Monday, January 9, 2012
One soldier served in the war for more than three years.
Editor's Note: This is the final story of a five-part series on local men and their service in the Civil War. Click here to read the rest of the series. Pvt. Engelhardt Fink of Oak Creek Township enlisted only nine days after the start of the Civil War, as throngs of eager and patriotic young men answered the call of President Abraham Lincoln and Wisconsin Gov. Alexander Randall for volunteer forces to help quash the rebellion. Confederate forces had begun shelling Fort Sumter, S.C., on April 12, 1861, and it surrendered the next day. Fink enlisted April 21 and was placed in Company C of the 5th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The regiment's long battle record over the next years included Antitetam, the two battles at Fredericksburg…
Friday, January 6, 2012
Descendants of soldiers still live in the area.
Editor's Note: This is the fourth of a five-part series on local men and their service in the Civil War. Click here for Parts 1-3. When you are driving on S. Howell Avenue and turn onto E. Rawson Avenue, you quickly go over a small hill and see an assortment of houses on the passenger side of the vehicle. On the driver's side of the car are abundant open spaces and the occasional business a little more than a mile from the north-south runway of Mitchell International Airport. In 1863, people in this same area would have been driving their horses and wagons past Oak Creek Township farms that had sons in the Civil War – the Schumacher farm, the Schulte farm, the Verhaalen farm (which would be spelled Verhalen on the 1876 plat map) and most …
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The unit fought in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama.
Editor's Note: This is the third of a five-part series on local men and their service in the Civil War. Click here to read Parts 1 and 2. More than three dozen men from Oak Creek Township marched into the Civil War in August 1862, and more than half would be killed, wounded or die of disease. Some would be wounded more than once. The men from modern-day Oak Creek and South Milwaukee served in Company K of the 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The company also included men from Milwaukee, the Town of Lake and other communities. All told, the company’s size was about 120, including some replacements who entered in 1864 or 1865. This is the summary of service for the 24th, from CivilWarArchive.com. The unit men fought in Kentucky, …
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Two Oak Creek Township soldiers were killed and seven others wounded at the Battle of Stones River.
Editor's Note: This is the second of a five-part series on local men and their service in the Civil War. Click here for Part 1. The first soldiers from Oak Creek Township to die in the Civil War were lost on Dec. 31, 1862, in the Battle of Stones River near Murfreesboro in central Tennessee. Two were killed and seven wounded, one of whom died a few months later. That was 25 percent of the three dozen Oak Creek men in Company K of the 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment; their battle zone of thousands of troops came to be known as the Slaughter Pen. The very next day after this carnage, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln had been planning his action to free slaves for months, and in September 1862…
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Author will tell the story of local men and their not-so-well-known sacrifices.
Nine decades before Oak Creek became a city, dozens of its young men served in the Civil War, with roughly half being killed or wounded in battle or dying of diseases in faraway places like Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia. The year 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of when large numbers of men marched out of Oak Creek Township and into the war. Two would die in Tennessee only four months later, and seven more would be wounded in the same battle, one case eventually proving fatal. The youngest Oak Creek soldier to die during the entire war was 17, according to the few records that are available. The oldest was 43; one of that man's sons served in the famed Iron Brigade and was wounded three times. Oak Creek Township consisted of modern-day …
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Local author will profile Oak Creek Township men who fought in the Civil War.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Tom Mueller
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
The New Year will mark the 150th anniversary of when large numbers of young men left Oak Creek Township to fight in the Civil War. Two would die in Tennessee only four months later; seven more would be wounded in that battle, one case eventually proving fatal. Local historian and book author Tom Mueller has written an in-depth series for Oak Creek Patch, detailing the journeys of about 40 soldiers from the township – which consisted of modern-day Oak Creek and South Milwaukee. Although it is difficult to be absolutely certain, they likely include a father who was killed and a son who was wounded three times. Few people today seem to know that the two current cities once comprised the township; and not many more people know about the Civil …
Diane Schumacher
7:12 pm on Monday, January 9, 2012
We want to thank you for providing the detailed accounts and stories of our Civil War veterans. We appreciate the long hours you spent to honor the soldiers. We thought you did a particularly good job connecting the history to the local community. The series was outstanding. -- Pete & Diane Schumacher more ›