USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 35
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CHAPTER X
COUNTY'S MILITARY RECORD
FOUR REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS-THIE HOPKINS EXPEDITION OF 181 ?-
SERVED IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR-"UNCLE TOMMY BUTLER"- MUTUAL EXCITEMENT-THE MEXICAN WAR-CIVIL WAR OFFICERS -JOHN S. WOLFE ENLISTS AND RECRUITS-COMPANY A, TWEN- TIETH ILLINOIS INFANTRY-COLONEL WOLFE OF THE ONE HUN- DRED AND THIRTY-FIFTII REGIMENT - THIE TWENTY-FIFTH (WILLIAM N. COLER, COLONEL) -TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT -SEVENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT (COL. S. T. BUSEY)-READY TO OBEY -FORT BLAKELEY CARRIED BY STORM-MINOR OFFICERS OF TIIE SEVENTY-SIXTH-THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH REGI- MENT (COL. JAMES W. LANGLEY)-THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH AGAIN-CAVALRY COMPANIES-PROMINENT IN SCAT- TERED COMMANDS-SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR SERVICE-STATE UNI- VERSITY, PRESENT MILITARY CENTER.
The military record of Champaign County really commences with its participation in the Civil War. Its connection with the National conflicts which preceded the War of the Rebellion is an indirect one, or is confined to the service of scattered individuals.
FOUR REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS
Although it would have been manifestly impossible for any settlers on the soil of the present Champaign County to have participated in the earlier wars of the nation, some of their soldiers who went from the older states and afterward settled in Illinois passed their last years in that section of the State. It is of record that at least four Revolu- tionary soldiers have died and been buried in Champaign County : William Hays, the grandfather of Asa F. Hays, who died in 1852 on the old Albright farm, near the Somers schoolhouse, a few miles north- east of Urbana ; William Kirby, of the well known family which settled on the north side of the Big Grove; Newton Shaw and Robert Brown- field, father of the well known millwright and 'Squire John Brownfield. The father died in 1841. John, while a youth and while the family
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was living in Harrison County, Kentucky, was a volunteer in the War of 1812 and spent several months in the Harrison campaigns in the Maumee country, for which he received a Government land warrant. The family came to Champaign County in 1832.
All the Revolutionary soldiers except Mr. Brownfield were buried in the Clements cemetery, about four miles northeast of Urbana, and Mr. Brownfield himself was buried in private grounds in that neighbor- hood.
THE HOPKINS EXPEDITION OF 1812
The county, as at present defined, had no settlers to serve in the War of 1812, and is identified with that conflict only from its territorial location. It was in the direct line of march of General Hopkins, a Revolutionary veteran in command of the Kentucky riflemen at Vin- cennes, who, after destroying the hostile Indian villages in the Wabash Valley, was to march across country and join General Russell at Peoria Lake, in the Illinois Valley, and finish the work of destruction among the enemy red men of the Illinois country. But the troops were undis- ciplined and some deserted even before they reached the Grand Prairie. Those who remained hunted game, threw off all pretentions at discipline, and on the fourth day from Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, the expedi- tion, as a whole, lost its way. To make the confusion worse, if possible, the Indians, who had discovered the state of affairs, set fire to the prairie grass and otherwise harassed the force.
General Hopkins, in describing his ill-starred expedition, says that on the night of October 19, 1812, the soldiers encamped at a grove of timber affording water, and, in consideration of the distance and gen- cral direction marched, county historians have long claimed that the description and facts fix the locality as the Big Grove of Champaign County. Capt. Zachary Taylor was of the Hopkins party and did all he could to second the efforts of the commanding general to bring the men into some kind of subjection. All such efforts were in vain. What started from Vincennes as a little army less than a week previous had become a mob which broke into fragments and disappeared.
SERVED IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR
Quite a number of families had settled in what is now Champaign County at the outbreak of the Black Hawk War, and at least two of the men are known to have joined Captain Brown's Mounted Rangers, or United States Regulars, as they were also called. They furnished
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their own horses, clothes and guns, and were paid $1 a day for their services. The term of enlistment was for one year. The company of Vermilion County men naturally mustered at Danville, the county seat ; in fact, most of its members were citizens of that place, perhaps half a dozen coming from the western districts. The entire regiment, under orders for the seat of war in northern Illinois, crossed the Wabash River at Terre Haute, and a northwesterly course led them through Champaign County. One night the ground near the creek on West Main Street, Urbana, near the present site of the Christian Church, was chosen as a camp, and was so occupied until the next morning. The regiment marched through the county under arms from the south to the north line.
