USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume I > Part 6
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PERIOD OF THE CIVIL WAR.
Counting from the surrender of Fort Sumter, April 14, 1861, to the shooting of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theatre, Washington, District of Columbia, on the night of April 14, 1865, the war lasted four years to a day. Fort Sumter, however, was fired upon April 12, 1861, and Abraham Lincoln did not die until the morning of April 15, 1865. Officially the Govern- ment considers the war to have begun January 9, 1861, when the Star of the West, an unarmed vessel carrying provisions to the relief of Fort Sumter, was fired upon and not allowed to enter Charleston Harbor, and to have ended August 12, 1866, when President Andrew Johnson issued his proclamation that all hostilities had ceased. This covers a period of five years, seven months and three days. So far as actual hostilities are concerned, they began with the firing on
60
HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Fort Sumter, as above mentioned, and terminated with the surrender of General Lee's army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, April 9, 1865. When the news came of this surrender and of the flight of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet from the Confederate Capital, Richmond, Virginia, it was conceded, by all informed and conservative people, that the war was at an end. There was, how- ever, some desultory fighting in North Carolina and in the Trans-Mississippi Department after this but it was all preliminary to a complete and final surrender.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE INDIANA SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' ORPHANS' HOME, NEAR KNIGHTSTOWN.
The site of this institution was known for many years before the war as the "Knightstown Springs," and was visited as a health resort by many. The spot now known as Spring Valley was dotted with tents during the Summer months, and the occupants made a business of drinking the water, bathing in it, and believing themselves greatly benefited. Bath-houses were finally erected, and so well were these patronized that a Mr. Aaron Aldrich built a hotel on the west side of the road and directly above the large spring. This afforded new and substantial conveniences for health seekers, and the place began to enjoy a general reputation.
But greater and grander history than all this could make was destined to be written of the "Knightstown Springs." The fame the place then boasted only served to attract the public attention when its healthful location and its springs of pure water were wanted for a higher and nobler purpose.
Early in the Summer of 1865, a meeting was called in the office of Governor Oliver P. Morton to devise ways and means to establish a State Soldiers' Home. About fifty gentlemen responded to the call. At the suggestion of the Governor, a Board of Directors was appointed and incorporated with this end in view. At first the City Hospital Building at Indianapolis was used, but early in 1866 the "Knightstown Springs," with fifty four acres of ground, including the aforesaid hotel and several other buildings, was purchased as a Soldiers' Home. The money to effect this purchase ($8,500) was raised by private gifts, and many patriotic hearts went in all parts of the State asking for donations. Among these persons may be mentioned Reverend Morrow P. Armstrong and Captain John Hogarth Lozier.
The Directors soon found they could not rely upon voluntary contributions to meet all the necessary expenses, and the property passed into the hands of the State, and was placed under officers appointed by the Legislature.
On the first day of March, 1867, the Home for Disabled Soldiers became one of the institutions of the State, for the maintenance not only of sick and disabled soldiers and seamen, but also of their widows and orphans. It was formally opened June 15, 1867.
Now to return to the meeting in the Governor's office in 1865. One of the patriots attending that meeting was George Merritt, now of Indianapolis. He stood as the first advocate of a home for soldiers' orphans. Before any decision was reached, he addressed the meeting in behalf of the orphans of the soldiers who had given their lives for their country. He related to the meeting some of
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61
HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
his experiences during the war, in hospitals and on the battlefields, where it was his privilege and duty to care for the wounded and dying. He pictured to them the one unsatisfied and overmastering anxiety of the dying soldier for his children when he was gone. He declared to the meeting that he had always given assur- ance in such cases that the country would provide for the children, and to make good that pledge he offered, if the meeting would include the soldiers' orphans in their scheme, to give five thousand dollars ($5,000) for their benefit.
After a long discussion it was thought that to combine the two would be so great an undertaking as to endanger the success of the enterprise, and that it was best to undertake first the Soldiers' Home.
This decision left Mr. Merritt free to fulfill at least his share of the country's obligation and promises. His wish was that the orphans might be divided into families of ten, each to be given to the care of one woman, to whom a fixed monthly allowance should be given in money, to be expended as, in her judgment, would best promote the welfare of the children. He expected to find these foster mothers among the soldiers' widows and maiden ladies whom the war had left alone, and thus he thought to provide, in a measure, for both classes.
