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"We can not forbear acknowledging the marked courtesy with which the Senator and his friends were treated by Republicans generally, and especially by those who hold influential po- sitions in . the Agricultural Association."
The next day, September 24th, one day after the fair, was Lincoln's day. The people had all gone home from the fair and the stock, machinery, agricultural products and women's finery, which had been upon exhibition, had all been removed, and there remained nothing but the bare grounds and fair buildings. The day was fair and the grounds most inviting. Friends of Mr. Lincoln much feared the failure of his visit to call forth a respectable hearing. In this, however, they were dis- appointed. The speech of Mr. Douglas had but sharpened the public appetite for the other side, and this, with the enthusiasm so largely felt for so great and well known a favorite as Lincoln, called people from every farm in the county.
The same correspondent of the Chicago paper wrote from Urbana about the Lincoln meeting, and shall here tell the story:
"Lincoln has been with us, and the occasion has been one long to be remembered in East- ern and Central Illinois. It is no new thing for us to greet the honest face of Mr. Lincoln in our streets, that it should stir up com- motion, for, half-yearly for many years, he has been in the habit of spending a week here in the practice of his profession, upon the most familiar and easy terms with all, so that a desire to see the man who grapples with and overcomes the Little Giant, could not have induced a single person to leave his home and come here through the dust, all having seen him frequently and heard him speak, and very many being intimately acquainted with him; nothing but the respect and love for the cause of which he is the exponent in Illinois, could have brought together such a throng.
"The time was, perhaps, the most un- favorable one in all the year for getting together a crowd, coming, as it did, one day after an exciting county fair of three days, in an unusually sickly season, when there is scarcely a family in the county more than able to take care of its own sick, and upon a day when the least stir in any of the roads was sufficient to raise a suffocating cloud of dust; yet the affair has been a most success- ful one in every way. The number present was very nearly, if not quite, as large as those in attendance at the Douglas demonstration of yesterday; the enthusiasm ten times as great,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
and the effort never exceeded by that result- ing from any speech ever delivered in the county before.
"At an early hour the people began to flock into town, and by the time designated for forming the procession, the streets were so blocked up that it was almost impossible for a vehicle of any kind to pass. At ten o'clock a procession, led by the Urbana brass band, German band and Danville band, and over sixty young ladies on horseback with their attendants, thirty-two of whom repre- sented the States of the Union, marched to the Doane House for the purpose of escorting Mr. Lincoln to the Fair Grounds, where the speaking was to take place.
"When returning, the procession was aug- mented by a large delegation from the western part of the county; also a large dele- gation from Piatt County-so that the entire procession reached more than one and a half miles.
"In this form the grounds were reached, when, it being the hour of midday, the throng marched in good order to the dinner tables, where the ladies of the two Urbanas had spread out a sumptuous and bountiful din- ner.(1) All had enough and to spare. The
(1) A circumstance in connection with this din- ner deserves notice here as demonstrating that humility which on all occasions, but without any ostentation, was exhibited by Mr. Lincoln. The writer was one of the marshals who helped form and guide the procession on that day. When nearing the fair ground he was riding near the carriage of Mr. Lincoln when he called the writer to his side and asked, "Will there be a dinner served upon the grounds?" The question raised the presumption that, as it was nearly twelve o'clock, he was feeling the need of refreshments, so he was assuringly answered: "Yes, Mr. Lincoln, you will be served with a good dinner as soon as we reach the ground." He quickly replied: "That is not what I wanted to know for. If dinner is to be served, feed the people at once and then let me talk to them."
