USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana > Part 58
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they got leave of absence to go home and stayed at home, protected by their friends of the anti-war party. Others deserted outright without any pre- tense of furlough. Organizations were made to pro- teet them from arrest, and parties searching for them were fired upon repeatedly. Letters were written from home urging desertion, and these were some- times published by the faithful recipients to expose the machinations of disloyal men. The effect of the combined adverse influences was that two thousand three hundred deserters came home from Indiana regiments alone in December, 1862-63. The dis- couragement of enlistments was a logical and inev- itable part of the same impulse and movement. Nat- ural conditions favored it. Wages rose rapidly with the vast reduction of the working force of the State, and with the depreciation of currency the prices of everything else rose. The volunteer of 1861 went out when the government's pay was about as good as any other employer's, and the service was not thought harder. It was a sort of national pienie with some chances of danger and hard usage. The paymaster would leave enough at his visits to make a comfort- able support for the family at home. In less than two years a great change had come. Wages were high, living costly, the soldier's pay, though increased, was relatively less. The family would be left with inadequate support, or trusted to the chance assist- ance of neighbors. The co-operation of these nat- ural conditions with political antagonism forced upon all governments, national and local, the payment of large bounties to secure volunteers, under the President's calls, who should enable the community to avoid a draft. As the war went on and more men went to the field, and currency sank lower and prices rose higher, bounties mounted too; and under the last call for three hundred thousand men, Dec. 24, 1864, the national, county, and city bounties to vol- unteers in Indianapolis, with the advance pay, gave every mau nearly one thousand dollars before he went into eamp.
The city made an appropriation of ten thousand dollars on the 20th of April, 1861, for the support of the three months' men. Other smaller sums were frequently given to supply fuel, provisions, clothing,
and other necessaries to destitute families. In Au- gust, 1864, a purchase of two hundred cords of wood was made, and the following winter three thousand two hundred dollars was appropriated to similar service. Here and all over the State contributions of fuel and food were made by farmers who turned the occasion into a sort of holiday, and paraded the streets in long processions of loaded wagons to the music of a band or a drum and fife. Occasionally emulation would bring into a town huge wagons, each loaded with a whole winter's supply of wood for a single family. Some would have five cords, some seven, some more than that, and one bold donor from Perry township brought into Indianapolis once ten cords, and a lib- eral supply of flour, meat, and potatoes. Local fairs and private contributions raised large sums for sani- tary purposes as well as for soldiers' families. A fair held on the fair ground, in connection with the regular State agricultural fair in 1864, raised forty thousand dollars. But the support of soldiers' fam- ilies formed only a small part of the account of cities and counties in dealing with our volunteers. Boun- ties were the main source of expense,
Going into the army had come to be viewed in a business aspect, mainly or wholly. The volunteers " meant business" and meant very little sentiment. So bounties were made to fit the emergency, like any other inducement to labor when hands are scarce. In the fall of 1862 the city appropriated five thou- sand dollars for bounties, which served for five or six months. On the 14th of December, 1863, twenty- five thousand dollars was appropriated to bounties, and ward committees raised considerable sums in ad- dition by contribution. This enabled the city to avert the draft. The next summer, which completed the three years of many of the early regiments, saw a constant succession of veterans coming home on the long furlough allowed by the government to those that re-enlisted. These were uniformly met and welcomed, and paraded, and feasted by Governor Morton, Mayor Caven, and the citizens; and occa- sionally some of the vetcrans would take .the city's bounty and credit themselves here, counting thus against a future draft. The Seventeenth Regiment, one of the re-enlisted veteran regiments, had its
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whole force credited to Indianapolis, asking no bounty. Subsequently, however, some of the men hinted that it was hardly fair to pay raw recruits a thousand dol- lars and veterans of three years' service nothing, and the city thought so, too, and gave them five thousand three hundred and fifty-five dollars, which was all they asked.