In Miss Susan Fussell he found a woman well qualified and willing to under- take the care of ten orphans in the manner indicated. On the 24th day of November, 1865, she commenced her work in two rooms in the Military Hospital at Indianapolis, with four soldiers' orphans, taken from the Orphans' Asylum of that city.
In a short time she had the full number (ten) from different parts of the State, all without friends to care for them. In April, 1866, Miss Fussell moved to the "Knightstown Springs," and, with her little family, occupied a little cottage on the hill on the east side of the road (near the present Lincoln Hall), and here we find the first Soldiers' Orphans' Home at this place, while the Soldiers' Home had just been located, by private enterprise, in the hotel on the opposite side of the road.
When the State assumed control of the Home in March, 1867, the Legislature appointed Henry B. Hill, Charles S. Hubbard and William Hannaman, Trustees, and the following classes were admitted to the Home :
I. Totally disabled soldiers and seamen.
2. Partially disabled soldiers and seamen.
3. Orphans, under fifteen years of age, of deceased soldiers (neither father nor mother living).
4. Orphans of the same class whose mothers are living.
Widows of deceased soldiers. 5.
The Trustees appointed Dr. M. M. Wishard, long identified with this Home, the first Superintendent. Here, however, Miss Fussell lived for ten years with her charge of ten orphans, independent of the State Home, except that they attended the schools established by the State. They maintained a separate family life wherein they so nearly forgot that they were orphans that they often spoke of the others as "the orphans." Miss Fussell has passed over the river to her rest and reward, but she lived long enough to see most of her children happily married and in homes of their own, all blessing her for the care and helpful influence she had exerted on their young lives.
62
HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Mr. Merritt, who is reliable authority for these statements, bears witness "to the faithfulness and unselfishness of that noble band of men and women who, during the time he was an observer of the work, had charge of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home."
In a short time the number of admissions was so great that more room was required, and five acres of ground east of the road and directly opposite the Hotel Home were purchased and a new building erected thereon at a cost of fifty six thousand dollars ($56,000). To this new building the old soldiers were trans- ferred, and the children were left in the hotel.
In 1870, however, the children so far outnumbered the old soldiers that they exchanged quarters, the children taking the new Home and the soldiers returning to the hotel.
Early on Christmas morning, 1871, the old hotel was burned, and soon there- after the soldiers were removed to the National Military Home at Dayton, Ohio. This left the orphans in full possession of the Home, until, in 1879, an asylum for feeble-minded children was attached to the institution. This continued until the Legislature of 1887 separated them, sending the feeble-minded (May 17th) to Richmond, leaving the orphans sole possessors of the ground again, which arrangement still continues.
The Home has been twice burned. First, on the 8th of September, 1877, at about eleven o'clock p. m., the building was discovered to be on fire. Although nearly all were sleeping soundly when the alarm was given, those in charge gave themselves so energetically to the work of saving the children that no one was lost. With commendable zeal the Trustees began to build at once, and in Septem- ber, 1878, the new building was again occupied. The second fire occurred on July 21, 1886, at two o'clock p. m. There was no loss of life but the building and most of its contents were consumed. Temporary shelter was immediately pro- vided for the children, making them as comfortable as possible under the cir- cumstances. In September the Trustees rented the Valley House, in Knightstown, and the soldiers' orphans were removed there, while the feeble-minded children were assigned temporarily to the frame building upon the Home grounds.
The contract for rebuilding was let at once, and with characteristic prompt- ness the Trustees pushed the work to completion.
The cornerstone was laid on the 17th day of November, 1886, and June 28, 1887, the south wing was completed and occupied. The remaining part of the Administration Building was occupied as rapidly as the halls and rooms were finished.
The new school building was completed in January, and on the 6th day of February, 1888, the children took possession. The present Industrial Building was erected in the year 1888. The three cottages on the east side of Cottage Park were built in the year 1889, and the three on the south side were added in the year. 1891.
Lincoln Hall was begun in October, 1891. The cornerstone was laid on November 3d of the same year, and it was dedicated June 23, 1892.
