"...the faithfulness of its sentinels..."

Last weekend, while visiting the Dickson Street Bookshop in Fayetteville, I happened to see the book below shelved behind the counter.

After looking through The Military History Of Wisconsin: A Record Of The Civil and Military Patriotism of the State, In The War For The Union, I made a quick decision and purchased it. Normally, I don’t engage in “impulse” buying, but this is a quick purchase that I have not regretted. Written by E. B. Quiner and published in 1866, this huge volume has short histories of essentially all of the units raised in Wisconsin during the war. There are also sections on recruiting, draft calls, legislative actions, economic matters and many other topics. The fact that the State of Wisconsin published this book so soon after the war ended is rather remarkable; a State would be hard pressed today to produce such a data packed book in such a relatively short time. As a bonus, a large map that had come apart at the horizontal creases, was tucked into the front of the book. This turned out to be a colorful map of the “seat of war” that accompanied a book written by Horace Greeley soon after the war ended. I am hoping to have the map conserved as it would look attractive on my office wall.

While thumbing through the book last week, I read the short sketch of the 13^th Wisconsin Infantry; unless you had an ancestor that served in this regiment, chances are that you have never heard of the unit. For it served in no battles during its four years of duty, but instead did garrison duty, guarded communication lines, and engaged in other work in Kansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas. Since the regiment participated in no combat service to speak of, does this mean that the 13^th Wisconsin Infantry was unimportant? I thought that E. B. Quiner’s assessment of the regiment was well worth including in my blog. Here are his words:

“Though the Thirteenth has not been called to take part on the field of battle, yet the duties which it has performed have been just as important, for it is to the faithfulness of its sentinels, that an army owes much that it achieves on the battle-field. With its supplies cut off, its communications closed, an army is often defeated. It is then that the faithfulness and vigilance of the regiment, who guards the trains and keeps the enemy at a distance from the highways, by which supplies reach the army in an enemy’s country, begins to be appreciated. The Thirteenth held many important positions, on which the success and welfare of Sherman’s whole army depended. Ceaseless vigilance and stern fidelity characterized the operations of the regiment, and while others may pride themselves upon achievements in the field, this regiment may point with pride to its four years of service, as being one of the material elements in the success of the armies of the Union, whose communications and flanks it was called upon to protect” (p. 597).

Although our attention is often riveted by units that suffered high casualties during the war, it is worth noting that the great majority of units on both sides had relatively modest casualty lists. Certainly, deaths by disease outweighed battle deaths in practically every Civil War unit. And, as evidenced by the 13^th Wisconsin, a small number of battle deaths did not necessarily mean that the unit had an insignificant role in the war.