At the grounds he was met by a committee of ladies and escorted to a seat at the head of the table, where had been placed the best of the spread. He took the seat and at once began eating his dinner. Looking around he saw an old woman, standing not far away, intently looking at him. He recognized her as one whom he had often seen as a waiter and dish-washer at the hotel in Urbana, whom everybody knew as "Granny."He said to her, "Why, Granny, have you no place? You must have some din- ner. Here, take my place." The old lady an- swered, "No, Mr. Lincoln, I just wanted to see you. I don't want any dinner." In spite of her protestations Lincoln arose, from his seat and compelled her to sit down and have dinner. He took a turkey leg and biscuit and seating himself at the root of a near by tree, ate his dinner, apparently with the greatest satisfac- tion; meanwhile Granny Hutchinson filled the place at the head of the table and ate her din- ner as he had insisted she should do.
people then repaired to the stand, and, after being seated, listened to an eloquent recep- tion speech made by Hon. M. L. Dunlap, formerly of Cook County, who then introduced Mr. Lincoln. Cheer after cheer, lustily and heartily given, greeted his appearance. His speech was commenced by acknowledging his gratitude at seeing so lively an interest taken in the great issue of the day. After a few other introductory allusions, he took up the various questions at issue in the campaign, meeting and refuting the common dogmas of Democracy, and probing to the bottom every subject touched. Throughout, his remarks were terse, eloquent and witty, frequently eliciting loud demonstrations of merriment and applause. At the close of his remarks, loud cheers rang through the forest, in which the larger portion of the audience took part.
"One thing is worthy of notice, in contrast with yesterday's proceedings. On that oc- casion the audience sat under the thunderings of the Little Giant as still as if attending a funeral discourse, while this audience of Mr. Lincoln's was most enthusiastic and attentive, continuing as large at the enunciation of the last word as at the beginning.
The following from the "Urbana Constitu- tion," of September 25, 1858, will indicate the manner in which Mr. Lincoln was received and his speech regarded by his opponents of that day:
"The Republicans had a fine meeting here on Friday, and were addressed by Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln's speech was a complete back down from every position he assumed in his opening speech at Springfield, except in one respect. viz .: that he still insisted on the right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories. This dogma, as Lincoln well knows, however, is the merest humbug, because it cannot be carried out while the decision of the Supreme Court upon that subject remains.
"Mr. Lincoln was probably not very well sat- isfied with his day's work, as in the evening he again assembled at the court house where he delivered a discourse on that passage of Scripture which declares that 'a house divided against itself cannot stand,' and the necessity of 'the perseverance of the saints' to the 'ulti- mate extinction of slavery in all the States.' Also, he gave his views on the cranberry and hoop-pole laws of Indiana. After which Deacon Bross spoke. The deacon made a magnificent speech. He referred to the letter Washington had written to Henry Clay! and to the fact that Lafayette was one of the fathers of the Con- stitution! He said that the Republican party held that the negroes are not equals of the whites in respect to social and political rights, but that they are the equals of the whites in the sense of the Declaration of Independence. which declares that 'all men are created equal," This distinction was so clear, and satisfactory that the deacon was vociferously cheered. The deacon also made several beautiful appeals to heaven, which were applauded in the most lively manner."
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
"The meeting broke up, formed in pro- cession, and escorted Mr. Lincoln to his lodging, at the residence of Mayor Boyden, where his lady attendants, and all, parted from him with rapturous cheers."
In the evening of that day Mr. Lincoln, with William Bross, one of the editors of the Chicago Tribune and afterwards Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, and Judge Terry of Dan- ville, spoke at the court house.
'The speeches of both Douglas and Lincoln were much in the line of their published joint debate speeches, but although most of the people had read them in the daily newspapers from time to time as they were delivered, all listened to their verbal reproduction here as if entirely new to them. In fact the Urbana speeches were in effect a continuation of the celebrated joint debates, now cited as a notable feature of the anti-slavery agitation of the last century which finally culminated in the rebellion of the Southern States, in the Proclamation of Emancipation issued by Lin- coln just four years. to a day after Douglas' speech, and in the final constitutional over- throw of African slavery upon the American continent where it had existed for over two hundred years.
The contest of 1858 between Judge Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the senatorship, the decision of which lay with the General Assem- bly to be chosen at the November election, carried with it . throughout Illinois all the strenuosity of an old time Presidential elec- tion, and it lacked nothing of spirit and in- tensity to make it take rank with the best re- membered of that class. Champaign County partisanship ranked with that of any of its neighbors, and none who participated in the contest here will forget its events ..
