HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA VALLEY - CHAPTER 31 - Twenty-Fifth Regiment ***** 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 31 - Twenty-Fifth Regiment Of all the regiments sent to the field from this State during the war, perhaps none did more hard fighting, or was more constantly in motion that the Twenty-fifth Infantry. Recruited mainly in the river counties between Lake Pepin and La Crosse, and organizing at Camp Solamon, in that city, on the 4th day of September 1862, under the direction of Colonel Milton Montgomery and Lieutenant Colonel J.M. Rusk. Its first operations were against the Indians in Minnesota. Company G of this regiment was recruited in this valley by Virus W. Dorwin, afterwards elected captain, assisted by the patriotic citizens of Durand and vicinity, and its decimated ranks were frequently refilled from the same locality. Like the Eagle regiment, the Twenty-fifth was always in motion, and whether fighting Indians in Minnesota, or guerillas in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, or Mississippi, or leading the vanguard at the siege and capture of Vicksburg, could always be counted on as a thoroughly disciplined and reliable regiment; and when Sherman's grand army was organized for the Atlanta campaign, it shared in almost everyone of the many hard fought battle which led the reduction of that stronghold and the march to the sea. The fame and efficiency of this regiment is due, no doubt, in some measure, to the able officers who commanded it; but no less so the indomitable bravery of the fourteen hundred and forty-four loyal men composing it rank and file. Three other companies were organized in this valley, all having their headquarters at Eau Claire. The first company, K, Thirty-sixth Regiment, was recruited under the call of the President for five hundred thousand men in February and March in 1864, through the efforts of Captain Warren Graves, and Lieutenant E.A. Galloway and Joseph Ellis, all of Pleasant Valley, in this county, and nearly all the men were from country towns in Eau Claire, Chippewa and Dunn counties. It was a brave and hardy company of men, but the regiment was the most unfortunate of any that left this state. And of the eighty-eight men in Captain Graves' company, only one retuned unscathed. W.W. Crandall, of La Fayette, Chippewa County, was neither sick, wounded, nor taken prisoner, or sent to the hospital. Captain Graves was wounded, sent to the hospital and died. Lieutenant Galloway was killed while leading an assault on the enemy's works. Many were take prisoner in the deep railroad cut south of Petersburg, and suffered horrors a thousand times worse that death, in rebel prison, and many painful circumstances grew out of the long suspense and almost hopeless uncertainty as to their fate. One instance among many I will relate. Patrick O'Donohue, of Pleasant Valley, in this county, enlisted in this company, leaving a wife and a numerous and interesting family of children, mostly daughters. At the Battle of Ream's Station, Virginia, on August 25, 1864, while in the deep railroad cut, he was taken prisoner but reported as killed, which painful information news soon reached his family, and for many months he was mourned as dead, but in time vague rumors of his imprisonment in a Southern prison pen, came, causing hope, fear, dread, and anxious solicitude to alternate in the fond harts of his loved ones at home. Winter succeeded autumn, and still no positive tidings; nothing but dreary, desolate uncertainly and suspense, while he suffered not alone the terrible hunger and privations, Salisbury and Andersonville, but the ever-harrowing thought that all his efforts to communicate with his loved ones at home was unavailing. But this is only one of many thousand cases that occurred during the war, and reaching the loyal people in every hamlet and in the remotest corners of our severely tried country. To close this account of the Thirty-Sixth, I will extract a few paragraphs from a letter addressed to His Excellency, Governor James T. Lewis, by the brigade commander, dated November 1, 1865, which shows what material the regiment was composed of. "As your Excellency knows, the regiment came here new. They were rushed into the breach untried, in a campaign, which has been fiercer and bloodier than Napoleon's." "The Thirty-sixth made its debut in a battle of which the London Times says that England could not lose one-tenth the number." "On reaching the field, the Thirty-sixth took up their position as steadily as the oldest, and in all operations in mass were undistinguishable for compactness and celerity from the best troops… I determined to take the position across Hatcher's Run. The order to charge had just been given, when the enemy opened heavily on my right and rear, and advanced upon my main line in heavy masses. His forces enclosed three sides, and with worse troops the situation would have been menacing, and to crown it all, a heavy body of rebels were thrown upon my rear (the fourth side). A swift face by the rear ranks and wheeling, charged by the New Jersey brigade, cleared my right flank, but from the threatening body in my rear it remained for the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin to relieve me. Captain Fisk threw them into line and dashed off the enemy. It was a short fight; that rebel brigade instantaneously crumbled and was destroyed, being mostly captured, to a number, with army colors and officers, three times greater than the Thirty-sixth. Having cleaned my rear, the regiment then returned to its place in line, and behaved equally well until their return to camp." T.W. Egan, Brigade Commander In February 1865, Professor Shadrach Hall, of the Methodist Seminary, West Eau Claire, receiving a recruiting commission, and aided by the citizens and powerful eloquence of the clergymen of Eau Clair, he enlisted a company, which was assigned to the Fifth Wisconsin as a body of new recruits at the time of its organization, and participated in almost every battle, which immediately led to the fall of Richmond, and the surrender of Lee's army, and when the charge was sounded for the assault on the rebel lines near Petersburg, on April 2, 1865, the Fifth occupied the extreme front, and it colors were the first planted on the enemies works. And the last company organized in the valley was recruited by H.M. Stocking, of the Free Press, which was assigned to the Forty-Eighth Regiment. Its scene of operations was first Missouri, and then the Indian Plains of Kansas and Colorado; replete with hardship, but the fighting was over. Nevertheless, this regiment was retained in the field until December 9, 1865, and a portion until the following March.