Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
August 15, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 8

On Nov. 2, 1862, the day that the unsavory consolidation of the companies of the regiment became an accomplished fact, the Sixteenth, accompanying the division to which it belonged, left Corinth to follow General Grant in his first advance upon Vicksburg, Miss., leaving behind the retired conspirators with a good-riddance-to-bad-company feeling. Although the brave boys marched forward with the determination to obey their commanders and to serve their country faithfully to the end they could not forget that they had been greatly misused and wronged by the consolidation.

Of the original company K, or Ozaukee Rifles, three commissioned officers had resigned, 26 of the members had been discharged for disabilities, 30 were dead, three, Allen Godfrey, Wm. Richards, and Oscar B. Underhill, had been transferred to the brigade band and never rejoined the regiment, and the remaining 42 became members of company G. Of these 42, Sergt. M. M. Whedon, who was away on detached duty at the time, never returned to the regiment, but was mustered out by order Nov. 8, 1864, and died at the Soldiersí Home in Washington, D.C. in 1887. Whedon had been a well known and influential citizen of Port Washington previous to the war, but there are not many there now who remember him.

What a record this company had made in the first year of its existence! Thirty dead and 26 discharged for disabilities contracted in the service told a touching tale of heroism and suffering. But the survivors of the Ozaukee Rifles that marched away from Corinth that eventful November morning were patriots in the truest sense of the term, and although they had unflinchingly faced death in camp and on the march, in the trenches and upon the field of battle, and had been outrageously wronged by the two senior officers of the company, they now marched onward without a murmur, all to endure great hardships and privations in the campaigns that followed, and several to die on future battlefields or in disease-beleagured camps.

Taking a westerly course from Corinth our boys marched hopefully forward, crossing the Tuscumbia and Hatchie rivers on Nov. 3, and passing through Grand Junction, Tenn., a town just north of the state line, encamped three miles south of that place on Davisí Creek. Here the division remained in camp until the 28th, when it struck tents and marched southward to Coldwater, Miss., and following the railroad marched through Holly Springs and reached Waterford where there was a brisk skirmish. The enemy being driven from its front, the column continued its march on December 3 and reached the Tallahatchie river that evening. Here the boys of the Sixteenth were detailed to rebuild the wagon bridge across the Tallahatchie, and working in the rain and water through the entire night, had the bridge finished the next evening. The first troops to cross were some regiments of cavalry who were so suspicious of the stability of the bridge that they dismounted upon reaching it and led their horses across. This timidity and slowness did not suit one of the eye witnesses, the fiery and fearless Gen. John A. Logan, who was impatiently awaiting a chance to cross his division of infantry, and riding forward he requested the cavalrymen to clear the bridge that he might show them a different method of crossing it. The bridge having been cleared, Gen. Logan put spurs to his spirited horse and galloped the full length of the structure. It is needless to say that the remainder of the cavalry hurried across without dismounting.

The Sixteenth cross the river and marched several miles to Abbeyville where it encamped. That night in the midst of a heavy rain, companies E and G were routed out about midnight and sent back to the river to rebuild the railroad bridge, which had also been destroyed by the retreating enemy. Working in the rain day and night, and on scant rations, the hardy pioneers that made up the great bulk of both companies showed their skill in the use of the axe, the adz, the auger and the chisel, by building a long and substantial bridge which was finished on the 9th. As soon as their job was completed our boys began to help themselves to the abundant forage of the surrounding country, and for a few days lived high.

December 18 the Sixteenth boarded cars and rode to Oxford, Miss., and on the 20th reached Yocoma station, where it learned of the capture of Holly Springs and its valuable store of supplies by the rebels. That day Grant's army began the retrograde movement that the capture of its supplies forced it to make. Joining in the movement the Sixteenth reached Holly Springs on the 23d, after a forced march, and found the depots of supplies in ashes. To head off a body of the enemy that was moving southeast, in the direction of Ripley, the brigade to which the Sixteenth belonged was hurried eastward and after a rapid and fatiguing march reached Salem on Dec. 24. On Christmas day the march was continued to Ripley where our boys arrived too late to intercept the rebel columns, but in spite of their exhausted condition they hurried forward until they overtook and attacked the enemy's rear-guard, routing it and capturing 33 prisoners. The pursuit was then abandoned and our troops returned to Salem that night. The next day they marched back to Holly Springs through a heavy, unceasing rain. Remaining there a day or two the Sixteenth marched north to Moscow, Tenn., a station on the Memphis & Charleston Ry.

