Four Years With the Iron Brigade

by Lance Herdegen

  Four Years With

  THE IRON BRIGADE

  The Civil War Journals of William R. Ray,

  Co. F., Seventh Wisconsin Infantry

  Four Years With

  THE IRON BRIGADE

  The Civil War Journals of William R. Ray,

  Co. F., Seventh Wisconsin Infantry

  Edited by

  Lance Herdegen & Sherry Murphy

  Copyright © 2002 Lance Herdegen and Sherry Murphy

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

  Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.

  First Da Capo Press edition 2002

  ISBN 0-306-81119-7

  eBook ISBN: 9780786748457

  Published by Da Capo Press

  A Member of the Perseus Books Group

  http://www.dacapopress.com

  Da Capo Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, or call (800) 255-1514 or (617) 252-5298.

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  For Shirley, who still dances with such grace

  to the drums of her grandmothers

  — Lance Herdegen

  For William R. Ray, who had no idea what a fascinating

  legacy he provided future generations

  — Sherry Murphy

  William R. Ray, circa 1864

  Company F., Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry

  Courtesy of Sherry Murphy

  Maps

  The Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry

  Eastern Theater of Operations

  The Battle of Gainesville (Brawner’s Farm), August 28, 1862

  The Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863

  The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864

  The Battle of Globe Tavern

  Photos and Illustrations

  William R. Ray

  Journal pages, Brawner’s Farm

  Journal pages, July 4, 1862

  General John Gibbon

  Colonel William Robinson

  Brawner’s Farm

  Major George Bill

  General Solomon Meredith

  William R. Ray

  Seminary and Chambersburg Pike at Gettysburg

  Journal pages, Hospital

  Saunder’s Field

  Journal pages, The Crater

  Journal pages, Hatcher’s Run

  General Edward S. Bragg

  William R. Ray in later life

  William R. Ray’s Grave

  Foreword

  It is with great pleasure and excitement for me that, at long last, a book on the glorious Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers has been written. The Seventh Wisconsin, or “Huckleberries,” were part of the famed Iron Brigade, an outfit consisting of volunteers from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. The brigade fought in virtually every major battle of the Army of the Potomac from the beginning of the war through Appomattox.

  The enlisted men of the Seventh, like the officers who led them, were a proud and courageous group of individuals who hailed from nearly every walk of life. Their service ranged from the daily boredom and grind of camp life to the deadly and horrendous Civil War combat experience. Days were long and arduous, disease was rampant, and food and clothing often scarce. Yet, somehow these volunteers found the determination to stay the course through to the end of the war.

  The story of William Ray epitomizes the life and trying times of the common soldier of the Seventh Wisconsin, and captures the essence of those who served.

  Steve Victor

  August 2000

  Great-Great-Great Grandson of Colonel William Wallace Robinson,

  and Great-Great Grandson of Colonel Hollon Richardson

  Preface

  These journals detail the day-to-day life of a Wisconsin Volunteer in the Civil War from his enlistment through the end of the war and return home. According to their author and Iron Brigade member William Royal Ray, the journals represent “small sketches and gatherings of the times & things that is transpiring around me.” And there was a lot “transpiring” around him.

  William Ray enlisted August 19, 1861, as a member of Company F, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers. Although he had no way of knowing it then, his outfit would be brigaded with several other Western regiments and eventually earn the sobriquet “Iron Brigade.” By the middle of the war the brigade was recognized as one of the finest in service. Unfortunately, its members were often called upon to perform heroic deeds, and the horrendous casualties that came as a result of their actions tore away the core of the brigade. Ray was one of the handful of men who served throughout the brigade’s tenure. He was wounded three times: at Gainesville (or Brawner’s Farm) on August 28, 1862, on the first day of Gettysburg in 1863, and again at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. And yet he continued to return to his regiment and offer his efforts to put down the rebellion.

  As is the case with many soldier journal and diaries, it took decades and luck to bring his story to light. Ray was my grandmother’s foster mother’s father. His daughter, Emma Charlotte Ray, married George Thomas Ellis. Although they wanted a daughter, their union produced four boys. My grandmother was Winnifred Mae Poston. Winnifred’s mother died when she was about five years old, and the George Ellis family decided to take her in and raise her. For reasons that are still unclear, they never adopted Winnifred. When her last foster brother, Clyde Ellis, died, Winnifred inherited his house and its contents. Ray’s journals were found in the back of a closet, where they had been hidden away collecting dust for decades. They were given to me about 1984. According to my mother, other items belonging to Ray and relating to his Civil War experience were also found in the home, including his distinctive wartime black hat and a sword, but they were sold in a yard sale for a few dollars by the tenants who were renting the house at the time.

