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Manitowoc County Civil War Roundtable
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Biographies
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George E. Waldo
Captain
Co. E
14th Wisconsin Infantry
George Edward Waldo was not a native of Manitowoc. He had migrated there with his older brother William from their family home of Prattsburg, New York, sometime in the 1850’s. In Manitowoc, William taught school, married Dolly Wood from Maine, and became the justice of the peace while George read law in the office of Judge Charles H. Walker and was admitted to the bar. George was a tall—six foot, one inch—good looking young man. He had dark brown hair and grey eyes and was described as being “calm and collected, [and] to all kind, humane, courteous and polite.” At the outbreak of the Civil War, George took a ship to Milwaukee in early May where he enlisted as a private in company K of colonel John C. Starkweather’s First Wisconsin Volunteers. He joined up with his friend Don Shove, another young attorney from Manitowoc. Soon after enlisting they were issued grey uniforms and sent off to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where they expected to participate in the ending of the war.—
In mid July they saw action in the Battle of Bull Run from which he and Don Shove were praised in the Manitowoc Herald as being “themselves good soldiers, brave and true men,” in their initial encounter with enemy fire. At the end of their 3 month enlistment, George and Don returned to Manitowoc and within weeks of their homecoming began recruiting a new infantry company from Manitowoc and Kewaunee Counties. George was elected Captain of the new company and by early October was drilling his men twice daily, north of the River in what became Union Park. On Thursday, November 22, 1861, the new recruits boarded the steamship Comet at the north pier and headed for Sheboygan where they caught a train to Glenbeulah and then a wagon to Camp Wood just outside Fond du Lac. Once in camp, they became Company E of the Fourteenth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment.
On the 8th of December they were issued their new blue uniforms and stayed in camp until early March of 1862 when orders arrived to move out. George Waldo and the rest of the fourteenth regiment left for Chicago and then to St. Louis and then to Camp Benton, Missouri. On March 28 the regiment landed at Savannah, Tennessee where they would wait another ten days. The waiting ended just after sunrise on April 6th as they heard the sounds of war for the first time coming from around the area of the Shiloh church. The fourteenth was fortunate to be spared that first day of the Battle of Shiloh. That night Waldo and his men were ordered toward the Landing. As daylight broke the next day they formed a line for battle among the dead from the previous day. George told his men “to do our duty, saying not a man should return to Manitowoc that proved a coward that day.” The Fourteenth was positioned just to the right of center in the six-mile long Union battle line.
After the first hour of intense fighting the Manitowoc boys were able to push the rebels back and kept pushing until they had finally captured the high ground. It was during one of the attacks that George Waldo fell. “He was in advance of our line, with his sword in one hand and his hat in the other, pressing close to the enemy and calling his men to follow,” wrote Done Shove. Waldo was hit in the left chest just above the heart. Shove and a couple of other men carried George off of the battle field to find safety. By the time Don Shove could find medical help for his friend, he was dead. George Waldo died in the early afternoon of April 7, 1862 on a Tennessee hillside.
The news of the Captain’s death did not reach Manitowoc until April 17. A deep gloom came over the town and the flags of the village were raised to half mast. That same day the town’s people raised a collection of $100 to send Rev. Geo. Engles south to recover the body. Ten days later the casket containing George Waldo’s remains arrived home and were taken to the Masonic Hall, where they lay in state. The hall was draped in mourning for sixty days. At two o’clock Sunday afternoon, April 28th, the people of Manitowoc commenced their quiet march through the north side of town toward Evergreen cemetery where the mourners were reminded that “a man…hath but a short time to live. He cometh up, and is cut sown, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow.” No truer words were spoken as Manitowoc’s first son was laid to rest.
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Manitowoc's First Killed
The Manitowoc County Civil War Roundtable conducted an impressive ceremony on August 14, 2000 as a new headstone was dedicated for Capt. Waldo in Evergreen Cemetery.
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