USA > Indiana > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Indiana : With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 27
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It was now near 12 o'clock at night, and we were making about fifteen miles an hour. The engineer blew the whistle, and, as the train began to slacken spend, approaching Young's Station, some fifteen miles below Chesterville, Maj. Sterling touched me and whispered, " Follow me." He crept out at the opening, and
I after him. He reached the next car over the coupling, and worked his way to the side by holding to the slats. Here he halted, and left me exposed on the bumpers between the two cars, when I expected every moment my position would be revealed to the guards. I thought he would never jump. The moments seemed hours. Finally, swinging down by his hands until his feet touched the ground, he quickly ran in plain view a distance of three or four rods to the bushes. I was sure he would draw the fire from the guards, but he disappeared unharmed. I hastily clambered to the corner and lowered myself until my feet touched the ground, when, having around me a government blanket near the color of the ground, I lay flat down close to the road until the train had passed. The other three who escaped did in like man- ner, and, after the train had disappeared, we whistled ourselves together. Maj. Sterling, in jumping from the train, lost his hat, and afterward went back for it. It was a good while before we found him, on that account. We started directly west, away from the railroad. Our critical position imparting impetus to our limbs, every muscle responded to the faintest effort of the will. Just as Maj. Sterling struck out in the lead, he ran astride a stump, which threw him sprawling on the ground. We thought, in the darkness, that he was shot, but he scrabbled up and we all rau for dear life until we were out of breath, when, slacking up, the Major discovered, to our mutual loss, that he had lost his " saw-knife" and tin cup in his fall at the start -- the only imple- ments of the kind in the crowd. This was a severe loss, as we found out before we got through. Striking a road leading north- west, we thoughit best to follow it, traveling until day began to break in the eastern sky. Then we held a brief council under a large oak tree. This was a solemn time. The stillness was oppressive. Peering into each other's face, hope and despair, love of liberty and fear of the tyrant, seemed to alternate, as our hearts rose or sank within us. We decided to separate, Maj. White, Capts. Litchfield and Reed standing together. Maj. Ster- ling and I, being Western men, had long before agreed to cast our fortunes together-thus forming two companies. That was a grave and impressive parting. "Few were the words we said."
* * * * * *
* * *
" Wo carved not a line, we raised not a stone, but we left it alone in its glory " -- that old oak tree, consecrated by the remembrance of that night's parting.
The Major and I had the good fortune to preserve our watches from our rapacious captors, although we had been formed into line and searched in the prison-yard at two different times. Maj. White's party had uone, so I gave mine to Capt. Litchfield. At the parting, Maj. White and his men agreed to go into a barn near by and conceal themselves during the day by burrowing into the straw, while we pushed ahead a mile or two and concealed ourselves in the brush and weeds until night, afterwurd establishing a line of communication with the negroes on a large plantation adjacent. We saw no more of Maj. White and his party, but learned afterward that, having suffered greatly from hardships aud exposure for two weeks, they were tracked, run down by blood houuds, ro-captured, taken back to prison, und finally exchanged. Capt. Reed, ono of the most daring spirits I ever knew, was subsequently killed in the battle at Nashville.
The negroes told us that the whites had heard of our escape, and were patroling the country to strike our trail, advising us to lie still that night and the next day, ns the blood- hounds would be on our track. An old black man called "Matt " brought us some coarse corn bread and bacon, with some sour milk. The
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bread was innocent of any salt or other seasoning. but it was the unadulterated corn-meal, stirred in water and half baked, and was sweet and nourishing as any morsel I ever ate. How grateful we felt toward that simple, unlettered old slave, as he gave us the best he had, and at the risk of life, words can never tell!
