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The Returning Veterans --Reception of the 12th Battery with a Detachment of the 7th Infantry. |
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Appleton Motor - Appleton, Wisconsin - June 15, 1865 The veteran 12 Wisconsin battery of light artillery, with which the 10th battery has been consolidated, arrived Tuesday night, under command of Captain Wm. Zickerick. A detachment of fourteen men of the 7th Wisconsin infantry, whose term of service expires before October net, come on the same train, under command of Lt. Wm. W. Machen. After a bountiful repast at the Railroad Hotel, the men were marched to Camp Randall, where they remained until about 10 o'clock this morning, when they marched up town to the Capitol Par The formal reception by the State authorities took place on the East front of the Capitol. The bells of the city rang peals of welcome as the gallant veterans marched through the streets. Acting Gov. Spooner received them with a cordial and eloquent address of welcome, and was followed by Secretary Fairchild and Attorney General Smith in behalf of the state, and by Mayor Keyes in behalf of the city of Madison. At the conclusion of the speeches, Mayor Keyes proposed three cheers by the citizens for the heroic soldiers of the 10th and 12 batteries, and of the 7th infantry, which were given with hearty enthusiasm. Captain Zickerick then proposed three cheers for the stat officers, which the soldiers responded to with full voice. Captain Z. then presented the flag, perforated with bullets and torn with shells, to Gov. Spooner, who, unfolding its tattered surface, with much emotion, turned to the soldiers and said, "Boys, you will hereafter want to see this flag again. It will be placed in the Capitol and sacredly preserved. When in future years you come here it will be where you can go and look upon it." As the soldiers looked up at the old flag which they had followed through so many scenes of peril, the tears stood in many an eye unused to weep, and wet many a bronzed and bearded cheek with unaccustomed moisture. Three hearty cheers were then given for the old flag. Capt. Zickerick then informed the men that the papers could not be prepared for mustering them out before Monday or Tuesday next; those who desired might go to their homes during the interval; those who remained would be quartered at Camp Randall. The order to break ranks was then given and the reception ceremonies were at an end. The staff is splintered by bullets; over one hundred bullets passed through the flag itself at Allatoona. Several shells have made large rents in it, indicating that those who have followed it have sometimes been in warm places. The number of men belonging to the consolidated battery who returned number 140. They left Washingtog on the 1st. The 12th was recruiting in the winter and spring of 1862, by Capt. Wm. A. Pile of Missouri. The men went forward in squads, and were organized and equipped at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. The Original roster of the battery was: Captain - Wm. A Pile The present roster is as follows: Captain- Wm. Zickerick These men have participated in nearly all the great actions of the war at the west, and like the 5th battery, which arrived yesterday, are a part of the grand, indomitable host that Sherman led through the mountain fastnessess of the south, and then poured like a torrent of devouring fire through the very centre of the rebellious regions, before unsocurged by war, teaching the hanghty and traitorous populations of Georgia and South Carolina, by actual experience, how great and how terrible are the evils of war. Starting at St. Louis, these men have marched through the south, and up the Atlantic coast, and came home by way of Washington. They will soon return to the peaceful avocations of civil life, and we doubt not, will prove as upright, orderly and industrious as citizens, as they have been brave, obedient and patriotic as soldiers - Wis. State Journal, June 7th.
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