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PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE & ALLEN CO., IND.
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 01704 2588
Gc 973.74 IN2M v.2 [MERRILL, CATHARINE] 1824- 1900. THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION
.
THE
SOLDIER OF INDIANA
IN THE
WAR FOR THE UNION.
" Let all the ends thou aimst at be thy country's, Thy God's, and truth's."- SHAKSPEARE.
BUS
E
INDIANAPOLIS : MERRILL AND COMPANY. 1869.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by MERRILL AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Indiana
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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY DOUGLASS & CONNER.
PREFACE.
111514
IT would be but an act of common courtesy to make public acknowledge- ment of the kindness of those individuals who have furnished material for the second volume of the "Indiana Soldier"; but, as their name is legion, and the volume has grown to a disproportionate size, the grateful duty must, however unwillingly, be omitted. From Adjutant-General Terrell and the Major-Generals of the State down to the mother or sister of the private who died "in the service," information has been obligingly offered, as well as promptly given in response to inquiry. Thanks the most sin- cere and cordial are their due.
Apology must be made for the omission of several biographical or memo- rial sketelies, many interesting incidents, valuable letters, and narratives of prison life, also for the compression to which others have been subjected. No doubt, too, notwithstanding the most solicitous care, mistakes have been made in names, dates, and even in the narration of events. Let the follow- ing story mitigate the indignation of those who discover errors:
A few years ago Professor J. D. Butler, formerly a member of the faculty of Wabash College, while looking over a file of old Hartford newspapers, discovered in the Commercial Courant of September, 1777, the following ad- vertisement :
"TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD.
"Stolen from me, the subscriber, at Wallumscoik, in the time of action, the 16th of August last, a brown mare, five years old; had a star in her forehead; also, a doeskin-seated saddle, blue housing trimmed with white, and a curbed bridle.
"It is earnestly requested of all committees of safety, and others in au- thority, to exert themselves to recover said thief and mare, so that he may be brought to justice, and the mare brought to me; and the person, whoever he be, shall receive the above reward for both, and for the mare alone, over one-half that sum. How scandalous, how disgraceful and ignominious must it appear to all friendly and generous souls to have such sly, artful,
OCT 1
PREFACE.
designing villains enter into the field of battle in order to pillage, pilfer and plunder from their brethren when engaged in battle.
" JOHN STARK, "B. D. G."
" Bennington, 11th Sept., 1777.
This old scrap enabled Professor Butler to correct a blunder into which Headley, Everett, Irving, Spencer and other historians had fallen. Head- ley says : "Stark's horse sank under him." Everett writes: "The Gen- eral's horse was killed in the action." Irving's words are: "The veteran had a horse shot under him."
The false inference was owing to the postscript of a letter written by General Stark immediately after the battle: "I lost my horse in the action."
It may be added that Mr. Everett paid over to Professor Butler the re- ward offered for the horse, in the shape of books for the library of what was then the Professor's parish. "Seldom," says the latter, "are debts for 'dead horses' collected so successfully, especially after they have been half a century outlawed."
Surely if such patient and careful students, such excellent and renowned writers as, at least, Everett and Irving, are so easily misled, the inexpe- rienced may be very kindly, very charitably judged.
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA
IN THE
WAR FOR THE UNION.
CHAPTER I.
NORTH OF THE OHIO.
"O, gentlemen, the time of life is short ; To spend that shortness basely were too long If life did ride upon a dial's point, Still ending at the arrival of an hour."-Shakspeare.
GOVERNOR MORTON, after having fairly commenced form- ing military organizations, continued the work throughout the war, without any special reference to Presidential procla- mations. There was no time, in consequence, when recruit- ing was not going on in Indiana, and no exigency for which there was not preparation, although it might be, and fre- quently was, inadequate.
The demands of the summer of 1862 were enormous. The tramp of armies advancing over Kentucky was a por- tentous sound to the people of Indiana; and, without any voice from the Executive, was an imperative call to the field. Additional incentives reached the head of affairs.
