History of Reedsburg and the Upper Baraboo Valley, by Merton Edwin Krug, Publ. February 1929 by the author. Printed by Democrat Printing Company, Madison, Wis., Page 82-90

*This history, with that of Company A, 19th Regiment, W.V.I., is taken from the historical papers by the Rev. S. A. Dwinnell, from the pages of Love's History of Wisconsin in the Civil War, and Springer's History of the Civil War.

On the 2nd day of September 1861, Giles STEVENS, a lawyer of Reedsburg, having received a commission from Governor RANDALL for that purpose, commenced enlisting a military company, called the "Pioneer Rifles". At the end of the first week forty men had been enrolled and, within a short time the company was filled, mainly from the towns of Winfield, Westfield, Ironton, LaValle, Reedsburg, Wonewoc, and Hillsboro. Reedsburg was its place of rendezvous and drill. Giles STEVENS was chosen captain, B. F. BLACKMON of Ironton first lieutenant and J. W. LUSK, of this town, second lieutenant, and were duly commissioned by the state.

On the evening of October 28, a meeting was held in the basement of the Presbyterian church, at which swords were presented to the officers by the citizens, and presentation speeches made.

On the morning of October 30 the people and friends of the soldiers assembled to bid them adieu, and in some instance, as result proved, a last farewell. They were taken in wagons to Spring Green, on their way to Camp Randall at Madison. As they passed out of the village the citizens, under direction of Captain F. A. WIER, lined the street south of the flouring mill of Safford MACKEY and Company, and gave them three cheers at parting. This was the first company to leave the northwestern portion of Sauk County for the war, and it awakened new and sad emotions.

The company was mustered into the United States service and assigned to the Twelfth Regiment of Infantry as Company B. George E. BRYANT was their colonel. The regiment departed from Camp Randall for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, January 11, 1862, one thousand forty-nine in number, the largest that had then left the state. They were armed with Belgian rifles and had Sibley tents and were well equipped throughout.

The regiment was unable to cross the Mississippi at Quincy on account of the ice, and marched down to Douglassville, opposite Hannibal, a distance of twenty-two miles. There they spent the night of the thirteenth with the temperature twenty degrees below zero, and had no place of rest after their tedious march but to lie on the frozen ground, without tents, on the bank of the river.

Crossing the Mississippi, they rode from Hannibal to Weston, Missouri, for twenty-four hours, chiefly in open cars, without fire, lights or warm food, and as a result over one hundred were in a few days, on the sick list. Captain STEVENS' Company, on the left of the regiment and the last to cross the river, were detailed to take care of the baggage and load it on the train. This they did in driving snowstorm. The other companies having proceeded on their way, Company B was left to take the regular passenger train and thus was not exposed to the perils and sufferings of their companions.

From Weston they marched early in the spring one hundred and sixty miles south to Fort Scott, then back to Lawrence, Kansas, which place they left April 29 for Fort Riley, one hundred and five miles west, by way of Topeka, where they shared with many other troops in a general review.

The great southern expedition to New Mexico to which they were destined having been abandoned, the company with a whole command, was ordered back to Leavenworth, which they reached May 27 and joined in another grand review. On the 29th they moved to St. Louis on their way to Corinth, landed at Columbus, Kentucky, June 2d, and were engaged for a month in repairing the Mobile and Ohio railroad, and scouring the country for bridge burners and bushwhackers. They subsequently moved to Union City, and thence to Humbolt, Tennessee. While at that post Captain STEVENS, in command of his own and two other companies, was ordered to Huntington, in that state, to drive out a force of the enemy. This they effected, pursing them until they crossed the Tennessee river, where they returned to Kansas.

