USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume I > Part 5
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The election of Abraham Lincoln as President was the signal for onslaught upon the Government by the Confederate forces, at Charleston, South Carolina. They failed to take into consideration the strength of loyal sentiment at the North and to properly estimate the character and latent strength of President Lincoln. The peal of the first gun fired at Fort Sumter penetrated every city, town, village and hamlet throughout the country, evoking such a storm of protest and such a display of patriotism by the people of the North and some portions of the South, as to make it clear that they were united in the sentiment expressed by Andrew Jackson many years before that, "The Union must and shall be preserved."
Following the firing upon Fort Sumter and almost before the sound of the cannon had ceased, Governor Morton sent to President Lincoln the following message :
"EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OF INDIANA,
April 15, 1861.
"To Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States :
"On behalf of the State of Indiana, I tender to you for the defense of the nation and to uphold the authority of the Government 10,000 men.
OLIVER P. MORTON, Governor of Indiana."
This was a grand message from a grand man and the first of its kind to reach the head of the nation. In the space of a few hours, almost before the ink was dry on the proclamation of President Lincoln, calling for seventy five thousand volunteers, Indiana's promised ten thousand were in camp at Indianapolis and ready for the impending conflict.
In this connection, it is important to give something of the early history and character of Oliver P. Morton. He was born August 4, 1823, at Salisbury, Wayne County, Indiana. That little village was then the capital of the county but is now unknown and except for the land whereon it stood is as if it had never existed. The grandfather of Governor Morton at or near the beginning of the Revolutionary War was a resident of New Jersey. The original stock of this family had emigrated from England to Rhode Island in Colonial days and the family name was originally Throckmorton. The descendants of the Rhode Island settlers moved to New Jersey and the name of Throckmorton is there a well- known name to this day. The father of Oliver P. Morton was born in 1782. Early in life he moved to Ohio and thence to Wayne County, Indiana, and was the first to call himself Morton, commonly signing his name James T. Morton. At the age of fourteen years, Oliver P. Morton, destined by Providence to enact a conspicuous part in the history of our country, became a scholar at the Wayne County Seminary, but was not long permitted to pursue his studies. He was apprenticed to his half brother to learn the trade of a hatter at Centreville, which had now become the county seat. He spent four years at this trade. He then took up the study of the law in the office of John S. Newman at Centreville.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
In 1845 he was united in marriage with Miss Lucinda Burbank, of Centreville. In 1847 he was admitted to the bar and five years thereafter was appointed Circuit Judge to fill an existing vacancy, Henry County being one of the counties in the circuit over which he presided, but as the term expired very soon thereafter, under the new constitution, Morton left his judicial position and soon thereafter took a course at the Cincinnati Law School. For the next four or five years after leaving the law school, lie gave close attention to the practice of the law, meeting with marked success. He was originally a Democrat in politics but on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854, he left the Democratic party. In 1856 he became the candidate for Governor of the State on the Republican ticket. Though defeated in the contest, he showed such marked strength of character and undoubted ability in his canvass for the office, that he became from this time the acknowledged leader of the Republican party in Indiana. In 1860 Henry S. Lane was nominated for Governor and Oliver P. Morton for Lieutenant Governor. Lane and Morton had both been candidates before the State convention for the nomination for Governor. Upon the nomination of Lane for that office, Morton was proposed for Lieutenant Governor but positively declined the nomination and only consented to take it after General Solomon Meredith, afterwards commander of the famous "Iron Brigade," had pointed out to him the probable course of events, the election of Lane to the United States Senate and the consequent pro- motion of Morton to the Governorship, with an opportunity to make a great record in that office during the war which Meredith was confident was inevitable. Lacking such a friend as Meredith, Morton might have missed this, the oppor- tunity of his life, and without his clear head, undaunted courage and strong hand, the war record of Indiana might have been vastly different. The Legislature met, Henry S. Lane was elected to the Senate, thus serving less than one month as Governor, and Morton became the "Great War Governor." From this time to the close of the war, all is incessant activity. Governor Morton's proclamation, calling for six regiments of the "loyal and patriotic men of Indiana to assemble and organize themselves into military companies and forthwith report to the Adjutant General in order that they might be speedily mustered into the service of the United States," was answered in a manner to cheer the loyal citizens of the State and arouse intense enthusiasm. Twenty four hours after the appear- ance of the proclamation, more than five hundred men were in camp at Indian- apolis and in less than a week, over twelve thousand volunteers, three times the number required under the quota allotted to Indiana, had tendered their services to the State and Nation.