The following dispatch to Governor Morton from Presi- dent Lincoln, marked "Private and Confidential," and writ ten the day after the Proclamation for three hundred thou, sand troops, is of earlier date than the Rebel advance:
" WASHINGTON, July 3, 1862. " MY DEAR SIR :- I would not want the half of three hun- dred thousand new troops if I could have them now. If I
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
had fifty thousand additional troops now, I believe I could substantially close the war in two weeks; but time is every- thing, and if I get fifty thousand new men in a month I shall have lost twenty thousand old ones during the same month, having gained only thirty thousand, with the difference bc- tween old and new troops still against me. The quicker you raise, the fewer you will have to send. Time is every- thing. Please act in view of this. The enemy having given up Corinth, it is not wonderful he is thereby enabled to check us for a time at Richmond.
" Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN."
General Boyle, in command at Louisville, from the hour the Rebels crossed the Southern border of Kentucky, until he had hold of the hand of General Buell, did not cease to pour along the telegraph line to Indianapolis vociferous and distressful cries for help.
" Send to-morrow all the troops you can."
" If Indiana and Ohio do not pour in their troops, Kcn- tucky will be overrun, and may be irretrievably lost."
"Any delay will be disastrous."
" We need every man you have at the earliest possible moment."
"I hope the patriot soldiers of Indiana will not wait for bounties. Our State will be overrun if they do, and your own borders desolated."
" Kentucky needs every soldier in Ohio, Indiana and Illi- nois. It is no use to apply to Governor Todd."
" Hurry forward your regiments. I fear the Devil is to pay. Tell Governor Yates to wake up."
General Boyle's solicitations were enforced by both Gen- eral Halleck and General Buell,-the one requesting, the other ordering Governor Morton to send troops at the earliest possible hour into Kentucky.
Military and civil authorities strained every nerve to meet the emergency. Nevertheless, recruiting was up-hill work. The first ardor of uncalculating enthusiasm was utterly blown away. In its place stood cool reflection, representing the consequences of neglect of business, or loss of opportu-
3
THE DEPARTURE.
nity, the horrors of being cast adrift upon society, and the value to an individual of his own life, with its insignificance in the mass, and the littleness of its single results. The tidings that the war was rolling up to the very doors of the State fell like ice upon hearth and heart. The end was pushed back too far to reckon upon. He who enlisted now, with open eyes ventured his all.
In August the new regiments began to move off, many of them previously concentrating in Indianapolis, a large num- ber passing through the city.
Soldiers were now so common a part of the current of activity that their arrival and departure, during the day, made little impression. But who can forget their eheers quivering in the night air, louder as a train appeared, fainter as it steamed down towards "the dark and bloody ground?" What sleeper, roused at dead of night during many weeks by the floating, familiar, pathetic sound, did not breathe, at each awaking, a prayer for the hearts which, whether they shouted to keep their courage up, or with an irrestrainable impulse of enthusiasm, were equally plunging into an unseen and terrible future?
The Seventieth, formed in less than a month, was the first new regiment to take the field. It left Indianapolis a sunny summer day, Wednesday the 13th of August, moving off in silence, or with only a faint effort to cheer, feebly re- sponded to. In its ranks were how many beloved ones !
One whose mother proudly said, when he enlisted: "I could not have felt that he was my son, had he hesitated!" and yet when she left him the first night in his Sibley tent, one of twenty boys from town and country, murmured; " If I could but lie on the ground, all night, on the outside of his tent,-anywhere to be near him!"
One, whose father had refused consent, until an officer gently repeated: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
One, who replied to a remonstrance, based on the future needs of his infant son: "The child that could grow up to
4
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
be a bad man, knowing that his father had died for his eoun- try, would be bad in spite of any training or care."
" It's a noble duty," cried a mother to one of the color- guard. "My son, you will be faithful."
Poor country-women, with babies in their arms, had no hands to wipe away the drenching tears.
" Be kind to him," plead a young wife of her husband's Captain, "and oh, if-" but her shuddering lips refused to form the words.
"She means," said her mother, leaning against a wall for support, "if it should come to the worst, you must promise us to send him home. We are poor, but he sha'nt be bur- ied-" and her voice too gave way. "Never fear for him," answered the Captain, glancing at the fine young fellow, who was the object of their solicitude. Nevertheless he promised.
The fond women saw their soldier in less than six months.
He came to them stark and cold, in one of the long boxes which traveled daily from Kentucky hospitals to Indianapolis.
Under Colonel Ben. Harrison the Seventieth went to Bow- ling Green, where not being in the way of Buell, or Bragg, or Smith, or Morgan, or Forrest, it staid.
