History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I, Part 28

Author: Weesner, Clarkson W., 1841-1924
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1020


USA > Indiana > Wabash County > History of Wabash County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 28


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"We took all their wagons, tents, provisions and cannon, many guns which they left, many horses, mules, etc. In short, we got every- thing they had, as they took nothing but such horses are they were on. We found several of them in the woods. One hundred and thirty-five of the enemy were buried before I left. They were for the most part shot in the head and hard to be recognized. Some six hundred, who had man- aged to get down to the river at Caplinger's, finding no chance for escape, sent in a flag of truce, and on Saturday morning they were escorted into Beverly by the Chicago Cavalry which had been sent after them."


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DEATH OF EMMETT


The loss of Company HI in this first substantial action in which Indiana troops participated was one killed-James II. Emmett-and two wounded-Lemuel Busick and Jacob Sailors. The Eighth Regiment, with the other commands of the brigade, encamped the succeeding night on the battlefield and the day following marched for Beverly. There the entire brigade went into camp and remained until the 24th of July, when the Eighth and Ninth started for Indianapolis. They arrived at the state capital on the 26th, and Company II, of the Eighth, reached Wabash the following day. Its members who had so well acquitted themselves, although then so new to the grim business of war, were greeted by hundreds of friends and relatives at the depot, the city bells were ringing and the entire community was proud both of the home-comers and of the brave Emmett, who had been the first to sacrifice his life in Wabash County for the Union cause.


MUSTER OUT OF COMPANY II


The Eighth Indiana Regiment was mustered out of the service at the conclusion of the three months' term of enlistment, August 6th, but a large proportion of the men-at least, of those from Wabash County, for whom we speak-subsequently re-enlisted in the three years' service.


THE SOLE DESERTER


Company II comprised three commissioned officers, ten who were non-commissioned and fifty-eight privates, all of whom were mustered out with honors except John Ballinger, the sole deserter. James H. Emmett was called for muster before the Almighty Father on the battle- field of Rich Mountain, and the G. A. R. Post of Wabash proudly bears his name.


DR. JAMES FORD


Although not a member of the company, Dr. James Ford, one of the ablest of the physicians of Wabash County and City, went to the front with the three months' men of the Eighth as regimental surgeon. As stated elsewhere, he had charge of the hospital on the battlefield of Rich Mountain, re-entered the three years' service in his former


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capacity and became one of the most prominent army surgeons in the . country.


GENERAL CHARLES S. PARRISH


Charles S. Parrish, captain of the company, developed into one of the ablest Union generals of the Civil war and a strong citizen of wide prominence in public affairs. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and named Charles Sherman Parrish, after Judge Sherman, father of the general. After attending the Ohio Wesleyan University and Kenyon College, he studied law at Zanesville, under Hon. S. S. ("Sunset") Cox, the famous congressman and literatteur, and was admtited to the bar in 1851. After practicing for a time at Greensburg, Indiana, in 1854, he located at the Town of Wabash and at once entered substantial practice. HIe was elected prosecuting attorney of Wabash County in 1856 and at the commencement of the Civil war was a law partner of Hon. J. D. Conner. He had previously been interested in military matters, having organized the Wabash Guards in 1857.


Upon his return to Wabash at the expiration of his three months' service, Captain Parrish recruited two companies for three years, or "during the war," and in September, 1861, was commissioned major in the Eighth Indiana Regiment. He was with his regiment at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, fought in March, 1863, and in the May succeeding was promoted to be lieutenant colonel. He was engaged in the pursuit of Marmaduke in the Southwest and was in command of his regiment at the siege of Vicksburg, in the spring and summer of 1863. At the battle of Fort Gibson, May 1st, he led the charge which decided the day in favor of the Union troops. After the battle he was sent to the hospital, but returned to his regiment in June and from that time was in the trenches until the final surrender, July 4, 1863. After the sur. render he participated in the operations before Jackson and, with his command, was afterward identified with various expeditions in Louisiana and Texas. In September, 1863, while at Beswick Bay, Texas, he was ordered to leave the Eighth, return to Wabash and assume command of the One Hundred and Thirtieth Indiana Regiment. In March, 1864, he was commissioned eolonel, assigned to that regiment and participated in all the battles of the Atlanta campaign.


