History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 68

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 68

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).

Ward. William, died at St. Louis, October 27, 1863. Williams, Reason, died at Port Hudson, Louisana April 25, 1863.

Wise, Charles, killed 'near Jackson, Mississippi, July 6, 1864.

Wills, James D., died at Springfield, Missouri, June 22, 1862.

Wilkins, Andrew T., died at Springfield, Illinois, Feb- ruary 15, 1864.

Williams, Samuel, died at Brownsville, Arkansas September 7, 1863.

Young. Lysander B., died at Young's Point, Louis- iana, June 25, 1863.

Yates, Simeon, died at Rolla, Missouri, February 8, 1862.

Yonger, Josiah, killed at Vicksburg, July 2, 1863. Yocum, Jesse J., died at Memphis, March 11, 1864.

TRANSFER OF THE BATTLE FLAGS.

When the boys came marching home they brought with them their war-worn battle flags, and deposited them in the State Arsenal. When the new State House was built, a room was pre- pared as a memorial hall, in which were to be deposited the flags and such trophies that were captured or collected during the war.

A grand re-union of the boys in blue was inade the occasion for the transfer of the flags and trophies. Grand preparations were made and a programme of ceremonies was arranged, and Thursday, May 23, 1878, was appointed the day in which the transfer would be made. Thousands of boys in blue and citizens were upon the street at an early hour. The Illinois

National Guards and the Veterans were formed in line. Shortly after noon the column moved, headed by the Marshal-in-Chief, Major General

John A. McClernand, and his aides. Then came the Second Brigade I. N. G., as escort, with Brigadier General Reece and his staff; the brigade being composed of the Fifth Regiment, Colonel J. H. Barkley, commanding, and com- panies above noted of other regiments, and a section of Captain Mack's Battery, another sec- tion being engaged firing a National salute.

The Second Division, General John McCon- nel, Marshal, was composed of representatives of the First to the Seventeenth Cavalry, and presented a fine appearance. Besides the di- vision commander and staff, there were sixty- four cavalrymen in line.

The Third Division (artillery) was commanded by General Thomas S. Mather, who, with his aides and command, marched in line. They were representatives of the First and Second Regiments, Vaughn's, Henshaw's, the Mercan- tile, and the Board of Trade Batteries and the Artillery Brigade. Following came the surviv- ing members of Governor Yates' War Adminis- tration and the orators of the day, in carriages. After the Fifth Regiment band, came the First and largest division, commanded by Major Gen- eral John M. Palmer, with General Richard

J.G. Lavage

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Rowett and other prominent military officers as aides.

The Infantry division included numerous rep- resentatives from every Illinois regiment, ex- cept the One Hundred and Third. The men marched with the old time military "swing." In the line, and noticeable, was a one-legged veteran, John T. Sergeant of the Thirty-second, whose other leg was left on the battle field at Shiloh. He, with a cripple in the Artillery Division, attracted more than ordinary attention on the line of march. The infantry, exclusive of division and staff officers, numbered seven hundred and seventy-four men, and there were also in line thirty-two veterans of the Twenty- ninth United States Infantry, colored.

Colonel Dudley Wickersham commanded the next division, which was composed of eighteen · veterans of the Mexican war, twenty-seven of the Black Hawk and Winnebago wars, and twenty-seven veterans of other States, among the number a Massachusetts officer, who had served on General Benjamin F. Butler's staff.

The column moved according to the order of march previously announced. Along the line there was waving of handkerchiefs from the windows of private residences, and every dem- onstration of pleasure in the presence of the veterans. In passing Ex-Mayor Jayne's resi- dence, where a handsome portrait of Governor Yates was conspicuously displayed and decorated, there were cheers all along the line. The pro- cession then moved south and halted at the State Arsenal, where the old battle flags were delivered to the veterans, and many of them receiving the colors, were those who had borne them amid the carnage of battle.

