Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
December 19, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 25

Our corps reached the scene of conflict near Bentonsville late that night and on the morning of the 20th, it deployed and closing in on Johnston's left flank was quickly engaged in a hot skirmish. But back the Johnnies were forced until they took shelter behind their main line of earthworks, when our lines were halted and ordered to build breastworks to protect themselves, Sherman not wanting to bring on a general engagement until he had established a base of supplies. On the night of the 21st, Johnston's army retreated and we turned our attention to the killed and wounded. The first day's battle, fought mainly by the 14th corps had been a sanguinary one for the number engaged, there being a loss of 1200 in killed and wounded on our side, and the rebel loss was much heavier. In the skirmishing of the last two days, the Army of the Tennessee lost 340 killed and wounded. It seemed very hard for the gallant boys who had served over three years, and had survived many battles and campaigns to be fated to die just when peace and the end were in sight. The battle field being in a densely wooded country, with a few small clearings, very little of the fight could be seen from any point. It was like groping in the dark, and we were much pleased when Johnston retreated.

March 22nd our army left the battlefield and crossing the Neuse river on a pontoon bridge reached Goldsboro on the 23rd, where we met Scofield and Ferry with their armies. Ferry had two divisions of colored troops in his command, who were becoming veterans in the service, and it was difficult at times when our boys were mingled with them, to tell the white from the colored men, so blackened were Shermanís men by being constantly exposed to the smoke of the pitch pine.

The railroad from Newverne and Wilmington to Goldsboro was repaired and in operation by the 26th, and we soon had late mails and plenty to eat. A few days later, new clothing was being issued, and having gotten the black washed off, and the soreness out of our limbs, we began to feel and look natural once more. The supplies came into camp steadily, but it took over two weeks to clothe the army and refill the supply wagons. In the meantime, drills, reviews and picket duty kept the boys from rusting.

On the 5th of April, two of the Ozaukee Rifles, Henry C. Ramsey and David A. Porter, were mustered out on account of the expiration of their terms of service, and started for home via Newberne and Washington. It made the other boys feel a little sad to see them go, but we all felt that the long-wished-for dawn of peace was already tingeing the horizon, and that it would not be long before all the survivors would be at home in their prosperous Northland. But we also felt that there would be probably one or two more great battles, and perhaps thousands then living would not be among the survivors of the war. Among the number of changes in the officers of our regiment was the promotion of Sergt. John P. McGinley, of the Rifles, to the rank of Sergeant Major, the warrant being handed to him on April 8th.

Gen. Sherman returning from a visit to President Lincoln and Gen. Grant, at City Point, Va., set to work to reorganize and equip his great army for the final struggle. In addition to the armies of Georgia and the Tennessee, which had composed Shermanís army in the last two campaigns, another was now added, the Army of the Ohio, Gen. Schofield commanding, and composed of the 10th and 23rd Army corps. The aggregate strength of the three armies combined was 88,948 men and 91 guns. It was one of the grandest and best armies ever seen in modern times; and coming as they did from the many fields of the past as victors, the different organizations composing it looked upon themselves as being as nearly invincible as humans can become.

We were nearly ready to start upon the final campaign when on April 7th, came the news of the fall of Richmond and Petersburg. The news was received by our army with cheers that ran back and forth and around our vast camp ground for several hours. Then the preparations for the final campaign were rushed to a completion and on the 10th, Shermanís great army was in motion and headed for Raleigh, the state capital, where Gen. Johnston was organizing a great army out of the fragments and small bodies of troops that were now hurrying to his standard from different parts of the South. Never in the history of wars did a great army start up on a campaign feeling more confident than did Shermanís that eventful morning; and it is safe to say that if Johnston had ever met it in a pitched battle, Shermanís army would have outdone itself, and would have swept everything before it.

While marching along a wide turnpike in the direction of Raleigh on April 12th, we suddenly heard great cheering among the troops ahead of us, and presently a staff officer galloped up and shouted: ìHurrah! Hurrah, boys, hurrah! Gen. Lee has surrendered his whole army to Grant!î ìBut are you sure the news is true?î he was excitedly asked as the column came to a halt. ìYes, yes,î he cried, ìhere it is from Uncle Billy himself!î and he read a short order from Sherman which announced the surrender to his army and ended thus: ìGlory to God and our country, and all honor to our comrades in arms, toward whom we are marching! A little more labor, a little more toil our part, the great race is won, and our government stands regenerated, after four long years of war!î

Who can describe the scene that followed the reading of the glad tidings? Not the writer, for he was soon trying to turn a summersault or something of the sort; but that there was cheering and yelling, singing and laughing, howling and whooping, jumping and dancing, handshaking and heelcracking, confusion and bedlam all around him -- aye, for many miles around him, he is quite certain. Such protracted, frantic cheering and yelling as there was there that day has been seldom equaled. For an hour or more it lasted and might have continued all day had not the march been resumed. But loaded down with gun, knapsacks and other accoutrements, a soldier had not much breath to waste in cheering. At different times during the day the cheering broke out afresh, and our bivouacs that night were aglow with gladness, many being unable to go to sleep until long after midnight, so excited were they over the news.

