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Forty third Regiment Indiana Volunteers
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01704 0251
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THE FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT OF INDIANA VOLUNTEERS
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JAN 4 '62
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COLONEL WM. E. MCLEAN, Terre Haute, Ind.
THE FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT
OF
INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
AN HISTORIC SKETCH OF ITS CAREER AND SERVICES
PREPARED BY WILLIAM E. MCLEAN.
READ AT ANNUAL REUNION OF THE REGIMENT, AT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, SEPTEMBER, 1902, AND UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE SURVIVING MEMBERS PRESENT.
TERRE HAUTE, IND. C. W. BROWN, PRINTER AND BINDER. 1903
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1163504
DEDICATION.
This modest little volume, an unpretentious contribution to the stirring record of the Great War for the Union, is respectfully dedicated to the survivors of the Regiment, . whose organization and campaigns are here depicted. That it may also possess an interest to the families, the sons and the daughters, of all the men of the Regiment whose names are inscribed in this volume but who have gone to their great reward, is the fervent hope of the compiler of its pages.
New growths are pushing up from the bottom of society, and the generation which knew the old veteran of 1861- 1865 is fast passing away. The scenes are growing dim in the past, but it is felt that there are many whose hearts will be stirred by memories precious, although sad, that may be awakened by perusal of these pages, and who will be gratified that a work, recording some of the great events in which their fathers played a part, honorable to then- selves, and of benefit to their country, has been issued.
The War is over. A generation has elapsed since the last hostile gun was fired. All the bitterness of its memo- ries should subside and die forever. Hand in hand, let every loyal son, North and South, "keep step with the music of the Union", and in the name of "friendship, char- ity, and loyalty," press forward to that glorious destiny re- served for a reunited people, the best blood of the world.
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THE 43d REGIMENT OF INDIANA VOLUNTEERS.
TT has been well said that wherever during the war, history was written in blood, there could be found the bleeding forms of Indianians. The part which our State played in the great Drama of 1861 to 1865, has been a stirr- ing theme for the witchery of oratory and the pen of the writer. From the earlier operations in Western Virginia to the Campaign which resulted so gloriously in the capture of the armies of Lee and Johnson, the flag of Indiana was bourne by stout arms and brave liearts to triumph and to victory. No state in the American Union, according to her popula- tion and resources, raised a larger quota of men, sent them to the field with more dispatch, and watched their varying fortunes with a deeper solicitude, than the State of Indiana. More than TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND enlistments is a proud record. Every regiment, there being nearly 200 in number, which played a part when our country was rocked in the fierce flames of Civil War, had its own peculiar his- tory. Indiana troops were to be found in the Army of the Potomac, in the central columns of Sherman's and Tho- mas's, in the Armies of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, and in that army which did so valiant service in that immense expanse of territory, west of the Mississippi, from the north- ern boundary of Missouri to the Mexican frontier, a section described, during the war, as the "Trans-Mississippi De- partment". It was in the latter department of the military service that the 43d Indiana, organized at old Camp Vigo, was destined to play its principal part. The regiment being composed of men who were not born according to the latest and most approved fashion, we had no newspaper corres-
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FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT
pondents following us, to record our achievements, glorify our deeds, and magnify our claims to national gratitude and consideration. The records in the War Department, at Washington, however, will show that the 43d was a fighting regiment, and lawyers will tell you that record evidence is the best evidence. The regiment may be said to have been created on the 11th of September, 1861, by Governor Morton issuing a commission to William E. McLean, as Lieutenant Colonel, and William Durham as Quartermaster, these being the first commissions issued by the Governor for a regiment bearing that number.
The Terre Haute "Express", of September 12th, 1861, announced the organization of the Regiment as follows :- "Military Appointments. Hon. William E. McLean has been commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the 43d Regiment now forming in Camp Vigo, and William Dur- ham has been appointed Quarter Master of the same Re- giment."
"Lieutenant Colonel McLean will take command of the surplus companies in Camp Vigo and organize the Regi- ment. He was formally presented to his regiment and to the 31st yesterday at dress parade by Colonel Cruft."
