USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 52
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
611
ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTED.
might, with the seeming toy, quite unobservedly set fire to any building.
The imagination is tempted to add to the three conspira- tors gloating over the murderous inventions, a fourthi person- age, whom it is not well to namc.
Arrangements were partially made in the spring of 1863, for an uprising of the order throughout the Western States, in November of the same year; and Mr. Voorhees entered into negotiations with James W. Wall, United States Sen- ator from New Jersey, for twenty thousand rifles for Indiana, but the scheme was thwarted by the course of circumstances, and in the end relinquished. The condition of the North in the summer of 1864, promised a tempting opportunity. Ac- cordingly, the sixteenth of August was set for insurrection and for an overt declaration of rebellion in the loyal States. Confederate forces were to co-operate by advancing into Missouri and Kentucky. Fifty thousand veteran soldiers imprisoned in the North, were to be released, armed, com- manded by officers from the South, and consolidated with the Sons of Liberty. The movement was to be introduced and covered by Democratic mass meetings. In Indiana, be- sides meetings at other points, a mass meeting was to be held at Indianapolis. At a given signal the convention at the capital was to break up, and with fire arms and fire brands, to take possession of the town, to enkindle incendi- ary flames, to open the prison eamp and the arsenal, bestow- ing the contents of the one upon the five thousand released inmates of the other, and to proclaim Secretary Athon Gov- ernor of Indiana. Governor Morton, meanwhile, was to be seized and held by a committee of ten, who were empowered to put him out of the way, if necessary.
However, the Governor of Indiana was awake to the per- ils of the hour. A few individuals in authority had long been convinced of the existence of the traitorous society, al- though they had, until quite lately, been unable to obtain evidence which would warrant open proceedings. During 1862, Governor Morton's life was three times attempted. As he was going from his office to his house, on a dark night, long after the occupants of other offices had left, and
612
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
while his figure was fully revealed by the only remaining light in the hall of the State House, a bullet whistled close to his face. Mr. Fletcher, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, fell a vietim to the second attempt. The third effort was baf- fled before it had grown to a head. Late one night Governor Morton was roused from his sleep by his door bell. A man and woman on the step asked to be allowed to give him im- portant information relating to himself. He led them into an apartment, and at their request locked the door behind them. They were agitated, and the man was either unable or un- willing to speak. After requiring that what she disclosed should be kept secret, the woman informed him that they lived on Illinois street, and having charge of a saloon, had become acquainted, through the conversation of their guests, with a plot for his abduction and assassination, and that to carry out the purpose a common fund had been formed, a noted Democratic lawyer having contributed five hundred dollars. Refusing all reward and not staying for thanks, the visitors hastened away as soon as they had delivered their information.
In the fall of the same year, in consequence of intelligence given by a member of a cavalry regiment, at that time in camp at Indianapolis, sixty soldiers were arrested and put in irons on the charge of belonging to a treasonable society.
A few days afterwards, learning that a political meeting was to be held at the house of Mr. Walpole, Governor Mor- ton requested the informer, who was a member of the soci- ety, to attend, procuring for him a pass from the officer in command of the camp. The man never was seen after the meeting. His friends, who live in the country, have not to this day had a word explanatory of his fate.
Detectives at length succeeded in effecting an entrance into the order, and in making regular reports, especially in regard to the proceedings of a lodge which met in Military Hall, Washington street, Indianapolis.
One day, Judge Wick, an "old settler" of Indianapolis, called on Governor Morton. Shaking hands cordially, he entered into friendly conversation, during the course of which he endeavored to allay the Governor's suspicions of the Dem-
613
SUSPICION AROUSED.
ocratic party. He said: "I am intimately acquainted with all the chief Democrats, as you know. In German saloons, in Irish doggeries, in the offices and parlors of the leaders, I hear their plans discussed and their ideas freely expressed; and, I do assure you, feeling for you a friendship which be- gan when we were members of the same party, and which was cemented by mutual services on the bench, I do assure you, on the honor of an old man, that you are entirely mis- taken in your suspicions. No secret order opposed to the Government is in existence."
