USA > Indiana > Vanderburgh County > History of Vanderburgh County, Indiana, from the earliest times to the present, with biographical sketches, reminiscences, etc. > Part 61
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"Among the scenes that impressed them- selves with great effect upon my young mind was the yearly musters or trainings which took place in pursuance of the mili- tary law put in operation almost simultaneous with the state government. Indiana was upon the frontier. In many parts remnants of the Indian tribes still lingered; the days of actual warfare with the savages were still fresh in the minds of the older inhab- itants, and nothing was more natural than that a well-regulated militia should be deemed a great public necessity. In that day Van- derburgh county was divided into four townships - Pigeon, Armstrong, Union and Scott. In each of these there was a military company which paraded at stated times. In Scott township the drill took place at Saun- dersville; at the residence of Squire Jacobs, or at the Hornbrook farm. In Armstrong, generally at the house of Uncle Charley Martin, which was the hostelry of that settlement. In Union the soldiers met at the residence of Joseph M. McDowell, or at the farm of John Edwards. In Pigeon, the field of display was the commons adja- cent to Evansville. Whenever a battalion drill took place the point was fixed by arrangement of the officers at a point deemed to be suitable. But the annual regimental muster was the gala day. This
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was apt to wind up with a huge spree and not a few fights, in which, however, bone and muscle were the only weapons used. Such a thing as resorting to the use of a knife or pistol was almost unheard of, and the man who would have dared to handle a weapon on such an occasion would have fared badly with the populace. On muster day the field officers were bedecked in their regulation suits, as much attention being paid to their dress as if they were soldiers of the regular service. The chargers which they bestrode were gaily comparisoned, and as they dashed over the field of duty they looked, and no doubt felt, as if Solomon in all his glory could not hold a candle to one of them. But when you turned from the officers to the soldiery then you beheld a spectacle that even at this late day makes me smile as I reflect upon the scene. Men of all ages and conditions, clad in every con- ceivable style known to the times; some in buckskin breeches, short sleeves and bare- footed; some in the best homespun suits they could command; others just as they had left the plow or the cornfield; it was a motley group. Their arms were quite as miscellaneous as their garb. There were men with rifles, men with short guns, and men with the butt end of cane fishing rods. The bottom land abounded with cane brakes, and very often the soldier would prepare himself with a fresh cane, from which the pith had been carefully removed and the hollow securely corked up at both ends. Thus armed, when ammunition was distributed these doughty warriors took theirs in liquid form, which they poured into their improvised field pieces. In going through the evolu- tions of the drill, when ordered to fire, they always shot - themselves in the neck ! By the time the exercises of the day were over, these cane-gun soldiers were ready to ex-
hibit their prowess on the field of blood, and very often the field was decidedly bloody. The commanding officers of the brigade having their headquarters in this part of Indiana were, at different times: Gen. Robert M. Evans, Gen. W. A. Twigg, of New Harmony, and Gen. James P. Drake, then a resident of Posey county."