On the 12th of October, 1862, the regiment was ordered to Pocahontas to take part in the battle of Hatchie, then in progress, to prevent Van Dorn in his northward movement, which was effected. They formed the reserve and were not in action and thence marched to Bolivar, Tennessee. They continued at that place until November 3, when they commenced a march to the South with the Army of the Mississippi, under General Grant. On the fourth, they reached La Grange, and on the 8th, the Twelfth led the advance of a large force under command of Gen. McPherson, on a reconnoitering expedition, towards Holly Springs, near which a heavy rebel force was known to be encamped. They marched within eleven miles of that place when Companies A and B were deployed as skirmishers, and advanced to the supposed position of the rebels; but they had retreated and the regiment moved up and bivouacked on the site of the rebel camp. The expedition returned the next day to La Grange, having captured about one hundred and fifty prisoners. November 28 they moved southward to Holly Springs and Lumpkin's Mills, and December 12 to Yocona Creek, having a severe march down the line of the Mississippi Central Railroad, with the probable object of attacking Vicksburg in the rear. Holly Springs having been captured by Van Dorn, it was necessary for General Grant to retrace his steps, and the Twelfth went into camp again at Lumpkin's Mills on the 27th of December.

In January 1863, they moved to Moscow, Tennessee, thence to Lafayette, thence to Collinsville, and March 14th, to Memphis. April 18th Colonel Bryant commanded an expedition to attack the rear of the rebel General Chalmers' forces, while General Smith should attack in front. In a skirmish in which seven rebel officers and sixty men fell into our hands, Captain STEVENS' Company was under fire, but sustained no loss. The next day they came upon the enemy eight miles south of Hernando, in a strong position, but being too weak in numbers and awaiting reinforcements, did not attack - all which movements were intended to hold the enemy in that vicinity while Col. Grierson made his famous raid through Mississippi. May 11th they embarked at Memphis, disembarked just out of range of the enemy's guns above Vicksburg, marched across the peninsula opposite the town, embarked again and landed at Grand Gulf. After the valuable army stores had been removed from that place, the regiment proceeded up the river to Warrenton, where they joined the fourth division, under General Lauman, and took position in fortifications before Vicksburg. They were engaged in reducing that important fortress until the surrender of that place by Pemberton to Grant July 4th, 1863.

Closely related to the fall of Vicksburg was the second battle of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi. On the 12th of July, Captain STEVENS being in command of the regiment, received an order to detail three hundred men to act as skirmishers, his whole command numbering but four hundred and fifty at that time. He afterwards received orders to join his regiment to the assaulting column. In the reply to the order, he asked that three hundred detailed skirmishers might first be returned to his command, but it was found that they were three miles away. Another regiment was then ordered into the charge in place of his. That regiment was repulsed with terrible loss. Thus the Twelfth was providentially saved from being fearfully decimated.

Returning to Vicksburg they suffered much from sickness. August 15th the regiment embarked for Natchez. September 1st they had the advance in an expedition to Harrisonburg, Louisiana, commanded by General Crocker. November 22nd they embarked at Natchez for Vicksburg and went ten miles east to guard the railroad near the Big Black. December 4th they returned again to Vicksburg and soon re-embarked for Natchez again where they joined a strong force and out in pursuit of Wirt Adams' command. January 23, 1864, they returned to Vicksburg, and five hundred and twenty of the men re-enlisted.

In February they formed a part of Sherman's celebrated Meridian expedition, marching more than two hundred miles eastward and back. Captain STEVENS, in command of six companies, formed the rear guard. The General had directed that the troops should subsist on the country through which they passed. On the outward march, Sergt. INMAN, James MILES, and one other man were detailed on a foraging expedition to bring in subsistence. Passing down the railroad track at a point where it diverged from the traveled road over which the troops were marching, they were soon widely separated from any support of their fellow comrades, and near the confines of a little town in which rebel troops were seen. Turning aside at a neighboring plantation, they confiscated a four-muled team and wagon, loaded it with bacon and other supplies and joined their command in safety. It was regarded by all as a feat of great daring. On the 13th of March, 1864, the re-enlisted men went home on veteran furloughs of forty days.