Officials at Washington, who afterwards went with their seceding States, had managed to place the bulk of war material belonging to the United States, south of "Mason and Dixon's line." For this reason the Government was unable to supply the volunteers with arms. Governor Morton met this difficulty by sending an authorized agent East to purchase the necessary arms and supplies. In consequence of the Governor's energy, six regiments of Indiana soldiers were forwarded to West Virginia, the then seat of war, before the State of Ohio had placed a single volunteer regiment in the field. This is but an instance of the work performed throughout the war by Morton. He was in deadly earnest touching the magnitude of the conflict and with untiring energy bent his whole
1
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
mind to the subject, determined that the State of Indiana should stand in the front rank in the support and defense of the Nation.
Governor Morton and the Indiana soldier went hand in hand. What is said of one applies equally to the other. Admiral Foote wrote: "Governor Morton furnished me the powder with which my fleet took Fort Henry. He is our mainstay in the West." Secretary Stanton said: "No Governor rendered such services or displayed such courage or more ability in administration." He was the guardian angel of Kentucky. Just after the battle of Richmond in that State, which resulted in the defeat of the Federal forces but checked the advance of the Confederates, General Jeremiah T. Boyle, a Kentuckian, in an official dispatch to President Lincoln, stated: "Our troops, especially the Indianians, fought with the courage and gallantry of veterans. If Ohio and Illinois had supported Indiana and sent their troops on, the issue of the battle would have been different. Indiana has sent to this State since I have been in command here, over twenty thousand men."
When General Braxton Bragg invaded Kentucky and General E. Kirby Smith moved against Cincinnati, appeals for troops were sent to Governor Morton and met with prompt response. He went to Cincinnati in person with two regi- ments of infantry, twenty four pieces of artillery, thirty one thousand rounds of artillery ammunition and three million three hundred and sixty five thousand musket cartridges, the whole output of the arsenal at Indianapolis. George D. Prentiss, then editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, referring to this, wrote : "He (Morton) has been emphatically Kentucky's guardian spirit from the very commencement of the dangers that threatened her existence. Kentucky and the whole country owe to him and to the Indiana soldiers a large debt of gratitude. O, that all public functionaries of the country were as vigilant, as clear-sighted, as energetic, as fearless, as chivalrous as he."
In all that has been thus far said the reader will note that very much of it is devoted to the life and history of Governor Morton. This cannot well be avoided. What he did is so closely interwoven with the acts of Indiana's soldiers that it is impossible to speak or write of the one without including the other. Moreover, in a manner, Morton was for a period of his life, a part of Henry County history. He was recognized as one of the ablest lawyers of Eastern Indiana. His home was at Centreville, Wayne County, but he was often seen as a practitioner before the Henry County Courts and was well known personally throughout the county.
The State of Indiana, under the several calls for volunteers, furnished the Government 208,367 officers and men, which number reduced to a three years' basis was equal to 153,576 men for three years. These volunteers were divided into twenty six batteries of light artillery, thirteen regiments of cavalry, one hundred and twenty six regiments of infantry and sixteen companies of infantry not assigned to regiments. The Twenty First Infantry, after serving three years, was re-organized in the field as the First Heavy Artillery. The batteries were numbered from one to twenty six inclusive. The cavalry regiments were num- bered twice, first as cavalry regiments from one to thirteen inclusive, and again in numerical sequence with the infantry regiments. Thus the Second Cavalry would also be the Forty First regiment. The infantry regiments were numbered
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
from the Sixth to the One Hundred and Fifty Sixth inclusive. They were so numbered for the reason that Indiana had five regiments of Infantry in the Mexican War, and Governor Morton determined to perpetuate the history of each of them as a separate and distinct organization. Henry County was represented by volunteers, who went direct from the county in thirteen batteries, nine cavalry regiments and sixty six infantry regiments. Taking into consideration the number of soldiers from other counties who have moved into Henry County since the Civil War, the county was represented in sixteen batteries, eleven cavalry regiments and eighty five infantry regiments. The Twenty First Infantry or First Heavy Artillery is classified as infantry only in this computation.
