USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 46
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Fnir Garden, Tennessee, February 19-Forty-first Regiment.
Town Creek Bridge, North Carolina, February 20-Thirteenth and One Hundred and Fortieth Regiments.
Wise's Works, North Carolina, March 10-One Hundred and Twenty-fourth and One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiments.
Averysboro, North Carolina, March 16-Thirty-ninth Regiment.
Bentonville, North Carolina, March 19-Twelfth and Thirty-ninth Regiments.
Mobile (siege), Alabama, March 27 to April 11-Sixty-ninth and One Hundred and Thirty-first Regiments.
Spanish Fort, Alabama, March 27 to April 19-Twenty-first and One Hundred and Thirty-first Regiments.
Scottsville, Alabama, April 2-Forty-first Regiment.
Morrisville, North Carolina, April - - Thirty-ninth Regiment.
Fort Blakely, Alabama, April 9 Sixty-ninth and One Hundred and Thirty-first Regiments. Slover Hill, Virginia, April 9-Twentieth Regiment.
West Point, Georgia, April 16-Forty-first Regiment.
RECAPITULATION.
The following is the number of men in the different regimenta set down to Delaware County :
Regiment. Men.
Eighth Regiment (three months) 73
Seventh Regiment (three years).
Eighth Regiment (three years). 161
3
Thirteenth Regimont (three years) I
5
Sixteenth Regiment (three years) . 291
Nineteenth Regiment (three years).
51
Twenty-seventh Regiment (three years)
1
Thirtieth Regiment (three years) . 3
Thirty-second Regiment (three years)
Thirty-fifth Regiment (three years) .
174
Thirty-ninth Regiment (three years), Eighth Cavalry
3.8
Forty-first Regiment ( three years), Second Cavalry. 41
Forty-seventh Regiment (three yenrs) 1
Fifty-seventh Regiment ( three yenra) 4.9
I
Eighty-fourth Regiment (three years) .
330
Ninetieth Regiment ( Fifth Cavalry ).
One Hundred and First Regiment (three years)
6
One Hundred and Tenth Regiment (Morgan's raid) .
153
One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment ( Morgan's raid)
264
One Hundred and Seventeeth Regiment (six months) .
1
One Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment (Seventh Cavalry ), three yours.
9
One Hundred and Twenty-first Regiment (Ninth Cavalry ), three yenrs. 109
One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment (three years)
1
One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Regiment (three years)
One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment (three years) . 3
One Hundred and Thirty-Arst Regiment (Thirteenth Cavalry ), three years. 8
One Hundred and Eighteenth Regiment (six months) .
91
Sixty-ninth Regiment (three years)
Seventy-first Regiment (three years) .
3
Twelfth Regiment (three years) .
Twenty-first Regiment (three years), First Heavy Artillery.
Thirty-sixth Regiment ( three years)
415
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment (100 days)
195
One Hundred nnd fortieth Regiment (one yenr) ..
47
One Hundred and Forty-seventh Regiment (ono yenr) 171
Second Battery (three years).
1
Third Battery (three years)
3
Fourth Battery (three years)
2
Sixteenth Battery (three years).
3
Twenty-serond Battery (three years)
1
Kensby's Company (thirty dnys)
107
Hancock 's Corps
1
Veteran Engineers
Bounty paid from Delawnro County, Company and Regiment not nnmed. 19
2,563
A considerable number of these names were repeated, as in ensos of ro-enlistment, but it is anfe to sny the whole number of men furnished by Delaware County will exceed two thousand.
Relief.
Full soon the families of the volunteers began to need aid, and the ladies at home took the business in hand and set on foot measures to raise money for the relief of the needy. In the early part of the war, before organization was fully developed, everything depended upon private, voluntary action, and right nobly did the citizens, male and female, take hold of the work. Sup- plies of food and clothing and money were raised and distributed. A "Ladies' Aid Society " was formed, and its operations were continued through most of the war.