While the flags were being delivered, the bands played the Star Spangled Banner and other national airs, and there was much enthus- iasm, which a heavy rain shower that suddenly set in did not dampen. From the Arsenal, the procession moved south on Fifth street, and turning to Eighth, the old Lincoln home was passed, amid cheers all along the line. Turn- ing west again, the column passed through the Executive Mansion grounds, Governor Cullom and his staff reviewing the same from the steps. The procession then moved direct to the State House. The Artillery Division had ro- ceived a recruit by the way, in the person of Master Tingley Wood, Jr., who wore a small, but regulation, heavy artillery uniform.

Upon arrival at the Capitol, when the Gov- ernor and staff, with General A. C. Ducat and staff, reviewed the troops, from the east corri-

dor steps, the veterans formed en masse, "bunching colors," in front of the principal entrance, and were surrounded by the Illinois National Guard. The colors being massed, Chief Marshal McClernand made his report to the Governor, in the following eloquent re- marks :

"GOVERNOR :- As Marshal of the day, I have the honor to report to your Excellency that, agreeable to arrangement, I have brought the treasured flags and trophies, lately lodged in the public arsenal, to this place. It remains for the Adjutant General of the State, formally and officially, to present them to your Excellency, for such order for their final disposition as your Excellency may be pleased to make. This said, I may be permitted to add that, in the part as- signed to me on this occasion, I have had the hearty co-operation of a body of the veterans of the several wars, and of a portion of the organ- ized militia, who attend the veterans as an honorary escort. Honor to both ! While the militia, by their soldierly bearing, attest the signal zeal applied by your Excellency to foster the martial spirit of Illinoisans, the veterans, on their part, afford an expressive memorial of luty victorionsly performed in the times that tried men's souls. It is true, some of them are maimed of an arm, or a leg, or an eve; that some of them are wrinkled by age and the wear and tear of long and arduous campaigns, yet they are here once more, to lift their loving and moistened eyes upon the tattered ensigns which they undauntedly upheld amid the fire and thunder of siege and battle. Alas! many of their former comrades are absent. Where are they ? Silence answers : they are dead ! Let us pause to dwell for a moment upon the mem- ories of at least a few of these. Foremost of this revered list is Abraham Lincoln, variously the poor and friendless boy, the genial compan- ion, the able lawyer and dialectician, the wary statesman, the patriotic President, the honored Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. Jackson, "the military." one of his predecessors, had aforetime sup- pressed the seed of disunion, taking the spe- cious form of nullification, by the threat of de- finnce; but, in later and more disorderly times, something more was required to cut off this second growth. Lincoln, the man of peace and gentleness, was equal, nay, superior to the emergency. With one hand he scattered the swarming assailants of the Union; with the other, he raised up an enslaved race to freedom and equality before the law. Thus, at the same

49-

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time performing a double act of salvation, national and individual, unsurpassed in the annals of man. His sentiments were in accord

with his deeds. He taught the doctrine of the broadest democracy : that ours was 'a govern- ment of the people, by the people, for the people.'

"He exemplified the broadest precepts of humanity, 'Charity for all; malice toward none.' His tragic martyrdom struck the Nation dumb, while it completed the pathos of his life and character. Illustrious man! his name will ring through the coming ages as one of the noblest of liberators and benefactors.

"Another of the worthy dead is Richard Yates, a remarkable man. To portray his character is a difficult, if not an impossible task. It was a mosaic; its shades set out its brighter hues in striking and lustrous relief. Ile was a man to be judged by his own standard. He was chivalrous and honorable; impulsive and gener- ous: ardent and imaginative, ambitious and patriotic. Viewing everything from an cleva- tion, he clothed it with the classic beauty of his own ideals. His eloquence was as the harp in- laid with gems, and strung with strands of gold to the softest or wildest melody. At times it swayed the Senate; at times it stirred or stilled the wondering multitude. Executive vigor and determination won for him the title of the great War Governor of Illinois. His virtues noticed, his infirmaties are not denied. He had his faults, but they were the excess and reaction of an excitable and impressionable nature; of a preternatural exultation and perturbation of mind and sense, born of a stormy period of con- flicting ideas, sentiments and opinions. It was of him like the great bard of Avon sung, 'A rarer spirit never did steer humanity; but you Gods, you will give us faults to make us mortals.'

