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website
Watertown’s
Civil War Years
1861 - 1865
The War Between the
States
Watertown Artillery becomes Governor's Artillery
NYT = New York Times WD = Watertown Democrat WR = Watertown Republican
Many from Wisconsin Served in
War
Although Wisconsin was not the site of any Civil War battles,
it did provide materials, supplies and
more than 90,000 troops for the Union Army.
At that time, in the 1860s, the state's population was about 775,000;
therefore about 12 percent of the population served in the Union Army.
America’s divisive Civil War (1861-1865) broke out in 1861, disrupting many lives of families of our community as young members enlisted in the battle to preserve the Union and a set of ideals.
A divided nation, with brother killing brother, frequently called upon the powers that be for an end to the strife and discord.
Many fell victim to the savagery of war. Some men from Watertown were buried in distant states while the remains of others were returned to home and family for burial. The grave sites of the fallen soldiers and veterans of the Civil and other wars and armed conflicts are among those lovingly decorated prior to each Memorial Day observance.
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The Civil War was “a war for Union that also killed slavery.”
Emancipation was an outcome (an “astounding” outcome, Lincoln remarked in his
second Inaugural Address) but it always “took a back seat” to the paramount
goal of saving the Union. The Union War,
Gary W. Gallagher, Illustrated. 215 pp. Harvard University Press. 2011.
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During the summer of 1846, under the provisions of the territorial law, the voters of the Wisconsin Territory assembled at the county seats and organized military regiments by electing field officers of regiments. Meanwhile the militia of the Territory were being organized into divisions and brigades. There were three divisions (First, Second and Third) of two brigades each. Source
First Division
First Brigade
Second Brigade
Second Division
First Brigade
Second Brigade
Third Division
First Brigade / comprised of Walworth, Jefferson, Dodge and Columbia Counties.
Second Brigade
Cross Reference: Organization of the Armies in the Civil War
1848 Wisconsin Statehood
Watertown's first active unit was formed in May of 1853 as the Watertown Rifle Company. The name was at some point shortened to Watertown Rifles. The original leaders of the Watertown Rifle Company included CPT Henry Boegel, 1LT Gotlieb Baumann, 2LT C. W. Schultz and 1SG John Reichert. The Company's motto was "In time of peace, prepare for war." Source
Watertown Artillery
In 1853, a second unit was organized in Watertown, the Watertown Artillery. The original leaders of the Watertown Artillery included CPT Benjamin Campbell, 1LT John Williams and 2LT Henry Mulberger. Source
In 1859 the Watertown Artillery changed their name to Governor's Artillery and they elected new officers; CPT Henry Mulberger, 1LT Jacob Hoeffner and 2LT Charles Riedinger. Source
02 17 About half past 3 o’clock this morning the large hotel in the 4th Ward
of this city belonging to Gottlieb Baumann was discovered to be on fire. The Watertown
Rifle Company, who kept their arms in this building, lost all their
accoutrements.
12 17 Organization of
companies of Wisconsin militia, report on.
The Militia of Wisconsin was comprised of 50 companies of volunteers
with a combined strength of 1,993 men.
Watertown still had two companies at that time; the Watertown Rifles, commanded by CPT Gotlieb
Bauman, with a strength of 42 men and the Governor's
Artillery, commanded by CPT Mulberger, with a
strength of 35 men. Source
12 27 
Next
Monday, the 4th of March, is the day set apart by the Constitution for the
inauguration of the President [Lincoln] of the United States
It must be admitted that since his election to the Presidency, Abraham Lincoln has displayed in an eminent degree, whatever wisdom there is in silence as to his purposes when he assumes the direction of national affairs. Perhaps, under the circumstances, close observation and no disclosure of policy until the time when he could act was the best course for him to pursue.
“Since the newspapers have made our recent visit to Springfield the occasion of remark, it may not be improper to say that an interview with Mr. Lincoln confirmed and strengthened our confidence in his fitness for the high position he is to occupy. Of his eminent qualifications for the great trust reposed in him, of his enlightened appreciation of the difficulties and dangers that surround us, of his desire that the Free States, if in anything delinquent, should fulfill their constitutional duties, of his determination to require from all the states an enforcement of the laws and obedience to the Constitution, and finally, of his earnest and inflexible devotion to the principles and sympathies of Republicans.” – Albany Evening Journal article, WD
03 05 WASHINGTON,
Tuesday, March 5, 1861. The entire absence of any attempt to interrupt the
Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln affords the sympathizers with secession the
opportunity of ridiculing the warlike preparations which were made, and the
great precautions which were taken; but it seems not to strike the minds of
these witlings, that whatever piquancy there is in their jibes derives its
force from the admitted cowardice or falsehood of the braggarts who threatened
to take the Capitol by storm, expel the regular Government, and establish on
its ruins the seat of a slaveholding empire.
If it be admitted that the leaders of secession in Virginia and other
Southern States are so far beneath public contempt that their threats of
forcible resistance to "Black Republican rule," their pompous
military organizations, and their secret plots for the assassination of Mr.
Lincoln were the idle ravings of fools and madmen, or the harmless gasconade of
impotent and mendacious demagogues, then we may join in the laugh against Gen.
