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 90-101

Rolling M. STRONG having received a commission from Governor RANDALL, resigned the office of sheriff which he then held, returned to Reedsburg, and commenced enlisting a company called the "Independent Rangers". The proposal to unite with the Independent Regiment which the war department had authorized Colonel Horace G. SANDERS of Racine to raise, and get in if possible as Company A. The independent nature of the movement, together with a personal popularity of the recruiting officer, soon filled the company to maximum. Rollin M. STRONG was elected captain, Henry A. TATOR first lieutenant, and Alex. P. ELLINWOOD, second lieutenant.

They remained in this village for preparation and drill until Sunday, January 26, 1862, when they were ordered into camp in Racine, by way of Kilbourn, to which place they were conveyed in sleighs by our citizens.

The regiment entered Camp Utley, Racine, January 27. Company A was mustered into service February 22. By and order from the war department the day previous, abolishing all independent regiments, Colonel SANDERS' organization was entered as the 19th regiment of Wisconsin Infantry.

While at Racine the company was quartered near the shore of Lake Michigan, and suffered considerably from the chilling winds off that body of water.

On the 20th of April the regiment was ordered to Camp Randall, Madison, to guard a thousand prisoners who had recently been captured at Fort Donaldson.

Camp Randall, being the ground of the State Agricultural Society, was surrounded by a high and solid board fence enclosing some twenty acres. The barracks were near the fence, while the quarters of the 19th regiment were in the central portion of the grounds. A guard was constantly on duty on the outside of the camp, as also on the inside, between the prisoners and the quarters of our troops. No intercourse was allowed between them and the soldiers except in the line of duty.

Upon the removal of these prisoners to Camp Douglas, Chicago, Company A accompanied them as a guard. Joining their regiment as they passed through the city, June 2d, they proceeded at once by way of Washington to Fortress Monroe, in the vicinity of which place they remained four weeks performing guard and picket duty.

AT NORFOLK

About the first of July 1862, they were ordered to report to General Viele at Norfolk, where, and in the vicinity of which, they remained, in the performance of garrison and outpost duty, until April 14, 1863. This regiment performed more of this species of service, it is said, than any other of our state troops. Although the men sometimes complained that they were kept so long from more active service in the field, yet they performed their duties with fidelity.

Norfolk was a city of about 15,000 inhabitants, with the suburban town of Portsmouth with a population of 10,000, and nearly all were in deep sympathy with the rebellion. The regimental guard, which had preceded the 19th in those cities, was understood to have a good supply of "rosewater treatment" in dealing with the spirit of Rebellion among the people, and in which the commandant of the post, General Vielie, seemed to have more or less sympathy. The spirit of contempt and hatred towards the Yankee soldiers was especially manifested on the part of the women - the men not daring to give expression of their feeling. The women manifested their hostility more by acts and sneers and grimaces, than by words. An incident related by Sergeant C. A. CHANDLER illustrated their manners. Having business through the city one day, he saw in advance of him, upon the sidewalk, three young women conversing. As he approached they spread themselves across the entire walk, evidently intending to crowd him off the curbstone into the street; but he marched directly along, upon the outer portion of the walk, brushing quite hard their clothing and jostling the person of the most impudent of the trio; whereupon she snarled out some expression of contempt for the Yankee soldiers. The sergeant stopped, and, turning to the young women, he told them that the soldiers had rights in that city as well as they - that it was useless to crowd them into the gutter, and it would be much better to succumb to their fate than to resist; to which they made no reply and he passed on his way.

The soldiers would sometimes hang out the United States flag over the sidewalk in front of their quarters if for no other purpose than to see the women leave the walk and take to the street or pass to the other side, as they approached it. At one time, upon one of the large thoroughfares, some of their number hung a flag over the walk of each side of the street, so that to pass under it or take to the street and mingle with passing vehicles was the only alternative. This treatment on the part of the troops restrained these acts of hostility and contempt towards them, and their rights were soon outwardly respected.

Company A, with the regiment, continued efficient service in Norfolk, in guard and picket duty - a favorite with the law and order portion of the citizens. They were commended by The Union, a newspaper published in the city, for "their exemplary conduct and quiet bearing". By their gentlemanly and quiet deportment they commended the respect, and by their vigilance in the discharge of duty they excited the wholesome fear of those who hated them.