" Wallace, Ransom, Raith, Mudd, Schwartz and a host of others are also dead. Braver and truer men never lived. Not a few of us here have seen them kindled with the intoxicating transport of the conflict; have seen them mount the deadly breach, deliver and resist the head- long onset and conquer, when all was upon the hazzard. No more shall we receive and return soldierly congratulations. No more shall we hear them, with laughing jest, recount their des- perate encounters and hairbreadth escapes. No more shall we see them, until we have passed that bourne from which no traveler returns. Our tears bedew their graves, which are strewn with the garlands of our afflictions. The triumph

of their country shall be indistinct yet eloquent memorials to future generations. War over, let the bitterness which engendered it pass away forever. Peace returned, let all our paths be now the paths of peace. Let all our councils, North and South, East and West, everywhere through our broad land, which extends from ocean to ocean, be the counsels of accord, fra- ternity and unity."

Adjutant General Hilliard followed briefly in formal presentation of the flags, and the Gov- ernor responded with the following address, be- ing frequently interrupted by applausc:

" General and Soldiers of Illinois and of the Union: It gives me great pleasure to address you for a few minutes on this interesting occa- sion. I have not words to express to you the feelings of my heart as I stand before you. As you have said you are here in response to orders- and invitations, bringing with you those price- less battle flags, which you have carried before on many a bloody battle field, and elung to in victory and defeat.

" I recognize among you men who, as soldiers, served the country in the early history of our State, in the Black Hawk war, clearing the way in this garden region of the West for the civil- ization which followed, and which we now enjoy. The colors you carried there have decayed and gone. I see before me soldiers who were in the Mexican war, who volunteered to defend our National honor. Your flags and banners, too, are gone. The numbers of patriotic men who served the country in the wars with the Indians and with Mexico, are comparatively few. Your ranks are thinned out in the march of time, and in a few more years your patriotic record alone will be left to tell the story of your devotion to your country. It will not be long before the men who fought by the side of Hardin, Harris, Baker, Bissell, and Shields on the field of Buena Vista, all of whom were as brave and patriotic men as ever stepped to the music of the Union, and all but the last of whom have long since rendered their account to the great Ruler of men and nations, and the last of whom is now a living example of courage, energy, and patriot- ism, will pass away, and history will take their places, to tell the generations to come what they did in response to their country's call. I see before me not a few, but thousands of citizen soldiers, who were in the last great war-men who fought for the integrity of the Union against a causeless and wicked rebellion. You come here to-day, carrying with you your old flags and banners. Your presence as old sol-

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diers speaks louder and stronger to the people of | ilization of the people to a higher plane, are the State and Nation than words. Vommes truly benefactors of the race, and entitled to the eternal gratitude of their fellows. You represent every struggle in which the country has been engaged since Illinois became a State. You have successfully defended the Nation's life and honor. I look upon these old battle flags as you carry them the last time. They represent the glory and nationality of our country. The American flag is dear to every patriotic heart in the land, but those flags and banners are dearer to yon who carried and followed them on the march and field, than to anyone else. would not contain all your presence implies About thirteen years ago you were returning home after years of struggle with the enemy. The ranks of your companies and regiments were depleted. You came back to your State, whose honor and glory you so nobly sustained, tired, worn out, and sick, yet with buoyant hearts, because you were coming home to your families and friends with victory inscribed on your banners and the integrity of our grand old Union established. You had these old flags with you then. As now, they were tattered and "'That flag is respected everywhere, on land and sea. It represents power; it represents Union and Liberty, and it represents 'a government of, by and for the people.' While you are engaged in the pleasant duty of trans- ferring the flags, banners and relics, you are doubtless remembered of the time when von en- listed for the war; you are reminded of the old rallying song: torn-blood-stained-some of them nearly shot away. Many of them had been presented to yon by your wives, sisters, and friends when you started to the war. You brought them back, and as one regiment after another canie home and was mustered out, you placed those colors in the old arsenal in charge of Adjutant-General Haynie, a gallant soldier, now gone to his long home, where they have remained until to-day.

