USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time > Part 21
USA > Indiana > Historic Indiana : being chapters in the story of the Hoosier state from the romantic period of foreign exploration and dominion through pioneer days, stirring war times, and periods of peaceful progress, to the present time, centennial ed. > Part 21
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neighbors had informed against them. It was not a happy time, either North or South, those anti-bellum days; and the border States were in a very unhappy position which is now fortunately at an end. Composed of this divided population, Indiana heard the news of April 12, 1861: "Sumter has fallen." An Indiana woman who lived and labored through those thrilling times afterwards wrote:
"No man living within the limits of America will ever forget that despatch. The old earth itself seemed to reel under a blow, and no longer to afford a sure foothold. Through the long Saturday, business was at a stand. That night, from the banks of the Ohio to the sand-hills of Lake Michigan, from the Quaker towns on the eastern border to the prairie farms on the western line, the streets of Indiana towns were black with breathless people, still awaiting tidings of the loyal men in the unfinished Fort Sumter, bombarded by the thousands of raging rebels. When the banner was unfurled-the banner which within the memory of the present generation had only idly flut- tered in holiday breezes-a new meaning seemed to stream from its folds. At ten o'clock a despatch announced, Sumter has fallen, and another, President Lincoln will issue a Proclamation to-morrow calling for 75,000 volun- teers. Governor Morton's proclamation followed the President's. It was as the blast of a war trumpet. In- diana's quota of the 75,000 troops was six thousand. Fifteen thousand men answered the call. Eight thousand came up to the Capital. The clerk dropped his pen, the woodsman his axe, the machinist his tools, and more than all in numbers, the farmers left their ploughs in the furrows and came to their country's call. By dint of coloring his hair and beard, an old soldier of 1812 found his way into the ranks. 'If I were only four years younger,' sighed Major Whittock, the contemporary of William Henry Harrison; 'ninety is not too old in such a cause, and the
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young people know nothing of war. Fifty years of peace have made no soldiers.' " 1
Men who had scarcely opened a book since leaving school became attentive students of tactics. It is averred that for the military terms "right and left" it was necessary to substitute "gee and haw" to the farmers' boys. In some cases, it is said, officers ordered whisps of straw wound round one foot and hay about the other, and the drilling began easily with, "hay- foot!" "straw-foot!" Of these new recruits, in their first engagement, a Confederate General said, "Can't make me believe that volunteers stand fire that way," and thus Hoosiers entered the four years' contest.
We cannot follow these troops beyond the bounds of the State. They placed their own names in the temple of fame. It is a matter of record that an In- diana soldier was the first to yield his life on the battle- field, and that the last battle of the war was fought by Indiana troops. The last Union soldier killed in battle was John J. Williams of the Thirty-fourth Indiana regiment. Indiana left her dead in seventeen States and Territories. Ere the war closed the Hoosier state with 246,000 voters had furnished over 259,000 troops. Three hundred and ninety-five men, only, served as conscripts; and that was after the State had furnished 8000 men in excess of her quota, the draft being the result of an erroneous computation of the muster rolls at Washington. The Indiana soldiers were the tallest men in the army, and were noted for their droll humor. The first men responded from the principle of patriotism and the fire of enthusiasm.
1 Merrill, Catherine, The Man Shakespeare and other Essays. Indianapolis, 1902.
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Some joined the army from love of adventure or expected glory. Not all that stayed in the service were heroes; but "there was no stain upon a single regiment or battery of all those sent out by Indiana." They bore themselves heroically and no State's soldiers won a prouder position. "We now occupy, alone, the proud position," said the Journal, "of offering volunteers to the government in advance of any call, while many of the other States are still behind, even with the draft."
No State could possibly have found herself, on the eve of a great war at her very threshold, in a more hopeless state of unpreparedness. Indiana had officials known as Quartermaster and Adjutant Generals, but they were undoubtedly on a peace footing with the world. It is doubtful if the whole State could have furnished arms for two regiments and the militia would not have supplied a half dozen regiments. The munitions of war were absolutely lacking. The depart- ment had no knapsacks, no canteens, no tents, and there was no money. It was a fact that members of the legislature and other State officers had been paid from the school fund, so empty was the treasury! Fortunately in this crisis Indiana had a great man for Governor.
