USA > Indiana > Kosciusko County > A standard history of Kosciusko County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development. A chronicle of the people with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 20
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Previous to its veteranization, Company B had only two captains, both from Kosciusko County. Captain Boydston was preceded by Martin L. Stewart, who commanded the company during the first two years of its service. Company B, of the reorganized regiment, was commanded by Captains Boydston and Thaddeus Hoke. In the veteran Thirtieth was also quite a number of men from Kosciusko County, including several officers.
THIRTY-FIFTH (FIRST IRISH) REGIMENT
The above-named regiment had substantially the same military experience as the Thirtieth, and acquitted itself with equal credit. Not the same local interest was attached to the Thirty-fifth as to the Thirtieth, as in the former was a comparatively small represen- tation from Kosciusko County. It was mustered into the service at Indianapolis, in December, 1861, with John C. Walker as its colonel. Subsequently and before getting into action, it was consolidated with the Sixty-second, or Second Irish Regiment. The Thirty-fifth was mustered out of the service in Texas, during June, 1865.
THIRTY-NINTH INFANTRY ( AFTERWARD EIGHTH CAVALRY)
In October, 1863, after having been battle-seasoned as an infantry organization at Shiloh, Stone River and Chickamauga and the great southwestern campaigns of which they were the whirlpools, the Thirty-ninth Indiana Infantry, in which were only a few men from the county, was reorganized as a cavalry regiment. Two companies were added to the original command, and the reorganized regiment performed picket and scout duty in the vicinity of Chattanooga until February, 1864, when it re-enlisted as a veteran body. After its authorized furlough, it returned to the southwestern field of war in time to participate in the Atlanta campaign with Kilpatrick's famous cavalry. Now the Eighth Cavalry, it swept along with Sherman's army in the march to the sea and the northern Carolina movements. The regiment was mustered out of the service in North Carolina, in July, 1865.
FORTY-FIRST INFANTRY (SECOND CAVALRY)
Companies D and M of this regiment drew a few soldiers from Kosciusko County. The infantry organization of this regiment was
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not long maintained, and it was the first complete cavalry regiment raised in the state. It was organized at Indianapolis, in October, 1861, with John A. Bridgeland as colonel. From December of that year until the fall of Atlanta, in September, 1864, the history of the Forty-first is identified with the campaigns of Buell, Rosecrans and Sherman. Soon after Atlanta capitulated, the regiment was reorganized and placed in the veteran class. It was consolidated into a battalion of four companies in command of Major Roswell S. Hill, and thereafter, until the close of the war, was engaged in scouting and picket duties, with occasional raids into Alabama. The con- solidated battalion was mustered out at Nashville on July 22, 1865.
FORTY-SECOND REGIMENT OF INFANTRY
This regiment, which was organized at Evansville, with James G. Jones as its colonel, in October, 1861, shared the battles and cam- paigns of such Indiana organizations as the Second and Eighth Cav- alry, which were attached to Sherman's army at the conclusion of the Atlanta campaign. There was a very small sprinkling of Kosciusko County men in its ranks. It was mustered out of the service at Louisville, in June, 1865.
THE FORTY-FOURTH INFANTRY
One company (B) of the Forty-fourth was composed entirely of soldiers from Kosciusko County, and Company C had a smaller rep- resentation. All the companies of the regiment were raised in the old Tenth Congressional district, and its organization was effected at Fort Wayne in October, 1861, with Hugh B. Reed as colonel. It took part in the capture of Fort Donelson and in the two days' fighting at Pittsburg Landing, in both of which it lost heavily. After the pur- suit of Bragg and the battle of Perryville, the fortunes of the Forty- fourth were intertwined with those of the Army of the Cumberland, and after Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Mission Ridge, the regi- ment was received into the veteran class. It then enjoyed the well- earned furlough granted to all such, and was honorably discharged from the service, as the provost guard at Chattanooga, in September, 1865.
Captain John Murray was the first in command of Company B, and died of wounds received at Shiloh, in April, 1862. First Lieu- tenant John Barton succeeded him. James S. Getty, also formerly
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of the lower grade, was promoted to the captaincy in March, 1863, and John S. Deardorff was made captain in February, 1865.
