History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 76

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664

USA > Indiana > Randolph County > History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships > Part 76

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The regiment to which that before-named "three" belonged had, after undergoing a somewhat romantic experience on their ontward passage, landed at Vera Cruz. In company with other regiments, they took up their course of march for Puebla, drove off the Mexican army, who had for a considerable time been be- leaguering that town in possession of the American forces, re- lieved the besieged garrison, and entered the city amid the plan- dits of the rescued ones.

Peace at length was declared, and the army returned to their homes, since the causeless and cruel Mexican war at last was over.

REMINISCENCES-MEXICAN WAR-W. D. STONE.

In May, 1847, he enlisted in the Fourth Indiana Volunteers as a private. In the Gulf of Mexico, bound for Galveston, on board the Ann Chase, one of the boilers exploded. Several men. were killed, und sixty-five went on boats and upon rafts to the Louisiana Shore, nine miles away, landing near the mouth of Calcasieu River. Stone was one of that company. For some unknown reason, the steamer managed to repair somewhat the damage done, and went on her course, leaving that company of men in the swamps, helpless and desolate, to their fate. They would not give up, however, and footed it sixty-five miles, hav- ing no food nor any suitable drink, through swamps and jungles, during two days and nights, to Sabine City, La., at the month of Sabine River. Here they stayed a week. At this point, thou. sunds of Texas cattle used to cross. The cattle had to swim, and the alligators would often catch them. Every little while. a bullock would give a spring and a plunge, and that was the last of him. An alligator had him.

The boys, to pass away the time, tried hunting alligators. Four of them took a skiff, with only one gun for them all, and iowed ont into the river.

Presently a huge monster came swimming along, and Stone said, "Let's lasso him." "Agreed," said the rest.

So they fixed a rope to the skiff and threw it around the head and neck of the creature. The moment he felt the rope, he started for the gulf at full speed. He dragged the boat and its frightened crew half a mile or more in "double quick." The boys tried to get him to shore. After bringing him into about four feet of water, one of the men, Brewer by name, a big, burly fellow, tall and stout, jumped from the boat into the river to pull on the rope and help land him. Instanter the alligator " took for " Brower, and the chap made some rather lively splashing through that water about that time.

However, they got him ashore and shot him. They thought him a "whaler," he being seven or eight feet long, or perhaps

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longer than that, and larger by far than they cared to encounter again, and so they gave up the business.

Three hundred men were still on board the steamer, and. managing to "rig up" in some way, as has been stated, the ship made for Galveston, paying no heed to the men on shore. They reported at Galveston that sixty-five men had made the shore, and that they were on the coast starving. A schooner was sent for them outright, and they were found at Sabine City. By that schooner the squad were conveyed to Galveston; thence to Brazos de Santiago. Most went by steamer, but fifteen of them went, in another way, to wit, by an old yawl. - What possessed them to go out on the gulf in such a crazy conveyance is "one of those things that no fellow can ever find out." But go they did, and a sorry time they made of it. When out on the gulf, the yawl wonld dip and veer, first one side and then the other, and they came near drowning many times; but, through God's mercy, they were spared to tread once more the solid land.

The men in the yawl had no gun, and could not shoot any of the sharks.

Mr. Stone says: "But we did one thing that was not planned. Col. Gorman, of the Fourth Indiana, had put a lot of hams into the bottom of the yawl to be conveyed to Brazos. We got at these, pitching them out, one after one, to the sharks."

From Brazos, the regiment was sent up the Rio Grande some two hundred miles by steamer to Gen. Taylor, but they were or- dered to report to Gen. Scott, at Vera Cruz; and, marching back by land to Matamoras, they took passage over the gulf again to the Mexican fortress and seaport, San Juan de Ulloa (Salın Hwahn da Ool-yo-ah), and Vera Cruz (Va-rah Crooz), which, however, had been reduced and captured before their arrival.

Most went by steamer, but a part were taken (by their own choice) in an old sailing vessel across the Mexican Gulf to Vera Cruz.

The Mexican forces, meanwhile, had retaken a part of the route from Vera Cruz to the metropolis, and had surrounded Pue- bla with an army of 7,000 men, under Gen. Ria, the place being held against them by the gallant Gen. Childs, with only a small garrison.

