enjoyed a short season of much needed rest. In the meantime, General Sherman ran up to City Point, Va., by water, and there met and had a conference with President Lincoln and General Grant. On the 29th, he returned to his army and the next day issued orders reorganizing it. In the new organization, the army consisted of three minor armies, the "Army of the Tennessee," Gen. O. O. Howard, consisting of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth army corps; the "Army of Georgia," Gen. H. W. Slocum, consisting of the Fourteenth and Twentieth corps; and the "Army of the Ohio," Gen. J. M. Schofield, consisting of the Tenth and Twenty-third corps. The cavalry under Gen. Kilpatrick did not belong to either of those armies, and received its orders from Gen. Sherman direct. The Fifteenth Corps was commanded by the brilliant Gen. John A. Logan, the Seventeenth by Gen. Frank P. Blair, the Fourteenth by Gen. Jeff C. Davis, the Twentieth by Gen. J. A. Mower, the Tenth by Gen. A. H. Terry, and the Twenty-third by Gen. J. D. Cox. A division of the Tenth corps were colored troops, and good soldiers they were. In the new deal, the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin remained in the Third Brigade, Gen. Coggswell, Third Division, Gen. W. T. Ward, and Twentieth Corps.

A large number of recruits and convalescents joined the army at Goldsboro, and the Twenty-sixth received its share. The strength of Shermanís army when it left Goldsboro was 80,968 infantry; 9,343 artillery, 5,537 cavalry; total, 88,948 men and 91 guns; a superb army in every detail, and one which it would take a very powerful army to defeat. On the 5th of April, Sherman issued orders governing the next state of the march or campaign; but the next day, the news of the fall of Richmond reached Goldsboro, setting the army wild with joy, and causing Sherman to change his order on the 5th somewhat, and directing the army to move on the 10th and march straight upon Raleigh, the capital of the state, near which, at Smithfield, Gen. Jos. Johnston was organizing and drilling an army of 35,000 or 40,000 men.

On April 8th, Sherman received a dispatch from Gen. Grant, then in pursuit of Lee's army, dated April 5th, in which Grant directed Sherman to push ahead at once, saying: "If you can possibly do so, push on from where you are, and let us see if we cannot finish the job with Lee's and Johnston's armies. . . Rebel armies now are the only strategic points to strike at."

The next day, the great camps around Goldsboro were alive with the bustle of preparation, and promptly on the morning of the 10th, Sherman's whole army started upon its final campaign, amid the cheers of the men composing it. The different corps followed separate roads as far as possible; and the weather being fine and roads good, the different columns made excellent time. Raleigh, the first objective point in the march, was fifty miles away, but in their superb spirits and enthusiasm, the boys made light of the distance and strode onward singing "Glory, glory hallelujah!" with an exuberance of spirit never before felt by them, for they could plainly see the dawn of peace, and knew that the end was near. The Twentieth Corps followed a route to the left of the centre of the army, and nothing of importance occurred in its column until the second day out, when the news of Lee's surrender reached it, and created, as it did elsewhere in the army, a perfect furore of rejoicing, for the boys now regarded the war as at an end, all knowing that Gen. Johnston had no army able to cope with Shermanís. The boys cheered, yelled, laughed, cried and sang by turns, and went nearly frantic with joy, and no wonder, for it was the ending of the greatest war of modern times in favor of Right and Freedom.

On the 13th, Sherman entered Raleigh almost unopposed, Gov. Vance and many other officers of the state government fleeing with Johnston's retreating army. Knowing that he could not catch Johnston's army in an open country without a large force of cavalry, Sherman halted his army in and near Raleigh to await the arrival of either Sheridan's cavalry from Virginia, or Wilson's from Georgia and Alabama, in which states the latter general was then "smashing things." But on the 14th, Gen. Johnston sent to Sherman his first communication in regard to his surrender. As all students of United States history know, there was considerable delay before Johnston finally surrendered his army which he did on the 26th of April, near Durham's Station, some twenty odd miles west of Raleigh. When the good news had spread through Shermanís army that night, there was another period of great rejoicing, and thousands of boys in blue cheered themselves hoarse. It was nearly morning before the camps became quiet, and the next day the cheering and yelling would break out afresh every little while, for the troops knew that there were no other bodies of rebel troops that could be dignified with the name of an army; that Jeff Davis and some of his advisors were fugitives from justice, and peace had arrived in all its brightness and glory.

On the 28th of April, Sherman ordered Generals Schofield and Terry to remain with their troops in North Carolina, until further orders, while the armies of the Tennessee and Georgia were directed to march to Washington, D.C.; via Richmond, Va. On the 29th, the march homeward began; on the 9th of April the army was bivouacked near Manchester, on the opposite side of the James from Richmond, and by the 20th it was encamped around the old town of Alexandria, Va., weary and footsore. The march of nearly 300 miles from Raleigh had been a very trying one, even to the veterans of the march through Georgia and the Carolinas. The weather had been very warm and instead of marching by easy stages, as Sherman had directed, the daily marches had often been long and hurried over under the broiling sun at a killing pace, a number of men who had endured marches and privations during the war, succumbing to the last one and dying by the wayside.