Scott and those who cooperated with him in the preparations for defense. NYT
03 28 WASHINGTON,
Tuesday, March 5, 1861. The entire absence of any attempt to interrupt the
Inauguration of Mr. Lincoln affords the sympathizers with secession the
opportunity of ridiculing the warlike preparations which were made, and the
great precautions which were taken; but it seems not to strike the minds of
these witlings, that whatever piquancy there is in their jibes derives its
force from the admitted cowardice or falsehood of the braggarts who threatened
to take the Capitol by storm, expel the regular Government, and establish on
its ruins the seat of a slaveholding empire.
If it be admitted that the leaders of secession in Virginia and other
Southern States are so far beneath public contempt that their threats of
forcible resistance to "Black Republican rule," their pompous
military organizations, and their secret plots for the assassination of Mr.
Lincoln were the idle ravings of fools and madmen, or the harmless gasconade of
impotent and mendacious demagogues, then we may join in the laugh against Gen.
Scott and those who cooperated with him in the preparations for defense. NYT
FORT SUMPTER, Wednesday, March 28. Defensive
preparations are still going on at Fort Sumpter. Up to today, no orders for the evacuation
have been received, and although two messengers from the Administration have
arrived within the last few days, the object of their visit has not transpired,
it being strictly of a confidential nature.
The prohibition of all intercourse with Charleston is still rigidly
maintained, and a proposition to cut off the supplies of fresh provisions, and
the mails from Major Anderson, was today discussed in the Convention. Major Anderson awaits the orders of his Government,
and by these alone will he be guided.
The fuel and provisions at the fort are nearly exhausted. If there is one man in the country, who, by
his individual prudence, resolution and courage, has averted civil war, which
in this harbor might have at any moment been inaugurated, and yet maintained
intact the honor of his country's flag while surrounded by thousands of her
foes, that man is Major Anderson.
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LINCOLN AND GOD
It is the duty
of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power
of God, and to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with
assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to
recognize the sublime truth, announced in Holy Scripture, and proven by all
history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, in so
much as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected
to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the
awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a
punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of
our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have
been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in
numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which has
preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we
have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have
become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves
before the offended power, to confess our national sins and to pray for
clemency and forgiveness. Lincoln
speech of 07 31 1846.
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When the mighty
conflict raged within the Union and the fortunes of the country were evenly
balanced between restoration and dismemberment, local business was suspended,
recruiting stations opened, appeals made, meetings held night and day, eloquent
speeches delivered, odes sung by the ladies from the balconies, and all engaged
in the work of furnishing men for the armies in the field of strife, in answer
to the President’s call.
As war raged
President Lincoln set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving
by issuing a proclamation appointing the last Thursday of September 1861 as a
day of national fasting (as opposed to feasting), humiliation and prayer. He earnestly appealed to “all the people, and
especially to all ministers and teachers of religion of all denominations, and
to all heads of families, to observe and keep that day according to their
several creeds and modes of worship in all humility and with all religious
solemnity, to the end that the united prayer of the nation may ascend to the
Throne of Grace, and bring down plentiful blessings upon our own country.”
The
proclamation of the much-revered President invoked God to “commend to His
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in
the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the
full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
Lincoln’s
relationship with God is a subject highly debated by historians. Some say Lincoln was an unbeliever, or at
least a skeptic, of Christianity. Others
say he was a “deeply religious” man who daily sought God’s guidance.
It is true that
Lincoln never did join a church; although he attended church services regularly
while President. The reason he gave for
never joining a church was that he could never be satisfied with all the dogmas
and creeds that the denominational churches required.
One of
Lincoln’s earliest statements on the subject of his faith came in 1846: “That I am not a member of any Christian
church is true; but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures; and I have
never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general, or of any
denomination of Christians in particular . . . I do not think I could myself be
brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, or
scoffer at, religion.” Many of
President Lincoln’s presidential speeches are superb examples of a man seeking
God. Watertown Democrat, 08 29 1861
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1861, cont.
04 18 President
Lincoln’s Proclamation
Whereas,
The laws of the United States have been and now are opposed in several states
by combinations too powerful to be suppressed in any ordinary way, I therefore
call forth the militia of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, to
suppress said combination and execute the laws.
I appeal to all loyal citizens to facilitate and aid this effort to
sustain the laws and integrity of the National Union, and perpetuity of popular
government, and redress the wrongs long enough endured. The first service assigned the forces will
probably be to repossess the forts and property which have been seized from the
Union . . . I hereby convene both Houses of Congress for the Fourth of July
next, to determine upon measures of public safety, which the interests of the
country demand. – Abraham Lincoln,
President. WD
04 18 The
War News Engrosses
The war
news engrosses the anxious attention of our citizens. The topic of all conversation is the
surrender of Fort Sumter and the next movements that will be made by the
contending authorities. Everybody, of
course, feels a deep interest in passing events and looks forward to the future
with mingled hope and fear. WD
04 18 Troops Pass Through City
A company
of United States troops from Minnesota passed through this city last Tuesday,
over the Chicago and North Western Railroad. Their destination is probably Washington,
where their presence and services are wanted.
Their number is estimated from 100 to 150. WD
05 30 New Testament For Each Volunteer, of Watertown Rifle Co.
This file
is under construction
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