History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 41

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Illinois > Mercer County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 41
USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc > Part 41

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The march was continued on the 11th; the South Edisto was crossed the same day; and the pine barrens and level country were succeeded by a bolder and more rugged surface. Camp that night was made on a tributary of the North Edisto. The weather was cold, and next morning the air was frosty and biting. Just as the sun was up the men plunged into the freezing current; it was not wide, but for a hundred rods they had to splash through shallow water before reaching the other side of the swamp. On the morn- ing of the 13th the North Edisto was passed, the first brigade having the advance. The 70th Ind., the head of the column, had sharp skirmishing. Bivouac was made on the 14th at the junction of the Lexington and the Columbia and Augusta wagon roads. The leading division encountered heavy skirmishing on the 15th. Camp was made two miles south of Lexington and nine west of Columbia. Leaving the former to the right, the 16th brought us within two or three miles of the city, and from our position on a range of high bluff's which confine the Congaree, we had a bird's-eye view of the famed capital.

At noon of the 17th we moved up to the Saluda river, and the brigade was sent out to watch for Cheatham's force. No enemy was seen, and moving again in the direction of the river, we camped in proximity to a wagon train, which was crossing all night. By noon

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of the 18th the last "white cover" was over and we had the right of way, when we marched to within five miles of Broad river. On the evening of the 19th camp was pitched on the hills overlooking that stream. Orders were received here to cut down baggage, burn the wall tents, reserving only the "flies," and to prepare to continue the campaign forty days. The brigade was again in the rear on the 20th, waiting restlessly all day long for the immense wagon train to cross, and all the troops to pass whose turn it was to go ahead. Night fell before we went over; a mile back from the river we dozed in the cold air by blazing fires; "an hour and a half later the brigade refrain, ' Hail Columbia, Happy Land,' aroused us, and we continued on after the slow-moving column." A night march. No intermission till the night of the 21st. Winnsboro, in an elevated region, was reached at noon ; the column marched in review before Gens. Sherman and Slocum, and bivouacked two miles beyond the town. Arriving at Rocky Mount on the 22d, camp was made on the south bank of the Catawba; but after many had rolled up cosily in their blankets beneath the "dog tents," an order was received to cross the river. Having got ready and waited some hours for other troops to make the passage, our turn came at midnight, and we found a camping place a mile the other side. Breakfast was omitted on the morning of the 23d till the command had moved three miles to a place in the dense woods. Heavy rains commenced falling and continued until the night of the 25th ; the pontoon bridge was swept away, leaving the 14th corps on the south side of the Catawba, which rises rapidly, and is a raging stream when up. Nearly a week's detention of the army of Georgia was the result. Gen. Sherman says: "The roads were infamous, so I halted the 20th corps at Hanging Rock some days to allow time for the 14th corps to get over." Advancing again on the 26th, and corduroying, the brigade encamped before noon near Hanging Rock, a place of natural curiosity as well as of revolutionary interest. Lying there during the 27th, on the 28th the march was continued in the direction of Cheraw, the soldiers corduroying two-thirds of the way.

This day the regimental foragers, under Capt. Wooley, captured the bank of Camden, which was secreted in the woods. It was dis- covered by Jesse McQuade, of company I, and Charles Hartsell, of company E. They were fired upon by men guarding it, and McQuade was severely wounded. Hartsell notified the detachment and the cap- ture was made. There were four safes, and the treasure consisted of $700 in specie, $2,500 in bullion, and $35,000 in confederate bonds, besides the silver plate, jewelry, horses, mules, and wagons. The property was delivered by Capt. Wooley at corps headquarters.

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McQuade died in 1879, and is buried at Hoopeston, Vermillion county, Illinois. He was one of the most daring spirits in the army.

Until March 3 the column was advancing on Chesterfield. It cor- duroyed several miles of wretched road that day, and passed through and camped a mile beyond the town. On the 4th a diversion was made on the Wadesboro road, and the third division crossed into North Carolina. No further move took place till the 6th ; then at noon the division headed for Cheraw. Arrived there, it passed one of those fatiguing, comfortless nights waiting to cross the river, and when its turn had come it was nearly morning.