"The Constitution and laws of our State re- quire that the military records, banners and relics of the State shall be preserved as an en- during memorial of the patriotism and valor of Illinois. In obedience to these provisions, and for the safe-keeping of the flags, the time has come for transferring them to a safer place. You now place them where they will remain and be cared for, and safely guarded, aye, for genera- tions to come.

" They, and you who carried them in the time of National peril, represent the life, the integ- rity of the Nation. The history of our State chronicles three struggles in which Illinois men took part: The war with the Indians, in 1812; the Mexican war, in 1846-7; and the great civil war, in 1861-5, besides the Mormon and Winne- bago wars. Nations, as a rule, do not become established on right principles and great, without struggles in which the power of the sword is in- voked. Our Government has not been an ex- ception to the rule. Its progress and develop- ment has met with resistance. Civilization never makes progress without opposition. Its victories are all won, and the condition of the world in- proved only by the brave men pressing forward in support of right principles, and by hard fight- ing at every step. Such men are benefactors of the race. When Government is assailed it must be defended, or fall; and the men who take their lives in their hands, and go forth to defend their country and flag, and, as in the late great war, defend liberty and the Union and raise the civ-

'We will rally 'round the flag, boys, We will rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.'

And that other song:

' We are coming Father Abraham, Three hundred thousand strong.'

"You are reminded of the battles in which you fought; of the gallant comrades who fell by your side; of the wonderful escapes you made; of the terrible sufferings you endured in hospital and prison, and of the victories you won. You will think over the long list of battles, among which are, Belmont, Donelson, Pittsburg Land- ing, Vicksburg, Arkansas Post, Pea Ridge, Perryville, Nashville, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Corinth, Atlanta. and the Grand March to the Sea, and the hundreds of terrible struggles, East and South, which I cannot stop to enumerate.

"As you hold those banners you are reminded of the two hundred and fifty thousand other brave Illinoisans who went out with you, and of the long death-roll of gallant boys who never returned. As you stand here you think of the gallant and eloquent War Governor, Richard Yates, the soldiers' friend, and the members of his administration, Dubois, Butler, Hatch and Bateman, two of whom, with him, have passed away: you do not forget that other great and good man, the dearest son of our noble State, a martyr to the cause of Liberty and Union, who was your Commander-in-Chief, Abraham Lin- coln, whose ashes rest beneath a monument near by, reared by patriotic people. I am reminded

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of those beautiful words uttered by him, which cannot fail to touch the heart of every man, ' The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.' What poetry, sweetness and music in these lines.

"But I must not prolong my remarks. Upon the close of these proceedings, the curtain drops, and the last act is ended of the great drama in which you have taken so noble a part. May your services and sacrifices never be needed again to preserve the integrity of our Nation. A portion of the Illinois National Guard, more than half of whom are old soldiers and served with you, have done themselves and you the honor of coming here to serve as your escort, while you are performing this last service to your old flags and banners. They are in the service of the State and ready at a moment's notice, over six thousand strong, to do duty as soldiers, either for the State or Nation, if their services shall be required to maintain the public peace. Now, soldiers, I will detain you no longer. I welcome you, one and all, to the Cap- ital of our State, and the Adjutant General, by your aid, will place the colors and trophies you bear in the apartments designed for them, where they will be diligently cared for and guarded, I trust, so long as they shall endure."

After the speech of Governor Cullom, Gen- eral Palmer was called for, but not immediately responding, General C. E. Lippincott was called, and was received with much favor. He said:

" The voice of these flags is eloquent beyond any need or any power of human words. We will do well simply to pause, in the first still hour that shall come to us, and listen to the solemn teaching of these battle worn flags. They are not merely ashen staves upon which flaunt heavy silks, adorned with stripes and bear- ing golden stars which catch the eye when they are unfurled to the breeze of Heaven, and by their beauty waken the beholder's admiration. Beautiful as is the flag of our country among all the banners of the Nations of earth, its chief excellence is in the noble history of which it is the result, and the lofty ideas and principles of which it is the symbol. Its history may be said to have its beginning on that day when force was first challenged by right, and to represent the long struggle of the people against those who for ages had set themselves against 'the

strong upward tendencies of the Godlike soul of man '

" It was the beautiful flower of freedom which burst in beauty upon the world's sight when, after so many years of slavery, the sublime words of the Declaration of Independence rang out from the American Congress upon the world: . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that man was created equal and endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness.'

