USA > Indiana > Lawrence County > History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana : their people, industries, and institutions > Part 16
USA > Indiana > Monroe County > History of Lawrence and Monroe counties, Indiana : their people, industries, and institutions > Part 16
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Company A, of the Sixty-seventh Regiment. had a great many Law- rence county men in its ranks. They were mustered into the service on Aug- ust 19, 1862, and during the subsequent term of enlistment had the following officers: Francis A. Sears, George W. Rahm and Jacob Smith, captains; G. W. Rahm, Leander P. Leonard, David T. Mitchell, Jacob Smith, Thomas Hendricks and John S. Bailey, first lieutenants; L. P. Leonard, David T. Mitchell and Jacob Smith, second lieutenants. Company H also was from Lawrence county, and its officers were : David Kelly, captain ; Allen C. Bur- ton. Benjamin N. Hostetler and John T. Stewart, first lieutenants; Wiley G. Burton and Benjamin Hostetler, second lieutenants.
The Sixty-seventh was mustered in at Madison, under Col. Frank Emer- son, and then moved to Louisville, thence to Munfordville, and in this latter place, on the 14th of September, was engaged with Bragg's army, and after a losing fight and a loss of forty-three men killed and wounded, was sur- rendered to the enemy. The regiment was paroled, and forced to remain at home until the month of December, when it was exchanged. Immediately the men were re-equipped and dispatched to Memphis. Their first engage- ment after exchange occurred in the assault on Arkansas Post, where they suffered severely in killed and wounded. The regiment later moved to Young's Point, and then joined the Vicksburg campaign. The men of the Sixty- seventh fought valiantly at Port Gibson, Champion's Hill, Black River Bridge, and at the siege and capture of Vicksburg. In succession the troops were ad- vanced against Jackson's companies, then to New Orleans, and then fought at Grand Coteau, Louisiana, where two hundred of the men were captured. In January, 1864, the regiment went to Texas, and joined the Red River expe- dition, fighting at Sabine-Cross Roads, Cane River and Alexandria, and losing heavily. After this southern campaign the men were moved against Forts Gaines and Morgan, and were thus engaged for twenty days. Then, and until December, 1864, the regiment was located at Morganza, Louisiana, in the meantime taking part in several small expeditions. The Sixty-seventh was next consolidated with the Twenty-fourth Regiment, under the latter name, and moved in the campaign against Mobile, and then was taken to Galveston, Texas. In this place the men were mustered out of the service on July 19, 1865, the recruits continuing, however, in active service. The record of this regiment is remarkable in several ways. Not only did they suffer great losses in battles, but in the number of battles engaged, eighteen in all. they had the uniform misfortune to receive more than their share of rebel bullets. They were under fire a total of one hundred and forty seven days, and traveled a distance of seventeen thousand miles.
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Company G, Fourth Cavalry (Seventy-seventh Regiment ), was organ- ized in July, 1862, and mustered in on August 7, 1862. The roll of officers during the war was as follows: Jesse Keithley and Isaac Newkirk, captains; Isaac Newkirk, Elihu C. Newland and Thomas C. Williams, first lieutenants ; E. C. Newland, T. C. Williams and James Kern, second lieutenants. Under Col. Isaac P. Gray the regiment was organized at Indianapolis, and when the time came to enter the field the regiment was divided and distributed among various places in Kentucky. One of the battalions, under command of Major Platter, participated in light skirmishes at Madisonville on August 26th, and at Mount Washington on October Ist, suffering slight casualties. On the 5th of October this division again fought at Madisonville, and lost several men. The other battalion, under Colonel Gray, was first taken to Louisville, thence to Madison, then to Vevay, then to several Kentucky counties, to Frankfort on October 2.1, from there to Gallatin, then up the Green river in pursuit of John Morgan. On Christmas day they engaged the rebel Morgan near Mun- fordville, and defeated him with severe loss. In the early part of 1863 the regiment moved to Murfreesboro, and on the Ioth of March were in battle at Rutherford Creek. Under command of Shuler, they skirmished near Murfreesboro, on March 28th.