After Sherman left Atlanta for his march through Georgia, Colonel Parrish joined Thomas' army, was in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, and afterward followed Hood and his remnant of a still defiant army. In March, 1865, he was brevetted brigadier general. IJe rejoined Sherman's army at Goldsboro, and was mustered out of the service in December, 1865.


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General Parrish at onee resumed the practice of his profession at Wabash; in 1867-68 served as state senator for Wabash and Kosciusko counties; was registered in bankruptcy for about a year, and from 1869 to 1873 inspector of customs at New Orleans. Hle then returned to Wabash, and until his death continued to be one of the city's leaders in all legal and publie matters. He ably served as mayor from 1878 to 1883. His widow died about three years ago. Only two children were born to this couple. Mrs. Porter who lives at Geneva, Indiana, and Miss Anna Parrish, a valued teacher in the public schools of Wabash.


THIE REORGANIZED EIGHTHI INDIANA


The reorganized Eighth Indiana Regiment (three years) contained two entire companies from Wabash County, composed largely of the Vol- unteers that made up Company K, the three-months' men under the president's first call.


After recruiting 200 volunteers in the county, Captain Parrish and Lieut. Joseph M. Thompson started for Indianapolis on the 20th of August, 1861. The same evening the two companies were organized at Camp Benton, with John R. Polk as captain of F and Joseph M. Thompson, captain of Company I. Captain Polk was afterward promoted to major and lieutenant colonel of the regiment, while Captain Thomp- son was mustered out of the service as major. Colonel William P. Benton, at the head of the regiment under the first call, was in command.


The Eighth remained in camp for less than a week, on the 10th of September leaving for St. Louis, whence it was assigned to General Fremont's army of the Southwest, brigade of Colonel Jeff C. Davis. In that connection the Eighth participated in a number of movements against scattered bands of Confederates in Southwestern Missouri. Finally Colonel Davis and General Curtis combined their forces for an attack on the Confederate Price, who had concentrated his troops near Springfield, but were not able to bring about a general engagement. Price was pursued into Arkansas and, having been joined by Van Dorn with 30,000 men, he precipitated the battle of Pea Ridge. The army of General Curtis, the ranking officer, occupied the heights near Sugar Creek.


BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE


The battle commeneed on the 6th of March, 1862, by the attack of the combined Confederate forces upon General Sigel's division, then stationed at Bentonville. Sending his train ahead and reserving one


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battery, with between eight hundred and one thousand men, Sigel com- meneed one of those masterly retreats for which his name became famous in the annals of the Civil war. Planting a portion of his guns, with his infantry to sustain them, he would pour the grape and shell into the advancing enemy until, quailing before the murderous fire, they would break in confusion. Before they could reform, Sigel would limber up and fall back behind another portion of his battery planted at another point in the road. Here the same maneuver would occur and be repeated continuously for a dozen miles. Undoubtedly these tactics saved General Sigel's division and enabled him to reach the west end of Pea Ridge, where he formed a junetion with General Curtis' main body.


During the day the opposing armies lined into position, and early on the morning of the 7th the battle commenced on the right of the Union forces, the brigade to which the Eighth was attached attacking the enemy near Elkhorn Tavern. The fighting soon became desperate and it was continued with varying success during the entire day. At night the lines of the contending armies were not more than three hundred yards apart, the tired soldiers throwing themselves on the ground and sleeping upon their arms without fires.


At daylight on the morning of the 8th the lines of the Union army were quietly reformed. It was realized by both sides that the crisis had arrived. The Confederates, who outnumbered the Unionists three to one, held the only line of retreat for the army of the North-the Fayetteville road-and were confident of a erushing victory. About a thousand of the Union troops had already been put out of action, and all were cold and exhausted.


But Colonel Davis again commenced the attack at break of day. From all accounts it was Sigel who saved the desperate situation with his masterly combination of artillery and infantry assaults. Ile first ordered the Twenty-fifth Illinois to take a position along a fence in open view of the enemy's batteries, which at once opened fire upon that regiment. Immediately a battery of six guns were thrown into line 100 paces in the rear of the advanced infantry on a rise of ground. The Twelfth Missouri then wheeled into line with the Twenty-fifth Illi- nois on its left, and another battery of guns was similarly disposed a short distance behind that command. Then another regiment and another battery wheeled into position, until thirty pieces of artillery, each fifteen or twenty paces from the other, were in a continuous line, with infantry lying down in front. Each piece opened fire as it came in position. The fire of the entire line was directed so as to silence battery after battery of the enemy.