This day Lieut. T. G. Brown, of company E, went out from the regiment before it broke camp in command of twenty men, and secured a lot of forage near Wadesboro, but was furiously set upon by 150 rebels, whereupon his party "issued their hams and meal quicker than any commissary could have done it." First a running, com- mingled fight; then a stand was made, and the Spencers won. The " bummers " not only held the rebels at bay, but followed and drove them. "We saw four of the poor devils that we had shot, one of them was not quite dead," wrote the lieutenant. Brown's loss was four captured and one very slightly wounded. They had an exciting and romantic time getting back to our army, as a rebel division had cut off their direct return ; but they found the 14th corps at one o'clock in the morning, and overtook the 102d at eleven the next night.

The command marched eighteen miles from Cheraw and camped at Laurel Hill. The Sth was a rainy day, and the route lay through the solitary pine barrens. Camp was made five miles south of Lumber river. The bridge was burned, and the brigade, wet, cold, hungry, spent all the next day in fruitless waiting near that stream. The 10th was passed on the road from six in the morning till ten at night; the journey of seven miles was varied between wading swamps and toil- ing through the mud in a crowded road. On the morning of the 11th. the men made three miles of corduroy; in the afternoon they struck a plank road and marched twenty miles by ten o'clock, and arrived at Fayetteville.

Moving again on the 13th the column was reviewed by Gen. Sher- man and crossed the Cape Fear river. The 102d was sent forward on a reconnoissance. The foragers drove the rebels before the regiment, and the latter pitched camp five miles in advance. Reconnoitering was continued the next day, two other regiments being added to the force. The foragers, with their usual enterprise and boldness, cleared several barricades of the rebels; but at Silver Run, on the Raleigh road, the enemy defied their irregular, predatory attacks. Companies

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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

A, I, C, and E, of the 102d, were deployed and had a lively skirmish. A respectable force being developed, the party drew off at dark and returned to camp, a distance of nine miles.

On the 15th the left wing (army of Georgia) advanced by this road, encountering feeble resistance at Silver creek, just north of which the brigade eneamped, while the rain descended in torrents. There was heavy skirmishing in the evening by our cavalry. Indications prom- ised fighting, which came on the 16th. "The troops moved early and soon found the enemy. When about four miles south of Averysboro heavy firing commenced in front. The first brigade, except the 70th Indiana, which was the train-guard, was formed on the right of the road in line of battle, and preparations were made for an advance. Finally we moved by the left flank, crossed the road, and made a detour of about three-fourths of a mile to the left. Then moved to the front, the skirmishers becoming quickly engaged. As we advanced cautiously through the young pines to the edge of an open field, it was perceived that the brigade had completely flanked the rebel position. Not more than a hundred and twenty-five yards in advance they were visible in great numbers, running forward to their front line of works to re-inforce the rebels their engaged. At that instant a number of our men yelled out, 'Don't fire, they are our own men.' For a mo- ment our line was undecided. It was thought barely possible that we had become bewildered and were about to charge our own troops. Many months of active campaigning had rendered the uniform of the opposing armies almost indistinguishable. Many of the rebels wore blue, and many of the federals, having worn out their blue, were dressed in citizen's gray. The enemy in the meantime had kept up a galling skirmish fire, and heavy artillery and infantry firing was going on in the front, where the third brigade confronted their breastworks. Soon all doubts as to the identity of the rebels in our front were dis- pelled. The brigade raised a yell, and, as if by an intuitive percep- tion of the duty required, rushed forward, the 102d on the right, the 79th on our left, the 129th and the 105th in the second line. The rebels, completely surprised and outflanked, instantly broke. Yelling like wild men, the brigade swept magnificently forward, directly in rear of and parallel with the rebel line of works. Three pieces of artillery fell into our hands and many prisoners, recumbent in a trench behind their works, held up their hands and handkerchiefs begging for merey. But the main body of the charging column rushed by them and continued on after the flying enemy, who abandoned blankets, haversacks, canteens, guns, cartridge boxes, everything that could impede their progress. Reaching heavy timber the pursuing column

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ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND REGIMENT.

halted, reformed the line of battle, and rested for a time, keeping up a sharp skirmish fire with the enemy. At length, other troops having moved forward to our support, a general advance was made. The second line of rebel works was found abandoned, but as we approached the third, which was very strong, we were met by a rapid fire of musketry and artillery, the enemy throwing grape shot and shells. Finally the brigade threw up breastworks a hundred and twenty-five yards from the enemy's line. Night came on with rain. It had been a day of excitement and fatigue. Cold and wet, we passed a miserable night."