Fourteen (14) companies, the majority not filled to the required standard in numbers, had been assembled at old Camp Vigo, upon the date of the creation of the 43d regiment; so at the time of its organization there were four (4) companies in camp, besides the ten companies neces- sary for the organization of the 31st regiment, none of them, however, having the required number of men, but these four extra companies was the basis of the organiza- tion of that regiment. These companies were subsequently designated as Company "A", commanded by Captain, afterward Colonel John C. Major, from Clay County; Com- pany "B", commanded by Captain Francis Marion Darnall,
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS
from Bainbridge, in Putnam County; Company "C", com- manded by Captain Elijah Eddington, from Greene County; and Company "D", commanded by Captain Wesley W. Norris, subsequently promoted to Major, from Vigo County. . But a few days elapsed until the required num- ber of Companies were in Camp.
And here let me say something about the men who en- listed in that new born organization known as the "43d Regiment Indiana Volunteers". There is a class of writers, of the Miss Nancy Novelist variety, who appear to take pleasure in depicting the Union Volunteer as a coarse combination of the fighting devil, and the jolly, boisterous rowdy. The picture is not a true one, and I don't like it. The men of that regiment, while all of them were probably not Sabbath School, or Y. M. C. A. models, were not of that type. I prefer to clothe the men of the Rank and File of the Regiment, with something of the character, with something of the dignity that induced their enlistment, and made them faithful to the "Old Flag", in sunshine and in storm, in the darkest days of that trying epoch.
In our late Spanish War we soon found out that the average Spanish Soldier had enough of the devil in him, for a dozen men, but the difficulty with our fascinating Spanish Cousin was, that in battle, whether upon land or upon sea, he could never hit anybody. In our War for the Union it was the intelligent, cool headed "man with the musket"', the Union Volunteer Soldier, who, when he fired, generally hit and hurt somebody, and it was that which made "the man with the musket", after all, the real hero of the War. For, say what we please, the rifle is mightier than the sword. The 43d Regiment was composed prin- cipally of young men who had never seen a greater excite- ment than that afforded by a camp meeting, or a husking bee, whose wildest dissipation had been a horse race or a
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circus, who had never seen the glint of a gun barrel in a hostile hand, nor thought of other slaughter than the game in the woods, or on the prairie. It is a matter of local his- toric interest that "Old Camp Vigo", then the County Fair ground, was the scene of the organization of all the troops, raised in the city of Terre Haute, under President Lincoln's first call for 300,000 troops. The famous 14th Indiana, commanded by Colonel Nat Kimball, the regiment which played such a conspicuous part in so many of the prominent engagements in which the army of the Potomac participated, was the first regiment raised in the camp. This was followed, three months afterward, by the organi- zation of the 31st Regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles Cruft. In the following year, there were three additional regiments raised in the City of Terre Haute, or- ganized at the new County Fair grounds, which bore the name of "Camp Dick Thompson". After the organization of the regiment, on the 28th of September, 1861, General George K. Steele of Parke County, an old and distinguished citizen of Rockville, was commissioned by Governor Mor- ton as Colonel of the Regiment. He was never regularly mustered in as Colonel of the Regiment. His advanced age and growing physical infirmities, led him, after he had tramped through the mud with the boys around Calhoun, Ky., to tender his resignation, which was accepted on the 16th of January, 1862. He was long past the half century mark when the Governor commissioned him as Colonel.
On the 16th of February, 1862, Lieutenant Colonel William E. McLean was promoted to the Colonelcy, which position he held until the 17th of May, 1865, when he was mustered out, by reason of expiration of term of service, he having held a commission as Colonel, commanding a regi- ment, for a longer term of service than any other of that rank, appointed by Governor Morton. On the 12th of
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October, 1861, the Regiment left Camp Vigo for the front. After a stay of a few days at Evansville it went to Spotts- ville, or Lock Number One, Greene River, Kentucky, to become part of the army then under the command of General T. T. Crittenden. The regiment remained at Cal- houn and South Carrolton, until the latter part of February, 1862, and was then transferred to Missouri, and became a part of the army of General John Pope, who was organizing a force for the siege of New Madrid, and the capture of "Island Number Ten." It was on the march to New Madrid that the men of the regiment heard, for the first time, the sound of the hostile cannon. It was then, for the first time, that the young plow boys, who constituted at least three- fourths of the regiment, realized that actual war meant something different from raising corn upon the banks of the Wabash, or in the bottoms of the White, or Eel Rivers. To rule in the Empire of the corn field, or the cabbage patch, they soon found was very different from carrying a musket in the ranks, under the sound of a cannon.
