Manitowoc Herald,
April 17, 1862

There were probably five or six Wisconsin Regiments in the battle of Pittsburg. As soon as Gov. Harvey ascertained the fact, he telegraphed to the Chamber of Commerce in Milwaukee, to Janesville and Beloit, appealing for the citizens of those cities to furnish immediately such surgical materials as could be gathered and forwarded to this city. The Milwaukee Chanber of Commerce, on reciept of the telegraph at noon on Wednesday, voted at once $200, to bear the expenses of Drs. Wolcott and Bartlett, the best surgeons in the city, and of sending the desired articles. Gen. E.H. Brodhead, a prominent gentleman of the same city, accompanies them to assist in their humane mission. The Chicago Tribune of Friday, gives the following particulars of the progress of this humane undertaking: "Gov. Harvey and Commissary General Wadsworth arrived last evening at the Tremont, where they were met by the Milwaukee delegation, and to-morrow morining the whole party, consisting the Governor, his Secretary, Gen. Broadhead, and nine surgeons leave on the Illinois Central railroad for their destination, taking with them ninety boxes of hospital supplies for the wounded Wisconsin soldiers. When we consider that these abundant supplies were raised within less than twenty-four hours, by the three cities that were here mentioned, and by the people of Madison, we can but accord honor to the prompt benevolence which is thus manifested, and of the energy and humanity of Gov. Harvey. The Illinois Central, with it's usual patriotism, carries the surgical material free. If the State authorities everywhere took as good care of their volunteers as those of Wisconsin do of theirs, there will be little neglect to complain of. All honor to them.

Special Dispatch to the Chicago Tribune.
Cairo, April 13, 12 AM
Large delegations arrived this morning from all directions bound up the Tennessee. Go. Harvey of Wisconsin, and suite, are here and were received with a salute from Ft. Cairo.
Gov. Harvey and party, with a boat load of hospital stores left this evening to relieve the wounded.

(later article)....
Gov. Harvey and the party from Wisconsin, with a boat load of hospital stores left late Saturday night or Sunday morning, to relieve the wounded of the Wisconsin Regiments.

Richland County Observer, June 13, 1862
Governor's Message.
Delivered June 3, 1862
To the Hon., the Senate and Assembly:
Since your adjournment in April last, our State has been thrown into deep mourning by the sad and sudden death of its late Chief Magistrate, the Hon. Louis P. Harvey, who, on the 19th day of April, 1862. lost his life at Savannah, in the Tennessee river. The last among the Governors elected by the people of theis State, he is the first who has been removed by death from our midst. The circumstances leading to and surrounding the tragic and melancholy end of the honored and lamented deceased are well known to the people and are, with his memory, treasured in their hearts. He died while in the exercise of the highest duties of philanthroipy and humanity, that a noble impulse had imposed upon him. Wisconsin and the Union have not lost a truer son in this great struggle against our government and Constitution.
Without intending here to recapitulate the circumstances of the death of Gov. Harvey which are so well known and remembered by all, I feel called upon to mention to you the names and acts of some of the many who are worth of thanks and consideration for their exertions in recovering and bring back to our State, the earthly remains of our late Chief Magistrate. But before these, let me first mention the name of Mr. R. B. Clark of Racine, who regardless of his own life, boldly, though vainly, threw himself into the dangerous stream to save the life of Governor Harvey. Though unsuccessful, the act was not the less noble.
The little party of men from Wisconsin who had voluntarily accompanied the Governor on his mission of mercy, remained for many days after the sad event, endeavoring to recover his remains. Among them, the exertions of Hon, Edward H. Brodhead and Surgeon General E. B. Wolcott of Milwaukee will be remembered. Present hopes for recovering the body extinguished, they offered a reward of $1,000 for its recovers, an offer which I had no hesitation to sanction on the part of the State. On the 27th day of April, the body was accidentally discovered and rescued from the water, and thanks to the exertions and humanity of several gentlemen, it was subsequently recovered from the rude grave into which it had been placed, and finly brought it to Cairo, where it was delivered to the Hon.Perry H.Smith of Chicago. The persons especially worthy of consideration and thanks in thus recovering the body and bringing it to our State, are Mr. Singleton of Tennessee, Captain William Walker of the steamer "Lady Pike," Captain Fosdick of the 29th Indiana Volunteers, Hon. Wm, P. Mellen of Cincinnati, and Hon. H. P.Smith of Chicago. The latter went expressly to Tennessee in order to recover the body, accompanied by J.S. Harvey, Esq. of Chicago, a brother of the deceased. While at Cairo, these gentlemen learned of the finding of the body, receieved it there, had it properly encased, and brought it to Chicago, where it was delivered to the Committee charged with receiving and escorting it home. Mr. H.P.Smith, president of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, kindly and disinterestedly, the next day, furnished an extra train to the Committee, to carry home the remains. Both the Chicago and Northwestern and the Milwaukee and Prarie du Chien Railway Companies sent this train free of charge over their roads. The mayor, authorities and citizens of Chicago also highly honored the remains of Gov. Harvey while passing through their city, and Captain Rorke of the 11th Wisconsin Battery tendered and furnished an imposing escorn on that solemn occasion. I herewith transmit to you a copy of a letter to Mr. Wm.P.Mellen, Government agent for the establishment of Post Offices and Custom Houses, who himself was active in the recoveryof the body and who kindly furnished me reliable information concerning the attending circumstances, and the persons connected therewith. No one seems to be entitled to claim, or has claimed the reward offered; but some acknowledgement of humane and disinterested services would be eminently proper on the part of the State; and I recommend to you therefore, the adoption of such measures as seem best adapted ro show the adoption of those services by a grateful state.
(The remainder of the article covers laws passed before adjournment but after Gov. Harvey left so had not been signed and changes in the structure and salaries of upper State military personnel.) It concludes
May the day of that victory soon appear.
Edward Salomon
Madison, June 3, 1862

