USA > Indiana > Henry County > Hazzard's history of Henry county, Indiana, 1822-1906, Volume II > Part 18
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Thus did the State essay to build up its seminaries at the expense of its militia. for the evident reason that there existed at that time no prospect of invasion or insurrection, and consequently there was small need of a State militia, while
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
the demand for better schools was most urgent. Under this law, the busy men, the conscientious men and the men who simply disliked militia duties, were each and all released therefrom upon the payment of one dollar each to the seminary fund. This was approaching rapidly to a voluntary militia service and the end of the old system. An act approved February 24, 1840, tended in its general pro- visions in the same direction. It divided the militia into two classes, active and sedentary. All persons over thirty and under forty to belong to the sedentary militia, and not to be liable to military duty, except in times of war or insurrection. It however repealed that part of an "act for the encouragement of education" which related to fines, except that it continued the part thereof relative to con- scientious persons in full force. It returned all fines against members of the militia to the use of the militia and provided for their collection by justices of the peace. The same act provided for voluntary militia companies. Thus with all persons over thirty years of age relieved from active militia service in times of peace, and volunteer military companies provided for. the end of the old coercive system was evidently near at hand.
The end came with an act of the General Assembly, entitled "An Act to amend an Act to Organize the Militia," approved January 13. 1844. which pro- vided for the organization of a volunteer militia and repealed all former laws upon the subject, practically giving the sanction of the law to what the public opinion of the State had several years previously decreed. All militia service in the State. has been voluntary since 1844 and there has always been a ready re- sponse on the part of the people to the demand of the State authorities for military aid.
It is to be regretted that the companies and battalions into which the Henry County militia was divided for purposes of muster and instruction were not made a matter of public county record. From the meagre data, now obtainable, it is only possible to locate the various companies by the names of the commissioned officers. Taking the first list of officers, as commissioned in 1823, those who re- member the early settlers, will realize that the company of which Achilles Morris was Captain; Michael Swope, Lieutenant ; and William Huff, Ensign, was or- ganized in the southeastern part of the county in the territory that now comprises Dudley and Franklin townships. While Jesse Forkner was evidently Captain of an east side company, representing the various townships of Liberty, Blue River and Stony Creek. Charles B. Finch, Captain; John Smith, Lieutenant, and William McDowell. Ensign, probably served in a New Castle and Henry Town- ship company. As we continue down the list, the location of the companies by this sort of approximation grows less difficult. If the space at command per- mitted, a comparison of the names of the commissioned officers on the list with the records of land entries, and the early deed records, town plats, etc., in the Recorder's office, would locate most, if not all of the commissioned officers with reasonable certainty, and the parts of the county represented by the various com- panies would be approximately determined ; but there seems to have been nothing preserved to indicate how they were grouped into battalions or at what places bat- talion musters were held.
Elisha Long appears to have held the office of Colonel of the Forty Eighth Regiment until 1831. The record does not state but he doubtless resigned in that
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
year, on account of his election to the State Senate, unless he had reached the age limit of sixty years by that time, for on August 22, 1831, Miles Murphey was commissioned Colonel, he having been advanced to the Majorship in 1829. James Johnson was the first Lieutenant Colonel, commissioned at the same time as Colonel Long. August 28. 1823. Brice Dillee, of Wayne Township, was com- missioned in 1826, and Samuel Howard was commissioned in 1827. but there may have been two battalions in the county by that time. John Dorrah was the first Major, Miles Murphey, the second, and Asahel Woodward (grandfather of the author of this History ), the third.
The musters were the occasions upon which the various elements of pioneer society met and mingled upon such terms of fellowship as their various characters. moods and temperaments permitted, tempered only by such discipline as the militia officers might be able to enforce. There was, however, one very prominent element in early Henry County society, that was never in evidence at the musters. It was composed of those who were in the language of the militia law, "Consci- entiously scrupulous of bearing arms." The muster days were looked forward to with various anticipations by the "rank and file." To many they were times of pleasant reunion with friends, and were regarded as holidays, but the truth of history compels it to be said that even the most quiet and sober among the young citizens who bore armis, were never wholly without apprehensions of trouble and possible disaster on such occasions.
