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 91

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 91

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After the usual ceremonies of organization, the following gentlemen were nominated and elected as officers of the post for the current year: Albert O. Marsb, First Post Commander; George U. Carter, Senior Vice Commander; William W. Macy, Junior Vice Commander; Ralph V. Murray, Officer of the Day; Richard A. Leavell, Officer of the Guard; Isaiah P. Watts, Chap- lain; John E. Markle, Surgeon; William H. Reinheimer, Quarter- master; John W. Macy, Adjutant. The following officers were then appointed for the same period, viz., George W. Ennis, Sergeant Major; F. B. Chapman, Quartermaster Sergeant; S. T. Remmell, Hospital Steward; E. S. Kelley, Inner Sentinel; S. W. White, Outer Sentinel.

Since its organization, the following-named gentlemen have been admitted to membership in this post: W. E. Murray, April 26, 1882; O. H. Luellen, April 26, 1882; H. R. Marlatt, April 26, 1882; George W. Brown, April 26, 1882; Nelson Pegg, April 26, 1882; J. H. Butterworth, April 26, 1882; John E. Neff, April 26, 1882; Benjamin C. Marsh, April 26, 1882; Isaiah Ryan, April 26, 1882; W. A. W. Dally, May 10, 1882; James M. Hamilton, May 10, 1882; William Inman, May 10. 1882; Charles W. Ward, May 10, 1882; Norman Cook, May 10, 1882; A. M. Russell, May 10, 1882; John G. Hollingsworth, May 10, 1882; James M. Thomas, May 10, 1882; David Neff, May 10, 1882; Nimrod Brooks, May 10, 1882; William Harper, May 10, 1882; John K. Martin, May 17, 1882; N. T. Chenoweth, May 17, 1882; J. W. Ginger, May 24, 1882; Asa Teal, May 24, 1882; M. B. Miller, May 24, 1882; Erastus Corwin, May 24, 1882; John R. Phillips, June 7, 1882; Mark M. Austin, June 14, 1882; Charles W. Wolverton, June 21, 1882; William F. Locke, June 21, 1882; James M. Pottle, June 19, 1882; John R. Smith, June 26, 1882.

INCIDENTS -- ARMY LIFE.

We give below for freshness and agreeable variety, some reminiscences by various parties who were soldiers in the Federal service.

The field described is somewhat large-Tennessee, Red River, Chattanooga, the Atlantic, the Pacific-but the recital will relieve somewhat the dryness of the dull detail of bare facts.

Elder Thomas Addington, Company A, Eighty-fourth In- diana, Franklin Townshlp.

I enlisted August 7, 1832, in Company A, Eighty-fourth In- diana, at Camp Wayne, Richmond, Ind., under Col. Trusler. We went to Cincinnati and to Covington, Ky. The regiment was quartered in the sixth story of a building so full of vermin that the boys left in disgust, and slept on the sidewalks or what- not. We were marched to the front, five miles out, with no arms nor ammunition in the regiment, though the rebels were in full view. Gov. Morton came and raised guns and cartridges: but the cartridges were two sizes too large for the guns. He came again, found how matters stood, went back, "pressed " an old man with a cart, and others, and sent on other ammunition. The old man brought us five rounds apiece, the next man twenty rounds, the third a full supply. They proposed to Gov. Morton to give us "poor" arms. "No," said he, " good equipments, or they go back to Indiana." They got the best. Our route was Gallipolis, Guyandotte, Catlettsburg, mouth of Cumberland, Nash- ville, Franklin, etc.