THE FORTY-SIXTH AND FORTY-SEVENTH REGIMENTS
These two organizations, which numbered small delegations of men from Kosciusko County, were altogether engaged in the south- western campaigns and chiefly in Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mis- sissippi and Louisiana. Their operations were in connection with the long-continued efforts of the Federal forces to obtain complete possession of the Mississippi Valley.
The Forty-sixth was organized at Logansport in October, 1861, with Graham N. Fitch as colonel, and mustered into the service in December of that year. Its first real active service was at New Madrid, Fort Pillow and other points in Arkansas, with Pope's army. It participated in the expedition to Yazoo Pass and the Vicksburg campaign, after which it re-enlisted as veterans and left for Indiana on furlough. The regiment was a victim of Bank's ill-fated Red River expedition after which it re-enlisted as veterans. In the fol- lowing spring (1864) it became one of the victims of the ill-fated Red River expedition under General Banks, and it was not until the following June, with its ranks much depleted by battle losses, that the men were enabled to take the veteran furlough to the Hoosier State. The regiment was ordered to Kentucky, at the conclusion of its stay in Indiana, and spent the remainder of its war service in guarding the southern state against Confederate raids and threatened invasions. It was mustered out in September, 1865.
The Forty-seventh was organized at Anderson, Indiana, with John R. Slack as colonel, in October, 1861, and was mainly composed of companies raised in the Eleventh Congressional district. Until the termination of the Red River campaign, its movements were similar to those of the Forty-sixth, but in the spring of 1865 it took a leading part in the operations before Mobile and in the campaign which dispersed General Price's army. The Forty-seventh was mustered out of the service at Shreveport, in October, 1865.
FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT
There were fair representations of men from Kosciusko County in Companies G and I of the Forty-eighth Infantry, which was organ- ized at Goshen, in December, 1861. Norman Eddy was its colonel. It left for Fort Donelson on February 1, 1862, and arrived there the
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day following the surrender. After the siege of Corinth and the Vicksburg campaign, the regiment was a part of Sherman's grand army in all its movements and engagements to Atlanta, and thence northward through the Carolinas to the tag-ends of the Civil war. In the meantime it had veteranized and in July, 1865, it was mus- tered out of the service at Louisville, Kentucky.
THE FIFTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY
The first distinct period of service which fell to the Fifty-eighth Regiment, covering more than two years, was of the hard-fighting order, and included the battles of Pittsburg Landing, the siege of Corinth, the battle of Chickamauga (it was the first Union regiment to enter Chickamauga), Mission Ridge and the siege of Knoxville.
The regiment veteranized in January, 1864, and upon its return to Chattanooga in April commenced an entirely new experience in its military service. It was then assigned to the engineering depart- ment, and placed in charge of the pontoon trains of Sherman's ad- vancing army. After being re-enforced by veterans and recruits from the Tenth Indiana, the Fifty-eighth assumed its new line of duties in earnest and made a distinctive record for efficiency and promptness under every soldierly test. As soon as a river was reached, it was the part of the Fifty-eighth to see that the Union boys got across without delay, and in that most important task it was never known to fail; flood, sharp-shooting or shell fire, was alike ignored when the pontoons had to be laid. Such services were absolutely indispensable in the marches and campaigns through the Carolinas, in which states every available bridge had been thoroughly destroyed by the enemy. Upon reaching Washington City, at the close of the war, the Fifty-eighth was ordered to Louisville, where it was mus- tered out of the service, in July, 1865.
FIFTY-NINTH AND SIXTY-EIGHTH REGIMENTS
.These are among the later infantry regiments of the war and their service was mainly in the southern states of the Mississippi River valley, concluding with Sherman's campaigns, in whole or in part. The Fifty-ninth was mustered into the service in February, 1862, and its record embraced the Missouri engagements, the siege of Vicks- burg, the Chattanooga campaign ending with the battle of Mission Ridge, the march to the sea, with Atlanta as the chief goal, and all the Carolina movements to the final collapse of Confederate power.
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Nearly all the men of the Fifty-ninth had re-enlisted as veterans and taken their allotted furlough in Indiana. The regiment was mustered out at Louisville, in July, 1865.
