Passing over a few years time, and many important and interesting matters and event, to which I shall recur in succeeding chapters, I find it necessary to make an appeal to my readers, to the public, and to each and every individual in this valley who is desirous of having the locality in which he resides represented in that portions of the history relating to the war. Isolated settlements were for most of the time prior to these stirring events - the grandest in the worlds history - it would not have been strange if many beheld the approach of that terrible conflict with indifference, and a want of that patriotic ardor that characterized other and more favored sections. But it is believed that if all the facts could be set forth, of public and personal sacrifice, of heroic devotion, and persistent patriotic effort in that great struggle, exhibited by the people of this valley, it would not only compare favorably with the most loyal communities in the land, but make a valuable contribution to the history of the State. But the means are not at my hand to do justice to the subject; and without the aid of others - many others in all the towns and precincts who are in possession of interesting facts and data - to assist me in collecting them for this work, much valuable information, and many exciting incidents connected with the part borne by our people in the fearful contest, will perhaps pass into oblivion, unless collated in this homely narration. I therefore ask every officer and soldier who went from this valley to fight our country's battles, and every patriotic citizen who knows himself or herself to be in possession of any intelligence, serious or comical, facts, incidents, or accounts of soldiers or citizens, no matter how humble or obscure, if they were conspicuous for zeal, bravery, or self-sacrifice for the good of the country in the hour of peril, to communicate the same to me as soon as convenient, that it may be preserved to posterity as the heritage of a free and loyal people. More especially do I ask the attention of men in official position, town and county officers, postmasters, and all men who hold or have held positions of trust and honor in the towns, cities and villages of this valley, to aid me in making a full, fair and impartial record of the deeds of the brave soldiers who imperiled their lives, and of sacrifices of the true men and women who sustained them through all the dark and wearisome days of defeat, and gloom, and doubt, that so long hung like a pall over our country's hopes. It is not to individuals alone that I desire to do justice in these pages but to localities also; a careful and just recognition of the claims and efforts of each will reflect credit and honor upon some neighborhoods that have made little pretensions, and are scarcely known in the Adjutant-General's reports, or in any records of the war. In the beginning of the war, when no bounties were offered, and patriotism was the sole incentive to enlistments, many volunteers went from their homes in obscure places to the village which received credit for the names enrolled there; and when it was found necessary to order a draft the claims of such localities were utterly ignored, and the draft fell upon some communities already thrice decimated by voluntary enlistments. Such was the fate of the little town of Lafayette, in Chippewa County, a town which, up to the commencement of the war, had never polled more than seventy-one votes, quite a number of whom were aged men, unable to bear arms, and yet actually furnished, in enlisted and drafted men for the war, sixty-five loyal soldiers, a large number of whom rallied under the old flag before drafts or bounties were thought of. If any town or village in this State can show a better, or as good a record, I shall be glad to acknowledge it and make it enduring. Having been a resident of that little town when the war commenced, and personally acquainted with almost every person in it, the peculiar motives which induced some of those early volunteers to enlist, and many noteworthy incidents and circumstances connected therewith, are know to me; and through some may consider the trials and experiences of a private soldier unworthy of historical record, there are many I shall be happy to chronicle in these pages, as a just tribute to their services and sacrifices. Born on a foreign shore, and in a land that had long felt the heel of the oppressor, were two young men who were in my employment when the tocsin of war was sounded. One, very young, ardent, fiery and impatient, had somewhere witnessed an artillery drill and determined to enlist at the first call for men in that arm of service; and, taking up a newspaper one day, that announced the organization of the Second Wisconsin Battery, and a call for men to fill its ranks, he instantly gave me 'notice to quit,' closed up his affairs, and paid his own fare and expenses all the way to Racine, that he might share the perils and fight the battles of the country of his adoption. In religion he was Catholic, and in politics a Democrat; but no braver soldier or truer patriot treads the soil of Wisconsin today than Tom McGrath. He served through the entire war; was in all the hard fought battles which the Second Battery was engaged, but escaped unharmed; and taking a fair Sucker damsel along with him on his return through Illinois, is now settled in a home of his own in Chippewa County, and a wholesome number of little Democrats surround his hearthstone and call him 'pa.' The other was a man of maturer years; quiet and unobtrusive in his demeanor, but determined - almost obstinate - in his opinions. He was with me as foreman in several undertakings. He had spent several winters in the South; owned some good property in Bureau County, Illinois; had always voted the Democratic ticket until he saw the cruelties of slavery, and the party committed to upholding that giant wrong, when, said he, 'conscience would not let me vote that ticket any longer.' Though a man of few words, he often referred to the horrid cruelties and terrible suffering of the negroes of Arkansas, and gave many instances he had witnessed, exhibiting a refinement of cruelty inflicted by their masters, which had burnt into his soul with deathless intensity; and powerless as he was to afford relief, he had sworn on the altar of God, that if the time ever came in which he could do something to redress those wrongs, his life was none too precious to lose in such a cause, and, if necessary, should be freely offered. True to his promise, when Captain Sherman called for men to fill up his company of cavalry, he unhitched the team he was driving from the plow, and hastened to enroll his name with the defenders of his adopted country. A transfer was subsequently effected to an Illinois cavalry regiment by his request, and he soon himself fighting rebel guerrillas in the same 'Rackensack' neighborhood where, years before, he had felt his spirit sink within him because there was none to shield the oppressed and hurl back the oppressor. But now he saw that the day of recompense had come; and, whether called upon to scour the woods and ravines around the Pea Ridge for guerrillas, or waste his strength in the malarias swamps of Mississippi, he never flinched or swerved from the line of duty as a soldier; and when, in the third year of the war, when the great highway of the West had been opened, and New Orleans and Vicksburg were ours, and the bright rainbow of peace and promise encircled the horizon, he was called to surrender the life so freely offered upon Freedom's altar, not a murmur escaped him; but he proudly declared , in a letter to a friend in Chippewa County, that 'if he must die, he was glad to lay down his life in such a cause.' Oh, ye corrupt and truckling politicians, who pander to the prejudices of the ignorant, unfeeling and thoughtless multitude that ye must obtain place and power, think for a moment with what might issues you are trifling, and how many noble lives have been laid down on the altar you would desecrate with your vile pollutions and trickery! William McFarland, the Irish-American patriot and soldier whose sacrifices are herein feebly recorded, was only one of that vast army who's 'souls are still marching on.' Inspired alike by the same high sense of justice and right, their lives were consecrated to the cause of freedom and the emancipation of their fellow men from the thrall of oppression. I might mention many others who when from the same place. I might speak of young Stowe, who bade adieu to a fond and beautiful wife, who had committed her happiness to his keeping only a month or two previously, never to embrace her again; of the long, weary watching and waiting, and the blank despair when her hopes were finally crushed out; and of the whole score of heroes whose last farewells to wives and loved ones took place here, for the sake of the country whose welfare was identified with their own. And in every nook and corner of this valley similar scenes and struggles and sorrows were experienced, of which, if persons who feel an interest in this work would send me brief sketches, they would confer a favor, not only upon the author but upon every reader. And to everyone who is in possession of any material facts, incidents, or other data concerning, the war, the 'Indian Scare,' enlistments, organization, partings and returnings of our soldiers, conduct and heroism in the service, imprisonment in Southern dungeons, and all their hardships and self-denial, are fit subject for this work; and no matter how clumsy or illiterate any statement may be, it will be gratefully received by the author.

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