CHAPTER XIII MILITARY AFFAIRS SOLDIERS OF THE MEXICAN WAR-JAMES O'RILEZY,, OF REEDSBURG- CHARLES S. LADD, MERRIMACK-CAPT. LEVI MOORE-COL. STEPHEN V. R. ABLEMAN-FIRST CIVIL WAR ORGANIZATIONS-SAUK COUNTY CONTRIBUTES TO THE MADISON GUARDS-INTO CAMP AT CHAMBERS- BURG-BATTLE OF FALLING WATERS, VIRGINIA--RE-ENLISTED- REPRESENTATION IN THE "IRON BRIGADE "-THE SECOND WISCON- SIN INFANTRY-THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH REGIMENTS-THE IRON BRIGADE IN THE WILDERNESS-OTHER RECORDS OF THE BRIGADE- JOSEPH A. WEIRICH--COMPANY D, NINTH REGIMENT--THE ELEVENTH WISCONSIN-THE MARCHING REGIMENT-THE FOUR- TEENTH WISCONSIN-COMPANY H, SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT- COL. JAMES S. ALBAN, OF THE EIGHTEENTH-COMPANY A, NINE- TEENTH REGIMENT-COMPANIES F AND K, OF THE TWENTY-THIRD- COMPANY K, OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH! REGIMENIT-COL, DAVID K. NOYES, FORTY-NINTH REGIMENT-THE CAPTURE OF JEFF DAVIS- JOHN G. KLEINLEIN-THE CAVALRY COMPANIES-COLONEL VITTUM, OF THE THIRD CAVALRY-THE SIXTH BATTERY-MEMORIES OF LIN- COLN-NEWS OF THE ASSASSINATION AT BARABOO-A LINCOLN GUARD OF HONOR-BARABOO TRIPLETS NAMED BY LINCOLN-WHEN THEY SAW LINCOLN-SOLDIERS' MONUMENT AT BARABOO-COL. W. A. WYSE--THE SAUK COUNTY COMPANY; HEADQUARTERS, REEDSBURG -COMPANY A, FIRST WISCONSIN INFANTRY-COMPANY I-THE HONOR LIST. Although there were several residents of Sauk County who served in the Mexican war, and at least one who was a veteran of the Civil war at the time of his death; some, like Colonel Ableman, who had earned a military title in other states, and others whose titles were purely honor- ary (?), and conferred for no known military service, the real history of the county in matters military, commences definitely with the period of the Civil war. SOLDIERS OF THE MEXICAN WAR Three soldiers of the war with Mexico were residents of Sauk County for many years-James O'Riley, of Reedsburg; Charles S. Ladd, of Mer- 334 HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY 335 rimack, and Isaac Joiner, of North Freedom. Mr. Joiner moved to North- ern Wisconsin some time before his decease, but the other soldier vet- erans passed away in Sauk County. JAMES O'RILEY, OF REEDSBURG Mr. O'Riley was -a native Irishman who came to America in 1843 when twenty-three years of age. He landed in New York City on the 3d of July, at an hour when the town had already commenced to cele- brate, and was greatly excited and somewhat alarmed over the unusual hub-bub and display of fireworks, giving him an absolutely new expe- rience. He remained at the metropolis until the Mexican war broke out, enlisted in a New York company and boarded a sailing vessel bound for Monterey. Severe storms lengthened his voyage around Cape Horn, to his destination in Lower California, to a six months' trip. With his company, he fought at Monterey and did patrol duty at San Jose, Cali- fornia. At the conclusion of the war, instead of going home, he lin- gered in the gold regions with some thousands of other young men, for a year and a half, and then started for New York overland. He brought back some gold which he had minted into money at Philadelphia, and then decided to try his fortune in the West nearer the East than the Pacific Coast. Mr. O'Riley first took up a claim in the Town of Dellona, in May, 1850, was married in the following year and in the course of time became the father of twelve children. Impulsive by race and by nature, he joined the Union ranks in 1862, under the persuasion of a recruiting officer who met him on his way to Baraboo with a load of hogs. Mr. O'Riley joined Company F, Third Wisconsin Cavalry, when he reached the city, and served with that organization until the con- clusion of the war. He continued to reside on his farm in Dellona until about 1900, when he purchased a home at Reedsburg and died there in January, 1913. He was! in his ninety-fourth year, but up to the last a good, cheerful old man. CHARLES S. LADD, OF MERRIMACK Mr. Ladd, who shared Mexican war honors, was a New Hampshire man and left an arm on a battlefield of the far South. In 1873 he set- tled in Merrimack and for years was a watchman on the Chicago & North Western bridge at that locality. He died a month after the decease of Mr. O'Riley, eighty-six years of age. CAPT. LEVI MOORE In the early years of his youth and manhood Capt. Levi Moore, one of the founders of the milling interests of Baraboo and otherwise a leading ,early resident of that city, "followed the lakes" as a sailor and the owner and navigator of a vessel. He first shot the rapids at 336 HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, and in the early '40s became