New Year's day of 1863 the slaves became free under the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln. It was a great day in Norfolk. The Negroes had a big procession in commemoration of the event. A serious outbreak was feared by the excited populace. Extra guards were posted for preserving order and quelling the first symptoms of an outbreak; but none occurred. During the day the regiment called upon General Vielie, at his quarters, under whose command they had served eight months. He made an appropriate address and commended them in these words:

"Trusted with important duties and responsibilities, you have not in any instance failed to fulfill them. Stationed among those who felt little kindness toward you, you have daily exhibited a noble forbearance. When no courtesy was shown you, you have not failed magnanimously to show pity towards the many misguided people whom the enemy have left here unprotected, who have made petty efforts to any you."

General Dix, the commandant of that department, had previously in a letter addressed to Governor Salomon of our state, made honorable mention of the regiment and commended their conduct as creditable to themselves and honorable to the commonwealth from which they came.

SIEGE OF SUFFOLK

Upon the banks of the Nansamond, about thirty miles from Norfolk, is the little village of Suffolk. As the junction of the two railways, it was an important strategical point and was held by General Peck with a force of 14,000 men. By the capture of the rebel mail he learned of an intended surprise upon his forces by Longstreet, one of the most able and daring of the rebel commanders. "Longstreet, Hill, and Hood came rushing upon our lines," says Abbott's History, "with five divisions of the rebel army, expecting to sweep all resistance before them. They were met with solid shot, bursting shells and bristling steel. They had not cherished a doubt of their bravery to cross the narrow Nansamond, seize the railroad in the rear at Suffolk, capture the city in its garrison with all its vast stores and then, after a holiday march, to occupy Portsmouth and Norfolk."

General Peck was on the alert, obtained a few wooden gunboats from Admiral Lee, threw up defenses and sent to Norfolk for guns and troops.

On the 14th of April 1863, the Nineteenth received orders to move to Suffolk to re-enforce the place - started by train at ten o'clock P.M. - reached the place at three o'clock A.M. - disembarked - went two miles further in a drenching rain and Egyptian darkness, to the camp of the 21st Connecticut, a large detail of whose men were out on picket duty, where most of our men obtained shelter, in the tents of the friendly soldiers, and the others were exposed to the severity of the storm until morning. They now had six hundred men on duty. At five in the evening an order was received to march to Jericho Creek where they pitched their tents, which had now been brought forward.

One night they spent in rifle pits on the Nansamond - boys had their first sight of rebels in arms - anxious to get a shot at them. Saturday night, April 21 a large detail was made from Company A under Sergeant C. A. CHANDLER and one hundred and sixty from the regiment under Lieutenant ELLINWOOD and another officer, to build a corduroy road three hundred yards over marsh, and a rough bridge over a creek thirty feet in width for the transportation of cannon, to a piece of rising ground in the marsh. This was effected that night and the one following. The soldiers carried much of the timber for the road from half to three-fourths of a mile.

On Friday night previous Company A with five others had marched down the river and gone into rifle pits under command of Major BOVAY, opposite the rebel battery at Hill's Point, on the Nansamond. The battery consisted of five splendid brass guns, four of them twelve pound howitzers, and one twenty-five pounder. General Peck proposed to take this battery and sent to Major BOVAY for his men to join with other troops in the enterprise. Major BOVAY pleased that they were unfit for a dangerous expedition, having always been on guard and picket duty and never under fire, and thus obtained a countermanding order. When his men heard of this they were fired with indignation at their commander and called him a granny unfit for his position. They were anxious for active work, and were just ready for such a daring feat.

Other troops - two hundred in all - were detailed for the enterprise, under command of Colonel John E. Ward of the 8th Connecticut, who crossed over on a gunboat, landed unexpectedly, rushed up the river bank and along a ravine, charged upon the rear of the fort and captured men and guns without firing a shot. This spirited little affair has an honorable place in the history of the war and throws a sublime military glory around the actors in it. The men of the Nineteenth felt deeply chagrined, not only because they were not permitted to share in the hazard and the honor of the enterprise, but also because the conduct of Major BOVAY gave countenance to a false charge preferred against them of shirking duty and grumbling, which resulted in the publication of an order of the general commanding soon after, relieving them from duty on the line of the river defenses and ordering them to camp at Suffolk - an order no doubt given in a moment of petulance arising from the incorrect statement of one of his staff officers who fell out with Major BOVAY.

