Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
August 8, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 7

Capt. G. C. Williams, of the Rifles, had not been long in the service when he began to feel that he ought to have a better position than that of a mere captain. He thought that he ought to be promoted to the rank of a field officer at once, and doubtless began to build air castles, and to formulate plans as to what he would do when the eagles of a colonel or the stars of a brigadier general graced his shoulder straps. There were no vacancies in the field offices of the regiment, but Capt. Williams was ambitious, and ambitious men are not generally turned from their course by small obstacles - a vacancy must be made. The next office above the rank of captain was that of major, which in the Sixteenth was ably filled by the gallant and witty Thomas Reynolds, who showed no signs of dying or resigning, much to the displeasure of Williams. While in camp at Corinth, and during the battle, Major Reynolds had command of the regiment, Col. Allen being in command of a brigade, and it was here that a conspiracy, of which Williams was ringleader, was formed by a few of the line officers to force Reynolds to resign or to have him cashiered and dismissed from the service. Charges were trumped up against him, but the Major had influential ìfriends at courtî - had powerful backers among his superiors from Gen. Grant down, and he retained his position, while the charges acted as a sort of boomerang upon the doughty Williams by placing him in a very unenviable position.

The battle of Corinth occurred while the conspirators were scheming, and it was doubtless their plan to make the major all the trouble possible that divided the regiment when the orders came to pursue the retreating enemy. Capt. Williams and others of the conspirators remained in camp with a part of the men of the regiment while the rest accompanied Major Reynolds in the long and fruitless chase.

But when they failed to force Reynolds out of the service and found themselves to use a slang phrase ìin the soup,î the conspirators were greatly crestfallen, and cast about for some plausible excuse for resigning and leaving the regiment. Finally they hit upon a plan which worked well for them but did a great injustice to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the regiment, and that was the consolidation of the ten companies of the regiment into five, thus leaving nearly one-half of the line officers without command and forcing (?) them to resign.

Col. Allen had also become ambitious. He perhaps thought that his distinguished coolness and gallantry at Shiloh ought to be rewarded, but he does not seem to have taken into consideration that there were dozens of colonels that had perhaps shown equal coolness and bravery on that field, and that there were not enough brigadier generalships to go around. However that might have been, it is certain he wanted a brigadier's commission, and when he failed to secure it he entered into the consolidation plan which left but five companies, one more than a battalion, in the regiment, dispensed with any officer higher than a lieutenant colonel, and mustered out the colonel.

When Orderly Sergt. John L. Derrickson had been discharged on account of wounds received at Shiloh, the members of the Rifles petitioned Col. Allen to appoint Sergt. Ed. D. Bradford to the vacant office, but Sergt. Milo M. Whedon, an old time business man of Port Washington, and something of a wire puller, had worked himself into the good graces of the colonel, who desired to give him the coveted promotion. But in the face of the unanimous wishes of the other members of the company the colonel hesitated and the position was never filled. When Sergt. Lorenzo Osgood was discharged on account of sickness, John P. McGinley, of Saukville, was promoted to fill the vacancy, and Charles Gatfield was promoted to the sergeancy made vacant by the death of Ed. D. Bradford.

Finally an order was issued by the war department making the consolidation of the companies desired by the scheming officers, and on the second of November 1862, the great wrong was consummated, and the Ozaukee Rifles ceased to exist as a separate company and became a part of company ìGî. The original company G had been recruited in the valley of the Chippewa river, and was known as ìThe Chippewa Valley Guardsî when it joined the regiment in Camp Randall. At the time of consolidation its officers were Capt. John R. Wheeler, 1st Lieut. Cyrus A. Allen, and 2d Lieut. Michael E. O'Connell all of Eau Claire county, and brave, worthy officers. While talking of the proposed consolidation a few days before it was consummated, Capt. Wheeler asked Capt. Williams what should be done with the non-commissioned officers (sergeants and corporals) of company K (the Rifles), adding that company G had then a full complement of such officers and he did not desire to and would not reduce any of them to the ranks to make room for some of those from the Rifles. Capt. Williams answered that he did not give a
d--n what was done with them and spoke of them in very uncomplimentary terms. Thus did this most unworthy officer add insult to the great injury he was doing to the gallant boys to whom he made such great promises when he was recruiting the company, and thus, as well as in other ways too numerous to mention here, did he earn the odium that besmirched his name and memory from that day to this. The unscrupulous captain resigned on the day of the consolidation, returned to Port Washington, but soon after moved away to some town further west in the state, where he died three or four years later. Were he living, I would tell more, but as it is, let him rest.

Some thought then and still continue to think, that Lieut. R.P. Derrickson had more to do with the consolidation than was honest, but as he has also crossed the dark river I will only say of him, that it is true that he was around this part of the state as a recruiting officer, and enlisted men for old company K weeks after it had gone out of existence, to one of which recruits he promised the orderly sergeancy of the company! That was pretty crooked work to say the least that can be said of it. Lieut. Dave Vail was absent from the regiment, still suffering from his Shiloh wound, when the consolidations took place, and immediately resigned.

Sergt. M. M. Whedon managed to be detailed on detached service as clerk at some headquarters, but the other sergeants of the Rifles, John Gough, John P. McGinley and Chas. Gatfield, were put into the ranks of company G, instead of being mustered out of the service, as the law provided in such cases, and although a commission as 2d Lieut. of the defunct company K reached John Gough shortly after the consolidation, he was kept in the ranks, and when the two lieutenants of company G resigned, Allen on Nov. 4, 1862 and O'Connell March 11, 1863, two of the original members of the company were promoted over his head. Finally McGinley was given a sergeant's warrant in the company to get him to reenlist in it, or ìveteranizeî in November, 1863, and Gough and Gatfield were mustered out under a special order May 1, 1864, having been wrongfully detained in the service from the date of the consolidation, Nov. 2, 1862.

In a letter to the writer, written May 26, 1890, the late Col. Thos. Reynolds, who was Major of the regiment in 1862, thus writes of the unjust consolidation: ìThe matter of the consolidation was privately initiated, and the secrets were not communicated to me. I think my own muster-out was contemplated, but Gen. Grant would not countenance the project. The officers of Co. K having failed in their efforts to have me removed were not anxious to continue in the service under me and so resigned. I being in command of the regiment at the time forwarded the resignations and recommended their acceptance.î