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units:4th_wisconsin_infantry [2019/03/17 14:23] admin |
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| - | Service at Relay House, 7/29/1861-11/4/1861. | + | <html><center><b><u><font size="+2">The 4th Wisconsin Infantry in Howard County</font></u></b></center></html> |
| - | [[Sources|Archival and Secondary Sources]]\\ | + | Service at Relay House, 7/29/1861-11/4/1861.\\ |
| - | [[Primary Sources|Primary Sources]] | + | |
| + | [[4th Wisconsin Primary Sources|Primary Sources]]\\ | ||
| + | [[4th Wisconsin Secondary Sources|Archival and Secondary Sources]]\\ | ||
| - | <html><center><b><u><font size="+2">The 4th Wisconsin Infantry in Howard County</font></u></b></center></html> | ||
| The 4th Wisconsin Infantry regiment, comprising just over 1,000 men, mustered into service on July 2, 1861 at Camp Utley in Racine, Wisconsin. The unit was comprised of ten companies recruited from the counties of Calumet, Columbia, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Monroe, Oconto, Sheboygan, St. Croix, and Walworth. These companies had colorful names such as the "Oconto River Drivers", the "Geneva Independents", and the "Whitewater Light Infantry." | The 4th Wisconsin Infantry regiment, comprising just over 1,000 men, mustered into service on July 2, 1861 at Camp Utley in Racine, Wisconsin. The unit was comprised of ten companies recruited from the counties of Calumet, Columbia, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Monroe, Oconto, Sheboygan, St. Croix, and Walworth. These companies had colorful names such as the "Oconto River Drivers", the "Geneva Independents", and the "Whitewater Light Infantry." | ||
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| From Racine they journeyed by train via Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Corning, NY, Elmira, NY, Williamsport, PA, and Harrisburg, PA, finally arriving in Baltimore on July 23, 1861. At each stop of the journey they were greeted by "refreshments and pretty girls" providing "tempting viands". In Buffalo they were escorted through the city by a brass band. When they reached Harrisburg they received word that their orders had been changed and their new destination was to be Baltimore instead of Washington, D. C. Continued worrying over the loyalties of the border state, and a desire to garrison the city and guard nearby strategic locations necessitated the change of orders. | From Racine they journeyed by train via Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Corning, NY, Elmira, NY, Williamsport, PA, and Harrisburg, PA, finally arriving in Baltimore on July 23, 1861. At each stop of the journey they were greeted by "refreshments and pretty girls" providing "tempting viands". In Buffalo they were escorted through the city by a brass band. When they reached Harrisburg they received word that their orders had been changed and their new destination was to be Baltimore instead of Washington, D. C. Continued worrying over the loyalties of the border state, and a desire to garrison the city and guard nearby strategic locations necessitated the change of orders. | ||
| - | Upon reaching Baltimore on July 23, they marched through the city with muskets loaded, but unlike the 6th Massachusetts just a few months earlier, encountered no opposition in that divided city. They camped at Mount Clare, on the outskirts of Baltimore. Mount Clare was an ironic camping location for the 4th, as it was built by Charles Carroll (a distant relative of the Declaration signer), who laid the first stone in the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828. The 4th was destined to spend the next three months guarding this same railroad. | + | Upon reaching Baltimore on July 23, they marched through the city with muskets loaded, but unlike the 6th Massachusetts just a few months earlier, encountered no opposition in that divided city. They camped at Mount Clare, on the outskirts of Baltimore. Mount Clare was an ironic camping location for the 4th, as it was built by the same man who laid the first stone in the building of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1828. The 4th was destined to spend the next three months guarding this same railroad. |
| "HIGH PRIVATE", writing in the //Sheboygan Journal// of August 7th, penned the first of a series of letters back home. | "HIGH PRIVATE", writing in the //Sheboygan Journal// of August 7th, penned the first of a series of letters back home. | ||
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| "We now have to be very careful of what we eat and drink, for the traitors here, as everywhere, hesitate not to poison the soldiers. Several of the men connected with other regiments here, died yesterday from the effects of poisoned food. I stepped into a Coffee House this morning and called for a lemonade with a "fly" in it but I made Mr. Man taste of it before myself." | "We now have to be very careful of what we eat and drink, for the traitors here, as everywhere, hesitate not to poison the soldiers. Several of the men connected with other regiments here, died yesterday from the effects of poisoned food. I stepped into a Coffee House this morning and called for a lemonade with a "fly" in it but I made Mr. Man taste of it before myself." | ||
