Fond du Lac County's Responses to the Civil War
by Anita Ewerdt

Reunion of Former Libby Prison Inmates, Including Members of the Iron Brigade, Chicago, 1890

The American Civil War was a foundational element in the shaping of the nation’s identity, and both contemporary and historical perceptions of the conflict remain central to American self-identity. American history courses commonly conceptualize the war as a major watershed. Memories and myths of families and neighbors divided also remain vividly alive in popular culture. Fond du Lac County’s involvement in the Civil War has been customarily viewed by the entire community as one of honorable significance. Loyalty and a sincere effort to preserve the Union, combined with the sacrifice of those who fought and died, have long been seen as the essence of the city’s experience. However, Fond du Lac’s perceptions of the American Civil War changed over time as the conflict itself unfolded, generations that experienced the encounter aged and died, and as succeeding generations have reinterpreted their history.

Fond du Lac’s responses to the war have passed through five distinct phases in which attitudes shifted as varying relationships to the combat emerged. Fond du Lac’s initial phase saw the war as an adventure, coupled with a strong negative attitude toward Southern secession. This initial phase had the strongest impact on the perceptions of the times, and the deep sense of patriotism that informed this phase continues to be a part of Fond du Lac’sunderstanding of its response today. This phase also shaped later phases in that, to this day, a sense of pride in the accomplishments of Fond du Lac’s fighting men lives on. The second phase reflected a shift of attitude as a result of the devastating toll in lives and the hardships experienced by non-combatants, including the women at home who helped keep the community running. A third phase grew out of the ways in which Fond du Lac dealt with the consequences the Civil War, including the city’s response to a group of Black “contrabands,” or ex-slaves from plantations in the South, and the measures undertaken to deal with wounded and disabled veterans. The fourth phase reflected the perspective of an aging war-time generation seeking to commemorate their efforts in fighting for the Union. The fifth phase saw the Civil War fade as an emotion-driven reality to become a more abstract experience, more susceptible to analysis and understanding. These views reflected the attitudes of generations that no longer had a direct experience of the conflict. Yet the War remains important in some ways, as demonstrated by the emphasis given to teaching about the war in local schools, while the phenomenon of a once popular and written-about War Between the States, the bloodiest conflict on American soil, is now a popular hobbyist’s pastime.

The initial phase of Fond du Lac’s experience of the war reflected an enthusiasm to preserve the Union and stop Southern secession. Scholars who have read the many early letters written by Union soldiers, including those from Fond du Lac, report a widely shared motivation: “fighting to maintain the best government on earth” was a common thought. It was a “great struggle for the Union, Constitution, and law.” ¹ Strong negative emotion toward secession of the Southern states was evident early in 1861. In addition, “many Americans had a romantic, glamorous idea of war.” ² However, as time went on, this view started to change. A war that most thought would be short turned into a five-year conflict in which more American lives were lost than died in all other wars the United States has fought. ³

Even before the war began, Fond du Lac was heavily involved in discussing the secession crisis. As early as January 9, 1861, The Union Rifle Guard met at the Ridge Road School House in the town of Eldorado to discuss issues relating to an upcoming war. Local residents found time to meet and discuss the seriousness of national events that were unfolding. Participants included local businessmen, schoolteachers, and farmers. ⁴

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina had seceded from the Union. Two days following this, Lincoln announced that he was determined to preserve the Union. South Carolina troops reacted by opening fire with their harbor batteries on the federal facilities at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. After a short bombardment, the fort surrendered on April 13, 1861, and Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteer troops to break up the rebellion.

Wisconsin residents immediately responded to Lincoln’s request. “’We must lick’em.’ ‘Southern rights be damned.’ ‘Charleston must be destroyed.’ ‘Jeff Davis should be hung.”’ These were typical responses in Wisconsin, including Fond du Lac. “War, war, war, was the theme of every fireside and gathering; people felt that the secessionists had forfeited all their rights under the constitution by treasonably making war against our government.” ⁵

Concern about secession flooded the thoughts of the Fond du Lac community. According to an article reproduced in the Fairwater Chronology, when the people of Fond du Lac and the surrounding area heard the news of the rebellion at Fort Sumter, the activities of everyday life just stopped.