From April 25th to April 30th Company A, with Captain STRONG, were on picket duty in rifle pits on the Nansamond - the first thirty-six hours in the rain without tents and without rest except what they could get lying on the ground in their wet, chilled condition. Here they built and manned Fort Wisconsin. There was a rebel battery on the west side of the river, about three-fourths of a mile from them, between which and the river stretched a wide strip of marsh covered with a growth of tall grass, through which the rebel sharpshooters could crawl, concealed to the river bank and fire upon our men. Various unavailing efforts were made to shoot over combustible material and ignite the grass, when Nelson GARDNER and Ephraim HAINES of this town volunteered to swim the river, which was twenty-five rods wide, and set fire to the grass. Their offer was accepted by Captain STRONG, and, concealing matches in their hair and wearing their hats, they leaped over the ramparts, plunged into the river, swam over unobserved by the enemy, set fire to the grass, rested a short time under the bank, and swam back in safety, although subject all the way to a shower of balls from the enemy's battery, and an enfilading fire from the guns in the rifle pits on the river. This dangerous feat was honorably mentioned in the history of the war, although the name of but one of the boys is given.

Soon after, Company A, with a brigade of other troops, were for about two weeks on a reconnaissance toward the Blackwater. Their rations failing, they were obliged to forage on the country. They found a crib of corn concealed in a swamp and carried it to a rebel mill. The miller refused to grind and they gave him the alternative of surrendering his mill to their use or being returned to headquarters as a prisoner. He chose the former. There were two millers in Company A, William SWEATLAND and William D. HOBBY, and they ground the corn. They confiscated pigs from the woods and lived in southern fashion, on "hog and hominy" for several days.

From May 23 to June 17 the regiment was at Norfolk, performing ordinary fatigue duty and drilling. June 18th it was at Norfolk and encamped outside the old fortifications, until the 25th, when it was ordered to West Point, where it remained until July 8th, when it received orders to return to Yorktown.

AT YORKTOWN

Yorktown is on the York river, fifteen miles above Fortress Monroe. The stream is about a mile in width and the harbor will float the largest shops of war. It was strongly fortified during the Revolution. It was here that Lord Cornwallis surrendered army of 7,000 men, with their munitions of war, to General Washington in October 1781, which secured for Great Britain an acknowledgment of our independence as a nation.

The old fort contained an area of about twenty acres. In the early part of the war of the Rebellion the confederates built a new fort, inclosing the old one and containing some forty acres.

With these and some other works, they frightened McClellan, when on his famous pick-and-spade expedition up the Pensula in 1862, to spending a month in retrenching before he dared move upon their works. Just as he got ready to go the enemy vanished, much to his disappointment and chagrin.

This village of some half-dozen houses is within the fort. Two of them built of brick, bore the marks of solid shot thrown into their walls, during the bombardment by our army previous to Cornwallis's surrender.

The 19th, which occupied the fort in conjunction with several other regiments, were stationed in the northwest portion of the grounds, which had been used by the rebels as a kind of Ghehenna - or a place for the burial of horses and miles.

The regiment was supplied with Sibley tents. For the purpose of getting a better circulation of air, stakes were driven into the earth and the tents pitched upon the top of them.

There was a fine spring outside the fort, but permission could not be obtained from General Wistar to bring water from it. Sickness began to prevail. Rations were given away to the colored people. One old man, formerly a slave, who said he lived there in the days of the Revolution and remembered those scenes, received a hundred loaves at one time. The ranks were thin and Hampton hospital filled. During four weeks in which they encamped here four hundred out of about seven hundred were sick with miasmatic fevers. Col. Sanders made several requests to General Wistar, the commandant of the post, for the removal of his regiment to a more healthy location; and, although there seemed to be no good reason why it should not be done as there was no enemy within sixteen miles, his applications were unheeded. Col. Sanders finally succeeded, through his skill as a lawyer, in obtaining an order from higher officials, for their removal to Newport News, from which place one hundred fifty men were at once ordered to Hampton Hospital. The few left outside of the hospital were all partial invalids, unfit for severe duty.

