Carolyn and I recently participated in a bus tour around
southern Wisconsin that focused on how the Civil War impacted the state. Sponsored by the Friends of the Wisconsin
Historical Society and arranged by past-president Chuck Hatfield of La Farge,
the tour was titled Bringing The Civil
War Home To Wisconsin! The three-day
excursion began in Madison then traveled to Beloit, Milton, Kenosha, and
Milwaukee before ending at the Wade House grounds in Greenbush near
Sheboygan. Although the tour never came
close to the Kickapoo Valley, the area’s history was well represented on the
trip.
At the
first stop in our state’s capital, we were given a tour of Forest Hills
Cemetery. This facility has an entire
section of graves of men who died at nearby Camp Randall while training to go
off to war. Many of the men from Vernon
County who served for the Union trained at this large military camp in
Madison. In another section of the
cemetery is the “Confederate Rest” where over two hundred men who served the
Confederacy are buried. They were some
of the prisoners captured at the battle for Island #10 on the Mississippi River
(an early Union victory for control of that river) and brought north to Camp
Randall for a short while. This final
resting place for the CSA prisoners is
the only Confederate cemetery maintained in the northern states and the Stars & Bars flies over the graves located
there on one day each year.
Later the tour
group moved to the State Historical Society Museum on the UW campus. We were shown Civil War artifacts that are stored
in the museum’s archives. Among the
items that we were shown was the Civil War drum of Samuel Arms. Sam Arms was a 12-year-old slave in Georgia
who was unofficially adopted by a Wisconsin infantry company and became their
drummer boy throughout the rest of the war.
After the war was concluded, he eventually settled in the Valley area of
eastern Vernon County and raised a large family there. His family has donated the drum to the State
Historical Society for display at the museum, which is located on the UW
Campus.
Later, after
lunch at the University Club, the tour group was enthralled to hear from
General Ulysses S. Grant. Frank Beaman
of Mineral Point, a member of the tour, has been doing first person portrayals
of the Civil War general for some time.
His spot-on presentation to us was as President Grant in his later years
when he was writing his memoirs near the end of his life. The first-person account of the famous
American leader as he told of his amazing journey in life was very illuminating
for us all.
As our
motor coach traveled south on I-94 that afternoon, I gave the first of my
in-transit stories about men from Vernon County (then called Bad Ax County) and
their role in the war. I told how in
1861, after the fall of Ft. Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, then Wisconsin
Governor Alexander Randall made a call for Wisconsin men to enlist in the Union
cause. In Bad Ax County, that call was
answered with a rally on April 24, 1861 in Viroqua. Funds were immediately collected to organize
a fife and drum corps to help rally the recruits and intensify patriotic
desires to serve. Company I was formed
by June with Bad Ax County men and that unit arrived in Madison at Camp Randall
in July and were mustered into service.
That company would eventually be made a part of the 6th
Regiment, which was part of the famous Iron Brigade – one of the legendary
units that fought in the war for the Union army.
Later, in
December of 1861, Vernon County men formed Company C of the 18th
Regiment, known locally as the “Bad Ax Tigers”.
One of the leaders of that unit was Jeremiah Rusk, who had once been the
county sheriff. Rusk demonstrated
remarkable leadership skills with the unit and eventually became a general in
the army. He participated in the siege
and capture of Vicksburg and was with General Sherman on his “March to the
Sea”. A fellow officer said of General
Rusk, “He rode farther into hell than I would care to go, and he was the only
man I have ever seen who would take such risks.” Later Rusk would continue his leadership
skills developed in the war by serving Wisconsin as a U.S. Congressman and as
Governor from 1882-89. He was the
Secretary of Agriculture in the cabinet of President Benjamin Harrison from
1889-93.
Returning
to the tour, we had supper that night at The Butterfly Club in rural
Beloit. After the meal, Kevin and Patsy
Alderson of La Farge talked to the group about their Civil War book, Letters Home To Sarah. They told the story of Guy Taylor, a Dane
County bonus enlistee, who wrote amazing letters home to his wife, Sarah,
telling about his observations of the war.
After the war was concluded, the Taylor’s would move to a Town of
Clinton farm in Vernon County and then into the village of Cashton. Kevin and Patsy’s story of how they happened
to find the collection of Civil War letters, an amazing story in itself, was
also shared with our group.
The
following morning, the tour made a stop at the Milton House Museum in Milton,
Wisconsin. The old roadside inn, built
in an interesting hexagonal configuration, has been restored beautifully and
includes an original 1850’s - era cabin that served as a summer kitchen for the
inn. That cabin also secretly was an access
to a tunnel that led into the basement of the inn, where runaway slaves
attempting to become free were hidden.
The Milton House is Wisconsin’s only officially recognized Underground
Railroad site. Our guided tour of the
handsomely restored crossroads inn was very interesting.
On the way out of the museum, I
noticed a wall that listed the names of the many contributors to the
museum. In one square were the names of
Walter and Joan Steinmetz – long time residents of the city of Milton. Walter, the son of Bill and Almeda Steinmetz,
grew up in the La Farge area and had passed away only two days prior to our
visit to the Milton House.
As we drove
east towards Kenosha later that morning, I shared another Civil War story from
Vernon County. I told the story of Isaac
Richard (Dick) Lawton, who had left his farm, located along the Kickapoo south
of La Farge and had enlisted for service to the Union on February 5, 1865. Dick Lawton soon became very ill in the army
and rheumatic seizures had rendered his legs useless. According to the Lawton family history, U.S. Army
doctors contacted Melissa Lawton, Dick’s wife, for her consent to amputate both
of her husband’s legs. Instead, she told
the doctors to send her husband home – “We’ll care for him here”, was her
reply. When her husband arrived home in
late May of 1865, Melissa could do little for her invalid husband except
provide him the comfort of home and family.
Later, some Winnebago Indians, who
returned to the Kickapoo Valley and their former homes each year, came to the
Lawton farm to set up their camp for the summer. They went to the house to visit their old friends
and noticed Dick’s sorrowful condition.
The Winnebago immediately set out to help Melissa with his care. “At
once full of sympathy, they made valuable suggestions as to treatment, and
offered some of their remedies gathered from Mother Nature and proven through
many years of experience. Before long
Dick took a turn for the better. The
patient and loving ministrations of his wife, seconded by the virtues of the
Indian remedies, paid off tremendously and in a surprisingly short time Dick
was back on his feet.” The story is told
in the family history of how the help from his Winnebago friends probably saved
Dick Lawton’s life.
