USA > Indiana > Perry County > Perry County: A History > Part 17
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our flag, and above the fierce ravings of the storm, shouts of 'Onward!' are heard from the armies of the Union."
Toward nine o'clock the line of march was taken up to the wharf, and the men embarked on the Commer- cial, the regular Cincinnati and Memphis packet, com- manded by a Canneltonian, Captain S. W. Archer. After reaching Indianapolis they were mustered in, October 8, as Company D, of the Thirty-fifth Infantry, (with which the Sixty-first was consolidated later.) John P. Dunn, captain; August G. Tassin, first lieuten- ant; Henry T. Murtha, second lieutenant; were the original officers of the company when sworn into service.
Steamboating on the Ohio was at its zenith when the war broke out, but the most memorable sight of its day and an incident almost without parallel in Cannel- ton's history took place on Tuesday afternoon, Septem- ber 17, when a fleet of thirteen steamboats headed by the flagship N. W. Thomas, under command of Com- modore Philips, of Cincinnati, landed at the levee, oc- cupying the entire water-front and presenting a re- markable spectacle. The sound of so many whistles and bands of music drew everybody to the bank as the flotilla rounded the bend, the Newcomb Guards, under Sergeant Wilde, and the Cannelton Artillery, under Captain Dunwoody, hurriedly mobilizing in time to welcome with salutes and cheers the anchoring of so many vessels. Business was practically suspended in all lines except the handling of coal, the fleet having in tow one hundred and sixty barges and demanding a fuel supply of twenty-five thousand bushels. Most of this was furnished by the American Cannel Coal Com- pany, although under some protest from the manager, Dwight Newcomb, who objected to such absolute deple- tion of his stock on hand. Several pieces of heavy ordnance on board the flagship, which had landed directly in front of his residence, "Oak Hall," backed up by three hundred splendid-looking artillerymen and
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infantry may have contributed toward overcoming his opposition, since the balance of coal needed to complete the quota called for by Commodore Philips was quickly procured from the Trabue mines at Hawesville.
Two other full companies left Perry County before the close of the year, the departure of each being at- tended by hospitable and patriotic farewells. On Sat- urday evening, October 18, a fine banquet was given in the Masonic Hall at Troy, by the citizens of that town, in honour of fifty-one men who boarded the steamer Eugene at 4 o'clock the following morning, bound for Camp Joe Holt at Jeffersonville, where they were mustered in, November 21, as Company E, Forty- ninth Infantry, Edward B. Cutler, captain; Hiram Evans, first lieutenant; William A. Jordan, second lieutenant. Twenty-five other men, recruited by Sur- geon Magnus Brucker, had left Troy a fortnight earlier.
Tell City had already sent many of her sons into the ranks, beginning with the troop which Captain Louis Frey had formed in May, so no possible lack of ardent patriotism is indicated by the circumstance that hers was the latest company from the three towns to be mustered in during the opening year of the war. Theo- dore Pleisch and Nicholas Steinauer spent September and October in securing recruits, and on November 12, their company, ninety strong, the largest single body of men which Perry County had thus far contributed, left Tell City for Indianapolis, after rousing tributes had been paid them by their fellow-citizens. Amid cheering shouts of "Hoch !", "Prosit!" and "Aufwied- ersehen !" the steamer Eugene bore them away to Evansville where the Sixtieth Regiment was organized, of which they formed Company A, Theodore Pleisch, captain; Nicholas Steinauer, first lieutenant; Ernst Kipp, second lieutenant. With others they were soon transferred to Indianapolis and the regiment was there filled out, its first duty being as guard for the Confed- erate prisoners held at Camp Morton during the winter months of 1861-62.
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CHAPTER XXIV.
BENEVOLENT AND PATRIOTIC WORK OF WOMEN.
PERRY COUNTY'S patriotic women did not confine themselves merely to ornamental displays of sentiment toward the soldiers, but the same vigourous character- istics which women of the Revolutionary period had manifested came forth a century later in their descend- ants, and the approach of winter found organized so- cieties for sending practical comforts to the men at the front, besides administering relief to such families they had left behind as were in circumstances of need. Knitting-needles flashed in many a parlour, and the Ladies' Patriotic Aid Association, of which Mrs. Charles H. Mason (Rachel Huckeby) was president, supplied to the Quartermaster-General at Indianapolis many undergarments, socks, mittens and comforts of regulation pattern, which represented the generosity of Cannelton and Tell City women in time and labour.