As is well known Judge Douglas succeeded; but Lincoln's defeat proved only a lull in the contest between these two distinguished men which was commenced twenty-five years be- fore, to be renewed two years thereafter when both were named by their respective parties as candidates for the Presidency.
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This contest (that of 1860) like the one pre- viously described, has become a part of the most exciting history of the Republic, and was far-reaching in its effects. Here, as else- where, the contest was exciting and was partici- pated in by the people of the county, already
reinforced by a large wave of Eastern immi- gration, which was largely infused with anti- slavery sentiments. The result showed a much larger percentage of increase in the vote of Mr. Lincoln than in that of Judge Douglas, in this county due to changes in population.
This campaign, like others referred to, was distinguished by the spectacular demonstra- tions at mass conventions and upon the streets. For the first time in the history of politics in this county, torch-light processions of uni- formed organizations were introduced. Both parties resorted to this kind of tactics. Fol- lowing the example set in some of the East- ern States, the young men and big boys were organized by Republicans into companies called as elsewhere, "Wide-Awakes." Pre- paratory to public exhibitions the men were drilled under one of their number who was elected captain, assisted by subordinate officers, in the marching tactics of a military company, and to some extent in the manual of arms, the arms used being a stick six feet long supporting a lamp, and the uniform a cap and cape made of black oil-cloth. The men were taught many evolutions and, under a skillful manager, with lighted lamps at night pre- sented quite an attractive and impressive ap- pearance, especially when companies from several towns and neighborhoods met at a county mass-meeting in numbers of several hundreds. With lighted lamps, their street parades and well executed evolutions, after night, were a notable feature of the cam- paign.
The Democratic clubs of this kind were here called "Hickory Boys," and received the same lamps and arms as the "Wide-Awakes," their uniform being caps and "hickory" shirts.
Many of those men, thus drilled in the tac- tics of a military company in this peaceful and playful way, had use for all they then learned before one year had passed, when mustered into the armies of the United States for the suppression of the rebellion, which followed close upon the result of the Presidential elec- tion they were seeking to influence.
The election of one so familiarly and well known among our people as Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, was enthusiastically received and celebrated by his political friends here; and, even among his political opponents who knew him intimately, no bitterness followed,
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
but these, with but few unimportant excep- tions, joined heartily in the denunciation of Southern nullification. Political bias had lit- tle to do with recruiting the Union armies in Champaign County, and neither political party of that day did, or could justly, lay claim to greater patriotism than the other. The ad- mirers of Lincoln and the admirers of Doug- las, like their distinguished leaders, were earnestly and honestly patriotic, and readily forgot their differences in the political cam- paigns. Champaign County will never be called upon to excuse or condemn the conduct of any of her sons during the period of the Civil War.
The Presidential campaign of 1864 was pros- ecuted under the pressure of civil war. News from the battlefield, Sherman's successful cam- paign against Atlanta preceding his march to the sea, Grant's battles in the Wilderness and forward march against Richmond, and Sheri- dan's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley were inextricably mixed up with the political cam- paign. Somehow the people got it into their heads that a victory for Lincoln in the North meant a collapse of the rebellion in the South, and acted accordingly. The result justified this estimate of probabilities, although he was opposed by one of his most popular Generals. He received in this county nearly two votes to one for McClellan. So this must not be reckoned as a political contest, but a side issue of the war. Many Democrats openly advo- cated and voted for Mr. Lincoln whose suc- cess they regarded as the success of the Gov- ernment he represented. Others silently gave him support rather than court opposition and criticism.(1) -
With these few pages descriptive of the old- time elections, as seen and participated in by the writer, enough has been told to show the variance from the methods then in vogue which time and taste have worked. The bar- becue, the procession, the spectacular exhibi- tion, the close school-house canvass-and, let us hope, the bitter personal epithets-have
gone, and in their place have come something better.
CHAPTER XXVI.
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY IN THE CIVIL WAR.
