USA > Illinois > McLean County > History of McLean County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 10
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The list of men who went out from McLean County included Capt. M. L. Covell, First Lieut. Asahel Gridley, Second Lieut. Moses Baldwin, Sergts. Bailey H. Coffey, David Simmons and William McCullough, Pri- vates Thomas O. Rutledge, Michael Gates, James Philips, James K. Oren- dorff, Isaac Murphy, Samuel Durley, Clement Oatman, James Paul, Reu- ben Windham, John Vittito, Jesse VanDolah, George Wiley, Benjamin Conger, Joseph Draper and Mr. Harris.
The Black Hawk war meant much to McLean County. This county was then the northern frontier of white settlements in Illinois. Black Hawk had tried to get the Pottawatomies and the Kickapoos to join his warlike band. There was a settlement of Kickapoos at Oliver's Grove in Livingston County, and a delegation of white men from McLean County, under Gen. Bartholomew, was sent to learn their intentions. The Indians responded that they were friendly.
In spite of this fact, four block houses were built in McLean County as protection against possible hostilities. One was at the Bartholomew settlement in Money Creek Township, one in the Henline settlement, a third the John Paton house in Lexington township, and the fourth in
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Little Vermilion settlement of Livingston County. The Kickapoos re- mained friendly and refused to take the warpath for the benefit of Black Hawk.
One of the most disagreeable duties of the men from McLean County who took part in the war was the burial of the dead at Indian Creek, a white settlement in LaSalle County which was attacked and its people massacred by the Indians after the defeat and retreat of Stillman's army. They found the bodies of the whites horribly mutilated by the brutality of the redskins. The two companies then returned to McLean County and were mustered out.
In June of the same year another company was mustered in for home guard duty. Its officers were Capt. Covell, First Lieut. William Dimmitt and Second Lieut. Richard Edwards. It patrolled the southern border of Livingston County to prevent any possible incursions of hostile In- dians from that quarter. However, it never encountered any, and after a month of service was disbanded. After the Black Hawk war, the fear of Indians passed away forever from the people of McLean County.
Mexican War.
McLean County furnished one company to be part of the Fourth regiment of Illinois volunteers to take part with the forces of the United States in the war against Mexico in 1846-47. The formation of the com- pany was the outgrowth of a public meeting held in Bloomington June 13, 1846, called by Gen. Gridley, who had been an officer in the Black Hawk war. He addressed the meeting and urged the young men to en- list and "go" to the war. Immediately afterward, John Moore, a prom- inent politician, made a speech in which he said, "Come with me." He himself was going to enlist. The result was the enrollment of a full com- pany of 103 men, with Dr. Garret B. Elkin for captain, Lieut. Gov. John Moore as first lieutenant, James Withers and William L. Duncan as second lieutenants.
The company went to Springfield next day in wagons, and on find- ing that they had to enlist for a year, many of the young men returned home. The company was filled with men from other counties, and Andrew J. Wallace succeeded John Moore as first lieutenant. On the 26th of June, the company having been filled, marched overland to Alton, thence
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to Jefferson barracks at St. Louis, where Edward Baker was elected colonel of the regiment, John Moore of McLean County lieutenant-colonel, and Thomas L. Harris major. For six weeks the regiment drilled at St. Louis, and became the best volunteer regiment in the middle west, be- ing known as "Baker's boys." July 22 they boarded steamer for New Orleans, thence by sailing vessels on the gulf to the mouth of the Rio Grande river. Up the Rio Grande they went to their first expedition on Mexican soil. They camped successively at Camp Belknap, Camp Pat- terson and on the 26th of September they set out for Matamoros. On the 9th of October the regiment was ordered to reinforce Gen. Taylor at the seige of Monterey. They reached Camargo, but not in time to rein- force Taylor. They spent three months of miserable existence in this camp, subject to inaction and all the diseases and other evils of camp life, on the chapparal plains of Mexico. The heat and unsanitary con- ditions caused much sickness and many deaths. Nearly 100 men of the Fourth regiment died, and hundreds of others were discharged as in- curable invalids.