As fast as they were formed and before they were fully officered, other regiments followed.
General Wallace was at the time stumping Southern Indi- ana, in favor of enlistments, having had a leave of absence prolonged for that purpose, at Governor Morton's request. He quit speaking and volunteered to lead one of the new regiments into Kentucky. Accordingly he was intrusted with the command of the Sixty-Sixth, then in rendezvous near New Albany. Hastily completing the organization, he marehed to Louisville, thence to Lexington, at the request of General Boyle, taking command of all the troops at that point.
The Seventy-First, Colonel Topping; the Sixty-Ninth, Colonel Bickle; with the Twelfth, Colonel Link, and the Sixteenth, Colonel Lueas, lately reorganized, also went to Lexington. The Seventy-Third, Colonel Hathaway, fol- lowed. The Sixty-Seventh, Colonel Emerson; the Sixty- Eighth, Lieutenant Colonel King, of the Nineteenth Regu- .
5
TWENTY REGIMENTS TO KENTUCKY.
lars, and the Eighty-Ninth, Lieutenant Colonel Craven, were thrown forward to Munfordsville.
The Seventy-Second, General Dumont; Seventy-Fourth, Colonel Chapman ; Seventy-Fifth, Colonel Petit; Seventy- Ninth, Colonel Kneffler; Eighty-First, Colonel Caldwell ; Eighty-Second, Colonel Hunter; Eighty-Seventh, Colonel Shryock, Eighty-Eighth, Colonel Humphrey, with Lilly's battery, the Eighteenth, and Harris' battery, the Nineteenth, swelled the ranks of the army of the Ohio.
Six companies of the Fourth Cavalry, Colonel Gray, were scattered to different points, but chiefly to Madison, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky ; while four companies, Major Plat- ter, followed the Sixty-Fifth, Colonel Foster, to Henderson, Kentucky, in the vicinity of which guerrillas were numerous. The Seventy-Sixth, raised and prepared for the field in forty- eight hours by Colonel Gavin and Colonel Wilder, closed an active service of thirty days, near Henderson, just before the arrival of Colonel Foster. The Ninety-First, which con- sisted of a battalion of seven companies under Lieutenant Colonel Mehringer, also went to Henderson, whence detach- ments were sent to Smithland and Madisonville.
So promptly and fully did Indiana answer the demand which was made upon her, that she gave twenty regiments to the relief of Kentucky, while Ohio in the same period, and in response to the same call, sent but eight, and Illinois contributed but one.
The troops, thus hastily thrown forward were not only un- fit for battle, because entirely undrilled and uninstructed, but many of them were unprovided for the march and the bivouac, being without tents, haversacks, knapsacks, and canteens. It was with the greatest reluctance that they were allowed to depart in so unprepared a condition ; and not without many warm expressions of anxiety transmitted by Governor Morton to General Boyle. The gruff Kentuckian replied, that " Kirby Smith's men were without tents and we must stand what these devils do."
It will be remembered, indeed can Indiana ever forget it, that several of our raw regiments, thrown forward, apparently without an object, on the route of an approaching enemy,
6
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
and posted at Richmond, with the Kentucky river at their back, suffered a crushing defeat. Why they were so strangely exposed it is necessary to explain, before following the officer at whose command they had advanced, to another part of the field.
After Colonel Scott's easy victory over Colonel Metcalfe at Big Hill, he pushed up about twenty miles, beyond his support, and within four miles of Richmond. It was an audacious venture, and General Wallace determined to take advantage of it, by throwing his whole force by night marches, on the daring Rebel, bis cavalry on the rear, his in- fantry on the front. Whether he should succeed or fail he proposed to follow up the movement by a cavalry reconnoi- sance, with infantry support, towards London and Mount Vernon. He calculated that he would in the end make a stand behind the Kentucky, and before he set his expedition in motion, he ordered the assembling at Lexington of all the able-bodied negroes of Fayette, Jessamine and Madison counties, with the view to intrenching along the river. He then started his troops forward, and was mounting his horse to follow, when General Nelson appeared and relieved him of the command.
