HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 24


*****

Transcribed and contributed to the USGenWeb Archives by Timm
Severud Ondamitag@aol.com

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

*****

Faithful Record of all Important Events, Incidents, and
Circumstances that have Transpired in the Valley of the
Chippewa from its Earliest Settlement by White People,
Indian Treaties, Organization of the Territory and State;
Also of the Counties Embracing the Valley, Senatorial,
Assembly and Congressional Districts, and a Brief
Biographical Sketch of the Most Prominent Persons in the
Settlement of the Valley. BY Thomas E. Randall 1875.  Free
Press Print.  Eau Claire, Wisconsin

CHAPTER 24

Passing over a few years time, and many important and
interesting matters and event, to which I shall recur in
succeeding chapters, I find it necessary to make an appeal
to my readers, to the public, and to each and every
individual in this valley who is desirous of having the
locality in which he resides represented in that portions of
the history relating to the war.

Isolated settlements were for most of the time prior to
these stirring events - the grandest in the worlds history -
it would not have been strange if many beheld the approach
of that terrible conflict with indifference, and a want of
that patriotic ardor that characterized other and more
favored sections. But it is believed that if all the facts
could be set forth, of public and personal sacrifice, of
heroic devotion, and persistent patriotic effort in that
great struggle, exhibited by the people of this valley, it
would not only compare favorably with the most loyal
communities in the land, but make a valuable contribution to
the history of the State. But the means are not at my hand
to do justice to the subject; and without the aid of others
- many others in all the towns and precincts who are in
possession of interesting facts and data - to assist me in
collecting them for this work, much valuable information,
and many exciting incidents connected with the part borne by
our people in the fearful contest, will perhaps pass into
oblivion, unless collated in this homely narration. I
therefore ask every officer and soldier who went from this
valley to fight our country's battles, and every patriotic
citizen who knows himself or herself to be in possession of
any intelligence, serious or comical, facts, incidents, or
accounts of soldiers or citizens, no matter how humble or
obscure, if they were conspicuous for zeal, bravery, or
self-sacrifice for the good of the country in the hour of
peril, to communicate the same to me as soon as convenient,
that it may be preserved to posterity as the heritage of a
free and loyal people. More especially do I ask the
attention of men in official position, town and county
officers, postmasters, and all men who hold or have held
positions of trust and honor in the towns, cities and
villages of this valley, to aid me in making a full, fair
and impartial record of the deeds of the brave soldiers who
imperiled their lives, and of sacrifices of the true men and
women who sustained them through all the dark and wearisome
days of defeat, and gloom, and doubt, that so long hung like
a pall over our country's hopes.

It is not to individuals alone that I desire to do justice
in these pages but to localities also; a careful and just
recognition of the claims and efforts of each will reflect
credit and honor upon some neighborhoods that have made
little pretensions, and are scarcely known in the Adjutant-
General's reports, or in any records of the war.

In the beginning of the war, when no bounties were offered,
and patriotism was the sole incentive to enlistments, many
volunteers went from their homes in obscure places to the
village which received credit for the names enrolled there;
and when it was found necessary to order a draft the claims
of such localities were utterly ignored, and the draft fell
upon some communities already thrice decimated by voluntary
enlistments.

Such was the fate of the little town of Lafayette, in
Chippewa County, a town which, up to the commencement of the
war, had never polled more than seventy-one votes, quite a
number of whom were aged men, unable to bear arms, and yet
actually furnished, in enlisted and drafted men for the war,
sixty-five loyal soldiers, a large number of whom rallied
under the old flag before drafts or bounties were thought
of.

If any town or village in this State can show a better, or
as good a record, I shall be glad to acknowledge it and make
it enduring. Having been a resident of that little town when
the war commenced, and personally acquainted with almost
every person in it, the peculiar motives which induced some
of those early volunteers to enlist, and many noteworthy
incidents and circumstances connected therewith, are know to
me; and through some may consider the trials and experiences
of a private soldier unworthy of historical record, there
are many I shall be happy to chronicle in these pages, as a
just tribute to their services and sacrifices.