The non-veterans received orders to join the veterans at Cairo, and all proceeded on their way to take their place again in the 17th corps, under Blair, in the army of the Tennessee, under McPherson, which they effected on the 8th of June at Ackeword, Georgia. From this time they were engaged in battle or skirmishing much of the time - being under fire more or less, as Captain STEVENS said, every day - until early in September following. A few miles on this side of Kenesaw Mountain Charles REIFENRATH, of this town, was mortally wounded on skirmish duty and died soon after.

BEFORE ATLANTA

Jefferson Davis had long been unfriendly toward General Johnson and desired to witness his public disgrace. His failure to hold the Federal Army in check in their campaign from Chattanooga, afforded Davis an opportunity to carry out his design, although it is doubtful whether any other of his generals, with a force so much inferior to that of the Union Army, would have done better for the weak and waning cause of the Confederacy.

On the 17th of July Johnson was removed and Hood, who was one of their best fighting generals at that time - although impetuous, rash and unfit to command a large army - was appointed in his place. Hood, evidently desirous of striking quick and brilliant blows upon Sherman's army, immediately upon taking command of the Confederate troops, commenced some of the most dashing and furious onsets upon our army experienced during the war.

Sherman, instead of attacking the place from the southwest, as the rebels evidently expected, moved around to the northeast where the battle of Peach Tree Creek was fought, on the afternoon of July 20th, by which the rebels were forced back to their last general line of defenses, on that side of the city, on the night following.

Bald Hill, which was evidently considered by the rebels as a commanding position, is upon the east of Atlanta, and the attack on July 21st was made from that side where the altitude was not high and the ascent easy. The Twelfth and Sixteenth Wisconsin Regiments were in the first brigade of General Liggett's Division, on the extreme left of the land, toward the south. In the assault upon the enemy's work on that morning by the regiments Company B of the Twelfth was deployed as skirmishers, three rods in front of the Sixteenth Regiment. They crossed a cornfield and charged up the hill under a withering fire from the enemy's entrenchment. When near the works of the enemy, it is according to the rules of war for skirmishers to drop upon the ground and allow the main body to pass over them before uniting in the charge. But Company B, mistaking a word of encouragement from the captain addressed to the men of the Sixteenth Regiment for a command, still rushed on and pushed at once into the enemy's entrenchment, but the Sixteenth was soon to their support and the rebels fled to another line of work.

Love's History says of this assault:

"The men pressed forward without wavering, entered the rebel works with loud cheers and then commenced a hand-to-hand fight, with bayonets, and the butts of their muskets. When finally they drove out the desperate rebels the ground was strewn with dead and wounded." There was no bayonet fighting, however on the left wing where Company B was engaged.

In this charge, L. B. CORNWELL of Winfield, J. E. WICKERSHAM and Amos FORD of Ironton were killed, and Spencer MILES mortally wounded. James MILES was severely wounded on picket duty previous to the charge on that morning. During the night following, the captured entrenchment were changed so as to face Atlanta. A slight earthwork was made on their left, running south, and about three feet high, after the battle of the next day commenced, to prevent an enfilading fire from that side.

Captain STEVENS' Company was on the extreme left of that line, at the angle of the earthworks, extending along those that faced to the west, and also those that faced the south. The events of those following days proved their position to be of great importance, in the estimation of the rebels, and one of extreme peril to themselves.

About noon on the 22d, there were indications that Hood was about to make an attack. The infuriated rebels soon moved to a charge, both on the west and south. It was the intention of General McPherson to prevent an attack from the south, by stationing a large force on that side, but the enemy discovered a gap between General Dodge's moving column and General Blair's line, and pouring through it commenced a furious attack from that quarter. General McPherson heard the fires and riding through the woods to discover the cause came suddenly upon a body of rebels who ordered him to surrender; but he put spurs to his horse and dashed into the forest. The deadly aim of rebel bullets were too certain and he fell. His body was taken within the Confederate lines and held for a time. His last command was to fill up that gap but it required most desperate fighting to do it.