The Sixty-eighth Infantry was raised in the old Fourth Con- gressional district and mustered into the service at Greensburg in August, 1862, with Edward A. King (lieutenant colonel of the Nine- teenth Infantry) as colonel. A few weeks afterward, at Mumfords- ville, with other Union troops, it was captured by a part of General Bragg's Confederate army, and after the men had been exchanged as prisoners of war in the following December, it left for Louisville, and thence for Murfreesboro. From that time on, it was incorporated in the Army of the Cumberland, and after Sherman's march to the sea had been accomplished it was made part of the Union forces collected to bar Hood's advance upon Nashville. Colonel King, its commander, was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. The Sixty- eighth was mustered out at Nashville in June, 1865.
THE SEVENTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
After General Williams, there was no officer of the Civil war who stood higher than Colonel Charles W. Chapman, of the Seventy- fourth. In some ways, Colonel Chapman was closer to the hearts of Kosciusko County people than General Williams; and the fact that he was the son of John B. Chapman, the father of the county as well as of the colonel, gave the commander of the Seventy-fourth a special prestige.
The regiment was recruited in the Tenth Congressional district, all of Companies A, F and K and a portion of Company I being raised in Kosciusko County. It was organized at Fort Wayne, eight companies strong, in August, 1862, Charles W. Chapman, who had been captain of Company A, being commissioned as colonel. At first it was part of the Army of the Ohio, and after it had engaged in the pursuit of Bragg, with other Union forces, and participated in the battle of Perryville, it was joined by two other companies and brought up to full strength. The companies had just been released as prisoners of war, having been captured some time before by a section of Bragg's command in its assault on Munfordsville, Ken- tucky.
The Seventy-fourth was engaged at Chickamauga and Mission Ridge, in both of which battles it suffered heavy losses, and in May, 1864, became a unit in Sherman's army on the move toward Atlanta and the sea. During the early part of the battle of Chickamauga,
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Colonel Chapman commanded a brigade, and in the afternoon, during a charge of his men upon an enemy battery, his horse was killed by a grape shot, throwing him to the ground, breaking his arm and shoul- der and otherwise injuring him so severely that he was obliged to resign. He did not fully recover from his injuries for some years afterward.
LIEUTENANT RUNYAN AT KENESAW MOUNTAIN
The battle of Kenesaw Mountain, about twenty-five miles north- west of Atlanta, was one of the fiercest engagements in which Sher- man's army engaged before reaching the coast. It was on the 15th of June, 1864, that the Union troops bivouacked near the base of that rugged stronghold, upon whose sides was posted the enemy. Among the numerous brave acts performed on that battle field by both Fed- eral and Confederate troops is one which has been recorded in favor of a Kosciusko County soldier, who afterward also achieved prominence as a public man. Lieutenant John A. Runyan, of Company A, Sev- enty-fourth Regiment, was ordered by his superior officer to double the line held by an Ohio company, take charge of the same and dis- lodge the enemy from the position he held in a log house and behind a fence. After forming the line, he informed the company in a voice which carried to the sheltered Confederates that they had been ordered to capture both fence and log cabin and must do so at all cost.
Lieutenant Runyan gave the command "Fix bayonets. forward, double quick, march !" Everything and everybody were swept away in that section to the foot of the mountain, and while the lieutenant was considering the next most feasible step a minnie ball struck him in the upper part of his right knee, passing through the bone and burying itself in an oak tree some distance in the rear. This ended his career as soldier; he was taken to the field hospital near Big Shanty and his leg amputated at about ten o'clock the same night.
LIEUTENANT KUDER AT JONESBORO
Among the brisk engagements fought by Sherman's boys after the capture of Atlanta in the vicinity of the city, in order to clear the road to the sea of impeding Confederates, was the battle of Jones- boro; and in one of the actions of that battle special honors went to a Kosciusko County man-Lieutenant Jeremiah Kuder, of Company A. On the 1st of September, at the battle mentioned, the Seventy-
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fourth, with the brigade to which it was attached, carried an espe- cially strong section of the enemy's works, capturing four pieces of artillery and more than 700 men. Lieutenant Kuder's part in the brilliant performance was of such noteworthy dash and bravery that he was afterward awarded a bronze honor medal by Congress.
The Seventy-fourth continued with the other commands of Sher- man's army to the ocean, Savannah and thence through the Carolinas to Richmond. It was mustered out of the service at Washington, in May, 1865.