It was not long before the two battalions of the Fourth Cavalry were united, and the regiment as a whole joined the army under Rosecrans. In this army they participated in the battle of Chickamauga, on September 19 and 20, 1863, and on the 23d. The battle of Chickamauga, not excepting Gettysburg, was the largest in the Civil war, and the gallant Fourth received their baptism of fire along with hundreds of other troops, and were forced to withdraw from the fated field. Had the Confederates followed up their ad- vantage on this historic field, the Civil war would have been historically differ- ent. But, as it was, the Army of the Cumberland recuperated, and lived to see the destruction of the rebel host. On the first of November the regiment fought at Fayetteville. During the winter of 1863-1864 the men harbored in eastern Tennessee, during which time they fought at Mossy Creek, Talbot's and Dandridge, and performed valiantly the duties assigned to them. Their work on January 27, 1864, when both battalions engaged at Fair Garden, dis- persing the enemy and capturing many, besides a battery and battle flag, de- serves special mention in the military record of Lawrence county. Lieuten- ant-Colonel Leslie was killed by a bullet while he was cheering his men on to victory. In the month of May the regiment started on the Atlanta campaign, and fought at Varnell's Station, Georgia, and at Burnt Church, on June 2nd. In the McCook raid and fight at Newman on July 31st the Fourth was very
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active. Atlanta once captured, the regiment moved to the state of Tennessee, and fought at Columbia in October. The regiment was afterward placed at several different points, including Nashville, Waterloo, and were under fire at Plantersville and Selma. The men were mustered out of the service on June 29, 1865, at Edgefield, Tennessee.
There were numerous other companies sent to the front from Lawrence county. Every new enlistment from Indiana was sure to have a strong repre- sentation from this county. In the months of July and August, 1862, a com- plete company was sent to the Sixteenth Regiment, three-year service, and was known as Company D. At different periods of the war, Columbus Moore and David B. Moore, of Mitchell, acted as captains; William Mannington, Milton N. Moore, D. B. Moore and Cyrus Crawford were first lieutenants ; Milton N. Moore was second lieutenant. The Sixteenth Regiment was under the command of Col., Thomas J. Lucas, of Lawrenceburg. In August, 1862, nearly sixty men from the county entered Company F, Ninety-third Regiment, the remainder being from Monroe county. Samuel J. Bartlett, Lafayette Bodenhamer. George W. Reeves were captains: Alexander Hawkins, L. Bodenhamer, G. W. Reeves and James S. Harvey, first lieutenants ; L. Boden- hamer, G. W. Reeves and William S. Sowder, second lieutenants. DeWitt C. Thomas was the colonel of the regiment. Six or eight Lawrence county men also entered Company E, of the Ninety-seventh Regiment, which organ- ization went from Springville. William T. Butcher was commissioned a first lieutenant in 1865. Other men left the county from time to time to join regiments made up in other places, and it is certain that Lawrence county did not get full credit for her services. Henry Davis, Leesville, remembered as a captain in the Lawrence county company which went to the Mexican war in 1846, was made a lieutenant-colonel of the Eighty-second Regiment on August 27, 1862, but resigned on October 1, 1863.
Lawrence county. as her neighboring county, Monroe, managed to escape the draft of October 6, 1862. being one of the fifteen counties in the state of Indiana to escape the draft. Many of the counties and townships in the state had been slow in filling their quotas, consequently the state military au- thorities decided to hold a draft in September. In order to give the backward districts an opportunity to make up their deficiency the draft was postponed until October 6th, at which date it was executed. Charles G. Berry was ap- pointed draft commissioner in Lawrence county: James R. Glover, provost marshal, and John W. Newland, surgeon. However, these men had nothing to do on the day of the draft, for the condition of the county was perfect. The report of the state enrollment commissioners on September 19, 1862, in
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regard to the military status of the county, gave the locality the following credits; Total militia, 1,732; total volunteers, 1,500; total exempt, 358; conscientiously opposed to bearing arms, none; total volunteers in the service, 1,500; total subject to draft, 1,374. This very excellent record was unsur- passed in the state. Taking into consideration the fact that many men, pos- sibly three hundred, enlisted several times, and were counted each time, the record shows that from April, 1861, to September, 1862, the county sent ap- proximately twelve hundred men into the service of the country, a record of which to be proud.
MORGAN'S RAID.
