USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 96
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 96
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WILLIAMSON PLANT, son of Lorenzo D. Plant, and grandson of Williamson Plant, was born near Pocahontas, Bond Co., Ill., December 19, 1827. The first fourteen years were spent on the farm upon which he was born, and from a near schoolhouse received a common-school education for that day, one term of eight months having been spent at school at the academy in Hillsboro in the winter of 1839-40, in which Mr. Edward Wy- man was teacher. He was in partnership in a store in Greenville with his father from 1848 to 1851, and has served three regular terms as Sheriff and Collector of the county, and three other years had charge of same office, making nine years in that position. He has been Secretary of the St. Louis, Van- dalia & Terre Haute Railroad Company since
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its organization, November 22, 1865. He is engaged in farming, and is one of the pro- prietors of the "Greenville City Mills." Mr. Plant has been twice married, first on May 3, 1848, to Susan G. Grover, by which marriage he had one son, Emery D. Mrs. Plant died March 15, 1852. He was married
to his present wife formerly Sarah Jane Wafer, March 31, 1853. Six children have been born from last marriage-Emma J., Willie W., Ida L., Lillie E., Sallie L. and Ada J., and all living Mr. Plant has re- sided at Greenville continously since Decem- ber, 1852.
HILLSBORO-Montgomery County.
ARIUS N. KINGSBURY, County Judge, renominated for the office of County Judge whose portrait appears in this work, was born at the ensuing November election (1882), by the Democratic party of Montgomery County. He was married. April 29, 1859, to Miss Celeste Hazard, who was born in Alton, Ill., and is a daughter of Evan M. and Jane Haz- ard, the latter a native of Huntsville, Ala., and the former of Rhode Island. Judge and Mrs. Kingsbury have four children-Mary Evelyn, Jessie C., Willie V. and Ross. Judge Kingsbury is not a member of any particular church organization, but a patron of all; his wife is a member of the Episcopal Church. in Athens, Ohio, February 5, 1830, and is a son of Ira and Hannah (Price) Kingsbury, the latter a native of Ohio and the former of Vermont, where he followed farming. He came to Illinois in 1841, and died in Bond County in 1872; his wife died at Mt. Car- mel, Ill., in 1842. Seven children were born to them, of whom the subject of this sketch is the second. He was educated principally in the common and academical schools of the State; studied law at Greenville, Ill., where he was admitted to practice in 1855, and in 1857 came to Hillsboro and entered upon the HON. JESSE J. PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge. Prominent among the historical names of Illinois is that of the subject of this sketch. Few, if any, of the gallant officers who won their way to distinction, and, by their valor in the field, shed luster upon our army in the great war against the rebellion, can show a record as replete with deeds of daring as that of Gen. Jesse J. Phillips, of Hillsboro. Nor is he lacking in any of those essential ele- ments in the character of the civilian which, when properly concentrated and applied, ren- der their possessor a peer among the more prominent of his fellow-citizens. Gifted by nature with abilities of a high order, he has by arduous study, acquired fine attainments as a scholar, and ranks among the foremost practice of his profession. In 1873, he was a candidate for Supreme Judge, receiving 1,700 majority in Montgomery County, 1,300 in Maconpin County, and carrying Shelby and Richland Counties. The year previous, he had been a candidate for State Senator in the district composed of Montgomery and Christian Counties, receiving a majority of the delegates, but being defeated in the con- vention. He was elected County Judge in November, 1873, and has served in that posi- tion ever since, giving general satisfaction. No estate has over lost a cent on account of bonds being insufficient; he is always at his office during business hours, and attends strictly to his official duties. He has been
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orators and jurists of his native Stato. Gen. Phillips is a native of Montgomery County, where he was born May 22, 1837. His edu- cation was acquired in Hillsboro Academy. Having early demonstrated excellent business qualifications, he was, when little more than nineteen years of age, appointed to the posi-
tion of route agent on the Terro Haute & St. Louis Railroad. He resigned this posi- tion in May, 1857, and entered the law office of Davis & Kingsbury, of Hillsboro, where, for the three succeeding years, he was a diligent student. In 1860, he was admit- ted to the bar of the State, and began prac- tice at Hillsboro; here he remained until the breaking-out of the rebellion in 1861, when, upon the first call of President Lincoln for 75,000 troops, he raised a company, of which