On Dec. 11 the regiment left Matamoros and marched to Victoria, being under command of Gen. Pillow of the division commanded by Gen. Patterson. Leaving Victoria they marched to Tampico, reaching the latter place Jan. 27, 1847. While the regiment was at Victoria, it was reviewed by Gen. Taylor, commander-in-chief of the American forces in Mexico. He received a great ovation. His forces numbered 6,000 men. Gen. Pillow, in direct command of the Illinois regiment, was exceedingly unpopular among the men, because of his cold-blooded selfish disregard for the comfort of the men. The march to Tampico was a repetition of that on Victoria, with something of the same suffering for lack of water, from the heat and rough nature of the country. They reached Tampico Jan. 24. The regiment carried a wagon train of 150 wagons.
On the 7th of March the Fourth regiment embarked on sailing ves- sels for Vera Cruz, the seaport of the capital. The regiment landed at Vera Cruz on the 20th, and prepared for a siege of the place, which was defended by a wall and forts. The attacking force consisted of Gen. Pillow's, Gen. Patterson's and Gen. Quitman's brigades. The Fourth regiment assisted in mounting a heavy naval battery close to the city, which was kept masked until the proper time should come to open up. The other parts of the besieging force bombarded the city from Jan. 22
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to 24. On the morning of the latter day, the big naval battery was un- masked and opened on the city with deadly effect. The walls and forts crumbled under the heavy fire, and on the 25th a white flag of truce was sent out by the beleaguered garrison to negotiate terms of surrender. On the 27th the city and all public stores were surrendered to Gen. Scott, the commander. The loss of the Americans was fourteen killed, while the Mexicans lost between 500 and 1,000. The Mexican force surren- dered amounted to 4,500 men.
From Vera Cruz, the division of which the Fourth regiment was part, marched toward the capital, along the national highway. They had gone on until the 12th of April, when they heard sound of cannon ahead and immediately prepared for battle. They found themselves sup- porting the retreat of Gen. Twiggs' force, which had met the enemy in large numbers at Cerro Gordo. On the afternoon of the 12th, supplies and ammunition having been issued, orders were given to proceed next morning to attack the enemy. But Gen. Patterson arose from a sick bed to countermand the orders of Gens. Pillow, Twiggs and Shields, thereby averting what would probably have been an ignoble defeat. But Gen. Scott arrived on the 14th, and then the army was confident that they could advance under the wise leadership of their commanding general. Some of the daring spirits of the Fourth Illinois succeeded in dragging 6 and 12 pound cannon to the top of some of the hills overlooking Cerro Gordo, and when the action opened the Mexicans were surprised as well as dumbfounded by this feat.
In the battle of Cerro Gordo, General Twiggs' division had the lead. with the Fourth Regiment, under General Shields assigned to the task of · advancing over a difficult piece of ground. General Shields was seriously wounded in the charge, and Colonel Baker succeeded to the command. The enemy were so surprised and overwhelmed with the bravery of the advance, that they fled, leaving some of their cannon loaded, which the Americans turned and fired at the retreating masses.
It was in this battle that the famous incident occurred when Gen- eral Santa Ana of the Mexican army fled, leaving his wooden leg behind in a vehicle. Lieut. William L. Duncan of Company B, who was in com- mand of B and G companies, told the authentic version of this incident, saying that men of the two companies observed a large carriage aban- doned at an angle of the road, and he gave the order to B and H com-
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panies to charge the Mexicans seen near the carriage. They saw Gen. Santa Ana mounted on a mule and fleeing from the scene. Private Ed- ward Elliott of B company was the man who actually found the wooden leg in the carriage. After being examined by many men of the com- pany, the relic was carried off by a G company man. The companies also found much gold coin in the carriage, which they guarded until it was taken in charge by an aide from General Twiggs' staff for the government.
The Fourth Regiment lost six men killed and eleven wounded in this action. On the 19th of April, the regiment received orders at Jalapa to return home. They started for Vera Cruz on May 6, and reached New Orleans on the 14th. They remained there until May 22, when they were discharged and returned home.
The Mexican War proved a school of instruction for many of the men who 20 years later became prominent military leaders in the Civil War. The Illinois General Assembly in 1849 directed the governor to buy swords suitably inscribed, to be presented to General Shields and each of the field officers from this state who were engagd in the Mexican War. One of these swords was presented to Lieutenant Colonel Moore of McLean County, and this sword is now in possession of the McLean County Historical Society.
CHAPTER X.
CIVIL AND SPANISH-AMERICAN WARS.