Many a time has been recalled to memory the explanation which the wise old Quaker gave Oliver P. Morton of the reason why he was not to be elected United States Senator. Mr. Foulke tells the circum- stances of Mr. Morton having expressed his preference for the Senatorship, when the Friend said, "Oliver, we cannot let thee go to the Senate." "Why not?" asked Morton. "Because thee is a good man for either of these places, and Henry Lane would make
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a good Senator but he would not make a good Gov- ernor. So he must go to the Senate and thee must stay and be Governor"; and Mr. Foulke very truly says that if Mr. Morton could have looked into the future and seen the career which opened before him, he would have valued the place given him more highly even than the Senatorship which he was not to have (until in later years), for the very reason that his abilities fitted him for the other place. How great these abilities were was gradually revealed in every pressing need and crisis of the next four years. Loyalty, foresight, fearless courage, tireless industry, resource- fulness in extremities, tenderness for his soldiers, influence over his people, political sagacity, business ability, and an intuitive knowledge of men; these were the traits of character which Governor Morton developed and which made him so successful in his administration.
It may be of interest to younger readers, who have come upon the scene since the Civil War, to recall the different party elements in the commonwealth and the opinions they held at the opening of that conflict. The war was not a sudden calamity. Fore- bodings of the disaster had been felt in all sections of the nation for more than a decade, and party lines were drawn on the questions involved in the struggle over slavery. In Indiana, at the beginning of the war, there were two elements in the new Republican party. A large number who had come into its ranks from the Democratic party, and others who were conserv- ative, were disposed to conduct the war strictly for the preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the Constitution as it was, and an early pacification of the South. The other wing of the Republican
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party, chief of whom in Indiana were those illustrious men, George W. Julian and his co-workers, stood resolutely and uncompromisingly for the abolition of slavery, come what might. They felt that Lincoln had expressed a vital truth when he declared that there could be no lasting peace with a nation half slave and half free and they held that the sooner the question was settled forever, the better it would be for the whole country. Both of these classes of Re- publicans came up unitedly and inflexibly to the support of President Lincoln and Governor Morton in the prosecution of the war until the Union should be restored. In the Democratic party there were three divisions in the national campaign preceding the war. In Indiana, twelve thousand of the party had voted for Breckenridge, and were known as the nucleus of the party of the anti-war Democrats. Five thousand had voted for Bell, the constitutional candidate, and Douglas had a following of one hundred and ten thousand; most of whom gradually came to be known as war Democrats, and were staunchly loyal. These men joined in the plans for a vigorous prosecution of the war, and many of them served in the army. They held that all party strife should be put aside, until the federal authority was again established in every State. The anti-war Democrats, called derisively Copper-heads, were opposed to coercing the Southern States in any way, made a bogy of race equality, asserted States' rights, and were openly in sympa- thy with the Confederates. United States Senator Bright from Indiana, who belonged to this branch of the party, was expelled from the Senate for alleged complicity with the rebellion. Many of his associates engaged in secret treasonable organizations, and some
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of them were arrested for attempting warlike pre- parations for resistance to government. From this political alignment of the inhabitants of the State, it can be imagined that the division of sentiment caused much excitement. Present discussions, rancor, and political dissensions pale into personal pleasantries when compared with the rending of life and limb in those combats. It was not all a battle of words. In the history of the world, there cannot be found a more loyal people than the patriotic population of Indiana was. They not only rallied at once to the support of the government by sending more troops than were called for, but among those who did not go to the line of battle there was a great loyal majority who upheld the hands of the Governor.