The little army fought every day, more or less, for twenty- nine days, all the way to Puebla. At Huamantla, 1,500 Amer- ican soldiers ronted 5,000 Mexicans, secured the pass in triumph, and raised the siege of Puebla.

Gen. Scott, before this time, had taken San Juan de Ulloa (at Vera Cruz), and had fought Sierra Gorda at the pass up to the heights of the Central Table Land; had taken Puebla and Perote, and had also, about this time, fought and won the terrible bat- tles of Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec and Molino del Rey; and had either just made or was then ready to make his triumph- al entry into the imperial city of the Montezumas.

After Puebla, they fought at Tlascala to protect the "tobacco train," a bevy of wagons laden with a supply of that fragrant weed for the use of the American soldiers.

The bombardment of Atlixco on the march, though a cruel thing, was nevertheless a magnificent spectacle. The artillery was posted on the heights, and the town lay far down, hundreds of feet below in the valley. It was in the night, and the track of the shells through the starlit sky could be distinctly seen as they went speeding on their path of destruction. The shells would burst in the midst of the town, scattering death and ruin far and wide. The city could not long endure so unequal a con- test, but surrendered at discretion.

These troops did not go to the City of Mexico, as Gen Scott was in possession, and the actual war was over. The army re- mained in the conquered country during some months, till the treaty of peace had been made. The evacuation then took place, and the soldiers came home during the summer of 1848.

(Capt. Stone has in his possession a Mexican sword, captured by him in a hand-to-hand fight at Puebla. He was one of a patrol, and, suspecting a certain house, they entered, and found it. filled with Mexican soldiers. The Mexicans fought, but they were beaten, and Capt. Stone captured the sword, turning it over to the Quartermaster, and Gen. Joseph Lane gave it to the cap- tor as a memento of his valor, and he has it yet. )

CAPT. JOHN . NEFF, WINCHESTER.

He was commissioned Captain in the United States army in 1846, during the time of the Mexican war. He did no service in Mexico, but was stationed at St. Louis, under Col. Enos Mc- Kay, as Assistant Quartermaster. His labors were great, and his responsibilities extensive. At one time, his Colonel wished transportation for $120,000 in gold and silver, chiefly the latter, to Fort Leavenworth. The steamboats refused to carry it for less than 2 percent upon the whole amount. The Colonel would not submit to such extortion, and directed Capt. Neff to convey the funds to their destination overland, and asked him, "What es- cort do you wish?" "The less the better," was his reply. He took four men, and, with a wagon laden with the precious treas- ure, they drove through in fourteen days. When four days out, the discovery was made that their guns were utterly useless; but they accomplished the journey without mishap, at a cost of about $130, thus effecting a saving to the Government of $2,270.

It would seem that Capt. Neff's duties did not embrace any direct connection with the Mexican war, but the time of his serv- ice was during its progress, and he was a resident of Randolph County, and a faithful and efficient officer; and this brief account of his labors would appear to be not ont of place at this point in our history.

WAR OF SECESSION.

Before 1861, war's grim and terrible front was a sight which, by the mass of the dwellers of Randolph, had never yet been seen. They had read of wars, but most had never taken any part therein. Even military musters and training days had been out of vogue so long that only the elders in the land had ever witnessed even those mock presentments of martial display.

It was, therefore, a marvelous scene to behold, when rebellion lifted on high her Gorgon head and raised aloft her traitorous arm, and our country sounded the sudden alarm of fierce and furious war, how, from city and hamlet and farm throughout our wide spread land, and from this county of ours as well, there sprang forthwith hundreds and thousands of brave men, unskilled, indeed, in the practice of war, yet nobly loyal, eager to press into the ranks as defenders of their native land.

None knew till then how much he loved his country. A sub- lime sight, indeed, it was to see, when the Union flag had been lowered in defeat and surrender from the walls of Fort Sumter, how rose, in bitter indignation and lofty defiance, the heart of a mighty nation, torn and rent indeed by sedition and treason, but stalwart and powerful still.