Upon the arrival of the regiment in Missouri it became a part of the brigade commanded by Brigadier General John M. Palmer, afterward Governor of Illinois, and United States Senator from that State, and who closed his political career as a nominee for the Presidency of the United States. Pope's campaign, which resulted in the capture of New Madrid and Island Number Ten, was. recognized by the country as one of the most important operations of the war up to that time. It laid the foundation of the higher command to which Pope was soon after consigned, the command of the Army of the Potomac. It is a sad reflec- tion, however, that the laurels which he won on the Missis- sippi were certainly dimmed, if not tarnished, while in com- mand of the Eastern Army. The Second Bull Run snuffed out, by one rude shock, as it were, the record of victory
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FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT
achieved by him at New Madrid and Island Number Ten. Our campaign with him was a hard one, especially for raw re- cruits. The terrible night march from New Madrid to Point Pleasant, where nearly every able bodied man of the regi- ment was detailed to assist in dragging the 32 pound Par- rott gun-a task which a soldier, encumbered with the weight of his musket, his cartridge box, and other neces- sary equipments, made a most grievous burden, will never be forgotten by those who participated in it. It laid the foundation, by the over work and over straining, to which they were subjected, for the premature physical decay of many of the very best men of the regiment. Probably during the whole war a more serious task was not assigned them, certainly none which left more unfavorable results. It was a taste of war never to be forgotten by the raw re- cruit, but suchi is the fate of war. If the 43d regiment had done nothing, in its subsequent history, but the work assigned them upon this expedition, it would have deserved well of a grateful people. No better example of human endurance was ever exhibited by any body of men than by the men, who, that night, dragged that field piece to Point Pleasant.
Let history, with unerring hand, Forget not to record, how firm and grand, Was that march, through mud and sand, Of the gallant old Forty-Third.
Upon the fall of New Madrid, and the capture of Island Number Ten, with some 5000 prisoners, with their arms, accoutrements, camp equipages and other belongings, tlie 43d was detailed, in conjunction with the 46th Indiana, commanded by Colonel Graham N. Fitch, a well known Indiana politician and an ex-member of the United States Senate, to cooperate with the gunboat Flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral Foote, to operate against the
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Confederate stronghold np on the Mississippi, known as "Fort Pillow," called by the Confederates, "Fort Wright." For some five long dreary weeks these two Indiana regiments laid under the shadow of Fort Pillow, hearing hourly the discharge of the heavy mortars and the enemy's cannon whose missiles poured indiscriminately in, around, and about this doomed fortress. During all those dreary weeks. not a gun was fired by the men of either regiment, but they had an enemy nearer them which demanded their constant attention, both by day and by night, to-wit: the mosquito, with his bill both long and strong, the gallinipper and the buffalo gnats, which infested the air we breathed and made life a burden to every man and beast of the regiment, some of our horses dying in agony from the bloody attacks made upon them by these insects, the object of whose existence, and the reason of whose creation, Divine Providence has so far failed to indicate. The boys found out, by experience there, that cussing mosquitoes don't discourage them in the slightest degree. The story is told that there was one man of the regiment, however, who was an immune from the attacks of the mosquito. We will call him "Smith," because Smith was not his name. He was a gentleman of bibulous tendencies. If there was any of the ardent, anywhere with- in reach, Smith had the rare faculty of being able to grasp it. The cook of Company "H," a darkie, whom they had brought with them from home, said, "That when Massa Smith goes to bed he is so toxicated that he didn't mind the skeeter, and in the morning the skeeter was so toxica- ted that they didn't mind Massa Smith." It is due to "Mr. Smith" to say that after the war he became a convert to tem- perance principles and practices, went into the law for which he had been duly prepared before his enlistment; did a pros- perous business, and was finally elevated to the bench, as judge of one of the circuit courts of his adopted State. He