Wallace imparted all the information in his possession in regard to the enemy's movements, detailed his plan to entrap the rebel cavalry ; and, fearful of misfortune, unwilling to lose the opportunity to retrieve Metcalfe's disaster, and prompted by a sense of duty to the Sixty-Sixth Indiana, which he had undertaken to command until its Colonel could be regularly appointed, he offered his services in any capacity, to General Nelson, who being his inferior in rank, had no authority to detain him. Neither the plan nor the offer was acceptable to Nelson. He immediately recalled the troop of horse, although he unaccountably allowed the infantry to pursue its march.
General Wallace having nothing to do, now left the front and went to Cincinnati, where he immediately began to make preparations to return to his old division at Memphis. He was convinced that in volunteering to render services out of the regular line of duty one endangers his reputation with-
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"RETURN TO CINCINNATI."
7
out getting any thanks, and he thought the sooner he left the disturbed department of the Ohio the better.
A telegram was brought to him :
" LEXINGTON, KY., September 1, 1862.
"Major General Lew. Wallace :
" Please come down immediately to take command of the troops in this vicinity.
H. G. WRIGHT, Major General Commanding."
General Wright was also his inferior in rank, but conjec- turing that some disaster had occurred, Wallace forgot his reflections, waived etiquette and was on the road to Lexing- ton in an hour. It subsequently appeared that the troops at Richmond had been surrendered and killed or dispersed, and his services were desired to get the public stores from Lex- ington, and to conduct the retreat of the remnant of the force to Louisville. Midway of the journey, at Paris, an- other dispatch made him face about. From the same officer and place, it ran : " Return to Cincinnati. Take command of the troops there and at Covington."
Cincinnati was wholly without defenses; and it had no soldiers, nor arms, nor gunboats, nor munitions, nor material of any kind. In the extraordinary emergency General Wal- lace resorted to extraordinary measures. A city of two hundred thousand inhabitants could, and should, be made to defend itself. He proclaimed martial law, suspended busi- ness, seized whatever was required, and sent the whole working population across the Ohio to intrench the hills around Newport and Covington. His proclamation ap- peared in all the papers on Tuesday, September 2d:
PROCLAMATION.
" The undersigned, by order of Major General Wright, assumes command of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport.
"It is but fair to inform the citizens that an active, daring, and powerful enemy threatens them with every consequence of war; yet the cities must be defended, and their inhabi- tants must assist in the preparation.
8
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
" Patriotism, duty, honor, self-preservation call them to the labor, and it must be performed equally by all classes.
" First. All business must be suspended at nine o'clock to-day. Every business house must be closed.
"Second. Under the direction of the Mayor the citizens must, within an hour after the suspension of business, (ten o'clock A. M.,) assemble in convenient public places ready for orders. As soon as possible they will then be assigned to their work.
" This labor ought to be that of love, and the undersigned trusts and believes it is so. Anyhow, it must be done.
" The willing shall be properly credited; the unwilling promptly visited. The principle adopted is, citizens for the labor, soldiers for the battle.
" Third. The ferry boats will cease plying the river after four o'clock A. M. until further orders.
" Martial law is hereby proclaimed in the three cities; but until they can be relieved by the military, the injunctions of this proclamation will be executed by the police.
LEWIS WALLACE,
Major General Commanding."
The wisdom of the regulations, together with the bold, imperative language in which they were proclaimed, dis- pelled a consternation and dismay, which throughout the previous day and night had been profound.
Unexpectedly Kirby Smith's column stopped in the neigh- borhood of Lexington, and his troops employed themselves foraging and in establishing a depot of supplies at Camp Dick Robinson, giving to Wallace time to organize his im- mense force of citizens,-some to fight, the rest to work.
It was a rare sight which the 3d of September presented; shops closed, manufactories silent, courts and colleges empty, ten thousand men issuing from mansion and tene- ment, shouldering their spades, crossing the Ohio from Cin- cinnati, joining the citizens of Covington and Newport, and bending their backs in fellowship,-the banker and the rag- man, the Irishman and the negro,-to the great business of
ยท
9
FORTIFYING CINCINNATI.
the hour, intrenching, with the promise of wages, a dollar a day!
The defence of Cincinnati from a foc approaching from the South, requires a great line of works, extending semi- circularly round Newport and Covington; a large army to man the works, and a fleet of gunboats to patrol the Ohio river in the event it is so low as to be fordable, which was now the case.
At the commencement of the war General O. M. Mitchell began and nearly completed several redoubts, designed chiefly to cover the important roads of approach from the South. On the Lexington turnpike he threw up quite a pretentious little bastioned fort, which was now named, in remembrance of him, Fort Mitchell.