CHARLES W. CHAPMAN
Colonel Charles W. Chapman, a native of Wayne County, was only seven years old when the family settled on a farm near Lees- burg. He obtained a partial collegiate education at Indiana Asbury University, Greencastle, Indiana, and soon after his return to his home. at the age of nineteen, commenced the study of law. That profession did not appeal to his nervous temperament, rather im- patient of slow results, and he then drifted into mercantile pursuits. With the $1,000 which his father loaned him he bought a stock of merchandise in New York and located first at Leesburg, but finally in Warsaw. Mr. Chapman again studied law, but abandoned it for business, in which he was successfully engaged at the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion. It may here be said that, in 1857, he erected the first flouring mill in Warsaw, and, like most of his other ventures, this enterprise proved successful.
Colonel Chapman was a representative of the lower house of the Legislature during the first year of the war. After receiving the severe injuries mentioned at Chickamauga, he was invalided home and, partially regaining his health, assisted in raising the One Hun- dred and Forty-Second Indiana Regiment. He did not accompany it to the front, as he was elected to the State Senate in the summer of 1864, representing Kosciusko and Wabash counties. He also served in the upper house in 1865, 1866 and 1872 (the last time, for four years). During this period he took a very active and influential part in public legislation, being for a large portion of the time chair- man of the Finance Committee. He held the office of register in bankruptcy from 1868 to 1872, resigning it when elected to the State Senate for the four years' term. The colonel was also a persistent and influential promoter of all industrial and transportation enter- prises which promised well for Warsaw and the county. He was active in building the Warsaw Woolen Mills and elected president
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of the controlling company, and no man was more entitled to pro- nounced leadership in the furtherance of railroad projects than he. Further, the public schools never had a warmer or a more practical friend. He was among the largest land owners in the county, and at one time had about 1,000 acres under cultivation.
Colonel Chapman was held in high esteem by Governor Oliver P. Morton, and as mark of that regard appointed him one of the honorary pall bearers selected by the governors of the different states to accom- pany the remains of Lincoln from Washington to Springfield.
JOHN N. RUNYAN
John N. Runyan, a native of Warsaw, and identified with both the Twelfth and the Seventy-fourth regiments, was one of the young- est officers ever called to the performance of important duties in the Union army. When in his sixteenth year he could hold himself in leash no longer, he found that he was too short in stature to reach military requirements, but thick soles and well-stuffed boots overcame that drawback, and in December, 1861, he was finally accepted as a recruit for Company E, Twelfth Indiana Infantry. His was one of the short-term regiments and he was mustered out without seeing active service, in May, 1862.
But Private Runyan had been baptized and now his overpowering ambition was to be a real soldier; so upon his return to Warsaw he took an active part in recruiting Company A of the Seventy-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and in July, 1862, then only in his seventeenth year, was mustered in as sergeant. The regiment became part of the Fourteenth Army Corps, under Thomas. He was pro- moted second lieutenant in April, 1863, and at the battle of Chatta- nooga in the following November, the captain and first lieutenant of Company A having been badly wounded early in the action, the command devolved upon Lieutenant Runyan. From every authentic account he was fully equal to the occasion. Twenty-five of his forty- four men were pierced by enemy bullets, and he was also struck by a spent ball, but remained at his post. The result of this remarkable and steady bravery in one who was still a mere youth was promo- tion to the grade of first lieutenant, in December following the battle of Chattanooga.
Lieutenant Runyan was also in the front line at Mission Ridge, but during the winter of 1863-64 was sent home as a recruiting officer. His record and his enthusiastic personality were both calculated to further that work, and in April he returned to his regiment with
.
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strengthened reputation, in time to participate in the Atlanta cam- paign. His prominence in carrying the outposts of the Confederate troops at the base of Kenesaw Mountain has already been described. The wound there received which terminated his military career healed superficially and, under the tender ministrations of a tender and admiring father, he was able to return to his home within thirty days of his misfortune. When able to do so, he proceeded to Cincin- nati to obtain his honorable discharge.
Lieutenant Runyan entered the Fort Wayne College for a short course of study, but his wound commenced to assert itself to such a degree that he abandoned, for the time, his legal ambitions, and through the influence and exertions of his father, Peter L. Runyan, secured the appointment of the Warsaw postmastership. The father, so prominent in county and state affairs and one of the most able and popular of the pioneers, had held that office through the entire period of the Civil war, and the son continued in the office for many years thereafter.