The rebels retreated on Smithfield, in the darkness, over bottomless roads, leaving their dead and wounded in the houses around Averys- boro. One house contained sixteen of their dead; in the town itself were found thirty wounded men. Gen. Sherman's report showed that the division captured "three guns and 217 prisoners, of which 68 were wounded," and that "100 rebel dead were buried by ns." The casual- ties in the 102d were two killed and nineteen wounded.

The division set out on the morning of the 18th to follow the main army, and were on the road all night, traveling only three miles between sunset and sunrise. The whole country was a quagmire. In the afternoon of the 19th, when the division was in rear with the wagon-train, Johnston's army assailed the 14th corps at Bentonville. The command was dispatched to its assistance, and formed on the extreme left and erected breastworks, but did not become engaged. Johnston fell back on Smithfield on the night of the 21st. During that day Gen. Schofield's army was arriving at Goldsboro from New- bern; and Gen. Terry, coming up from Wilmington, secured the crossing of the Neuse river and laid a pontoon bridge, thus completing the junction of the three armies. Our army concentrated at Golds- boro on the 23d and the 24th. The 102d marched into the town with the wagon-train at sunrise on the morning of the 24th, and camped two miles north of the village and constructed breastworks.

The regiment lost during the campaign forty-four killed, wounded and captured. The march through Georgia extended over 300 miles and consumed twenty-six days; the campaign of the Carolinas, more tedious, prolonged and difficult, covered fifty days and 425 miles actu- ally marched !

On the 5th of April special intelligence of the capture of Richmond was received with exultant joy. On the 10th the army was put in motion for Raleigh, and at the end of the second day we were in bivouac around Smithfield. Next morning the surrender of Lee's army was announced and produced the most extravagant demonstra-

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IHISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

tions of rejoicing. Raleigh was reached on the fourth day, and orders were given to move the following morning, the 14th, at six o'clock, in pursuit of Johnston, who had departed with his forces the night before. Meantime the rebel general proposed an interview with Gen. Sherman, and the order was countermanded. While waiting for the ratification or rejection by the government at Washington of the arrangement formulated by the two chiefs, the startling news of the assassination of President Lincoln came, and after the violent shock a sadness as tender and noble as the gentle nature of the stricken great man overspread the stout-hearted army and deepened into painful gloom.

The terms of the negotiation having been disapproved, on the 25th we moved out fifteen miles on the Holly Springs road. Johnston sur- rendered his forces, and we lay there till the 28th and then returned. On the 30th the line of march was taken up for Washington. Arriving at Richmond the 9th of May, we rested one day and on the 11th marched through the city, receiving from the people many kind attentions.

On August 16 Adjutant J. H. Snyder, and Private W. O. Jones, of company I, mounted orderly, left the column to visit the Wilderness battle-ground, and fell, it is supposed, into the hands of bushwhackers, as no trace of them was ever obtained. ; The adjutant was a man of genial nature, finely organized, of great personal worth and courage, and closely endeared to the regiment. His sad, mysterious end was a cruel shock to his admiring comrades. His companion was a superior soldier and young man.

The army arrived at Alexandria on the 19th, and on the 24th entered Washington, 60,000 under arms, in all the panoply of war. "The pride and strength of the great west swept down Pennsylvania avenue." All day long did "Sherman's army," marching in column by companies at half distance, surge past the reviewing stand with perfect alignments and soldierly bearing. The first brigade camped that night around the northeast corner stone of the District of Colum- bia. The grand review was over; the war was over; we were on the borderland of peace, sweet peace; and we rested in triumph from our labors.

The regiment was discharged at Washington on the 6th of June, and on that day took the cars for Chicago. It was past midnight of the 7th when we rolled into Pittsburgh, but the wide-awake, generous, patriotic citizens of that city had been busy preparing refreshments for us. Marching to the city hall these were partaken of with keen relish and thankfulness. Noble and generous Pittsburgh. How vivid is that memory after eighteen years ! Arriving at Chicago on the 9th, the

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regiment was quartered at Camp Fry, and there, on the 14th, the mem- bers were paid off and disbanded, and they returned at onee to the embrace of friends and the quiet walks of civil life.