In the march through Virginia, the Twenty-sixth passed over some familiar ground; and saw again many of the scenes of their early campaigns, after having ìswung around a circleî thousands of miles in circumference.

One the 23rd and 24th of May, occurred the grand review in Washington, by President Johnson, of the armies then encamped near the city, the Army of the Potomac on the 23rd, and Sherman's army on the 24th. The review was the greatest military spectacle of modern times, and was a fitting ending to the greatest civil war the world has ever seen. The writer attempted to describe the review of Sherman's army, in his history of the Ozaukee Rifles. The Twenty-sixth participated in that review and marched proudly down Pennsylvania Avenue in its place in the column of the Twentieth Corps -- its tattered colors, soldierly bearing and decimated ranks, attracting attention and winning rounds of applause from the spectators. It was a proud day for the veterans of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolina Campaign.

Two weeks later, the Army of the Tennessee was sent by rail and river to Louisville, Ky., where its organizations were gradually mustered out. The organizations composing the Army of Georgia were mustered out, one by one, near Washington; the turn of the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin coming on the 13th of June, when it was mustered out of Uncle Sam's service and immediately boarded the cars for home. The regiment arrived in Milwaukee on the 17th and was met at the depot by a large crowd of friends, who escorted it to Turner's Hall, where a public reception and banquet were given it by the Germans of the city. Governor Salomon was present and made a speech to the boys, in which he praised their good work in the field, and welcomed them back to the state. After the banquet, the regiment marched out to Camp Washburn where it ìbroke ranksî for the last time and was disbanded.

During its eventful term of service, the Twenty-sixth lost a number of men by disease, but its loss from that source was comparatively light. It was in battle that it suffered its heaviest loss. Its total enrollment was 1089. Of these, 188 were killed or mortally wounded, 315 were wounded, and 103 were missing in battle. Died of disease with the regiment or in hospitals, 50; of the results of accidents, 2; in rebel prisons, 16. Total number of deaths from all causes 256, 23.5 per cent, or nearly every fourth man. The Second Wisconsin Infantry stands at the head of all the regiments in the Union army in regard to losses in battle. Of 1203 men enrolled, it lost 238 killed or mortally wounded in battle or 19.7 per cent. Fifth on the list we find the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin Infantry, with a loss of 188 killed or mortally wounded out of an enrollment of 1089, or 17.2 per cent.

These figures speak plainer than words of the heroic courage, endurance, fortitude and patriotism of the gallant men who composed Wisconsin's second German regiment. They confirm a record which will remain for all time a proud heritage to the descendants of these heroes, who endured so much for Old Glory and the nation and principles represented by it; and while Wisconsin can always point with pride to the records made by her military organizations in the War of the Rebellion, far up near the head of the list will be found that of her Twenty-sixth Infantry.

Of the Ozaukee members of the Twenty-sixth, the following named were killed or mortally wounded in battle: John Lau, Fred Nero, Fred Krus, John Paul and Wm. Milkie, 5. Wounded in battle: Wm. Hausburg, Mich. Moldenhauer, Herman Opitz, Julius Semisch, John Grundke, Jack Mathias, Moritz Winkler, Wm. Baetz, John Graff, Julius Neumeister and Anton Neumeister, 11. Died of disease: Peter Hoffranz, 1. Transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on account of disabilities resulting from wounds or sickness: Jack Mathias, Moritz Winkler, J. Stegeman, Rich. Klett, John B. Mueller and Julius Semisch, 6. Discharged on account of wounds: John Grundke and Herman Opitz, 2; on account of sickness: Wm. Mueller, Hugo Boclo and Edw. Schonfeld, 3. Absent at musterout of the regiment, wounded: Mich. Moldenhauer and Anton Neumeister, 2; sick: Henry Lueldolph, H. W. Rintelman and W. H. Rintelman, 3, the two last named being just released from the rebel prisons where they had been confined since their capture in the battle of Gettysburg. Mustered out with the regiment: Aug. Bielefeld, Wm. Hausberg, Wm. Maetzhold, Wm. Nero, Henry Roth, (Sergeant and Bugler), Chas. Gottschalk, John Erdman, Julius Neumeister and Anton Nolde, 12.

The names and post office addresses of those of the above known to be living at the date of this sketch are: Sergt. John Grundke, Sergt. Henry Roth, Chas. Gottschalk, W.H. Rintelman and Chas. Beckman, Cedarburg, Wis.; H. W. Rintelman, Rich. Klett and Wm. Maetzhold, Milwaukee, Wis.; Wm. Hausburg, Chicago; Mich. Moldenhauer, Lynn, Wis.; Wm. Nero, Denver, Col.; Herman Opitz, Saukville, Wis.; Wm. Baetz, Butternutt, Wis.; John Erdman, Appleton, Wis.; Julius Semisch, Altoona, Wis.; Sergt. Aug. Bielefeld, Mackville, Wis.

Wm. Milkie, of Saukville, was mortally wounded in the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 20, 1864; and died at Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 7, 1864. By an oversight, his case was overlooked when writing of the losses in that battle.