The rebel Hardee led this attack, but General Dodge repulsed him severely and captured many prisoners. The rebel Stuart, who succeeded Polk, swept over a hill and captured some of our men, but was met by Generals Leggett and G. A. Smith and their forces, who fought him four hours when he was about to withdraw. But at four in the afternoon, a part of our forces having become weakened, was pierced and divided by the enemy, and at once the battle was renewed with great fierceness but the Confederates were finally repulsed. The smoke of the battle and the missiles of death filled the air. Captain STEVENS' Company occupied a position which more than any other the enemy sought to possess. They were exposed to their fire on the east, west, and south, with only a slight protection, except on the west. It was only by the most determined resistance that the enemy was prevented from taking their works. During much of the entire afternoon the missiles of death so filled the air that one could hardly raise a hand or head above the embankment without its being pierced. At the close of the day the rebel troops encamped upon one side of the entrenchments, and ours on the other; but during the night the enemy fell back and left our troops in possession of the position. Here Captain STEVENS was wounded and Frank HENRY fell, pierced through with several balls; and Caleb CLARK, George FORD, and Everet H. HAGAMAN were killed, and William RICHARDS mortally wounded. Company B was reduced in the two days fighting from seventy-four men and three officers to twenty-three men and one officer. Their regiments, numbering less than six hundred in all, lost in the two days one hundred and eighty-eight men. The Union Army at that time sustained a loss of four thousand men. The rebel loss was some twelve thousand of whom three thousand two hundred and forty were killed instantly.

The Twelfth Regiment was in the movement, by Howard, towards Macon Railway, Georgia, July 28th, and when at noon the 15th corps two miles in advance were severely attacked they moved rapidly forward outstripping all re-enforcements, and joined in battle just in time to save the Federals from defeat. They lost on that day nineteen in killed and wounded. Immediately after they took position in the trenches before Atlanta, where they remained nearly a month. At Jonesborough, August 31, they joined in repulsing the enemy after a severe battle. September first they were also engaged, and the next day pursued the retreating force. They next defended our communications against Hood after which the early enlisted non-veterans returned home, leaving the veterans and recruits to proceed with Sherman in his Grand March to the Sea, which commenced from Atlanta November 24, 1864, with 6,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and a large amount of artillery. On the march they destroyed three hundred and twenty miles of railway, severing thus the Confederate forces in Virginia from those in the west. They burned railroad ties, heated and twisted rails, destroyed depots, shops, engine hoses, water tanks. They burned twenty thousand bales of cotton besides capturing 25,000 at Savannah. There escaped from the plantations of their former masters 10,000 Negroes, who followed our army to Savannah. Our entire loss was nine officers and 548 men, only about one-half of whom were killed and wounded.

The army subsisted on the country through which they marched, chiefly on hogs, sheep, turkeys, geese, chickens, rice and sweet potatoes, foraged mostly from the plantations, and their subsistence was not scanty even in the country where thousands of Union prisoners were starving in rebel stockades. There were issued to the troops 1,300 head of beef cattle, 9,500,000 pounds of corn, and 10,500,000 pounds of fodder. For the use of the army 4,000 mules and 5,000 horses were taken.

The Twelfth assisted on the march in the destruction of the Georgia Central Railway and reached the neighborhood of Savannah December 12. They took position in the trenches and remained until the evacuation of the city. Proceeding with the 17th corps by water to Beaufort they took part in the battle near Pocotoligo River

In the campaign of the Carolinas they crossed the Edisto River, marched through deep swamps, charged upon the rebels at Orangeburg and drove them out of the place. They participated in the grand review of troops at Washington in May and arrived at Louisville, Kentucky, June 7 where they were mustered out July 16 and were paid and disbanded at Madison August 9, 1865.
Submitted by Carol