THE PEOPLE UNACQUAINTED WITH WAR-ELECTION OF LINCOLN-EXCITED CONDITION OF PUBLIC SEN- TIMENT-FIRST NEWS OF THE WAR-BREAKING UP OF FAMILIES-FIRST COMPANY FROM CHAMPAIGN COUNTY-TWENTIETH ILLINOIS REGIMENT-TWEN .. TY-FIFTH REGIMENT, COL. W. N. COLER-TWENTY- SIXTH REGIMENT, COL. C. J. TINKHAM-SEVENTY- SIXTH REGIMENT, COL. S. T. BUSEY-ONE HUN- DRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT, COL. O. F. HARMON-ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH REG- IMENT, COL. J. S. WOLFE-SECOND ILLINOIS CAVAL- RY-TENTH ILLINOIS CAVALRY-OTHER REGIMENTS WITH CHAMPAIGN COUNTY MEN-THE STORY OFTEN ENDS IN DEATH.
Looking backward over the history of Cham- paign County, no event, since the departure from its territory of the red man, can be pointed out which can be said to have more generally affected its people, than did the War of the Rebellion carried on by the Southern X States of the Union in 1861-65. The people of this country, at that date, from the long prev- alence of peace in all our borders, were unac- quainted with war except as a matter of his- tory, were reverent lovers of peace and re- gretfully saw the dark war clouds rising in the South. The people well knew Abraham Lincoln, the President-elect; had often seen and heard him in political discussions, and men of all parties well knew that his advent into the Presidency meant no harm to any section of the country. So the threatening war clouds which hung over the country, all dur- ing the last of the year 1860 and the early months of 1861, caused great uneasiness to men of all parties. But when on the 13th of April, 1861, the news came over the wires that the war talk at the South had culminated in the criminal attack, with artillery, upon one of the forts of the United States, all realized that the die of war was cast, and that the two sections of the Republic would soon be engaged in a fratricidal contest. The cry that Fort Sumter had been fired upon swept over the
(1) During the campaign of 1864, William D. Somers, Esq., who had been 'a vehement Demo- crat with Douglas, was reticent in the expres- sion of his views and took no part in the dis- cussions. At the election the writer served with him as one of the Judges of election in Urbana. When he was ready to cast his vote he plucked the writer to one side, and exhibited a ballot for Lincoln, with the remark, "I just wanted you to see my ballot;" put it in the box.
797
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
county and wiped out party lines for the time.
The April term, 1861, of the Circuit Court was then in session, in Urbana, David Davis for the last time presiding therein, and many people from all parts of the county were in attendance, as an exciting murder trial was being heard. The people hurried home bur- dened with the great sorrow and prepared to meet the emergency, which they did, as the subsequent pages will endeavor to show.
No one, however graphic may be his pen, can convey to this generation a true concep- tion of the condition of the public mind at this period. True, all. through the winter, at frequent periods, reports had come to us from the South of the secession, on paper, of va- rious States; Senators and Representatives of such States had withdrawn from their seats in Congress, and reports had come of the organization and arming of military forces at various Southern points. A so-called consti- tution for the Confederacy had been adopted and a government organized at Montgomery, Ala .; yet, with all these preparations for hos- tile action, the North was slow to believe that the men of the South would, without any overt act of hostility against its peculiar in- stitution by the administration of the new President, deliberately plan and attempt to carry out a disruption of the Republic, so dear to all the people then living under its pro- tection. Acting under this impression, until the reverberation of Beauregard's guns fired against Fort Sumter, on April 12,-1861, was heard literally, not the least preparation for war had been made at the North; not a squad of men had been recruited nor a pound of powder accumulated for the defense of the common government. On the other hand, under the treasonable connivance of Cabinet Members of the out-going administration, the military and naval forces of the Government, which ought to have been available for the enforcement of its laws and the protection of Government property, were dispersed in un- known seas or stationed under treasonable Officers, where they would be surrendered at the call of the country's disloyal citizens.
