Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
September 5, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 11

There were soon gathered at Cairo twenty-two regiments of infantry and three batteries of artillery, from the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa and Missouri, nearly all just returned from veteran furlough, and nearly all, if not all, belonging to the different divisions of the 17th A.C. Under orders from Gen. W.F. Sherman, then in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi with headquarters at Chattanooga, Tenn., where he was organizing his army for the Atlanta campaign, these regiments were organized into two divisions which thereafter were known as the Third and Fourth divisions of the 17th A.C. The Sixteen Wisconsin was assigned to the First brigade of the Third division. In this brigade were also four Illinois regiments, the 29th, 30th, 31st, and 45th. The command of the brigade was given to Brig. Gen. M.F. Force, and of the division to Maj. Gen. M.D. Leggett, both Ohio men. Maj. Gen. Frank P. Blair of Missouri, was given command of the corps.

During the furlough of the Sixteenth, Lieut. Col. Cassius Fairchild had been promoted to colonel, Major Thos. Reynolds to lieutenant colonel, and Capt. Wm. F. Dawes of Co. E, to major. The old colors which had been so gallantly carried and defended by the regiment for two years, and which had been worn to shreds, were returned to the Governor, who presented the regiment with a beautiful new stand bearing the names of the battles in which it had fought.

Under orders to join Sherman's army which was then starting on its famous Georgia campaign, the two divisions began to embark on boats bound up the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, on the 6th of May, and on the 7th the boats bearing the brigade to which the Sixteenth belonged left Cairo at dark and steamed up the Ohio. An hour or two later a passing boat informed Gen. Force that the rebels were assaulting the works defending the town of Paducah, Ky., and the troops on board the little fleet were ordered to load their guns and to prepare for action. But fortunately the little garrison at Paducah beat off their assailants and the fighting was over when our brigade landed there the next morning. On the 9th a large fleet arrived from Cairo bearing the balance of the division, and our brigade re-embarked. That evening the whole fleet swung into the stream under the escort of two gunboats, and amid the cheers of the troops and the music of the bands on board, steamed up the narrow and crooked channel of the Tennessee. On the 10th the fleet passed the ruins of Ft. Henry, and the next evening reached Clifton, Tenn., a little hamlet on the east bank of the river some 40 miles below Pittsburg Landing. A detail was landed and posted as pickets, and the balance of the troops, who were in fine spirits, remained on the boats and passed the evening with story and song, and out over the dark waters of the river and far back into the dense forest on the further shore, floated the music and words of the ìRed, White and Blue,î ìBattle Cry of Freedom,î ìJust Before the Battle, Mother,î ìThe Girls at Home,î ìThey Have Grafted Him into the Army,î etc. The next day the troops landed and camped around the place while the boats returned to Cairo for the other division and supplies.

Thus we see the Sixteenth starting on a great campaign over a route that leads up the winding Tennessee, up which it had gone a new regiment two years earlier, full of hope and enthusiasm. Since then it had made a good record for itself, but at a great cost; hardly two-fifths of the original member surviving to go with it up the Tennessee the second time. Here is a list of the Ozaukee boys who had gone up that river in 1862 as members of the original Company K, had survived the campaigns and battles of the two eventful years, and in 1864 ascended the stream as members of Co. G: Mansel Barnes, Peter Peckus, Jerome Case, Robert A. and Wm. W. Coleman, Nic Colling, Stewart Daniels, Wal. W. Davis, Geo. W. Hedding, A.B. Hunt, Pat. Keogh, Richard Kershaw, Dennis Mangin, John P. McGinley, Thos. Murphy, Sam Orcutt, Wm. H. Pawlett, David A. Porter, Henry C. Ramsey, Jas. H. Rooney, Taxter W. Shaw, Charles and Henry Thomas, Ogden Tomlison, Philander Watkins, Pat Welsh No. 2, Lewis Wert, James Wilson No. 1, and Thomas E. Wildman, twenty-nine in all, who with Joseph Johann, then on detached service at Vicksburg, were all that remained of the 104 original members of the Ozaukee Rifles. The officers of Co. G at this time were Capt. John R. Wheeler, 1st Lieut. H. M. Culbertson and 2nd Lieut. Thos. W. M. Macauley. Col. Fairchild commanded the regiment and rode the black horse that he had ridden through the tempest of death at Shiloh, and which like his rider bore the scars of wounds received on that field. The regiment with its five old and four new companies numbered nearly 900 men, and made a fine appearance on parade.