  Ray’s writings comprise nineteen journals of all different sizes and shapes. The first fourteen are entirely about his Civil War experiences (August 1861 through April 1865). The fifteenth details the end of the war, his mustering out, and return home. The balance comprise his observations about his life and experiences in Wisconsin and his move to Iowa and beyond. They end in November 1871.

  I have attempted to transcribe the diaries faithfully in order to retain their unique color and perspective. Ray did not employ an abundance of punctuation and it was not always consistently applied. I have therefore added some for the sake of readability. Many people wrote phonetically in the middle of the nineteenth century, and Ray was no different. I have left his spelling intact.

  Sherry Murphy

  Foster Great-Great Granddaughter

  Vancouver, WA, November 2000

  I would like to thank my husband, Courtney, for his patience and encouragement during the ten-plus years it took to transcribe these journals; my mother, Florence Carpenter, for rescuing the diaries and giving them to me; my sister, Erni Stivison, for her assistance with the epilogue and research; and my children, Tracy Spencer, Holly Sullivan and Sean Murphy for their loving support.

  S.M.

  Introduction

  William R. Ray, the Seventh Wisconsin, and the Iron Brigade

  William R. Ray was caught up in the great sectional conflict between North and South from the very first days of the war. He left hearth and family in 18
61 to help put down what he called the “Rebellion in this once Glorious Union.” He traveled from his home at Cassville, Wisconsin, on the Mississippi River to nearby Lancaster, where he “signed the muster roll of the Union Guards.” Within a few weeks, the “greenhorn patriots” (as one soldier called them in those days) were called to Camp Randall in Madison to become Company F of the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. The company clerks recorded of Ray that he was a blacksmith, 5-foot-9, unmarried, with hazel eyes and light hair. He was just 23.

  It was on September 19, 1861, two days before his regiment left Wisconsin for the war front, that Ray began a journal to “keep account of everything that transpires” in his life as a soldier. “If lost and found by any person,” he wrote on its first page, “make known or bring to Capt Callis Company 7th Regt Wis Volunteers and oblige friend.” For the next four years he carefully and extensively recorded his experiences. It was fortunate that he did so. His regiment soon became part of the “Iron Brigade of the West,” one of the most celebrated military organizations of the American Civil War, equaled in reputation—but not in service—only by the Stonewall Brigade of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

  Composed originally of the Second, Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin, Nineteenth Indiana, and Battery B of the Fourth U.S. Artillery, the brigade was organized October 1, 1861, at Washington. It was attached to the city defenses. The organization first attracted attention those days because it was the only Western organization in the Eastern armies and because the men were issued the regular army’s Model 1858 black felt dress hat. But despite all the drill, training, and soldierly bearing, the men of the “Black Hat Brigade” were left behind in 1862 when the Army of the Potomac moved on Richmond from the east up the Virginia peninsula. They spent May, June, and July in a reserve position at Fredericksburg, Virginia.

  In August 1862, the four regiments were assigned to the new Army of Virginia and sent in pursuit of the forces of Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. In a three week period beginning late on the afternoon of August 28, 1862, the Westerners fought in four of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War—Gainesville (Brawner’s Farm), Second Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam. After those weeks, the tough Westerners were forever known as “the Iron Brigade of the West.” General George B. McClellan said he gave them the fighting name after watching the brigade fight its way up the National Road at South Mountain.

  In October 1862, much reduced by hard fighting, the brigade was reenforced by another Western regiment—the Twenty-fourth Michigan. Little used at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, it was at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, that the five regiments earned a distinguished place in American military history. The recognition came at a terrible cost. Of the 1,883 men engaged in Pennsylvania, 1,153 were killed, wounded, or missing. The Black Hats fought on in 1864 through the bloody Overland Campaign, the Petersburg siege, and Appomattox Court House. It was determined sometime after Appomattox that the Iron Brigade had suffered a higher proportion of battle deaths than any such unit in the Federal armies.

  Despite that grim statistic, however, the Iron Brigade is probably more celebrated today than a century ago. The reason for being overlooked is more one of distance than deliberate slight. The Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan men were far from the major veteran reunions and old soldier gatherings in Eastern cities, where the early attention was given to such fighting organizations as the Irish Brigade, First Jersey Brigade, Vermont Brigade, and New York’s Excelsior Brigade. Rufus Dawes published his Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers in 1890, and O. B. Curtis added his History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan the following year. Augustus Buell of Battery B saw The Cannoneer printed in 1897. Philip Cheek and Mair Pointon added their history of Company A of the Sixth Wisconsin in 1909. But the books and other lesser works received little attention outside of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan.

  The spotlight has shifted in recent years, however. The Iron Brigade’s compelling story and rich historical record has made it a popular subject for present-day writers and editors. Even a casual search of current Civil War titles in print relating to Iron Brigade topics turns up more than two dozen books. Also significant in the revival of the Iron Brigade’s reputation has been the quality of recent publications.

