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 21
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The Fifth met with disaster in the famous Stoneman cavalry raid to the rear of Atlanta. It was surrounded by the enemy and surren- dered by General Stoneman over the protest of its active commander, Colonel Butler, who insisted that his men could have "cut their way out" and joined the main command. After this, the Fifth was as- signed to guard duty in the rear until January, 1865, when it was remounted and equipped at Louisville. Thereafter, until its dis- charge in June, 1865, the regiment was engaged in scouting, guard and courier service. The men always felt that they were not given a fair chance to prove their mettle in the Stoneman, raid matter, al- though the decision of their commander-in-chief was undoubtedly prompted from wise considerations of a conservation of man power and a desire to avoid the useless sacrifice of Union life.
The largest representation from Kosciusko County in the Fifth Cavalry was in Company M. Joseph L. Thralls, a home man, was its second lieutenant for over a year.
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT (SIX MONTHS)
This six months' regiment, composed largely of quite young men, was mustered into the service in September, 1863, with George W.
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Jackson as its colonel. Company A was recruited entirely in Kos- ciusko County and was in command of Captain Henry A. White; first lieutenant, Joseph B. Davis ; second lieutenant, Peter L. Runyan, Jr., a brother of the famous young officer, John N., of the Seventy- fourth.
Notwithstanding the youth of both rank and file of the One Hun- dred and Eighteenth, it was immediately ordered to important scenes of military action in Kentucky and Tennessee. It reached Cumber- land Gap in October, and, after shifting around for a time, reached Clinch River, and in December was brought under fire at Walker's ยท Ford. The brigade to which the regiment had been attached had been sent to the relief of the Fifth Indiana Cavalry, which had en- gaged a heavy force of the enemy south of the river and was falling back with the melting of its supply of ammunition. The raw youth of the One Hundred and Eighteenth reached the river, plunged in, waded across, formed in line of battle on both sides of the road and advanced on the Confederates. Their movement enabled the Union cavalry to fall back and cross the river. The retreat was well cov- ered by the relief, although pressed by an entire brigade of the enemy moving against both flanks of the regiment. The loss of the One Hundred and Eighteenth was fifteen killed and wounded.
After having thus proved its reliability, the regiment was ordered to Tazewell and other sections in East Tennessee, doing most arduous duty and suffering many privations in its winter campaigning both there and in Kentucky. Much of the time it was almost impossible to get supplies to them, and to add to their sufferings they were in- sufficiently clothed, but although raw, unhardened soldiers, they en- dured all with the uncomplaining bravery of the average American when he believes he is enduring and suffering for the right. The boys-for if ever the term was literally applicable, it was in connec- tion with this regiment-were mustered out of the service in the latter part of February, 1864.
ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEENTH (SEVENTH CAVALRY)
After operating for the last year and a half of the war in Missis- sippi against Forrest's cavalrymen, and in Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri in pursuit of various sections of the Confederate armies of the Southwest, the Seventh Cavalry spent several months thereafter in Louisiana and Texas, engaged in "mopping up" scattered bands of the enemy who persisted in fighting after the real backbone of the rebellion had crumpled. It was mustered into the service at In- dianapolis ou the first of October, 1863, with John P. C. Shanks as
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colonel. Only two months of training preceded its start for the front and its incorporation with the forces of General A. J. Smith in Northern Mississippi, who had been assigned the hard task of cutting off Forrest's cavalry forces from the defense of Jackson. The move- ment commenced late in December, when the thermometer had dropped to below zero, and as the men were not prepared for such weather they suffered severely. The preliminary skirmishes between the Fed- eral and Confederate forces were all in favor of the Union men.
Near Okalona, Mississippi, in February, 1864, the enemy was finally encountered in force and a fierce engagement continued throughout the day. The entire division was routed by Forrest's men and driven from the field, albeit the Seventh held the enemy in check, saved the train and prevented a total defeat. Late in the evening it made a saber charge upon the enemy, saved a Union battery that had been abandoned and, being driven back, was compelled to leave sixty of its men on the field. Eighty-four was the total loss of the regiment in killed, wounded and missing.