The Mexican War. - The war which the United States waged against Mexico had many enthusiastic advocates in Vanderburgh county. Every movement in that brief struggle was watched with intense interest. As early as August, 1845, rumors of war had reached the village of Evansville, and at once preparations were begun for the or- ganization of a military company. The newspapers, however, treated the matter jocosely, no doubt deeming a resort to war very remote. Through the winter and spring following, the people rather anxiously awaited developments. The telegraph was as yet unknown to the public, and the rapid transit of news was impossible. The officers of steamboats were looked to for late news- papers from other places, and the fournal, then an enterprising and very worthy sheet, issued extras whenever the news justified it. By the last of May, 1846, public interest was at white heat; nothing was talked of but war and the rumors of war. As soon as the territory of our country had been invaded and blood of our citizens shed on our own soil by a hostile force from the Republic of Mexico, after repeated efforts on the part of the United States to honorably settle all existing differences, congress provided for a vigorous prosecu- tion of the war and authorized the president to call for, and accept, the services of any number of volunteers not exceeding 50,000. The president called on Indiana for three regiments of volunteers, and Gov. James Whitcomb, on May 22, 1846, issued his pro-
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clamation, appealing to the citizens to vol- unteer, and designating New Albany as the place of rendezvous. On Saturday after- noon, following the publication of the pro- clamation, a public meeting was held in the court-house in Evansville to adopt measures for raising volunteers, and by June 7, a company had been raised and left for New Albany on the steamer, "Thomas Metcalfe." The company was the first to reach the place of rendezvous. It was called the In- ยท diana riflemen; its officers were: Captain, William Walker; first sergeant, J. A. Ep- person; second sergeant, G. W. Peck; and the ranks were full of fine looking men. It was composed of 100 men, and such was the anxiety to join Capt. Walker, that it was believed he could with ease have formed a regiment. When the three regi- ments called for were formed, seventeen additional companies offered their services, but could not be accepted. The "Spencer Greys," of New Albany, was a crack com- pany. Its sharpshooter challenged the riflemen to produce his equal in a trial of skill with the rifle. Martin Stinson stepped forth and beat the challenger twice out of three shots. Joseph Lane, then in the state senate, left his seat there, enlisted in the ranks, and took his first lessons in company drill from Capt. Walker. He was rapidly promoted by the men and officers of his regiment, and was appointed brigadier gen- eral by the president. At that time he was considered a " sensible man, of good address, but destitute of military knowledge," but his gallantry and manly character soon won for him a proud place in the nation's history.
By the middle of July the three Indiana regiments, with the Kentucky and Ohio troops, had passed down the river to join Gen. Taylor. They pitched their tents first at Camp Jackson, below New Orleans. The passage across the gulf, the heat,
the dry sand, the mosquitos and other pests peculiar to the locality, were all trying on the men The first death among the Evansville men was that of Jacob Taylor, and by October Ist the regiment had lost twenty-one of its men, though suf- fering less than any other regiment of vol- unteers. The regiment went into camp at Camp Belknap, about ten miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande, and remained there till December roth, when it moved to the interior as far as Saltillo, and beyond, at length camping near the famous field of Buena Vista. On January 14th, 1847, the last of the rifle regiment, Company K, Capt. Tucker, arrived at New Orleans. This company was composed of seventy-six men, recruited entirely in Indiana, and more than one-half in Evansville.
It was not until April Ist, so slowly did the news travel in those days, that the great fight at Buena Vista, of February 22-23, was heard of at Evansville. Then the tid- ings were uncertain and the excitement great. The defeat of Taylor was at first heralded, resting on Mexican reports, but on the same day the steamer Sultana brought New Orleans papers of March 23d, contain- ing accounts of the bloody battle in which American valor was triumphant, and Santa Anna's army was cut to pieces. On the morning of the 23d of February, the Second Indiana regiment occupied a secure position on the banks of a deep ravine. Gen. Lane moved the regiment forward out of sup- porting distance of other troops, and sud- denly encountered about four or five thous- and of the enemy, when a most terrible con- flict ensued, which resulted in disaster and disorderly retreat. This misfortune occa- sioned considerable criticism, but the men of the regiment were blameless. They fell in with the Mississippians, the Kentuckians and the Third Indiana regiment, and fought
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bravely. Gen. Lane was exonerated by a court of inquiry. Col. William A. Bowles, later, of unsavory reputation, was found to have caused the disaster because of his in- competency as a commanding officer. The regiment lost in killed and wounded at Buena Vista 135 men. There, sword in hand, Capt. Walker fell while nobly and gallantly battling for his country's honor. I side in Vanderburgh county, and nearly all Gen. Lane, in after years, said of him: " A truer, braver soldier fell not upon any battle field before or since." After the fight the regiment remained near Buena Vista until May 24, when it marched to Monterey, thence descending the Rio Grande to the Gulf of Mexico, and arrived at New Or- leans, on the 15th of June, where it was mustered out of service, and the men reached Evansville about July 1, 1847.