The war feeling is so intense and absorbing that much of the business of our city has been stopped; men are collected in crowds on the streets and before the recruiting office of Col. Lefferts. Mechanics have left their shops, clerks their desks, printers their cases, laborers their usual employments, and all are prepared to take up their arms in defense of the flag of their country. ⁶

Businesses closed. Merchants, bankers, lawyers, farmers and artisans questioned one another to learn every possible detail of this great crisis. ⁷ Early enthusiastic support for the war can be seen in an April 17, 1861 article in Fond du Lac’s Weekly Commonwealth, describing a mass meeting of 350 citizens in Amory Hall, located in downtown Fond du Lac. This was the largest meeting held in Fond du Lac County up to that time. The meeting was held to discuss and make a fitting response to the call by President Lincoln to resist the “aggressiveness of traitors with arms.” A central feature of the meeting was a stirring speech by Edward S. Bragg. ⁸ Bragg was Fond du Lac District Attorney and later became a local war hero as leader of the Iron Brigade. He used his wartime service to launch a successful political career. Mr. Bragg gave the following speech:

Citizen soldiers: In obedience to your patriotic impulses to defend the flag hallowed by the blood of patriots, the maintenance of which was bequeathed to you as a legacy of a glorious ancestry, you are about to bid adieu to friends and kindred, to put off the garb of peace and assume the ‘slow measured tread of grim visaged war.’ In days of old, the knights ‘did his devoir under the color of his ladye-love.’ The remembrance of the sweet and sad parting cheered him when gloom was stealing o’er his spirit, and rendered doubly dear the achievements of his arm. In later days—in the times which tried men’s souls—when women of America cheered the soul of the patriot; the mother gave her husband and son as willing offerings, and the maiden wiped the death-damp from the brow of her lover without a murmur. The race of noble men and women is not extinct. They are as ready now as then, at their country’s call, to make the sacrifice. ⁹

The reaction to this speech was an outpouring of patriotism and expressions of desire to preserve the Union. Bragg’s speech clearly helped inspire enthusiasm, and he capitalized on it by organizing a company, “Bragg’s Rifles,” joining the many political officers who swelled Union ranks at the beginning of the war. ¹⁰ A number of other factors fueled the Fond du Lac community’s active opposition to Southern secession. Economics were at the heart of many people’s concern. Wisconsin’s industry and economy were suffering from a pre-war economic crisis. The panic of 1857 had strained businesses, and the impending war did not bode well for the future. “Wisconsin on the eve of the Civil War was not a confident, united, economically sound society.” ¹¹ Southern secession was seen as only creating more problems for infant industries in the Fond du Lac area. ¹² Anxiety over secession produced a dramatic drop in lumber prices, weakening an industry that was based primarily in Oshkosh. Agriculture, Fond du Lac’s largest industry at the time, was also not doing well. Farmers had accumulated debts through the purchase of new land and expensive machinery. Fond du Lac banks also faced a crisis on account of their dependence on bank notes that were secured by bonds issued by Southern states.

Conversely, economic difficulties actually helped stimulate early enlistments in Lincoln’s volunteer army as a means to avoid unemployment. The hardships of military life were scarcely understood, and few predicted a long and bloody war. Therefore, the large number of volunteers from Fond du Lac who joined the Union Army in the spring of 1861 was predictable on economic grounds, even without the additional stimuli of patriotism and youthful enthusiasm. ¹³

The first military unit mustered in Fond du Lac was Company I of the 1st Wisconsin Regiment. This regiment left for the East on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway on May 2, with a large crowd of tearful yet excited citizens seeing off the troops. Fond du Lac’s men and boys were finally going off to war. ¹⁴

On May 25, 1861, a local paper reported that:

Fond du Lac County has furnished a greater number of volunteers than any other county in the State, not even excepting Milwaukee. We have now nine full companies, and three more nearly full, more than enough for one full regiment. Of these, six companies have enlisted for three years, or during the war. ¹⁵

What the newspaper claimed was true. Fond du Lac County did supply the largest number of volunteers at the beginning of the war. It comes as no surprise, then, to find that Fond du Lac’s aspiring soldiers were said to perform military drills wherever they could, in village parks, vacant lots, and pastures. Frustration with Southern secession was the prevalent attitude of the city, and talk of a war caught like wildfire in the streets of Fond du Lac. Numerous war assemblies were held in Fond du Lac as well as cities like Milwaukee and Baraboo. ¹⁶ “The flag, the Union, the Constitution, and democracy—all were symbols or abstractions, but nevertheless powerful enough to evoke a willingness to fight and die for them.” ¹⁷

The fact that Fond du Lac at first supplied the most volunteers of any county in the state suggests that the county was experiencing almost a war-time mania, and it gives testament to Fond du Lac’s intense opposition to the dissolution of the Union. Over the whole course of the war, Fond du Lac supplied over 2,000 volunteers to the Union Army. Among these soldiers were one major general, a brigadier, three colonels, two majors and four surgeons. ¹⁸

Colwert Pier, a son of one of Fond du Lac’s first residents, was the first in Fond du Lac to enlist in the Union Army. ¹⁹ He had left Fond du Lac to attend law school at Lombard University in Galesburg, Illinois, but Pier returned to his hometown in 1859, where he was clerking for a local judge when Fort Sumter fell and the Civil War began. Pier and a friend answered President Lincoln’s call for volunteers by signing up to join the Union Army on April 16, 1861. Many of his friends joined him.