Such a terrible fire no human courage could withstand. The crowded


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ranks of the enemy were decimated, the horses shot at their guns and large trees literally demolished. But the Confederates stood bravely to their post, although for two hours and ten minutes Sigel's deadly storm of iron hail swept through their ranks. But one by one the Confederate batteries were silenced, and onward erept the Union infantry and Sigel's awful guns. Shorter and shorter became the range, and the Confederate lines finally crumbled. Again Sigel advanced his line, making another partial change of front. Then came the order to charge the enemy in the woods, and those brave boys who had lain for hours with the shot of the Confederates falling upon them and the cannon of Sigel playing over them, arose and dressed their ranks as if on evening parade in some peaceful village street. The Twenty-fifth Illinois moved in com- pact line, supported on the left by the Twelfth Missouri acting as skir- mishers, and on the right by the Twenty-second Indiana. As they passed into the dense brush they were met by a terrible volley, and answered by one as terrible and far more deadly, as they had the advantage of now seeing their enemy. After a fierce resistance, the Confederate ranks broke, and Pea Ridge was won for the Union soldiers.


LOSSES TO LOCAL COMPANIES


In this battle the Eighth lost heavily in killed and wounded. In Company F, Corporals Michael Hogan and Thomas Leatherland were wounded, and of the privates John Coburn, John Stiles and Henry Hardbarger were killed, and Henry Griffy, Robert D. Hlite, and Joseph Repp wounded.


In Company I, Sergeant Robert E. Torrence was wounded, as well as Privates Flavius J. Brewer, Jethro M. Hall and William A. Garrison,. the last named dying of his wounds.


. After the battle of Pea Ridge the Eighth endured with soldierly fortitude some wearing marches in Missouri and Arkansas, and finally joined Grant's army at Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. It participated in the engagement at Port Gibson, Missouri, the action at Jackson, Mis- sissippi, the battle of Champion Hills and the siege of Vicksburg. In the assault made by MeClerland's corps, to which the Eighth belonged, the regiment lost 117 in killed and wounded. Those of Company F' who were killed during the siege of Vicksburg were Sergeant Isaac A. Blakely and Privates William II. HIoke, John A. Rhodes and John L. Swafford.


The members of Company I who died in action or as the result of wounds received at Vicksburg, were James M. Bushy, Warren Blaekman,


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Thomas S. Smith and Elijah R. Scott, all privates. James Hampson, private of Company F', was killed at Port Gibson.


The Eighth participated in the Banks expedition and in the cap- ture of Fort Esperanza, Texas. At the engagement named Musician Henry Williams, of Company F, was killed. At that place, also, on the Ist of January, 1864, 417 men out of 515 re-enlisted and were again mustered into the service as veterans.


ON VETERAN FURLOUGH-DISCHARGED


In April the regiment arrived at Indianapolis on veteran furlough, and after thirty days returned to New Orleans. It had some fighting in Louisiana, but in August was called to Washington and the Eastern field of military operations and participated in Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. In September, 1864, it was engaged in the actions at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Virginia, after which it performed garrison duty in Georgia until ordered home, August 28th. In the following month the men were honorably discharged from the service at Indianapolis.


COMPANY F, SEVENTEENTH REGIMENT


Company F, of the Seventeenth Regiment, had, as its nueleus, an excess of twenty-five men who were enlisted under the first eall for troops. George Cubberly, of La Gro, went out as their first lieutenant, but was afterward promoted to be captain of Company I. The company followed the fortunes of the regiment at Shiloh, Corinth, Chickamauga and other engagements, concluding its service in Georgia. In military, spirit and faithfulness, the men as a body did not seem to be up to the Wabash County standard, its proportion of deserters to those who remained true to the colors being unusually large.


COMPANY II, TWENTIETH INFANTRY


The Twentieth Regiment, which was recruited at Lafayette, in- eluded seventy-two men from Wabash County. Its campaigns and bat- tles were with the Army of the Potomae. On the second day of Gettys- burg its commanding officer, Colonel John Wheeler, was killed. Hezekiah Weesner of Company A was shot through the right shoulder, and is still living. It was in the advance in pursuit of Lee, participated in the bat- tles of the Wilderness, engaged in the operations before Petersburg and remained with the Army of the Potomac until Lee's surrender. The


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Twentieth was mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, with twenty-three officers and 390 men. Company HI, of which Nelson E. Miller was cap- tain, was largely composed of men from Wabash County.


