William R Ray - Four Years with the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Journals of William R Ray, Co. F, Seventh Wisconsin Infantry

Copyright 2002 Lance Herdegen and Sherry Murphy

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress.First Da Capo Press edition 2002

ISBN 0-306-81119-7

e Book ISBN: 9780786748457

Published by Da Capo Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group http://www.dacapopress.com

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It is with great pleasure and excitement for me that, at long last, a book on the glorious Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers has been written. The Seventh Wisconsin, or Huckleberries, were part of the famed Iron Brigade, an outfit consisting of volunteers from Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana. The brigade fought in virtually every major battle of the Army of the Potomac from the beginning of the war through Appomattox.

The enlisted men of the Seventh, like the officers who led them, were a proud and courageous group of individuals who hailed from nearly every walk of life. Their service ranged from the daily boredom and grind of camp life to the deadly and horrendous Civil War combat experience. Days were long and arduous, disease was rampant, and food and clothing often scarce. Yet, somehow these volunteers found the determination to stay the course through to the end of the war.

The story of William Ray epitomizes the life and trying times of the common soldier of the Seventh Wisconsin, and captures the essence of those who served.

Steve Victor August 2000

Great-Great-Great Grandson of Colonel William Wallace Robinson, and Great-Great Grandson of Colonel Hollon Richardson

These journals detail the day-to-day life of a Wisconsin Volunteer in the Civil War from his enlistment through the end of the war and return home. According to their author and Iron Brigade member William Royal Ray, the journals represent small sketches and gatherings of the times & things that is transpiring around me. And there was a lot transpiring around him.

William Ray enlisted August 19, 1861, as a member of Company F, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers. Although he had no way of knowing it then, his outfit would be brigaded with several other Western regiments and eventually earn the sobriquet Iron Brigade. By the middle of the war the brigade was recognized as one of the finest in service. Unfortunately, its members were often called upon to perform heroic deeds, and the horrendous casualties that came as a result of their actions tore away the core of the brigade. Ray was one of the handful of men who served throughout the brigades tenure. He was wounded three times: at Gainesville (or Brawners Farm) on August 28, 1862, on the first day of Gettysburg in 1863, and again at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864. And yet he continued to return to his regiment and offer his efforts to put down the rebellion.

As is the case with many soldier journal and diaries, it took decades and luck to bring his story to light. Ray was my grandmothers foster mothers father. His daughter, Emma Charlotte Ray, married George Thomas Ellis. Although they wanted a daughter, their union produced four boys. My grandmother was Winnifred Mae Poston. Winnifreds mother died when she was about five years old, and the George Ellis family decided to take her in and raise her. For reasons that are still unclear, they never adopted Winnifred. When her last foster brother, Clyde Ellis, died, Winnifred inherited his house and its contents. Rays journals were found in the back of a closet, where they had been hidden away collecting dust for decades. They were given to me about 1984. According to my mother, other items belonging to Ray and relating to his Civil War experience were also found in the home, including his distinctive wartime black hat and a sword, but they were sold in a yard sale for a few dollars by the tenants who were renting the house at the time.

Rays writings comprise nineteen journals of all different sizes and shapes. The first fourteen are entirely about his Civil War experiences (August 1861 through April 1865). The fifteenth details the end of the war, his mustering out, and return home. The balance comprise his observations about his life and experiences in Wisconsin and his move to Iowa and beyond. They end in November 1871.

I have attempted to transcribe the diaries faithfully in order to retain their unique color and perspective. Ray did not employ an abundance of punctuation and it was not always consistently applied. I have therefore added some for the sake of readability. Many people wrote phonetically in the middle of the nineteenth century, and Ray was no different. I have left his spelling intact.

Sherry Murphy Foster Great-Great Granddaughter Vancouver, WA, November 2000

I would like to thank my husband, Courtney, for his patience and encouragement during the ten-plus years it took to transcribe these journals; my mother, Florence Carpenter, for rescuing the diaries and giving them to me; my sister, Erni Stivison, for her assistance with the epilogue and research; and my children, Tracy Spencer, Holly Sullivan and Sean Murphy for their loving support.

William R. Ray was caught up in the great sectional conflict between North and South from the very first days of the war. He left hearth and family in 1861 to help put down what he called the Rebellion in this once Glorious Union. He traveled from his home at Cassville, Wisconsin, on the Mississippi River to nearby Lancaster, where he signed the muster roll of the Union Guards. Within a few weeks, the greenhorn patriots (as one soldier called them in those days) were called to Camp Randall in Madison to become Company F of the Seventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. The company clerks recorded of Ray that he was a blacksmith, 5-foot-9, unmarried, with hazel eyes and light hair. He was just 23.

It was on September 19, 1861, two days before his regiment left Wisconsin for the war front, that Ray began a journal to keep account of everything that transpires in his life as a soldier. If lost and found by any person, he wrote on its first page, make known or bring to Capt Callis Company 7th Regt Wis Volunteers and oblige friend. For the next four years he carefully and extensively recorded his experiences. It was fortunate that he did so. His regiment soon became part of the Iron Brigade of the West, one of the most celebrated military organizations of the American Civil War, equaled in reputationbut not in serviceonly by the Stonewall Brigade of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.