When Coburn's Brigade was captured at Thompson's Station, our regiment was ordered to re-enforce Coburn, and went on board the cars at Nashville at 4 o'clock P. M., and got to Frank- lin at 11 o'clock P M. We could have marched it in half the time. Gilmore sent Coburn, and then let him be taken, although he (Gilmore) had plenty of men who had nothing else to do. He ordered us to do it and then held back his own troops, and us, too, and let Coburn be "gobbled up." In Chickamauga, there was bad generalship in our brigade. We had started from Tullahoma, and from September 7 to September 14, had been on the road. September 13 we started at daylight and kept on until 7 o'clock P. M .; drew rations and ammunition, and had supper, and were on the go again by 11 o'clock P. M., and kept on all night, and with little stop until 3 o'clock P. M.

We rested September 14 to September 18. The rebels had been driven from Ringgold, and we were ordered to find them. As we were marching, some women called ont, "An hour ago they were here." Presently, as we marched through # thickety field, no skirmishers nor any watch kept, the "rebs " poured a heavy fire upon the head of the column. They might have captured us all. We skirmished all night, and fell back one and a half miles at daylight. In the morning, we found them where they were the night before. The Eighty- fourth Indiana and the Fortieth Ohio were sent to attack what proved to be a whole rebel corps. We should have been captured but for the Colonel of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois. We were flanked on all sides. He, hearing the firing, knew we were in trouble, and came without orders to our help. He came galloping up, his regiment after him on the full run, formed, and sent a volley into the advancing rebels, and checked them. We went back and re-enforced Thomas.

At the battle of Chickamauga, Thomas was caught in a trap, and came near being bagged. Two roads led to the trap. We marched on one, and the "rebs" shut us up. Thomas was nearly sealed up, but finally escaped by the road we marched in on. He fell back to Chattanooga, but the front held Mission Ridge and Lookout Monntain. Bragg intended to take Chatta- nooga, but was prevented by a stratagem. On Monday night, as we were retreating, orders were given to camp, and build great fires all through. We did so, and made a grand illumination. Bragg thought a great army had come up. His scouts reported "overwhelming re-enforcements." Bragg held still; then we marched again into Chattanooga. After Chickamauga, the "rebs " held Lookout Mountain, and the wagon road from Steven- son, Ala. We had the railroad from Nashville to Bridgeport, and then the supplies had to be wagoned by a mountain road sixty miles instead of direct thirty miles. That was a fearful time! I have stood in one place and counted at one time twenty mules or horses dead, or dying from starvation. Details were often sent to shoot animals that were too weak to stand. Sol- diers were kept on half or quarter rations, and poor ones at that. Bread, crackers, etc., had to be piled in the open air, and it rained a large part of the time. The provisions would get wet and soaked and mouldy and spoiled, but it was that or none,

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

No building could hold the enormous amount of provisions needful for a supply. Bread would be piled in great heaps like immense piles of wood. Cracker-boxes would be heaped in piles as high as my head, and 600 yards long. An immense train of 900 wagons was captured and destroyed by the rebel cavalry. The country at large never knew how the brave boys suffered at Chattanooga, or how hard pressed was our gallant army under "Old Pap Thomas," while waiting for the long-drawn march from the river to the mountains. But Sherman made that march across three hostile States. Hooker's army was sent from the East, and the rebels were sent howling backward. Sherman's hardy legions drove Longstreet's hordes from East Tennessee, and his weary thousands found rest for a few short weeks in winter quarters in North Alabama.

A. C. BEESON, SIXTY-NINTH INDIANA.

"I was in Chattanooga during the siege of that place, after the battle of Chickamauga, in the fall of 1863.

" The siege lasted from September to November. The rebels tried to starve us out, and came nearer being successful than was agreeable to us. They could not take the place: for, while they had possession of Lookout Mountain, which apparently com- mended the town, our encampment was so low that they could not depress their fire so as to reach us. Provisions became scarce enough. Mules died of starvation in great numbers, and their carcasses lay in some places close enough together that you could walk upon them; and as for the men, three days' rations would consist of one army cracker and a small piece of beef. Men have been known to give $5 for a single ear of corn; yet the army enjoyed reasonably good health. We were camped in a cemetery, and two graves were under our tent.