Randolph County had been for years before the outburst of the civil war strongly Republican in politics, aud its loyal people naturally responded with enthusiasm to the agonized call of the commonwealth in distress. Though it is indeed true that party lines were nearly ignored and men of widely varying political opinions enlisted like brothers in a common cause, into the armies that were mustering East and West, like a mighty host, to avenge the wrongs of the country and to maintain the integrity of the nation. Great numbers, first and last, from Randolph County, joined the Union armies, and helped to bear aloft, through hos- tile regions, the glorious stars and stripes; and came back, at length, victorious, from fields bravely fought and nobly won, or lay down, one by one, from time to time, on Southern soil, to rise upon earth no more; and a simple tombstone in a national burying-ground, consecrated by a nation's tears, in the far-off South, remains the sole memerial of their existence and their deeds. Nay, to many of our dear ones lost, even this poor boon was denied, and of the spot in which their lifeless frame found its last earthly rest, like the place of the sepulcher of Moses of old, "no man knoweth to this day."

And yet, though grand the uprising and numerous the bands that enlisted from our county, still it is a fact, strange though it may seem, that to obtain detailed, accurate accounts of the companies (whole or partial) that were enrolled from within its bounds during the progress of the war of the rebellion, has been found to be well-nigh impossible. Soldiers of the conquering armies remain in abundance, but each man can tell only his own tale, and none can furnish the history of his company or his reg- iment.

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

It would surely seem a strange thing, now we look back upon the events of the time, that no accurate list even of the names of Randolph soldiers is to be found anywhere within any record kept by the authority of the county or by her direction. She sent her sons by hundreds and by thousands into the tented field, but who went, or what they did, or how they came back, or whether they ever returned or not, seemed to be no concern of hers. And she would not appear to care, even to this day, now twenty years gone by since the power of that witchcraft of rebellion burst upon our people, enough for the memory of her soldier heroes to take a reckoning of them; but it has been left to a precarious private enterprise to hunt them out haphazard, and that under the disheartening certainty that large numbers of those who joined the armies of the country and murched away full of heart and hope to risk all that to them was dear, have died unnoted and unknown, and their very memorial has been lost from among men.

It has, indeed, been one of the purposes actuating the labors of the author and the publishers of these sketches to rescue from oblivion every name that can possibly be found belonging to a heroic soul who nobly volunteered in his country's cause.

Yet the work is sufficiently difficult of accomplishment. Al- most the only documentary evidence available is found in the report of Adjt. Gen. Terrell to the Governor of Indiana shortly after the close of the war. Gen. Terrell doubtless did his best, with the materials at his command or within his reach: yet those who are familiar with the matter know and deply regret the fact that the report referred to is greatly deficient, not to say largely erroneous.

The truth is that the military reports furnished to the Adju- tant General's office must have been wonderfully lacking, both in accuracy and completeness. It is a veritable fact, for in- stance, that out of the 208,367 names of soldiers enlisted from Indiana in the war of the rebellion, no clew is given concerning about forty-five thousand of those soldiers, as to where they came from, and about fourteen thousand are wholly unaccounted for. This is a sad showing, though, indeed, not very wonderful. Still, when searching is done, as now and in future time will be at- tempted by relatives and friends, to find the record of acquaint- ances and kindred dear in the memorial volume referred to, with what a sigh of unavailing regret will the bootless search be end- ed, to think that no mark nor token remains of services rendered, of sacrifices made-nay, perhaps it may even be of life shed forth as a free-will offering on the altar of country and of right. And so many are without record of residence and of final result that. it will be in no wise remarkable if the names of many Randolph men are not to be found in the record which in this work is at- tempted to be made, to tell to coming generations what Randolph County did to secure the preservation of the Union, and to main- tain the integrity of the nation.

So that, while we would desire exceedingly to furnish a de- tailed history of Randolph County in this respect, sheer neces- sity compels ns simply to generalize the matter, and to be con- tent with a meager recital of such scanty, and, for the most part, isolated facts as the materials within reach will allow.

It is estimated by those who may be presnmed to be best qualified to judge that more than two thousand men, at one time and another, joined the Union army in the war of 1861 from the fields and workshops and dwellings of brave and loyal Randolph.