Again, in the following June, a Union force of cavalry, including the Seventh, was defeated near Guntown, Mississippi, by Forrest's cavalry, and driven back to Memphis. Until the succeeding Novem- ber the Indiana cavalry was engaged in guard duty in the Memphis neighborhood, protecting the railroads and civilian property. It then left Memphis, crossed the river with Mower's division of the Sixteenth Army Corps (infantry) and moved north after the Confederate gen- eral Price, who had then commenced his invasion of Missouri. After pursuing him across that state the Seventh returned to Memphis. In December it participated in the Grierson raid through Mississippi, and registered a decisive victory over the enemy at Egypt Station, destroy- ing a large train of stores and goods. Guard duty along the Memphis & Charleston Railroad followed, and in June, 1865, the regiment was ordered to Alexandria, Louisiana, where it was consolidated into six companies and sent to Hempstead, Texas. Thence it was ordered to Austin, where it was mustered out in February, 1866.
The largest contingent from the county in the One Hundred and Nineteenth was in Company I, of which James H. Carpenter was captain. He was promoted major of the regiment and was succeeded by Elijah S. Blackford. Robert S. Richart, sergeant, was promoted to a captaincy in the Twelfth Cavalry Regiment.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT (TWELFTH CAVALRY)
This organization had a large representation from Koscinsko County in Company I, of which Robert S. Richart was captain. It was mustered into service at Kendallville in April, 1864, with Edward
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Anderson as colonel. After being ordered to the front, it remained a short time at Nashville, and in May was assigned to the duty of guarding a sixty-mile section of railway in Alabama. It was then stationed for some time at Tullahoma, Tennessee, in order to cir- cumvent Forrest and his cavalry who were endeavoring to break the Federal communications on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The Twelfth also had another set-to with Forrest's command in the Murfreesboro region, but in February, 1865, was embarked on trans- ports for New Orleans. It had a good part in the operations against the defenses of Mobile, and in April assisted in the Grierson raids through Alabama and Georgia and thence to Columbus, Mississippi. These operations covered a course of 800 miles and probably con- stituted the most successful cavalry raid in this section of the enemy's country. The regiment was mustered out at Vicksburg, in Novem- ber, 1865.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH REGIMENT
Most of Company G, about half of Company H and a number of men in Companies I and K were drawn from Kosciusko County into the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Regiment. It was organized at Michigan City and mustered into the service in March, 1864, with Charles Case as colonel. It reached Dalton in time to be absorbed into Sherman's army just opening its great campaign toward At- lanta. The regiment was engaged in the battle of Resaca and par- ticipated in the engagements at New Hope Church and Lost Moun- tain, Decatur and Strawberry Run. After the capture of Atlanta, in September, the regiment encamped with its corps at Decatur, where it remained until October, when it took up the pursuit of Hood who was trying to gain a position in Sherman's rear, and was afterward detached from the main army to form a portion of the Union forces which had been ordered to Nashville to protect that city against its threatened assault by the Confederates. Hood's plans also miscarried in that region and a large Union force, including the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth, again joined in the pursuit of the Confederate leader.
In January, 1865, the regiment and corps started for North Caro- lina to re-enforce Sherman's army which was rapidly closing around Richmond. The decisive engagement at Wise's Forks was in favor of the Union troops, although the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth and other Federal regiments suffered heavy losses. It saw no more active service during the war, and was mustered out at Raleigh, North Carolina, in August, 1865.
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Julian A. Robbins was captain of Company G, when the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Regiment was organized, and died of wounds received in the battle near Decatur, in July, 1864. First Lieutenant Reuben James succeeded to the command.