FIRST COMPLETE INDIANA CAVALRY REGIMENT


The Forty-first Regiment, or Second Indiana Cavalry, was the first complete Indiana regiment in that branch of the service to take the field, and was composed of 51 officers, 1,079 men, 340 recruits, 78 veterans and 176 mmassigned recruits, making a total of 1,724. The organization was mustered into the service at Indianapolis, on the 3d of September, 1861, with John A. Bidgland as colonel. Company F was the distinctive unit from Wabash County, the bulk of the regiment being otherwise drawn from Wayne, Carroll, Clay, Elkhart, Fayette and Sullivan.


Mason 1. Thomas was the first captain of Company F. Hle resigned AApril 11, 1862, and was succeeded by Levi Ross, who died in Libby Prison March 7, 1863. The company was next placed in command of Alexander Hess, under whom it was mustered out with the regiment.


CAPTAIN ALEXANDER HESS


Captain Iless, who had been a resident of Wabash since boyhood, was then in his twenty-fourth year. At the breaking out of the Civil war he had promptly dropped his law studies and gone to the front as a three-months' man in Company II, Eighth Indiana Volunteers. He was at the battle of Rich Mountain, and returned to Wabash at the end of his term, but on September 2, 1861, again entered the service as a member of the Second Cavalry, enlisting for three years. Upon the organization of the company he was made orderly sergeant, and was with the force as- signed to him in the various battles and campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland.


In February, 1862, the Second Cavalry was moving with Buell's army toward Nashville, and reached the battlefield of Shiloh on the second day of that terrific engagement. Immediately afterward Mr. Hess was promoted to be first lientenant for meritorious conduct while under fire. After the evacuation of Corinth, it marched with Beull's army into Northern Alabama; thence toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, and then started in pursuit of the Confederate General Morgan. The long pursuit of Bragg continued until the terrible battle of Perryville, Kentucky.


While stationed at Hartsville, Tennessee, in November, 1862, the Second Cavalry was attacked by Morgan's men and 300 of the command were made prisoners, including fourteen officers. Within a short time the


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privates were paroled, but the officers were taken to Atlanta and for three months were kept in close confinement. They were then taken to Libby prison, Richmond, and there remained six weeks, when an exchange was effected. It was during that period, on March 7, 1863, that Levi Ross, captain of the company, died as a prisoner of war, and was suc- ceeded in the command by Lieutenant Alexander Hess, who thus con- tinned until the expiration of his term of service.


RECORD OF THE SECOND INDIANA CAVALRY CONTINUED


With the Second Cavalry, Captain Hess and his company partici- pated in all the Tennessee campaigns, in which figured such Confederate cavalry leaders as Morgan, Wheeler and Forrest. In May, 1864, the com- mand joined Sherman's army marching toward Atlanta, and was active in a number of engagements. After the occupation of Atlanta by the Union army, the non-veterans of the regiment were ordered to be mus- tered out, and on September 14, 1864, the remaining veterans and reeruits were consolidated into a battalion of four companies and placed in com- mand of Major Roswell S. Hill. Subsequently it joined the army of Gen- eral Wilson, participating in the raid through Alabama and in April, 1865, engaged the enemy near Scottsville and Westpoint, Georgia. In the latter engagement the regiment lost severely, Major Hill having one of his legs shot off while leading a charge. Returning from this raid, it proceeded to Nashville and was there mustered out on the 22d of July, 1865. Shortly afterward it moved to Indianapolis, where it was finally discharged.


Two Wabash County physicians were connected with the service of the Forty-first (Second Cavalry) Regiment, as assistant surgeons- Dr. II. H. Gillen, who resigned, June 29, 1862, and Dr. Andrew J. Smith, who was mustered out with his regiment.


CAPTAIN HESS TAKEN PRISONER


In the operations before Atlanta the Second was completely sur- rounded by Wheeler's Confederate cavalry and while cutting its way through the enemy's ranks suffered a loss of 500 prisoners. Among these was Captain IIess, who had his horse shot from under him. With other officers he was sent to Maeon, Georgia, and afterward moved to Charles- ton, South Carolina. After a confinement of about six weeks the pris- oners were exchanged, and the captain's term of enlistment having expired he came home direct from prison.