he was. at the date of its organization, April 17, 1861, elected Captain. The company was accepted and ordered to Springfield. Ill., on April 23, 1861. At the time of the or- ganization of the Ninth Illinois Infantry for the three montlis' service, he was elected Major of the regiment, and the latter com- mand having been ordered to Cairo, it ac- cordingly reported for duty at that point May 1. The regiment was required to do little save garrison duty during its service, and having been properly mustered out at the expiration of its term of enlistment, the Ninth Regiment was. on September 3, 1861, re-or-
ganized and entered the service for three years, Mr. Phillips retaining the position of Major. Gen. Grant, then in command of the military division at Cairo, ordered the Ninth and Twelfth Illinois Regiments to Paducah, Ky. Maj. Phillips was at this period placed in command of his regiment temporarily. The rebel forces were about to take posses- sion of Paducah, and it was important that they should be foilol in their purpos ?. The Union forces bad scarcely invested the city
before a train of rebel troops approached the suburbs of the place; discovering that the Union troops had anticipated their purpose, and were preparing to receive them, the . train hastily retraced its course. Maj. Phil- lips, with his regiment and two pieces of ar tillery, was immediately ordered to go out on the line of the railroad, twelve miles from Paducah, and destroy a bridge. This order he promptly executed. While stationed at Paducah, the Ninth Regiment did considera- ble scouting, but was engaged in but com- paratively few skirmishes. On the 15th of October. 1861, he, with companies B, H and I, of the Ninth Regiment, attacked 300 rebels at a point about four miles east of Eddyville, Ky., and killed three, wounded twenty, and captured twenty men, together with some thirty head of horses. December 2, 1861, he was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel, and February 4, following. he moved with his command up the Tennessce River, his regiment forming a part of the army that co-operated with the fleet in the attack on Fort Henry. Col. Phillips, with eight com. panies of his regiment, participated in the memorable battle of Fort Donelson, and was in command of the regiment during the greater part of the action, the Colonel having been disabled by a wound. In this action, the Ninth Regiment, out of about six hundred men engaged, sustained a loss of thirty-five killed, one hundred and sixty wounded and six prisoners. For his gal- Iantry in this contest, Col. Phillips received much praise from his superior officers, and from the officers of other brigades, Gens. Grant and Oglesby being among the number who congratulated him upon the superior manner in which he handled his regiment. During this action, and while leading a charge with bayonets, Col. Phillips' horse was shot under him. The next great battle
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in which he took part was at Shiloh, on the 6th of April, 1862. In this battle the Ninth Regiment went into the fight with 570 men, and of this number sixty-one were killed on the field, 287 wounded and ten taken pris- oners. One commissioned officer was killed and nineteen wounded; only four commis- sioned officers were left unhurt. Among the mortally wounded was a brother, Sidney B. Phillips. The horse ridden by Col. Phillips in this action received three musket shots and one grape shot before he fell, and the Colo- nel himself was shot through the hand and twice through the right thigh. In March, 1862, the Colonel of the Ninth Regiment was severely wounded, and in consequence the command of the regiment devolved upon Lient. Col. Phillips, who was retained in this position until the close of the term of serv- ice of the regiment.
Upon recovering from the effects of the wounds received at Shiloh, he was ordered to Northern Alabama, and was stationed at Athens, in that Stato, for several months. This being the extreme outpost, both to the South and West, of the Union forces sta- tioned in that locality, made it a point of great danger, and required constant activity and caution during the period the regiment remained there. His command was at this time mounted for scouting purposes, at his re- quest. About the 1st of February, 1863, he with his command engaged in some ten or twelve cavalry fights, in one of which, near Florence, Ala., a desperate charge with sabers was made, in which he received a severe in- jury, by his horse falling after he had broken through the enemy's column. He had made a charge upon seventy inen with a detaclı- ment of his own regiment numbering but thirty-three men, and succeeded in capturing thirty-four of the enemy. The only person hurt during the charge was a rebel, cut down