The following purchases of land for the use of the Home have been made, and together constitute the Home farm :
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Acres.
March 1, 1867.
54
-, 1869.
5
April 20, 1887 (Murray estate)
75
April, 1895 ( Morris estate)
80
April, 1895 ( Ramsey estate)
33
Total Home farm.
247
The following are the names of the Superintendents who have had charge of the Home from its beginning :
Term Began.
Term Ended.
M. M. Wishard.
Sept.
, 1865
Feb.
14, 1877
Rev. R. F. Brewington (acting)
Feb.
14, 1877
Nov. 11, 1877
William B. McGavran, M. D.
. Nov. 1, 1877
May
29, 1879
John Hunt, M. D.
. May 29, 1879
Nov. 1, 1879
Benjamin F. Ibach.
Nov.
1, 1879
April 1, 1881
John W. White, D. D. S
April
1, 1881
May 1, 1885
Rev. T. M. Smith.
May
1, 1885
Aug. 5, 1885
Rev. A. H. Morris.
. Aug.
5, 1885
Mar.
1, 1890
Rev. J. W. Harris.
Mar.
1, 1890
June 11, 1891
H. H. Woods (acting)
June
11, 1891
July
1, 1891
Andrew H. Graham, A. M.
. July 1, 1891
The foregoing sketch of the Home is gathered from different persons yet living, from articles which have appeared from time to time in different parts of the State, and from the annual reports of the Trustees and Superintendents. The purpose has been to present briefly the steps that have been taken in the growth of this institution from the first to the present time-nothing more. Of the loyalty and liberality of our noble State, of the faithful men and women who devoted their best days to service in the Home, history may make little note; but their praise shall be sung by those who, as soldiers' orphans, inherited the State's special protection and were helped and guided in orphaned childhood by teachers and governesses of the Home.
The author of this history acknowledges himself indebted to Andrew H. Graham, A. M., present Superintendent of the Home, for the information embodied in the foregoing sketch.
CHAPTER III.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GREAT CONFLICT.
THE EFFECT OF BULL RUN-COLLAPSE OF THE MILITIA SYSTEM-EFFECTIVE MILITARY FORCES OF INDIANA, OHIO, AND OTHER STATES-POLITICAL GEN- ERALS-SEIZURE OF THE TRENT-CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE ON THE CON- DUCT OF THE WAR-RELATIONS OF STANTON AND HALLECK WITH MCCLEL- LAN, GRANT AND SHERMAN-WEAKNESSES OF THE SOUTH-INACTIVITY OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-IMPORTANCE OF VICTORIES IN THE WEST- GENERAL BRAGG'S CAMPAIGN IN TENNESSEE AND KENTUCKY.
The disaster of Bull Run occurred on July 21, 1861. Its effect was to throw the North into a panic. The venerable General Scott, then seventy five years of age, was general-in-chief. The next day General George B. McClellan was called to Washington to take charge of the defense of the city and he arrived there July 26th. The Confederates, as much elated as the people of the North were depressed, at once moved up to the Potomac, stopped navigation, and virtually blockaded the national capital.
At Washington the authorities, civil and military, were in constant dread of an attack that might result in the capture of the capital and an invasion of the country north of it. Still the mass of people of the North did not yet fully appreciate the magnitude of the preparations necessary to suppress the Rebellion. Even the Secretary of War, as late as October, 1861, had no conception of the stupendous proportions into which the conflict, then scarce six months old, was destined to expand.
"About this time," says Mr. W. Dudley Foulke, in his "Life of Oliver P. Morton," vol. I, p. 147. "Secretary Cameron stopped at Indianapolis, on his way from St. Louis to Washington, and in company with Senator Chandler, took supper with Morton at the Governor's mansion. He was quite talkative and laughed heartily at Sherman's idea that it would take two hundred thousand men to recover the Mississippi states. He made no secret of his belief that Sherman was crazy, and unfit for any military command. He derided Sherman's notions of the need of cavalry and artillery as old-fashioned and silly, and was boyish in his fun over the 'Minie rifle,' and over improved arms generally. The old smooth- bore musket, in the hands of well-disciplined infantry, he regarded as the best kind of arms. Morton listened to this talk in silence."