Some notice of Col. Isaac MeManus, a brave and useful officer of the 102d, who has died since the disbandment of the regiment, is demanded in this connection.

Col. McManus was a native of Indiana, but resided in Mercer county a number of years. He was a school-teacher by profession, and as such will be remembered by numerous citizens of the county who are advanced to middle life. He had traveled over a large extent of his native land and had filled his mind with practical knowledge. He had an aptitude for business, a liberal understanding, and much executive capacity. It was in polities and war that he made his mark as a public man, though he was cut off just at the rising of his power, when his splendid strength of character had laid the foundation for a strong public influence. By education a democrat, he followed the fortunes of his party and contended for its principles with his char- acteristic zeal and energy, up to a time when his partisanship was lost sight of in the army in the one absorbing consideration and employ- ment of patriotism. In the year 1862 his party, a majority of which, emboldened by much power in the state, was outspoken and active in opposition to the war, held a state convention in Peoria, to which he was an accredited delegate. The committee on resolutions submitted a majority and a minority report, the former demanding a withdrawal of the army to make room for compromise negotiations, while the latter insisted upon no compromise with traitors, but instead a vigor- ous prosecution of the war. McManus, with true chivalrous spirit, supported the latter, not having yet forgotten the recent sage and dying advice of his lamented party leader, Douglas, that " the short- est way now to peace is the most stupendous and unanimous prepara- tions for war." Returning home he went to work, and by personal application and speeches assisted in raising company G, 102d reg., and was elected first lieutenant. He soon became captain and served with his company until he was wounded, as previously noticed, at Golgotha church, in Georgia, a rebel ball shattering the bone in his left arm and rendering that limb forever useless. He returned from the hospital to his home, and in the autumn of 1864 did much service for the union party in making political speeches. He was kept on detailed service awhile ; then he rejoined his regiment after the eam- paign of the Carolinas, with a commission as lieutenant colonel. He was never mustered, owing to the reduction of the regiment below the

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HISTORY OF MERCER AND HENDERSON COUNTIES.

minimum number, the offices of colonel and major being already filled. After the war he entered with much enthusiasm into politics ; and being both a ready and forcible writer and speaker, he contributed largely to the success of his party in the exciting political campaigns of 1866 and 1868. After an able and thorough canvass in 1868 he was elected by a large majority of his republican supporters to repre- sent the 14th district in the state senate. He was recognized in that body as a man of independent convictions and untiring industry, and was placed on some of the most important committees. He died of small-pox January 14, 1870, aged forty-three years. Col. McManus belonged to that class of men who make strong friends and strong enemies. His superlative energy made it impossible for his nature to consort with rest. He was ambitious and desired to be in action. Endowed with a highly combative organization, his tastes found their legitimate activity in conflict. On the sanguinary field his daring amounted almost to recklessness. It seemed as though the breath of battle was a soft relief to his chafing, fiery soul. He was at home in the tempest ; his companions were the thunder and the lightning. In civil life his rugged, restless mind found a congenial theater in the political arena.

[The history of the 102d regiment, as above, was written by Mr. E. S. Ricker, a member of that regiment wlio followed its fortunes throughout its brilliant career. He took ample notes during the whole time of his service, and we doubt if there is a man living more com- petent to write the record of this brave regiment .- ED. ]

OHIO GROVE TOWNSHIP. .

Long years ago the Indian chief, with his face -toward the setting sun, chanted the death-song of his people :

"We, the rightful lords of yore, Are the rightful lords no more. Like the silver mists we fail ; Like the red leaves in the gale - Fail like shadows when the dawning Waves the black flag of the morning."

Their history is not written in classic language ; it illumes no scroll ; it lives on few pages ; but in silent eloquence it speaks in a myriad of forms in their beautiful and significant names that still, and

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OHIO GROVE TOWNSIIIP.

will forever, linger upon mountain and in valley, lakes, rivers, states, counties, cities and villages.

" Mid the forests where they warred, There rings no hunter's shout ; But their name is on your waters - Ye may not wash it out."

