SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

John Nuss, Page 205

JOHN NUSS, of Sheboygan, is a veteran soldier of the late war, having served as a member of Company F, Thirty-third Wisconsin Infantry.  He was born in the town of Bickenbach, in Prussia, Germany, not far from the River Rhine, November 11, 1840.  His parents were John Peter and Elizabeth Nuss.  the father died when his son John was but five years old.

    In the spring of 1852, the family, consisting of the mother and six children, four sons and two daughters, came to the United States.  A daughter, Maggie, died in Germany before the family left, aged eighteen years.  The family landed at the port of New York, and located at Rondout, Ulster County, N. Y., where they made their home for three years.  About 1855 they came to Sheboygan, where the mother died, September 1, 1879, at the advanced age of seventy-nine years.  But two members of the family are now living, the subject of this record and a sister.  The eldest of the family was Katherine, who married Gerhard Kuhne in Sheboygan, and died about 1875; Jacob remained in Rondout till 1876, when he came to Sheboygan, dying in Milwaukee on the 11th of June, 1888; John Peter was drowned in the canal at Rondout on the 6th of July, 1852; Elizabeth married Stephen Burkark and lives at Manitowoc, Wis.; John is the next in order of birth; and Philip died in 1867 in Sheboygan.

    The subject of this sketch was in his fifteenth year when he came to Sheboygan in 1855.  He worked at various things, as he could find work to do, for a number of years.  On the 14th of August, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, Thirty-third Wisconsin Infantry, and was mustered out on the 9th of August, 1865, at Vicksburg, Miss., and discharged at Madison, Wis., on the 3d of September, 1865.

    The first campaign in which he participated was in 1862, under Gen. Sherman.  He fought with his regiment at Coldwater, Miss., and in the Vicksburg campaign under Gen. Grant in 1863, taking part in all the important engagements attending that campaign.  On the morning of the 5th of July, the next day after the surrender, he left Vicksburg for Jackson, Miss., and on the morning of July 12, he took part in the attack on Jackson under command of Gen. Lauman.  Returning to Vicksburg, he got a furlough for thirty days.  The next day after reaching home he was taken sick with typhoid fever, and his furlough was extended to ninety days.  He rejoined the regiment at Natchez, Miss., about November 10, 1863, and from there went to Vicksburg, remaining there until February, 1864, when he took part in Gen. Sherman's Meridian expedition.  Returning to Vicksburg, he took part under Gen. A. J. Smith, commander of the Sixteenth Corps, in Bank's unfortunate Red River Expedition, and participated in the important events of that campaign.  On the retreat it will be remembered that that portion of the army under Gen. A. J. Smith did the most of the fighting, and Mr. Nuss with his regiment was always in the thickest of the fight.  After that campaign the command went to Memphis, Tenn., and took part in the battle of Tupelo against the confederate Gen. Forest, where Company F, of the Thirty-third, lost heavily.  Later they went up the White river, pursuing Gen. Price into Missouri, and as a guard of rebel prisoners the regiment went to St. Louis; thence to Nashville, Tenn., and was in the fight there under Thomas on the 15th and 16th of December, 1864.  From there the command went to Iuka and Corinth in pursuit of Hood, later going to Eastport, Miss., and down the Mississippi River, reaching New Orleans early in February, 1865.  They were at Dauphin Island and took part in the capture of Spanish Fort and Ft. Blakely, going thence to Montgomery, Ala., and from there to Tuskegee, in the same State, and two months later to Vicksburg, where the regiment was mustered out.  There were only five men from Sheboygan County in the Thirty-third, and Mr. Nuss is the only one of the five who resides in Sheboygan County.  So far as known, three are still living.

    Since the war Mr. Nuss has lived in Milwaukee and Sheboygan.  He was married September 3, 1872, to Miss Christine Lemmeness, who was born in Holland, December 15, 1853, and came to this country with her parents, John W. and Anna Lemmeness, in 1857.  The parents and three children comprised the family, which settled in the town of Holland and later in the town of Wilson, Sheboygan County.  Still later the parents removed to Fillmore County, Minn., where the mother died in March of 1888.  The father died in Oshkosh, November 11, 1889.  The eldest of the three children that constituted the family when they came to America was Jane, who died in 1872; Mrs. Nuss is the second in order of birth; the third and youngest is Bertis, who resides in North Dakota.  Two children were born to the parents after coming to the United States, namely, Albert and William.  Mr. and Mrs. Nuss have five children, Jennie, Lizzie, William, Josephine and Mary.  They also lost five in early childhood.  Mr. Nuss has been engaged with the Crocker Chair Company for many years.  He was a faithful soldier in the war for the preservation of the Union, and as a citizen is respected by all who know him.