Thomas L. Butler, Martin Rhinehart, Jacob Heator, James Johnson, Thomas Richards, Elias Stamey and Rev. Mr. Mahurin comprised the delegation from the western part of Vermilion County. The last named was a Baptist minister who resided and preached in Big Grove. He went forth as a chaplain and never returned.
Jacob Heator was also a pioneer settler of that locality, in Section 28, and in 1834, soon after his return from military service, invested his wages in a piece of land which he purchased from John Whittaker. He lived on that property until about 1854, when he sold to William N. Coler (the Civil War colonel) and migrated to Iowa, where he died.
"UNCLE TOMMY BUTLER"
Thomas L. Butler and Martin Rhinehart, two of the oldest and most popular citizens of the county, were long noted as the only survivors of the Black Hawk War in Champaign County. Mr. Butler came to Illinois from his native Pennsylvania in the fall of 1828, at the age of twenty-two, and first settled at Danville. Before the Black Hawk War he had taken up land near the present village of Homer, one of his neighbors being Moses Thomas, the probate justice and part proprietor of the village site. Judge Thomas was his brother-in-law. "Uncle Tommy Butler," as he was familiarly called, was a small man, but wiry, active and plucky, and many of the old settlers of larger stature say he could swing a cradle with any of them. He was wont to say that the $1 a day which he received as a soldier of the Black Hawk War was a welcome addition to his income. The hard frost of 1829 killed all the corn and "times were still close" in the western part of the county, which depended so much on that crop. He was one of the Champaign County settlers who made frequent trips to Chicago with ox teams, to take his crop to market and buy groceries and other family
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supplies. The round trip occupied seventeen days. "Uncle Tommy" lived to be very old and was finally killed in a railroad accident.
A sketch of Martin Rhinehart, who, with his father, was an early settler in the Big Grove in Somer Township, northeast of Urbana, has already been given. He died in Wisconsin many years ago.
MUTUAL EXCITEMENT
During the Black Hawk War the inhabitants of the Sangamon Tim- ber were especially excited over a rumored Indian raid from McLean County. Some Kickapoo Indians had gathered at Old Town Timber, a few miles to the west, huddling together like badly frightened sheep, their entire object being to keep out of the war. But the few settlers in the Sangamon Timber of what is now Champaign County got a different idea of their intentions, gathered in a cabin and prepared boldly for defense, if not offense. Nothing happened on either side, and the panic died after a few days into a complete calm.
THE MEXICAN WAR
The scene of operations in the Mexican War was so far from Cham- paign County, and the interior of Illinois was even then so. sparsely settled, that there is little of an individual nature to record connecting that section of the State with the conflict beyond the southern border. William N. Coler, so prominent in the Civil War, served as a youth in the war with Mexico.
CIVIL WAR OFFICERS
The breaking out of the Civil War, like a sudden and tremendous storm, sent an electric shock throughout the United States, and nowhere was it more pronounced than in eastern and central Illinois. Not only was the response to the presidential call for troops prompt and generous on the part of the rank and file, but several officers of prominence are to be credited to Champaign County. Among these leaders were Gen. Samuel T. Busey of Urbana, Cols. William N. Coler, John S. Wolfe, Richard H. Nodine and James W. Langley of Champaign, and Capt. Nathan M. Clark of Urbana.
JOHN S. WOLFE ENLISTS AND RECRUITS
Champaign and Urbana were the centers for recruiting. The attack on Fort Sumter commenced on a Friday, and by Monday Champaign
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County men were enrolling themselves for Union service. John S. Wolfe, a young lawyer of Champaign, had studied law with John M. Palmer, then of Macoupin County, and had been admitted to the bar in 1859. First he had opened an office at Carlinville with his fellow student, James W. Langley, and a year later had moved to Champaign, where he resided most of the time until his death in 1904.
