Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
August 14, 1897



26th Wisconsin
Chapter 9

The rebels advanced towards Gettysburg from the north in several lines of battle, and scarcely had the Eleventh Corps gotten into position when it was fiercely assailed from front and flank. The position in which the corps had been deployed by Howard's orders was not a good one. It was too far out, did not connect with the line of the First Corps on its left, and soon after it was attacked, was rendered untenable by the flanking columns and crossfires of the enemy.

In the formation of the lines, our Twenty-sixth was placed in the second or supporting line of its brigade, but the first onset of the foe broke and drove back the first line in confusion. The Twenty-sixth, under command of Lieut. Colonel Boebel, Colonel Jacobs being absent on leave, gallantly moved to the front and met the enemy in one of the most desperate encounters of the war. The enemy greatly outnumbered our men at this point, and poured a murderous fire of musketry and artillery into the blue line, but our boys heroically stood in that open field, in a perfect tempest of shot and shell, and returned with fire with a deadly effect for at least fifteen minutes, checking the rebels and holding the line without flinching until the brigade on their let gave way. The rebels then poured around the left of the Twenty-sixth, and to save the survivors of the regiment, it was ordered to retreat. Again as at Chancellorsville, the brave fellows were obliged to run the gauntlet of a terrible fire from the flanking force, and many poor fellows fell during the retrograde movement. At the edge of the town, a large force of rebels which had passed the left flank of the corps, swept down on the fleeing bluecoats and captured several hundred of them, a few of the Twenty-sixth being among the number. The corps continued its retreat through the town and to Cemetery Ridge where it rallied, and with the First corps formed a new line of battle on that famous height. With its gentle slopes, its stone fences and its commanding eminences, Cemetery Ridge was an ideal position for a defensive battle, as Lee learned to his sorrow before the struggle had ended.

The First corps lost nearly one-half of its numbers in that desperate struggle on July 1st, at Gettysburg, and its commander, Gen. Doubleday, claims that a large percentage of the loss was due to the short-sightedness or pig-headedness of gen. Howard, who compelled the corps to remain in its exposed position long after there was any necessity of its being there. The Eleventh Corps also lost very heavily for the short time it was in the fight.

The Twenty-sixth Wisconsin went into the battle, according to official returns, with 508 men; but an officer of the regiment claims that the number given is too large by at least 50, as those on picket duty during the previous night did not reach the regiment until it had fallen back to Cemetery Ridge after the fight, and a large number had fallen by the wayside during the forced march to reach the field. This would leave about 458 in line that afternoon. In the fifteen or twenty minutes it was under fire, the losses of the regiment were 61 killed or mortally wounded, 94 wounded and 62 missing. These figures plainly show what a murderous fire our heroic boys faced on Gettysburg's storied field. Out of 458 men, 155 fell killed our wounded in twenty minutes! Truly it is a record to be proud of, and by it the Twenty-sixth gallantly maintained the enviable record made at Chancellorsville, where it lost more men killed and wounded than any other regiment in the Eleventh Corps.

Our Ozaukee boys fought heroically at Gettysburg, and added a proud page to the defenders of the old flag from the "Riot County." Friederich Kraus, of Mequon, was killed; Jack Mathias, of Belgium, Moritz Winkler, of Port Washington, and Julius Neumeister, of Mequon, were wounded; and Henry W. and Wm. H. Rintleman, of Cedarburg, and Anton Nolde, of Mequon, were taken prisoners, being surrounded at the edge of the town during the retreat. Nolde was exchanged and returned to the regiment in a short time, but the Rintleman brothers were confined in Andersonville and other prison pens until the close of the war, suffering horribly from starvation and other privations. Only four of the commissioned officers of the Twenty-sixth engaged came out of the battle of Gettysburg uninjured. Capt. Wm. Smith and lieutenants Young and Rook were killed; and Lieut. Col. Boebel, Capt. Fuchs, and lieutenants Lackner, Troemel and Ferstenberg were wounded. Lieut. Col. Boebel lost a leg as a result of his wound. Capt. Fuchs returned to the regiment after having his wound dressed, and commanded it during the remainder of the battle.

The Eleventh Corps held the northern end of Cemetery Ridge during the last two days of the battle, but as the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin was not again seriously engaged during the remainder of the struggle. Therefore, I will pass over the remainder of the battle with a very few words. Far more able pens than mine have pictured and discussed the gallant struggle of the Third Corps in the wheat field and peach orchard, and the heroic fight for Little Round Top, on the second day; and the terrible artillery duel between hundreds of cannon, the famous charge of Pickett's division of Virginians, and its sanguinary and decisive repulse, on the third day. The battle was a three-day's struggle in which there was most gallant and determined fighting on both sides. Thousands of pages have been written about this great battle, and thousands of more can be written without telling all of the numerous incidents of heroism displayed upon that field; and owing to its situation, its size and its results, the battle of Gettysburg will always be the best known of all the engagements of that war.

At Gettysburg, the losses are said by the best authorities to be as follows: Union killed 2,934; wounded 13,709; missing 6,643; total 23,186. Rebel killed, 2,665; wounded 12,599; missing 6,464; total 22,728. There was so much disorganization and confusion in Lee's army after the battle that the returns of losses were hard to get, and the above figures are thought to be too small. The armies were evenly matched an the losses were quite even, but the Northern soldiers were on their mettle and determined to win. There were four Union and six rebel generals killed and twelve Union and six rebel generals wounded in this battle. As may be seen by the foregoing figures, 5,499 men were killed outright on the field at Gettysburg, and it is estimated that 2,500 were mortally wounded there. Thus 8,000 men laid down their lives on that one field in the struggle between Freedom and Slavery. The present and coming generations should take notice of such items, and they will thus get some idea of what the boys of the 60's had to suffer for their country and posterity. A magnificent monument now marks the spot where the Twenty-sixth Wisconsin made its valiant fight on the battle of the first day.

