Company Nicknames

[Robert Braun]

Early in the war, many Wisconsin companies adopted sobriquets or "nicknames" that showed their pride in their locality, demonstrated their patriotism, or delineated their expected fighting prowess. This practice seemed to wane as the war progressed.

Once upon a time, we only knew of one such possibility-- the "Rock County Plough Boys"-- in the entire regiment. And we weren't even sure this was a period sobriquet! Happily, a notation in the E. B. Quiner file in the collection of the Wisconsin Historical Society confirmed the use of this nickname for Company "E!"

Subsequent research has yielded the following nicknames for the companies of the Thirty-third Wisconsin (Note: those that are blank are companies whose sobriquet, if any, awaits discovery)


A..... "Moore's Union Guards"
B.....
C..... "Gurley's Hawks"
D..... "Blake's Prairie Rangers"
E..... "Rock County Plough Boys."
F.....
G..... "Boscobel Rangers"
H..... "Union Avengers"
I...... "Lovell Guards"
K.....

We hope readers of this message board might know of sources of possible sobriquets for the remaining companies.

Bob.

[Mike Thorson]

It would be great to find the remaining company names.

As I recall I think that "Gurley's Hawks" Comapny "C" (Captain Gurley) called themselves the "Gaylord Guards" after Augustus Gaylord who was the..............Adjutant (?) General of Wisconsin when they marched out of Shullsburgh but then renamed themselves to the horror of one of the Shullsburgh papers  .

Gurley's Hawks!

Gurley ended up commanding a Colored Regiment, 135th I think.

[glow=red,2,300]Question, anyone know a source to find more info on a specific USCT Regiment?
[/glow]
Cool stuff.

Mike

[RJ Samp]

www.rootsweb.com/~ncusct/usct135.htm

Has some info on the North Carolina troops in this NC State 1865 unit.....

A starting point for you....

RJ

[Mike Thorson]

Thanks RJ! Good work.