Often brothers, cousins, or fathers and sons joined the same company or regiment. A sense of identity was clearly established in military units drawn from communities or from specific ethnic groups. This identity enhanced morale on both the home front and fighting fronts, but it could mean unexpected misfortune for a family or a neighborhood if a unit endured fifty percent or more casualties in a particular battle, as might be the case. ²⁰

Often young men like Pier joined because of a sense of adventure. Patriotism was also strong in the local farm boys from Fond du Lac County. No one had to persuade those first soldiers to go. The processions, the loyal meetings, and the intense speech-making took on a different outlook in the months and years that followed, but fervor for the war was an unrefined emotion those days. Few seem to have reflected on the possibility of death in the early days of the conflict. The young soldiers were caught up in the patriotic excitement of the initial phase of the war.

A sense of adventure was not the only thing that filled the minds of young men. The war provided a way to establish status among their townsmen. Colwert Pier, Fond du Lac’s first enlistee, had this exact thought on his mind. After serving out his initial, relatively uneventful 90-day term in the Union Army, Pier returned home almost before any major battles occurred. After some time passed and the war continued, Pier organized a company in Fond du Lac, and the company named him captain. Pier sought to raise nine more companies in order to form a regiment that he could command. Months later, after much pleading and begging by Pier, the governor telegraphed Pier to offer him a commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the 38th Wisconsin Regiment. The story goes that Pier asked his mother, who was ill in bed, if he should go. With her eyes filled with tears and a trembling voice she said: “Do as you think best, my boy, I will be satisfied with your decision.” He then accepted the commission. ²¹ But Pier had been actively seeking this appointment for over a year, and this overdramatic account of his sick mother’ sacrifice seems more likely to have been used by Pier to draw attention away from his previous lobbying. ²²

The Fond du Lac “Badger Boys” of Company I, including Private Colwert Pier, were in the first group to depart from Fond du Lac on May 2, 1861. Crowds swarmed the streets and the train station to bid their goodbyes. The Badger Boys experienced their first fighting at the battle of Falling Waters. “It was a wild, harum-scarum battle, but the boys thought it was a big thing.” wrote Pier. Afterwards, this minor skirmish became a joke among the veterans and remains one to this day. The true brutality and slaughter of war were yet to be experienced. ²³

Fond du Lac was privileged to have an individual with genuine military experience among its citizens, Charles Smith Hamilton. Hamilton had been a soldier in the Mexican War. Born in New York in November 1822, he graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1843 and joined the infantry. He performed well in the war with Mexico and was promoted to captain for bravery in skirmishes at Contreras and Churubusco. After being severely wounded at Molino del Rey, he resigned, and he took up farming in Fond du Lac in April 1853. ²⁴

Hamilton evidently played a major role in preparing local soldiers. Camp Hamilton in Fond du Lac, located on what is now a small park called Plamore Park, was the place where many Fond du Lac enlistees began their training. Under the name Camp Hamilton, it was the training station for the 3rd, 6th and 14th Wisconsin Regiments.

A larger Civil War training facility was Camp Randall, located on the present day University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. More than 70,000 men were stationed and trained there. Many Fond du Lac men and boys joined the Union Army at Camp Randall. ²⁵ Governor Alexander Randall (1819-1872), for whom the camp was named, constructed the first wartime Wisconsin Regiment there around five Milwaukee volunteer companies. ²⁶

The first man from Wisconsin to be critically injured on a Southern battlefield was Lieutenant William A. Matthews of Company G, 1st Wisconsin Volunteers. He was severely wounded in battle in Virginia in July of 1861. He had enlisted from his home in Fond du Lac. ²⁷ As casualty lists grew, citizens shifted from patriotic zeal, toward a wariness of battle and weariness of the war.

Perhaps the single greatest shock to people in Fond du Lac that was produced by the growing number of casualties came in the autumn of 1862. The 6th Wisconsin Regiment, organized at Camp Randall in 1861, suffered enormous casualties on September 14, 1862, at the Battle of South Mountain, and September 17, 1862, at the Battle of Antietam in Maryland. Eleven were killed and 79 wounded at South Mountain. Fifty of the remaining fewer than 200 men of the unit became casualties at Antietam. ²⁸ Once the news of this horrific slaughter reached home, the citizens of Fond du Lac County began to look at the war differently, for the personal cost of war became increasingly clear. In addition, people in Fond du Lac had realized that the war would not end soon and the casualty lists were likely to grow much longer.