The 16th Wisconsin Infantry was camped next to us, and I learned one afternoon that Gov. Harvey was to make them a speech that evening, after dress parade, and I went over to hear him. The Wisconsin regiment did not turn out in military formation, just gathered around him in a dense group under a grove of trees. The Governor sat on a horse while making his speech. He wore a large, broad-brimmed hat, his coat was buttoned to the chin, and he had big buckskin gauntlets on his hands. He was a fine looking man, heavy set, and about forty-two years old. His remarks were not lengthy, but were patriotic and eloquent. I remember especially how he complimented the Wisconsin soldiers for their good conduct in battle, that their state was proud of them, and that he, as Governor, intended to look after them, and care for them to the very best of his ability, as long as he was in office, and that when the time came for him to relinquish that trust, he would still remember them with interest and the deepest affection. His massive frame heaved with the intensity of his feelings as he spoke, and he impressed me as being absolutely sincere in all that he said. But he little knew nor apprehended the sad and lamentable fate then pending over him. Only a few evenings later, as he was crossing the gang-plank between two steamboats at the landing, in some manner he fell from the plank, and was sucked under the boats by the current, and drowned. Some days later a negro found his body, lodged against some drift near our side of the river, and he brought it in his old cart inside our lines. From papers on the body, and other evidence, it was conclusively identified as that of Gov. Harvey. The remains were shipped back to wisconsin where they were given a largely attended and impressive funeral.

The story of a common soldier of army life in the civil war, 1861-1865
Leander Stillwell
61st Illinois Infantry

Tuesday, 8

It rained most all night and we got no sleep was not much to eat and was pretty much tired out had no blanket or tents and it was pretty hard was formed in to line of battle but there was no enemy to fight and I was glad.

James M. Tyler, First Sgt. Co. E 14th Wis. Shiloh, Tn.

Circle of Honor

In late 1861, William Dawes came to recruit men out of west-central Wisconsin to serve their country. He began in Strongs Prarie, Adams County, to gather men that would eventually be Company E, Sixteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Adams and adjoining Waushara county yielded many of the volunteers, men of varied ages and backgrounds that would be joined in brotherhood on the Shiloh battlefield and beyond.
Coloma in Waushara County sent Philo Perry and Joseph Holcomb among others. Strongs Prarie was home to Lewis Knight and the town which John Willis signed out of. Henry Thomas came from Hancock in Waushara County.
Who were they?
John P. Willis was first out of Strongs Prarie though he lived in Friendship, WI. He enlisted September 23, 1861
and was Company E's Color Sergeant by the time Shiloh rolled around. He had been born in Vermont 26 years
earlier and in a letter describing the progress of the battle for a newspaper said "when our friend John Willis,
the great manly Color Sergeant of the Regiment fell, Lieutenant Niles took the Colors and thus saved them from
being captured, for which valued service he received the thanks of the Regiment."
Joe Holcomb enlisted on November 11th, 1861 and became 4th Sergeant. Before the war, he had been a blacksmith and his wife, Sara Ann, was a teacher. There were four daughters at home ranging in age from 9 to 19. Joe was 42.
On December the 19th, Henry L. Thomas, 37, joined the Company from Hancock, Waushara County. He was a Doctor from Wales, UK, and his wife, Mary, was from England. He enlisted as a Private leaving, along with Mary, two young boys, William, 3, and Charles, 2. After the was, Mary lived with a neighbor for a while and, later, with his son, Charles, until she died.
The youngest, Private Lewis E. Knight, was seventeen or eighteen, depending on the version he put forth. Born in Maine, he'd been living with his parents, Ezra and Rachel, also from Maine,in Friendship, WI and had been working as a lumberman. He'd had a younger brother who'd died in the 1850's and his only other sibling was a younger sister who'd been born in Wisconsin. Lewis stood 5'9" tall.He had grey eyes, black hair and a dark complexion.
Private Erwin Rider, was born in Farmington, Ohio and enlisted saying he lived in Coloma, WI, the home of his parents, Willian and Martha and younger siblings. He was 21 and had been out of the house since 1860 - living in Alto, Wisconsin as a farm laborer. By the time of his enlistment he was a carpenter and married. He was tall for the service, 6'1/4" and had grey eyes, brown hair and of fair complexion. By 1870, the remainder of his family had moven to Newton, Iowa.
Philo Perry born in New York was 22 and enlisted March 6 of 1862. Before enlisting he was a wheelright. He had black hair, black eyes and a dark complexion with a height of 5'6". He was living with his 61 year old father, a traveling minister sometimes known as "the World's Preacher, his mother and his brothers and sisters - the youngest named John Brown Perry.

On April 6, 1862, these men from Company E were color bearers for the 16th Wisconsin Regiment, the honor having fallen on them for the day - normally this would have gone to four to seven assigned corporals. In the same letter to local newspapers it was written "Captain Dawes was sick and Lieutenant White was officer of the Guard and half of them were either killed or wounded."

In the heat of the battle all these men described above carried the colors and all were killed.

In the National Cemetery at Pittsburg Landing, (Shiloh) they are all buried in the Circle of Honor overlooking the Tennessee river...At the center of cemetery surrounding the cemetery's National Flag, forever.

Monday, 7

Capt. Waldo killed on the first charge. Heard heavy firing at day break & was ordered to fall in & started for the Battlefield and arrived at 7 oclock formed a line of Battle laid down and had a few irons fired at us felt streked till I saw the rebbles when we gave them one volley & went in on advance. another rainy night.

Martin Curtis Tyler Sgt. Co. E, 14th Wis