The regiments to which these men belonged were found, dur- ing the progress of the conflict, everywhere in the front, marshaled against the serried ranks of armed rebellion. At the opening conflicts at Rich Mountain, etc., in West Virginia: at Bull Run and Ball's Bluff; with Lyon at Wilson's Creek, and Mulligan at Lexington; at South Mountain and Antietam; at Shiloh and Vicksburg and New Orleans; at Chickamauga and Chattanooga and Atlanta: at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville and Gettys- burg; at Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor and the Wilderness; at Charleston Harbor and Wilmington and Mobile; at Savannah and Columbia and Raleigh; at Resaca and Kenesaw; at Frank- lin and Nashville; at all points where hard and bloody work was to be done; and, moreover, in the wretched and murderous prison pens of the Southern land-at Libby and Danville and Florence;

at Millen and Savannah and Andersonville-the worst the world has ever seen-in all these places, and in others still, were found Randolph men to perform their part, and to endure the toil and the danger, and the suffering and wounds, the sickness and death, that lay in the path of duty.

Tender boys, who had never slept off a feather bed in their 1. ves, and who had lived abundantly and daiatily always, wont cheerfully to the field, wrapped their frames, weary with long marching, contentedly, and even merrily, in their blankets, and lay down without a murmur on the cold, damp ground, or upon the rails laid in the mud to keep their bodies from actually sink- ing in the mire, after a supper made of corn shelled from the cob and hastily parched in a scanty fire kindled upon the ground. Hardships and privations, forced marches and camping without food or water in the woods and in the trenches: fierce and sangui- nary battles, wounds, imprisonment and death-all these were borne cheerfully, as though it were a summer pastime, or ac. cepted meekly as a sacrifice needful to be made for the defense of a country, the richest, the noblest and the best beneath the cir- cuit of the sun.

Through all coming time. the war of 1861 in the United States will be reckoned to have been a conflict waged by the poo- ple, and carried on to the very end by their indomitable will and their unconquerable spirit; by their relentless determination that traitors should be made odious and that treason should be crushed.

. And thus it came to pass, that, in spite of political Generals, and commanders ignorant or dissipated. or even secretly tainted with covert sympathy for treason and hostile to liberty, the spirit of the common soldiery triumphed over every obstacle, and bore the country straight forward to assured and abundant victory and triumphant success.

Gen. Ousterhant said to Gen. Hooker, as they stood side by side viewing the magnificent charge up Lookout Mountain to fight the "Battle in the Clouds," when Gen. Hooker said, "See your men: they are in disorder," as they went rushing at the top of their speed over rocks and logs, every man bent on being fore- most at the summit.

" Cheneral Hooker! Choneral Hooker! You sees my mennsh ? Dey bees all Prigadeer Chenerals! Dey git to te top of dat mountain all right -- you see!"

The rank and file felt each man of them as if on them eacli one lay the burden of conquering the rebellion. Like the an- cient Swiss heroes, Arnold Van Winkelried and his compeers in the little Swiss army, boldly facing the serried Austrian phalanx, each man for himself felt

* As though himself were he On whose sole arm hung victory !"

And so it did. Gallant deeds and noble daring and heroic endurance have had their reward. And, while many remained to lay their bones in that hostile land, many more survived to re- turn with the laurels of the victor on their honored brows, and the laud is filled with the survivors of that memorable conflict, still energetic for good, and active in every manly enterprise for gain, and for public and private advantage, and foremost to achieve success in every worthy and profitable undertaking.

God grant to put far away the evil day that shall call these heroes and others like them to form once more the marshaled line to go forth in battle for their country's cause.

Many of the Randolph County soldiers suffered the horrors of imprisonment worse than death in those prison hells in the robel land, the like of which the world never saw before; and many gave up their lives in those dens of horror and filth and starvation. Tongue cannot describe, imagination cannot con- ceive, the human mind instinctively even refuses to believe as possible (so utterly fiendish were they) the terrible facts of those awful months; the unutterable woes inflicted upon our luckless countrymen condemned to drag out weary weeks and months in those fearful prison pens on those waste and scorching Southern plains!

But those seenes are past, thank heaven! let them live only in the memory of a nation shuddering even yet at their unspeak-

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able enormity, and grateful for security, liberty and justice, even thus dearly purchased.

GRAND UPRISING.

When the news flashed over the wires that Fort Sumter had lowered her flag at the behest of armed treason, it thrilled the nation like an electric shock.

On the 13th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was evacuated. The news reached Indianapolis Sunday morning, April 14. On the morning of April 15, Gov. Morton telegraphed to President Lin- coln as follows:

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Indianapolis, April 15, 1861. §

TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES :

On behalf of the State of Indiana, I tender to you, for the defense of the Nation, and to uphold the authority of the Government. ten thou- sand men.