By "socials" and sewing circles and fairs, by private collections, and by every other method which sharp-witted ladies could invent, the hearts and the pockets of the people, citizens and strangers as well, were attacked, and right splendidly did they respond to the earnest appeals thus persistently made. At one time, by a single effort, $500 were collected and sent to Mr. Hannaman, at Indianapolis, President of the Indiana Sanitary Commission. At one fair, held by the "Ladies' Aid Society," and continued through two or three days, the net avails were more than $700.
Supplies of all sorts, of necessities and delicacies were gathered from the citizens of the town and from the county at large, and sent forward to the State Commission or otherwise. The people seemed never to grow weary in this course of well-doing, but continued even to the end of the war, in this grand work of mercy and love.
Among the very many ladies prominently active in the work thus car- ried on in Muncie, a few, selected from the masses operating in this field, might with propriety be mentioned, though the whole people seemed to be moved as by a common impulse, to excel in forwarding the noble enterprise. We mention-not aiming in the least to underestimate the services of others -the names of Mrs. John W. Burson, Mrs. Judge March, Mrs. William B. Kline, Mrs. Carlton E. Shipley, Mrs. James A. Maddy, Mrs. John Marsh, Mrs. G. W. Spilker and numerous others entitled to equal credit for their
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6
416
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
share in the work. The presentation of these names, therefore, is not for the purpose of excluding others no doubt as prominently associated with the movement, but merely as instances now remembered, of the activity which everywhere prevailed.
Relief was given in a generous and liberal spirit both by the county and by townships, citizens and towns, in addition to that supplied by the people at large. The amounts, so far as can be obtained, both for bounty and relief, are as follows :
Bounty paid by county $181,900.00
Relief paid by county $129,768.75
Relief paid by townships. 51,137.00
Total relief.
$180,905.75
Aggregate
$362,805.75
a princely sum-showing, while citizens offered themselves willingly in the struggle to maintain the integrity of the nation, how nobly the authorities at home, and the people at large, assumed burdens, and contributed money, etc., for relief and support to the families of those who were absent in the service of the country, or who had died in her defense.
It may be proper to state that, up to 1869, the total amount expended throughout the State for bounty and relief, is computed to have been $20,- 250,640.68. That sum has probably been largely increased since that date. Delaware County, for instance, has expended about $80,000 for bounty since 1872, under the action for equalization.
NATIONAL ACTION.
Probably in no war since the world began has the soldier been dealt by so liberally as in our civil war of 1861-65.
I. His wages were unusually large. . .
2. His supplies were abundant and generous.
3. Large bounties were given both by the nation, by counties, cities, towns and townships and by individuals.
4. Great sums of money were raised by taxation and by voluntary con- tribution, for the relief and support of soldiers' families.
5. Immense sums were expended by sanitary commissions, national, State and voluntary.
6. In many other ways, labor and money were applied to the comfort of the soldiers, as by hospitals, nurses, soldiers' homes, etc. Thus the nation showed, and the soldiers were made to feel, that her constant care was over them, to supply their wants, relieve their necessities, and support their loved ones. Much want and suffering existed, nevertheless; still, great and noble
.
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417
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
efforts were put forth throughout the whole war to do all that could be done for help and comfort and for relief. The following is an account of the bounties given by the nation :
NATIONAL BOUNTIES.
Am't.
Authority.
To Whom. Time.
$100 Act of July 22, 1801. .. All Vounteers. .... . Tn July 18, 1801.
400 Gen. Or. No. 101, July 25, '63. Re-enlisted volunteera. June 25, 1863, to April 1, 1804.
800
Circular Oct. 21. 1863 ......... Recrulla In old regimenta. . Oct. 21, 1803, to April 1, 1804.
300 Telegram, Dec. 24, 1803 ..
Recruits In sny 3-ycara' organisa-
tion Dec. 21, 1863, to April 1, 1804.