On the 4th of July, it was known at an early hour that Lee and his army had fled; but the timid Meade did not order an immediate pursuit, as he was afraid that it was a movement of his wily adversary to draw him away from his strong position and into a trap. That day, Col. Jacobs returned and assumed command of the Twenty-sixth.

On the 5th, Meade's army started in cautious pursuit of the rebels, and the Twenty-sixth accompanying the movements of its division, marched all that day and night through rain and mud, bivouacking near Emmetsburg at daybreak. On the 7th, the march was resumed and the distance of 33 miles was covered where they bivouacked at Middletown that night. The next day the division started at 3 P.M. and hurried forward to Boonesboro, where it was reported Kilpatrick was fighting the enemy, but before the division had reached the scene, the rebels had fled.

On the 10th, the division reached Funkston, Md., and on the 12th it crossed Antietam Creek and intrenched itself on the road to Hagerstown. On the 14th, it was discovered that the enemy had retreated again, and after crossing their abandoned works and pursuing them to Williamsport, the division retraced its steps to Middletown on the 15th. The 16th found the division at Berlin, Md., and crossing the Potomac there on the 19th, it marched through London Valley and reached Warrentown Junction, Va., on the 25th. This ended the Gettysburg Campaign.

The Twenty-sixth had been so reduced by battle and sickness that it was now temporally consolidated into a few companies and remained in that vicinity until the middle of September, doing picket and patrol duty. The strength of the regiment having by that time been largely increased by returning convalescents, the ten companies re-assumed their former organizations. On the 17th of September, the brigade marched to Rappahannock Station, where it performed heavy picket and patrol duties until the 24th, when the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps were ordered to report to Gen. Rosencrans, at Chattanooga, Tenn., and were directed to move at once. At 10 P.M. that night, the brigade started, and marching all night, it stopped half an hour at Catlett's Station for breakfast and reached Manassas Junction at 4 P.M. Shortly after dark, the Twenty-sixth boarded a train of freight cars which it did not leave until it reached the Ohio river at Benwood, Va., via the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, passing through Washington enroute.

Crossing the Ohio river on a pontoon bridge, the regiment boarded a similar train in Bellaire, O., and crossing Ohio disembarked at Indianapolis, Ind., where it was repacked in another freight train which carried it to Jeffersonville, Ind. Here it crossed the Ohio on a ferry boat and marched to the Soldiersí Home in Louisville, where it was fed a square meal. Again boarding a freight train, it was whirled down to Nashville, Tenn., where it changed cars and continued the journey, and at dawn on the morning of October 2d, it arrived at Bridgeport, Ala., where it went into camp to await the arrival of the remainder of the corps, which was coming. as rapidly as the railroads could handle it. On the 10th, the brigade was taken to Cowan Station, 30 miles north, where a party of rebel raiders were trying to fill up the tunnel with rocks. Having driven off the rebels and removed the obstructions, the brigade returned to Bridgeport that night. A few days later, the regiment marched to Shell Mound, a railway station about seven miles from Bridgeport and south of the Tennessee river, where the boys worked two days in a drenching rain, building a bridge on a side track across a creek, in order that a locomotive which the rebels had run into a coal mine might be got back on the main track. They were relieved after the second ay and returned to Bridgeport. About this time, three companies of the regiment went out on a reconnaissance under the command of Capt. Fuchs, on the south bank of the Tennessee, and captured two rebel scouts.

Major Baetz resigned on the 8th of October and Capt. Winkler, of Co. B. was promoted to Major. The wagon trains of the two corps had been turned over to the Quartermaster General at Washington, and when Nashville had been reached by the quartermaster's force of each corps, they had been provided with new wagon trains, which they loaded with supplies and drove the remainder of the distance to Bridgeport, 120 miles, arriving there on the 25th of October, much fatigued. On the 27th, the division took part in the fight at Wauhatchee, where the Twenty-sixth had two men wounded.

Our boys had now got into a new region of the country, but they found the campaigning just as trying and fatiguing as in "Ole Virginia." They were now in a part of the country of which a good deal was written in he history of the Twenty-fourth Wisconsin, and to say much about it here would be only repetition. On the 8th of November, Col. Jacobs went to Wisconsin on recruiting service, leaving Major Winkler in command of the regiment As Col. Jacobs resigned soon after, he never returned to the regiment, and Winkler remained in command.

During the 23rd and 24th of November, the regiment took part in the skirmishes near Mission Ridge, and on the 25th, participated in the assault upon that position, but not being very much exposed, suffered no loss. With its corps, it pursued Bragg's army two days, and on the 29th, the corps returned to Parker's Gap where it drew three days rations, which were to last six, and received orders to accompany Gen. Sherman's forces which were marching to the relief of Gen. Burnside, at Knoxville. This was a forced march of great hardships, the weather being cold, the country rough and bare of forage, the roads muddy, rations scarce, shoes worn out, and clothing scanty. When part way to Knoxville, the news of Longstreet's repulse and retreat was received, and the Eleventh Corps marched back to its camp in the Lookout Valley, arriving there very hungry, greatly fatigued, and nearly destitute of clothing. The division was directed to build winter quarters here, and in ten days after returning, drew a full outfit of clothing. The boys soon began to recuperate, and having enjoyed a much needed rest in this camp until he 25th of January, 1864, the camp was moved to Whitesides, a few miles from Chattanooga, where the remainder of the winter was passed.