The fruitful cause was the same which was so prolific of Saturday fist fights and rows in the early villages-"the good, old, unadulterated whiskey that never hurt anybody"-which we have all heard so much about. While the drills were continued and the officers had control of the men, everything was done with a fair degree of decorum and good order. This was the case even when the drills con- sisted of nothing more than double and single file movements, as tradition tells us was often the case, but after the men were dismissed in the afternoon and the whiskey began to flow freely, as was the all but universal custom, the rougher elements grew boisterous and challenge and counter challenge flew about rapidly, wrestling matches soon ripened into fights and old quarrels were settled with "far and squar" fistic encounters, and many a fight between friends occurred which was impelled wholly by the "good liquor" and the frenzy of the hour.
There was a system of "renowning it." such as Longfellow describes as having prevailed at the drinking places of the students in the German universities. seventy five years ago, which was in vogue in certain neighborhoods of Henry County, on muster days, election days and other public occasions. They differed from the German "renownings" in this, that they were not challenges to deadly combats with the short sword, but to the more indecorous, though less dangerous "fist and skill fights." The "renowner" would take a stick and draw a large circle upon the ground, then stripping himself to the waist, would leap into the ring and with many furious oaths and floods of abuse, dare his enemy, if he had one in the company, to come in and join battle with him, or wanting an enemy, he would simply defy everybody, proclaim himself the champion of the entire countryside or in the usual language of the backwoods ring. "The bully that could whoop any other bully in the county." and dare any man to accept the challenge. Gouged eyes, bitten ears, mashed noses and bruised faces were the usual harvests of the
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
old time muster day; but this state of affairs was more aggravated in some localities than in others. It cannot be regarded as an outgrowth of the militia system or the muster, except in this, that as all able-bodied men, under forty five, in the township or muster districts were required to meet for drills on those days, rare opportunities for settling old grudges and determining important champion- ships were afforded. Doubtless this was the worst foe to military discipline, de- corum and training, that the militia officers had to deal with.
The above facts as to the early musters of the county have been largely drawn from the stories told by the pioneers who attended them and kept their heads sufficiently well to remember and retain vivid impressions of the scenes upon the muster grounds. The late Judge Joseph Farley, one of the county's early associate judges, remembered several such scenes as having occurred at "General Musters" on the farm then occupied by Colonel Long. Having been "only fist fights," nobody gave them much attention as being violations of the law of good order, and the young man, who refused to fight when challenged, was generally looked upon as a coward. But on the other hand, the man who attempted to use a pistol, knife or other murderous weapon in such a contest was regarded as a criminal and treated as such.
Judge Martin L. Bundy remembers that General James Noble, who was one of the early United States Senators from Indiana, held a brigade drill, presumably of the Eighteenth Brigade, at New Castle, either in 1827 or 1828. It was so difficult to find a field sufficiently large for the maneuvers of the brigade, on account of the dense forests, that the late Asahel Woodward finally surrendered his new meadow to the "tramp, tramp, tramping" of the men, and the great muster was held there to the demoralization of the meadow, a disaster that the strength and fertility of the newly cleared land soon repaired. It seems reason- . ably certain that the Eighteenth Brigade consisted of three regiments, one for each of the three counties, Henry, Rush and Decatur, which constituted the brigade district, but if such were not the fact, it is not probable that more than a thousand men took part in the "great general muster" on Woodward's meadow, yet at that time this meadow was the only field suitable to the maneuvers.
Perhaps the last public event in which the old militia was much in evidence in Eastern Indiana, occurred in Cambridge City on July 28, 1842, on the occasion of the great barbecue to celebrate the beginning of work on the Whitewater Valley Canal, at that place. This canal was one of the artificial waterways for internal communication and transportation, undertaken by the joint action of the National and State governments, under the old Internal Improvement System. It was, in the main, completed from Lawrenceburg to Brookville, before the final breakdown of the joint system. After the project of building further was abandoned by the National and State governments, a stock company was or- ganized to complete the work. The stock was taken by the business men, farmers and professional men of the counties and towns most likely to be benefited by the work, which means that most of it was held in Franklin, Fayette, Wayne, Rush and Henry counties. Farms, wild lands, almost everything that could be turned into money, were taken in payment for stock. Men rode from farmhouse to farni- house and gave such glowing accounts of the good times that were sure to follow the completion of the canal, that the depressed and struggling people were so
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
imbued with the new hope, that they assumed the burden of the proposed work with alacrity. The General Assembly of 1841 chartered the Whitewater Canal Company and it began work as stated.
Andrew Young, in his History of Wayne County, published at Richmond in 1872, says that "Samuel W. Parker, of Connersville, afterwards a member of Congress from this district, took an active part in getting up the company, and in connection with J. G. Marshall and others, secured the granting of the charter by the General Assembly, of which they were active members. One of the prin- cipal contractors under the State and company was Thomas N. Tyner."