The true brutality of war is sometimes depicted in letters that were written home from soldiers in camps. Even in their mobilization and training camps, poor sanitation and disease killed many soldiers before they were ever exposed to battle, and infection killed many of the wounded after they were evacuated from the battlefield. An anonymous soldier from Fond du Lac County spoke of the bitterness of wounded men coming back to the camps: “Indeed Dear Miss there are thousands of poor soldiers that will see home and friends no more in this world. If you was in Keokuk and see the number of sick and disabled soldiers it would make your heart ache.” ²⁹

Another letter written by a Fond du Lac man gives laconic evidence of the transition from a sense of adventure to realization of the difficulties of military encounters: “We have now been in the service of Uncle Sam over one year and have seen some of the hardships incident to a soldier’s life, and expect to see many more before the authority of the government is established.” ³⁰

During his first service at war, Colwert Pier wrote letters home that had been published weekly in Fond du Lac’s local newspaper. Pier hoped to use this public attention to gain stature and recognition for a future in politics. He did not have the military background of a Charles Smith Hamilton, and he used the war effort as a means to develop name recognition and popularity among Fond du Lac County residents, many of whom served with him during the war. This was a common tactic among officers in the Civil War era, many of whom were political appointees without previous military experience. Of course the vast expansion of military forces during the war made it a certainty that amateurs would find themselves in positions of command. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Colwert Pier grew to be a trustworthy soldier and an effective regimental leader, and he devoted more than a year of his life to help preserve the Union, including participation in the Battle of Cold Harbor and the Siege of Petersburg. Evidence of Pier’s bravery in ferocious fighting is depicted in one of his recollections:

Before Petersburg we shot days and worked nights; it was dangerous to be safe anywhere, as the opposing lines were within a stones-throw of each other; the rebels shot to kill and killed by the thousands. We returned their compliments and probably threw two pounds of lead and iron to their one.³¹

After three long years of fighting, the war was still not over, and enthusiasm for it had dwindled. The realization that the war was dangerous and more hardship than adventure weakened eagerness for enlistment. In order to keep the Union Army supplied with troops, volunteerism was stimulated, first with cash bounties, and later by conscription—the “draft.” Federal and state governments offered increasing “bounties” to encourage voluntary enlistment. The government aggressively sought new troops, and the incentive was no longer patriotism; it was money. In order to boost the number of volunteers, the Fond du Lac community held volunteer auctions to encourage men to enlist. At these auctions a local resident would call out “I will give $50 for the next volunteer.” The next man would shout out “I will give $100,” and so on until another volunteer accepted. These auctions would go on late into the night. ³²

These bounties were offers of hundreds of dollars to any man or boy who would enlist. Since the draft included no bounty, many men volunteered before they were drafted and collected a $302 bounty. ³³ The initial phase of enthusiasm faded and gave way to a grim determination to prevail in some cases. Others decided the war was not for them and found ways to evade service by purchasing a substitute or by fleeing the country. Few reacted positively to the draft.

The Fond du Lac community’s initial response to the announcement of conscription was an example of a small town reacting to national events. In New York City, riots broke out over news of the draft. Fond du Lac saw no riots, but there was some consternation after a local newspaper declared that the United States government did not have the entitlement to “tear men from their homes to be butchered for the tyrants at Washington.” Many in Fond du Lac initially had a misapprehension as to what conscription actually was. Some Fond du Lac residents anticipated “a squad of armed soldiers . . . [would] appear at their doors with handcuffs and chains to take all the male inmates at all hazards.” Once this misunderstanding was rectified, the nervousness amongst the county’s citizens dwindled. ³⁴ However, even with a better understanding, many citizens were still reluctant to be forced to fight.

After the draft had been ordered, some local men fled the country. Those who had been summoned might receive abrupt word that a “good friend” in Canada was ill or needed aid. “Twenty who thus suddenly learned of illness among their Canada friends left Fond du Lac in a single night.” ³⁵ On the Sunday preceding the draft notice, one Fond du Lac paper declared “More than one-half of the men drafted in Eldorado on Wednesday have run away.” ³⁶ This behavior was a dramatic change from the heady patriotism and enthusiasm of the outbreak of the war.

Many women also became disheartened as they began to face the realities of the war. They concentrated their attention on their families, their personal needs and expressed anxiety over possible loss of a loved one. A yearning to have their sons and husbands back home supplanted the patriotism that they had previously endorsed. In fact, Fond du Lac’s early excesses of patriotism largely disappeared. Instead, the focus was on “just come home; we’re probably going to lose this war, but whether we win or lose, it’s not worth this tremendous cost of lives and destruction.” ³⁷

A full accounting of war-related deaths of Fond du Lac County men during the Civil War has never been authoritatively compiled. However, given the number of wounded, sick, blind, limbless and diseased who were reported in the local newspaper, it is not surprising that enthusiasm for the war effort greatly subsided. This toll in lives, lost or altered led Fond du Lac to its third phase of responses, that of dealing with the consequences. Although Fond du Lac people had once been very supportive of the war, times were hard; families struggled to get by without their men. Hard times also contributed to more heartbreak, as the bounty for enlistment tempted men who needed money for their families. A typical Fond du Lac man who enlisted received a $302 government bounty, and this did help overcome some financial burdens while the enlistee was away at war; however, the consequent shortage of men to run farms and operate machinery in the local mills still had a negative impact on families and community. ³⁸