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It was to cope with this condition of affairs that the North, when awakened from its leth- argy by actual hostilities put in motion by rebellious States, was called upon, all unpre-
pared, about mid-April, 1861. How to orga- nize, transport, feed and render efficient an army for the suppression of a well organized rebellion, was the problem which lay before the Government. The material, in loyal and willing men and in the food and wealth of the loyal States, was at hand. The exigency of the proposed disruption of the Government, then in its experimental period, and before either it or the onlooking world had become satisfied of its enduring qualities, seemed, by a self-acting process, able to assimilate the material at hand into the necessary force. A President, the embodiment of common sense and moderation, with abiding devotion to the Union, was able to call about him lieutenants of his own mind, and the people did the rest.
Champaign County formed but one small unit in the mighty force necessary in the conflict of 1861-65 for the preservation of the Government; yet an inspection of the records of the State and Nation appertaining to its part, will soon convince the student of the futility of any attempt, in a single chapter, to tell its story of its part in such a contest. Through eight considerable volumes of the Adjutant General's Report of the part taken by Illinois troops, and as parts of many regiments, are given the facts of organization and brief sketches of the campaigns endured; but, with all this, is the part taken by the men of the county given only in the briefest form.
Then there is another side of the tragedy of which the records of the county furnish no evidence, and of which, even now, the only proofs available are the family traditions soon to be forgotten. Reference is had to the broken homes, rendered so by the departure for their places in the army of the heads of families; to the severed family circles where the sons went forth to do their part; to the resulting hardships to helpless ones left behind; to the many sad messages of death which came back from hospitals, battlefields and dreary marches, and to the home-coming of crippled and invalided young men who went out bear- ing the bloom of health and vigorous young manhood.
Scarcely had the echoes from the Fort Sum- ter attack and defeat died away, before the young men of Champaign County were enroll- ing their names at the recruiting stations in Champaign and Urbana, in response to the
X
798
HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
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call of President Lincoln for seventy-five thou- sand men to defend the Government. The attack on Sumter commenced on Friday, the Fort capitulated on Saturday, and on Monday, men were enrolling themselves, and, before the end of the week, a company, which be- came , Company A of the Twentieth Regiment of Illinois Infantry, was in a camp of instruc- tion at the Fair Ground north of Urbana, under Capt. John S. Wolfe, then an attorney of Champaign and the first man of the county to enroll himself as a soldier. The Lieuten- ants were Daniel Bradley and George W. Ken- nard, both of whom were afterwards promoted, one to be the Colonel and the other the Major of the regiment. Although many enlistments were made in response to the first call for troops issued by President Lincoln, owing to the large number pressing for acceptance, this regiment was not formally organized until May 14, 1861, when it went into camp at Joliet and was finally mustered in on June 13th, being one of the first regiments from this State to enter the three-years' service. The organiza- tion was effected under what was called the "Ten-Regiment Act" passed by the State Legis- lature in a special session, on April 23, 1861. As the result of resignations and promotions in Company A, William Archdeacon, John H. Austin and Andrew Rogerson were afterwards promoted to become First Lieutenants, the two latter also to become, in turn, Captain of the Company, while Eugene Fauntleroy and Charles T. Dox became Second Lieutenants.
This regiment, having served three years, veteranized after unusual marching and fight- ing; and, after a series of battles and engage- ments with the enemy, not exceeded by any in the service, joined in the Grand Review at Washington at the close of the war, and was mustered out of the service July 16, 1865, at Louisville, Ky.
Soon after the enlistment and departure of the Twentieth Regiment, William N. Coler, a resident of Urbana, and well known to Presi- dent Lincoln, was commissioned to enlist a regiment of men for service during the war, which he proceeded to do, and early in July had the rolls complete and ready to report for service. Its date of enlistment was August 7, 1861. Of the ten full companies in this regiment one-Company C-was enlisted at Homer, Company I at Middletown, and Com-
pany K at Urbana, the men of all three com- panies being mostly residents of Champaign County.
Col. W. N. Coler became the first Colonel of the regiment, but was succeeded first by Col. Thomas D. Williams, who was killed in De- cember, 1862; then by Col. Caswell P. Ford, who resigned in April, 1863, and finally by 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 its muster-out. In the same regiment were Dr. Robert H. Brown, of Mahomet, and Dr. Myron S. Brown, of Urbana, both Assistant Surgeons of the regiment. M. B. Thompson was Sergeant-Major.
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