On the first day of 1863 the regiment marched eight miles west on the railroad to LaFayette, and the next day marched to Colliersville on the same road. Here the boys secured plenty of supplies by foraging, were drenched by an exceptionally heavy rain, and remained guarding a railroad bridge ten days. On the 12th the Sixteenth marched to Memphis, where Gen. Grant was collecting his forces preparatory to his descent upon Vicksburg by the river route. Here our troops were paid off, and every evening crowded the theatres to witness such plays as ìThe Hidden Hand,î ìThe Marble Heart,î ìPaddy Milesí Boy,î and ìBarney the Baron.î

January 20 the whole division embarked on steamers at the levee and steamed down the Father of Waters, the bands playing patriotic airs and the boys cheering themselves hoarse. Gallant boys! thousands of them were doomed never to return! Passing Helena, Ark., on the 21st, the steamers carrying the divisions, on the 23d at Milton's Landing opposite the mouth of the Yazoo river and but a short distance from Vicksburg. Here the troops disembarked and went to work upon the famous canal which Gen. Grant proposed cutting across the isthmus formed by a great bend of the Mississippi opposite Vicksburg, and through which he hoped to float his transports and gunboats past that place to the high and dry lands below the town. The boys of the Sixteenth worked upon the canal until the last day of January, when under orders they re-embarked and steamed up the river to Lake Providence, La., which place they reached Feb. 1st. Here they were joined by the remainder of their brigade the next day, and here they remained during the succeeding six months, suffering untold horrors and many dying from epidemics of fevers and other diseases brought on by the stagnant waters in the bayous and lowlands by which the place was environed.

Lake Providence was a part of the old bed of the Mississippi, was six miles in length and less than a mile from the channel of that river at the time I write of. Its outlet was through bayous Baxter and Macon, which opened into the Tensas, Washita and Red rivers, all navigable streams and which flowed into the Mississippi a long distance below Vicksburg. Gen. Grant thought that as the Mississippi was then rising too rapidly to permit him to finish the canal opposite Vicksburg, he would cut a canal from the river to Lake Providence and its outlets to the Red river, thus forming a channel throí which he could float his fleet past Vicksburg. He entrusted the work to Gen. J.B. McPherson, then commanding the 17th Army Corps, to which the Sixteenth belonged, and in a few days after our regiment had landed, there was a whole division of blue coats at Lake Providence rushing the work of excavating for the canal.

Lying back of the high levee, which protected it from inundations during high water in the river, and at the southern end of the lake whose name it bore, nestled the pretty little village of Lake Providence, and in and around it our troops encamped. The land upon which the village stood was many feet lower than the high water mark of the river and the latter was quite high and steadily rising when the canal was begun. On Feb. 4 Gen. Grant went up to Lake Providence to inspect the work and remained there several days, so anxious was he to push the work to completion. But while he was there the boys succeeded in hauling a small steamer of some thirty tons capacity from the river to the lake. Upon this steamer Gen. Grant was able to inspect the proposed channel through the bayous, where there was a large force of men at work removing obstructions, and he says in his Memoirs that he saw then that owing to the timber obstructions and the crooked or narrow parts of the channel there was scarcely a chance of this ever becoming a practicable route for moving troops through the enemy's country. But he adds that he allowed the work to go on believing that employment was better than idleness for the men, and as it served as a cover for other efforts which gave a better prospect of success.

On the 10th of February twenty men from company G, including a number of our Ozaukee boys, accompanied by ten or twelve members of the 1st Kansas mounted infantry and all under the command of Major Tom Reynolds, of the Sixteenth, went out on a scout, fell in with 200 rebel cavalry a few miles from camp, promptly attacked and completely routed the enemy and capturing thirty prisoners, with loss of one officer, the captain commanding the Kansas boys, who was killed while gallantly leading his handful of men to the charge.

On Monday, March 16, the canal being completed, the levee was cut and the Mississippi began to pour through into Lake Providence, amid cheers from thousands of blue coats that lined the banks. But the river being many feet higher than the lake, the current was so rapid and strong through the canal that it gradually widened the channel until a much greater volume of water entered the lake than was able to escape from it by its bayou outlet, and on the fourth day the lake had risen above its southern shore and was pouring its surplus water through the village and camps.

During the latter part of 1862 the following members of the Ozaukee Rifles were mustered out on account of physical disabilities contracted in the service: Richard Goggin and John Goggin, uncle and nephew, on December 16th. Richard perished in the Newhall House fire in 1883, and John, after serving another term in the 35th Wisconsin, was mustered out a brevet lieutenant in 1866, and is now living in Milwaukee, Wis. Cornelius Murphy was mustered out Oct. 11 and Edgar C. Brewster on the 19th of that month. Murphy died many years ago. Brewster is said to be living in Poysippi, Wis. Hiram Franklin was mustered out sometime in December. His whereabouts, if living, is unknown.