The National Magazine, Vol. XV, No. 1, November 1891

by Various

After a time he temporarily dropped his law studies and went to Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, where he prepared for college and was admitted to the sophomore class of Harvard. Before completing his college course however, he determined to enter upon the practice of law, and in accordance with the course he had mapped out for himself, he made application for admission to the bar of Wisconsin. He was examined at Racine, in open court, by a committee appointed for the purpose in accordance with the usages of that period, and the examination being passed successfully he was duly authorized to begin practicing his profession in the courts of the First Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin. This was in 1861, and it will be observed that notwithstanding the fact that he had had to contend with disadvantages of various kinds, before he was twenty-one years of age he had fitted himself to enter the profession in which so large a number of those bearing the same name and belonging to the same stock had achieved unusual distinction.

The day he received the certificate which entitled him to begin the practice of law, was that which brought the news of the fall of Fort Sumpter. This suddenly changed all his plans, and ultimately the whole course of his life. At once he resolved to tender his services to the government, and on the same day that President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers, he was regularly enlisted in the government service. He proceeded to raise a company, known as the Belle City Rifles, which was assigned to the Second Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry. When the company was organized, William E. Strong was commissioned Captain and went into the field in command of it, the regiment becoming part of a brigade commanded by Colonel (afterward General) W. T. Sherman. He retained the command of the company between four and five months, participating in the battle of Blackburn’s Fort and Bull Run. He was also in command of his company when the next advance of the army into Virginia was made by way of Chain Ridge. It was during his first campaign that Captain Strong met with one of his most thrilling experiences, and demonstrated that his fighting qualities were such as could be depended upon under all circumstances. At one time while extending his picket line, he ventured too far out and found himself inside the lines of the enemy. Before he could retire from this embarrassing and dangerous position he was surrounded by a band of five confederates, three of whom were mounted and two of whom were on foot, and was taken prisoner. The confederates demanded his pistols, and with great courtesy and suavity he responded “certainly gentlemen,” at the same time drawing the weapons from their holsters. His “suaviter in modo” threw his enemies off their guard, but he had no intention of being captured without a struggle, and no sooner were the pistols in his hands than they were brought to bear on the confederates and two of them fell at his first fire. The suddenness and vigor of the attack caused the remaining captors to beat a retreat, and Captain Strong reached the Federal lines in safety. In this encounter he was shot through the cheek, but although the wound was painful he did not regard it as serious and did not allow it to interfere with his regular discharge of his military duties.

On the 12th of September he was commissioned Major of the 12th. Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry, serving with it in Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico. In October of 1862, he was assigned to duty on the staff of General McLean, as Inspector General of the first division, right wing of the Army of the Tennessee. He served in this capacity two months and was then assigned to duty on the staff of General James B. McPherson, as inspector General of the right wing of the Army of the Tennessee. In February, 1863, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became Assistant Inspector General of the Seventeenth Army corps. On the 20th of April, 1864, he was appointed Inspector General of the Department and Army of the Tennessee, serving in that capacity until the close of the war. He was chief of staff to General O. O. Howard, on the march to the sea and through the Carolinas to Beaufort, Goldboro, Raleigh and thence to Washington. At Atlanta he was promoted to a Colonelcy, dating from July 22d, 1864, for “gallantry on the field of battle,” and on the 21st of March, 1865, he was brevetted a brigadier general of volunteers, having attained this distinction while still under 24 years of age.

After participating in the grand review of troops at Washington in May, 1865, General Strong was assigned with General Howard, to duty in connection with the conduct and management of the Freedman’s Bureau, and in September, 1866, was then mustered out of the service at his own request, having served in all over five years.

Throughout his entire term of service he was recognized as a brave and capable officer, and his gallantry was attested on numerous occasions. It was he who raised the stars and stripes over the Courthouse at Vicksburg immediately after the capitulation of the confederate forces.