For answer, Governor Morton drew out a detective's re- port of the proceedings of the last meeting in Military Hall, including an utterly disloyal and wicked address by the very man who sat there, so complacently asserting the purity of his party. When the reader looked up Judge Wick was a ghastly image of terrified and convicted guilt. His tongue refused to speak, and great drops of sweat stood on his fore- head. He feebly rose from his chair, and tottered to the door.
In July Colonel Carrington, commander of the district of Indiana, found one hundred and twelve copies of the Ritual of the Sons of Liberty in the office of Mr. Voorhees, in 'Terre Haute; he discovered, also, letters from the chief traitors.
Suspicion at last was creeping through the country. In some communities in the southern part of the state people sold their crops and personal property, and held themselves in readiness for flight. Already the black shadow of ap- proaching insurrection fell across the fair fields of Indiana. Kentucky began to effervesce with more than usual violence, and it was necessary to send a portion of the small forec, so needed at the Capital, to the Ohio river. Accordingly Gen- eral Hovey, with four hundred men of the Forty-Sixth and Thirty-Second, and with the militia of Posey and Vander- burg counties, drove back from the river squads of Buckner's troops, who were conscripting for the southern cause, and kept the border quiet; while a Massachusetts regiment sur- rounded and picketed Indianapolis.
The revelations and the preparations for defence startled the conspirators. They were also disappointed in the appear- ance of the expected armies from the South. They began
614
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
to fear that an outbreak would plunge them into political, if not personal ruin. The more they put their heads together, and consulted and considered, the more plainly failure stared them in the facc.
In vain Mr. Dodd represented that "the people are now ripe for Revolution," and that "it is better to direct Revo- lution than to let Revolution direct us." In vain, John C. Walker, a cruel, godless man, who seemed to be uncon- scious of fear and incapable of shame, urged them to harden their purposes. More cautious or more timid counsels pre- vailed, and the wheel for whose turning the way had been so assiduously prepared, was checked. The Rebel officers, who had already arrived, were warned to withdraw. The convention was held quiet. The sixteenth of August passed without demonstration.
Meantime disclosures of their character and doings went on. August 21, Governor Morton received an anonymous letter from Buffalo, giving intelligence that the Agent of the State, John C. Walker, had secretly purchased thirty thousand revolvers and forty-two boxes of ammunition, that sixty-four boxes of arms and ammunition had been landed in New York city, destined for Indianapolis, and that of these thirty-two had just been forwarded, addressed to J. J. Parsons, and marked Sunday School Books. Morton im- mediately informed Colonel Jones, of the Forty-Second In- diana, at the time Provost Marshal, who despatched a Lieu- tenant to the depot, to watch for the arrival of the suspected freight. It was already there,-thirty-two boxes marked "S. S. Books, care of J. J. Parsons." The young Lieuten- ant galloped to headquarters for further orders. He was sent back in haste with a reprimand for having endangered the opportunity. He had in reality lost it. On his return the boxes were gone, and he could learn nothing in regard to them. Without the slightest trace or clue, and feeling perplexed and mortified, he was riding along Delaware street, when he noticed an empty dray returning toward the depot. It flashed on him that here was a chance, and he called the drayman to stop. The man whipped his horse and drove on. The officer repeated his call. The conscience-stricken
615
EXPOSURE OF THE CONSPIRACY.
drayman furiously beat his horse, which broke into a gallop, but a presented pistol brought him to a stand. The dialogue which followed was short. " Where did you take those boxes?" "To Mr. Dodd's office." There they were found. They contained four hundred large-sized revolvers, and one hundred and thirty-five thousand rounds of fixed ammunition. Other packages to the same address were seized in New York.
It afterward come to light that the writer of the letter from Buffalo was a lady who had been requested to make the disclosure by ber brother, a gentleman engaged in busi- ness in the city of New York. He had made the discovery, but dared not, for personal reasons, attempt a direct exposure.
On the twenty-fifth of August General Hovey assumed command of the district of Indiana. He soon afterward ar- rested the Grand Commander, the Deputy Grand Com- mander, the four Major Generals and several other conspira- tors. Dodd was first brought to trial. He made revelations which so clearly proved his guilt that though he had given his word of honor not to attempt an escape, he slid down a rope from a window in the fourth story of the " bastile" or "in- quisition," as the S. L. called the Government building in which he was confined, and in the gray of the morning made off toward Canada.
