Kewaunee County and the GAR

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain planned on going to the 50^th reunion in Gettsyburg, but was ill. Ironically, he died on February 21, 1914, almost on the eve of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the battles that would follow. In the 1860s and beyond, it was called the Great War. Who would have believed there would be another “Great War” engulfing so many countries? History eventually called that one World War 1, which separates it from World War ll. Chamberlain, who was with Robert E. Lee, saw horrific death and destruction. That did not change in the wars that followed, but in the Civil War, that death and destruction was visited on families, friends and countrymen.

Pickett's Charge, July 3, 1863; Gettysburg

Eventually called the Civil War, battlefields of the Great War of Rebellion became places of reverence. Fallen comrades – North and South - were, and are, remembered. It was in February 1896 that Gettsyburg Association turned its holdings over to the U.S. to preserve the battlefield. By September 1908, preparations were being made to build a magnificent highway from Washington D.C. to Gettsyburg, a hard place to reach at the time. Civil War battlefields are places to learn U.S. history from exceptional National Park Service staff and volunteers, however the solemnity found at Gettysburg 40 years ago has been replaced with a more of a Disneyland atmosphere today.

Little Round Top at Gettysburg

At the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” After Lincoln's assassination, Senator Charles Sumner said Mr. Lincoln was mistaken saying, "The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it.” Even in today’s carnival atmosphere, we do not forget.

Our Kewaunee County ancestors kept the battlefield memories alive in their G.A.R. posts and encampments. As the August 1885 G.A.R. celebration at Milwaukee drew near, the Record mused about the old stories while facetiously mentioning the joy in eating hard-tack and talking about battles which killed or maimed so many. And, the rampant disease.

Men of Co. E, Kewaunee County

A big event at the Milwaukee encampment was a panorama of the opening siege at Vicksburg on May 2, 1863. It commemorated a charge that was one of the war’s fiercest. Chicago followed with a panorama of a Gettysburg scene. The panoramas must have taken on a competitive nature as it was said the “fighting” in Milwaukee’s presentation was more realistic and that the dead, dying and wounded were exact representations.

When the GAR’s National Encampment was held in Milwaukee in 1889, nothing was left to chance for a crowd expected to exceed anything Milwaukee had seen to that date. Thirty-five hundred tents were being provided and bands joined to form a 1,000 piece ensemble for a concert at Schlitz Park. There were competitions and cash prizes for drill units and bands. Fireworks displays were the crowing event.

Following the glowing news reports from the Milwaukee event, there was planning for a reunion the following year. A November 13, 1890 article told readership that relic sellers at Gettysburg were said to be importing wagon loads of junk from southern battlefields and selling them for Gettysburg relics.

Railroads and steam boats were advertising low rates of $3, a point not lost on the 70 Ahnapee residents who planned to go to the 1889 gathering. The list of attendees read like an Ahnapee Who’s Who, most of whom were members of the Joseph Anderegg Post. They were joined by large numbers from Sturgeon Bay and Forestville posts, and, of course, countless others from Kewaunee County. Kewaunee County men served and died in the Civil War’s most well-known battles.

It was in 1923 that Haney Ihlenfeld shared articles with a G.A.R. Convention. The articles came from a Confederate newspaper purchased by his grandfather Sgt. John Ihlenfeld before the siege at Vicksburg. In it, General Grant was quoted as saying he’d eat Sunday dinner in Vicksburg, but the paper opined that he’d have to catch the rabbit first.

Ahnapee’s David Elliott was at Vicksburg and in a letter to a friend he mentioned the battle at Corinth and went on to say how sick many of the men were and that only 1/3 of them were fit for duty. David was waiting for action.

Civil War veterans, Frank Gregor, I.W. Elliott, Gene Heald
1937, Record Herald photo

Seventy-five years after Gettysburg, I.W. Elliott attended a veterans’ reunion held there. When he gathered with family in August that year – 1938 – he proudly displayed momentos gotten there.

At a 1944 Memorial Day commemoration, the names of deceased Ahnapee Civil War veterans were read. Irving W. Elliott was both Kewaunee County and Wisconsin’s last surviving veteran. The list fails to include others identified with Ahnapee, however there are vets such as Henry Baumann/Bowman and Magnus Haucke who relocated following the war. To check Wisconsin Volunteers, one must sometimes spell an ancestor’s name as it might sound to another. Typesetting of the era was accomplished by setting pieces of type upside down and backward, prompting one to search for other letters when the name includes a lower case “n” or “u.”

The GAR - Grand Army of the Republic - was made up of Civil War veterans, including the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. Founded in Decatur, IL in 1866, the GAR grew to include hundreds of posts across the country. Although posts were mostly in the North, there were also posts in the South. The group lived on until the last member died in 1956. The men of the GAR made up a political advocacy group, which among other platforms, supported voting rights for black veterans.

A section of the battlefield at Vicksburg

Note: To learn about the Belgians in the Civil War, read John Henry Mertens'  The Second Battle : A Story of Our Belgian Ancestors in the American Civil War, 1861-1865.




Sources: Algoma Record Herald, battlefield visits; Wikipedia. Photos were taken at the sites except where noted..

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