From this recital we can see that in war the suffering is by no means confined to the battlefield, or to active service before the enemy, and that immense suffering may come to an army from the wanton disregard of the health and life of its troops by a single officer.

On the 10th of October 1863, the regiment left Newport News on transport, for

NEWBURN, N.C.

At this place they landed on the eleventh. This is one of the finest towns in the state, containing about five thousand inhabitants and situated at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers. The rebels considered it an important position and had strongly fortified it early in the war. It was wrested from their hands by the bravery of the Union troops under Generals Burnside and Commodore Goldsborough in February 1862.

Upon the arrival of the regiment in Newburn, Company A was assigned to outpost and picket duty at Evans' Mill on Brice Creek, eight miles south of the city. At that place was a saw and flourmill and a large plantation which had belonged to General Evans of the rebel army. The officers were quartered in the Evans mansion, and the soldiers in barracks erected for the purpose. From west and south there was but one place of access, on account of intervening swamps,and that was across the mill-dam, and this enabled the company to hold the position against superior numbers of the enemy.

At the time of the attack upon Newburn on the first of February 1864, Company A was attacked by a brigade of cavalry and a battery of artillery. They sent to Newburn for reinforcement and received three companies of cavalry and a twelve-pound howitzer with men to man it. With this assistance they held the reels in check three days. Captain TATOR who was in command of the outpost and who was an efficient officer, sent out cavalry scouts several times a day to watch the enemy and ascertain their position and what they were doing. At one time they found them building a bridge, evidently for the purpose of bringing over their artillery for an attack; but a severe shelling from the howitzer stopped the enterprise. It is probable that the manifest boldness and daring of the Union troops led the enemy to the conclusion that the force at the outpost was superior to what it was in fact.

On the morning of February 3d, Captain TATOR received orders from General Palmer, commanding at Newburn, to fall back to the city, soon after which, the rebels, guided by a Sesesh planter named Wood residing in the neighborhood marched around the swamp on the south, and coming in on the rear, took possession of the place. Company A was thus fortunately saved from being taken prisoner.

Upon their evacuation of the place, they burned the barracks and other property which they could not take. The rebels destroyed other property, and undertook to burn the Evans mansion but the fire was extinguished before much damage was done. The confederates soon abandoned the position and Company A was reinstated. In rebuilding their barrack they tore down some buildings, formerly used as slave cabins. In one of them was found an old rebel payroll, on which the name of Wood as a recruiting officer appeared, whereupon Lieutenant ELLINWOOD and a small detail of men went out to his plantation and brought him in as a prisoner. He was sent to Newburn and thence delivered to the tender mercies of General Butler, commandant of Fortress Monroe, who ordered him into confinement at the ripraps.

In the latter part of April 1864, the regiment was ordered to Yorktown, where a week was spent in reorganizing the army. H. A. TATOR had entered as a lieutenant but he had previously been made a captain. So had First Lieutenant ELLINWOOD. Captain STRONG had been advanced to lieutenant colonel and the Nineteenth regiment put under his command. They were then assigned to the third brigade under Colonel Sanders, first division under General Brooks, the eighteenth army corps, under General Baldy Smith, the army of the James, under General Butler. Accompanied by a few gunboats the whole army was taken by transports to City Point and Bermuda Hundred, where they landed May 16, taking the rebels completely by surprise. The whole movement was admirably planned and executed.

From May 5th to the 9th the army lay at Bermuda Hundred, except a portion of the troops who were engaged in digging lines of entrenchment across the peninsula, from the James to Appomattox, a mile or so from their confluence. On the eleventh and twelfth, the nineteenth, with other troops, tore up and destroyed eight miles of the Richmond and Petersburg railroad, burning the ties and bending the rails.

On Friday, May 13, the Nineteenth assisted in taking a line of rebel works in front of Fort Jackson, and on the next day another line of works still nearer where George FOSNOT was wounded. These entrenchments were in the neighborhood of Drury's Bluff on the James. About four o'clock in the afternoon of Saturday the rebels got their range and two men of the regiment were killed by shells.