Changing war aims may also have altered the attitude of people in Fond du Lac toward the war. Although Fond du Lac had fully supported maintaining the Union, support for an end to slavery was less certain. Some Fond du Lac residents, including Edward Bragg, were vocally hostile toward Blacks and readily expressed racist attitudes. ³⁹ Fond du Lac citizens were forced to deal directly with their attitudes toward Blacks when a group of former slaves, or contrabands, arrived in town as refugees in 1863. Perhaps the most notable of them was Frances Harris, later Frances Shirley, born in Franklin County, Alabama, who left behind an oral history account of her experiences. She was a slave on a plantation until she was smuggled out of Southern-controlled territory. She came to Fond du Lac with her mother and several other Blacks through the intervention and influence of a local minister who sought to aid the displaced slaves whom he encountered living in appalling conditions at a refugee camp in Cairo, Illinois. The “contrabands,” as they were called, were presented to the Fond du Lac community as a way to cope with the wartime shortage of labor, but the people of Fond du Lac, according to Sally Albertz’ article “Fond du Lac’s Black Community and Their Church,” never accepted the presence of this Black population. ⁴⁰

Perhaps all people in Fond du Lac County did not share the prevalent negative opinions of the new residents. A different perception is provided by Ruth Ewerdt, formally Ruth Kutz, who grew up on Morris Street in Fond du Lac, a block away from where Mrs. Shirley lived. Mrs. Ewerdt recalls as a young girl walking to school with “Grandma Shirley’s grandson, Howe, who was a dear playmate.” “Our neighborhood seemed to welcome and accept the Black community,” according to Mrs. Ewerdt. “I even recall some of the mothers in our neighborhood who would call upon elderly Black women if their white children were sick; they always had a good cure for whatever the illness was.” Mrs. Ewerdt recalls attending a funeral with her mother and sister Anita in the white church on stilts that was the center of the Black community. “That funeral very well could have been for Grandma Shirley’s husband.” ⁴¹

The issue of race was not as strong in Fond du Lac as it was elsewhere, for few people had much first hand experience of Black individuals. According to Lance Herdegen in his book The Men Stood Like Iron, Wisconsinites who were serving in the Union Army placed more emphasis on enthusiasm for the war effort than on judging racial and class differences. Mickey Sullivan of the 6th Wisconsin, recollected a Black man, a barber from Fond du Lac, who followed the regiment and who was “well known.” ⁴² Black soldiers, however, were segregated from whites, except that Black regiments had white officers.

Letters home constituted an important aspect of interaction between soldiers and their home communities that provided immediate information about the human cost of the conflict. Throughout the Civil War soldiers wrote an astonishing number of letters. Many also kept diaries. Letters of the time were not subject to censorship. Consequently, a good place to discover these men’s opinions of the war is to look at their letters. Some letters spoke of purposeful sacrifice and articulated what men really thought they were fighting for. ⁴³ Others were more mundane or focused on personal concerns.

John Burhyte Corey of Empire Township in Fond du Lac County was enrolled as a Private in Company A of the 21st Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers at Fond du Lac on August 15, 1862. He was mustered into the military of the United States at Camp Bragg for three years on September 5, 1862. Taken prisoner at Jefferson, Tennessee on December 28, 1862, he died of pneumonia in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, on February 3, 1863. Corey wrote the following letter to his wife Hannah in 1862. ⁴⁴

Camp 4 miles south of Bowling Green Nov the 9 1862
Dear Hannah, in my letter of yesterday I promised to rite [sic] you. I had time again before I left this place and so I shall leave to do so now and be up and ready to march by 11 o’clock 4-mile north of Bowling Green…. My health is better then [sic] it has been in four weeks. I think if I do not get any colder, I shall soon be as strong as ever. I wish you could send me some drawmy of tea…? and a Whiller? In your letters, send me more stamps a few at a time but no more paper until I let you know I want it.
Good night Dear Hannah. ⁴⁵

Another soldier, James Malthouse, enlisted in the 36th Wisconsin Infantry on February 18, 1864, one of the three new Wisconsin units formed at the same time that Colwert Pier received his command. Malthouse was the Captain of Company G and was referred to as “the Capt.” ⁴⁶ Malthouse had been employed as a quarry worker and had farmed with his three sons for twelve years in Fond du Lac prior to enlisting in the Union Army. ⁴⁷

Malthouse wrote to his wife and children while he was stationed in Washington D.C. His daughter collected the series of letters. The letter reproduced here depicts a sense of the emotion he was feeling about his family. He does not discuss his own safety or health in the letter, apart from the phrase “as long as you know that I am well,” a condition that he hopes will always be the case.

