Samuel Murguia
Coronado
ENGL 226
Archive Project
12/03/14
Archive pieces can be found:
Henry Harnden and the First Wisconsin Cavalry
Wisconsin’s Contribution to the Civil War
Many people including myself may wonder at what the American
lifestyle may have been in the United States dating roughly around the early to
mid 1800’s. More specifically it is uncomfortable to think of life in the
bitterly cold north around the1800’ and how masses of populations survived
enough harsh winters to inhabit the northern terrain. However, at first thought
one may wonder how freeing the journey must have felt, to be free of boundaries
in an immense and recently founded country, to have the opportunity to farm for
one’s own living, to discover vast plains, forests and mountain ranges mainly
untouched, unstained, and unspoiled.
Fortunately for us all authors, citizens, early settlers
and colonists and many other types of people during this period of time kept
documents and wrote about their experiences. Some became published popular
pieces of literary Americana and many were simply written documents, journals,
diaries, or travel logs people kept for familiar record keeping. Although there
are many familiar and well-known pieces of literature regarding early American
life in the 1800’s in the canon, I believe there should be more written pieces
noticed that have been forgotten, gone unread and also have fallen by the
wayside.
The American Civil War in my opinion is an excellent era
in American history for documents, and journals that have gone unread and
unnoticed by the canon regarding historical literature in the United States.
The Civil War was such an important and significant event in American History
that most of all literary works dating to that time period are worth reading
and worth being available to the public. However, there is an incredibly
immense amount of war journals, personal journals and war documents regarding
the Civil War that it makes it quite difficult to include all works within the
canon. Although, they might not be published, they are out there in local
archives scattered throughout the United Sates just waiting to be discovered
and read for their rich content.
Many people may automatically assume that the Civil War
was a domestic war that simply involved two opposing sides, those sides being
the North and the South, which is entirely true in a broad sense of perspective.
However, that isn’t entirely the case because individual states whether they
were southern or northern had their own significance and impact on the Civil
War itself. I would like to bring attention to Wisconsin’s contribution to the
Civil War and look at the war in a different perspective rather than looking at
the Civil War as a whole. Specifically, I will address the influence a
Wisconsin Calvary had on the derailment of the Confederate States reign and
ultimately led to the fall of Jefferson Davis, who was the president of the
Confederate States. Although I couldn’t find much of anything regarding this
topic in the actual University’s archive, I found the main piece in the
Wisconsin History website by Fred Holmes “Badgers Credited With Capture of
Jefferson Davis” but also by simply searching the Internet.
The literary piece “ Badgers Credited With Capture of
Jefferson Davis” by Fred L. Holmes and the piece discusses how the President of
the South, Jefferson Davis was taken down. I believe this piece should be
noticed and including in the greater canon because it is a rich but subtle
piece of history and the actual event itself helped shape, but more importantly
kick started the United States into being what it is today. What I mean by that
is, imagine if the Confederacy had taken the victory over the north. Our
nation’s history would be different because the south would have written it;
the winners always get to write what goes into the history books. However, that
is just one of the aspects of a confederate win, one can only imagine how the
government along with it’s laws and policies would differ. Perhaps, even the Constitution
would be amended in a way that caters to what the Confederacy believed in. Personally,
I found it really interesting and I believe native Wisconsinites may be
intrigued because it is a significant part of national history but also part of
our state’s history.
At the very beginning of the piece we get an example of how
important this mission was, “The First Wisconsin cavalry played an important
part in the capture of Jefferson Davis at the close of the civil war” (Holmes
n.p.). It was important and crucial because capturing the President of the
South who was Jefferson Davis helped bring a close to the Civil War, and
ultimately leading to the Northern State’s victory thus creating the country we
have today. This article is especially important because it announced the
downfall of the Confederacy in the news. More importantly, the written document
“The First Wisconsin Calvary at the Capture of Jefferson Davis” by Henry
Harnden is an incredibly important part of national and state history because
it comes directly from the mind and hands of the person who executed this
mission, it is a personal, first hand testimony from Colonel Henry Harnden.
Which in my opinion gives a thorough, unspoiled, and unedited explanation of what
exactly happened that day; history as it happened.
The Confederacy fell on April of 1865 because the 1st
Wisconsin Cavalry was sent to capture Jefferson Davis in Macon, Georgia.
Colonel Harnden said, “We are going after Jefferson Davis. We expect to get
into a fight, if there is a fight it will be to the death,
because Davis must not be allowed to escape” (qtd. in Holmes. n.p.). This was a
mission they were on, direct orders from command to end the war and to capture
Jefferson Davis, it was either victory or loss and Harnden along with
Wisconsin’s 1st Cavalry were fully aware of that.
Another example of the priority, importance and
persistence the North had in capturing Jefferson Davis was when Harnden gives a
complete description of happened as they prepared to capture Davis he says, “
if there was a fight, and Jefferson Davis should get hurt, Gen. Wilson would
not feel very bad over it” (qtd. in Holmes. n.p.). In a more explicit and
blatant way, the North wanted Jefferson Davis dead or alive. And they were
going to stop at nothing but death to complete their orders.
At this time they
well aware that Davis’s men outnumbered them, it was said that Jefferson Davis
had about 600 or 700 men to Harnden’s 150. There was no possible way Harnden
could win had the South been well armed and ready for combat, but they knew the
Wisconsin Cavalry was taking a stealthier approach to this mission. In the
article by Henry Harnden, “The First Wisconsin Cavalry at the Capture of
Jefferson Davis” he says, “Several regiments were sent off in different directions
to intercept Davis” (518). He also says, “to endeavor to cut him off, and
capture him if possible” (Harnden 517). Harnden proves that in order to for the
Wisconsin Cavalry to catch Davis they had to surprise him when he least
expected it, and catch him off his guard when he was least protected. Because
of this Harnden says, “The First Wisconsin Cavalry were of these forces, and
bore a conspicuous part in all that was accomplished, during this, the greatest
and most successful cavalry raid of the war” (517). This also proves the impact
that Wisconsin’s Cavalry had on the Civil War, which in my opinion is exciting
and intriguing to think about how we influenced American history.
Throughout the text one gets a sense of favoritism
towards the northern military. In the piece Harnden says, “Upon arriving at Dublin, I noticed that the people
were considerably excited at our presence” (519). The people and citizens of
the United States were well aware of the war going on around them, but maybe
they knew and foresaw the south’s decline and knew it was innevitable, it was
time for a change, a change the that Harnden and the First Wisconsin Cavalry
promised by showing up to Dublin.
This forgotten event in history
bears much more significance to American history than what one may think and I
believe it should be read for it’s historical significance. This event should
be studied and read about in books for it’s context, story and perspective.
Everyone should know the impact Wisconsin had and it’s contribution to the
downfall of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis, States, and Military.
Works Cited
Harnden, Henry. “The First
Wisconsin Cavalry at the Capture of Jefferson Davis.” Wisconsin Historical
Collections 14 (1865): 516-530. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
Holmes, Fred. “Badgers
Credited With Capture of Jefferson Davis.” Milwaukee
Sentinel, (1921). Wisconsin History. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
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