16
Edward and William Vining, 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry
January to June 1864
The winter of 1863-1864 was very quiet for the 3rd Wisconsin; they remained on garrison duty in various winter camps, the Vinings at Baxter Springs with Company C. There was a succession of reorganizations during January, as Washington tried to find an answer to the continuing guerilla problems.
The Union armies in Missouri and Kansas were gradually gaining control over their part of the war: the Confederate armies were being beaten consistently in battles, were broken up and scattered whenever they tried to concentrate, and were becoming harder for the Confederates to hold together in an organized force. Union-held territory in Arkansas and the Indian Territories was slowly expanding. Yet the guerilla raids continued all through the area as they had from the start of the war, and would remain a problem through the end of it – even beyond the end of it, as the James and Younger gangs and others like them would continue as outlaw raiders. It was impossible to place garrisons in every small settlement with the few troops available. The militia could not remain permanently activated, because those men were the farmers and the workers in the towns. Not having any more men to spare, the typical Washington response to the problem was to form new districts and appoint new commanders.
The new Department of Arkansas was created on January 6, 1864, to include all of Federal-occupied Arkansas except Fort Smith. The military units within the Department were combined to form VII Corps, commanded by General Frederick Steele. The Department was divided into four Districts: Little Rock, East, Northeast, and Frontier. The 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry became part of the District of the Frontier, VII Corps, Department of Arkansas. The Vinings, in the ACDFM Group, were for a short time part of the 3rd Brigade under Col Thomas M. Bowen. The BEGHIKL Group was unassigned.
The next action in this reorganization was to recreate the old Department of Kansas, which had for some time now been part of the Department of Missouri. The Department of Kansas was formed for the third time on January 16, with Gen Samuel R. Curtis in command. It also included the Indian Territories (Oklahoma) and Fort Smith, Arkansas.
The 3rd Wisconsin/ACDFM Group was assigned to Fort Smith on January 16, and became an "unassigned group" (i.e., not part of any brigade) in the Department of Kansas. The BEGHIKL Group, and the Regimental Headquarters, stayed in the District of the Frontier as an "unassigned regiment."
The final step, which doesn’t affect the Vinings directly at this time, was the removal of General Schofield from command of the Department of Missouri. The army felt he was not coping well with the guerilla raiding tactics – after they had taken more than half his troops away! – and he was sent back East to command the quieter Department of the Ohio. The Department of Missouri now went to General William Rosecrans, who we remember from the start of the war with Herbert Kilburn in the 23rd Ohio, and who had recently commanded the Department of the Cumberland.
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The 3rd Wisconsin was not involved in any actions from January through March, 1864. The Confederates were more concerned about their problems at Chattanooga and in Louisiana. New Orleans had been captured by the Union in 1862, and Baton Rouge in 1863; now in March, 1864, General Banks (who we had also seen back in 1862, in the Shenandoah Valley with Herbert Kilburn) began an invasion up the Red River toward Dallas. With the Confederacy divided down the Mississippi, Banks intended to make another cut splitting off Texas from Arkansas and Louisiana. His attempt bogged down on the nearly impassable river and ended in failure, but it brought a few months of peace to Missouri. The Confederates had called in all available men, including their Indian regiments, to Louisiana. But the Union advance was driven back by the end of April, and the Arkansas and Indian Territory troops began heading toward Missouri once more.
Sometime during February or March, Company C of the 3rd Wisconsin was moved back to Fort Scott, Kansas.
At the end of March, 1864, the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry was reorganized as a "Veteran Volunteers" regiment, the same as we have seen for the 12th Ohio Battery. The Regiment was dissolved on March 24; Edward and William were both discharged on that day. Both men reenlisted the next day as veterans. Their enlistment certificates show that they enlisted at Fort Scott for a period of three years or until the end of the war, and each received a bonus of $400 (about $10,000 today).
The "3rd Wisconsin Veteran Volunteers Cavalry Regiment" was formed on the 27th. William and Edward were mustered back into Company C at Fort Scott on March 29. Then, starting March 30 and lasting until about mid-June, the veteran members of the regiment were sent home on reenlistment furloughs. While they were gone, the regiment was manned by the non-veterans (the more recent recruits).
Edward and William were both granted furloughs and left on April 4 to go home.
During the first two weeks of April, the main part of the regiment (i.e., the Headquarters and the BEGHIKL Group) was moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. They became an unassigned regiment in Little Rock District, VII Corps, Department of Arkansas (Steele).
While the Vinings were home on leave, the rest of Company C was involved in several minor skirmishes. On May 16 there was a skirmish involving only Company C; I have seen it listed either as Dogwood Creek or Dry Wood, Missouri; no casualties are indicated in the records. Another skirmish on May 26 involved two companies from the ACDFM Group (we don’t know yet which companies); five men were killed in this fight at Lane’s Prairie, Missouri. Another detachment of the ACDFM Group was in a skirmish at Montevallo, Missouri on June 12. And on June 16, a skirmish involving Company C only took place at Big North Fork Creek near Preston, Missouri. One man from the company was killed in this last fight.
The veterans began returning from their furloughs on June 16, traveling by trains from Wisconsin to St. Louis. Members of the BEGHIKL Group continued on through Memphis and Devall to Little Rock. We have no record of the exact date of the Vinings’ return. They did get back at least by the end of June, when they appear as present on the roll-call.
On June 25, 1864, the Department of Kansas was divided into two districts, North and South. The ACDFM Group was assigned to the District of South Kansas, which also included the 11th, 15th, and 16th Kansas Cavalry and the 2nd Kansas Battery, under the command of General T.J. McKean. [I am not completely certain this is correct. Some of the records seem to indicate that the ACDFM Group is under Rosecrans (Missouri) at this time. I think Dept Kansas is correct, but this may be revised in the future.]
There were no further actions in June as the Vinings returned to their unit. This was the quietest six-month period they had spent since they first came to the area. Elsewhere in the war at this time, Grant had been given command of all Union Armies after his victory at Chattanooga. Although George Meade remained in command of the Army of the Potomac, Grant was traveling with them to give advice, and was actually guiding that army personally. They fought the well-known Battle in the Wilderness on May 5 and 6 in Virginia, the first major battle anywhere this year, and the start of the "Last Campaign" toward Richmond. At the same time, Sherman started on his own campaign from Chattanooga toward Atlanta, which he would reach in July; Elijah Spencer was in this campaign. Henry Kilburn, joined by Herbert Kilburn and Horace Cookingham, remained in garrison in Tennessee.
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