Virginia June 28, 1864
My Dear Wife and Children and Cousins
Thinking that you would like to hear from me at any time and I having a few moments to spare and as I can assure you that my heart is with you though I am absent in body and the most pleasure that I have while I have to be parted from you is in writing to you or to get a letter from you or do not think I should ever think as much about you when I should from you but such is the fact. You and my Dear Children are always in my mind either when I am in battle or when I am in the rear but I must not let my mind dwell upon those thoughts, as you will want to hear something else. You must keep up on your spirits and not get to fretting about me so long as you know that I am well for I know that if you fret much you will soon make yourself sick and for me to hear the news of you been sick would give me a great many sorrowful hours but I hope to be always able to hear or to read a letter from you at all times saying that you are well and I hope that I can always write the same to you. No more at this time.
From Your Affectionate and Loving Husband and Father.
James Malthouse Co. G 36 Regt. Wis Vol. Second Army Corps via Washington D.C. ⁴⁸

Such letters depict the immediate thoughts and concerns of the men. The two presented here illustrate a range of issues. Both are written by Fond du Lac men, one an enlisted man, the other an officer, and both died during the Civil War. Each had its own specific flavor. Corey’s missive is more prosaic. His concern was primarily for himself, and the purpose of writing was to request needed items. There was no deep expression of support and affection for his wife, perhaps a consequence of a limited education that made it harder for him to express his feelings. Malthouse’s letter, on the other hand, displays a sense of devotion to his wife and children back home that is typical of the sentiments of the Victorian era. From such letters one can gain a sense of individuals trying to remain healthy and strong while the war dragged on and they were apart from their families.

In the first year of the War, Fond du Lac’s social life went on, despite the absence of men who were fighting. Community meetings were held featuring patriotic speeches, songs and music. Money was also raised for families whose husbands and sons were fighting in the Union Army and who were in consequence struggling to make ends meet. James Malthouse’s family, for example, benefited from this benevolence. To address this problem on a more general scale, when the Hibernian Guards of Fond du Lac departed in 1861, the community provided for the families of the volunteers by raising $4,000. ⁴⁹ Examples such as these suggest that the Fond du Lac community during the Civil War was devoted to supporting military families.

Local women in Fond du Lac took a major role in home front Civil War efforts. ⁵⁰ Such activities showed their support for their country and helped to keep their minds off their husbands and sons on the battlefield. Quilting bees were commonplace in Civil War Fond du Lac. Gatherings of women and young girls made quilts that were shipped to Union posts. When social activities were unavailable, evenings might consist of discussions around the fireplace with Bible readings for support and comfort. Candles burned late into the night as tired fingers worked swiftly and endlessly to make socks, mittens, and scarves for Union soldiers. A sense of unity is suggested as Fond du Lac came together with one goal: to give whatever support they could muster.⁵¹ James Palmer, a resident of Fond du Lac serving in the Union Army, provided a note of gratitude for such assistance: “Tell Grand Mother that shirt and socks she sent were very nice, very nice indeed. They will not come amiss. God grant that the time may come when I can repay her for the many kind favors I have received at her hands. Does she get her bounty money regularly both county and State? Tell her not to be afraid to use my allotment if she needs it, and finally not to despair.⁵²

Another newspaper article describes a meeting of Fond du Lac women from different church denominations who met at the Lewis House to organize a society to collect funds and to solicit donations to aid in building a soldier’s home for Wisconsin veterans. Local businesses donated supplies as well. ⁵³ The community came together with a desire to cope with the consequences of war.

Women were not alone in efforts of post-war rebuilding in Fond du Lac. Local area schoolchildren were involved in raising funds to build the Soldier’s Home in Fond du Lac for returning disabled veterans. Many children got odd jobs such as clipping grass, delivering newspapers, and laboring as farm hands to help raise money for the new building. Parents and teachers greatly applauded the work of these children, and the community as a whole pulled together for the effort to cope with those whom the war had damaged.

The Fond du Lac community rejoiced when they received the news that General Lee had surrendered at Appamatox Court House. An article in the Weekly Commonwealth describes the preparations being made for a celebration. General Hamilton was the leading local official at this event. Hamilton had helped organize Fond du Lac’s citizen soldiers and now he prepared to welcome the returning veterans. ⁵⁴ The celebration began with a national salute, fired at noon. All the bells in the city joyfully rang for an hour. The men were ushered through Fond du Lac from the depot to Music Hall in downtown Fond du Lac, where a reception was given in their honor. Mayor James Taylor was there to welcome them. The entire community was in an uproar as husbands and wives, mothers and sons, and fathers and daughters were reunited. A procession and bonfire in Lakeside Park concluded the day’s events. ⁵⁵

Conceivably, the foremost event in the development of American identity was the Civil War. A sincere desire to preserve the unity of the country instilled nationalism in the hearts of its citizens. As veterans matured, they reinterpreted their experience in terms of national glory, and this was reflected in Fond du Lac’s efforts to memorialize the War. Reunions of veterans were held, including at least one in Fond du Lac sponsored by the Grand Army of the Republic. Nationalism and civic pride expressed by veterans in Fond du Lac led to the construction of two Civil War monuments in the city early in the 20th century. The men who had fought and served in the Civil War had become prominent figures in Fond du Lac by the early 1900s. With financial help from the county a Union Soldier’s Monument was planned for Veteran’s Park in the center of Fond du Lac. This monument was erected to memorialize several organizations and battles that were Union victories in which men from Fond du Lac had fought.