100
Act July, '04, and Circular 27. Volunteers, 1 yesr.
. July 10, 1804, to July 1, 1805.
200
Act July, '04, and Circular 27. Volunteers, 2 years
July 19, 1804, to July 1, 1805.
800
Act July, 'Gl, and Circular 27. Volunteers, 3 years
July 19, 1804, to July 1, 1805.
800
Gen. Order 287. Nov. 28, 1864. Ist Army Veteran Corpa Nov. 28. 186t, to July 1, 1805.
10
Letters Nov. 20 & Dec. 22, '03. Colored recruits ..
April, 1861, to Oct. 24, 1803.
100 Act of Congress ..
All colored volunteers . April, 1861, to Oct. 24. 1803.
100 Act of Congress. Colored volunteers, new reg'ta. .. [)et. 24, 1863, to Dec. 24, 1843.
100
Act of Congress.
. All colored volunteers.
April 1, 1804, to June 1, 1864.
800
Act of Congress.
Colored volunteers old reg'ta ..
.. Oct. 25, 1863, to March 81, 1864.
100
Act of Congress.
Colored volunteera llable to draft. Oct. 17 to Oct. 24, 1863.
300
Act of Congress
. Colored volunteers, new reg'ta. .. Dec. 25, 1803, to March 81, 1864. . Colored volunteers, old regiments.
Hable to draft ... . Oct. 25, 1863, to March 81, 1864.
800
Act of Congress
Colored volunteers. new
regi-
100
Act of Congress.
Colored volunteers, 1 yesr .. .... Jnly 19, 1804, to July 1, 1865.
200 Act of Congress.
Colored volunteers. 2 years ...... July 19, 1804. to Joly 1, 1865.
300 Act of Congress.
. Colored volunteers, 8 years ...... July 19, 1804, to July 1, 1865.
COUNTY ACTION.
In the general movement for bounty and relief, the people of Delaware County, by the Commissioners, Township Trustees,, City Councils, etc., took a full and abundant share.
In 1861, no bounties were needed.
In 1862, $25 were given to each volunteer then enlisting for three years, or during the war.
In 1863 and 1864, $100 were paid to each person so enlisting.
In 1873, the Commissioners provided for an equalization of bounty to all three-years men. Thus, under this action, every three-years man from Dela- ware County has received, or is entitled to receive, from the county as bounty, a sum equal to $100. Under the provisions made in 1872, the men enlisted in 1862 received $75, and the men volunteering in 1861, got $100, and so they all got equal bounty of $100 each.
DRAFT.
No draft was ever called for in Delaware County, except that in 1862, four townships seemed to have a deficiency of 24 men. Jay, at the time was short 103; Randolph, 49; Henry, 160; Wayne, 64; Allen, 597; Grant, 128; Madison, 177, etc. The people of Muncie, supposing their township was liable to the draft, raised by voluntary subscriptions, $8,000 or more, which was expended in hiring persons to enlist so as to avoid the draft. Perhaps twenty-five persons were thus hired to enlist. More careful examination showed that no quota was lacking from Muncie, even before these men had been hired. By this action, and by subsequent volunteers, no future draft was needed.
.
300 Act of Congress.
ments, lisble to draft. Dec. 25, 1803, to March 81. 1864.
418
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
So ardent and patriotic was the spirit that prevailed, several gentlemen who were too old for the service, and some ladies also, hired persons to go as soldiers. One man sent two in that way, paying them $500 cach. Indeed, we are astonished in looking back to those eventful days, at the vigorous and ceaseless enthusiasm which fired the public mind. Love for the cause, and overwhelming anxiety for its triumphant success, made labor casy and car- ried the people forward in an activity of enterprise and sacrifice without a parallel in our history, or equaled only, if at all, by that of the Revolutionary struggle.
Loss of the Sultana.