In July, 1863, the news that Morgan and his cavalry were in the state threw the people of Lawrence county into a furore. The proximity of trouble created excitement unequaled at any other time during the war. Only a few days passed when six full companies were sent into Mitchell from the county, and they were joined by four companies from Orange, Washington and Mon- roe counties. The organization was called the One Hundred and Twelfth Minute Men, under command of Col. Hiram F. Braxtan, of Bedford; Samuel P. Dade, also of Bedford, was adjutant; Ferdinand W. Beard, of Springville, surgeon, and Addison W. Bare, of Bryantsville, assistant surgeon. The com- panies and their officers from Lawrence county were: Company B, Capt. David T. Mitchell. First Lieut. Henry Paugh, Second Lieut. Bolivar Duncan : Company D, Capt. William Muir, First Lieut. George W. Douglass, Second Lieut. Olly Owens; Company F, Capt. Willoughby Blevins, First Lieut. Milton McKee, Second Lieut. William Withers; Company G, Capt. John H. Bartlett, First Lieut. Alexander Hawkins, Second Lieut. Elisha Lee; Com- pany H, Capt. Zachariah B. Wilson, First Lieut. Benjamin R. Smith, Second Lieut. Theodore Stackhouse; Company K, Capt. John Beaty, First Lieut. Josiah C. Foster, Second Lieut. John P. Potter. The period of service of this regiment of minute men was from July 10th to the 17th, 1863. From Mitchell they went to Seymour, and from there to North Vernon to meet General Morgan and his raiders, thence to Sunman's Station, and then home again. At this same period of fright, three other companies, E. H and I, entered the One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment, minute men. Company E was under Capt. A. F. Tannehill, First Lieut. Henry Cox and Second Lieut. H. F. Pit- man. Company H was under Capt. Francis M. Davis, First Lieut. Samuel Lynn and Second Lieut. John Dean. Company I was under Capt. Luther Briggs, First Lieut. George W. Burton and Second Lieut. Anderson Beasley. They were in service six days, ending July 16, 1863. They went from
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Mitchell directly to North Vernon, then to Sunman's Station, then Indian- apolis, and home.
On June 15, 1863, there was a call for six months' men, and in com- pliance with this order Lawrence county responded with a full company, which became Company D, of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Regiment, and officered by Hiram F. Braxtan, captain, Robert R. Stewart, first lieutenant, and James H. Crawford, second lieutenant. Very little active fighting fell to the lot of these men, but they performed well their services as provost guards. and experienced hardships on field and march equally as disastrous as the rebel bullets.
As late as 1864 there were many enlistments from Lawrence county. In the spring of that year twenty-five men went to Company H, and fifty-six men to Company I, One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, three-year service. Of Company H, John H. Bartlett, second lieutenant, and in Company I, William J. Cook and John V. Smith, captains, J. V. Smith and William Day, first lieutenants, Henry H. Reath and W. Day, second lieutenants, were from this county. They were mustered in during the months of February and March, 1864, under command of Col. Richard F. Prather, and took the field at Louisville, then Nashville, and Charleston, Tennessee, and then joined the Atlanta campaign, fighting at Resaca, where the boys won renown by charg- ing and routing the enemy. Other notable engagements which this regiment experienced were Lost and Kenesaw Mountains, Atlanta on July 22nd, and Jonesboro, Franklin, Nashville, Wise's Fork on March 8, 1865. The men joined in the pursuit of Hood after Atlanta. In the sanguinary conflict at Franklin, the regiment lost its major and forty-eight men were killed and wounded; their losses in other battles were also large, as they were ever in the thickest of the fight. At. Franklin they formed a part of the solid blue line which the enemy, by thirteen successive charges, failed to break. At Wise's Fork, after their removal to North Carolina, of the One Hundred and Twen- tieth seven were killed and forty-eight wounded. The regiment was mus- tered from the service in the early part of 1866.
In the fore part of 1864 twenty-five men joined Company H, of the One Hundred and Thirty-first Regiment, were mustered in on April 5th, and the company had as officers the following men from Lawrence county : John W. Mannington and William M. Munson, first lieutenants and W. M. Munson and Samuel Cook, second lieutenants. The regiment was properly named the Thirteenth Cavalry. Among the engagements in which it participated were Overall's Creek, Wilkinson's Pike, Nashville (dismounted), the invest- ment of Mobile, and in many other small raids and skirmishes. Their losses
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totaled sixty-five men killed and wounded, and the command was mustered out at Vicksburg on November 18, 1865.
The call for one-hundred-day men was answered in May. 1864, by the county. A full company was sent to the One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Regiment. The company was assigned the letter E, and was officered by David Mitchell, captain; Francis L. Parkison, first lieutenant, and William Patterson, second lieutenant. This company was mustered into service on May 21st, and were assigned to provost duty in Kentucky and Tennessee. In September, 1864, Company A was raised in Lawrence county for the One Hundred and Fortieth Regiment. Charles P. Pendergast and Robert R. R. Stewart were captains; R. R. R. Stewart and James T. Andrews were first lieutenants ; J. T. Andrews, Eli M. Dale and John R. Smith, second lieutenants. Pendergast was commissioned a major, E. M. Dale, adjutant, and David T. Mitchell, a lieutenant-colonel. The men were mustered in for one year's service, under command of Col. Thomas J. Brady. On the 15th of November they were taken to Nashville, and then to Murfreesboro, where there were quite a number of skirmishes and small engagements. In December the regi- ment moved to Columbia, and in January, 1865, to Washington, D. C. Shortly afterward, they were transported to North Carolina, in time to aid in the attack on Fort Fisher. Also the regiment was in the movement on Fort Anderson, was under the fire of the Federal gunboats, and captured the flag of the garrison. The men were in the struggle at Town Creek Bridge, where the enemy were completely defeated and captured. Subsequent movements included Kingston, Goldsboro, Raleigh, and Greensboro, and at the latter place the men were mustered from the service on July 11, 1865.