by a saber stroke from Col. Phillips, and that sustained by the latter, as above stated. In connection with, and as a part of, the com- mand of Col. Comyn, commanding a cavalry brigade, Col. Phillips, on the 15th of April, 1863, had a skirmish with rebel cavalry, at Cherokee, Ala., and on the same day another skirmish at Lundy's. In these two skir- mishes theenemy lost, in killed and wounded, fifty men, with twenty-three taken prisoners. The Union loss was five wounded and fifty- nine captured. On the 17th another skir- mish occurred at Cherokee, in which the Union forces captured thirteen of the enemy, the former sustaining no loss. Another skir- mish took place at Crane Creek, Ala., on the 27th. On the 4th of May, Col. Phillips and his command participated in the fight at Tu- pelo, Miss., and on the 28th had a skirmish at Florence, Ala., in which a number of the enemy were captured. In this action, Col. Phillips, with his regiment, charged the rebel guns, and by the artillery firing at the rebel guns, one of our men was wounded by the Union guns. On the 31st of May, our forces again skirmished with the enemy in Tennes- see. On the 19th of June, 1863, he was in command of about six hundred men, his own and parts of two other regiments, with two guns, and while reconnoitering in Mississippi, was attacked by about three thousand men under Gen. Ruggles, at Mud Creek Swamp, and a severe battle ensued, the fight lasting from S A. M. to 3 P. M. Col. Phillips be- ing eighty miles from any support, wisely de- termined to retreat, but in so doing, to con- test every inch of the ground. By securing advantageous positions, and by his tactics and skillful maneuvering, he punished the ene- my quite severely on the retreat, and the rebel forces were ordered to discontinue the advance. The rebel loss, as was afterward admitted by them, was 200 in killed and
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1
wounded. The Union loss was five killed and eighteen wounded. This contest is referred to in the official reports as having been con- ducted in a gallant and masterly manner by Col. Phillips, notwithstanding the fact that he was pursued by a force nearly four times as great as his own, he marched forty miles in an orderly manner, over a swampy country, swam his command over two rivers (the Tal- lahatchie and Hatchie) and brought his artil- lery through in safety and with comparatively little loss. On the 13th of July, his command. forming a part of a brigade under Col. Hatch, was engaged in a sharp fight with rebel cav- alry, capturing about seventy men. Union loss, seven. In August, 1863, he, in com- mand of about sixteen hundred men, raided through Mississippi. At Grenada, they capt- urod and destroyed sixty locomotives, 450 cars of all kinds, and a large amount of stores. At this point the command of Col. Phillips met and drove back a force of 1,500 rebels under Col. Slemmer. He again skir- mished with the enemy on Forked Deer River, in Tennessee, October 2, 1863. A short time thereafter, whilst scouting in Mississippi with 500 men and two guns, he found himself in the front of a force of about three thousand rebel cavalry. Surmising that their object was to cut the railroad, and thereby prevent re-enforcements being sent toward Chattanooga from Memphis (as was being done by Gen. Sherman), Col. Phillips dispatched couriers from his command to several points on the railroad, requesting re-enforcements to be sent to him near Salem, as the indications were that he would have to attack the enemy near that place. On the Sth of October, at 11 A. M., with his small force, ho attackod the en- emy vigorously, and, after fighting two hours, was re-enforced by 800 men under Col. Mc- Crillis; and with this force he continued the fight until dark, when, owing to the disad-
vantages under which he had to maintain the conflict, he retreated. The loss of the Union forces was thirty killed and wounded. Three days later the rebels attacked Collierville, and on the same day Col. Phillips, in com- mand of a brigade, forming part of a divis- ion under Col. Hatch, followed in pursuit, marching upward of seventy-five miles, fighting at Graham's Mills and at Wyall, Miss. In the last engagement he had a horse shot under him.
At Florence, Ala., November 30, 1863, he, with 200 men, attacked a force of the enemy, charging them with sabers and capturing thirty-four men. At Decatur, Ala., where his command was next ordered, he remained from January, 1864, until the 1st of May, follow- ing, during which time he was engaged in frequent reconnoissances and skirmishes. Among the more important of the latter was the action near Moulton, Ala. With 350 men, he was ordered to reconnoiter, and find the locality and strength of an infantry force of the enemy, understood to be in that neigh- borhood. His instructions were to " develop the strength of that infantry." He accord- ingly attacked, at Somerville, Ala., a force of about one hundred and twenty-five rebel cav- alry under Maj. Williams, and after a short skirmish drove them to Danville, where they were re-enforced by an additional force of seventy-five men under Capt. Doan. From Danville the rebels were driven to Moulton, where they were re-enforced by 350 men under Maj. Morehead. Here a sharp fight ensued, and the entire rebel force, 550 strong, who by this time had learned the invincible troops, against whom they were arrayed, were driven three miles beyond the town, where Col. Philips, as he afterward remarked, "de- veloped " the rebel infantry, two or three regiments strong. Ten minutes after the latter " development," he ordered a retreat.