OLIVER P. MORTON,

Governor of Indiana.

The same day, President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops, and the quota of Indiana was set at 4,683 officers and mnen, to serve for three months.

The next day, April 16, Gov. Morton called for six regiments. The day after the call, 500 men were in camp. By the 19th of April, 2,400 men were on hand, and they were pouring in by every train, and in less than seven days, more than twelve thou- sand men had been tendered-nearly three times the number called for. One company was there from Randolph of 140 men, April 18, Capt. Colgrove.

Orders were received from the President, April 20, to organize six regiments, and the work began the same day.

One Company from Marion County was partly mustered on that day, and the rest of the sixty companies were organized as follows:

April 21-Five companies.

April 22-Nineteen companies and a half.

April 23-Ten companies, and eleven companies besides, not mustered into the six first regiments.

April 24-Fourteen companiea.

April 25-Eleven companies.

And also, on that last day, April 25, the whole six regiments were completed and mustered into service.

When this work had been accomplished, there remained in camp at Indianapolis twenty-nine companies besides, and sixty-eight companies had been raised and tendered that had not come for- ward. Out of these, Gov. Morton determined to organize sev- eral State one-year regiments, and instructed to form five such regiments.

On the 6th of May, the Legislature passed an act requiring six regiments of State troops.

On the 11th. of May, 1861, five regimests were reported as complete-the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Six- teenth, and, shortly afterward, the Seventeenth was mustered into service.

These 120 companies forming the twelve regiments were re- cruited from different counties, to wit:

Allen, four companies; Bartholomew, three companies; Boone, one company; Benton, one company; Clay, one com- pany; Clinton, one company; Cass, two companies; Carroll, one company; Delaware, one company; Dearborn, five companies; Daviess, one company; Decatur, two companies; Elkhart, one company; Floyd, two companies; Franklin, one company; Fount- ain, one company; Fayette, one company; Grant, one company; Iloward, two companies; Henry, two companies; Hamilton, two companies; Hendricks, one company; Hancock, three companies; Huntington, one company; Jefferson, five companies; Jennings, two companies; Jackson, one company; Johnson, one company; Jasper, two companies; Kosciusko, two companies; Knox, two companies; La Porte, three companies; Morgan, one company; Marion, eight companies; Madison, one company; Montgomery, four companies; Miami, one company; Martin, one company; Monroe, one company; Ohio, one company; Owen, two compa- nies; Porter, one company; Putnam, four companies; Parke, one company; Rush, one company; Randolph, one company (146 men); Ripley, two companies; Shelby, three companies; St. Jo-

seph. two companies; Tippecanoe. four companies; Tipton, one company; Union, one company; Vigo, three companies; Vander- burg, one company; Vermillion, one company; Wayne, one com- pany; Wabash, one company; Warren, one company; Washing. ton. one company.

Seventeen companies were formed by taking the men for each from more than one county. Doubtless many, probably all the counties in the State not named above, sent volunteers in con- nection with other counties. Many of them were represented in the mixed companies above specified. The forty extra men from Randolph were sent home.

Regiments containing Randolph soldiers are the following, so far as known:

Eighth, three months; Sixth, three years: Seventh, three years; Eighth, three years; Ninth, three years; Eleventh, three years; Twelfth, three years: Thirteenth, three years; Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Nineteenth. Twentieth, Twenty-first (First Heavy Artillery), Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth (First Cavalry), Thirty-first, Thirty-third. Thirty-fourth, Thirty-sixth, Forty-sec- ond, Forty-seventh, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-seventh, Sixty-ninth, Sev- enty-first, Seventy-fifth, Eighty-fourth, Eighty-ninth, Ninetieth, Ninety-seventh, Ninety-ninth, One Hundred and Fifth, One Hun- dred and Sixth, One Hundred and Ninth, One Hundred and Seventeenth, One Hundred and Nineteenth (Seventh Cavalry), One Hundred and Twenty-first (Ninth Cavalry), One Hundred and Twenty-fourth, One Hundred and Thirtieth, One Hundred and Thirty-first (Thirteenth Cavalry), One Hundred and Thirty fourth, One Hundred and Fortieth, One Hundred and Forty-sev- enth, Fortieth Ohio, etc.

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History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships, Part 76

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman Number of Pages: 664

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664