EVENTS LEADING UP TO CIVIL WAR-PUBLIC SENTIMENT IN MCLEAN COUNTY- ANSWER TO FIRST CALL OF PRESIDENT-FIRST COMPANY-OTHER COM- PANIES AND REGIMENTS IN SERVICE-RELIEF WORK-SOLDIER'S MONU- MENT-SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
Little can we conceive at this day and generation of the bitterness of the political campaign which preceded the presidential election of 1860, in which there were four candidates, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Doug- las, John C. Breckenridge and John Bell. Lincoln and Douglas were both from the state of Illinois, Breckenridge from Kentucky and Bell from Tennessee. Lincoln had been nominated by the then comparatively young Republican party ; Douglas was the candidate of the northern Democrats, while Bell and Breckenridge were put up by the southern Democrats. Breckenridge was the candidate of the secession wing of his party-the element which believed the slave states of the south should withdraw from the Union and form a Confederacy or nation of their own.
Political sentiment in McLean County was unanimously against the idea that part of the states might secede peaceably from the Union. The Republican and Democratic parties alike were pledged not to interfere with slavery in the states where it was already established, but the Re- publicans also wanted to vote slavery out of any new states admitted. Speculation before the election of 1860 was to the effect that either Lin- coln would be elected by getting the necessary 180 electoral votes, or else that no candidate would have a majority and the election would be thrown into the house; no one thought that Douglas would win. It is interesting to recall the vote in McLean County in that historic election.
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INDIGNATION MEETING HELD AT BLOOMINGTON FOLLOWING THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, APRIL, 1865-COURT HOUSE ON THE RIGHT.
OF THE
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Lincoln received 3,547, Douglas 2,567, Bell 58, and Breckenridge 7. Lin- coln received 172,161 votes in the state of Illinois, Douglas 160,215, Bell 4,913, and Breckenridge 2,404.
After Lincoln's election, and before his inauguration, plans were going forward in the south for the withdrawal of the slave states and the forming of a new Confederacy. Between December and March, the fol- lowing states had formally seceded: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. These six states held a meeting in February, 1861, and formed the Southern Confederacy. A few months later, and after war had actually broken out, the states of Texas, Ten- nessee, Arkansas, North Carolina and Virginia, joined them.
Public sentiment in the country was in a turmoil when Lincoln took office, on March 4, 1861. No one knew what would happen next. During Buchanan's term, after Lincoln's election, the men from the south in Congress and elsewhere, had conspired to weaken the arms of the gov- ernment in every way, so that the military and naval establishment was broken down when Lincoln stepped in. A peace convention had been called, but it came to nothing, and things were still in this state of uncertainty, when on April 12, 1861, the United States flag on Fort Sumter was fired upon, and after a brief resistance the garrison surrendered.
In spite of the lack of telephones, radio messages and with only crude telegraphic facilities, the news of the precipitation of the country into war came like a flash to McLean County. On April 15, President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers to serve three months. The response in McLean County was instant. It would be hard to describe the scenes enacted in Bloomington and in every other town of the county.
On the next night after the President's proclamation, the 16th, a · public meeting was held at Phoenix Hall, and a muster roll of a military company was made up. It was rapidly signed, and on the 18th, only three days after the President's call, a company of 113 young men left Bloom- ington for Springfield under command of Captain Harvey, a veteran of the Mexican War.
The scene at the departure of this first company of volunteers from Bloomington was memorable; would that we had a moving picture of it. The entire population gathered at the old C. & A depot north of Chestnut Street, to bid good-bye to the boys who were going, as many thought, to certain death. Such scenes were repeated many times in the succeeding
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four years as company after company went off to war, but the later scenes lacked some of the novelty and dramatic interest which attached to the first. The company went to Cairo, where they saw no actual warfare, but many of them suffered from sickness and lack of sanitary conditions in camp. At the end of their three months' service practically all of them returned home in July. But the company re-enlisted for three years un- der the President's second call, and became Company K of the Eighth Illinois. Captain Harvey, who continued as company commander under the reorganization, lost his life in battle at Shiloh, April 6, 1862. The lieutenant was Joseph G. Howell, who had been in charge of the model school in Normal and resigned to enter the army. He was killed at Fort Donnelson in February, 1862. Howell and Harvey were highly honored and long held in memory in McLean County as the first officers that fell in battle in the Civil War. A great public funeral was held here for Lieutenant Howell, whose body was brought back for burial. A marble tablet in the halls at Normal commemorate his service.