On Sunday loud cheering was heard by the Nineteenth along the lines toward Richmond. Through rebel prisoners, afterwards taken, they learned that General Beauregard, with his troops from Charleston, had arrived, and that Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis were then reviewing their forces.

On Monday morning, May 16, there as a dense fog and the rebels were early on the advance. Companies A and E, of the Nineteenth were nearer the rebel lines than the others. Colonel STRONG, wishing to ascertain their position, had given orders for their retreat to a position of great safety, and started on a reconnaissance. When but a short distance from his regiment he found himself captured by four stalwart Tennesseans. They were lost in fog and did not know the direction of their own troops from whom they were separated. Colonel STRONG at once entered into familiar conversation with them and expressed a desire to be taken immediately within their lines, as he had been without rest for forty-eight hours and greatly needed sleep. Reposing confidence in him as their guide they were adroitly led in the direction of his regiment, which were lying down. When near his own men, he asked to be released from the grasp of his captors sufficiently to take out his handkerchief. The instant he was free he bounded toward his regiment and gave a command:

"Attention!" he cried in such a tone that they arose and leveled their rifles at the Tennesseeans.

"Don't fire," they cried out. Soon they were sent to the rear as prisoners expressing their satisfaction that they had fallen into the hands of Union troops.

During the day the rebels pressed upon our troops and drove them at all points. In the afternoon the Nineteenth was ordered to dislodge the enemy, who were concealed in timber. To do it they were obliged to march eighty rods across an open field, exposed all the way to a raking fire. For some reason they were not ordered to charge upon them as quick as usual.

During the day the regiment lost thirty-two in killed and wounded. Company A lost B. S. PITTS, killed and W. T. REYNOLDS, J. H. STULL, A. D. TUTTLE, John FOSNOT, John THORN, H. C. FREGLES, Charles DAY wounded. It was noticed that nearly all who were at that time wounded died, even where they suffered but slight flesh wounds, which led to the suspicion that the shots of the enemy were poisoned.

The regiment was ordered to Point of Rocks on the south of the Appomattox and some ten miles from Bermuda Hundred. While there they were on a raid upon the Richmond and Pittsburgh railroad, and tore up and destroyed some six or eight miles of the track. Some of the men were detailed to guard a baggage train sent to Grant's army at Cold Harbor.

On the twentieth of June they were ordered into the trenches southeast of Petersburg. These trenches were the advanced line, next to the enemy. They were on duty forty-eight hours and off the same length of time. They were relieved at midnight and ordered on duty at the same hour, so that they had but one night of unbroken rest in four. While on duty they were exposed constantly to the shells of the enemy both night and day. During the day they suffered from sharpshooters.

June 29th S. SEARL was killed while reading the Baraboo Republic. A ball, glancing from the limb of a tree, pierced his head.

July 5th W. W. HOLTON was wounded and Ephraim HAINES also, the latter mortally by a sharpshooter. About the same time, and near the same spot, a ball from the same direction passed between the legs of Sergeant C. A. CHANDLER. July 13th Corporal A. H. CAHOON was wounded by a shell. August 16th C. A. DANFORTH was severely wounded by a sharpshooter while eating his supper, the ball passing in at the shoulder and out through the left cheek, shattering the lower jaw.

August 7th R. CHEEK was also killed by a sharpshooter. August 13th the veterans, two hundred fifty in number, left on a furlough of forty days. Soon after the non-veterans were ordered to Norfolk to engaged in provost guard duty. Upon the return of the veterans from their furlough, about the first of October, they were ordered to report at Chapin's farm, on the north of the James, before Richmond. On the evening of October 26th the men of the Nineteenth, with Butler's eighteenth corps, moved out from the line near Dutch Gap Canal, advanced northward and the next day, in the afternoon, stormed the old Fair Oaks battlefield. They easily would have taken the defenses had not the enemy learned of the movement and sent re-enforcements rapidly from Petersburg. The Nineteenth Regiment advanced with the other troops, to assault the rebel works.