All this was in addition to the many boxes of home- prepared food, substantials and delicacies, with little individual luxuries, shipped direct to the Perry County regiments in camp. Several of these were attached to the Army of the Frontier, in Missouri, and in January, 1862, Lieutenant George Perry De Weese, of Rome, who had enlisted in the First Cavalry, was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General for the Military District of Southeastern Missouri.
In October and November of 1861, Joseph Whittaker, of Cannelton, co-operated with John Sumner, of Spen- cer County, in raising a company designed for the Sixty-second Regiment, with rendezvous at Rockport. Their efforts were successful, but when the men were mustered into service, February 24, 1862, it was as
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Company G, of the Fifty-third Regiment; Joseph Whit- taker, captain; John Donnelly, first lieutenant; Michael Fitzpatrick, second lieutenant.
As a river county, more or less directly affected by any events of the war along the Ohio or its tributaries, deep local interest was felt in the campaign prosecuted by the army and navy forces, under General Grant and Admiral Foote respectively, on the Cumberland and the Tennessee, whose courses parallel one another about ten miles apart for some seventy miles from where both streams empty into the Ohio. Many Perry County troops were engaged in the attack on Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, so the news of the capture occasioned great rejoicing.
Under command of the irascible General Nelson, (who had exhibited while landing at Cannelton for coal, that ill-controlled temper which caused him to shoot General Jefferson C. Davis in the Galt House at Louis- ville some time afterward,) a numerous transport-fleet had gone down the river only some few days earlier, many of these boats now returning laden with sick and wounded soldiery, and there was talk-which never materialized-of establishing a military hospital at Cannelton. On Sunday morning, February 28, the steamer Argonaut passed up, carrying the captured General Simon Bolivar Buckner and three hundred other Confederate prisoners bound for Indianapolis. Adjutant Thomas James de la Hunt, who was detailed in personal charge of General Buckner, disembarked at Cannelton for a few days' furlough before returning to his regiment in Missouri.
Early in April much excitement developed through the fact coming to light that private letters passing through the Cannelton post-office had been opened without authority by persons professing to be spies of the government, in search of evidence against citizens suspected of disloyalty to the Union. The charge was a grave one, either way, but when finally sifted down, it became evident that personal animosity more than
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national sentiment had instigated the accusation. No denial was ever made that some letters had been opened, but those tampered with were the business correspondence passing between non-resident property- owners, then living in the Confederacy, and the Can- nelton lawyer who held their power of attorney.
This commotion quickly died out when the tidings came of the Battle of Pittsburg Landing with its tale of bloodshed, and a delegation of physicians and volun- teer nurses was immediately formed in Cannelton to hasten to the battle-field and alleviate the suffering. Dr. Harmon S. Clark, surgeon with rank of captain in the Indiana Legion, headed the staff, Dr. William P. Drumb, Dr. Charles L. Soyez, John C. Wade, Peter Schmuck, John G. Hathorn, Joseph M. Gest, William Mckinley, Sr., and Dwight Newcomb being his aides. Besides liberal contributions of cash and supplies, large quantities of linen-sheets, pillow-cases, shirts, ban- dages, ets.,-were speedily prepared by the women and forwarded to camp. On the return home of these benevolent volunteers, Doctor Clark delivered a public address (afterward published by request in the Re- porter) describing their experiences, before a large audience in the Methodist Church.
The Fourth of July was celebrated in the customary manner all over the county, ushered in by ringing of bells, salutes of musketry and cannon, the display of bunting, and largely attended picnics. In the grove near Cannelton, Jacob B. Maynard delivered an oration, Master Huntington Smith (son of Hamilton Smith and nephew of Judge Huntington) read the Declaration of Independence, and the Legion gave a dress parade, Colonel Charles Fournier as commandant.