The most significant stimulus for the project came from Mark Harrison, a local artist and businessman who made a commercial success from his art. In his will, Harrison bequeathed $500 for the construction of the Civil War monument, a sum that covered about a quarter of the cost of the project. The statue that resulted still stands in the heart of Fond du Lac as a continuing remembrance of Fond du Lac’s participation in the Civil War. Fond du Lac’s involvement was also commemorated through oil paintings executed by Harrison, who crafted several representations of Fond du Lac’s participation in the Civil War. One example, captioned “Soldiers March in formation on Fond du Lac’s Main Street,” can be seen in Michael Mentzer’s book, Fond du Lac County: A Gift of the Glacier. ⁵⁶

There were controversies surrounding the first statue, and it did not meet community expectations. Objections raised by local veterans’ organizations led to another Civil War veterans’ monument being erected in Rienzi Cemetery in 1907. This second statue was commissioned by the local G.A.R (Grand Army of the Republic) chapter itself. Sculpted exclusively from stone, it was perceived by many local residents to be less flamboyant and elaborate in ornamentation than the earlier Civil War monument.

These monuments, paintings, and the speeches that were given at reunions all celebrated participation in the Civil War as the expression of a heroic nationalism in which war veterans were glorified and honored for their sacrifices. Yet the privations of the community at large and the reluctance of many to serve were gradually forgotten.

Generations have passed since the conflict ended, but the Civil War is still a powerful presence in Fond du Lac. Residents still rejoice in the pride, strength and courage of the men, women and children who gave of themselves to strengthen a community torn by war, and in this they are only a small part of a national trend. Hundreds of Civil War Round Tables and Lincoln Associations flourish around the country. Half a dozen popular and professional history magazines continue to record every aspect of the war. Hundreds of books are published on the subject each year. More than 50,000 titles on the subject make the Civil War by a large margin the most written-about event in American History. ⁵⁷

What was once a very real experience has also been transformed into a hobbyist’s pastime. Fond du Lac’s most celebrated recent encounter with its Civil War past, the depictions of Civil War battles held annually at the Wade House in Greenbush, Sheboygan County, represent a new and different approach. Each September, Fond du Lac and the surrounding communities celebrate the Civil War conflict with a “reenactment” of a typical engagement. The presentation is carried out by groups of men and women from many states whose hobby is to learn about the Civil War and try to interpret the historical era in order to inform and depict the reality of the conflict. The volunteers who take part in the reenactment place much emphasis on accuracy in representing the detail of uniforms, weapons and everyday military life of the period. Other reenactments, less extensive than the one in Greenbush, are held at the Fond du Lac Historical Society Galloway House and Village complex. Teaching “living history” of this sort is popular both for the participants and for the many people who come to observe the pageant presented for them.

Although the Civil War took place a century and a half ago, it is still emphasized to Fond du Lac’s youth in local schools. To take only one example, Kevin Braatz, a Social Studies teacher at Theisen Junior High School in Fond du Lac, spends up to five weeks studying the Civil War with his students each year. ⁵⁸ Mr Braatz’ main focus is the events leading up to the War but he also considers the social effects of the conflict and its consequences for the present day. He includes a discussion of the medical practices during the time, including bleeding of soldiers as a cure for disease and methods of amputations that were used to prevent infection and save lives. Notable for its lack of emphasis on battles, Braatz’s approach illustrates a more analytical and dispassionate approach to the Civil War that is similar to the annual reenactment, where the Confederates “win” the battle one day and the Union the next, and is very different from the emotion-driven and immediate quality of many earlier responses.

Fond du Lac has experienced five distinct responses to the American Civil War. These responses reflected different understandings of the Civil War by those who experienced the war directly, those who remained at home during the confrontation, and those who only know of it as history. The Civil War lives on as Fond du Lac remembers those who fought in it and died and those who survived. All the veterans who fought and the families who experienced the Civil War have now been laid to rest, but their memory remains encapsulated in the community’s historic experience.

1 - James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 309. return

2 - McPherson, 332. return

3 - McPherson, 6. return

4 - “The Union Rifle Guard Will Meet,” Fond du Lac Weekly Commonwealth, January 9, 1861. return

5 - Lance Herdegen, The Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997) 20, quoting Diary of George Fairfield, (State Historical Society of Wisconsin). return

6 - Fairwater Chronology: 1861-65. Civil War. Available online at http://www.wlhn.org/fond_du_lac/communities/fairwater/fairwaterchron2.htm (link no longer functioning 01/09/2008). return

7 - Maurice McKenna, ed. Fond du Lac County: Past and Present, (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912), 147-9. return