Several of the prisoners saved themselves by turning State's evidence. Bowles and Milligan were sentenced to be hung, but their lives were spared on the intercession of him whose life, above all others, they had conspired to destroy. Governor Morton's magnanimity burned them like coals of fire, and intensified their political aversion into personal hatred.
Leading members of the party at first endeavored to hide their complicity in the crime by derision of the fugitive Dodd, but they no longer had power to deceive. At a later date, putting on a bold face, they pretended to ignore past issues; but while their lives are spared, and while their names are remembered, they will be the scorn of all good men.
The exposure of the conspiracy, together with victories gained in the field, favorably influenced the elections. Indi- ana carried the Republican tickets throughout by over twenty thousand majority.
616
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA IN MAY AND JUNE OF 1864.
The greatest gift the hero leaves his race Is to have been a hero .- The Spanish Gypsy.
Active operations in the Army of the Potomac having ter- minated the first of December, with the retreat from Mine Run, the troops remained in winter quarters in the neighbor- hood of Culpepper until the first of May, 1864. It was a long and quiet rest, during which no stir nor promise was visible to lookers on. Like the workings of nature in the dead and darkness of winter, preparations for the spring cam- paign were hidden and secret.
Congress and the President instituted an era of consolida- tion by placing General Grant, with the title of Lieutenant General, in command of all the armies of the United States. The central idea of the Lieutenant General was consolida- tion. He ascribed Confederate success to the impunity with which forees were sent from Lee to Bragg and Beauregard, and from Bragg and Beauregard to Lee; and in order to en- gage the entire strength of the enemy, he concentrated into two great armies, as far and as fast as possible, the almost countless bodies of troops which were dispersed throughout the country. He reorganized the Army of the Potomac into three infantry corps, the Second, Fifth and Sixth, which were commanded respectively by Hancock, Warren and Sedgwick, and one cavalry corps, which, in two divisions, was put under the command of General Sheridan. He ordered Burnside's corps from East Tennessee to Annapolis, whence he removed it to the Orange and Alexandria railroad, to guard the road, and to form a reserve to Meade's army. Burnside's corps, although at this date it had never lost a banner nor a gun, and although it made a fine appearance, was composed
617
PLANS AND PREPARATIONS.
largely of new troops. One division, under the command of Ferrero, former dancing-master at West Point, consisted of black soldiers, the first admitted to the privilege of fighting for their country.
By the reorganization the position of Indiana regiments was but slightly changed. The Seventh, Colonel Grover, was in Rice's brigade; the Nineteenth, Colonel Williams, was in Cutler's brigade, and both remained in Wadsworth's division, which now formed a part of Warren's corps. The Twentieth, Colonel Taylor, and the Fourteenth, Colonel Coons, were in Hancock's corps, the latter in Carroll's brig- ade, Gibbon's division, the former in Ward's brigade, Bir- ney's division. The Third cavalry, in Chapman's brigade, was in Wilson's division. The Third cavalry was in con- stant requisition for the performance of picket and out-post duty, and reconnoissance.
General Grant arranged to threaten both the front and flanks of the Rebel Capital. He directed Butler, reinforced by Smith's and Gilmore's corps, from South Carolina and Florida, to make a feint on the peninsula, then go up the James and take Petersburg, or intrench himself near City Point, and he ordered Sigel to move up the Shenandoah on Stanton and Lynchburg, and thus cut Richmond's western communications, while he made ready to move with Meade from Culpepper.
" This is the last year of the war, which ever wins," was the general feeling of the South, and the utterance of a Rich- mond paper of April 29, " Which ever wins," was an inadver- tant admission, yet it was warranted by the character and attitude of the Southern armies. All the strength of the South was in them, cities and frontier garrisons being guarded by boys and old men, and, sustained by that terrible clement which often makes desperate armies victorious armies, they were stronger than ever before.