We can well understand why Morton listened in silence, and no doubt in amazement, to such twaddle at such a time from the Secretary of War.
Moreover the slavery question continued to be a disturbing element, and military operations were interfered with by political considerations and by the
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
jealousies of generals. The senseless clamor expressed in the cry of "On to Richmond," which led to the disastrous defeat at Bull Run, again urged an advance of the Union armies and led to another defeat on October 2Ist at Ball's Bluff, and soon after, on November 1, 1861, General Scott was succeeded as general-in-chief by General McClellan.
The disasters at Bull Run and Ball's Bluff only deepened the conviction, long before entertained by Morton and others of far-seeing sagacity, that the Rebellion would not blow over in sixty days as Seward had predicted. It also became apparent that it was not wise policy to enlist men for a term so short that their period of service would expire before they had acquired more than the rudiments of a military education, and that the regular army could not be depended upon, as General Scott had supposed, to suppress the Rebellion. Many of its officers sympathized with the South, and those who resided there, with a few notable exceptions, accepted commissions in the Confederate army. There were not enoughi left of those loyal to the Federal government to officer the new regiments. It was useless to expect to fill the regiments necessary to be raised by recruiting for the regular army. The men of the North were eager to enlist but they pre- ferred to serve with their neighbors and under officers whom they knew. It was upon the volunteers that the Federal government was forced to rely for the material with which to make up the rank and file.
Therefore on May 3, 1861, President Lincoln issued another call for volunteers, and under this call, and the acts of Congress confirming and supple- menting it, 500,000 men were required. There was not much difficulty in getting the men. Indeed, under this call and the acts of Congress supplementing it, over 700,000 volunteered, of whom over 657,000 enlisted for three years. The first serious trouble arose in equipping them for active service. It had been difficult to arm and equip the 75,000 three-months' troops, and it was only by almost superhuman exertions that Governor Morton had been able to send to the front the six three-months' regiments contributed by Indiana. No preparations had been made by the Federal government or by any state for such a war as had now burst forth. Long before the outbreak of the war the militia organizations in most of the northern states had been practically abandoned. Governor Chase, of Ohio, had made vigorous efforts to re-organize the militia system of that State. Whitelaw Reid, in his "Ohio in the War," vol. I, p. 19, says :
"In this, as in his political views, he was in advance of his times. In every state west of the Alleghanies the militia had fallen into undisguised contempt. The old-fashioned militia musters had been given up; the subject had been abandoned as fit only to be the fertile theme for the ridicule of rising writers and witty stump orators. The cannon issued by the government were left for the uses of political parties on the occasion of mass meetings or victories at the polls. The small arms were scattered, rusty, and become worthless. In Chicago a novel drill had been an inducement for the organization of the Ellsworth Zouaves; and here and there through the West the young men of a city kept up a military company ; but these were the exceptions. Popular prejudice against doing military duty was insurmountable, and no name for these exceptional organizations so struck the popular fancy as that of "the Cornstalk Militia."
An effort was made by Chase's successor to continue the policy inaugurated 5
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
by the former, but with little success. "And yet," quoting again from Reid, "the organization of Ohio militia was far superior to that existing in any of the states to the westward. All of them combined did not possess so large a militia force as the First Ohio Regiment, then under the command of Colonel King of Dayton."
General Jacob D. Cox, "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," vol. I, p. 84, has given a graphic account of the military condition of the great state of Ohio at the outbreak of the Rebellion. Governor Dennison on the first call for troops summoned to his aid Captain George B. McClellan, then a railway superintendent. General Cox says :
"The next morning Mcclellan requested me to accompany him to the state arsenal, to see what arms and material might be there. We found a few boxes of smooth-bore muskets which had once been issued to militia companies and had been returned rusted and damaged. No belts, cartridge-boxes, or other ac- coutrements were with them. There were two or three smooth-bore brass field- pieces, 6-pounders, which had been honey-combed by firing salutes, and of which the vents had been worn out, bushed and worn out again. In a heap in one corner lay a confused pile of mildewed harness which had been once used for artillery horses, but was now not worth carrying away. There had for many years been no money appropriated to buy military material or even to protect the little the state had. The Federal government had occasionally distributed some arms which were in . the hands of the independent uniformed militia, and the arsenal was simply an empty store-house. It did not take long to complete our inspection. At the door, as we were leaving the building, McClellan turned, and, looking back into its emptiness, remarked, half humorously and half sadly, 'A fine stock of munitions on which to begin a great war !'"