But the wound received at Kenesaw Mountain persistently pained him, and it became evident that the amputation had been improperly performed, or that the hospital treatment had been faulty. After careful consultation, it was decided that a re-amputation was neces- sary. This was performed and undoubtedly saved him long years of suffering, if not prolonged his life. He afterward resumed the study of the law; practiced his profession for some time; and was also interested in the Warsaw Woolen mills, the Opera House and other local enterprises.
SEVENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT (FOURTH CAVALRY)
Organized at Indianapolis, in August, 1862, with Isaac P. Gray as colonel, the regiment engaged in a number of semi-independent raids and skirmishes in various parts of Kentucky and Tennessee before it joined Rosecrans' movement against Chattanooga. The Fourth Cav- alry led the advance and participated at Chickamauga as a strong ยท Union force. It was afterward ordered to East Tennessee, where it remained until the spring of 1864. During that period (in Jan- uary) it was engaged in a fierce fight at Fair Garden, or Strawberry Plains, in which a battalion of four companies under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph P. Leslie (a Kosciusko County man), made a saber charge on a Confederate battery, capturing it and several hundred prisoners. The gallant Union leader, however, was shot through the breast and died on the field.
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During the campaign against Atlanta, the Fourth Cavalry oper- ated on the flanks of General Sherman's army, took part in the McCook raid and was engaged in several battles. After the fall of Atlanta, the regiment returned to Tennessee, where it was assigned to Wilson's Cavalry division, and in the spring of 1865 accompanied it in the Alabama raids carried out by those troops. The Fourth as a whole was mustered out of the service at Edgefield, Tennessee, in June, 1865. During the first few months of its service, the regiment was divided and assigned to different portions of Kentucky, and for about a year and a half of 1863-64 Company C was detached to per- form escort duty at the headquarters of Gen. A. J. Smith. It re- joined the regiment late in 1864, having taken part in the operations against Vicksburg and in the Red River expedition.
Company C, of the Seventy-seventh Regiment, or Fourth Cavalry, was composed entirely of recruits from Kosciusko County, and was wholly officered by residents of that section. Joseph P. Leslie, whose death on the battlefield of Strawberry Plains has been noted, was captain of the company when it was organized for the war and in May, 1863, was promoted from the rank of major to that of lieu- tenant colonel. William S. Hemphill was for some time captain of the company, having come up from the first sergeancy, through the various grades.
EIGHTY-THIRD AND EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENTS
The two regiments mentioned were in that large class of com- mands which so tried both the endurance and the military stamina of the American soldier of the Civil war-that is, the combined march- ing and fighting regiments. Their men were by no means the only Union soldiers whose marches and campaigns afoot covered from seven to ten thousand miles.
The Eighty-third Regiment was organized at Lawrenceburg, in September, 1862, and Benjamin J. Spooner was commissioned colonel. Its first active operations were in connection with the siege and assaults against Vicksburg and the country in its vicinity. Next came the campaign conducted for the relief of Chattanooga, including the graphic storming of Mission Ridge, followed by all the battles woven into the Sherman campaigns to Atlanta and the sea and far north- ward, culminating in the collapse of the last of the strong Confederate armies and the Grand Review of the victorious Union legions at the national capital. The Eighty-third was mustered out in June, 1865.
The Eighty-eighth was mustered into the service at Fort Wayne, Vol. 1-15
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in August, 1862, with George Humphrey as colonel. The lines of its marches and the list of its battles and campaigns followed sub- stantially those laid down by the Union leaders for the Eighty-third. It was also mustered out of the service in June, 1865.
Kosciusko County furnished only small quotas to these two regi- ments, their only officer from the home county being Chaplain Wil- liam S. Wilson, who finally resigned from the service on account of disability.
NINETIETH REGIMENT (FIFTH CAVALRY)
The chief service performed by the Fifth Cavalry, which was organized at Indianapolis in the fall of 1862, was in the protection of the Unionists of northern Kentucky and the residents of southern Indiana against the Morgan raids and the incursions of other Con- federate horsemen. In that work it was divided and distributed in the Ohio Valley at critical and threatened points, until the spring of 1863, when the regiment was reunited at Glasgow. As a strong cavalry force it continued such operations, and at Buffington Island it headed the main Morgan command, routed it and captured a bat- tery and numerous prisoners; after which it returned to Louisville. It then moved to East Tennessee, and remained there until the open- ing of the Atlanta campaign.
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