It is a fact well understood that, in proportion to population and wealth, no county in the State did more towards the suppression of the war than Henry County. The instant the first gun was fired, steps were taken to enlist and organize companies that the county might be ready to respond to the first call for troops. Thus it was that New Castle and Middletown, Knightstown and Greensboro, and points along the National Road, organized companies for the three months' service, one conpany becoming "F" of the Sixth Indiana Infantry and another becoming "B" of the Eighth Indiana Infantry. These two companies were among the first to reach Indianapolis. They arrived at the Capitol City so quickly, in fact, that no provision had been made to receive them, and for several days the Henry County volunteers were entertained at the hotels and other places in the city, until camping grounds could be made ready. In all the sub- sequent years of the war from 1861 to 1865, at every call for troops, as is shown in these pages, Henry County responded grandly. There was little division of sentiment in the county as to the policy of subduing the Confederacy. The people of all denominations, all professions and all walks of life were apparently as one band of patriots, determined to preserve the Union. There was no hesitation. Men of middle age, young men, boys, all responded to the call of their country with unparalleled enthusiasm.
The Civil War was probably the greatest civic disturbance that ever occurred. It was in a measure to determine whether popular government could be main- tained. It was a trial of the privileges of a free country, a free people, a free press and free speech. It was a great war brought to a successful conclusion. It is worth something to have lived and to have been a part of that great struggle.
The population of Henry County according to the Federal Census of 1860 was 20,119, classified as follows :
White males.
10,092
White females.
9,744
Colored males.
149
Colored females
134
Total.
20,119
When it is considered that the population as stated included men, women and children of all ages and that from this number, the county sent to the front on the various calls of the government, the large number of soldiers serving different
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
enlistments, shown elsewhere in this book, it will at once be seen that the patriotic feeling in the county was very strong.
The expenditures of the county as a whole and of the several townships of the county for local bounties, for the relief of soldiers' families and for mis- cellaneous purposes of a military character, raised by taxation during the Civil War, should be of great and abiding interest to the people of the county, and a table of such expenditures has been compiled and is here set forth.
Contributors.
Bounty.
Relief.
Henry County .
$133,120.94
$63,263.56
Blue River Township.
20,000.00
1,950.44
Dudley Township.
14,857.00
814.20
Fall Creek Township
12,500.00
2,199.77
Franklin Township
18,734.00
1,372.15
Greensboro Township
23,000.00
1,051.21
Harrison Township
21,000.00
3,290.23
Henry Township.
20,000.00
1,950.44
Jefferson Township.
12,754.00
1,163.80
Liberty Township.
47,376.40
808.49
Prairie Township.
10,600.00
1,380.74
Spiceland Township.
6,101.95
1,740.49
Stony Creek Township
30,000.00
1,262.93
Wayne Township
20,000.00
1,551.96
Totals
$386,661.29
$82,178.09
82,178.09
Grand total.
$468,839.38
Among the most interesting and exciting events of the war was the invasion of Indiana by the Confederates under General John H. Morgan, with a force of Cavalry, estimated at from five to six thousand men, in July, 1863. It was a wild dash by a daring cavalry leader, but served no purpose except to alarm the people of Southern Indiana. It however called for instant action on the part of Governor Morton, who at once issued a proclamation, calling for volunteers to repel the bold invaders. In response to the call, many men enlisted and were speedily organized into regiments, numbered from the One Hundred and Second to the One Hundred and Fourteenth inclusive. These were known as "Minute Men" and as soon as the object for which their services were needed, had been accomplished, the regiments were mustered out. Of these forces, the two Com- panies, A and K. of the 105th Regiment ; Company C of the 109th and Companies A and B of the Ioth Regiment were from Henry County, and mustered a total of four hundred and forty nine officers and men. These regiments were never mustered into the service of the United States but were in the State service for about a week in the first half of July, 1863.