| - | Almost immediately the 4th was split up into several contingents to guard military and strategic locations. Two companies were sent to Pikesville to guard the arsenal there, while three more were sent to the Relay House, some 8 miles out of town and the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Baltimore and Washington Branch Railroad. The men were to become intimately familiar with the Relay House and its environs. | + | Almost immediately the 4th was split up into several contingents to guard military and other strategic locations. Two companies were sent to Pikesville to guard the arsenal there, while three more were sent to the Relay House, some 8 miles out of town and the junction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Baltimore and Washington Branch Railroad. The men were to become intimately familiar with the Relay House and its environs. |
| Charlie Allyn, a member of the Regimental Band, wrote to the //Hudson North Star// on July 28, from Camp Dix in Baltimore, describing the warm weather and sleeping on the ground with rubber blankets "to keep the dampness off". He went on to say "We have plenty to eat, and that which is good. We have bean or rice soup once a day, coffee twice a day, and fresh beef occasionally." | Charlie Allyn, a member of the Regimental Band, wrote to the //Hudson North Star// on July 28, from Camp Dix in Baltimore, describing the warm weather and sleeping on the ground with rubber blankets "to keep the dampness off". He went on to say "We have plenty to eat, and that which is good. We have bean or rice soup once a day, coffee twice a day, and fresh beef occasionally." | ||
| The next day the unit moved to the newly named Camp Randall, near the Relay House (present day Elkridge, MD.) Another correspondent back home, under the nom-de-plume "CAMP" described arriving after dark in a miserable rain storm on the evening of July 29th. The next morning he set out to examine the locality. He wandered about the small town, identified the Relay House Tavern, the Thomas Viaduct, spoke to a member of the "peculiar institution", and breakfasted upon the top of a nearby hill. | The next day the unit moved to the newly named Camp Randall, near the Relay House (present day Elkridge, MD.) Another correspondent back home, under the nom-de-plume "CAMP" described arriving after dark in a miserable rain storm on the evening of July 29th. The next morning he set out to examine the locality. He wandered about the small town, identified the Relay House Tavern, the Thomas Viaduct, spoke to a member of the "peculiar institution", and breakfasted upon the top of a nearby hill. | ||
| + | |||
| + | <figure label> | ||
| + | {{ :{{ :4th_wisc_inf:camp_of_the_4th_wisconsin.jpg |img}} | ||
| + | <html><center></html> | ||
| + | <caption>""Camp of Colonel Paine's 4th Wisconsin Regiment at the Relay House near Baltimore"". Colored lithograph. | ||
| + | Wisconsin Historical Society</caption> | ||
| + | <html></center></html> | ||
| + | </figure> | ||
| HIGH PRIVATE, again writing to the //Sheboygan Journal// described the location: | HIGH PRIVATE, again writing to the //Sheboygan Journal// described the location: | ||
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| By mid-October typhoid was raging through the camp. Forty-seven were sick in the hospital and several deaths were reported. Twenty-five men were sick in Company C. | By mid-October typhoid was raging through the camp. Forty-seven were sick in the hospital and several deaths were reported. Twenty-five men were sick in Company C. | ||
| - | Orders for the regiment to move were received the first week in November. The 10th Maine Infantry was coming to take their place at Relay House, for their own extended stay guarding the railroad. The regiment was paid again, with privates receiving $26. At 10 a.m. on the 4th of September the 4th Wisconsin left the Relay House and proceeded to Baltimore, and thence to an expedition on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. They would return to Baltimore briefly, before begin an epic journey, even for the Civil War. The 4th would eventually end up in the swamps of Louisiana. Their original colonel, Halbert Paine, was promoted to Brigadier General; Sidney Bean and Frederick Boardman, the unit's original Lieutenant Colonel and Major respectively, were both killed in action during the war. | + | Orders for the regiment to move were received the first week in November. The 10th Maine Infantry was coming to take their place at Relay House, for their own extended stay guarding the railroad. The regiment was paid again, with privates receiving $26. At 10 a.m. on the 4th of September the 4th Wisconsin left the Relay House and proceeded to Baltimore, and thence to an expedition on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. They would return to Baltimore briefly, before beginning an epic journey, even by Civil War standards. The 4th would eventually end up in the swamps of Louisiana. Their original colonel, Halbert Paine, was promoted to Brigadier General; Sidney Bean and Frederick Boardman, the unit's original Lieutenant Colonel and Major respectively, were both killed in action during the war. |
units/4th_wisconsin_infantry.1552832601.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/05/10 15:22 (external edit)