We agreed with the blacks that we would conceal ourselves in the barn for the next day, and they left us, but our hiding-place was so small and close that we could not stand it: so we left in the night and went to the woods. Here we lay and slept until Jate in the morning. We found ourselves on an open, elevated piece of ground, with a growth of scattering pine shrubbery that ueither concealed us from view nor protected us from the heat of the sun. We could see many rods in all directions. and the bay- ing of hounds anon reaching our cars, we were almost afraid to move, much less to walk about. We lay there all day, without water, in the broiling sun-a situation that chafed and vexed us not a little. It became necessary, therefore, to re-establishi our line of communications that had been broken when we left the barn. The Major being older, and rather infirm from long im- prisoninent, this kind of work usually fell to me, as I was younger and lighter. In order to intercept the negroes on their way home from work, it was necessary to eross an open space, about eight rods wide, and conceal myself in the fence. I started a little after sundown, and, coming to a little rill of water, I slaked my long thirst and ran across the green, fortunately striking a " slip-gap" in the fence. Having hastily slipped myself through and re. placed the rail, I had only just settled myself in the high weeds, when " Matt's " young master, with a gun on his shoulder, passed by almost within reach of me through the fence. The negroes told us afterward that he and his father had been hunting for us all that day. By and by, the blacks came from the fields, when I told them to send Matt out with some food. He camne about 10 o'clock at night, with some more corn bread and milk. He said the white men were watching and questioning the blacks to ascer- tain whether they had seen any Yankees about. They asked him. and he said "No," thinking, as he told us, that we were all his friends, and were doing what we could for his people, while they were doing all in their power to keep them down. He said that the excitement was so great that we had better get out of that neighborhood. We took his advice, and he went a long distance that night with us, and, putting us on the right road, bade. us good-by, saying that, if we should never meet again on earth, he hoped we might all meet in heaven-and thus we parted.
After leaving " Matt," we traveled a part of the night, when Maj. Sterling was taken sick, and we went to the brush. lying there until morning and the greater part of the next day. A cold. drizzling rain set in, and the general stillness, the absence of any familiar sound, such as the barking of dogs, the lowing of cattle or the crowing of chickens, made our hiding-place gloomy and forlorn indeed. This being in the month of June, the forest was thick with foliage, all vegetetion was rank, and the insects were very numerous. As we lay upon the ground, they would creep over us; the little chameleons would reach out their bright little heads and peer at us with apparently the greatest curiosity. Venturing nearer, they would inspect us in a quizzical, comical way, harmlessly, but seeming to say, " What strange visitors are these? " We watched these little creatures for hours together, trying thus to beguile the time away. The very monotony of the surroundings convinced us that we were in a large forest. or wil- derness, very sparsely inhabited. In the afternoon, the corn bread that " Matt " had given us soured, so that we could not eat
it, and, hungry almost to desperation, we left our hiding-place and wandered through the unbroken forest until about sundown, when we heard the barking of a dog away to the northwest. We started for that point, and, after a long tramp over logs and brush, through the darkness, we came to a fence, and afterward saw a house in the distance, but a careful reconnoiter of the premises induced the conclusion that there were no negroes about, and white men there we could not trust. Finally, we found a road leading westward, and we followed it. and. seeing a light, deter- mined to get some food, if possible. So, coming upon an open shell of a house, we surveyed the prospect; spying around, Indian fashion, we discovered that it contained two women and several children. Then we went back to the gate and "halloed." A woman came to the door and asked what we wanted. We an- swered, " Something to eat." " Who are you?" she said. We answered, "Soldiers going to the front." She took us in and gave us a delightful supper of bread, milk and bacon. She and her daughter-in-law were living alone with the children, both hus- bands being in the rebel army. Our talk was such news to them, they declared us to be such clever fellows they would put up a lunch for us. After resting and getting all the information we could, we left the rebel " war widows" very happy, thinking, no doubt, we were rebel soldiers. Of course, we were on our good behavior, and did some good talking.
We traveled that night, and, coming to cross-roads, by the Major's assistance I climbed the sign-post, and read, by moon- light, " To Columbia, fifty miles." That was enough-we took the other end of the road. All the next day we lay in the woods, subsisting on the war widows' ham and corn-bread. I was not so successful in establishing my line of communication on this even- ing. It was raining, when, a little before dark, I saw a young colored woman out in the lot splitting kindling wood off an old stump. I cautiously approached from the rear, and she did not see ine until I was within a few yards of her, when, looking round, the whites of her eyes stood out like two orbs of the night for an instant, then, dropping the ax, she started for the house like a frightened deer. I said, " I am your friend; don't run." But she heeded me not. and fearing discovery. I, too, ran, but to the woods. Sterling was watching from his hiding-place, and laughed inordinately at my adventure. That night, we concluded to rest, and crept into the barn on the same plantation. We lay in the loft on a few bundles of corn-tops, and in the morning I could see the people about the house at their morning work. Sterling was still asleep. and I lay near him, in full view of the stairs, in my blue uniform, when a little negro boy came whipping up the stairs, humming a kind of melody. He seemed about four or five years old. He was after a corn-husk to fix his mother's spinning-wheel, as I guessed, for I heard the hum of that instrument, which I had not before heard since my childhood. He wheeled about and ran down stairs again, not seeing me at all. I was within fifteen feet of him. I aroused Sterling and told him how we had es- caped. We then crept into a corn-crib adjoining, filled with straw, into which we burrowed and remained all day. By night, Maj. Sterling was so weak and famished for water that he could not leave the crib until I had got the negroes to take him some water. Then, at 9 o'clock at night, they fed us and helped us in many ways. Thus we struggled on, depending upon the colored people altogether, until we reached the mountains of North Caro- lina, where Union men were quite numerous. We generally fol- lowed the highway on our night journeys, passing through Ruth- erfordton, the county seat of Rutherford County, N. C., at the
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
dead hour of midnight, passing the court house and other prominent points; and, during the four weeks spent in reaching the Union lines, we were not once halted. nor in any way molested or betrayed.