Next to the war itself, the Sanitary Commissions of the different States were of the greatest interest and importance. These Sanitary Commissions originated in Indiana and the Indiana Commission was to a large extent a part of her service in the war. Nothing which had for its object the care and relief of the soldier in sickness or in health, was overlooked by the noble men and women who belonged to the sanitary organization. Representatives of the Commission were on every battlefield to attend to the wants of the Indiana soldier. They were
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
everywhere, in tent, and field, and hospital, wherever an Indiana soldier was to be found. The excellence of the Indiana Commission and the esteem in which it was held among the soldiers of other States is shown by this testimony of a correspondent of the New York Tribune, writing December 18, 1862, following the battle of Fredericksburg, who says, "The peculiar and constant attention of the Indiana Sanitary Commission to the troops of that State is a prominent feature. In all our armies, from Kansas to the Potomac, wherever I have met Indiana troops. I have encountered some officer of Indiana going about among them inquiring especially as to their needs, both in camp and hospital, and per- forming those thousand offices the soldier so often requires. Would that the same tender care could be extended to every man from whatever State, who is fighting the battles of the Republic." What is true of the Army of the Potomac in this respect is also true of the Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, the Tennessee, the Department of the Gulf, in fact wherever there were Indiana soldiers. The labors of the Sanitary Commission were immense in scope and character. More than $600.000 were collected for the work by voluntary contributions in Indiana, and of this amount Henry County contributed her full share. A branch of the Sanitary Commission, known as the "Christian Commission," was also maintained which distributed among the soldiers, Bibles, tracts and other religious publi- cations and as far as possible ministered to the spiritual welfare of the soldiers. Auxiliary societies of the Sanitary Commission and the Christian Commission, from the inception of those organizations, were maintained in Henry County until the close of the war. The work of these commissions in Henry County may be taken as typical of the work in other counties of this State and in other States. In this county public meetings were held from time to time in every township and offerings, in cash and supplies, solicited for the use of the commissions. Fairs were also held in all the towns and villages of the county to which various articles were contributed to be sold and the proceeds turned over for the use of the com- missions. Contributed articles were often sold and then re-donated by the pur- chaser and sold again to the highest bidder. Instances were not rare of the same article being in this way sold three or four times. Concerts were held and the proceeds turned over to the commissions. In the Fall and Winter of each year, the ladies, young and old, formed societies to knit socks and mittens for the soldiers, to make bandages for the wounded out of unbleached muslin and to furnish underclothing, blankets and the many other necessities and comforts of the soldier in field and hospital. It became a fad during the war for young ladies to knit a pair of socks or mittens and enclose their names written on a card. In this way correspondence was invited from which no doubt many marriages resulted.
The Christian Commission invited the bringing in of Bibles and other reading material and at stated times all of the things collected were turned over to the central authority at Indianapolis and distributed through the agents which it imaintained in all the camps and hospitals where Indiana soldiers were to be found.