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was probably the most accomplished man, and certainly the best educated one in the regiment, possibly the only college graduate to be found in the rank and file. But Fort Pillow finally fell or rather was evacuated by the enemy. With the fall, or abandonment of Fort Pillow the Mississippi was opened to us as far as Memphis, which place, after a little gun-boat fight we entered with practically no resistance upon the part of the people of that City. These two Indi- ana Regiments were consequently the first Union troops to enter that City. While we were greeted with a few sullen looks from some of the more radical of its population, our reception was, at least, reasonably pleasant, if not cordial. After remaining in Memphis for two weeks or inore, other Union troops arrived there and the 43d and the 46th were ordered to Helena, Arkansas. We were in Arkansas so long, we tramped over so much of her uninviting soil, that it may be said of the 43d regiment, at least, that they had become veritable "Arkansas travelers", not possessed, it is true, with the familiar old fiddle which has figured in song and story, in connection with some of the denizens of that State. When we arrived there we found quite a large army, which had marchied down from Missouri through the State, commanded by General Curtiss. It was the fate of the 43d to have done a vast amount of soldiering upon the primitive soil, and through the bogs and swamps of that State. If the Regiment had remained upon the "Sacred Soil" of Arkansas much longer it might have taken root there and become part of the surrounding Real Estate.
Immediately upon the arrival of the regiment at Helena, it was dispatched up White River, where, upon two or three occasions, we encountered some of our friends, the enemy, but with no marked results upon either side. In December 1862, the regiment penetrated into the heart of Mississippi upon what was known as the "Yazoo Pass Expedition".
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The object of the expedition was an attempt to get into Vicksburg "by the back door", so to speak, Sherman's first assault upon that city having resulted in a repulse. This expedition was a hard one for the 43d and the other regiments constituting the Union forces. A gun boat, com- manded by Captain James P. Foster, an Indiana Naval officer, engaged the enemy during the expedition without serious result upon either side. While the expedition itself, can hardly be called a brilliant success, from a military standpoint, it was not wholly barren of results, as it had the effect of weakening the Confederate forces required for the successful defence of Vicksburg, which soon after fell into our hands.
But the greatest day in all the history of the 43d regi- ment, from the time its feet touched the soil of Kentucky, in 1861, until its final muster out, was that ever to be re- membered 4th of July, 1863. That day witnessed the famous battle of Helena; a battle which resulted in the repulse of the Confederate forces under the command of Holmes and Price which have been variously estimated from 9,000 to 15,000. It may be doubted whether a more brill- iant victory perched upon the Union banners at any time, during the War of the Rebellion, than the victory at Helena, and certainly no regiment of the Union Army present that day did better service than the 43d regiment. It would be a work of supererogation to enter into a detail of the incidents of that most glorious victory, for its every de- tail has been graphically portrayed in the official records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Anyone desiring, at this late day, a more explicit history of Helena and its vic- tory, it can be found in the work issued under the authority of Congress, entitled "The War of the Rebellion", being a compilation of the official records of the Union and Con- federate Armies. (See Volume 22, series 1, part 1, from
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FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT
page 383 to 442 inclusive), in which is embraced the official reports of General Prentiss, General Salomon, also the re- port of General Sterling Price of the C. S. Army and the other commanding Generals of the Confederacy, who parti- .cipated in the attack. On the 8th of July following, the victory at Helena was celebrated with much enthusiasm, by the officers and men of that post. In the brief speech made upon that occasion by the Colonel of the 43d Indiana, he said among other things, "The rebels came to get Helena, but succeeded, however, only in getting Hell." If to have fought under General Jackson, at New Orleans, on that famous 8th of January, was a badge of distinction for every one who participated in it, for half of a century, to have played a part on that 4th of July, 1863, at Helena, is a distinction no less to be proud of.