Five other companies of three months' men were offered in the weeks immediately after Company K departed. The state could accept but one such company. During May and June recruiting continued at gigantic strides. It was seen that the war would not end in thirty days, and that three-year enlistments would be necessary. When the latter call came, each congressional district in Illinois was asked to furnish a regiment.
But how to feed and equip them? The general government could not do it; its resources were overtaxed. So far as McLean County is con- cerned, the board of supervisors came to the rescue. This body had been organized only three years, having first been formed in 1857. Just a week after the departure of Captain Harvey's company for the front, the board met. Two days later it passed a resolution framed by the chairman of the committee, Owen T. Reeves, to vote $10,000 "to defray the neces- sary expense of enrolling, equipping and provisioning such persons as had volunteered or may volunteer in defense of their country." There was only $2,000 in the treasury, but a committee was appointed to borrow the money for this first appropriation.
Volunteers continued to pour into Bloomington, and five other com- panies were formed captained by Pullen, Hely, Friccui and Ewing. The committee of the board of supervisors had to find places to shelter
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them, and this they did in taverns, boarding and private houses. The old fair grounds was rented and "Camp Gridley" was established.
This example of McLean County appropriating money to equip and feed the recruits, was followed by many other counties of the state. The sum of $10,000 was appropriated each succeeding year of the war by the board for this purpose, and the records show that during the war the board voted $411,124 for uniforming and equipping volunteers and for aid to their families.
The McLean County Historical Society in 1899 published a large vol- ume under the heading of "War Record of McLean County," which the board of supervisors assisted in financing in order to preserve to posterity the proud record made by the county in the earlier wars, including the Civil and the Spanish wars.
Through the generosity of the county, the number of enlisted men here was kept far in advance of the calls by the government for quotas from this county. Therefore, in order to get into action sooner, some of the young men accepted service as part of Missouri regiments, the quotas from that state being hard to fill on account of part of the population being secessionist in sympathy. Capt. Giles A. Smith led a company from McLean County which became Company D and E of the Eighth Missouri, in June, 1861. Captain Smith became colonel of this regi- ment, and later in the war was promoted to brigadier-general and then major-general. The Eighth Missouri made a fine record in the war, and no small part of it belongs to the men of McLean County. A fine oil painting of Capt. Giles A. Smith is the property of the McLean County Historical Society, having been donated by a daughter in Switzerland many years afterward.
The First Missouri Engineers, under command of Bissell, was also made up in part by men from McLean County.
The first year of the war, contingents of recruits from McLean County were accepted for service in the Seventh, Ninth, Thirteenth, Six- teenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Illinois Regiments. Company E of the Fourteenth contained thirty McLean County men. This regiment was commanded by Gen. John M. Palmer, afterward gov- ernor. A full company, under Capt. J. O. Pullen, went into the Twentieth Illinois. R. N. Evans of this company became a major. Capt. Jonathan
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H. Rowell enlisted in May, 1861, in Company G, Seventeenth Illinois, and was made captain in May, 1862, "for meritorious service at the battle of Pittsburgh Landing." Company B of the Twenty-fourth Illinois was made up of 75 Germans from McLean County, under Captain Heinrichs, Julius Frisch lieutenant. The Twenty-fourth was Colonel Hecker's Ger- man regiment, which saw service in a dozen battles and lost many brave men.
As early as July, 1861, a company of cavalry was organized in this county from young men who were expert horsemen. This was under Capt. John McNulta, who afterward became Colonel of the Ninety-fourth Illinois Infantry. The cavalry company became Company A, First Illi- nois Cavalry, and was sent to Lexington, Mo., to join other forces. Here the Federal force was surprised Sept. 20, 1861, by Gen. Sterling Price, commanding the Confederates, and after a sharp fight was obliged to sur- render. The prisoners were paroled home and most of them re-enlisted. Hon. Harvey Hogg, member of the Legislature, became an officer of an- other cavalry regiment, being made lieutenant-colonel of the Second Illi- nois Cavalry. He was killed at Bolivar, Tenn., Aug. 30, 1862. About 170 McLean County men joined the Third Illinois Cavalry, half of them in 1861 and the others as recruits in later years. Company I, captained first by John Niccolls and later by S. F. Doloff, was more largely of McLean County men. The Third Cavalry, under Col. Eugene Carr, a West Point graduate, marched through Missouri and Arkansas and took part in the siege of Vicksburg.