"The citizens of Cambridge City celebrated the commencement of operations by the company on July 28, 1842, by a barbecue which was attended by about ten thousand people. The first wheelbarrow full of dirt was dug and wheeled by Samuel W. Parker. The second by Judge Jehu T. Elliott, of New Castle. . 1 great flood in 1847 damaged the canal to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars."
It may without much digression be added here that the canal was completed to Cambridge City in 1846, and soon after, perhaps, to Hagerstown, and was the principal means of transportation until the completion of the Indana Central Rail- way in 1853. On the occasion of the opening of the canal, it is not recalled that there was any special display or parade of the militia; but the presence of such large numbers of citizens who had been trained at various times, as members of the force, made the great parade of horsemen, which was one of the features of the show, one of the finest that ever occurred in the early history of the State. It is remembered that a number of the militia officers were present in the showy military uniforms of the olden times, brilliant scarfs, huge epaulets, gold laced, jauntily fitting coats, fairly glittering with polished brass buttons, and three- cornered hats, rich in flaunting plumes. These officers were in command of the great procession that galloped about on gaily caparisoned steeds, in a way that excited the wonder and admiration of all.
The two most conspicuous figures from Henry County, in that memorable parade, were Colonel Miles Murphey, of New Castle, and Colonel Jesse W. Bald- win, of Lewisville. Both were, at that time, fine, handsome men, to whom the military uniforms gave additional dignity of appearance. Murphey was Colonel of the Forty Eighth Regiment, and was for that reason made Marshal of the Day. Jesse W. Baldwin may have been a Colonel on the staff of Governor Bigger. or may possibly have been a Colonel of militia in his native State before coming to Henry County. There is no record that explains how or where he came by the rank, or at least the title, of Colonel. He represented Henry County in the General Assembly in 1849. having as his colleague, Samuel W. Coffin. Baldwin was, for many years, a man of influence and standing in Henry County. Later he moved to Chicago, where he died at the advanced age of ninety years. At Lewisville and vicinity, many stories and interesting anecdotes are current, re- garding him.
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
GRAND RECAPITULATION.
ARTILLERY, CAVALRY AND INFANTRY.
General Officers (Field and Staff) U. S. Volunteers 13
General Officers (State of Indiana) 2
Regimental Officers (Field and Staff) Indiana Vounteers 2
Company Commissioned Officers Indiana Volunteers 923
Non-Commissioned Officers Indiana Volunteers 40
Company Non-Commissioned Officers Indiana Volunteers
748
U. S. Navy and Miscellaneous. 15
Privates 3408
Total of officers and men furnished hy Henry County in the Wars of the Republic from the Mexican War through the Spanish-American War. . . . 4491
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
ALPHABETICAL LIST A.
This list includes the names of Henry County soldiers who attained the rank of General Officers, Field or Staff. Also Henry County soldiers serving in Indiana Organizations, in the Regular Army and in the Navy, during the Civil War. Also soldiers from other counties in the State, who moved to Henry County, after the Civil War.
Where the number of soldiers from Henry County in any regiment has justified the same, the full regimental staff is published with the regiment, but only the names of such of its members, as were from Henry County and such as are biographically mentioned in this History, are contained in this list.
In the distinctively Henry County companies, the full roster of the company is given whether the soldiers were from Henry County or not. All non-resident soldiers, officers and men, whose names appear in this list, are designated by an asterisk, thus *, before the names. All soldiers from other counties of the State. who moved to Henry County after the Civil War, are designated by two asterisks. thus ** , before the names.
A
Abbott, Jackson, Private. Corporal, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry.
Abbott, Levi, Private. 12th Indiana Battery.
** Abernathy, Alexander, Private, Company G, 21st Indiana Infantry; Sergeant, Com- pany M: Commissary Sergeant, Non Commissioned Staff, 9th Indiana Cavalry.
Abernathy, Isaac, Second Lieutenant, Company 1. First Lieutenant, Company K. 37th Indiana Infantry.
Abernathy, John A., Musician, Company A, 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid). Abshire, James T., Private, Company F. 2nd Indiana Cavalry.
Abshire, John, Private, Company F. 74th Indiana Infantry.
Adair. Washington, Private, Company K, 87th Indiana Infantry; Private, Company K, 42nd Indiana Infantry.