8 - Attorney Edward Stuyvesant Bragg (1827-1912) was district attorney for the City of Fond du Lac and had been a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention. He later became a general, commanding the famous Iron Brigade. His most notable military actions were fought as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Wisconsin Regiment at South Mountain and Antietam in 1862. McKenna, 148; Herdegen, 114-116. return

9 - McKenna, 149. return

10 - Herdegen, 22, 193. return

11 - Robert, Nesbit, Wisconsin, A History, (Madison: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1973), 242. return

12 - Nesbit, 267. return

13 - Nesbit, 227. return

14 - Fairwater Chronology: 1861-65. Civil War return

15 - Fairwater Chronology: 1861-65. Civil War. return

16 - Herdegen, 20. return

17 - McPherson, 309. return

18 - Michael Mentzer, Fond du Lac County: A Gift of the Glacier (Fond du Lac County Historical Society, 1999), 50. return

19 - Rick Hamacher, “The Making of a Civil War Soldier: Colwert Pier of Fond du Lac,” supra in this volume. return

20 - McPherson, 326. return

21 - “Return of the 38th Regiment: Our Fellow Citizen Lt. Col. Colwert Pier in Command,” Fond du Lac Weekly Commonwealth, August 6, 1865. return

22 - Hamacher. return

23 - McKenna, 152. return

24 - http://www.famousamericans.net/charlessmithhamilton/ return

25 - Nesbit, 256. return

26 - Nesbit, 246. return

27 - McKenna, 153. return

28 - Herdegen, 186; Battle of Antietam on the Web, Lt. Col. Edward S. Bragg’s Reports. Available online at http://aotw.org/exhibit.php?exhibit_id=260 return

29 - http://www.civilwarletters.com/home.html An anonymous soldier from Fond du Lac County. This letter of October 24, 1863 was written at Camp Lincoln, Keokuk, Iowa. return

30 - James Birney Palmer, Civil War Letters, (Fond du Lac County Historical Society, 1960). return

31 - William Love, Wisconsin in the War of Rebellion, (Madison: Church & Goodman, 1866), cited in Hamacher. return

32 - McKenna, 150. return

33 - McKenna, 151. return

34 - McKenna, 153. return

35 - McKenna, 154 return

36 - Brian Lamb, Booksnotes: Stories from American History, (New York: Public Affairs Publishing, 2001), 91. return

37 - Ibid. return

38 - McKenna, 150. return

39 - Herdegen, 61. return

40 - Sally Albertz “Fond du Lac’s Black Community and Their Church 1865-1943,” in Clarence B. Davis, ed., Source of the Lake: 150 Years of History in Fond du Lac. (Fond du Lac: Action Printing, 2002), 33-54. return

41 - Ruth (Kutz) Ewerdt interview, April 10, 2004. return

42 - Herdegen, 60-61. return

43 - Lamb, 80. return

44 - http://www.rootsweb.com/-wifonddu.resource/scrapbook/corey.html (link no longer functioning 11/20/2006) return

45 - http;//www.rootsweb.com/-wifonddu.resource/scrapbook/corey.html (link no longer functioning 11/20/2006) Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are as in the original. return

46 - Richard E. Malthouse, “Letters From a Wisconsin Union Soldier: 36th Wisconsin Volunteers Company G.” Typescript dated 2002. Fond du Lac Public Library. return

47 - Malthouse, 208. return

48 - Malthouse, 235. return

49 - “Great War Meeting Held in Amory Hall,” Fond du Lac Weekly Commonwealth, April 21, 1861. return

50 - “Soldiers’ Home,” Fond du Lac Weekly Commonwealth, March 29, 1865. return

51- Ethel Alice Hurn, Wisconsin Women in the War, (Democrat Printing Company, 1911), 37. return

52 - Palmer, 20. return

53 - “The Ladies Soldiers Relief Society Met at the Court House,” Fond du Lac Weekly Commonwealth, March 26, 1862. return

54 - “Rumor Came Friday that Lee has Surrendered,” Fond du Lac Weekly Commonwealth, April 12, 1865. return

55 - “The Fourteenth Regiment Returned Home,” Fond du Lac Reporter, October 28, 1865. return

56 - Mentzer, 48-49. On the Veteran’s Park monument, see Ann Martin, “Tin Soldier: Fond du Lac’s Courthouse Square Union Soldiers Monument,” in Clarence B. Davis, ed., Source of the Lake: 150 Years of History in Fond du Lac, (Fond du Lac: Action Printing, 2002), 110-126. On Harrison’s career, see Sonja Bochen, “Art and Commerce in Fond du Lac: Mark Robert Harrison, 1819-1894,” in Clarence B. Davis, ed., Source of the Lake: 150 Years of History in Fond du Lac, (Fond du Lac: Action Printing, 2002), 199-218. return

57 - McPherson, ix. return

58 - Kevin Braatz interview, April 14, 2004. return

Copyright Clarence B. Davis 2005. Marian College Press, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 2005.
Electronic publication by Fond du Lac Public Library has been approved by Clarence B. Davis.

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