The most extraordinary incident of the battle was the capture of an entire Arkansas Confederate regiment by the 43d. It must not be forgotten that at an early hour of the engagement, the Confederates rushing pell mell down the hill, may be said to have taken the place, with whoop and yell, they regarded for a moment the victory as theirs and soon expected to reap the reward of their success. But one regiment, a newly recruited Arkansas regiment, in the mad enthusiasm of the hour, advanced too far, and when the main body of their force was driven back, this Arkansas regiment became the prey of our forces, and owing to the position of the 43d, it reaped the harvest by themselves capturing a command, equal in point of numbers, to their own. I have seen no historic allusions, in any of the en- gagements of the War, of any regiment having been cap- tured in action by a regiment not larger than the captured. Candor compels me to say that impartial history has hardly done justice to the heroism and efficiency displayed by the 43d regiment in that memorable affair. It must be remem-
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INDIANA VOLUNTEERS
bered, however, that at that particular period, great events, of the highest military interest, were transpiring. The eye of the Country was upon Vicksburg; Port Hudson also occupied a large share of the public attention; the grand operations of the Army of the Potomac were also on the tapis. Had Helena alone engaged the attention of the Na- tion, at that time, like Santiago did during our Spanish American War, every man who participated in the action, from the commanding General down to the humblest private in the ranks, would have been called a hero, and would have reaped the reward which heroism always commands. Future history, we are inclined to believe, will do justice to the victors of Helena. While the battle itself, it is not claimed, can rank with the great engagements of Shilolı, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Antietam, or "the Wilderness," simply because of the relatively small number who partici- pated in it, the victors can ever "point with pride" to Helena and their achievements.
The result at Helena was recognized by the Confederates as the hardest blow suffered in their cause, west of the Mississippi, during the whole War. A beautiful monument in honor of the Confederate dead, who fell at Helena, has been erected in that place, which was dedicated some years ago with most imposing ceremonial. A son of Ex-Governor Rector, one of the most promising young men of the South and an officer upon the staff of General Price, fell mortally wounded in the gallant charge made by them upon our entrenchments.
But a few weeks elapsed after the battle of Helena when General Prentiss was superceded in the command at Helena, by Major General Frederick Steele. General Steele was a regular army officer, a graduate of West Point, and stood high in military circles as an officer of commanding talent and ability. The object of his taking command at Helena
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was to organize a campaign against Little Rock. The 43d marched from their old quarters at Helena, never to return to that place, and co-operated with General Steele in his march against the Arkansas capital. It is pleasing to record that the men of the 43d always hailed with pleasure any order to march. The change from wearing out our trousers, to wearing out our shoes, was always acceptable, come what may. On the march, within fifty miles of Little Rock, Steele made a junction with General J. W. Davidson, who commanded a force of some 5,000 cavalry. Soon the com- bined armies of Steele and Davidson were encamped across White River, in sight of the doomed city. Little Rock, at that time, and for months previous, had been garrisoned by the Confederate army of Arkansas, commanded by Generals Shelby, Fagan, Walker and others. It was also the head- quarters of Marmaduke's famous Confederate cavalry. After remaining encamped upon the riverside, daily expecting an engagement, to the surprise of every one, the Confederates abandoned the city, and all we had to do was simply to march in and take possession. It may be regarded, how- ever important the acquisition of Little Rock was to the Union Army, as a bloodless campaign. The 43d remain- ed at Helena until the organization of one of the most disastrous campaigns of the whole War, the never to be for- gotten "Banks Expedition." At the time of the occupancy of Little Rock by General Steele's command, General Na- thaniel P. Banks was in command of the Union Forces gar- risoning New Orleans. An expedition was conceived look- ing to the capture of Shreveport, Louisiana, which was the store house of the whole Confederate Army of the Trans- Mississippi country. To capture Shreveport, with its stores of military supplies, and more particularly of cotton, was the presumed object of the expedition. The press of the country denounced it in advance as the "cotton stealing
JAMES M. CAMPBELL,
Company "A." One of the most prosperous and successful farmers in Clay County, Indiana, and a man of the highest character as a citizen.
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