Adams, Alfred E., Private, Company C, 5th Indiana Cavalry.
* Adams, Byron F., Corporal. Company H, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Adams, Isaac H., Private, Company I, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Adams, James, Private, Company K, 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid).
* Adams, Marcellus M., Private, Company I, 3rd Indiana Cavalry.
Adams, William, Private, Company A. 36th Indiana Infantry; Private, Company H. 30th Indiana Infantry, re-organized.
Adams, William H., Corporal, Company I, 3rd Indiana Cavalry.
Adamson, Elias H., Private, Wagoner, Company D, 36th Indiana Infantry. Adamson, Simon P., Private, Company K. 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid). ** Addington, Thomas, Private, Corporal, Company C, 87th Indiana Infantry. Addison, William T., Private. Company G, 16th Indiana Infantry. Addleman, William O., Private, Corporal, Company I, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Ainsworth, Charles, Private, Unassigned, 53rd Indiana Infantry.
Akin, James, Private, Company C, 147th Indiana Infantry. .
Albert, Aaron B., Private, Company C. 109th Indiana Infantry ( Morgan Raid) .
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Albertson, Daniel C., Private, Company B, 139th Indiana Infantry; Private, Com- pany H, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Albertson, John B., Private, Corporal, Company C, 36th Indiana Infantry.
Albertson, Larkin L., Sergeant, Company F. 57th Indiana Infantry; Private, Com- pany B, 110th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid).
Albright, George H., Private, Company H, 140th Indiana Infantry.
Albright, John, Private, Company I, 69th Indiana Infantry.
Albright, Joseph S., Private. Company I, 69th Indiana Infantry.
Albright, William H., Private, Company F, 84th Indiana Infantry.
** Alcorn, William, Private, Company E, 8th Indiana Cavalry.
Alexander, Cyrus H., Corporal. Company F. 84th Indiana Infantry.
Alexander, Harvey W., Private, Company A. 110th Indiana Infantry ( Morgan Raid) ; Corporal, Company H, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Alexander. James, Private, Company K, 36th Indiana Infantry.
Alexander, James W., Private, Sergeant, Company E, 8th Indiana Infantry (three years).
Alexander, John M., Private, Sergeant, Company K. 36th Indiana Infantry; Private, Company A. 4th Regiment, 1st Army Corps ( Hancock's Veteran Corps).
Alexander. William R., Private. Company H. 69th Indiana Infantry.
Alfred, John W .. Private, Company A. 110th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid) ; Pri- vate, Company H. 147th Indiana Infantry.
Alger, Isaac, Private, Company H, 69th Indiana Infantry.
Allee, Amos H., Private, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry.
Allee, Henry C., Private, Company I, 3rd Indiana Cavalry.
Allee, Jacob W., Private, Company A, 139th Indiana Infantry.
Allee, John W., Corporal, Company F, 84th Indiana Infantry.
Allee, Oliver, Private. Company D. 19th Indiana Infantry; Private. 19th Indiana Battery.
Allee, Taylor, Private, Company A. 139th Indiana Infantry.
Allen, David T., Private, Company D, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Allen, Reuben W., Private, Company D. 36th Indiana Infantry.
Allen, Thomas C., Private, Company D, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Allen, William, Private, Company K. 54th Indiana Infantry ( three months) ; Private, 15th Indiana Battery.
Allis, Joseph. Corporal. Company K. 54th Indiana Infantry (three months ). Allison. Andrew A., Private, Company C. 84th Indiana Infantry.
*Allison, Asa H., Sergeant, Company H, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Allison, Hiram, Private, Corporal, Company G. 9th Indiana Cavalry.
Allison, James R., Private, Company A, 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid). Allison. Jesse, Private, Company A, 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid).
Allison, Leonidas L., Musician. Company F. 6th Indiana Infantry (three months ).
Allison, Robert, First Lieutenant. Company F. 6th Indiana Infantry (three months) : Captain. Company A, 57th Indiana Infantry.
Allison, William M., Musician, Company A, 57th Indiana Infantry. ** Alshouse, Hiram T., Private, Company F. 134th Indiana Infantry.
Alspaugh, De Witt C., Private, Company G, 16th Indiana Infantry.
Alspaugh, George W., Private, Company K. 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid).
Alspaugh, Henry, Private, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry. AIspaugh, Jacob M., Private, Company H. 69th Indiana Infantry.