"I was captured by Morgan's men while in the hospital at Danville, Ky. I was too sick to be moved, however, and was paroled.

"The siege of Chattanooga was relieved by the arrival of Hooker's and Howard's Corps from the Eastern Army, and Sherman's Corps from Vicksburg."

SILAS COLGROVE, LATE CIRCUIT JUDOE.

The famous case of Page against the women of Winchester in 1853-55, made a wonderful stir at the time.

At first he indicted all the ladies concerned, a large com- pany, for malicions trespass.

The case was tried, and in thirty minutes the jury brought in a verdict of not guilty.

A civil suit was then brought, and damages awarded for $400.

WILKERSON GIRLS CASE.

"One of the kidnappers shot the boy through the arm as he rode and blew his horn, but the boy was "game," and kept on riding and blowing. The man who fired at him was indicted for shooting with intent to kill, but was acquitted. 1 |Mr. Col- grove] appeared in behalf of the boy.

" The slave hunters and negro haters undertook to enforce an old statute of Indiana against all the people of color of Cabin Creek settlement (aud their name was legion), requiring such persons to give security for good behavior. A Justice of the Peace in the region notified thirty or forty "darkies" to appear before him and give bonds. A large number presented them- selves, greatly troubled, not knowing what to do. They had tried to engage Moorman Way as their attorney, but for some reason he could not assist, and they engaged me to appear in their behalf. In some way we succeeded in quashing the pro- ceedings for that time, and they were never renewed. Some of the people in that region were severely pro-slavery, and I never got such a tongue-lashing in my life as I received from some of them, especially from one of the ladies who was present at the trial.

" I had a horse shot under me at Antietam, but was myself not hurt. At Gettysburg, my horse was shot through both fore legs, but not killed.

" At Chancellorsville, a ball struck my leg near the hip joint, passing through the flesh below the joint and up between my

limbs through the saddle tree, lodging finally in the saddle blanket. The wound healed rapidly, and although not yet cured, I was in the saddle in command of a brigade at Gettys- burg. I was also hurt in the hand by a spent ball, which was a more severe wound even than the one in the thigh, since it dis- abled my hand for weeks.

" At Peach Tree Creek, Ga., four miles from Atlanta, I was wounded by a six pound solid shot passing between my side and arm, the wind of the ball tearing the flesh from my side from the breast bone round to the backbone, three or four inches wide. The shot had first hit the sword and rolled it round nearly double, and in so doing the sword hit my elbow and shattered the arm terribly, breaking the elbow joint. The surgeon said, "The arm must come off." I said, "No; save it if you can." They said, "No; it must come off." Dr. King said, "No, don't do it; he can't live three hours." But I did, though, and the next day I refused to have it taken off, and my poor arm is now able to answer very well the uses for which it was given me.

"The poor wounded men lay by scores upon their hammocks dying with gangrene in the camp hospital, and they carried me away about a quarter of a mile, by a spring, and I stayed there until I became convalescent. My side became black, and the flesh dropped off and new flesh formed. In twenty days I was brought home, and not long after was able for business. I was wounded July 20, 1864, and in September I took my place as President of the Military Commission at Indianapolis."

(Gen. Colgrove receives a two-thirds pension for partial dis- ability arising from these various wounds).

William Commons, M. D., Union City, was born in 1836, in Wayne County, Ind., and educated at the public schools, and at Oberlin, Ohio, 1859-60. He received his medieal training with Dr. Brandon, of Williamsburg, Wayne Co., Ind., and at Ann Arbor, Mich., and at Cincinnati.

He took one course at Ann Arbor, and graduated from Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati July 6, 1863. Before this, he had voluntered in the Sixteenth Indiana, Company I, being de- tailed as a medical cadet. He served his twelve months and was honorably discharged. On graduation, he was appointed Resi- dent Physician at Cincinnati Commercial Hospital. In August, 1863, he was allowed to be examined for admission into tlie Naval Medical Corps. He passed, and was appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln Assistant Surgeou United States Navy, and the same day. October 26, 1863, by Gov. Morton Assistant Surgeon Fourth Indiana Cavalry, then under Burnside, at Knoxville. He declined the second and accepted the first.

