Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1921-09-28
Petosi in the War of the Rebellion.


On the 14th day of April 1861 was
received the news of the fall of Fort
| Sumpter and the North sprang to
arms. President Lincoln issued his
call for $4,000 volunteers on April Is,
and the call was followed by Cover
nor Randall of Wisconsin the next
! day by a proclamation to the people
| of Wisconsin, authorizing enlistment
for soldiers to fight for the preserva-
| ton of the Union. David Mckee of
Lancaster who had but a few years
| previous resided in PotoSi was author
lied to recruit a company of volun-
teerS in Grant county. He came to
POtOsi where he was so well known,
soliciting volunteers for the war and
in a short time had enrolled twenty
i eight FotOsi friends and acquaint-
ances who cheerfully offered their
| services to their country. They were
| Frank Neaville, Henry Neaville, Will
| liam Booth, Valorous F. Kinney, Louis
| LaFOnt, Samuel Booth, George Bease-
! ly, Alphas Currant, Belknap Fuqua,
James H. Neaville, Richard Arm
strong, Matthias Baker, Daniel Burton,
James H Bantam, George Booth, j.
Fred Chase, Charles Hilgers, Frank
Nicholas, George Jones, Joseph Schil-
ling, John ST. John, Samuel Sprague,
William Frawley, George M. Wilson,
William A. Doty, Albert Spease,
Henry Rhode, Henry Acker, assign
ed to Co. G. End Regt." William A.
Ewing later joined as recruit 1t
was necessary that all should report
at Boscobel on Monday, April %, &C
cordingly, volunteers from different
parts of the county conferred at Lam
caster, meet there on Sunday, April
81. In the afternoon they were TAX
en- to Boscobel in wagons and on
Monday morning, April p one week
after President Lincoln's proclama-
ton the first company Of Grant coun-
ty volunteers was organized in the
forenoon with David Mckee of Lam
caster as Captain, G.. K Dean of Bos-
cobel, first Lieutenant and William
Booth of Potosi second Lieutenant.
| The company became known as the
Grant County Gray's and their motto
was: Lead is King, Not Cotton"
AT II O'Clock that same day Gov
Randall telegraphed Captain Mckee
that his company was accepted and
must be ready at moments notice
May 5 the company left Boscobel for
Madison where it was assigned to
the second Wisconsin Volunteer In
fantry and became company the
color company of the regiment The
regiment was mustered into the
United States service on June II,
1861 and left the state for Washing
ton, ID. G. on the 25th and shortly
thereafter was assigned to Col w. T.
Sherman's Brigade, and on the 21st
OF July, 1861 was engaged in the first
battle of Bull Run. In this battle
company G lost it's first man, Thomas
Cox of Lancaster was killed in action
Lieut.. William Booth and private Bel
KNAPP Fuqua OF Potosi were wounded
and taken prisoners. Fuqua died
from his wound at Richmond, Va.
In August 1861 John B. Calls of
Lancaster came to Potosi recruiting
volunteers and the following named
young men from the town of Potosi
enrolled their names, they were
James Thorp, Henry Rupke, Wesley
Craig, Newton McPhail, James H.
Eagers, Herbert Harris, Thomas Kee,
Thomas Kee End, George Eaustice,
John Leppla, John d. Runnion, Ben
jamin Branham and Philip Bennett.
Capt. Calls company became Com
pany F. 7th Wis. Infantry, other
|
Regt. were Alexander Ivey in Com
pany D and Charles Woodman in
company G. Other Potosi boys who
early enlisted were John Thorp, Ro-
| bert Thorp, George Cornique, John
Kern and E. D. Fox, they served with
company F, 3rd Wis. Infantry. The
7th Regt. joined the End and 9Th regi-
ments in Virginia and with the 18th
Indiana formed Kings brigade. The
oath Mich. was later added to the
brigade. Capt. Gibbons, battery B,
4th U. S. Artillery supported this
brigade. CAPTAIN John Gibbons was
made a Brigadier General and placed
in command OF the brigade and after
the battle of Gainesville Aug. 28th,
1852, it became known as the famous
Iron Brigade of the west, and was
pronounced by General George B.
Mcclellan to be equal to any troops
in the world. In the battle of Gaines
vile July 29th, 1862 company C of the
second, lost twelve men killed, two
of them, Frank Neaville and John st.
John were from PCtosi Co. F. of the
9TH lost men killed, two of whom.
John Leppla and Newton McPhail
were from PotOsi Thus Potosi lost
four young men killed in this battle.
The next battles the Iron Brigade
engaged were the battles of the second
Bull Run July 80 and South Mountain
Sept. IA. There were no Potosi casu-
alties in these battles. Antietam
Sept. II, 1852 was the next big battle
the brigade was engaged in, in this
battle Co. c of the End lost six men
I killed and company F 7th Regt lost
four men, of these ten men killed,
three were from Potosi, Henry Nea-
vile and George Beasely of Co. c End
and Wesley Craig of Co. F, 7th. The
brigade engaged in several other bat
ties with no casualties from Potosi
In the battle of Gettysburg July 1,
and 3, 1863, Co. G of the End lost six
men killed, two of whom Daniel Bur
ton and William A. Ewing were Po-
tosi boys, Co. F, 7th lost two killed
one Philip Bennett was from Potosi
George Cornique Potosi boy of Co
F, 3rd Wis. Regt. was killed in the
battle of the Wilderness. John D.
Runnion another Potosi young man
of Co. F, 7th Regt was killed at the
Ebattle of Petersburg July 10. I'm to