COMPANY A, TWENTIETH ILLINOIS INFANTRY
A day or two after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 men, Attorney Wolfe made an eloquent address at a public meeting in Champaign called to enroll volunteers, and enforced his words by stepping forward and placing his name at the head of the list. Others soon followed and he was chosen captain of the company, which was organized within a week as A, Twentieth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The unit was placed in a camp of instruction at the fair grounds north of Urbana. The men selected as their lieutenants were Daniel Bradley and George W. Kennard, the former to be the colonel and the latter the major of the regiment. The rush for enrollment prevented the company and the regiment from being formally organized until May 14, 1861. It went into camp at Joliet, and was mustered into the service on June 13th, even then being one of the first regiments in the State to enter the three-years' service. As a result of resignations and promo- tions in Company A, William Archdeacon, John H. Austin and Andrew Rogerson were advanced to the grade of first lieutenant and the two last named to the captaincy. After three years of fighting and marching the Twentieth veteranized, participated in the grand review at Wash- ington at the close of the war, and was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, July 16, 1865.
COLONEL WOLFE OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT
Captain Wolfe was obliged to resign after about a year of service on account of disability, but, having recovered his health, he assisted in the organization of the 100 days regiment, the One Hundred and Thirty- fifth, which was mustered in at Mattoon, June 6, 1864. Of that he was chosen colonel, his command being on duty chiefly in Missouri guarding railways and other lines of communication between various sections of the Union armies in the Southwest. Dr. S. H. Birney of Urbana, who served as surgeon of the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth, afterward became one of the prominent members of his profession. He spent ten years in Denver, but returned to Urbana in 1898 and died there two years later.
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At the conclusion of the war Colonel Wolfe returned to Champaign and resumed his practice and partnership with James W. Langley, who had himself become a colonel, and continued in active and successful - professional work at Champaign until his death June 23, 1904. Dur- ing the last thirty years of that period he was local attorney for the Illinois Central. Colonel Wolfe spent considerable time in travel during the last few years of his life.
THE TWENTY-FIFTH (WILLIAM N. COLER, COLONEL)
Soon after the departure of the Twentieth Regiment for its camp at Joliet, William N. Coler, a prominent lawyer, newspaper man and Democratic leader of the county and a resident of Urbana, was com- missioned by President Lincoln to organize a regiment in Champaign County and adjoining territory, and by the early part of July had com- pleted the organization, the Twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. It was accepted in August, 1861, and of the ten full companies, C was enlisted at Homer, I at Middletown and K at Urbana, nearly all the men being residents of the county. Colonel Coler, who had served in the Mexican War as a youth under Col. G. W. Morgan (famous in the Confederate cavalry service), continued in command of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry until the fall of 1862, when he returned to the county and located at Champaign. Ten years afterward, with his sons, he moved to New York City.
Colonel Coler's successors, in command of the Twenty-fifth Regi- ment, were Col. Thomas D. Williams, who was killed in battle, December, 1862; Col. Caswell P. Ford, who resigned in April, 1863, and Col. Richard H. Nodine of Champaign, who was promoted from major and was mustered out with his regiment September 5, 1864. George W. Flynn of Urbana, early became adjutant of the regiment and held the office until it mustered out. In the same regiment were Dr. R. H. Brown of Mahomet and Dr. Myron S. Brown of Urbana, assistant sur- geons. M. B. Thompson was sergeant major.
The successive captains of Company C were Charles A. Summers and Zebulon Hall of Homer; of Company I, Samuel Houston of Newcomb, afterward promoted to major, and Everett G. Knapp of Champaign, and of Company K. Ezekiel Boyden, James M. Tracy and Edward S. Sherman, all of Urbana.
When the term of service of the Twenty-fifth ended in September, 1864, Col. W. H. Gibson, commander of the brigade to which the regi- ment was attached, addressed the men, through an official order, con- gratulating them on their splendid record, and referring especially to
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their bravery at Pea Ridge, Corinth, Champion Hills, Stone River. Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Noonday Creek, Pinetop Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochie, Peachtree Creek and Atlanta.
TWENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT
The Twenty-sixth Regiment was recruited soon after the Twenty- fifth, and Charles J. Tinkham of Homer became its first lieutenant colonel. Company F of the regiment was largely recruited from the eastern part of the county. Its captains were C. J. Tinkham and Lee M. Irwin, both of Homer. A large proportion of this company veteranized with the regiment, participated in the Sherman campaigns, and was mustered out at Louisville, July 20, 1865. It was in twenty- eight battles and numerous skirmishes and its marches covered nearly 7,000 miles.
SEVENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT (COL. S. T. BUSEY)
The Seventy-sixth Regiment was mustered into the Union service at Kankakee, August 22, 1862. Samuel T. Busey of Urbana was elected captain of Company B, and on the organization of the regiment became its lieutenant colonel. In that capacity he went south to Columbus, Kentucky, then the base of supplies for Grant's army at Corinth. The regiment garrisoned Holly Springs and performed other necessary service for the coming commander of the Union armies.
READY TO OBEY
In April, 1863, he became colonel of his regiment, and joined Grant's army in the rear of Vicksburg. His division being sent to Snyder's Bluff to guard the rear, the officers of the division circulated a petition to General Grant requesting that their troops be sent to the front. Colonel Busey refused to sign it, stating that Grant was in command, and it was the duty of a brave soldier to take any position assigned him, and not annoy the commanding general who was responsible for results. When chided by other officers, he quietly remarked: "The Seventy-sixth is ready to go when and where it is ordered and will do the best it knows how, but I trust I have no officer willing to seek promotion by needlessly sacrificing a single man." Three days later the division was ordered to the extreme left. The first night it is said that two of the regiments whose officers had expressed themselves as unwilling to be
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relegated to the rear were surprised and routed and more than 100 taken prisoners. The Seventy-sixth came to the rescue, prevented what might have been a general rout, advanced the line on the river bank, and afterward took and held the most advanced position on the entire line until the surrender. Colonel Busey then led his regiment to Jack- son, Mississippi, and held the post of honor, the extreme right, during the siege of Vicksburg. He is said to have been the first Union officer to enter the city after its evacuation by the Confederate army, and won the gratitude of its citizens by his efforts to subdue incendiary fires and restrain lawlessness.
FORT BLAKELY CARRIED BY STORM
Colonel Busey refused promotion to brigadier general because he wished to remain in close touch with his old regiment ; he also declined the command of the Natchez post for the same reason. The Seventy- sixth was then attached to the Reserve Corps of the Mississippi River, and he led several important expeditions into the surrounding country. Still in active command of his regiment, he left Memphis January 1, 1865, and was the first to report to General Canby at New Orleans of the army which afterward operated against Mobile. Fort Blakely, the last stronghold to that city, was carried by assault, after a hot siege of ten days, April 9, 1865. The Seventy-sixth was the first inside the Con- federate works. and suffered a greater loss than all the remainder of the command.
Colonel Busey was the second man on the enemy's works. The pri- vate who preceded him was killed and the colonel wounded after a fight with several men. He was sent to the hospital at New Orleans, but returned to the front in June and was then mustered for discharge at Galveston, Texas. He was formally mustered out at Chicago, August 6, 1865. He was afterward commissioned as brevet brigadier general, on recommendation of General Grant and others, for special gallantry in leading his regiment in the assault on Fort Blakely.
MINOR OFFICERS OF THE SEVENTY-SIXTH
George J. Hodges of Champaign was mustered in as quartermaster of the Seventy-sixth, and was succeeded August 9, 1864, by John W. Somers, a brother of the well known Urbana lawyer and government official. He afterward moved to Iowa.
Companies B and G were composed almost entirely of men from Urbana and Champaign and their neighborhoods. Succeeding Colonel
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Busey as captain of Company B upon his promotion to the lieutenancy were Homer W. Ayers, Ning A. Riley, John K. Miller and Robert A. Frame, all of Urbana and promoted from first lieutenant. Company G had as captains Joseph Park and Joseph Ingersoll of Urbana. Captain Park served from the muster in, August 22, 1862, until January 5, 1863, and Captain Ingersoll from that date until the muster out, June 20, 1865. James S. Mccullough, who was county clerk in 1873-96, lost an arm while fighting as a youthful soldier of the Seventy-sixth at Kene- saw Mountain.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT (COL. JAMES W. LANGLEY)
The One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment was raised largely in the two counties of Champaign and Vermilion, and was mustered in at Danville, September 3, 1862, under command of Col. Oscar F. Harmon of that place, with James W. Langley, the Champaign lawyer and partner of John S. Wolfe, as lieutenant colonel. A. M. Ayers of Urbana was quartermaster. Colonel Harmon was killed in battle at Kenesaw Mountain, June 27, 1864, and Lieutenant Colonel Langley succeeded to the command, which he retained until the muster out at the end of the war. In that bloody engagement Capt. Nathan M. Clark of Company E, Champaign, lost an arm, and was succeeded in the com- mand by George W. B. Sadorus of Sadorus. Captain Clark, who served as sheriff and county clerk after the war, died in 1869. Frederick B. Sale of Newcomb, who was captain of Company F, was succeeded by John B. Lester of the same town, who had advanced from the ranks to the head of his company. He afterward became prominent in town- ship and county affairs.