On the suggestion of Governor Morton, the Gov- ernors of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa met here April 24, 1864, and recommended to the Presi- dent to accept a force of eighty-five thousand men for one hundred days from these States, to guard Gen. Sherman's communications while he was marching to the sea. The President consented. Indiana was as- signed seven thousand four hundred and fifteen men, and the city's quota was raised at once. The home regi- ment, the One Hundred and Thirty-second, under Col. Samuel C. Vanec, Lieut .- Col. Samuel A. Cra- mer, and Maj. Hervey Bates, took away a larger number of well-known citizens than any during the whole war, and they did good service, too. Under the call for three hundred thousand men, Oet. 17, 1863, increased Feb. 1, 1864, to five hundred thousand, and on March 14th to seven hundred thousand, no draft was made. The State had filled her whole quota of the three ealls, with two thousand four hun- dred and ninety-three men to spare on the next one. On the 18th of July a call was made for five hun- dred thousand more, and the city's quota was fixed at one thousand two hundred and fifty-eight. For once the citizens had to move promptly and vigor- ously to escape a draft. Meetings to raise the requi- site bounties to allure volunteers were held through the summer, and forty thousand dollars subscribed and eight hundred men enlisted. But we were still four hundred and fifty men short. The " enrolled men" on the conscription record raised a considerable sum to secure substitutes, but still the deficit was not made up. Then the Council made on the 28th of September an appropriation of ninety-two thousand dollars, and on October 3d another of forty thousand dollars, to help in the strait; and during October and November the quota was filled without a draft at a cost of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. On Dec. 24, 1864, the last call for troops was made.
The State's quota of the three hundred thousand was twenty-two thousand five hundred and eighty-two, of which two thousand four hundred and ninety-three had been paid by over-enlistment on previous calls. The Council appropriated the unexpended remainder of the previous appropriation,-twenty-five thousand dollars, and later twenty thousand dollars. This was insufficient, and in January, 1865, the mayor recom- mended further appropriations and drafting by wards. The Council fixed upon one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, to be paid in one hundred and fifty dollar bounties, with ten dollars premium for each re- eruit ; and three days later made the bounty two hun- dred dollars, and obtained an order from Washington for a draft by wards. In February the Council gave four hundred dollars to every man who should be drafted if he had purchased a fifty-dollar city order. On the 22d of February the citizens, to the number of four thousand four hundred, petitioned the Coun- eil to raise four hundred thousand dollars on city bonds to pay adequate bounties and fill the city's quota. The order was made and the bonds prepared and sent to New York, but none were sold. On the 6th of March one hundred thousand dollars was bor- rowed of five banks-twenty thousand dollars of each -at twelve per cent., and this was appropriated in four hundred dollar bounties. When the quota was nearly full it was found that some idiot in the War Ofice had made a blunder in fixing the city's eredits for volunteers, and that the quota was filled with hundreds to spare. A fourth of the loan was saved. The war expense from May, 1864, to May, 1865, which included the great bulk of the outlay for boun- ties, was seven hundred and eighteen thousand one hundred and seventy-nine dollars. The whole war- expense of the city was about one million dollars.
These large appropriations made high taxes and finally considerable debts. But the city was grow- ing rapidly, business of all kinds was flourishing, and high taxes were easily borne comparatively. The rate ran from $1.50 to $1.75, exclusive of State and county taxes, during the greater part of the war and the year following. Then came a elamor against such onerous rates, and a reduction was made till 1875, when the tax was made $1.50 again. Then it was
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reduced a little, and the next year a provision of the charter limited the total, including school and library tax, to $1.12. It is now at the limit. By the same provision the city debt was limited to two per cent. of the tax duplicate. That is also at the limit. The history of the city's debts is very short. In 1849 the amount was $6000; it was mostly paid by a special tax in 1850. In 1851 it was $5400, paid in 1854, except $557. In 1855 it was $10,000, and in 1856 $15,300. Jerry Skeen was appointed a special agent to negotiate $30,000 of city bonds in 1856 to pay the debt and put a little by for an emergency, and pledged the whole of them for $5000 to bet on the Democratic ticket that year. The city lost enough by these operations to make the debt in 1857 $23,740. In 1859 it was reduced to $9300, raised to $11,500 in 1860, and to $46,000 in 1861. In 1862 it was reduced to $16,500, in 1863 to $11,250, and later paid off. The war and big bounties and high prices left a debt of $368,000 in 1868, which was reduced to $100,000 in 1869, with $260,000 in cash in the treasury to pay it, as related in the services of Dr. Jameson as financial manager of the Council from 1863 to 1869.
