Clark County WI, Civil War History, 35th Wisconsin Infantry

35th Wisconsin Infantry

Service

The first company of the Thirty-fifth Infantry was mustered into the service of the United States the 27th of November 1863 under the superintendence of Colonel Henry Orff at Camp Washburn Milwaukee, the Regimental organization was completed February 27th , 1864.

The roster was as follows:

Colonel - Henry Orff
Lieut Colonel - Charles A. Smith
Major - George H. Walter
Adjutant - Herman Hesse
Quartermaster - Adolf J. Cramer
Surgeon -John Groening
1st As Surgeon - James Verbryk
2d As. Surgeon - Carmi P. Garlick
Chaplain - I. W. Bowen

The regiment left Milwaukee April 18th to report to General Steele at Alexandria, Louisiana. At St. Louis they were fully equipped for active service and embarking descended the Mississippi arriving at the mouth of the Red River on the 1st of May. Unable at this place to find transportation to Alexandria they continued down the river to New Orleans where they received orders from General Banks to report to Brigadier General Ullmann at Port Hudson, Louisiana. They arrived at that place on the 7th of May and the navigation of the Red River being closed, they remained engaged in guard and picket duty until the 26th of June when they were ordered to Morganizia and assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division, Nineteenth Army Corps commanded by Brigadier General A. L. Lee.

The invasion of Missouri by the rebel General Price, and the threatened attacks of Magruder in Arkansas, rendering it necessary to send reinforcements to those States, the brigade to which the regiment belonged was ordered to St. Charles, Arkansas, arriving there on the 24th of July. They were engaged here in guard duty and in scouting expeditions through the surrounding country until August 7th when they returned to Morganzia. Millard T. Brown of Company H died here of pneumonia, September 30th, at the age of seventeen. His home was at East Troy, Wisconsin. "He was a prompt and faithful soldier who, while surrounded by the influences of the army, remembered the instructions of pious parents and yielded his heart to Christ. He died a soldier of the Union and of the Cross."

On the 1st of October, the brigade set out on an expedition to Simmsport on the Atchafalaya River. During the expedition, the regiment participated in several skirmishes. Returning to Morganzia, they proceeded up the Mississippi and White Rivers landing at Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas on the 18th of October. November 9th they left Duvall's Bluff for Brownsville, a small village about thirty miles west of that place. The object of this move was to protect the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad and intercept any portion of Price's retreating rebels, should they attempt to escape between Duvall's Bluff and Little Rock. Price, however was careful to avoid a near approach to our forces. The services of the brigade proving unnecessary, they returned to Duvall's Bluff, December 1st, and were there ordered to build winter quarters. While they remained here for a short rest, they experienced none of the monotony of camp life being daily engaged in brigade drill on the prairie. December 14th the regiment was assigned to the fourth brigade of the reserve corps, military division of West Mississippi. They were employed in guard and picket duty and in laboring on the fortifications, until February 7th, 1865, when they embarked for New Orleans to join the army which was gathering there for an attack on Mobile. Encamping at Algiers, near the city, until February 22d they, at that date, reembarked and on the 26th landed on Mobile Point where they were assigned to the First Brigade, Third Division of the Thirteenth Corps. March 27th they took position in front of Spanish Fort where they were engaged in the siege until the rebels evacuated the place on the 8th of April. They last here two men killed and fifteen wounded. April 9th they marched ten miles to Fort Blakely, arriving too late to assist in its capture and on the 11th returned to Spanish Fort. The following day they embarked, crossed Mobile Bay and landed on the west shore five miles below the city. On the 13th they marched through Mobile to Whistler Station, five miles above the city, where they remained six days. They marched northward forty-five miles and encamped on the 21st at Nannahubbah Bluff, near the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. April 26th they moved up the bank of the latter stream ten miles to McIntosh Bluff and there engaged in building fortifications until the surrender of the rebel armies and the close of the war east of the Mississippi. May 9th they proceeded to Mobile and encamped near the city until June 1st when they took transports and sailed to Brazos Santiago. Debarking at that place on the 8th, the men sported upon the coast gathering sea shells and salt water curiosities until the 20th, when they were ordered to Clarksville at the mouth of the Rio Grande.

Here in this extreme corner of our free land the gloomy waters of the great Gulf roaring before them on the one hand and the quiet but turbid current of the Rio Grande separating them from disturbed Mexico on the other, the Thirty-fifth Wisconsin celebrated the Fourth of July. The Declaration of Independence was read, speeches made and an old time celebration enjoyed.

August 2d they marched up the river and the next day passing over the old battle ground of Palo Alto - a prairie clothed with a luxuriant growth of grass and wild flowers - they reached Brownsville. A soldier of the regiment says, "There are no settlements of any kind between Clarksville and Brownsville. The deer, wolf, prairie dog and herds of cattle, as wild as either, are every where to be seen along the route. At Palo Alto not even a slab is visible to mark the consecrated ashes of the fallen brave."

There had at this time been gathered at Brownsville an army of 25,000 men, of whom 19,000 were colored. The Thirty-fifth were assigned to the command, known as the "Separate Brigade," Army of the Rio Grande, and remained here during the rest of their term of service employed in guard duty, in and around the town and upon government steamers plying between this place and Brazos Santiago. March 15th, 1866, they were mustered out of service. Ten days later they started for home, reached New Orleans April 1st and Madison, Wisconsin on the 10th where on the 16th they received their final pay and were disbanded.

Surgeon John Groening is spoken of as a most faithful officer. He was always at his post. During the sickly season of 1864, when at time, two hundred men repaired to the hospital at "sick call," he was always present and devoted himself to their care. The muster out roster as reported by the Adjutant General was a follows:

Lieut. Colonel George W. Walther
Major Robert Strohman
Adjutant Bernard S. Schoeffel
Quartermaster William Henry Williams
Surgeon John Groening
Captains First Lieutenants Second Lieutenants
Company A.---------------- William Tyler -------------
Company B. Fritz von Baumbach, Jasper Vosburg, Sylvester F. Barton
Company C.---------------- -------------- Newton A. Oleson
Company D. Michael A. Leahy -------------- --------------
Company E. Henry Fox, John Smail --------------
Company F. John W. Johann -------------- --------------
Company G. --------------- Anderson F. Smith, Leonard Tregea
Company H. --------------- Charles Wegemann --------------
Company I. --- Lyman B. Everdell ---------------- Henry Maderson
Company K. ---------------- Archibald A. Adams -------------

Regimental Statistics

Original strength, 1,066.

Gain -- by recruits in 1864, 14; in 1865, 8; total , 1,088.

Loss -- by death, 256; desertion, 29; transfer, 11; discharge, 177

Regiment still in service, March 1, 1866

Love 1866 *

Love is a surname of an author below:

"Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion" by Wm. DeLoss Love. Publ.
1866. Church and Goodman, Chicago. Pages 1056-1136 list all Wisconsin
unit men who were killed in action, who died of their wounds, or who
died of disease. Love was a Milwaukee clergyman. Copies of his book
are almost impossible to find; the Archives section of the State
Historical Society in Madison has a copy. Kay Scholtz