The last volunteering in Lawrence county occurred in the early months of 1865, when the Union forces were being concentrated around the Army of Northern Virginia. Men who had hitherto failed to enlist saw the approach- ing crisis and were anxious to join the victorious forces. In January, 1865, Company B, of the One Hundred and Forty-fifth, was nearly all raised in Lawrence county, and seventeen men for Company C and fifty for Company D of the same regiment. Vinson V. Williams and Michael A. Gelwick of this county were captains in Company B; Gelwick, Samuel Hostetler, James McClelland were first lieutenants and Hostetler, McClelland and William J. Owens were second lieutenants. In Company C Archibald Anderson was a first lieutenant and later a captain. In Company D George W. Burton was a captain, David A. Goodin, a first lieutenant, and John Stotts and Adolphus W. Trueblood, second lieutenants. The regiment was under the command of Col. W. A. Adams, Joshua Budd, of Mitchell. adjutant, and Vinson V.
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Williams, major, and later lieutenant-colonel. The men were mustered in in January and February, 1865, and on the 18th of February left Indianapolis for Nashville, Tennessee, arriving there on the 21st, and on the 23d reported to General Steadman at Chattanooga. Their period of service consisted mostly in provost duty near Dalton, and in Marietta where they remained until August 1865. They were removed to Cuthbert, Georgia, in January, 1866, and were mustered from the service at Macon, Georgia.
The Lawrence County Legion was an organization consisting of twelve companies. The following is a list of these companies, the date of their organization, and the officers of each. Reserved Guards of Bedford, June, 1861-John M. Harron, captain; W. N. Bivins, first lieutenant; G. W. Rahm, second lieutenant. Union Guards of Bedford, June, 1861-Charles G. Back, captain; W. P. Malott, first lieutenant; A. P. Lemon, second lieutenant. Perry Guards, June, 1861-John P. Potter, captain; B. F. Dean, first lieu- tenant ; F. W. Beard, second lieutenant. Independent Grays of Fayetteville, July, 1861-John Foot and A. F. Tannehill, captains; Eldridge Williams, J. H. Reynolds and Henry Cox, first lieutenants; H. F. Pitman, second lieu- tenant. Mitchell Light Infantry, July, 1861-William Muir, captain; G. W. Douglas, first lieutenant ; William Hammersley, second lieutenant. Big Spring Guards, July, 1861-Samuel Hostetler, captain ; John L. Stewart, first lieutenant ; R. R. Stewart, second lieutenant. Lawrence Guards of Bedford, July, 1863-Henry C. Hardy, captain; William Cook, first lieutenant ; J. W. Glover, second lieutenant. Marshal Guards, July, 1863-A. Anderson, cap- tain ; B. F. Kingrey, first lieutenant ; T. J. Boruff, second lieutenant. Helton- ville Guards, August, 1862 -- J. J. Durand, captain; Hiram Malott, first lieu- tenant : William Gray, second lieutenant. Leatherwood Sharpshooters, Aug- ust. 1863-Silas N. Whitted, captain : Eli Younger, first lieutenant ; John Mal- ott, second lieutenant. Bartlettsville Guards, August, 1863-J. H. Bartlett and S. J. Bartlett, captains : Alexander Hawkins, first lieutenant ; J. H. Clen- denin, second lieutenant. Jefferson Grays, August, 1863-G. W. Burton, captain; Obed Mercer, first lieutenant : Michael Voorhis, second lieutenant. Henry Davis was a colonel.
Many other regiments which participated in the war of the Rebellion had varying numbers of men from Lawrence county in their personnel. Twenty-seven men enrolled in Company F of the Ninety-third Regiment late in 1862 and early in 1863. In June, 1863, about ten men were recruited for Company F, of the Sixty-fifth. Later in the same year and in the beginning of 1864 twenty-six men joined Company G of the Fourth Cavalry. Several entered the Twenty-fourth and a few the Eighteenth. Late in 1864 and early
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in 1865 thirty-five men enlisted in Company D of the Sixteenth. About the same time eighty-five recruits left Lawrence county for Company F of the Forty-third.