With a party of engineers Wallace rode two days, tracing lines for fortifications.
As to an army to man the works, Cincinnati alone, besides the immense working parties, furnished eleven regiments of fighting men, who marched over and took position in the trenches and on the lines. Militia from other parts of the State reported in thousands, and were for the most part as- signed to what was known as the River Defences. As soon as a company or regiment was organized and armed, it was put on a boat or on the cars and sent to guard the fords. To patrol the river and assist the militia in holding the fords a flotilla of sixteen steamboats was organized, each protected by bales of hay and armed with two guns. The mechanics of Cincinnati threw a pontoon bridge over the Ohio between Cincinnati and Covington, accomplishing the task in twenty- four hours. A precisely similar structure thrown across the river at Paducah by Fremont required about eight weeks.
Miles Greenwood turned over a number of guns just from his foundry, but there was an alarming deficiency in arms and but a small supply of ammunition.
A requisition was made upon the Governor of Ohio, at Columbus, for arms and ammunition, but it received no attention. He was engrossed in the work of furnishing men. In the dilemma recourse was had to the Governor of
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Indiana. The response was immediate : "Your requisition filled. Indiana has plenty. Send on your orders."
Fifteen hours from the receipt of the requisition by Gov- ernor Morton, ninety-three thousand one hundred and thirty- six pounds of ammunition for artillery, and three million three hundred and sixty-five thousand rounds of small arms, three thousand muskets and twenty-four pieces of artillery were landed at Cincinnati and Covington, and the artillery was in position for use.
Governor Morton also diverted from the Kentucky stream and hurried to Cincinnati five Indiana regiments, the Eigh- tieth, Colonel Denby; Eighty-Fourth, General Morris; Eighty-Fifth, Colonel Baird; Eighty-Sixth, Colonel Hamil- ton; and One Hundred and First, Colonel Gavin, with All- drews' battery, the Twenty-first.
So rapidly did volunteers report that Wallace's informal returns of September 10th show a force of thirty-eight thou- sand men, all raw, but formidable behind works.
"If the enemy should not come after all this fuss," said one of his friends to General Wallace, "you will be ruined." " Very well," Wallace replied, "but they will come. If they do not, it will be because this same fuss has made them think better of it."
About the eighth of September General Wright came from Louisville and relieved Wallace of everything but the immediate command of the troops and defences on the southern side of the river. Regarding the order for the sus- pension of all business unnecessarily stringent, Wright re- voked it, but after one day's observation, was convinced of its propriety, and promulgated it again. He attempted no other modification of existing orders.
On the 12th a column of rebels under General Heath ap- peared in front of Fort Mitchell on the Lexington turnpike. It comprised four brigades of veteran infantry, two regiments of cavalry, and field batteries in proportion, in all between ten and twelve thousand men. Skirmishing continued at intervals during four days, Wallace meantime eagerly expect- ing battle, while with the utmost circumspection and caution he made preparation. Telegraphic wires were extended from
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THE ENEMY BAFFLED.
his quarters to every point of importance along the lines. Troops lay in the intrenchments and remained at the guns night and day. The gunboats were concentrated upon the threatened flank, with a system of signals carefully arranged that their fire might be directed over the bluffs; five batteries were planted on the Cincinnati side of the river, ready to cover a retreat and particularly the crossing of the pontoon bridge ; roads were cut and leveled to admit a speedy trans- fer of columns of support from one point of the fortifications to another.
In view of the completeness and excellence of the arange- ments for the enemy's reception, it is not wonderful that on the night of September 16th he silently withdrew, "without even setting eyes on the city he had it in his heart to sack," and began a precipitate retreat to Lexington.
Wallace requested permission to organize five thousand of his best troops, including a brigade of veterans who had just arrived under General Gordon Granger, to pursue the enemy. General Wright, influenced by a suspicion that Heath's movement was made for the purpose of drawing our troops out of their fortifications into the open field, declined the proposition.
At the time of the enemy's disappearance, Wallace's force behind the lines round Newport and Covington, amounted to forty-two thousand men ; adding the men who guarded the fords and manned the gunboats, the number could not have amounted to less than sixty-five thousand, a prodigious army to be raised, equipped, supplied, organized and placed in position in a little less than fifteen days.
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