Business men subscribed money, forwarded supplies, and went to the front with goods and provisions for the soldiers. Indiana men organized the first Sanitary Commission, and the people supplied the funds for it to furnish the comforts and necessities which the government could not. Citizens served on this Com- mission without pay, and followed the soldiers on the march, in camp, and in the hospital, with every- thing needed for the sick or wounded. Governor Morton took special pride in the Commission's work and was never tired of devising ways and means of improving its efficiency. Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of supplies was donated by private contribution through this channel by the people of the State. Nor were the women of the State backward in patriotic endeavor. They toiled unremittingly during the entire war. In October of the first year of the struggle, Governor Morton issued an appeal to the patriotic women of the State,
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calling their attention to the approach of winter and the possibilities of suffering which the troops would undergo unless help from other sources than the gov- ernment should reach them. He asked for blankets, knit gloves, socks, and hospital supplies. The response to this suggestion was so liberal that, in the latter part of the winter, the Quartermaster-General issued a letter stating that there were already enough con- tributions to supply the needs. What was sent? Necessities, comforts, and luxuries. Women canned fruit for the soldiers; they knit stockings and mittens for them. Aid societies made great bales of hospital shirts and warm underwear; children spent their Saturdays and holidays in scraping lint and rolling bandages. They wrote kindly letters and placed them in the useful "house-wife," which was a bag made with pockets and filled with needles, buttons, and patches for the soldiers' use. Each company that started for the front was accompanied to the station or boat-landing by the whole village, cheering them on to duty, and lading them with good things to eat. Every passing regiment was hurriedly given a feast in the court-house or station. As one of these noble helpers wrote: "And people did not tire of liberality. Hands, houses, and hearts were open to our soldiers. The war was no sixty-day affair, as had been promised. It went on and on, and recruiting went steadily on. The troops in the capital, though always changing, were never gone." Many Indiana mothers saw every son march away to the army. Tenderly reared women went as hospital nurses. Brides of an hour said good- bye to their soldier lovers, and old gray-haired fathers went into the harvest fields that the sons might serve at the front.
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Robert Dale Owen, who himself stood next to the War Governor in tireless labors for the soldiers, was appointed by the Executive as agent, and purchased all the arms and equipment for the State with honor- able and efficient ability. From some of the colleges of Indiana every man went that was able to go to war. Several of these schools closed for want of students until after the struggle was over. In any estimate of the progress made by Indiana, it must always be borne in mind that the State lost a valuable element of her population in the men who died during those four years, which detracted greatly from her future greatness.
At the opening of the war, not only individual citizens but the State, through its Legislature, responded to the call of the War Governor. Later, as we shall see, the Executive had to meet a newly elected Legis- lature which tried his soul to the last extremity, by their lack of loyalty, but the men who were assembled in extra session in April, 1861, voted and placed under the control of Governor Morton, within a fortnight after the fall of Fort Sumter, a half million dollars for arms and ammunition, and one hundred thousand for military contingencies. They also voted a million dollars for enlisting, maintaining, and subsisting troops. Responding with vigor to the sentiment of the people of Indiana, the Legislature (then in office) sustained the Governor in his arduous task. With all of this great patriotism on the part of the large majority of the people of Indiana, there was a minority whose acts afforded some reason for the Confederate General Morgan supposing that his invasion of the State in 1863 would be welcome to a larger following than he found. As there were Union people within the Southern
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States, there were also Secessionists in the North, and, so far as they could, and dared, the Southern sym- pathizers in Indiana plotted and conspired against the Executive and endeavored to thwart his plans for the defence of the nation. To-day we can afford to forgive, but mention of the proceedings of this minority in Indiana, during the war, is necessarily a part of its history. Steadily but secretly the leaven of disloyalty to the government and its policies per- meated one section of the conservative party. In several counties of the State, secret organizations were effected, and conspiracies against the government were planned. Military drill was a part of the business of the regular meetings of the "Knights of the Golden Circle" and the "Sons of Liberty," as these secret societies called themselves. The Union neighbors and old friends of the men in these bands debated with and counselled them in vain, on the futility and wrong of their plans. When the war had gone on through two years they became bolder in their teachings and movements.