He received the last order from the brilliant and lamented McPherson, while acting as his chief of staff, and led the desperate and daring charge which was made to recover the dead chieftain’s body. The following is a list of battles and campaigns in which he participated; The battles of Blackburn’s Ford and Bull Run in July, 1861. The campaign in Kansas, and also the campaign in Kentucky, Tennessee and Central Mississippi in 1862-63; the campaign against Vicksburg by way of the Mississippi River; and also in the battles of Port Gibson, May 1st; battle of Raymond, May 12th; battle of Jackson, May 14th; battle of Champign Hills, May 16th; battle of Black River Bridge, May 17th; Siege of Vicksburgh, May 17th to July 4th, 1863; the campaign against Meridian, Mississippi, and that against Atlanta in 1864, in which he participated in the battle of Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Ezra Chapel, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, and later Fort McAllister, and Bentonville, one of the final contests of the war, and was present at the final surrender of Johnston’s army on April 26th of that year. Esteemed by his superior officers and subordinates alike for his soldierly qualities, he was equally noted for his uniform courtesy and his efficiency as an executive officer.

In 1867, soon after he left the military service, General Strong formed a business connection with the Peshtigo Company, one of the largest corporate organizations engaged in the lumber trade in the United States. The same year he was married to Miss Mary Bostwick Ogden, an accomplished young woman, daughter of Mahlon D. Ogden, one of the pioneer citizens of Chicago. Establishing his home in Chicago at that time it continued to be his place of residence to the date of his death, and with many of its most important enterprises and undertakings of late years he was most prominently identified. Chosen secretary and treasurer of the Peshtigo Company in 1867, he retained that position until 1873, when he became president of the corporation. This position he filled for eighteen years, and was holding at the time of his death, April 10th, 1891. He was one of the promoters and builders of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal, became a director and was also treasurer and assistant secretary of the Sturgeon Bay & Lake Michigan Canal Company, and was largely instrumental in developing the resources of the lumber regions of the northwest. In his business life he showed great capacity for the conduct of affairs of more than ordinary magnitude. His management of the important interests committed to his care was uniformally successful. He never lost his interest in military affairs, and after he became a citizen of Illinois was among those most active in promoting the organization and providing for the proper discipline and equipment of the National Guard of the State. In 1876, he was commissioned by Gov. Beveridge, Inspector General of the Illinois’ National Guard. Gov. Cullom, the immediate successor of Gov. Beveridge, commissioned him Inspector General and Inspector of Rifle practice on his staff, with the rank of Brigadier General in 1877, and again in 1879. In addition to his interest in the National Guard, he was active in building up and promoting the growth of the veteran organizations particularly of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, of the Illinois commandery of which he was a charter member and also commander.

In politics he took a moderately active interest as a member of the Republican party to the principles of which he was devotedly attached. He was a member of the Local Committee of Arrangements which had charge of the preparations for the meeting of the National Republican convention of 1880, was designated to take charge of the convention building, and to act as sergeant-at-arms after the sessions began. This convention was memorable for the length of time it lasted, for the large number of distinguished men who participated in the proceedings, and the multitude of people from all parts of the country in attendance. The great crowds were handled by General Strong with remarkable skill, and at the close of the convention he was publicly thanked for his services by General James A. Garfield, who had been made the Presidential nominee.

From early boyhood General Strong was a lover of field sports, and was passionately found of hunting wild fowl and large game, and visited at one time and another, almost every portion of the United States, having attractions of this kind to offer. In company with General Phil. Sheridan—for many years, one of his most intimate friends—he made several visits to the Yellowstone Park region, and wrote numerous interesting sketches of these experiences, adventures and explorations. While the busy life he led did not allow him to give as much attention as he would have liked to literature, he gathered together a valuable library, one of the most conspicuous features of which was the amount of war literature which it contained, inclusive of rare manuscripts, autograph letters, papers, documents, and photographs, which it is said can scarcely be duplicated in the United States. He was a member of the Literary Club of Chicago and also of the Commercial Club. His last public service was rendered to the city in the capacity of a director of the Worlds Fair, an enterprise with the inception and inauguration of which he had much to do.

General Strong was in the prime of a splendid manhood when failing health admonished him that he must seek rest and a change of climate. Accordingly on the 14th of March last, he sailed from New York to join his wife and daughters in Europe. Traveling by easy stages he reached Florence, Italy, where the end came suddenly, and at least to his thousands of friends in the United States, unexpectedly on the 10th of April. His remains were brought back to the land of his nativity and to his former home in Chicago. From thence they were carried by the comrades of former days and the devoted friends of his later years to his last resting place in Graceland cemetery, where he sleeps peacefully, wrapped in the national colors which he so bravely defended in his young manhood.