On the 15th of May the two divisions started on their long march of over 300 miles to join Shermanís army, via Pulaski, Tenn., and Huntsville and Decatur, Ala. As a number of the troops were new recruits and as the old soldiers had not seen much hard service for months and had been feasted and fattened during their furlough, this march in the beginning of the hot season in that climate, told heavily on them, and they had not been two days on the road when mute signs of distress in the shape of extra clothing and blankets began to appear scattered along the route. As they advanced the weather grew hotter, the roads were hot and dusty, the straps of the accoutrements cut into and blistered the flesh, sore and blistered feet became common, and one by one the boys fell by the wayside, some of them to die and others to be picked up by ambulances and conveyed to the hospitals at the above mentioned towns.

On May 20th the column reached Pulaski, foot sore and nearly exhausted. Resting one day there, the column turned southwest on the broad turnpike leading to Huntsville where it arrived with greatly depleted ranks on the 30th. The drinking water was very good along this route, and the roads were mainly good, but one drawback to the marching was the fact that none of the streams were bridged, and as many had to be sometimes crossed in a single days march, and as the sharp stones of their beds made it impossible to ford them with bare feet, the shoes of the men were constantly wet and gathering the dust and fine gravel to lacerate the feet. One stream, the Elk river, had a current so deep and rapid that a ìlife-lineî had to be stretched across the ford for the soldiers to cling to.

At Huntsville, a pretty little city in northern Alabama, the Sixteenth encamped near the great spring that flows from the side of the hill in a stream as large as Cedar Creek. Here the column rested one day and on June 1st turned south and marched directly for Decatur on the Tennessee river, where it crossed that stream on a pontoon bridge, and then turning southeast pressed rapidly forward through Sommerville, Peach Grove, Oleander, Warrenton and Blue Pond in Alabama, and Rome, Cave Springs and Kingston in Georgia, and overtook the rear of Shermanís army at the Etowah river on the 9th of June, about as tired a lot of men as was seen during the war.

The march had been such a severe one that men kept dropping from the ranks all along the route, and the Sixteenth had left over one-third of its members behind, some dead, and others sick or fagged out. The larger part of these men eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment, but many of them ìcrossed over the river to rest in the shade of the trees.î But although there was so much suffering on this march, there was also considerable sport for the boys at times. Some of the field and staff officers of the Sixteenth were very poorly mounted at that time, among whom was the Surgeon, Dr. Turner, who rode one of the poorest looking mounts in the column, and the boys were continually criticizing the appearance of the doctor's war-horse. The horse looked so much like ìcrow baitî that one day as the regiment sat resting by the roadside, a wag in the ranks began to ìcawî like a crow. The joke took like wildfire, and in a few minutes the whole regiment was cawing, laughing and cheering. Dr. Turner took the joke good naturedly, and it soon became a favorite pastime, while enjoying short rests, to caw at every poor looking steed that happened to pass, sometimes making the rider very indignant.

The corps joined Shermanís line of battle at Ackworth, Ga., on the 12th and immediately took its place with the 15th and 16th corps in the Army of Tennessee, Maj. Gen. J.B. McPherson, commanding. The next day Shermanís lines began closing in on the enemy's position at Kenesaw Mt, and the 17th corps passed through Big Shanty, and with the balance of the Army of the Tennessee began to swing into line of battle south-east of that place.