acquainted with Skillet Creek and Baraboo.. Clinging closely to the explanation of his title, it should be added that in 1846 the men of Sauk County had so strong a notion of organizing a military company that they recom- mended the lake captain as a proper person to command and drill them. Governor Dodge, in fact, commissioned him captain, although the com- pany which he was to lead was never organized. But Captain he was, and Captain he remained through life a double-barreled Captain. COL. STEPHEN V. R. ABLEMAN Col. Stephen V. R. Ableman, one of the ablest and most enter- prising men in the county, never saw service in the field, but obtained his military title through years of experience in connection with the New York militia. He was born in 1809 and when thirteen years of age was apprenticed to learn the trade of a joiner and a carpenter, but in his sixteenth year, by the consent of his masters, enlisted as a drum- mer in the New York National Guards, Ninth Rifle Regiment. After a military service of seven years in minor capacities he was elected captain of the company. He was thus commissioned in July, 1833, by Governor William H. Marcy, and five years later was elected Colonel of the 249th Regiment, New York State Militia. Subsequeatly and previous to his departure for Milwaukee, he held various civil offices, besides doing a large business as a carpenter and contractor. At the Cream City he engaged in the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds, and in 1850 sold his interests, moved temporarily to Baraboo and commenced to improve the lands which he had already taken up. Colonel Ableman served as United States Marshal for the State of Wisconsin in 1853-58, and while acting in that capacity he arrested the slave Glover. His important con- nection with railroad enterprises as they affected Sauk County has been described. He was president of the Baraboo Air Line Railroad Com- pany, which was the direct means of bringing the Chicago & North Western Railroad to Sauk County, and out of respect for him the station and Village of Excelsior became Ableman. While personally and unof- ficially surveying the route of a valley railroad, before it was actually surveyed and built by the North Western, the Colonel stopped at the strategic point in the route, known geographically as the Narrows, de- cided that a railroad never could miss that point, and therefore bought lands there. He was right, and in 1871 he realized one of the great ambitions of his life "to sit on his porch and see a train go by." He died at his pleasant home in Ableman on July 16, 1880. FTRsT CIVIL WAR ORGANIZATIONS No section of the state responded more promptly to Lincoln's call for the first 75,000 men "to put down the Rebellion"' than Sauk County. Within a few days, still in April, 1861, fourteen men from Sauk County HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY 337 and Prairie du Sac, and twelve from Baraboo, had enlisted in the Madi- son Guards, which military body had promptly sent an enlisting agent into Sauk County. They were drilled by A. G. Malloy, also a volunteer, who had served in the Mexican war, and was employed after the war as a United States revenue collector in Texas. Meetings were also held to organize a home company at Baraboo, which was temporarily effected by choosing Mr. Malloy captain and D. K. Noyes, first lieutenant. On the 18th of April the Baraboo Volunteers to the Madison Guards drove out of town, with flying colors, and drum and fife. SAUK COUNTY CONTRIBUTES TO THE MADISON GUARDS Among those who thus joined the first ranks of the Sauk County soldiers of the Union army was Albert B. Porter, who, fifty years after- ward wrote as follows of the departure and subsequent career of Sauk County's first contribution to the Union cause, known in the service as Company E, First Wisconsin Infantry, "for three months:" "Fifty years ago, in response to President Lincoln's call for seventy- five thousand volunteers,, there responded to that call eleven; and the first of Sauk county's youthful citizens who came forward and enrolled themselves under the leadership of Corporal Sam Nash of the Madison guards, afterwards known as Company E, First Wisconsin Infantry, were for three months. Here appear the names of those who enlisted April 17, 1861: Oscar Allen, Harvey Ames, Scuyler Hill, John Foster, A. D. Kimball, Fay Lock, E. N. Marsh, C. W. Porter, A. B. Porter, Ferdinand Stone and Amer Sutcliffe. The next day being Sunday there assembled on the public square, now called the park, the greater portion of Baraboo to bid the volunteers good-bye, the exercises being opened by prayer and followed by an address by F.