The steamer "Sultana," one of the largest on the Mississippi river, was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1862. She was a regular St. Louis and New Orleans packet, and left Cairo April 15, 1865, bearing the news of the death of President Lincoln, to all points and posts on the river as far as New Orleans. She left the latter port on her fatal trip, April 21st, with about two hundred passengers and crew on board. In the graphic words of one who survived the wreck and published his experience, we quote the following: "But a still greater horror was in store for the ill-fated inmates of Cahaba. Lashed to the levee of Vicksburg was the strong and capacious steamer 'Sul- tana.' Her decks were covered with cots and beds for the ghastly skeletons called 'paroled prisoners.' Wherever it was possible to stow away a human being within her capacious guards, men who had fought starvation and cold, hunger and heat-men who had fought vermin and filth, despondency and death, were crowded in. With her decks, above and below, crowded to discomfort, with weak-bodied, pinched, and sallow-faced men, the 'Sultana' steamed up the broad Mississippi. Every league of progress brought hope to her passengers ; visions of a gray-haired mother whose heart has been bursting to know the fate of her boy ; visions of a sister into whose eyes tears welled up at the mention of his name, came to the men and gave to them a new life. Memphis is reached ; here a large amount of fuel is taken on and the boat goes steaming northward. Night settles down upon them, and when all but those to whom is given the care of the boat, and those to whom pain denies the boon of sleep, are lost in unconsciousness, a great flash lights up the darkness, and, mid crash and roar, mid falling timbers and mangled comrades, hundreds are thrown into the dark waters. The boiler has exploded, the boat is on fire and no help is at hand.
"Of the more than twenty-two hundred on board, more than three- fourths were lost." No one knows the true cause of the explosion. It may have been caused by careening of the vessel. It may have been the peculiar kind of boilers in use on the steamer. In just four of the great engagements
2
419
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
of the Civil War, was there greater loss of life to Union soldiers than re- sulted from this explosion. They were Antietam, Gettysburg, Spottsylvania and the Wilderness.
The disaster occurred about two o'clock in the morning of April 27th, 1865, in dark and misting rain, when some seven or eight miles above Mem- phis, and near the cluster of islands called the "Hen and Chickens." In a few moments the steamer was on fire, slowly burned to the water's edge as she drifted downward with the current, and then sank upon the Arkansas side of the Mississippi, three or four miles above Memphis. Fourteen hun- dred and forty-three were lost at once, and of the seven hundred and fifty- seven rescued, nearly three hundred died in the hospitals at Memphis in the following twenty days. So that a careful estimate places the loss of life caused by the explosion at about seventeen hundred and fifty, the greatest loss of life from a marine disaster that ever occurred upon the Western Hemisphere. One entire chapter of the thrilling sketch, "Cahaba, a Story of Captive Boys in Blue," deals with this sad event in our history, and the Rev. C. D. Berry has published a volume, "Loss of the Sultana and Rem- iniscences of Survivors," in which 138 of his comrades recite their recollec- tions of that night of horror. The account by three soldiers from Delaware County, all members of the Ninth Indiana Cavalry, are herewith published.
William H. Peacock.
"I was born in Tyler county, Va., May 28, 1845. . Enlisted in the service of the United States at Muncie, Ind., on the 15th day of December, 1863, in the 9th Regiment Indiana Cavalry. Was captured at Sulphur Trestle, nine miles north of Athens, Ala., on the Nashville and Decatur Railroad, Sep- tember 25, 1864, and confined in the Cahaba prison, Alabama. I was put on board the Sultana with eighteen others of my company. The boat was so crowded that there was not room for all of us on the second deck, so five of us went up on the texas roof right in front of the pilot house. I was the only one of the five that escaped. The first recollection I had of the accident, I was falling, and had a cut on my shoulder, bruise on my back and my right side and hip were scalded. This happened seven miles above Memphis. I worked my way out from under the rubbish, and helped get a good many of the boys out who were pinned down by it, until the fire got so hot that I had to stop and look out for myself. I saw boys start out to swim with all their clothes on, even their overcoats and shoes, but they did not go far before they sank. The only clothes I had on was a pair of drawers, a sock, a handkerchief (which one of the boys gave to me at Vicksburg before he died), and a hat that I picked up about a mile from . the boat. I swam back to Memphis and was rescued by the gunboat boys and taken to Fort Pickens, seven and one-half miles below where the steam- er's boiler exploded. I, with the rest, had just got out of prison, and only weighed ninety-one pounds. At the time of my capture I weighed one hun- dred and ninety-seven (197) pounds and had not been .sick a day. My present postoffice address is Cowan, Ind."
