33rd Wisconsin at Andersonville

[John Christiansen]

I participated in a POW living history program at Andersonville on March 8-9. The staff kindly provided me a list of members of the 33rd incarcerated during the camps' operation:

F. Stulke, Co. F
Cpl. Romanzo J. Ashley, Co. A
James H. Bowlsby, Co. C
Nelson Bump, Co. F
James E. Drom, Co. G

William Neff, Co. I, captured 2/27/1864 in Canton MS, died at Andersonville 10/5/1864 of scurvy, buried Andersonville National Cemetary, grave # 10369

Richard Rands, Co. B, captured at Atlanta, GA 7/22/1864, paroled 9/18/1864 (I'm a little puzzled why he was at Atlanta. Perhaps detailed to the quartermaster department or some such duty? Anyone with any guesses?)

On another note, the Wisconsin monument at Andersonville was the first erected on the site, in 1906. It lies on the prison grounds, in the northwest corner of the compound, where many Wisconsin prisoners camped.

[Robert Braun]

Here are some details that I hope will answer your questions...


On February 27, 1864 during the Meridian Campaign, Sergent James Drom, Company H, was in charge of a 14 man foraging detachment from the Thirty-third, accompanied by Quartermaster John Nichols. This detachment made up an 84 man forage contingent detached from the brigade. Somewhere in the vicinity of Terry’s plantation, rebel cavalry swooped in and captured fourteen men of the Union detachment, including Sergeant Drom, Corporal Romanzo J. Ashley, "A", Privates Warren D. Card, "H," William Neff, "I," and James S. Bowlsby, "C."

From research and pension records examined by Mr. Joseph J. Riggs of Allenton, Pennsylvania, Drom and his comrades were force-marched about 40 miles each day to Gainesville, Alabama, a total distance of some 128 miles. There, the Wisconsin men were incarcerated in Cahaba Prison. From Cahaba, the prisoners were moved a short time later to the notorious Confederate prison known as Andersonville. Suffering from a deteriorating left leg and too weak to move, Drom was left behind at Andersonville when his comrades were shipped to other prisons in late 1864 and early 1865. On April 17, 1865, James E. Drom was released and placed in Union hands. He arrived at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri on April 27, 1865, and eventually was mustered out at Madison, Wisconsin on June 16, 1865.

When the Thirty-third Regiment boarded a steamer for the Red River Campaign, it left behind several detachments. The first was a group of convalescents, who accompanied the regimental baggage to Cairo, Illinois under the charge of Chaplain Alfred A. Overton. Two more details from the Thirty-third Regiment (the pioneer detachment and a sixty-one man train guard detachment for the wagon train) remained with Fourth Division, XVII Corps on the trip up Tennessee River to Decatur, Alabama—an assembly area for General Sherman's proposed Atlanta Campaign. Richard Rands was most likely with the train guard attached to XVII Corps. (These detachments rejoined the Thirty-third Regiment at Nashville at the end of November, 1864!)

Nelson Bump was wounded at the battle of Harriburg (Tupelo) Mississippi July 14, 1864 and captured. A friend reported that Bump sustained a severe wound: “…a ball hitting him between the eyebrows and passing under the brain and lodging on [the] right side of his neck, where it was cut out.”

Frederick Stulke of La Prairie enlisted in Company F raised principally in Rock County. He was wounded in the chest at the battle of Harrisburg (Tupelo) Mississippi July 14, 1864 and captured. While his wound was thought to be mortal, and was reported as such in the Wisconsin papers, he would survive.