The history of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Infantry is almost identical with that of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth, just given. They were organized at the same time, fought the same battles, endured the hardships of the same campaigns, were mus- tered out on the same date, and acquitted themselves with equal bravery and steadiness of nerve and purpose.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH
This regiment, which was recruited in the Eleventh Congressional district, was organized a little over a week after the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth and One Hundred and Twenty-ninth. It was mustered into the service on the 12th of March, 1864, with Charles S. Parrish as colonel. From Nashville, as a part of the Twenty-third Army Corps, it started for Charleston, East Tennessee, in April and in the following month it moved with the balance of its division and corps on the Atlanta campaign. From that time and point, until the battle of Nashville, the history of its movements has already been written in the narrative of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth. After the defeat of Hood before that city, it embarked on transports at Clifton, Tennessee, and proceeded by boat, rail and afoot to the vicinity of Fort Fisher, North Carolina, where its identity was al- most lost in the larger military movements which preceded the sur- render of Johnston's army and the virtual close of the war, in April, 1865. After remaining on guard duty at Charlotte, North Carolina, until December of that year, it was called to Indianapolis and mus- tered out of the service.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT
Company E, commanded by Daniel W. Hamlin, was also largely recruited from the county. Its first lieutenant was Peter L. Runyan, Jr. It was a unit of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment, a hundred days' organization. Undoubtedly such regiments played an important part in throwing the final fighting strength of the war on the Union side.
The governors of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin having offered to raise for the service of the General Government a
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force of volunteers to serve for one hundred days, Governor Morton, on the 23d of April, 1864, issued his call for Indiana's quota of that force. The troops thus raised were to perform such services as might be required of them in any state, and were to be armed, subsisted, clothed and paid by the United States, but were not to receive any bounty. These troops were designed to make the campaign of 1864 decisive, by relieving a large number of veterans from guard and garrison duty and throwing them into the active fighting lines. The places of the seasoned troops performing these secondary duties were filled by the hundred days' men as fast as the latter could be raised, organized and sent to the front.
The One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Regiment was one of these organizations of the second line of land troops, and was com- posed of seven companies from the Ninth and three from the Eleventh Congressional district. They were organized as a regiment and mus- tered into the hundred-days' service, at Indianapolis, in May, 1864, with James H. Shannon as colonel, and left at once for Nashville. There they were assigned to duty along the lines of the Nashville & Chattanooga, Tennessee & Alabama and Memphis & Charleston rail- roads, until late in August of that year. The special duty of the regiment was to guard these lines of communication and transporta- tion, then being used by Sherman to transport troops and supplies to his army advancing toward Atlanta. At the expiration of its term of service it was mustered out at Indianapolis.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIRST AND ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY- SECOND
Later in the decisive year of 1864, after the calls had been issued for the hundred-days' men, the General Government decided to raise a number of regiments for one-year service, chiefly in post, guard and garrison duty. In December of that year a call was made for such purpose and recruiting stations were established at the head- quarters of the provost marshals, from which the men were for- warded to the general rendezvous at Indianapolis. Recruiting offi- cers were also appointed in the congressional districts to aid in the raising of this class of troops.
Under the call noted, the One Hundred and Fifty-First and the One Hundred and Fifty-Second regiments were raised, mustered and sent into the field. The former was composed of companies re- cruited in the Ninth Congressional district and was mustered into the service in March, 1865, with Joshua Healy as colonel. A few
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days after its departure from Indianapolis it reported to General Rousseau at Nashville, and during its entire period of service per- formed the routine duties assigned, thereby proving itself possessed of the true soldierly character.
The One Hundred and Fifty-Second was mustered into the serv- ice about two weeks after the One Hundred and Fifty-First, with Whedon W. Griswold as colonel. The field of its duties was the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia, but its time was also devoted to post and garrison service, and it was mustered out in September, 1865.
Company D, of the One Hundred and Fifty-Second Regiment, was raised entirely in Kosciusko County, Peter L. Runyan, Jr., serv- ing as its captain. Austin C. Funk was it first lieutenant and Wil- liam B. Hess, its second lieutenant.
There was quite a number of home men, also, in Companies A and B, and a few in Companies E, F, I and K.