"Coming into existence, as it appears, without a known designer, it made its way by sheer force of its beanty and appropriateness, to the hearts of our struggling fathers-preferred everywhere to all emblems suggested by influence, and de- vised by the trained taste of many eminent per- sons. It was baptized in the blood by Wash- ington, and adopted, almost in the present form, by the Congress of the Colonies. It became, at last, when the revolution was over, when the weakly confederation of separate States had given away to the cohesive Government of the United States, it became one Nation's flag as soon as our Nation was born. Co-equal with our Government in its history, it has been, and is, let us pray and believe it ever will be, the fit and perfect emblem of all the holy ideas which are woven into our Nation's structure, and make the enduring rock on which it is founded. Such, friends and comrades, is my idea of the American flag. Such my notion of its sacred history and of its holy symbolic character. But we are es- pecially here to-day to look on these flags, to bear them to their resting place, and to take into our hearts the especial lessons which they teach.

"Oh! but it does seem to me that words are idle and worse than weak. How, in the pres- ence of these memorials of the constancy of Illinois in the times which tried the temper of States and of men, can anyone talk as it deserves of that recent history? So recent is it, that to the men and women of my age, and even those much younger, it is still a part of our present life, and the pulses of our hearts beat in quick response to every mention and memory of the great drama; not as something of the past, but as if its crowded incidents were now about us and before us and with and of us, making the life that we live, the emotions which we feel, in the very present and actual now.

"Again comes to us the thrill of horror as the wires bear us word that the flag is fired upon. Again comes to us the resolve that the holy symbol shall not be disgraced, nor the principles

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whose triumph it means be lost to our country or to mankind. Again we are in the midst of the enthusiasm and high devotion of au aroused people. Again we feel how patriotism elevates and ennobles individuals; how it sanctifies the hearthstone, making it the very altar of God; how it gives to beauty a lovelier glow, to love an added sweetness, and to manhood the conse- cration of a purer, a nobler, and a stronger aim. Again we hear the tread of the mustering thousands, and are in sympathy with the no- bility of that time of unselfishness and high de- votion. Again we realize the trials of the tedious camp and the weary march. Again our hearts beat high and fast with the fierce fever and exulting joy of battle. Again we melt in sorrow at the sound of the muffled drum, and shed bitter tears at the gaps in our battle lines, and learn a new and deeper love of country as we realize how much rich and manly blood its redemption has cost. Yes! Let the common- wealth keep these torn and sacred rags with tender care. They are sacred. Around their ashen staves have been clasped brave hands of the noble sons of Illinois, who thought their life blood none too precious to be spilt in their defense; and as the storm of battle surged along the line of those who fought to save the Nation's bfe, the iron hail fell thickest, and noble blood was shed freely under the immedi- ate shadow of these flags. Noble men, with hearts treasuring the deepest love of home, and the tenderest thoughts of the maiden to whom their deep faith was plighted, and beating with perfect consciousness of the ability to win their way to the high place of honor among men, have grasped these flags and carried them with firm step, and flashing eye, and exalting joy into the proud triumph of a certain death. Yes, keep them with prondest care, for they are not emblems of the freedom, the power, the saved unity of our Nation; but of a heroism loftier and purer than ever before, since history began, was embodied in an army, and triumphed in the achievements of battle.

"Let any one who, since the war, has been led away by the seductions of selfish ambition to desert his comrades and talk nonsense-be that deserter private or president-say what he will; we know, and the world knows, and all the future shall know, that there was a differ- ence in the inspiration and the heroism which widely distinguished those who fought under these flags, and those like them from other States, and that other and brave army which fought under a hostile flag to destroy what these

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 68

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084