In concluding this sketch of the history of the city and county during the war, it may not be irrelevant to note that a distinctively German regiment (the Thirty-second), Col. August Willich, and a distinct- ively Irish regiment (the Thirty-fifth), Col. John C. Walker, of Sons of Liberty fame, first, and then Col. Bernard F. Mullen, were organized and drilled and prepared for the field in the city camps. How many men enlisted in them from the city or county does not appear in the adjutant-general's report, as the residences are not given in the cases of several companies of both. The colonels (Willich, Von Trebra, and Erdelmeyer, of the Thirty-second) were all of this city, as well as Lient .- Col. Hans Blume and Maj. Peter Cappell, but very few others were, and the residences of none of the enlisted are noted. Of the Thirty-fifth (Irish) Regiment a roster of the Marion County men is appended, with those of the other regiments which contained companies largely recruited in this city.
The Grand Army of the Republic, a better memo- 21
rial organization than the Cincinnati of the Revolu- tionary war, is largely represented among the veterans of the civil war, and in the city are the General Thomas Post, and the George H. Chapman Post, named from the late Gen. Chapman, of the city. The order in the State is represented by a weekly news- paper called the Grand Army Guard.
The effect of the war upon the city was instant and obvious, and increased continually. Previously the commercial business had been almost wholly retail, and conducted almost wholly on Washington Street. There were family groceries and bakeries and an occasional drug-store dropped about on con- venient corners in more remote sections, but they formed no considerable part of the total. With the impulse derived from the large accumulations of temporary population and the trades that thrive by them came a permanent growth of improvements. A considerable portion of Illinois and Meridian Streets, between Washington and the depot, had been open ground, built up in spots with cheap frames on Illinois and large residences on Meridian. These vacancies were mainly filled and the little houses put aside for bigger ones, and both streets made almost solid masses of building. On Meridian Street they soon came to be used for wholesale trade chiefly, and then the commerce of the city may be said to have first put on an aspect of wholesale trade. There had been wholesale houses, off and on, since 1857, but the business did not amount to enough to make it a distinctive feature of the general city trade. On Illinois Street retail shops, saloons, and restaurants took the space, and they, with the hotels, still domi- Date that now most crowded and busy street of the city, except Washington. From these, in a year or two, the improving impulse spread north of Wash- ington and along the avenues, and began to efface completely the country-town aspect which the city had worn in some measure since its foundation, in spite of the growth imparted by railroads and en- larged business. With a population of eighteen thousand six hundred in 1860, and with large manu- factories scattered about in the creek valley, Indian- apolis was still only a country town in appearance, with all its business on one street, and its gas and
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paving and draining barely begun. The magnitude of the change may be judged from a few facts. In 1865, the first year of which a full report was made, "permits" were issued for sixteen hundred and twenty-one buildings, at an estimated cost of two million dollars ; nine miles of streets and eighteen miles of sidewalk were graded and graveled, and one mile of streets bouldered, four miles of sidewalk paved, and three miles lighted with gas. In 1866 the building permits were eleven hundred and twelve, with an estimated cost of one million and sixty-five thousand dollars, eight and a half miles of streets and sixteen miles of sidewalks were graded and graveled, a third of a mile bouldered, two miles of sidewalks paved, and three miles lighted. In 1867 the buildings were seven hundred and forty-seven, at a cost of over nine hundred thousand dollars; four and a half miles of streets and nine miles of side- walks were graded and graveled, a half mile of streets was bouldered, two and a quarter miles of sidewalk paved, and four and a half miles lighted. This impulse of improvement continued, as heretofore related, till the panic of 1873 began to be operative here, about 1874-75, and by that time the population had swelled to threefold its former mass. It was eighteen thousand six hundred in 1860, and forty- eight thousand two hundred in 1870, inereased by a corrected return made a few months later to fifty-two thousand, or nearly three times the population of the previous census.
