43rd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment The 43rd Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War . Service . The 43rd Wisconsin was organized at Madison , Wisconsin and mustered into Federal service by companies between August 8 and September 30 , 1864 . The Forty - Third Infantry , like the Forty - Second , entered the service under the President ' s call of July 18 , 1864 . The regiment rendezvoused at Milwaukee . Amasa Cobb , then member of Congress from the Third District , and formerly Colonel of the Fifth Wisconsin , was appointed Colonel and Byron Paine , Chief Justice of the Supreme Court , Lieutenant Colonel . The first company was mustered in August 8 and the last October 8 , 1864 . The following day they left the State , and proceeded to Nashville . The roster was as follows : Colonel - Amasa Cobb Lieut . Colonel - Byron Paine Major - Samuel B . Brightman Adjutant - Alvin F . Clark Quartermaster - John B . Eugene Surgeon - James M . Ball 1st Asst . Surgeon - Charles C . Hayes 2d Asst . Surgeon - Thomas Beach Chaplain - John Walworth Co . Captains First Lieutenants Second Lieutenants A - E . D . Lowry William Partridge Charles M . Day B - George K . Shaw Hiram H . Lockwood Lloyd V . Nanscawen C - George Campbell Levi Welden John Brandon D - Josiah Hinman Morgan O ' Flaherty Francis A . Smith E - Isaac Stockwell Chas . J . Wadsworth George W . Witter F - John S . Wilson John E . Davis Henry Harris G - Bruce E . McCoy Arthur T . Morse C . W . Allen H - William W . Likens Elijah Lyon Thomas O . Russell I - George Jackson A . D . Miller Orrin L . Ingman K - R . A . Gillett John W . Howard Charles Lemke From Nashville the regiment moved by rail to Johnsonville , the terminus of the Government railroad which had been built to convey supplies from Nashville to the Tennessee River . Here they performed guard and garrison duty details , being sent daily to guard railroad trains to Nashville . Colonel Cobb was appointed commander of the post and Lieutenant Colonel Paine took command of the regiment . At that time vast amounts of army supplies of all kinds were passing through Johnsonville to Nashville , being brought up the Tennessee on transports and then shipped by rail . November 4 the rebels attacked the gun boats below the town , drove them up to Johnsonville , planted a six - gun battery and opened fire upon the place and the boats . The officers of the latter , with reason or without reason , deemed it necessary to abandon and burn them . Soon after the transports barges and Government buildings were also fired by the federals and property worth several millions of dollars was destroyed to prevent its falling into the enemy ' s hands . The burning of so many boats and buildings was a conflagration indescribably grand , which added to the explosion of ammunition upon the boats and in the depot and the roar of artillery from the combatants between whom a battle , meanwhile , was raging , produced a terrific scene . On the morning of the 5th , the firing was renewed but the rebels soon withdrew . During the engagement the Forty - Third lay in the trenches protected by earth - works from the enemy ' s shot , being unable to aid in the battle because it was wholly an artillery fight . They had two men killed and one wounded . November 30 , Johnsonville was evacuated and the troops ordered to move with all possible dispatch to Nashville to resist Hood . Marching by day and night in an almost unbroken wilderness , through deep mud and drenching rains , and guarding an immense train , they learned on the third day that they were cut off from Nashville . They were then ordered to turn toward Clarksville which they reached December 5 and there encamped until the 28th . At that date they embarked for Nashville and January 1 , 1865 moved south by rail to Decherd , a station on the road to Chattanooga . Here six companies encamped and four , under command of Major Brightman , were detached to guard the Elk River bridge . The regiment remained at these points , guarding the railroad and awing the guerrillas of the country until the close of the war . While at Decherd they laid out a cemetery for their own and other deceased soldiers , erected a monument with a suitable inscription in raised letters and dedicated all with solemn religious services conducted by their chaplain . They were called to bury many of their number in Tennessee . Early in June the regiment moved to Nashville and on the 24th were mustered out . They soon after returned to Milwaukee where they were paid and disbanded . Colonel Cobb was brevetted brigadier general for meritorious services during the war . Lieutenant Colonel Paine was constrained in consequence of the death of a brother , to resign a short time before the discharge of the regiment . He was in command during most of their service , Colonel Cobb being engaged on detached duty . The soldiers were deeply affected when it was announced that he was to leave . He united kindness and firmness in discipline . It is the unanimous testimony of the officers of the regiment that never did the humblest soldier , however great his delinquency , receive from Lieutenant Colonel Paine an unkind or ungentlemanly word . " Without ostentation and with great singleness of purpose he devoted himself to the welfare of his regiment and the good of the service . Conceding nothing to ambition , nothing to any personal consideration , he moved straight wherever duty led undeterred by censure and unmoved by applause anxious only to be right . " Rarely has the service been blessed with an officer of so pure morals and so sincere a purpose . The only new appointments that appear the muster - out roster are the following : John E . Davis , Adjutant ; C . C . Hayes , Surgeon ; Henry H . Ruger , First Assistant Surgeon ; G . Witter , First Lieutenant of Company E , and Alvin F . Clark of Company F ; James H . McHenry , Second Lieutenant of Company A . , and George P . Gennett , of Company G . Regimental Statistics : - Original strength , 867 . Gain : by recruits in 1865 , 38 ; substitutes , 8 ; total , 913 . Loss : - by death , 70 ; desertion , 40 ; transfer , 1 ; discharge , 39 ; muster - out , 763 Casualties . The 43rd Wisconsin suffered two enlisted men killed or fatally wounded in action and 2 officers and 72 enlisted men who died of disease , for a total of 76 fatalities . 43d Wisconsin Infantry Colonels . 43d Wisconsin Infantry Colonel - Amasa Cobb