Renewed attempts for volunteers were made, follow- ing the national call of July 2 for 300,000 men. Cap- tain W. H. Cornelius procured several enlistments at a war meeting in Cannelton later in the month and also on August 16, and a bounty fund of $300 for the first company leaving the county under the call was
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raised in a few hours at Cannelton by popular sub- scription. In Anderson Township Captain Andrew P. Batson had reorganized the "Hickory Rangers" and some of these enrolled for the war. A native of Swe- den, October 16, 1824, and one of very few of such na- tionality in Perry County, Captain Batson came of sea- faring parentage (Andrew and Magdalene (Dalsta) Batson) and in his boyhood had encountered many of a sailor's perils. He used to relate how upon the sec- ond of several voyages to Rio de Janeiro he was cruelly flogged with the cat-o'-nine tails for his inability to discover the captain's spectacles, which that officer later found over his own forehead. But a life on the rolling deep was not without its pleasure and romance, for at the age of twenty-two, when second officer on the ship "Ondickee" of Philadelphia, after sailing for two years from New Orleans under the Stars and Stripes, he met as a passenger from Sweden, Pru- dence Nixson, to whom he was married December 15, 1846. They arrived in Perry County on Christmas Eve of that year, and in 1847 located on the farm in Anderson Township where twelve children were born to them and where the remainder of their lives was spent.
In the eastern end of the county William O'Neill and Titus Cummings had been engaging recruits, and the call of August 4 for another 300,000 men, with con- scription threatened, showed its effect in a growing re- sponse to all appeals. Before the middle of the month one company left the county and on August 22, at New Albany, were mustered into the Eighty-first Regiment as Company G, William O'Neill, captain; Titus Cum- mings, first lieutenant; John Arnold Hargis, second lieutenant. All these officers, with others non-commis- sioned, and a majority of the privates, were at the time or afterward residents of Derby and vicinity.
Just one week later the next company from Perry County were mustered in as Company K of the same regiment: William H. Cornelius, captain; William Mc-
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Kinley, Jr., first lieutenant; John Lang Huckeby, sec- ond lieutenant. The regiment, under Colonel W. W. Caldwell, left the same day for Louisville, en route to the front, joining General Buell's brigade early in Oc- tober, and acting as a reserve at the Battle of Perry- ville, the first of many-and more important engage- ments in which it participated. Few if any of Perry County's soldiery saw more valiant service than the men of the Eighty-first, who were at Stone River, Mur- freesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Rocky Face, Resaca, Kingston, Kenesaw, Marietta and the siege of Atlanta.
Even more men, however, were required to fill the heavy quota allotted to the county under the two calls of July and August, so work of further enlistment was actively taken up by Jerome Spillman and Narcisse J. Meunier. The latter soon left for Camp Noble with thirty men, and toward the close of the month the roster was complete. All were mustered in August 28, at Madison, as Company G of the Ninety-third Regi- ment; Jerome Spillman, captain ; Campbell Welsh, first lieutenant; Narcisse J. Meunier, second lieutenant.
Following this there was a prolonged lull in the en- listment of men, and the services of Colonel Fournier were not needed as draft commissioner, Perry being one of only fifteen counties in the state furnishing every man demanded, and that, too, as volunteers with meagre bounty.
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CHAPTER XXV
PROGRESS OF WAR
As a part of that plan of defense for the entire In- diana-Kentucky border during the winter of 1862-63, which distributed the Fifth Indiana Regiment at vari- ous points along the river from Lawrenceburg to Mount Vernon, a detachment of two cavalry companies, num- bering two hundred men, commanded by Captain Banta and Captain Soper, landed on December 21 at Cannel- ton from the steamer Atlantic, pitching their tents temporarily on the parade-ground below town, going later into winter quarters on the Leopold Road north- west of the corporation line.
Appreciating the security from possible attack which their coming afforded, the generous and hos- pitable women of Cannelton arranged a celebration of New Year's Day, in which a bountiful home-cooked dinner was served at Mozart Hall as the principal fea- ture. Representing the hostesses, a few cordial words of welcome were gracefully spoken by Miss Nancy Vaughan (Mrs. Wright-Abbot) for whom three rous- ing cheers were given by the boys in blue, before the Rev. William Louis Githens, of St. Luke's Church, asked the Divine blessing on the board of plenty. The weather was particularly fine, and after the ample meal had been discussed, the troops turned out for an exhibition drill and dress parade in compliment to their fair entertainers.