The naval appointment was confirmed by the Senate Febru- ary 22, 1864. He had been ordered to report for duty on board the United States Receiving Ship North Carolina, at Brooklyn, N. Y., which was done November 28, 1863.

January 1. 1864, he reported for duty on Flagship Hartford, Admiral Farragut, Gulf Squadron. Here he remained during the summer of 1864, being in the battle of Mobile Bay when Farragut was lashed to the rigging on his flagship. The Hart- ford returned to New York in December. 1864, and was put out of commission. He came home on two weeks' leave, and mar- ried Lydia Jane, daughter of Edward Starbuck, late banker in Union City. January 17, 1865. He was ordered to proceed to Port Royal for service on the ironclad Patapsco; but while he was on the ocean passage, the Patapsco was blown up by a tor- pedo in Charleston harbor, and sunk, with the loss of all on board but four men. The ship which was taking him to Port Royal broke her shaft and put into Portsmouth under sail for re- pairs. He was then ordered to the steamer Passaic, which he joined April 7, 1865.

The ship was detained to witness the hoisting of the flag on Fort Sumter, and then went to New York. His orders then were to proceed via Panama to the ship Lancaster, in San Fran- cisco harbor, which was done. Shortly after, he was detailed in the steamer Saginaw to cruise for the Florida, the rebel steamer which had been capturing vessels in the Pacific Ocean. While the Saginaw was cruising in the North Pacific to hunt the Florida, that vessel had run through Magellan Straits and to Liverpool, and given herself up to the English Government.

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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

The Saginaw was then detailed to accompany the Russia-Ameri- can expedition to accomplish surveys and soundings across Behring's Straits for laying a cable there. The expedition was to operate during the summer, and to winter at the mouth of the Amoor River, and in Japan. News came that the Atlantic cable had been successfully laid, and the Behring's Straits project fell dead. Meanwhile, a schooner had sailed with fifty miles of cable on board, for Alaska, and the cable lies there at Alaska yet, perhaps. Mr. C. left San Francisco on the Saginaw for Acapulco to join the Lancaster there. That vessel, however, had left two days before the Saginaw, for the Sandwich Islands. He reported to the senior naval officer at Panama. Dr. John Max- well, Fleet Surgeon, had been appointed Acting Consul at the port of Panama, and Dr. C. was detailed by him as Inspector of Cus- toms for the Panama Railroad, which position he filled for six weeks, and was ordered to the ship St. Mary's, then in the barbor of Callao, Peru, to take charge of the storeship Fredonia, and prepare it for a hospital ship for the South Pacific Squadron, which was done. During that service, he witnessed the bombard- ment of Callao by the Spaniards in their war with Peru, and was at Lima, Santiago, etc., on the Pacific coast of South Ameri- ca. He was next appointed to the United States ship Suwanee, which cruised on the Western Pacific coast, in the Pacific Squadron. Having thus had four years' sea service, he was ordered to the United States, came by steamer to New York (via. Panama), and thence home. In six weeks an order was received to report at Philadelphia, to join the Asiatic Squadron for a three years' cruise. Not wishing sea life longer, he resigned his commission. He then settled in medical practice at home; first at Whitewater, Ind., then in Bradford, Ohio, then at Union City, Ind. (since 1873). His parents were of Irish descent, but born in America. He was a member of the Council at Bradford, and Secretary of the Board of Education; has been a member of the Board of Health for Union City; is President of the Randolph County Medical Society, and a member of the State Medical Society, and has been Master of Turpen Lodge, No. 401, A., F. & A. M., for six years. He has been a long time a member of the Disciple's Church, and for six years Clerk of that society at Union City. He is a wide-awake Republican, and an enthusias- tic temperance worker. He was (with Col. Cranor) Executive Agent in the woman's crusade to prosecute the saloon-keepers. At Bradford, Ohio, while member of the Council, he was suc- cessful in the passage and enforcement of a stringent ordinance against drinking saloons, which greatly checked drunkenness and crime in that town.