Capt. Walker's company was the only or- ganization that went out as representing Vanderburgh county. At the time of its formation a company known as the Wash- ington Guards, under Capt. Bittrolff, was raised for the war, but Indiana's quota being full it was not accepted for service. When the second call for troops was made the Indi- ana regiments were made up from other parts of the state. Recruiting officers sta- tioned themselves at Evansville and obtained many volunteers, but the companies formed here were too late to be accepted in the state's regiments. Some of them joined the Kentucky and Ohio regiments, and others were found afterward in the ranks of the regular army. The companies that went to Mexico under the second call did guard and provost duty until peace was de- clared. It is not possible to give a full list of those who went from here to engage in that war. Among those in Capt. Walker's company were: Floyd Williams, John Stover, Benoni Stinson, Adam Stinson, Martin Stinson, John Robertson,
John T. Walker, A. J. Hutchison, Gordon Wilheit, John McNamara, John Stevens, S. S. Teel, Thomas Knight, James Sublett, - Sublett, John Stein, William Gregory, Bran- son Matson, Higginbottam, Crooks, - McCutchan, Jacob Taylor.
Mexican Veterans .- Very few of the men who served in the Mexican war now re- of the survivors to be found here served in organizations belonging to other states. These veterans formed an association Sep- tember 20, 1887, with Joseph C. Overell as president and Adolph Miehle as secretary. The following are. the names of its mem- bers: Gen. James M. Shackelford, Col. John Rhinelander, John W. Walton, Charles Lucas, Erastus C. Morris, John P.Zubrod, James England, Floyd Williams, A. H. Guin, Conrad Neuman, Jacob Davis, John Rothengatter, Robert Moeder, James O. Boicourt and C. L. Roberts.
The Civil War .- For several years prior to 1861 the country had been drifting toward civil war. The two sections, the north and the south, had different interests to serve in the administration of national affairs. The contest between the two sections had often been vigorous, and once before, in 1832, almost terminated in war. In the era of peace that preceded the outbreak of that storm which at length shook the country through all its parts, the people had learned to love the quiet joys of domestic life. Most of them were strangers to the noise of con- tending arms and knew little of the dangers and privations of war. They were happily expecting a continued peaceful life. But a weak stone had been placed in the founda- tion of the republic under whose flag they claimed citizenship and protection, and through its weakness, the structure, just de- veloping into magnificent grandeur, was threatened with destruction. That weak
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THE SECTIONAL CRISIS.
stone was the institution of human slavery, which was subsequently limited to a certain portion of the country. The republican party, when in its infancy, had among its leaders the avowed opponents of that institution, many of whom had been identified with the movement for its destruction. The great campaign of 1860 had been carried on as vigor- ously in Vanderburgh county as anywhere in the north. Many eminent statesmen ad- dressed the people, who assembled in im- mense masses. Party feeling ran high. The picturesque and striking style of per- sonating national candidates had not yet been abandoned. The young republican party adopted this style of electioneering with vigor and extraordinary effect. Great pro- cessions, gathered together from all parts of the surrounding country, paraded the prin- cipal streets of Evansville with brass bands, fife and drum corps, glee clubs and uni- formed men, women and children, mounted, on foot, and in every sort of conveyance. The "Ship of State," which was so promi- nently connected with Fremont's campaign four years before, was succeeded by a symbol that created an enthusiasm that can now hardly be comprehended. This was a mammoth log wagon, drawn by a score of oxen, and carrying an immense log, along which, on platforms built over the wheels, were half a dozen stalwart farmers, " to the manor born," swinging immense mauls on to wooden wedges stuck into the tough fibres of the wood. The "rail-splitter " candidate for the presidency had elements of strength that were not dreamed of in the aristocratic south and the cultured east. The claims of the homely, uncouth and common man of the people from the prairies of Illinois proved irresistible. Ilis divided opposition was routed, and a political party, with no claims to popular favor but its | accomplished the purpose for which it was
pledges and the character of its leaders, took possession of the government.