In all great undertakings there must be advisers, men who from their age and experience are capable of giving sound judgment according to the occasion. Not all could go to the war. Governor Morton at the beginning of the crisis called around him such men from various parts of the State, men whom he knew he could rely upon for advice and aid in conducting the affairs of the State.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
His greatest confidence was probably given to his associates from Eastern Indiana, men whom he had known all his life and from whom he could expect such help as would be for the public good. Among these were necessarily found the names of well known citizens of Henry County, but where all were so patriotic and contributed so much to the cause of the Union, it might appear invidious to mention some to the apparent exclusion of the others. It would be well nigh impossible to burden the pages of this History with the multitude of names of men and women in every township in Henry County, who are deserving of special mention during the Civil War. Henry County was exceptionally fortunate in the character and capacity of her citizens, who directed the county government during the Civil War. These men were constant in their support of Governor Morton and of all measures necessary for recruiting, arming and equipping the soldiers, and the care of their families while at the front. Jehu T. Elliott was on the Circuit bench at the beginning of the war and later in the war became a judge of the Supreme Court. At the general election in 1860, Joshua H. Mellett was elected to the State Senate for a term of four years, thus sitting in the regular session convened in January, 1861, the special session convened in April of the same year and the regular session convened in January, 1863. Martin L. Bundy was elected to the lower branch of the Legislature and sat in the first two sessions mentioned. At the general election in 1862 Charles D. Morgan was elected as Martin L. Bundy's successor, Bundy having entered the army, as appears elsewhere in this History. At the general election in 1864 Milton Peden, who had served three years in the army, was elected as Mellett's successor in the Senate and David W. Chambers, who had served more than three years in the army, was elected as Charles D. Morgan's successor. They both sat in the last war session of the Indiana Legislature which convened in January, 1865. About the close of the session, Milton Peden resigned to re-enter the army as Colonel of the One Hundred and Forty Seventh Indiana. All of the above named, during their legislative service, were active and indefatigable in their support of Governor Morton and the measures calculated to bring renown to the State and success to the Union cause.
William Grose was elected Judge of the Common Pleas Court in 1860 but upon the breaking out of the war resigned to enter the army as is elsewhere shown. His successor was Elijah B. Martindale, then a citizen of New Castle but sub- sequently, from 1863, so well known as a citizen of Indianapolis. James S. Ferris and later Thomas Rogers were Auditors; Benjamin Shirk, Clerk; Butler Hubbard, Recorder; John W. Vance, Sheriff ; Caleb Johnson and later Emsley Julian, Treasurer. On the board of county commissioners was Morris F. Edwards of Wayne, John Minesinger of Prairie, and Elias Phelps of Harrison township. James M. Clements was Surveyor and William McDowell, Coroner. Surely, if the above list of well known names is a true index (and it is) of Henry County's citizens, during the dark and troublous days from the surrender of Fort Sumter, April 14, 1861, to the capitulation at Appomattox, April 9. 1865. then the escutcheon of Henry County for that period is, indeed, very bright.
The war is long over. There remains but a small guard of a once powerful army. The line has been broken again and again, until few remain. The "City of the Silent Dead" claims most of them. Two or three more decades and none will be left to tell the story. The graves of many dot the sward of every Henry
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
County cemetery. They have crossed over the borderland and are subjects of the Great Commander in whose realms there is no contention, where all is peace and happiness and where their weary souls are forever at rest.
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.
Sherman's march to the sea was so momentous an achievement that it, in con- nection with the victories at Franklin and Nashville, precipitated the quick collapse of the Southern Confederacy. In a strictly military sense the march was pregnant with these results :
I. It showed that the Confederacy was a mere shell, with all its strength on its outer crust, and all its interior gone.
2. The fall of Vicksburg and the opening of the Mississippi River to the Gulf, causing the father of waters, in the language of Abraham Lincoln, to again flow unvexed to the sea, had detached the Trans-Mississippi Department from the Confederacy during the balance of the war. Sherman's march to the sea again cut the Confederacy in two, separating the States south and west of Georgia from those north, and taking away the most important source of supplies to the Southern armies.
3. It brought the great armies of the East and West into touch, inclosing be- tween them, substantially, all that was left of the rebellion.
4. It had prodigious moral effect in demonstrating the overwhelming power of the Government, by showing that its armies could march whither they would throughout the country.
Much as has been said about the destruction of Southern property, on Sher- man's march, it was, after all, small and inconsequential. The army devoured the crops which had been gathered in a relatively small strip through the State, drove off the cattle, and consumed the pigs and chickens. Outside of this swath the country was left untouched, and inside of it there was very little destruction of real property. Some cotton mills were burned, but not many, and some magazines of Confederate stores. There were few towns on the route, and these were absolutely uninjured, as was the City of Savannah, the largest in the State, which made more in a few months after Sherman's arrival than it had in many years before.
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