The struggle round the Rebel Capital in 1864 was a dead- lier game than any that had yet been played in the East. While one army was fired by desperation, the other was nerved by resolution,-the resolution which gave Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg to Federal arms. Led by the man
618
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
who, it is well said, would have been called Pertinax had he been a Roman, the Army of the Potomac, for the first time, fought out its battles. It not only made victory sure, but wrung advantage from defeat. Penetrating an impoverished, hostile, broken, strongly defended and unfamiliar territory, marching all night and battling all day, flanking to fight and fighting to flank, expelling the enemy from stronghold to stronghold, and driving him from one line of defence to an- other; it changed its base of supplies from the Rapidan to Fredericksburg, from Fredericksburg to Port Royal, from Port Royal to the White House, from the White House to the James, and swung itself through the tangled copses of the Wilderness, over the murderous hills of Spottsylvania, across the North Anna, the Chickahominy and the James, from the north-west to the south-east of Richmond. For the bold march it paid a heavy toll. Every step was made in blood. Each mile of the sixty between the Rapidan and the Chickahominy cost a thousand men. Sixty thousand who entered the Wilderness fell by the way because of wounding, capture or death.
The newspapers called the campaign a drama; and like a chorus they recounted in snatches its progress. The patriot people from May to August did not once exult. They trem- bled between hope and fear. Their hearts were filled with an aching which can never be told.
" The President, with great black rings under his eyes, and his head bent forward on his breast, 'mourned the slain of the daughter of his people.'"
During the campaign a marked change occurred in the character of the army. Reinforcements from various quar- ters kept up the number, which was about one hundred and forty thousand men, without preserving the fearless and hope- ful spirit of the beginning. Drafted men and bounty scek- ers formed a large portion of the new comers; volunteers, even though they enlisted from the single motive of patriot- ism, were necessarily inferior to veterans; and veterans were no longer what they had been. Their vital force was im- paired by hardships which, during the months of May and June, were not relieved by good and sufficient food. More-
619
ENTERING THE WILDERNESS.
over, as commissioned officers fell by thousands, the men missed the familiar face and voice of their old leaders. and reluctantly obeyed the orders of strangers.
It is time now to give the operations of the campaign in such detail as is necessary for tracing out the course of Indi- ana troops.
At midnight of Tuesday the third of May, the Army of the Potomac was set in motion, Grant hoping to lead it across the Rapidan and through the fateful Wilderness to the open country about Spottsylvania Court House, before coming in contact with his antagonist. At daybreak, Wil- son's cavalry, foremost of which was Chapman's ready brig- ade, crossed the river on the right at Germanna ford and drove back the enemy's pickets. Warren's corps followed and pushed straight into the Wilderness, encamping at night at the Old Wilderness Tavern, five miles from Chancellors- ville. Sedgwick crossed at the same ford, and rested in the rear of Warren. Hancock made the passage at Ely's ford and halted near Chancellorsville. Wilson's cavalry covered the right front and flank; Gregg's was on the left front and flank. The entire Army of the Potomac encamped in the jun- gles of the Wilderness before the close of the day. Through all the vicissitudes of its history, the Seventh Indiana kept up a prayer meeting, which was organized at its first camp in Indianapolis. Now in the Wilderness, as the shades of night were falling, Chaplain Jewell began to sing. Half the regiment and many men from other regiments joined in the hymn, then listened to a passage of Scripture, an earnest exhortation and a fervent prayer.
The army was on the alert early on Thursday, the cavalry reconnoitring; Warren, supported by Sedgwick, moving to- ward Parker's store, which was five miles southwest of his camping ground, and Hancock advancing toward Shady Grove, directly south of Chancellorsville. But with all its haste it was caught in the toils of the forest. Chapman's brigade proceeded on by-roads to Craig's Meeting House, on the Catharpin road, which it reached about midday. It was massed in an open field on the side of the road, while a batallion of the First Vermont cavalry reconnoitred. This
620
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
detachment had proceeded but a short distance when it was attacked by a force of the enemy's cavalry and driven into its supports. Chapman engaged the enemy and drove him back about a mile and a half to a ravine, heavily bordered with a thick growth of pine. With the Third Indiana and a part of the Eighth New York, he held the position about an hour, when skirmishers reported that the enemy had been strengthened, and supplied with ammunition, and that they could hear their officers giving orders preparatory to an at- tack. In a few minutes Colonel Chapman was attacked vigorously. The enemy's line lapped over both his flanks, and compelled a rapid and difficult retreat through a densely timbered region, behind a position held by McIntosh's brig- ade. Later in the day Wilson's entire division fell back to Tod's Tavern.