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IIIS CIVIL RECORD


Within a short time after returning to the City of Wabash, Captain HIess resumed his legal studies under Hon. J. D. Conner and was admitted to practice in 1866. From 1870 to 1872 he served as prosecuting attorney of the circuit; commencing his terms in the lower house of the State Legislature in 1878, 1888 and 1890, respectively, and from 1894 to 1900 served as clerk of the Supreme and Appellate Courts of Indiana, en- joying a substantial and high-grade practice during the intermediate periods. As a member of the Assembly he was the leader of the Repub- lican minority, and has to his credit the passage of such laws as the crea- tion of Wabash County as an independent judicial circuit, authorizing counties to erect orphan asylums at a cost not to exceed $10,000 each and allowing township trustees to expend fifty dollars each for the burial of indigent soldiers. He was a charter member of James II. Emmett Post No. 6, G. A. R., and was one of the most active and influential of the citizen soldiery in securing the legislation and the real estate for the establishment of the beautiful Memorial Hall, so creditable to the patriot- ism and civie pride of Wabash.


THE SEVENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY


The Seventy-fifth Regiment of infantry was close to the pride of Wabash County. Its first company, A, was recruited within its limits, and its first colonel and quartermaster were two of the county's most prominent and enterprising citizens-Judge John U. Pettit and Hon. Calvin Cowgill, respectively.


Samuel Steele was appointed a recruiting officer in July, 1862, and within a week had enlisted a full company, which was mustered into the service on the 25th of that month. Mr. Steele was commissioned its captain. On the 4th of August the company went into camp just south of the Wabash, the rendezvous for the regiment over which John U. Pettit had already been appointed colonel. Within the succeeding two weeks the Seventy-fifth was reported full and on the 18th of August, 1862, started for Indianapolis, where on the next day its men were sworn into service. On the 21st, 1,036 strong, it moved to Louisville, Kentucky. With the One Hundred and First Indiana Regiment, it formed what was known as the Indiana Brigade, and was first brought under the fire of the enemy, in June, 1863, when, as a portion of the left wing of Rosecrans' army, it came in contact with General Bragg's Confederates near Tulla- homa, south of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. In this action at Hoover's Gap, the Seventy-fifth distinguished itself by a brilliant and successful charge on a Confederate battery supported by a strong force of infantry.


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AT CHICKAMAUGA CREEK


The regiment was in the advance when the Union army crossed the Tennessee River in the movement toward Chickamauga, and played a stanch and a brave part in the terrific engagement of September 19th and 20th at Chickamauga Creek. The loss of the regiment during the two days' battle was 151 in killed and wounded. Corporal Henry James, of Company A, was killed in action on the first day.


MISSION RIDGE


After occupying Chattanooga, the Union army fortified its position and waited for re-enforcements in order to meet General Bragg on more equal terms. On the 24th of November the re-enforcements arrived. Then followed as component parts of the general attack upon the Con- federates under Bragg, the famous battle of Lookout Mountain under Hooker, Sherman's determined assaults upon the center of the enemy and Thomas' assaults from Mission Ridge. The Seventy-fifth participated in the battle of Mission Ridge and the decisive ront of the enemy, receiving warm commendations for its conduet from the commanding general.


TO ATLANTA


The Seventy-fifth remained at and near Chattanooga from December 3d, 1863, until May 5, 1864, when Sherman's grand army started on its march toward Atlanta. The regiment shared with the army the sueeeed- ing four months of battles, marchings and hard campaigning-Resaca, Dallas, Kenesaw, Peach Tree Creek, and the siege and fall of Atlanta.


THROUGHI THIE CAROLINAS TO WASHINGTON


The Seventy-fifth was a part of the Fourteenth Army Corps and saved Sherman's stores at Allatoona from the intrepid assaults of Hood, and was with the victorious Union army which marched into Savannah, December 21, 1864. In the march through the Carolinas it constituted a unit in the left wing of Sherman's army, taking part in the battles of Averyboro and Bentonville. After a few minor skirmishes the Confed- erates under Johnston surrendered to Sherman, April 26, 1865, and on the 19th of the following month the Fourteenth Corps, with the Seventy- fifth Indiana, reached the City of Washington. The regiment was mus- tered out of the service June 8th, and on the 14th the men were finally discharged at Indianapolis.




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