420
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Lewis Johnson.
"I was born in Henry county, Indiana, November, 1845, and enlisted in the service of the United States at Henry county, Indiana, December, 1863, in Company G, 9th Cavalry. Was captured at Sulphur Trestle, Ala., September 25, 1864, and confined in Castle Morgan and Cahaba prisons. When the 'Sultana' exploded I was lying in front of the wheel house. I got up and walked across the boat, pulled off my clothes and jumped into the water. I was burned very badly on my neck and shoulders. I swam out to some timbers on the Arkansas side and got on a log. There were nine of us on it. We were there until eight o'clock, when we were taken in by a boat.
"Occupation, farming. P. O., Muncie, Ind."
Hiram Allison.
"I was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1830, and enlisted in the service of the United States at Muncie, Ind., December, 1863, in Company G, 9th Ind. Cavalry.
"Was captured at Sulphur Trestle, Ala., September 25, 1864, and con- fined in the Castle Morgan prison at Cahaba, Ala., until March, and then was taken to be exchanged at Big Black River, Miss. I got on the boat 'Sultana' at Vicksburg. She was crowded to her utmost capacity. Ar- rived at Memphis April 26, in the evening, where she discharged a lot of freight. * As near as I can tell we left about twelve or one o'clock that night. I was on the hurricane deck, close to the wheel house, lying down, and was just beginning to doze, when all at once I heard the crash. I jumped up the first thing and saw a great hole torn through the hurricane deck and fire coming through. I stood a few minutes and looked at my surroundings. I concluded to take to the water. I climbed down from the hurricane deck to the cabin deck and took off all my clothes but my drawers and shirt, and then glanced around the burning wreck and saw that I would have to go, so I jumped from the cabin deck into the water. I remained there for two or three hours and then came across a horse trough with a comrade on each end of it. I took the center. When I caught up with the two comrades they were both praying. When I got on with them I said, 'That was a terrible disaster.' They made no reply, but kept right on praying. I said no more to them, and when it was light enough for me to see they were gone. What became of them I never knew. I stayed on the trough till I got to some brush and logs on the Arkansas side; then I bid it good bye about five miles from the ill-fated 'Sultana.' I was taken to Memphis with others. I was put in the Overton hospital, remained there a few days, and then turned my face homeward. I was scalded on my legs and cut on the head. Postoffice address is Muncie, Delaware county, Ind. Occupation, carpenter and joiner."
How little these sketches, taken mainly and condensed from the report of the Adjutant General of Indiana, show of the real history of the men from Delaware county who saw service in the war! From first to last these regiments were to be found over the whole ground of the conflict,
1
A. Lakewood, .
423
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
the complete battle list showing more than one hundred and fifty engage- ments. Many of them were heavy and long-contested battles and sieges. From these we name Rich Mountain, Pea Ridge, Shiloh, Corinth, with Butler at New Orleans, in the swamps of the Chickahominy, Cedar Moun- tain, Gainesville, second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericks- burg, Stone River, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Champion Hill, Vicks- burg, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, Jonesboro, At- lanta, March to the Sea, Franklin, Nashville, Winchester, Cedar Creek, Pe- tersburg and Appomattox.