There had been disastrous battles at the front, the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, there were large numbers of Union men absent serving in the army, and treasonable sentiments grew more out- spoken. Owing to these circumstances it had come about that at the Congressional elections of 1862 many of the returns went against the administration, and, excepting the Governor, all of the State officers and a majority of the Legislature who were elected were Democrats and many of these were anti-war men. The Legislature sought to enact laws tying Governor Morton's hands in enlisting troops and raising militia. To prevent the passage of such a
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law the Union legislators withdrew from the sessions until the term closed by limitation. Governor Morton said, in his carefully prepared message to this seditious Legislature: "I believe that the masses of men of all parties are loyal and are united in their determination to maintain our government, however much they may differ upon other points; and I do sincerely hope that all will be willing to subordinate their peculiar opinions to the great cause of preserving our national law and existence." Even after this appeal secessionist sympathizers of this Legislature continued throughout the session to oppose, obstruct, and misrepresent the acts of the Executive and the Federal officials. Mr. Foulke says in his biography of Governor Morton :
" Scores of grotesque and preposterous resolutions were tossed into the seething cauldron. There were propositions for an armistice, for a withdrawal of the Emancipation Proclamation, for peace conventions to consider impossible compromises. There were dismal wailings at the calamities of war, at the overthrow of 'sacred rights and liberties' by 'tyrants and usurpers,'- incoherent ravings against the President, the Governor, the Abolitionists, the Negroes, the ‘Massachusetts Yan- kees,'-a great tumult of words and dissonant eloquence." 1
But Mr. Foulke goes on to show what a stinging rebuke was administered to this misguided Legislature, by the letters and resolutions from the army of 60,000 soldiers in the field, who were naturally enraged and indignant over these stabs in the back. Their protests became general, and on the twenty-third of January resolutions adopted by the officers of twenty-two regiments and
' Foulke, William Dudley, Life of O. P. Morton. New York, 1904.
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four batteries and approved by the soldiers were sent from the Indiana troops at Murfreesboro. These protests were followed by similar representations from the soldiers at Corinth, in Arkansas, and from the Army of the Cumberland. Said this remonstrance from the soldiers to the Assembly:
"We have watched the traitorous conduct of those members of the Legislature, who, misrepresenting their constituencies, have been proposing a suspension of hos- tilities, plotting to divest Governor Morton of the rights vested in him by our State Constitution and laws, and we calmly and firmly say : ' Beware of the terrible retribution that is falling upon your coadjutors at the South, which, as your crime is tenfold blacker, will swiftly smite you with tenfold more horror should you persist in your dam- nable deeds of treason.' "
To be fair, it must be borne in mind that Indiana was not alone in having Southern sympathizers within its borders. All of the Northern States had this to con- tend with; but these communications, coming directly to the Legislature from the army, were marvellously efficacious in clearing the atmosphere about the State- house. They enabled the legislators, at least, to see national patriotism in its true perspective, and modest resolutions were passed protesting against being mis- understood.
Encouraged by the evil example of their lawmakers, the Southern sympathizers in the State grew more bold and insolent. Secret societies, with disloyal intent, multiplied; and leaders were found who en- deavored to alienate the people from their loyalty and to organize the disloyal element. Cheers were heard for Jeff Davis, and there was always some one ready to respond "a rope to hang him with." Peace at any
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price, even the recognition of the Southern independ- ence, was the purpose of those in control of the Legis- lature, and of those who were members of these societies. Assassination of the Governor was openly threatened. In the back districts men and women wore homespun clothes dyed with butternut juice; and in the towns many of them wore brooches made of the shell of a butternut, to denote their sympathy with the South.