Dr. C. is in the prime of mature manhood, enthusiastic in bis profession, and may look forward hopefully to a long, honorable and prosperous career of usefulness and success among his fellow men.

W. A. W. DALY.

" I was captured near Sunshine Church, Ga., during Stone- man's raid, 120 miles south of Atlanta. The expedition set out for the purpose of releasing the prisoners at Macon and Ander- sonville. We went to Macon, but the prisoners had been moved. Stoneman attacked Macon, but McCook failed to come to time, and we fell back. The rebel advance was met at 10 o'clock P. M. We skirmished until next day, and were surrounded and forced to surrender. So instead of releasing the prisoners at Andersonville, the soldiers were scooped into that awful den themselves. I entered that 'hell above ground' August 2, 1864; was taken to Charleston in November; to Florence in December; afterward to Wilmington, and at length to the Union lines at Goldsboro, N. C., in March. 1865, for parole.

"I went in hungry; never had a full meal; could have eaten any day at one meal my whole rations for an entire day, i. e., had they been fit for a human creature to eat, which they were not. Our bread was mostly made from coarse corn meal badly baked, and wretched stuff. But we ate it, and I came out alive.

" I went in weighing 216 pounds, but in seven months, when paroled, my weight was only 145 pounds. I had remarkable health for such & place, but language cannot describe such a den of horrors!

"I had, when captured. a suit of well worn army clothes, and I wore the same without change, with no soap, until I was nearer naked than clad.

"The brook was filth itself. I had no vessel to wash in. There was no water for any purpose but that dreadful stream. thick with the vileness of 35,000 living and dead prisoners. The only time we had the means of washing in clean water was in a heavy rain which fell. The prisoners stripped, and stood rub- bing each others' backs and limbs as the rain poured in torrents upon them. Soon after that rain, a great wonder came to pass in that stockade. A spring of pure, clean water came gushing forth in the midst of that prison pen, and ran a life-giving stream, enough for those famishing people. It seemed almost like the stream flowing from the 'rock in the wilderness.' The water of this spring sufficed for drinking and cooking, though but little of that was done, in sooth. Men were in line waiting their turn at that heaven-sent fountain all day long. Sometimes the ' waiting line ' numbered 1,000 men. Before that spring burst forth from out that cursed ground, the filthy water of the brook was all that anybody in that stockade could procure, except that now and then a poor fellow had found a little water by digging.

"One day a poor fellow (among scores and hundreds of others like him), bespoke my pity who had got fast in the mire of the brook, and I helped him out. Great numbers, sick and helpless, were there besides, and I worked helping the poor wretches a long time, until at last I had to quit to save myself.

"I have counted as many as seventy corpses lying stiff and stark at the gate, in one morning, of persons who had died in one dreadful night; and the living would fight for the privilege of carrying a comrade's lifeless remains forth to the burial-ground outside, because by so doing one got the chance to bring in au arm load of wood gathered outside.

"Men died by scores, by hundreds, by thousands, within those awful walls, yet I came forth alive; I still survive that loathsome dungeon.

"During all that awful suffering, the great body of those men stood firm and steadfast in their loyalty, resisting every attempt to seduce them from their allegiance to their native land. Many times we were marshaled in line and offered free- dom and abundance by joining the ranks of the ' men in grey.' but very few yielded even to such offers.

"True as steel, those heroic men continued faithful to their flag, many of them even unto death. And those who lived to gain their freedom, if able for duty, rejoined their regiments and finished their terms of service on the tented field."