Lieutenant Colonel STRONG said of this: "The regiment emerged from the pine, and came out on a clear open field, about three hundred yards from the works. As we broke cover the rebels opened on us furiously with artillery, and cut us up badly. Upon seeing the rebel works the boys cheered lustily, and advanced rapidly, closing up the breaks in the ranks made by the artillery and preserving a splendid line. Thus, for about one hundred yards, where we were met by a perfect tornado of shot, shells, canister and minnieballs, directly in our faces, mowing us down by scores. The regiment advanced, mere fragments of the line remaining, dead and wounded covered the ground passed over. The few brave boys pressed forward with the same old cheer, and closed upon the colors. The order "lie down" was given. Flesh and blood could go no further. Nothing could withstand the perfect blast of lead and iron - that most murderous,devouring fire. We laid down, thin as possible, no power to move forward or backward, or to assist in the least, our wounded comrades. The same fearful, telling fire was passing over us. To raise a head was death; a hand, to be hit. It was raining now, fine rain-mist and the early dark of a rainy evening was slowly enveloping us, and out earnest prayer was "night or Blucher", when beyond our left a yell was heard and the hurried tramp of men, and we were surrounded and prisoners."

The regiment numbered eight officers and one hundred and ninety men who went into the fight. Forty-four men only came back. Colonel STRONG was wounded by a sharpshooter as he was making observations to see if there was any chance of his men to get to the rear after the order to lie down. His leg was amputated in Libby Prison.

Company A went in with thirty-six men and came out with thirteen. Corporal A. RATHBUN was wounded so near the edge of the field that he was brought off on a stretcher. Sergeant C. A. DWINNELL was wounded in the head, thigh, left arm and right hand, the latter severely, a minnieball passing through it, and yet he backed off the field, some sixty rods, drawing his knapsack, and escaped to a place of safety. Two balls in addition passed thorough his clothing.

Sergeant C. A. CHANDLER escaped from the field entirely unharmed in this manner. When he received the order to lie down, he saw a furrow near, and dropped into it. The field had been sowed to wheat the summer previous and weeds grew up after the harvest. This furnished some protection. He raised his head several times to look over the field and saw men attempt to run to the rear, but uniformly they fell after a short distance. He discovered also that when he raised his head he attracted a shower of balls, and found it necessary to lie low. After a time he began to back down the furrow, drawing his knapsack for some twenty rods, when the rising ground brought him in full view of the rebel works. He then got up and ran obliquely across the field, to a ditch some twenty rods distant, which he remembered to have passed over as they advanced to the charge. During all the time he was running there was a perfect storm of bullets whistling around him. He had no doubt that hundreds were fired at him alone, and yet not one touched his person, and but one his clothing. Once in the ditch, he escaped without difficulty.

Edward L. LEAONARD was in this battle but in a company of sharpshooters. They crept along a ditch to a position of about twelve rods from the rebel fort where they lay and picked off the gunners. Occasionally the rebels would pour an ineffectual charge of grape or canister at them.

William MILLER was mortally wounded in this battle. When the prisoners were being taken from the field he asked the rebel guard to permit one of them to remain and take care of him. He was answered that it could not be allowed, but that some of his own men would be along soon and take care of him, which was no doubt done as he died in Richmond a few days subsequently.

Sergeant F. B. PALMER, whose family resided in Reedsburg during the war, was killed during the action, but none of his comrades saw him fall. He carried the guidon on the right of his regiment and next to the 148th New York regiment. A soldier of the latter told E. A. DWINNELL that he was shot through the head. Major VAUGHN escaped from the battlefield just as the rebels were charging out to secure their prisoners and was in charge of the regiment at Chapin's Farm during the winter. On the morning of April third, 1865, the Nineteenth with their brigade, was the first to enter Richmond, and their flag was the first to float over the captured capitol of the dead Confederacy. When the regiment was ordered to advance upon the works before the city, the men expected to storm it, but found them evacuated.

The non-veterans were mustered out at the close of their term of service, April 28, 1865. The others moved from Richmond to Fredericksburg, and on the first of May were consolidated into five companies. They were mustered out at Richmond, and August 9th, two hundred and sixty-five in number, they started for Wisconsin, where they were entertained at the fair in Milwaukee and were disbanded at Madison.

Submitted by Carol