LIGHT ARTILLERY FROM KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
Kosciusko County was represented in the light artillery branch of the service by the Fifteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-Third bat- teries. The Fifteenth Battery of Light Artillery was organized at Indianapolis in May, 1862, and was assigned to the work of guarding prisoners at that place. It was not formally mustered into the serv- ice of the United States until July of that year, with John C. H. Von Schon as captain. It was ordered at ouce to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and was at that place at the time of its surrender by Gen- eral Miles in September. In March of the following year, having in the meantime been supplied with new guns at Indianapolis, the battery was ordered to Kentucky to aid in the pursuit of Morgan's raiding cavalry. During the succeeding summer it was also called into action on the same errand and followed the Confederate raiders through considerable sections of Southern Indiana and Ohio.
The battery was then moved into East Tennessee, and was en- . gaged in a series of actions that culminated in the siege of Knox- ville. It accompanied Sherman's army in its Atlanta campaign, and was then diverted for a time to assist in blocking Hood's attempt to capture Nashville. It was then ordered to rejoin the main army in its concentration on Richmond, and was dispatched by boat and rail to Fort Fisher, North Carolina, via Cincinnati and Washington. The battery formed part of the forces which occupied Wilmington, that state, the headquarters of the Confederate blockade running, after
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HISTORY OF KOSCIUSKO COUNTY
which (in March, 1865) it left that point to join Sherman's army and participate in the final actions and maneuvers of the war, terminat- ing with the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston. It was mus- tered out at Indianapolis in June of that year.
The Twentieth Battery was mustered into the service in Septem- ber, 1862, with Frank A. Rose as captain, and left for the front in the following December. In January, 1863, the guns of the Twentieth were turned over to the Eleventh Indiana Battery, and the members of the former were assigned to the duty of manning the siege guns of the Nashville fortifications. It was not until the following October that the Twentieth Battery was again supplied with light guns, and from that time until March, 1864, was employed in guard duty along the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. The next scene of its activi- ties was in Northern Georgia. In July it joined Sherman's army in front of Atlanta, was at the battle of Jonesboro and other engage- ments of that campaign, and in December had been shifted to the west and the operations involving the defense of Nashville and the subsequent pursuit of Hood. In June, 1865, it was on duty at the fortifications of Chattanooga, and in the same month was mustered out of the service at Indianapolis.
The Twenty-Third Battery was mustered in during November, 1862, with James H. Myers, of Fort Wayne, as captain, and until September, 1863, was on duty guarding prisoners at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, was then ordered to Camp Nelson, Kentucky, and as- signed to Wilcox's Division. Thereafter its movements in the At- lanta campaign, Hood's pursuit, the battle of Nashville, and the final stages of the conflict in North Carolina, coincided with the program of the Fifteenth Battery. It was mustered out of the service at In- dianapolis, a short time before either the Fifteenth or the Twentieth.
SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL AND WORLD'S WARS
On the face of this narrative, descriptive of the participation of Kosciusko County manhood and boyhood in the military trials and bitter tests of the Civil war, appear many details which are of little interest to the majority of present-day men and women. But the accounts of such matters which have previously been published are much longer and more weighted with names and facts than the con- densed story carried by this history. The salient data and outstand- ing features of this phase of the county's history have only been re- tained, both because the record is a notable one and that those of today, who have had their experience of modern warfare, may have
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an opportunity to compare the past of the Civil war with the mightier and more complex conflict which has just terminated.
Even a careless study of the geography of the United States will be a forcible reminder of the different conditions met by the American soldier of 1861-65 and the American fighter of 1917-18. The Union and Confederate soldiers marched thousands of miles in all seasons and in every style of country known. The military record of Kos- ciusko County is that of every other section of the United States, and bears out the statement that since the days of Caesar and Hanni- bal no warring people on earth ever conducted campaigns which in- volved such grand detours, or fought so many great battles at such widely separated points, as the soldiers of the North and South dur- ing the Civil war. In both sections of the country, the vast theater of the war and the initiative of the American soldier gave birth to military moves and combinations which were revelations to European leaders who considered themselves masters of the art of war. Most of the hardest blows received on either side were usually in the open battlefield. The sieges: the dogged trench warfare, first introduced as a distinct military feature in the Civil war; the long drawn-out policy of starvation and wearing-out; the ceaseless attrition of the enemy, were rather regional actions than portions of a general plan or system.