Abraham Lincoln had publicly declared his deliberate conviction that the govern- ment could not exist half free and half slave. His election to the presidency, therefore, the southern states accepted as a menace to their institutions. In that section of the Union the doctrine of state sovereignty had long been taught under the leadership of John C. Calhoun. Accordingly they did not long hesitate to secede from the Union when it was known that Abraham Lincoln by constitutional methods had become chief magistrate of the land. The south had for so long a time controlled the legislation of the country that it would not complacently submit to a loss of its power. On the 20th of December, 1860, following the election of Lincoln, South Carolina took the first active steps and passed an ordinance of secession from the Union. In this move- ment she was followed in rapid succession by Mississippi, January 9; Alabama and Florida, January 11; Georgia, January 19; Louisiana, January 26; Texas, Feb- ruary 1; Virginia, April 17; Arkansas, and Tennessee, May 6; and North Caro- lina, May 21. No president ever assumed the duties of that high office under more trying circumstances than did Abraham Lincoln. Seven states had declared them- selves out of the Union and refused to recognize his authority, and in less than two months four others had followed into the confederacy. In February, 1861, a peace conference was held at Baltimore, attended by some of the most influential men from most of the states. The object was to effect a compromise between the different sections of the Union, and prevent a disrup- tion and war. After a laborious sitting of several days it adjourned without having
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called. The excitement was intense throughout the country. The extreme par- tisans who had supported the new president were for a time disappointed when they saw that other states were allowed unmolested to leave the Union and join the confederacy. All over the north there was a divided sen- timent in regard to the cause and responsi- bility of this attempt to sever the union. Some believed that if the south wanted to withdraw from the Union, there was no lawful way to prevent it. They did not believe that a state could be "coerced." The condition of affairs was so strained that meetings were held in all parts of the country to discuss the state of the Union and advise as to the best course to pursue. While the public mind was in this excited condition, the passionate and ill-tempered south, imagining its slave property endan- gered by the election of a republican for president, could not be held in subjection. It had organized into a separate govern- ment even before Lincoln had been inau- gurated. It had created an army and navy, and within six weeks after Abraham Lin- coln had been proclaimed president, it at- tacked the United States troops at Fort Sumter, in the bay of Charleston, S. C. That deed, more than all others, united the loyal hearts of the north in defense of the national flag that had been fired upon by those in rebellion. They welcomed it, per- haps, as the only solution to the question of the hour, and gladly responded to the call to arms.
When it became known that the question involving the nation's life must be submitted to the terrible " arbitrament of the sword " the union sentiment in Vanderburgh county grew rapidly. At first many persons in conversation on the streets expressed seces- sion sentiments, but as soon as matters as- sumed a serious aspect and men could see
just where they stood, few could be found who would openly justify the citizens of the seceding states in their scheme of destroying the government. Men of all parties came to the rescue of the Union. Party differ- ences were, for the time, forgotten. The theory that differences of opinion as to questions of national import should be de- cided at the ballot box was well understood and accepted by the people. In a consti- tutional manner they had decided to trust a political party for four years, and before that party had done aught to show that it was unworthy the trust, it was sought to destroy the Union. In this crisis all loyal people re- gardless of prior party affiliations said " let us save the ship first and then we can dispute as to the best mode of sailing her."
The war feeling soon became intense. Little else was thought or talked of. On the morning of April 17, a call, signed by leading citizens, was issued for a public meeting at the court-house in the evening of the same day. At nightfall the Jackson artillery, of fine appearance, under Capt. Ellis, turned out in uniform and fired a na- tional salute. Warren's Crescent City band paraded the streets, playing inspiring national airs. The court-house was quickly filled by all classes of citizens, and Mayor Baker was called to preside over the meeting. It being ascertained that hundreds desirous of participating were in the streets unable to get in the house, an adjournment was had to the street about the Washington House, from the balcony of which the band dis- coursed enlivening music. From here the crowd moved on to Crescent City hall, hoping there to find room for its members, but it grew as it moved, and at length the upper market house was chosen as a place of meeting. The market house was speed- ily filled in all its parts; a stand was hastily erected; the vast crowd became silent and
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PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
listened to a stirring address from James E. Blythe, a well known orator of that day. He was followed by George D. Wagner, of Warren county, aide-de-camp of Gen. James M. Shanklin, in a noble speech which stirred the hearts of his hearers to their lowest depths. Conrad Baker, then a prominent lawyer and afterward governor of the state, made a for- cible speech and proposed resolutions de- claring " our time, talents, fortunes and lives are at the service of the government in this, the day of its trial; the preservation of the government is above all personal and party considerations, and we pledge to its support, now and hereafter, our all, without reference to the men or party by which it may be ad- ministered." The reading of these loyal sentiments moved the assembled throng to the wildest demonstrations of approval, and in the midst of the enthusiastic outburst Judge Baker administered to most of those present an extemporized oath to support the constitution and the Union. Capt. August Ellis pledged his company to the support of the constitution and the protection of the people's homes. Blythe Hynes and Will- iam H. Chandler made eloquent and effective speeches, and the meeting adjourned with three cheers for " the union, the constitution, the enforcement of the laws and the stars and stripes."
