The Civil War
Johann, an immigrant from what is Poland today, moves to a new country in 1857 and less than a decade later he joins the Union army to fight for his new county.
According to Civil War records, he enlisted in Company K, Wisconsin 50th Infantry Regiment on 29 Mar 1865. After all was said and done, he mustered out on 14 Jun 1866.
After some research into where 50th Infantry of Company K was located, it seems they were stationed in what was the Dakota Territory at the time to protect the western front.
Organized at Madison, Wis., March and April, 1865. Moved to St. Louis, Mo., thence from Benton Barracks (skirmishes near Booneville, Mo., May 3, 1865, Detachment) to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and to Fort Rice, D.T. Duty there until May, 1866. Mustered out April 19 to June 12, 1863. – The Civil War Archive
After reading some information about what went on in that area during the Civil War, it seems that he may have been at the forefront of some of the fighting with the Yanktonai bands of the Sioux tribe at the time. One location that it was located was Fort Rice. Their website has a small write-up from around this time, including the conditions he may have dealt with.
Life was not easy in these small frontier forts, isolated by distance and a seasonally ice-bound transportation system. During the fort’s first year, eighty-one men died—thirty-seven from scurvy, twenty-four from chronic diarrhea, three of typhoid fever, ten of other diseases, and seven killed in combat.
According to a history about the Union army, his regiment fought in one battle, at Yankton Reservation, Dakota Territory on 16 September 1865.