Crossing the broad Neuse, our advance drove Johnston out of Raleigh and marching briskly onward our division reached the summit of a hill south of that city about 9 o'clock P.M., on the 14th and looking down into a valley to the southwest a grand sight burst upon our view. The valley was some two miles in width and several miles long and in it was bivouacked several divisions of our army, their camp fires shinning like myriads of fireflies over its whole length and breadth. As we gazed on the beautiful scene the silvery notes of a bugle in the middle distance broke the stillness which hung over it by sounding the first notes of the tattoo. Almost instantly martial music burst forth in a hundred different places in the great bivouac, and bugles, drum corps and brass bands vied with each other for half an hour, in the rendition of some of the most beautiful of our national airs, the great waves of music drawing cheer after cheer from the listening thousands. It was a beautiful, grand, memorable scene.

Our corps encamped two miles west of the city, and as Sherman and Johnston entered into a correspondence looking to the surrender of the latter and his army, we remained in that camp until the 25th. On the 17th, Sherman received a dispatch from Washington informing him of President Lincoln's assassination, but he tried to prevent the news from being circulated among his men before Johnston's surrender. But the sad news soon reached our camps and was officially announced on the 18th, and four days later papers reached us containing full details of the lamentable affair. Our troops were terribly worked up over the assassination, and as they believed that the rebel authorities had instigated the crime, they would have made short work of Johnston's army if it had not surrendered.

There having been a dispute of some duration between our commanders as to which corps was composed of the best drilled troops, reviews of the different corps were ordered, and were held in the broad street leading to the front entrance of the capital grounds. On the 24th, the Army of Tennessee was reviewed, and was much surprised to see its old commander, Gen. Grant with Sherman at the reviewing place, he having reached Raleigh the previous day. The writer being on detached service was not in the ranks that day, and securing a good position opposite the reviewing cavalcade, which was drawn up on a cross street two or three blocks from the capitol had an excellent opportunity to closely observe the personal appearance of the two famous leaders and of a dozen or more other generals whose names will live for centuries to come.

All were superbly mounted, and all wore swords with exception of Grant, who sat on his horse in a careless attitude, with his coat unbuttoned and its lapels turned back. His appearance was a great contrast to that of Sherman, who, in full uniform with tightly buttoned coat and flashing sword, stood as straight in his stirrups as a dragoon, a perfect picture of a model soldier. Lined up in their rear were Generals Logan, Howard, Slocum, Schofield, Blair, Davis, and several others who had won a world-wide fame, all attended by brilliant staffs, and forming with the two great chiefs a group of commanders never surpassed in modern times.

The grand old Army of the Tennessee marched by in fine form that day, winning by its excellent alignment and service-bronzed appearance, rounds of hearty applause and cheers from the crowds of soldiers and citizens that lined the streets through which the column passed.

On the 25th we broke camp and marched a short distance toward Durham Station, where the rebel army was encamped, meeting many deserters fro that army during the day. Johnston signed the terms of the surrender in the Bennett house, near Durham Station, shortly after noon on the 26th. We remained in camp that day, and just at dark the news of the surrender reached us, and there was a jubilee -- a repetition of the noises and antics that had greeted the news of Lee's surrender, in our camps that night.

But the demonstration was even more noisy, and lasted much longer than the previous one; the bands, drum corps and bugles joined in the din, playing patriotic music with a fever they had never felt before, and the excitement and noise was kept up until near morning, every soldier well knowing that the war was practically ended, and that Old Glory again floated over a united country. The next day, we returned to our camps near the city, where we were joined by a large number of convalescents and recruits, who had been several weeks in reaching us, and arrived just in time to witness the end of hostilities.

The armies of the Tennessee and of Georgia were ordered to report at Washington, D.C., whither they had to march. I have never discovered any good reason for our government forcing those tired veterans to walk that long distance from Raleigh to Washington after the close of the war. They could have been easily marched to Newbern, N.C., and sent thence by water to the nation's capital, and by so doing save the lives of scores of gallant fellows who died from the heat and fatigue on that march to Washington.

On the 29th of April, we struck our tents (dog tents) and started homeward. The distance to be traveled was a long one, but we were HOMEWARD BOUND, and as the bugles gave the signal for each command to start, the men fell in with ringing cheers and started off as happy as larks. There was no foraging allowed on this march. We were in an enemy's country no longer -- the whole country was OUR country, and whatever was needed for men and beasts was taken and paid for by the quartermasters of the different divisions. We had plenty to eat on the march and excellent water, but the weather became very warm, causing a great deal of suffering, and a number of boys fell by the wayside, many of them dying before we reached our destination.

Marching by the way of Dunnville and Forestville in North Carolina, our corps crossed the Roanoke river and the Virginia state line at the same place on May 4th. Pushing northward, we passed through White Plains and Dinwiddie Court House, and traversing a number of the scenes of the late battles between the Army of the Potomac and its foes, we bivouacked near Petersburg, Va., on the night of the 7th. The next day we marched through the quaint old town, and crossing the Appomatox river bivouacked four miles beyond. On the 9th, we reached Manchester, opposite Richmond where we laid until the 12th. The famous cavalry leader Gen. Custer, and his fighting division of horsemen passed through our camp at this place, the General and his lovely wife leading the column.

On the 12th, we marched through Richmond and the writer took a hasty look at some of the sights, including Libby Prison, the old capitol and its handsome park, in which stands the famous equestrian statue of Washington, which impressed me as being the finest monument in the country. Passing through Hanover Court House, crossing the Paymunky and Mattapony, passing through the Wilderness and near Chancellorsville, through Fredericksburg, where we visited the famous Marye's Heights, crossing the Rappahannock and passing over the field of Bull Run, we encamped two miles southwest of Alexandria, and within sight of the national capital on the 20th, a weary lot of men.