William W. Macy, late of White River Township, is a son of Dr. William Macy, who was for many years a prominent phy- sician of Randolph County, and one of the founders of the town of Farmland. Dr. Macy removed some years ago from this county to Wisconsin, and died in the Northwest an old man, not very long ago.

W. W. Macy was born in 1841, being a native of the county. He took to wife, in 1867. Miss Alice Addington, also a native born daughter of Randolph, and they have one child, a son.

At the commencement of the war, being about twenty years of age, he enlisted as a private in the Nineteenth Regiment In- diana Volunteer Infantry (three years), July 19, 1861, Company C. He was mustered into service July 29, 1861, as Fifth Ser- geant. The Nineteenth was transported to the Eastern army without delay, arriving at the federal capital August 19, 1861. There they were assigned to the First Brigade, First Division. | First Army Corps, Grand Potomac Army. Among the severe en- gagements in which Mr. Macy took part were:

Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, as also Gainesville, second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Fitzhugh's Crossing, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, around Petersburg and Richmond, Weldon Railroad, Hatcher's Run, Gravelly Run, pursuit of Lee after the evacuation of Richmond, etc. This band of Indiana heroes, brave among the bravest, spent nearly their whole time of service in either Maryland or Virginia, mostly the latter. Comparatively few Indiana regi- ments belonged to the Eastern army, and the Nineteenth was one among the five who sustained the reputation of the Hoosier State

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for heroie valor in the presence of their Eastern comrades. The five regiments referred to were the Seventh, Thirteenth, Four- teenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth.

Concerning this group of regiments, shattered and broken by the furious storms of warlike strife, ent down by scores, and many times well-nigh annihilated, a most thrilling account might be given. Out of the five, originally full and strong, it came to pass at length that the remnants of four of them were consoli- dated into one, and that only itself a fragment, composing a mere battalion. Gen. Lewis Wallace fitly and most pathetically de- scribes these men belonging to the five Indiana regiments swal- lowed up in the Eastern army as being "our lost children," like Ferdinand De Soto and his gallant comrades in the wildernesses of the "New World."

So noted did the brigade become to which the Nineteenth belonged as to earn for itself, not without abundant reason, the sobriquet of the "Iron Brigade," and to this famous brigade did the Nineteenth belong for more than four years.

W. W. Macy was in all the battles of the regiment, except during the Wilderness campaign, he being then confined in the hospital, prostrated with the loathsome and dreadful small- pox.

Escaping with life and restored to health, he rejoined his command, and surviving every danger and outbraving every peril, he received a final discharge during the summer of 1865. He did not escape wounds, a "minie ball " making its track along his skull at Fredericksburg, making, however, only a slight wound. He was promoted First Lieutenant April 26, 1863. Two days afterward he helped to fight the battle of Fitz- hugh's crossing; and May 3, 1863, was at Chancellorsville; July 1 to 3, 1803, found the "Iron Brigade " at Gettysburg, with our subject among them. At this latter battle, another "minie ball" made an attempt to make acquaintance with the inner regions of his cranium, but, as before, so this time also, without success, though, being fast asleep, he was not able to dodge the bullet. November 26, 1863, he was sent to Indiana on recruiting service, returning to the field and the camp February 24, 1864. Shortly after his arrival, the small-pox seized him as a victim (March 3), and only loosoned its grasp when six weeks had elapsed, thirty days' furlough being then granted to allow him to visit the " old folks at home," which had not before been done. He was at Petersburg and in the Richmond campaign; was present at the terrible explosion in front of the former place; helped to destroy the Weldon Railroad; was at Hatcher's Run and Gravelly Run, and in the chase after Lee after he fled from Richmond, and was at the headquarters of Gen. Humphreys, commanding the Second Corps, on thuit eventful morning, when the rebel chief- tain made the surrender of his army to Gen. Grant.

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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 91

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