Acknowledgment of further and continued courte- sies shown the soldiers was made through the public press more than once, thanking the ladies of Cannelton and vicinity for almost daily visits, baskets of good things, fine wines and other delicacies for the sick un-
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der care of Surgeons L. J. Bruner and C. C. Hiatt. The discipline maintained in camp was excellent through- out, and the orderly conduct of the force reflected high credit upon privates as well as officers.
The same patriotic women continued their relief so- ciety, also Mrs. Ebenezer Wilber (Margaret Jackson) being president at this time, extending aid to any and all destitute families of soldiers absent from Perry County in their country's service, so that privation, wherever found, was humanely ministered unto. Lib- eral contributions were made all over the county, and a special donation of over fifty dollars was subscribed in small amounts by the employes of the sandstone quarries at Hamburg, near Rock Island, through their manager, James Napier, through whom it was trans- mitted to Mrs. John C. Wade (Jemima Edwards) of the charity committee.
There was little interest otherwise in military mat- ters during the winter, save temporary excitement over news, often contradictory, of successes or reverses at the front, and the occasional visits of soldiers home on furlough. The Fifth Cavalry broke camp March 1, leaving Cannelton for Louisville on board the steamer Big Grey Eagle, one of the best-known mail-packets of the time, whose name distinguished her from a smaller vessel known as the Star Grey Eagle, having a star painted on her wheelhouse, both being side-wheelers in the Louisville and Henderson trade. Not long aft- erward the Government bought the Big Grey Eagle at a purchase price of $50,000, having already taken over a sister boat of the same line, the Tarascon, for use in southern waters.
The Tarascon attained no little notoriety through several times making the trip between New Orleans and Mobile, a somewhat perilous passage not ordi- narily attempted by craft of her build, and her sea- going quality of durability was given ten years' fur- ther endurance after the war, when she re-entered her old trade. Besides the historic interest of her military
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service which made her the favourite packet between Louisville and Henderson, a whistle exceptionally mu- sical in tone peculiarly identified and endeared her to every one along the coast, so that from the youngest to the oldest none failed to recognize the Tarascon's whistle at any hour of day or night. It had originally belonged to a small sidewheel packet of an opposing line, and the circumstances attending its change of ownership after the sinking of the rival steamer Eu- gene were regarded among river men as open to criti- cism. Whether or not the title in fee-simple was ever clearly defined, possession remained nine points of the law, and the whistle was for a short while on the Hettie Gilmore before transferred to the Tarascon.
When the gallant old Tarascon went to the bank for dismantling in the summer of 1877, the familiar sweet whistle was placed on her successor, the James Guthrie, whose maiden trip in the same trade was made on Christmas Day of that year. After a dozen years of use, the whistle was transferred to a new sternwheel boat, the Tell City, and in 1915 was once more placed upon a second, though smaller, Tarascon perpetuating a name honoured in the story of Ohio River navigation.
Among the homecoming soldiers, all, whether officer or private, received a heartfelt and royal welcome, and when their furloughs had expired were warmly bid- den God-speed on their return to the field. Some of the fallen-Corporal Adam Schmuck, from Pittsburg Landing; Sergeant Samuel Wilde, from Murfrees- boro; and Captain Joseph Rudd Key, from Perryville -had already been brought home amid silence broken only by "the muffled drums' sad roll" and laid down to their last, long rest-
"Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day."
An event, however, wherein the pride of patriotism dominated the pathos of pain, took place May 13, 1863, at Cannelton, a formal sword presentation, on behalf of
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the ladies of Perry County, to Adjutant Thomas James de la Hunt, of the Twenty-sixth, who had been wounded four times in the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862.
After being shot from his horse, Adjutant de la Hunt fought on foot with heroic gallantry, only when too weak from loss of blood to stand creeping aside for shelter from the evening damp and the chill of death, under a haystack whence he watched what he believed to be his life's last sunset; in his heart the prayer of Daniel Webster, that he might "not see the broken and dishououred fragments of a once-glorious Union." Two Confederates passing by in retreat took his sword, leaving him to die after his sole remark, "Gentlemen, you have the advantage of me," and it was past midnight when flickering lantern light re- vealed him, half-conscious, to those who had come in search of their beloved officer's body. Following a hundred days in hospital at Springfield, Missouri, he was able to return with shattered right arm to Cannel- ton, and the admiring women of his adopted county at once determined to make up to him the loss of that sword sacrificed at such cost upon their country's altar.
