Marker dedication01

Waupaca County Post

Prime Time

April 6, 2006

When Waupaca Was Young

By Dan Nerhaugen

Local Civil War Vet at Dedication of Unusual Marker

A Waupaca veteran of one of the Civil War’s bloodiest battles was on hand 100 years ago this week to help his old comrades place a modest but memorable marker where they’d fought.

Of Waupaca’s emissary to the April 7, 1906, ceremonies, the Waupaca Republican reported, “J.H. Jones has returned from the dedication of the Wisconsin monument at Shiloh. He brought back a number of souvenirs and relics which he found on the old sacred field which included pieces of shells and bullets of the great battle over 40 years ago, and mistletoe and cotton blossoms of the present time. He met a good many old war comrades while there and enjoyed the exercises greatly.”

Forty-four years earlier, Jones had been a member of the 14^th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, a unit organized in Fond du Lac the previous November and consisting mainly of men from Wisconsin’s northern frontier – present-day central Wisconsin, more or less.

On April 7, 1862, the second day of what’s come to be known as the Battle of Shiloh, the 14^th ws ordered – according to tradition, by U.S. Grant himself – to charge a Confederate battery. During the intense, daylong combat that ensued, the 14^th suffered a staggering 93 casualties. Four men from Jones’ Company G were killed, as was a man from Company F, John D. Putnam. It was Putnam who became the focus of the monument dedicated 100 years ago this week.

According to a National Park Service Web site, “Pvt. John D. Putnam, Company F, 14^th Wisconsin volunteer Infantry, was killed on Monday, April 7, during a charge against a Confederate battery. He was buried where he fell, at the foot of a young oak tree.

“Thomas Stone, one of the burying party, suggested that his name be carved into the tree sufficiently low so that in case the tree were cut down the name would remain.

“When the national cemetery was established, Putnam’s body was removed to it. Because of the precautions of his comrades in 1862, his is one of the few graves marked with full name, company, and regiment.

“In 1901, the Wisconsin Shiloh Monument Commission visited the field to select a site for the state monument. They found that the tree had been chopped down, but that the stump remained with the name of Putnam still legible. The Wisconsin Commissioners chose this spot because of its absolute correctness as to the position of the 14^th Regiment.

“They decided to reproduce the stump in granite and to place it on the exact spot where the original had stood. Thus unusual monument to a private was placed in position April 7, 1906.”