The final development of the city as a centre of commeree and manufactures would doubtless have come in time from its natural advantages, if there had been no war and no artificial advantages to hasten it, but 1865 found a breadth and permanence of growth that would not have been found in 1870 if there had been no war. A consciousness of strength was universal, and in the year the war elosed, high as taxes were, the citizens petitioned the Couneil to give subsidies to four railroad enterprises,-the Vin- eennes, sixty thousand dollars ; the Indiana and Illi- nois Central (now Indianapolis, Decatur and Spring- field), forty-five thousand dollars; the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western, forty-five thousand dollars ; and the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Junetion, forty-
five thousand dollars. The last took its subsidy upon the express condition of locating its machine-shops here, and didn't do it. The Indiana and Illinois Central subsidy was never drawn from the treasury, although many supposed it was. The reorganized company, the Indianapolis, Decatur and Spring- field, finished the line to the eity very recently, but never claimed the money. That road is now perma- nently leased to or consolidated with the Indianapo- lis, Bloomington and Western, and the forty-five thousand dollars is a subject of litigation between the trustee of Centre township and the County Board. The trustee wants the township's portion of the sub- sidy for public purposes, and the question is in court.
CHAPTER XIV.
MARION COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
Sketches of the Services of Regiments-Rosters of Officers and Enlisted Men from Marion County Serving in the Several Regiments.
IN the following pages are collected the names of all the men who entered the service of the United States for three years from Marion County, where they formed the whole or greater part of the com- pany. Names of residents scattered about in com- panies raised elsewhere are omitted, the intention being to preserve the record of Marion County and Indianapolis companies only. Preceding each is a brief sketeh of the history, condensed from Adjt .- Gen. Terrell's official report. The names of all offi- cers, company or field, appointed from the county or city to any State regiment are given up to the Seventy-ninth. After that there are no appoint- ments from this county but of old officers assigned to new regiments, except in a few eases.
Seventh Regiment .- Colonel, Ebenezer Dumont, eom. Sept. 13, 1861; pro. brig .- gen. U. S. Vols., Sept. 3, 1861.
Chaplains, James Kiger, com. Sept. 13, 1861; res. March 13, 1863 ; William R. Jewell, eom. Aug. 21, 1863; must. out Sept. 20, 1864, time expired.
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Surgeon, George W. New, com. Sept. 4, 1861 ; dis., recom., and must. out Sept. 20, 1864.
Eighth Regiment .- Adjutant, Charles O. How- ard, com. Sept. 2, 1861 ; pro. capt. 18th U. S. In- fantry.
Ninth Regiment .- Quartermaster, James J. Drumn, com. Aug. 28, 1861 ; died at Indianapolis May 31, 1863.
Assistant Surgeon, William B. Fletcher, com. March 20, 1862; declined.
Tenth Regiment .- First lieutenant Co. F, Sam- uel C. Vance, com. May 20, 1862; dismissed April 27, 1863.
Eleventh Regiment .- The Eleventh Regiment was reorganized and mustered in for the three years' service on the 31st of August, 1861, with Lewis Wallace as colonel, and left Indianapolis for St. Louis on the 6th of September, arriving there on the 8th, and leaving the day following for Paducah, Ky. Here Lieut .- Col. George F. McGinnis was promoted colonel in place of Lewis Wallace, ap- pointed brigadier-general. The regiment remained at this post till Feb. 5, 1862, when it was sent up the Tennessee River to within six miles of Fort Henry, thence to Fort Heiman, and on the 15th to Fort Donelson, where it was put in Col. Smith's brigade of Wallace's division ; engaged in the battle there, and lost four killed and twenty-nine wounded. It returned on the 17th to Fort Heiman, and on the 6th of March took steamer to Crump's Landing, a · little below Shiloh battle-field. It took part in the second day's battle, fighting from half-past five in the morning to half-past four in the evening, losing eleven killed and fifty-two wounded. On the 13th of . April it moved toward Corinth, and during the last of that month made two marches to Purdy and back. Corinth being evacuated on the 30th of May, Wallace's division was ordered to Memphis. In July it was sent by steamer to Helena, Ark., from which place, on the 4th of August, it marched to Clarendon, returning on the 19th, after a march of one hundred and thirty miles and the loss by guerillas of one killed and two wounded. During the fall and winter the regiment engaged in expeditions from Helena to White River, to Tallahatchie River, to Duvall's