** Anderson, Andrew J., Bugler, Company I, 13th Indiana Cavalry. Anderson, David, Private, Company K, 14th U. S. C. T.
Anderson, Elias, Private, Company I. 69th Indiana Infantry.
Anderson, Hugh, Private. Company D. 147th Indiana Infantry.
Anderson. Isaiah B., Second Lieutenant, Company B, 139th Indiana Infantry.
Anderson, James S., Private, Company A. 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid) ; Private. Corporal, Company A, 139th Indiana Infantry.
49
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
Anderson, John, Private, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry.
** Anderson, John B., Corporal, Company I, 67th Indiana Infantry. Anderson, John M., Private, Corporal, Company F, 84th Indiana Infantry.
Anderson, Miles E., Private, Sergeant, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry. Andrews, John W., Private, Company H, 69th Indiana Infantry.
Antrim, John B, Private, Corporal, Company A, 36th Indiana Infantry. Archibald, James, Private, 23rd Indiana Battery.
Archibald, Peter, Private, Company E, 106th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid) ; Private, Company B, 139th Indiana Infantry.
*Arment, James A., Private, Company H, 140th Indiana Infantry.
Armfield, Elam, Private, Company A, 57th Indiana Infantry. (See Mexican War). Armstrong. Albert, Private, Company B. 130th Indiana Infantry.
Armstrong, Cyrus, Private, Company K. 36th Indiana Infantry.
Armstrong. John, Private, Company C, 36th Indiana Infantry; Corporal. Company D, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Armstrong. Morrow P., Captain. Company K: Captain and Chaplain, Staff. 36th In- diana Infantry.
Artherhultz, Leander, Private, Company K, 74th Indiana Infantry: Private, Com- pany K. 22nd Indiana Infantry.
* Arville, Joseph, Private, Company H, 140th Indiana Infantry.
Atherton, Fenton, Private, Company A, 139th Indiana Infantry.
Atkinson, George P., Private, Company C, 36th Indiana Infantry.
Austin, James E., Private, Company A, 139th Indiana Infantry; Private, Company H. 147th Indiana Infantry.
*Ayler. Edward, Private, Company H, 147th Indiana Infantry.
Ayres, Josiah D., Private, Company A, 105th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid); Private, Company G. 9th Indiana Infantry.
B
*Babcock. William M., Private, First Sergeant. Company B, 139th Indiana In- fantry.
*Bailey, Riley, Private, Company K. 36th Indiana Infantry.
Bailey, William. Private, Company K. 36th Indiana Infantry.
Bailey, William, Private, Company B. 124th Indiana Infantry.
*Bails, Franklin, Private, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry.
Baker, Amos H., Private, Company K. 36th Indiana Infantry. Baker. Andrew J., Private, Company A, 110th Indiana Infantry (Morgan Raid). Baker. George C., Private. Corporal, Company F, 57th Indiana Infantry.
*Baldwin, Calvin, Private, Company H, 140th Indiana Infantry.
*Baldwin, Elias, Private, Company H, 140th Indiana Infantry. Baldwin, James, Private, Unassigned. 11th Indiana Infantry. Baldwin, Jonathan, Private, Company F, 84th Indiana Infantry. Baldwin, Lewis, Private, Company B. 5th Indiana Cavalry. Bales, Parnel, Private, Company C, 36th Indiana Infantry: Private. Company G, 84th Indiana Infantry; Private, Company E, 9th Indiana Cavalry. Ball. Henry S., Saddler. Company I, 3rd Indiana Cavalry. Ball. James W. E., Private, Corporal, 4th Indiana Battery. Ball, Jerry C., Private, Company C. 147th Indiana Infantry. Ball, John C., Private, Company I. 84th Indiana Infantry. Ball, Thomas J .. Private, Company I, 69th Indiana Infantry. Ball, William B. Private, Company I, 147th Indiana Infantry. Ball, William D., Private, Company I, 84th Indiana Infantry. Ballard, James H., Private, Company K. 40th Indiana Infantry. Ballard, Jesse, Private, Company K. 118th Indiana Infantry. Ballard, Joseph, Corporal. Company I, 69th Indiana Infantry.
-
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HAZZARD'S HISTORY OF HENRY COUNTY.
*Ballard, Micajah B., Private, Company H: Assistant Surgeon, Staff, 140th In- diana Infantry.
Ballard, Warren F., Private, Company G; Quartermaster Sergeant, Non Commis- sioned Staff; Lieutenant and Quartermaster, Staff, 47th Indiana Infantry.
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