Once, we traveled all night in the rain, got lost, waded swollen streams, fell out with each other and came out in the early morning where we started the night before, wet. mnddy. tired and hungry. The same good Samaritan woman who had started us on our way the night before again took us in, warmed and fed us, hid us through the next day, and sent us again on our way rejoicing. Depending on the colored people wholly for the first two weeks of our pilgrimage, they never once betrayed us. but were ever ready and glad to administer to our wants whenever we could acquaint them with our condition. We never had any hesitation in approaching a black man. No one in that country understood the spirit of the great conflict going on better than he. They washed our clothes, mended our boots, concealed us through the day and piloted us through the night in dangerons sections of the country, when their lives would possibly have paid the penalty had they been discovered. All the colored people. old and young, on the plantations where we might stop, would come out to see us. Sometimes as many as a hundred would know of our presence, and, hearing of our coming, they would meet ns in crowds in the road in the middle of the night, with cooked chickens, cakes, bottles of honey, etc., more than we could carry -- in fact, enough for any ten men at a time. Dusky young girls and toothless old women would take ns by the hand with all the grateful enthusiasm they would have greeted long-lost broth- ers or friends. Such words can give but a faint idea of the matchless loyalty and love of the colored people for the Union cause. They have a strong desire to learn toread. and more than one old spelling-book was brought from its hiding-place and shown with pride.
We reached the French Broad River on the 24th of June. Here Maj. Sterling broke completely down. and was quite sick. A very good Union man brought him through on horseback to Knoxville. He reached our lines some days in advance of me. and went directly to Chattanooga to report to Gon. Hooker. I met him a few days afterward on his way home. I arrived at Mossy Creek, a station on the East Tennessee & Virginia Rail- road, on the 28th day of June. I was yet only about forty rods from the railroad when I saw three soldiers coming down toward the crossing. One of them seemed to have a familiar swing in his walk which interested me, and. on going closer, whom should I meet but Charley Davis! the same good-natured smile on his face; but he looked "seedy," for a fact. This meeting was the most striking thing that occurred. It will be remembered that he escaped on the 27th day of May, two days before we got away, and we had not known anything of each other's whereabouts since that time until within two days' march of our army. He had two men with hin- Andrew Kiltner, of the Fifth Indiana Cav- alry, and Henry E. Finney. of the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio Volunteers. I had also picked up a man of the Forty- ninth New York Volunteers, thus swelling our number to five in all. We found a detachment of our troops at Strawberry Plains- a very pleasant sight to us. We were kindly received and cared for by Lieut. Col. Trowbridge and Capt. E. S. Brooks, of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry. We reached Knoxville on the 30th of June, where the best attention was bestowed upon us by Gen. Carter. Gen. Aminon, his staff officers, and others. I drew clothing for the man with me, and received orders to report with them to
headquarters, Army of the Cumberland, at Chattanooga, whence we started home on furlough July 8, 1864.
A NIGHT OF HORROR. BY FIRST LIEUT. E. M. BARNES.