The Fourth Illinois Cavalry had 70 men from this county on its rolls. Col. William McCullough, who went into the war with only one arm and one eye, was commander of this regiment, being admitted on special order of President Lincoln. He served heroically and was killed in battle Dec. 5, 1862. Capt. John M. Longstreth of Leroy was commander of Company L of the Fourth Cavalry. The regiment was at Fort Donnelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg and other engagements. Company C of the Fifth Cav- alry was another contingent made up of McLean County men in large part, organized in the fall of 1861. It was captained in succession by William P. Withers, Francis A. Wheelock and C. W. Wheelock, the latter two from McLean. This company went out ninety strong and was joined by thirty recruits later. Many of the enlisted men came from other parts of the county, although they were mostly credited to Bloomington. All
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of the cavalrymen except those in the First, and most of the infantrymen after the Twenty-fifth, enlisted under President Lincoln's call for 300,000 men on July 22, 1861. This call revived the wave of patriotism which had first swept the country in April, and hundreds rushed to enlist. The battle of Bull Run had sobered the country from its first wild outburst, but its determination was just as deep to uphold the President. Enlist- ment had been robbed of its novelty and romance after the first three months.
It was the mid-summer of 1861 that saw the organization of the Thirty-third Illinois, the "Normal Regiment," and of the Thirty-ninth, the famous "Yates Phalanx." Capt. John H. Burnham, who entered Com- pany A of the Thirty-third, as a lieutenant, and was in 1862 promoted to the captaincy, in after years wrote a carefully prepared history of the regiment, from which some facts are gleaned. President Charles E. Hovey, of the Normal University, organized a military company among the students, hiring John W. White as drill master, who afterward be- came captain of Company K of the Eighth Missouri. The young company acquired uniforms and used sticks as guns, but constant drill gave them a respectable degree of proficiency in the manual of arms. They took the title "Normal Rifles." When Joseph G. Howell resigned from the principalship of the model school, Burnham took his place and taught eleven weeks, graduating in July. When the term ended, the company decided to enlist in the next call for troops. President Hovey later conceived the idea of a full regiment made up of Normal students and the teachers of the state. His suggestion met with instant response, and Hovey offered the regiment to Governor Yates, but the governor could not at once accept. Hovey started for Washington to offer the regi- ment to the government direct. He arrived the day before the battle of Bull Run, and hearing of the impending fight he went out in the direc- tion. He ran right into the retreating Union troops, grabbed an aban- doned rifle and acted as a soldier during the rest of the action. The next day after an audience with the Secretary of War, Hovey was given au- thority to organize a regiment in Illinois. Returning to Normal, he started quick action to complete the formation of the regiment of which he became colonel. The Normal Rifles became Company A of the new regiment, being mustered into service on August 21, with Leander H. Potter as captain. Company C was made up of a militia company that
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had been formed in Bloomington in May. E. R. Roe became a major and later a lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Hovey arose to the rank of brigadier- general in 1863, and was later brevetted major-general. E. J. Lewis, edi- tor of the Pantagraph, joined the regiment, was made a captain May 20, 1863, and served through the war. Ira Moore of the Normal faculty was captain of Company G, which like C Company was made up largely of McLean County men.
The Thirty-third regiment saw much fighting. It took part in the famous charge on Vicksburg on May 22, 1863, and lost 75 men killed and wounded. It was in the actions at Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River bridge, Fort Esperanza, in Texas, Spanish Fort, Alabama, and other places. A total of 240 men from McLean County joined this regiment in 1861 and forty more at later dates.
Another famous McLean County regiment was the Thirty-ninth, the Yates Phalanx, so named in honor of Gov. Yates. Company B was or- ganized in Bloomington in August and September, 1861. It was cap- tained in succession by I. W. Wilmeth, David F. Sellers, George T. Heri- tage, John F. Alsup. Company F contained fifteen men under Capt. John McGrath; Company H, Capt. Chauncey Williams of Old Town, and later Capt. William Downs of Downs; Company I, Capt. Hiram M. Phillips, made up of Leroy men. There were men in these companies from Old Town, Downs, Leroy and Randolph. Company K, Capt. S. E. Meyers, formed with 25 men. In all, 200 men enlisted in the Thirty-ninth in 1861 and 100 men the next two years. It was veteranized in 1864.
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