The second draft for enlisted men occurred in Indiana in October, 1864. Lawrence county came within the bounds of the third district, and the officers were: John R. B. Glasscock, commissioner; Albert G. Collier, surgeon; Simeon Stansifer, provost marshal, to March, 1865, and then James B. Mulky. These district officers were appointed in May, 1863. The county was not fortunate, as she had been in the draft of October, 1862, and several men were forced to enlist. The reports show that eighty men were drafted in Law- rence county. The third draft for Indiana occurred in February, 1865. The demand on the county was very light, as the records show only two men credited. It is questionable whether or not the draft ever took place in the county, but if it did, it was extremely light. Doubtless, had the county been accredited with all the men who enlisted in other counties, she would have never been burdened with the draft.
In summarizing the number of men furnished by the county of Lawrence for the Federal army, it is well to give a few of the figures compiled by reliable authorities, relating to the subject. Before December 19, 1862, the county was credited with a contribution of 1,500 men prior to that date. Under the call of June 1, 1863, for six months' men the county supplied a complete com- pany of one hundred men. In October, 1863, she furnished 149 men. By a table prepared on the last day of the year, 1864, the calls of 1864 are tabulated by counties, and the total, that is, the report for Lawrence county as a whole, is as follows: First enrollment, 1,874 ; quota under call of February 1, 1864, 299; quota under call of March 14, 1864, 120; quota under call of July 18, 1864, 310; total of quotas and deficiencies, 729; credits by voluntary enlist- ments, new recruits, 586, veterans, 101 ; credits by draft, 80; total credits by enlistments and draft, 767; one year, 150; three years, 617; surplus, 38. On April 14, 1865, the following figures were prepared by authority, at which time all efforts were abandoned in raising men: Second enrollment, 1, 191 ; quota under call of December 19, 1864, 147 ; total of quotas and deficiencies, 147; new recruits, 148; credits by draft, 2; total credits by enlistments and draft. 150; deficiency, 43; and surplus, 46. Taking all enlistments together it is shown that 2,669 men enlisted from Lawrence county during the progress of the war, but as some men enlisted as high as three or four times, and were counted each time, the number is much too large. It has been estimated that fifteen hundred men left Lawrence county for the Federal army, which record is an excellent one in the scale of Indiana counties.
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One of the chief reasons for the success of the great Northern armies is the fact that in the homes and towns where the brave fellows hailed from there were preparations constantly being made for relief and aid. Mothers and sisters and sweethearts sewed and collected sundry articles to be sent to the field, entertainments of all kinds were given and the proceeds invested in supplies, and many a helping hand was extended to the soldiers' families who were destitute, their support at the front risking his life for the country. Pleasures were sacrificed, luxuries forgotten, and just the necessities were spent by the Northern people, in order that the hardships of the men in the field might be lessened and a measure of comfort given the battlefield and camp. In the adjutant general's report on the amount of bounty and relief furnished by Lawrence county during the war, the following figures will be interesting: The county, bounty, $61,700, relief, $2,815; Flinn township: bounty, $4,600, relief, $500; Pleasant Run township: bounty, $1,000, relief, $300; Perry township : bounty, $1,650, relief, $500; Indian Creek township: bounty, $8,400, relief, $1,500; Spice Valley township: bounty, $1,426, relief, $650; Marion township: $5,000, relief, $1,000; Bono township: bounty, $3,200, relief, $1,000; Shawswick township: bounty, $3,125, relief, $4,000; and Marshall township: bounty, $2,600, relief, $300. Making a total of bounty, $92,701 and relief, $12,565.
In a county history of the scope and importance of this volume, there are a thousand and one little incidents of war-time public meetings, celebrations, societies, supplies furnished, mass meetings, eulogies, speeches, and personal notes which can be gained through but one source, the newspaper files. Past historians have discovered that such a file is absent in the county of Lawrence, due to a theft or accidental destruction. These interesting parts of the chapter on the military history are consequently lost for all time.
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
When the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898, there was a great amount of excitement in the city of Bedford and the surrounding country. The young bloods prepared to enlist immediately, and, as there was no regu- larly organized company in Bedford, the most of the recruits went to Indi- anapolis and Louisville, where they joined the National Guard being rendez- voused at those points. With a few exceptions, these men saw little service, for their regiments were transported to Camp Thomas at Chickamauga, Camp Alger, and other places, and there kept during the summer without receiving
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