It is astonishing to the children of to-day to be reminded that on the lawn on which they play ; that in yonder grove of hardy oaks that now shelter those sleek kine ; that on yonder expanse now bloom- ing for the coming harvest ; that on yonder plat where all is hurry and bustle, and trade and music and fashion, a hundred years ago was the hunting-ground of the Fox, or the Sac, or the Potawatomie, or the bloody field of contest between tribe and tribe of savage men ; that here, too, the green sod drank the life-blood of the white man spilled by the tomahawk of the bloodthirsty Indian ; that here the red man, proud and haughty from success in the hunt or battle, compelled his women to abject slavery, treating them as beasts of burden, and mere objects of convenience, never allowing them to join in the amusements, but permitted to sit with their children as "spectators around the fires of war-dances or the horrid orgies after a victory," holding even their lives at their weapons' points. Fifty years ago the Indian, somewhat tamed by contact with pioneer civilization, and by an aggressive and overpowering government, still lingered in his hunt- ing-grounds, mourned the hamlets of the dead warriors he must leave behind, or stayed to drink the "hemlock " furnished by his treacher- ous foemen, the wily and unprincipled among the pale-faces. Verily the white man kindled the fire that burned his own home and the passion that slaughtered his own household.

An Indian trail extended across the northwest corner of Ohio Grove township, including sections 5, 6 and 7, crossing Pope creek in section 6. On section 5 in Indian Grove, some forty or fifty of the natives camped as late as about 1836 or 1837. They disappeared and nothing more was known of them for several years when a few returned, but to cast one long, lingering, last look upon the once unmo- lested spot they had been wont to call what we would term " home." Some are yet living who witnessed the dusky faces as they indulged in their ludicrous amusements and performed feats peculiar only to the race. The MeBrides, Cabeens, Candors, Browns, Stephenses, Hardys, Dillys and McPherrens, have watched their antics and marked their cunning, Alexander Brown, according to his own story, gained his amusement for the first three winters of his residence here, in the camps of these red men. Trading was carried on between Indian and

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white man in a way usually amicable. The women of those days, too, had their experiences, which were not altogether agreeable. The boldness, yet with cunning, made the Indians fit subjects to be watched, and more than once was a woman made to tremble by their audacity. But they have gone, most of them, over the hills to their new hunting-grounds from whence they return, according to their own ideas, in spirit only. Another race, and far different, must fill with events the historic page. The march of empire is westward in America, as truly as it was in the orient.

The spot to which these lines are limited was one of inviting char- acter. Its contents are circumscribed by an invisible boundry. It embraces what became when surveyed, all of T. 13 N., R. 3 W. of the 4th P. M. It has Mercer township on its north, Abington township on its west, Warren county on its south, and Suez township on the east. Here were thirty-six square miles of earth, the tilling of which was destined to yield a harvest to the toiler. It would seem that earth had been gamboling and leaping at play when all became at once stationary, leaving the surface rolling and delectable. Here and there the waters of the ages have washed a gutter, a ditch, a creeklet, a creek which to-day forms nature's system of drainage, which rapidly carries the burden of the element hurrying on to the "father of waters." In the north of this plat is Pope creek, supposed to have derived its name from a man so so called. It runs through sections 4, 5 and 6. It is chiefly along this creek that the early emigrants hither chose frontier homes, for here was a fair growth of timber suitable for fuel and building purposes. In early times about one-ninth or four sections of the township were timber, consisting of red oak, white oak, black oak, burr oak, black walnut, white walnut, cherry, red elm, white elm, hickory, soft maple, sugar maple, hackberry, ash, cotton, sycamore, box-elder, etc.

Through the center of the township is the tortuous stream, North Henderson creek. It has a number of small tributaries uniting and draining the central part of the township. It runs through sections 20 and 30, where it has on its either side, Hickory grove. In the southern part of the township is Duck creek. Not so called because any feathered flocks, fond of water, frequent it, but from the fact that in 1833, an early day, William I. Nevius, James H. Bain and others made an exploring expedition from Warren county, Illinois, through this section of country. Arriving at this stream they found it coated with ice. Nothing of that kind could turn a pioneer's march through a new country, so over the ice they started. Nature had not intended her crystal bridge to be completed and ready for use quite so soon.

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History of Mercer and Henderson Counties : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc, Part 41

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Mercer County Historical Society (Ill.); Henderson County Historical Society (Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1424