The Second Indiana Cavalry, while noar Nashville. Tenn., was ordered to the relief of Knoxville, then invested and besieged by the rebel army under Gen. Longstreet. Our command had reached Cancy Fork, a tributary of the Cumberland River, on the evening of the 29th of November, 1863. The weather was freezing cold, and. the river being very high (past fording), the troops suffered not a little from the exposure and delay. We found a small ferry boat-an open, flat-bottom, just large enough to hold six horses abreast and about a dozen men. By the use of picket ropes, we finally improvised a ferry. The water being from ten to fifteen feet deep and very swift the boat was kept in position by the aid of six mon detailed for the purpose. who. holding on to the ropes, which were fastened on either shore. working hand over hand, thus keeping the stern of the boat in- clined down stream, when the strong current. acting on the sides of the scow. would easily propel it from shore to shore. But. as the sequel will show. this was exceedingly hazardous business, for, unless the boat was held at a certain angle-about eighty degrees -- with the current, it would become unmanageable. Company A had passed over, and six horses, with their riders, had been put aboard from Company B. and at the word "Ready!" the men at the rope pulled out into the angry stream. When about the middle of the river, the boat was in some way placed at right angles with the current, which, striking squarely against the sides, and the five men pulling on the rope against such fear- fnl odds, caused the vessel to dip, and it instantly capsized, turn- ing completely bottom side up. Horses and riders went under the surging waters. The horses came to the surface and swam ashore. Two of the men clung to the boat as it shot down the river and disappeared. One of the men, T. J. Kendall. of Com- pany A, held on to the rope. and, hand over hand. pulled himself to the shore. Eight men were drowned, and their bodies, loaded with their fire-arms, sabers, etc., sank close by, and were after- ward recovered and properly buried. After all was still at the ferry, the two men who had climbed to the top [ bottom] of the boat were heard far down the river calling frantically for help. After drifting with the current for about one mile, they caught in the branches of an overhanging tree, and thus drew themselves ashore, escaping with their lives. A party immediately followed in pursuit, by land, and when the men were found they were nearly frozen, their clothing being solid cakes of ice. They were kindly cared for and finally restored to health. This sad event cast a much darker shadow over the command than a large loss would have done had it occurred on the battle-field, for. if at the first we had exercised the wisdom thus dearly bought, this horror might have been averted. Another boat was secured, and we were finally on the march again, sadder, if not wiser, men.
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
CHAPTER VI.
THIRD CAVALRY-(FORTY-FIFTH REGIMENT).
ORGANIZATION AND MUSTERING-IN OF THE REGIMENT-A BRIEF REVIEW OF ITS MOVEMENTS AND ITS PARTICIPATION IN THE ENGAGEMENTS MENTIONED -- COMPANY ROSTER, GIVING THE INDIVIDUAL RECORD OF ITS MEMBERS-MUSTERING-OUT AND RETURN HOME, ETC.
THE Third Cavalry Regiment, as originally organized, was composed of six companies, and the organization perfected at Madison, on the 22d of August, 1861. As thus formed it was sent to the Army of the Potomac, under the command of Lieut. Col. Scott Carter, and became known, subsequently, as the "Right Wing." It was composed of Companies A, B, C, D, E, and F. Afterward, on the 22d of October, 1861, pursuant to orders from the Adjutant General, the six companies named were united with four others, designated as G, H, I and K. The latter, with two additional companies, L and M, formod the " Left Wing" and was assigned to duty in Kentucky, having also been organized at Madison. During the year following, the companies composing the Left Wing being separated, did duty with separate commands. On reaching Kentucky, these companies went into camp at Camp Wickliffe and they remained at that post until the movement toward Nashville was commenced, when they also be- came engaged. After the battle of Shiloh, they marched to Corinthi and thence into Northern Alabama and Southern Tennessee. Marching with different divisions of the army in the Buell and Bragg campaign, the companies returned to Nashville in Novein- ber, and went, into camp near Edgefield Junction. The battalion marched toward Mursfreesboro, with the army of Geu. Rosecrans, and was engaged in the campaigns of the winter of 1862 and those of the spring and fall of 1863, terminating with the battle of Mission Ridge. Those campaigns being closed, the battalion moved into East Tennessee, under command of Leuit. Col. Robert Klein, where it was actively engaged in scouting and skirinishing until the commencement of the campaign against Atlanta, when, joining the division of the army under Gen. Sherman, it formed a part of that expedition and engaged in all the cavalry opera- tions of the campaign. It accompanied Sherman's cavalry in the march through Georgia, and while at Savannah, in pursuance of the orders of Gen. Sherman, the remaining veterans and recruits were transferred to and consolidated with the Eightlı Indiana Cavalry, the consolidation bearing the name of that regiment with which it had been consolidated. The detachment subse- quently participated in all the marches, engagements and skir- mishes of the Eighth Cavalry, continuing to serve with that or- ganization until the 20th of July, 1865, when it was mustered out at Lexington, N. C., after which it returned home with that regiment and was finally discharged at Indianapolis, having received appro- priate recognition of the services rendered by the Governor and other officials. The Company H, formed in Carroll County, as will be seen, was a component part of the left wing of the regi- ment, and with it is entitled to the consideration due to that divi- sion of the army. The regimental Surgeon was Dr. Elias W. H. Beck, of the city of Delpii. The company roster is a's follows:
COMPANY H.