What do these formal and official descriptions of movements in the game of war tell us about hunger and thirst, of hardships and forced marches, of camp and bivouac without food or shelter? What of fierce and sanguinary battles, wounds, imprisonment and starvation? What do they tell us of hospitals and cots, of amputating tables, and the sufferings and groans of dying men? What of open trenches filled with the slain, or of the bodies of the dead and wounded heated and charred upon the burn- ing battlefield, and denied a soldier's rough burial at the last? What of the holocaust of death when so many pale-faced prison survivors were blown into eternity, or drowned in the Mississippi river, by the explosion of the steamer "Sultana?" All these things were a possibility for every man who with uplifted hand swore to "protect and defend the Union of these United States against all her enemies and opposers whatsoever." They counted the cost. Hundreds of them paid the price.
Asbury L. Kerwood, author of the preceding military history of Dela- ware county, has been identified with the county by residence and varied business and civic activity for nearly half a century. About eighteen months before he was called into military service by the outbreak of the rebellion he had come to Muncie (in October, 1859) and become an ap- prentice to learn the saddler's trade with the firm of Brady & Osborn. This was the quiet pursuit that was interrupted by the war. His life as a soldier covered nearly four years, and his subsequent interest in the achievements of the war and in fellow veterans, especially his Delaware county comrades, gives him peculiar fitness for the authorship of this chapter. To his own experience and knowledge he has added painstaking care and diligence in the preparation of this department of the history, and in commending the reliable nature of the preceding articles the publishers also present an ac- count of his life and military and public services.
Born in Preble county, Ohio, June 21, 1842, Mr. Kerwood is a son of Abia M. and Rebecca (Peden) Kerwood, both natives of Washington
424
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
county, Pennsylvania, who in the thirties had joined the tide of westward emigration in its course down the Ohio valley and had found homes in the new country of western Ohio. Both branches of the family have been settled on the American side of the Atlantic for several generations, the paternal ancestors being of English stock and the maternal Scotch-Irish. Abia M. . Kerwood was for thirty-two years a member of the North Indiana confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal church, spending the closing years of his life in Muncie, where he died in March, 1886. Living during his youth in the various homes established by his father during his ministry, the son Asbury received his education in the public schools of Preble county and in various counties in Indiana, and also one term at Liber College, in Jay county. At the age of seventeen he came to Muncie, as already stated, and lived here until April, 1861.
At the call for troops he enlisted for three months, and in a short time was in the Virginia field of operations. At Rich Mountain, Va., July 11, 1861, he was wounded, and August 6, 1861, was discharged at the end of his term. The following November he enlisted in Company F, Fifty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Having never been absent from the com- mand, his military experience during the next three years and a half was that of the Fifty-seventh Regiment. He was in the following engagements : Shiloh, siege of Corinth, Perryville, three days' battle of Stone River, Mis- sionary Ridge, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain (June 18, 23, 27, 1864), Peach Tree Creek, siege of Atlanta, Jones- boro, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. He was discharged February 4, 1865, at Huntsville, Ala.
In October, 1867, Mr. Kerwood located at the little village of Whecling, and was in business there until 1875, for part of the time being postmaster. At the Republican county convention of 1874 lie received the nomination for office of clerk of the Delaware circuit court, and was elected in October and reelected in 1878. The duties of this office brought him to Muncie, where he has resided ever since. In April, 1884. he was elected a director in the Citizens' National Bank, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Henry Hamilton, and in April, 1885, succeeded George W. Spilker in the presidency of the bank. He continued as president of this institution until January 12, 1895, when failing health caused him to dispose of his interests and retire from business. Mr. Kerwood has been identified with the educational progress of Muncie, having been a member of the city school board, and served as its treasurer, by reelection, for nine years. He was a director and treasurer of the Muncie Exploring Company, which drilled the first gas well in the Muncie belt after the discovery of gas at Eaton. His name is also connected with the history of the Citizens' Enter- prise Company, he being a member of its first advisory board. In 1898 he
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