The infantry was engaged at an earlier hour. Before nine o'clock, Ewell confronted Sedgwick; and Hill, from a shel- tered position on a ridge, directly across the route of the Fifth corps, held back Warren. After feeling in vain for an opening, Griffin and Wadsworth, although separated by im- penetrable thickets, made a simultaneous and impetuous ad- vance, determined to break open the route. Griffin at first carried every thing before him, but in the end was forced back. Wadsworth's division was met by a heavy attack on its left flank, and gained not even a momentary success, al- though it fought with desperate valor. Our Seventh and Nineteenth were here in the thickest of the fight. The Sev- enth charged on a body of the enemy strongly posted in a deep ravine, and took nearly three hundred prisoners. It
pushed on a half mile, but was suddenly deserted by the troops on both sides, and left in advance with both flanks ex- posed. It retreated rapidly, fired on from right and left and rear, while falling comrades called in vain for help, and, after traversing two miles, reached breastworks which had been piled up in the morning.
Colonel Grover was among the missing. He was seen to fall, but nothing further was known of his fate. The color bearer of the Nineteenth was struck in the side by a minie ball. One hand dropped, but with the other he held the
621
FIGHTING IN THE WILDERNESS.
staff upright until corporal Pedan relieved him of its charge. A ball stretched the corporal on the ground, but the falling colors were caught by Colonel Williams.
Hill threw forward a strong charging column to gain the Brock road, along which Hancock, turned from his southerly course, was now marching to unite with Warren. Wads- worth struggled desperately to hold the road. In the middle of the afternoon, loud cheers from Hancock's approaching van warned Hill to redouble his efforts, while they encour- aged Wadsworth to maintain his ground. Birney, followed by Barbour and Gibbon, marched swiftly over a smooth though narrow road. They met, struck, and, during two hours, stubbornly fought. The Twentieth with Birney, and the Fourteenth with Gibbon, were hotly engaged. A bat- tery, the only one which could, on account of the density of the woods, be brought into play, was captured, because of its loss in men and horses, but was recaptured by detach- ments from the Fourteenth Indiana and the Eighth Ohio. At length Hill was baffled, and Ewell was repulsed. Grant ordered a general advance; but night, which was impenetra- ble in the depths of the Wilderness, prevented the movement.
Both Lee and Grant were reinforced during the night, the former by Longstreet, the latter by Burnside, who had marched from thirty to thirty-five miles since orders for the movement were received on the afternoon of Wednesday. It happened that the old Tennessee antagonists moved on the evening of Thursday toward the same part of the ground. each looking anxiously at the cloud of dust which announced the other's approach.
The troops shook off slecp Friday morning, and ate their breakfasts long before the sun looked through the interwoven boughs. They were under orders to advance at five, and fight whenever they should encounter the enemy. But again, with all their haste, they were too slow. A quarter before five the enemy fell upon Sedgwick, who not only made no headway, but had much ado to hold his ground.
Hancock posted his left, Gibbon's division, on the Brock road, to meet a hostile flanking movement, and remained unmolested until at the appointed time he pushed out. He
622
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA,
then met opposition, but he fought his way nearly two miles, when his progress was checked, and his front was thrown into confusion by a charge from Longstreet. Reinforced by Burnside, he pushed Longstreet back. Shortly after, the latter was mistaken for a national officer by some of his own men, and was seriously wounded. Lee, then, with great effort, bore the front of Hancock's corps back to its line of intrenchments along the Brock road. He made strenuous attempts to push in between Hancock and Warren. Wads- worth, on Warren's left flank, strove hard, but vainly, to with- stand him. Colonel Williams was one of the first to fall, at six o'clock, shot in the breast, while, all unconsious of him- self, he exhorted the men not to mind the bursting shells.
Captain Dudley, who took command of the Nineteenth, was ordered to withdraw it to the rear on account of its losses. The division, soon after discouraged by defeat and disaster, broke into a hasty retreat, but rallied at the voice of its General, and made one more desperate dash. Two horses had already fallen under Wadsworth. He fell with the third, and his noble gray head lay in the dust when the enemy swept over the ground, and again drove the division back.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.