Mozart Hall, already the scene of so many memor- able events in Cannelton's social no less than political history, was decorated with flags and flowers by the ladies, and after an overture from the fine band con- ducted by Nicholas Vollman, Samuel K. Connor as chairman introduced to the large assembly the eloquent Jacob B. Maynard, who fairly surpassed himself in the felicitous brilliancy of his tribute to "The Ladies":
"The Ladies, God bless them! When the day's dark and gloomy
Their fortitude nerves and emboldens the brave;
They linger like angels where Death holds his revels, To comfort the dying on the verge of the grave.
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"The Ladies, God bless them! They honour the worthy, Their hearts throb responsive to the patriot's story; And their hands and their hearts in unison labour To weave for the heroes fresh chaplets of glory."
"We have heard much said of woman's rights, her right to vote, her right to hold office; these and kindred rights have elicited warm discussions, but woman's right to be an angel has never been disputed. In the shining sphere of charity and tenderness she has no rival and must continue to sway her charmed sceptre so long as the world is capable of appreciating the no- blest sacrifices, the tenderest sympathy and the purest benevolence that the human heart is capable of ex- hibiting.
"In the march of events, it may not be woman's pre- rogative to occupy the central position upon the canvas where History is painting its heroes, but without the delicate shading of her tenderness, the brilliancy of her genius, the sublimity of her fortitude, the devotion of her love, and the mellowing influence of her saintly presence, history would be shorn of its mightiest hold upon the minds of men. And at no time in the world's history has woman's influence been more prominently displayed than during the struggle through which our country is now passing. The patriotism of the mothers, wives and sisters of America in giving their sons, hus- bands and brothers, without a murmur, is a theme for the most gifted intellect, the most gorgeous fancy, the most fervid imagination, and to do it justice would ex- haust the English language to its last letter. They have not only given these, but when the lightning has flashed the tidings of carnage and of death, they have stood ready by hundreds and thousands to make every sacrifice and endure every privation to alleviate the suffering, to comfort and console the dying patriot soldier.
"In this bright array the women of Indiana have been as conspicuous for deeds of sympathy and love as
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the sons of Indiana have been for distinguished hero- ism. Indiana! The name of our gallant State sends a thrill of patriotic pride through every loyal heart in the land. Indiana! No star in the beaming constella- tion is more luminous. Indiana! Every footprint made by her noble army is a waymark on the road to victory. And the ladies of Indiana are treasuring up these noble deeds of her heroes, and will, as opportun- ity offers, make appropriate acknowledgment and pay a fitting tribute.
"It has been said that Republics are ungrateful, per- mitting benefactors of the State to linger in forgetful- ness and sink into oblivion. I shall not discuss that point now, but one thing I am sure of, the Ladies of Cannelton and of Perry County are neither ungrateful nor forgetful. They remember and appreciate the bravery of those who entered the army from Perry County. Their prayers follow them to the battle-field. That they are honoured when they return, this bright array tonight would satisfy all, but that it may now be more fully demonstrated, allow me to introduce the Reverend Mr. Githens."
Some further music preceded the remarks made by the Rev. William Louis Githens, of St. Luke's Church, in delivering to Adjutant de la Hunt the elaborately wrought sword, with jeweled hilt, upon its scabbard a silver shield bearing the inscription :
PRESENTED TO ADJ. THOS. J. DE LA HUNT 26TH REG. IND. VOLS. ARMY OF THE FRONTIER BY LADIES OF PERRY COUNTY, INDIANA
One side of the blade showed the engraved date of the battle, "December 7, 1862"; the reverse, its scene, "Prairie Grove, Arkansas." The same affectionate spirit which characterized the reverend speaker's pul-
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pit utterances displayed itself in a touching reference to the Adjutant's wounded right arm, and "the hand, now so helpless, which often seized the pen and wrote for our entertainment here at home such interesting descriptive letters, scenes of the battle-field and camp, of marches and soldiers' duties." "May you live," he said in conclusion, "to see the banner under which you fought, unfurled to the breeze, floating over our com- mon country-united, happy, prosperous, peaceful- 'the land of the free and the home of the brave.'"
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