Born on a foreign shore, and in a land that had long felt
the heel of the oppressor, were two young men who were in my
employment when the tocsin of war was sounded. One, very
young, ardent, fiery and impatient, had somewhere witnessed
an artillery drill and determined to enlist at the first
call for men in that arm of service; and, taking up a
newspaper one day, that announced the organization of the
Second Wisconsin Battery, and a call for men to fill its
ranks, he instantly gave me 'notice to quit,' closed up his
affairs, and paid his own fare and expenses all the way to
Racine, that he might share the perils and fight the battles
of the country of his adoption. In religion he was Catholic,
and in politics a Democrat; but no braver soldier or truer
patriot treads the soil of Wisconsin today than Tom McGrath.
He served through the entire war; was in all the hard fought
battles which the Second Battery was engaged, but escaped
unharmed; and taking a fair Sucker damsel along with him on
his return through Illinois, is now settled in a home of his
own in Chippewa County, and a wholesome number of little
Democrats surround his hearthstone and call him 'pa.'

The other was a man of maturer years; quiet and unobtrusive
in his demeanor, but determined - almost obstinate - in his
opinions. He was with me as foreman in several undertakings.
He had spent several winters in the South; owned some good
property in Bureau County, Illinois; had always voted the
Democratic ticket until he saw the cruelties of slavery, and
the party committed to upholding that giant wrong, when,
said he, 'conscience would not let me vote that ticket any
longer.' Though a man of few words, he often referred to the
horrid cruelties and terrible suffering of the negroes of
Arkansas, and gave many instances he had witnessed,
exhibiting a refinement of cruelty inflicted by their
masters, which had burnt into his soul with deathless
intensity; and powerless as he was to afford relief, he had
sworn on the altar of God, that if the time ever came in
which he could do something to redress those wrongs, his
life was none too precious to lose in such a cause, and, if
necessary, should be freely offered.

True to his promise, when Captain Sherman called for men to
fill up his company of cavalry, he unhitched the team he was
driving from the plow, and hastened to enroll his name with
the defenders of his adopted country. A transfer was
subsequently effected to an Illinois cavalry regiment by his
request, and he soon himself fighting rebel guerrillas in
the same 'Rackensack' neighborhood where, years before, he
had felt his spirit sink within him because there was none
to shield the oppressed and hurl back the oppressor. But now
he saw that the day of recompense had come; and, whether
called upon to scour the woods and ravines around the Pea
Ridge for guerrillas, or waste his strength in the malarias
swamps of Mississippi, he never flinched or swerved from the
line of duty as a soldier; and when, in the third year of
the war, when the great highway of the West had been opened,
and New Orleans and Vicksburg were ours, and the bright
rainbow of peace and promise encircled the horizon, he was
called to surrender the life so freely offered upon
Freedom's altar, not a murmur escaped him; but he proudly
declared , in a letter to a friend in Chippewa County, that
'if he must die, he was glad to lay down his life in such a
cause.'

Oh, ye corrupt and truckling politicians, who pander to the
prejudices of the ignorant, unfeeling and thoughtless
multitude that ye must obtain place and power, think for a
moment with what might issues you are trifling, and how many
noble lives have been laid down on the altar you would
desecrate with your vile pollutions and trickery!

William McFarland, the Irish-American patriot and soldier
whose sacrifices are herein feebly recorded, was only one of
that vast army who's 'souls are still marching on.' Inspired
alike by the same high sense of justice and right, their
lives were consecrated to the cause of freedom and the
emancipation of their fellow men from the thrall of
oppression.

I might mention many others who when from the same place. I
might speak of young Stowe, who bade adieu to a fond and
beautiful wife, who had committed her happiness to his
keeping only a month or two previously, never to embrace her
again; of the long, weary watching and waiting, and the
blank despair when her hopes were finally crushed out; and
of the whole score of heroes whose last farewells to wives
and loved ones took place here, for the sake of the country
whose welfare was identified with their own.  And in every
nook and corner of this valley similar scenes and struggles
and sorrows were experienced, of which, if persons who feel
an interest in this work would send me brief sketches, they
would confer a favor, not only upon the author but upon
every reader. And to everyone who is in possession of any
material facts, incidents, or other data concerning, the
war, the 'Indian Scare,' enlistments, organization, partings
and returnings of our soldiers, conduct and heroism in the
service, imprisonment in Southern dungeons, and all their
hardships and self-denial, are fit subject for this work;
and no matter how clumsy or illiterate any statement may be,
it will be gratefully received by the author.