Bluff, and to Yazoo Pass. Col. McGinnis being ap- pointed brigadier-general in March, 1863, Lieut .- Col. Dau Macauley was promoted colonel. The Eleventh embarked from Helena on the 11th of April and reached Milliken's Bend on the 14th, where it joined Grant's army, being in McGinnis' brigade of Hovey's division of MeClernand's corps (the Thirteenth). Upon its arrival the corps pro- cecded to Carthage, and thence to Perkins' Planta- tion, near Grand Gulf. Here the army awaited, on transports, the result of the attempt of the gunboats to silence the rebel batteries. The bombardment proving unsuccessful, the troops were disembarked and marched around to a point opposite Bruinsburg, and on the 30th of April were crossed over the river and marched to Port Gibson, where, on the 1st of May, an engagement was fought, the regiment capturing a battery and having a loss of one man killed and twenty-four wounded. The next day the town was entered, and on the 3d of May the march was resumed. On the 16th the Eleventh engaged in the battle of Champion Hills, losing one hundred and sixty-seven in killed, wounded, and missing. On the 19th it moved to Black River, and on the 21st marched to the vicinity of Vicksburg, where it remained until the 4th of July, when the surrender took place. The casualties to the regiment during the siege were three killed and ten wounded. On the 5th of July it marched with an expedition to Jackson, Miss., with constant skirmishing on the way, there being nine men wounded. Returning to Vicksburg, it remained in camp until August, when it was transported to New Orleans, and on the 13th of August, 1862, was sent to Brashear City and through the Teche Country to Opelousas, near which place, on the 21st of October, there was a heavy skirmish. Returning from this expedition, the regi- ment, on the 20th of November, marched with Cameron's brigade to the banks of Lake Tasse, where a camp was captured. On the 22d of December it arrived at Algiers, and on the 19th of January, 1864, marched to Madisonville, where, on the 1st of Feb- ruary, the regiment re-enlisted as veterans. Going to New Orleans, it embarked on the 4th of March for New York City, from whence it came to Indian-
·
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HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
apolis, reaching there on the 21st, where it was pub- licly received by the citizens and addressed by Governor Morton. Upon the expiration of its veteran fur- lough the regiment departed for New Orleans, reach- ing there on the 8th of May, where it remained until July. On the 11th of July it was assigned to the Second Brigade, Second Division of the Nineteenth Army Corps, and on the 19th embarked under sealed orders. Reaching Fortress Monroe on the 28th, it proceeded to Washington and then to Har- per's Ferry. Moving to Cedar Creek, it skirmished all day of the 13th of August, and on the 15th reached Winchester, from which place it made sun- dry marches, and on the 22d had a skirmish near Halltowu. On the 24th in a reconnoissance it lost two men killed and eight wounded, and on the 6th of September it had a skirmish at Berryville. On the 19th it took part in the battle of Opequan, losing eighty-one in killed and wounded. On the 26th it pursucd the enemy to Fisher's Hill, and on the 22d was engaged in the battle at that place, skirmishing all night and following the enemy to Woodstock, losing two men killed and four wounded. On the 25th it pursued the rebels to New Market, where they made a stand, but being flanked were forced to retreat to Harrisonburg, which place was reached by the regiment on the 26th, skirmishing all the way. Leaving this place on the 6th of October, the regi- ment returned to Cedar Creek on the 10th, and on the 19th was engaged in the battle at that place, having fifty-two killed, wounded, or missing. Upon the conclusion of Sheridan's campaign in the Shen- andoah Valley the troops went to Baltimore, arriving there on the 7th of January, 1865, where it remained on duty till its muster-out on the 26th of July, 1865. On the 3d of August it returned to Indianapolis, where it was publicly received by the Governor on behalf of the people of the State on the 4th, and in a few days afterwards was finally discharged from ser- vice. During its three years' service the regiment marched nine thousand three hundred and eighteen miles.
Colonels.
Lewis Wallace, com. Aug. 31, 1861 ; pro. brig .- gen. U.S.V. Sept. 8, 1861; later maj .- gen.
Georgo F. McGinnis, com. Sept. 3, 1861 ; pro. brig .- gen. U.S.V. Nov. 29, 1862.
Daniel Macauley, com. March 10, 1863; must. out July 26, 1865, as brev. brig .- gen., term expired; re-entered service as col. 9th Regt: Hancock's corps.
Lieutenant-Colonels.
Georgo F. McGinnis, com. Aug. 7, 1861; pro. col.
William J. H. Robinson, com. Sept. 3, 1861; res. Sept. 3, 1862. Daniel Macauley, com. Sept. 4, 1862; pro. col.
William W. Darnell, com. March 10, 1863 ; must. out July 26, 1865, term expired.
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