There was no time during the war when secession sympathizers were not to be found in Vanderburgh county. Two of these at- tempted to air their views and breed discord at this publie meeting at the market-house, but they made themselves odious. Their interruption of the meeting and the spirit it elicited in retaliation only served to bring out in bolder relief the intense union feeling that prevailed.
No adequate idea as to the extent and probable duration of the war had as yet |the government.
been formed by the people in any part of the county. The Evansville Journal of April 20. said editorially, " this is the most exposed anc. critical point in Indiana, yet Evansville will send at least one company to join the forces sent out of the state." Few could then have been induced to believe that Vanderburgh county would contribute to the nation's armies besides her own home guard, more than 3,500 men. And yet the alacrity with which inlistments were made, and companies organized would encourage the belief that citizens supposed a great deal of home defense would be needed if only one company was to be sent to the front. Companies were rapidly formed in the city, in Lamasco and in every township in the county. By the first of June the townships had raised nine companies of in- fantry and the city nine companies of infan- try and three of artillery. Other companies were partially made up. All were elamor- ing for guns and equipments. It became necessary to determine by allotment who should be favored in the distribution of arms.
Many of these were prompted by patriotic impulses to offer their breasts to shield the nation's heart from harm. Others were out of employment because of the closed shops, and enlisted with little thought of the re- sponsibilities to be borne; and yet in the hour of trial were equal to the demands upon their manhood, and proved themselves made of heroic metal. Every encourage- ment was offered to those who showed a willingness to sacrifice self for country. They were followed to their camps and bountifully supplied with such articles of food and clothing as might serve to amelio- rate the hardships of camp life. Patriotic women were especially thoughtful in their endeavors to encourage a loyal support of When the first troops
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moved to Camp Baker they were followed there by the folks at home, who were reluc- tant to lose sight of them. Dinners were spread in camp by prominent ladies, and comforts were brought in abundance. The hearts of the young soldiers were full of hope and buoyancy. All were impatient to reach the seat of war and gain distinc- tion, and their movements eastward were watched by an exultant and hopeful people.
The first great excitement in Evansville over the war news followed the first battle of Bull Run, when it was learned how the Union forces, routed, had fled in consterna- tion and confusion from the field of battle toward the capital. In Evansville the most intense excitement reigned, business was suspended, men gathered in groups upon the streets and about the news-centres to discuss the thrilling intelligence. A deep gloom seemed to have settled on the com- munity. The disappointment and chagrin of the routed army was shared by all. Strong men wept as they read of the car- nage in the ranks of the Union army, or were told of the temporary defeat. But the ultimate effect was most gratifying. The people began to realize the magnitude of the contest and the strength and determination of their opponents. The determination was expressed by all that from that hour they were ready to obey any call made upon them. There was no despondency as to the final result.
So all through the war, in every battle, in every campaign, the people at home took the liveliest interest. They followed their troops through all their long marches, ex- ulted over their victories and deplored their defeats. When Shiloh was fought, the steamer " Charley Bowen " was loaded with supplies, and citizens went to the field of battle, to relieve distress and care for the wounded. With absorbing interest the
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