The warfare, in which the American soldier of Kosciusko County, or any other section of the United States, was called upon to wage in the World's conflict "over there," was as different from that which developed in the War of the Rebellion, as the engines and inventions of destruction in the twentieth century differed in power and destruc- tion from those of the nineteenth century. With the terrible instru- ments of destruction intensified a hundred-fold, suffocating and burn- ing gases introduced, the ancient Greek fire revived, God's air even made a field of carnage, millions of men packed into a few thousand square miles instead of hundreds of thousands fighting over nearly a million square miles-such is a faint contrast between the conditions which the Americans had to face in 1861-65 and 1917-18. Death in the World's war was seldom in the open; it was often a quick death, but while life lasted it was usually a stifling, agonizing end.
If the great differences between the brave soldier of the '60s and his equal of the World's war were to be defined in a few words, the definition might be thus given: The vital and fundamental test of the Union and Confederate soldier was endurance; of the American soldier of 1917-18, nerve-always nerve in the face of such awful
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forms of death as did not seem fair to humankind. Bravery, in both types, was always taken for granted.
The inequalities of conditions so much against the present modes of warfare would have been crushing, had it not been for the alleviat- ing agencies which hurried to the front in the forms of expert sur- gery, prompt aid to the injured, efficient and loving care of those put out of the fighting, and the numerous forces brought to bear upon the minds, spirits and souls of the soldier to sustain his elasticity and his morale, or restore to health those shattered nerves, which must be of steel to withstand the concentrated horrors directed against them. It was a realization of that fact and a wise combination of every mental and religious influence to attain the end in view that made the American soldier irresistible. It was unnecessary that these matters should be taken so seriously into account under the broader physical conditions of the Civil war conflict.
GRAND ARMY POSTS
Kosciusko County having sent more than 2,000 volunteers to the Union army, it was to be expected that the Grand Army of the Repub- lic, the great patriotic organization of the North, would be appro- priately represented among those who went to the front. Kosciusko Post No. 114 was the first to be established, it being chartered on November 11, 1882, with thirty-two members. Nathan C. Welch was its first commander. The post rapidly increased in numbers, as at that time there were many Union soldiers residing at Warsaw and vicinity.
In 1886 Kosciusko Post No. 114 was divided, and Henry Chip- man Post No. 442 was formed. The division and formation of the new post occurred April 12th of that year, a charter being granted at that date and Colonel C. W. Chapman elected commander.
In 1916 the two posts were consolidated and chartered under the name of Warsaw Post No. 114, Department of Indiana, Grand Army of the Republic. Captain Nelson E. Miller, of Kosciusko Post, was continued as commander of the consolidated body for 1916, and Ben- ton Q. Morris, who had been head of Henry Chipman Post during the preceding year, was chosen commander of Warsaw Post No. 114 in 1917.
During 1918 Samuel C. Funk served as commander. He was re- elected in 1919, the following being also chosen: James S. Smith, senior vice commander; Thomas R. North, junior vice commander ; John W. Sellers, adjutant; Dr. C. W. Burket, surgeon, and Rev. L. C. Semans, chaplain.
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There are now 105 names on the roll of Warsaw Post No. 114, which makes it one of the strongest in the state.
THE SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL
In the fall and winter of 1897 the two Grand Army posts were the means of erecting the handsome Soldiers' Monument in the court house square which is chiefly a memorial to the sacrifice made by Kosciusko County-its soldiers, with their fathers and mothers- during the Civil war. An interesting feature of the memorial are the guns and cannon ball which at one time were a portion of the defenses of Port Royal.
IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
The Spanish-American war of 1898 was over so quickly that the Kosciusko County soldiers shared the record of the great bulk of the National Guard called to the colors of the United States; they held themselves in full readiness, they responded promptly to every call, but they did not get into action with the enemy.
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