A conspiracy to overthrow the State government was planned. And this too at a time when our national existence hovered between life and death. In the words of Mr. Foulke :
"At other periods it would have been only a subject for scornful jest, but at that time was dangerous, and demanded additional energy from those who had already expended the strength of Hercules in the efforts to subdue an armed rebellion. It was fortunate that there was at this time at the head of affairs in Indiana a man whose resources were equal to every emergency, whose autocratic will supplied everything there was lacking in a disloyal Legislature and a partisan judiciary."1
Governor Morton said of this period, a dozen years afterwards in the United States Senate, that the State was honeycombed with secret societies formerly known as the Knights of the Golden Circle and later as the Sons of Liberty. They claimed to have 40,000 members in the State; they were lawless, defiant, plotting treason against the United States and the overthrow of the State government. In some counties their operations were so formidable as to require the militia to be kept on a war footing, and throughout 1863 and until the final explosion of the organization in 1864
1 Foulke, William Dudley, Life of O. P. Morton. New York, 1904.
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they kept the whole State in agitation and alarm. Certain leaders of the Democratic party felt them- selves handicapped in their ambitions by these or- ganizations. So bold were they in the summer of 1863 that General John Morgan of Kentucky was en- couraged to invade the State with his forces, in the belief there would be a general uprising in his support. In 1864, so numerous were these organizations and so confident were they of their strength, that they matured a plan for a general uprising in the city of Indianapolis on the sixteenth of August. The plan that was discovered, as shown by the subsequent confession of some of the leading conspirators, was to march on the capital city, release on that day about 7000 Confederate prisoners confined at Camp Morton, seize the Arsenal and arm these prisoners, overturn the State government, and take possession of the State. The arrival of a detail of infantry hastily broke up the mass meeting.
"Some of the more frantic climbed on the shoulders of those in the rear in their efforts to escape. The order was given to search every man attempting to leave the city. Three hundred revolvers were taken from the pas- sengers on one train. Hundreds of them were thrown through the windows by their owners, into Pogue's Run. Pistols were given to women, believing that they would not be searched. Seven were found on one woman. Thus ended the farcical Battle of Pogue's Run, whose waters were filled not with the blood of combatants, but with firearms prudently cast away."1
The whole plan having been discovered, was abandoned and denied by the leaders, three of whom were State
1 Griffith, Frank. Detailed for this duty from 83d Regiment. Indianapolis Star, August 23, 1908.
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officers! They quickly sent out orders countermanding the march of the forces on Indianapolis. In a short time the seizure of arms and ammunition collected at Indianapolis for treasonable purposes (some of them labelled Sunday-school books) and the capture of the records and the rituals of the Sons of Liberty, as well as the arrest of eighty of the ringleaders, gradually caused the breaking up of organizations in the more remote neighborhoods. By actual in- voice it was learned that in two of the preceding months nearly 30,000 guns and revolvers had been brought into the State, followed at later times by larger quantities of arms for the bands amounting to 60,000 revolvers and 6000 muskets. The Southern records show that these organizations and the leaders of the Confederacy were in constant correspondence and negotiation by a cipher code. Later when the tide of war was turning against the South, in 1864, the greatest hope of succor of Jefferson Davis's Cabinet was from the treasonable societies of the North, and the States which bordered on the Ohio River were depended upon for an uprising against Federal control.
While the administration was struggling with trea- sonable legislators and bands within its borders, the whole Commonwealth was startled by a raid upon its own soil. There had been two scares previous to this, but on July 8, 1863, there occurred one of the most daring, most spectacular events of the war. This was the invasion of Federal territory along the Ohio River, with the avowed purpose of bringing the war home to the Northern States, and giving the Southern sympathizers an opportunity to show their colors and join their friends from the South. There had never been any arrests of Southern sympathizers up to
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this time and no tests were made of their courage. General John Morgan, commanding between two or three thousand Confederate cavalry, was cut off from Bragg and Buckner's army and determined to carry the war into the enemy's country, make an "astounding diversion " that would call off some of the Federal forces that were pursuing his chief. Probably six hundred adventurers bent on plunder were with this troop. It was a brilliant cavalry manœuvre, from a military standpoint. War is no holiday play, and the raid won lasting notoriety for its commander, but he was disappointed in its results; for few if any Northern secessionists joined him. He found that all the men he added to his numbers, he was obliged to capture.
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