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On reaching the town, three miles in his rear, he made a stand against the cavalry that were in pursuit of him, and checked and drove them back until the infantry again came up. During this fight, his horse was shot and fell upon him, pinning him to the ground so securely that he could not extri- cate himself. The position in which he was lying was one of great peril, being immedi- ately between the lines of the opposing forces. At this juncture, however, his men having discovered the peril of their leader, a charge was made by a portion of his troops, led by Lieut. Cyrus Gilmore, of the Ninth Regiment, and Col. Phillips was rescued. In this fight the Union loss was twenty men killed and upward of twenty taken prisoners. The rebel loss was about the same killed and wounded, and thirty - six prisoners. About the Ist of May, the corps to which he belonged was ordered to Chattanooga, preparatory to the Atlanta campaign. When the troops reached Brownsville, Ala., ten miles east of Huntsville, the infantry were placed on cars and conveyed to Chattanooga, while Col. Phillips, with his regiment, was ordered to take the wagon and ambulance train, with the artillery, through to Chatta- uooga. He accordingly set out with a train of about three hundred and fifty wagons, sixty ambulances and two batteries, making the march of ninety miles in three days. On reaching Chattanooga, he found orders for him to move to the front, which he immedi- ately obeyed, and the next morning he was ordered, with his command, to take the ad- vance of the Army of the Tennessee. In obedience to this order he set out with his command, and in passing through Snake Gap, drove a force of rebel cavalry before him. On the following morning, having been ordered to make a reconnoissance on Resaca, he had advanced but little more than
a mile when he was confronted with a heavy rebel cavalry force under Gen. Wheeler, -of rebel cavalry fame. Col. Phillips' force was driven back after a sharp fight of about two hours, during which time he had his horse shot under him, and received a wound by a shot through his ankle, which was quite pain- ful, and rendered him unfit for service until about the 1st of June, when he again as- sumed command of his regiment, and took part in the heavy fighting before Atlanta. In the battle of the 22d, he took an active part. He was placed upon the staff of Gen. Dodge, who made honorable mention of the Colonel's gallantry in his official report. On the night of the 22d of July, he was placed in command of a brigade of infantry, and bore a prominent part in the battle of the 28th of July, materially aiding the heroic Gen. Logan, who on that day sus- tained the brunt of the battle. About the Ist of August, 1864, he was again appointed a chief on Gen. Dodge's staff, where he remained until the capture of Atlanta, when he resigned, his resignation being ac- cepted, upon the 1st of September, 1864. On returning to his home, at Hillsboro, in 1864, he re-commenced the practice of law, which he has since continued with great suc- cess. He was commissioned as Brevet Colonel, to take rank from the 13th of March, 1865. for gallant and meritorions services during the war. and was commissioned at the same time Brigadier General, by brevet, for distinguished services, also taking rank from the 13th of March, 1865. Thoroughly Dem- ocratie in his political views, Gen. Phillips ranks prominent among the leaders of his party in the State. Possessing a well-stored and finely-balanced mind, with intellectual and oratorical attainments of a high order, he is at once powerful on the stump and wise in the councils of his party. He was twice
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brought forward by the party as a candidate for the office of State Treasurer; his first candidacy for that office being in 1866, when he made a thorough and vigorous canvass of the State, speaking at more than sixty differ- ent places. He was again nominated in 1868, but the Democracy being largely in the minor- ity, he was again defeated. In social life Gen.
Phillips is one of the most genial of men. As a citizen, he is enterprising and public- spirited, ever taking a leading part in all matters calculated to advance the material interests of his city and county. He is at present Circuit Judge of this district, a po- sition he fills with ability.
LITCHFIELD-Montgomery County.
MRS. JULIA MACHLER, née Maurer, is a native of Konigsburg, in the Empire of Prussia. Her father, Casper Maurer, was a Bavarian, and an officer in the household of Queen Lisett (Elizabeth) of Prussia. Her mother, Helena Long, was a personal attend- ant on the Queen. After his marriage, Mr. Maurer returned to Bavaria and served Queen Caroline, the mother of Lisett. He dying in 1836, his widow remained a pensioner in. the royal household until her death, in 1868. Julia, the third child, accompanied an uncle to the United States in 1845, and the follow- ing year was married, in New York City, to Peter Machler, fifteen years her senior. He was a native of Crisnacht, Prussia; had been
a soldier for six years, and then wrought at his calling. Coming to New York in 1841, he toiled as a journeyman for two years, and then opening a shop of his own, conducted business until his death, in 1857. Mrs. Machler then asserted her character, and, in order to provide for her three children, went into a new line of business, with success. In 1870, she located here in order that her boys might grow up with the town, and was speedi- ly looked upon as one of the "solid " class. A cheerful, home-staying woman, true to her friends, diligent in business, generous, char- itable in judgment, she illustrates in her walk of life the virtues which make home happy.
ERRATA.
The biography of William S. Lea, of alphabetical order, being among the S's, in Litchfield, Montgomery County, is not in Litchfield.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 977.38P42 C001 HISTORY OF BONO & MONTGOMERY COUNTIES, I
3 0112 025397842
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