Scanty as were Ohio's military supplies they far surpassed those of Indiana and of most of the northern states. In Indiana there was not the semblance of a state militia organization. Even the "cornstalk" musters had almost passed out of mind. There were not muskets enough in the whole state to arm a single regiment, to say nothing of uniforms, tents, knapsacks and the other equipments essential to actual military service. Now 500,000 men were not only to be raised but equipped. Not only were they to be equipped but they were to be drilled and disciplined, to be organized in regiments, brigades, divisions, corps, and armies, and officers were to be found competent to command all these military organiza- tions. The work to be done was of stupendous magnitude. The first of the great armies organized in the North was that for the defense of Washington, and, whatever may be said of General McClellan, it must be conceded that the country owes to him a great debt for his untiring labor in fashioning from the crude material with which he was supplied that great army afterward known as the Army of the Potomac. Looking back over the history of the Civil War, nothing in it is so wonderful as the transformation in so short a time of the men taken from the fields, the shops and other civil pursuits, wholly inexperienced in war, into trained soldiers, and the creation in both North and South of armies such as were never before known in the history of the world.
The most difficult task of all was not, as had been expected, to find the men and the arms and equipments for them, but to find the generals able to lead these great armies to victory. As in many professions, other than that of arms, the
67
HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
education acquired in the schools, indispensable as it may be to success, must be supplemented by the experience acquired in actual practice, and not infrequently it turns out that the bright man at recitations utterly fails to fulfil the expectations raised by his success as a scholar. And so it was with many of the West Point generals. Moreover, the best of the generals developed by the war had much to learn in the field. It is no discredit to them that all made some mistakes. Marshal Turenne once said : "When a man boasts that he has never made mistakes in war, he convinces me that he has not been long at it." The weeding out of political generals, the failure of one after another of those appointed to command the great armies, went on during four years and cost the North heavily in money and in lives; in the end, however, generals were found "fit to stand by the side of Cæsar and give direction."
Shortly after the Ball's Bluff disaster another event of great importance occurred. Captain Wilkes, commander of the San Jacinto of the United States Navy, had seized the Trent, a British mail steamer, in the Bahama channel. and forcibly taken from her Mason and Slidell, Confederate commissioners on their way to Europe. They were brought to the United States and imprisoned in Fort Warren, near Boston. There were some mitigating circumstances, but it is now generally conceded that the seizure was a plain violation of international law. It immediately stirred up a great ferment both in England and in America. It very nearly caused Great Britain to declare war against the Federal government, or at least to recognize the Southern Confederacy. Either course at that time would have been fatal to the Union cause. There was nothing to do but promptly return the Confederate commissioners. This was done, and upon Secretary Seward devolved the delicate task of pacifying the English government and at the same time mollifying the wrath of those in the North who have never got beyond the idea that twisting the tail of the British lion is the acme of American statesmanship. It is needless to say that Seward accomplished his task with con- summate diplomatic skill.
When Congress met in December, 1864, one of its first acts was the appoint- ment of a joint committee consisting of three members of the Senate and four of the House, thereafter known as the Committee on the Conduct of the War, of which Senator Wade of Ohio was made chairman. He continued to serve as such during the war. We are told by Nicolay and Hay: "Abraham Lincoln," vol 5, pp. 150-I, the eminent historians, that this committee "was for four years one of the most important agencies in the country. It assumed, and was sus- tained by Congress in assuming, a great range of prerogative. It became a stern and zealous censor of both the army and the government; it called soldiers and statesmen before it, and questioned them like refractory schoolboys. It claimed to speak for the loyal people of the United States, and this claim generally met with the sympathy and support of a majority of the people's representatives in Congress assembled. It was often hasty and unjust in its judgments, but always earnest, patriotic and honest : it was assailed with furious denunciation and de- fended with headlong and indiscriminating eulogy; and on the whole it must be said to have merited more praise than blame."
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