  Two books are credited for creating the current interest. Bruce Catton brought the brigade to popular attention just before the Civil War centennial when he wrote extensively about the Black Hats in his Mr. Lincoln’s Army and Glory Road. In 1961, Alan T. Nolan’s powerful unit history, The Iron Brigade, expanded its reputation among modern readers. The Second and Sixth Wisconsin, and Twenty-fourth Michigan, and even two companies of the regiments, have had book-length histories.

  Overlooked in the flurry of modern publications (except for two collections of letters from individual soldiers) has been the Seventh Wisconsin. Little has been printed on the regiment, a fact that is not surprising given that the veterans left only a few scattered memoirs or written accounts of their war service and none ever penned a formal history. Also adding to the obscurity is the fact that in battle, the Seventh Wisconsin often acted within the structure of the brigade. It never had the opportunity to win individual distinction like the Sixth Wisconsin did when it charged the Railroad Cut at Gettysburg, or the Second Wisconsin did when it was led by General John Reynolds to McPherson’s Woods during the opening phase of the same battle.

  Yet, the Seventh Wisconsin’s record may be the most exceptional of the five Iron Brigade regiments. The Second Wisconsin and Nineteenth Indiana went off the army rolls in 1864 after three years of service. The Twenty-fourth Michigan left the front for duty in the North in the months before Appomattox Court House. Only the hard survivors of the Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin regiments, “veteranized” in January 1864, saw the war through from the bright days of the Washington camps of 1861 to march in the glorious Grand Review of 1865.

  Often highlighted in modern Civil War scholarship is the grim statistic reported by Colonel William F. Fox in his Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, first published in 1889, that the Second Wisconsin lost the highest percentage of killed in battle of any regiment in the Union army in proportion to the number enlisted. Alan Nolan, in his investigation of the data, concluded the Seventh Wisconsin is sixth on that list. The others were not far behind, with the Nineteenth Indiana coming in at 11th, the Twenty-fourth Michigan at 20th, and the Sixth Wisconsin at 30th. Fox notes correctly, however, the percentage for the Seventh should be higher because the total enrollment includes 256 conscripts, very few of whom actually reported for duty.

  Less attention is given to Fox’s report that the casualty records of the War Department demonstrate the Seventh Wisconsin is first on the list of regiments that lost the most men killed in actual battle. The Seventh had 280 men killed outright or mortally wounded, compared with 278 for the Eighty-third Pennsylvania, and 277 for the Fifth New Hampshire. The records were later revised by the various states. Soldiers originally listed as missing in the official reports were determined to belong properly among the killed in action. New Hampshire, said Fox,

  published a supplement to its printed muster-out rolls, in which it accounts definitely for most of its missing. . . . But the War Department declines—and very properly—to account for missing men as killed until they receive official information to that effect. The official channels, through which such information must come, are the original records of the muster-out rolls; the final statements, as they are technically termed; and the affidavits which may accompany a pension claim.

  As a result of the revision, Fox moved the Fifth New Hampshire to the top of his list with 296 killed or died of wounds, compared with 282 for the Eighty-third Pennsylvania, and 281 for the Seventh Wisconsin.

  The Seventh Wisconsin’s rankings are only one indication of the regiment’s record of service. More significant is the Seventh’s distinction of serving at critical places in important battles. The Iron Brigade spearheaded th
e opening attack at Antietam and was with the first infantry to reach the field at Gettysburg. From the time of its organization in late 1861 until the last day at Appomattox, the brigade was present with the army, ready to serve whenever and wherever called for duty. A partial listing shows the regiment lost 42 killed, wounded, or missing at Gainesville (Brawner’s Farm), 22 at South Mountain, 15 at Antietam, 37 at Gettysburg, 55 at the Wilderness, 20 at Spotsylvania, 17 at Petersburg, and 6 at Five Forks.

  This splendid record of service adds to the significance of William Ray’s journals. Outside of the official papers and returns of the regiments, his account may be the most important primary source discovered on soldier life in the Iron Brigade. No other collection of letters or diary or journal written during 1861-1865 comes close to it. He was an eyewitness to some of the most important events of the war and keenly aware he was marching to history’s drum. He wrote of the life of the enlisted man—of soldier joy and soldier hardship, of battles and guard mounts, of church meetings and soldier sins. He was wounded at Gainesville and again at Gettysburg and a third time at the Wilderness. Almost every day he wrote in his journal books, often just a line or two, but sometimes many hundreds of words on a single day. And unlike some heavily edited published accounts, Ray’s journals reflect exactly how the soldiers lived (with weeks and even months of tedium and hardship) and died (when suddenly and without much warning the men were ordered to march and fight).

  In the final tally, the account of William Ray, the Grant County blacksmith boy turned Union volunteer, provides a deep insight into those perilous days, and a sense of what it was like to be a soldier in the ranks of the most celebrated fighting brigade of the Civil War.