The record of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment embraces the battles of Perryville, Missionary Ridge, Buzzard's Roost, Kenesaw Mountain and Peachtree Creek, the siege of Atlanta, the march to the sea, the Carolina campaign and the grand review.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH AGAIN
As noted in the sketch of John S. Wolfe, the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Regiment, which he assisted to raise and of which he was colonel, was mustered into the service in June, 1864, for the 100 days service. Companies A and B were raised in Champaign County and their respective captains were Benjamin Burt of Urbana and Edward Bailey of Champaign.
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CAVALRY COMPANIES
Company I, Second Regiment, Illinois Cavalry, largely composed of Champaign County men, was successively commanded by Charles A. Vieregg and Henry Bartling of Champaign and Moses E. Kelley of Pesotum. Many of its members became veterans after their three years' service, and the regiment was not mustered out (at Springfield) until November 24, 1865. Its battles and skirmishes ranged up and down the Mississippi Valley.
Company I, Tenth Illinois Cavalry, also numbered many men from Champaign County. It was mustered into the service at Camp Butler in September, 1861, and its captains were James Butterfield and William H. Coffman of Champaign.
PROMINENT IN SCATTERED COMMANDS
The record of Champaign County in the Civil War would stretch out to much greater length if mention were made of all who honored their sections and themselves in official positions below captaincies, those who bore themselves faithfully and bravely in the ranks, and not a few who attained some prominence in scattered commands. In the last named class must, however, be mentioned Dr. Charles A. Hunt, the able physician and ex-mayor of Urbana, who died at Mount City Hospital, Mississippi, in August, 1863, while as bravely performing his duties as surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Regiment as though he were leading a charge on the field of battle; Dr. J. T. Miller, also of Urbana, surgeon of the Sixtieth Infantry; Dr. Charles A. Thompson of Urbana, first assistant surgeon of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Infantry and finally surgeon of the Ninetieth; Capt. Eugene P. Frederick of Ogden Township, a stanch German-American, who rose from a private to a captaincy in the Fifty-first Infantry. There were quite a number of Champaign County citizens in Companies B and E of that regiment, as well as in Company G of the Seventy-second.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR SERVICE
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, in the spring of 1898, Company M of the Fourth Regiment, Illinois National Guard, had been organized for a number of years. Its membership was mostly drawn from Champaign and Urbana. On April 25th, Adjutant General Reece ordered the regiment to report at Springfield and on the 20th of May, with Company M, it was mustered into the service of the United
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States by Captain Roberts of the Seventeenth Infantry, the regiment being under the command of Col. Casimer Andel of Belleville.
Roster of Company M at the time of muster in: Captain, William R. Courtney of Urbana ; first lieutenant, Arthur W. Smith, and second lieutenant, Fred E. Thompson, both of Urbana; first sergeant and quar- termaster sergeant, George E. Doty and Sidney G. Choate of Champaign. The Fourth Regiment, as a part of the Second Brigade, arrived at Jack- sonville, Florida, May 29th, and was stationed at Camp Cuba Libre under command of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. While at that point Colonel Andel resigned and was succeeded by Col. Eben Swift of the Ninth Regiment. After remaining on provost duty until October, the Fourth was transferred to Savannah, Georgia, the men devoting their time to drill and practice marches. In January, 1899, it embarked for Havana, and during its three months' stay on the island was stationed at Camp Columbia, near Havana, performing faithfully its duties of guard and camp, and keeping in condition for any call which might come. On the 4th of April, 1899, it embarked for home on the steamers "Whitney" and "Yarmouth," and was mustered out at Camp Mckenzie, Augusta, Georgia, on May 2d. There were only three death in the Champaign County company-those of Herman McFarland and George E. Turner of Urbana and Percy H. Tittle of Champaign.
Sidney Cohen is the present captain of Company M, Fourth Infantry, and is active in present-day military matters.
STATE UNIVERSITY, PRESENT MILITARY CENTER
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