First Sergeant-Robert P. Shauklin, promoted Second Lieutenant. Corporal-George W. Shanklin.
PRIVATES.
Richard Collane. James Cook, mustered out 1864.
Absalom Ford, transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
Benjamin Ford, captured at Calbonn, Ga .: transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
Harvey Glascock William Jordan, Willis Jordan, Jeremiah Johnston, John A. Landes, Alva B. Ledman, John Overbalser, Sammel P. W. Ross: Jonathan Spitler, transferred to Eighth Cavalry : Salathiel Sheets.
RECRUITS.
Leroy Barnard. transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
Jacob II. Brown, transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
William Cook, transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
James HI. Copstick; transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
William Jordon,, captured June 10, 1864; mustered out June 19, 1865. Alexander W. Marsh, transferred to Eighth Cavalry; mustered ont June 9, 1865. John S. Miller, captured August 3, 1864; transferred to Eighth Cav .. alry. William H. Quinn, transferred to Eighth Cavalry. Martin V. Young, transferred to Eighth Cavalry. Robert Young, transferred to Eighth Cavalry.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FORTY-SIXTH REGIMENT.
ORGANIZATION AND MAKE-UP OF THE REGIMENT-WHERE THE COMPANIES WERE RECRUITED-INSPECTION AND MUSTER-IN OF THE REGIMENT-ITS DEPARTURE FROM LOGANSPORT-FLAG PRESENTATION - IN CAMP WICKLIFFE - SUBSEQUENT MOVE- MENTS-AT ISLAND NO. 10-NEW MADRID-RIDDLE'S POINT- FORT PILLOW-CHAMPION HILLS-VICKSBURG-WITH SHERMAN -CHARGE ON THE REBEL WORKS AT ST. CHARLES-THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION - ITS DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES - IN PRISON-PRISON LIFE, ETC.
T HE Forty-sixth Regiment was composed chiefly of volunteers recruited in Carroll, Cass, White and Pulaski Counties. From Carroll County there were two full companies, A and C; from Cass, two full companies, B and D, and the major part of Company I. White County furnished one full com- pany, G, and Pulaski County one, Company H, while Com- panies E and F' were composed of men from White and the other counties named, Company K being for the most part from Fulton County. The regiment was organized at Logansport, on the 4th of October, 1861, with Graham N. Fitch as Colonel, and was mustered into service on the 11th of December, 1861, by Lieut. Phelps, of the United States Army. From the date of organiza- tion until its departure for the seat of war, the regiment re- mained in camp at Logansport, on the west side of Eel River, north of the Wabash. At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 12th (Thursday), the regiment was formed on the parade grounds adja- cent to the camp. and, after being inspected by officers of the regular army present, was dedicated to the country's service. It was separate l into companies, remaining in line, when, the order being given, the entire body began to move; passing over the bridge. across Eel River, it marched along Market street to Seventh, thence along Seventh and Spencer to Berkley, across the canal to the railroad, and thence to the depot of the Lake Erie, Wabash & St. Louis Railroad, where a special train was in waiting toreceive and transport them by way of La Fayette to Indianapolis. About 11 o'clock, a fine flag, the contribution of a. grateful romiunnity, was presented to the regiment as a token of their confidence in the bravery and fortitude of those who were about to peril their lives for the maintenance of the country's honor. It was received on behalf. of the regiment with the promise that it would de returned, waving over them, untarnished, or wrapped around them as a common winding sheet. From Indianapolis it started for Camp Wickliffe, Kentucky. Reaching that point without delay, it remained there until the 16th of Feb-
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