USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 14
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In the great battle of Chickamauga, Nemaha county lost John L. Graham, who had been promoted to sergeant captain from second lieu- tenant. He was one of the four original settlers of Albany. He was married to Nancy J. Slosson, who, with his two sons, Fred and Charles Graham, has survived him many years, and helped build up this section of Kansa and further the beauty and progress of Ponoma, Cal., where the sons have long been engaged as bankers. Other Chick- amauga deaths were those of Sergt. Robert M. Hale, of Sabetha, and William Miller, of Sabetha.
The Ninth Kansas cavalry, of which less than fifty Nemaha county men were members, saw most of its fighting in Missouri and Arkansas. with no little part in guerilla warfare. Corporal Thomas J. Bell was killed by guerillas in the battle of Westport, Mo., June 17, 1863. His home was in Centralia.
The Eleventh Kansas was a regiment of distinguished men. The colonel was Thomas Ewing, the lieutenant colonel was Thomas Moon- light, and the major was Preston B. Plumb. The two latter officers later became famous in Kansas politics. The company was peremptorily or- dered to the army of the frontier before their weapons arrived, so Colonel Ewing armed them as best he might with antiquated Prussian guns found in Leavenworth. They marched to Fort Scott. Kans., and when they arrived the following morning they formed a line of bat- tle but found no foe to fight. They marched and counter-marched through Missouri and Arkansas and also engaged the guerillas in bat- tles in southwestern Missouri. It was the Eleventh which was valiant- ly engaged against General Price. Returning from the Price raid the Eleventh was ordered to Fort Riley to prepare for a campaign against the Indians on the Smoky Hill river. A change of plans sent them to Fort Kearney, a march of 200 miles which they made in twelve days, across bleak prairies in biting winds. Cutting sleet, over roads scarcely distinguishable, was another trial to the flesh of scantily clad men, who
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had little food and less ammunition. They arrived at Fort Laramie, where orders were received to await further instructions. The soldiers put in this time in building a complete sod city, remnants of which may be seen to- day. One thousand miles away, at Fort Leavenworth, were to be found the only cartridges suitable to the carbines with which the Eleventh was armed. Occasional skirmishes with the Indians depleted their scant store. Their horses died and the dangers of the stage route had become so appalling that it was abandoned by passengers. It reached a situa- tion where all energies were expended in protecting the overland mail. But the Eleventh proved adequate. The stage coaches were pushed through on schedule time, the soldiers doing the driving from one sta- tion, which they had established, to the next. Guards accompanied the coaches and thus traffic was conducted until reenforcements arrived from Fort Leavenworth.
The Indian restlessness was apparently increasing. Finally a band of 2,000 descended upon a little band of soldiers in a ravine separated from the station. They reached the camp and a battle ensued with sur- prisingly small loss among the soldiers, but another branch of the regi- ment under Sergeant Custard was simply cut to pieces by the Indians after the miraculous escape of the company under Major Anderson. The Indians escaped. Shortly afterward the Eleventh was called back to Kansas for discharge from army service. In these four regiments it will be seen that Nemaha county men, all mechanics or farmers, none trained for warfare, saw every branch of service during the terrible war of the Rebellion. Nemaha county men who were not enlisted in Kansas regiments, were almost to a man enlisted in regiments from other States. J. J. Miller, of Sabetha, who settled on the farm north of town in 1859, enlisted in a Missouri regiment. He came home in the fall of 1862, harvested his crops and returned to war as a member of the Thir- teenth Kansas. He was but one of seventy Nemaha county soldiers in the Thirteenth Kansas. The Thirteenth was recruited by Cyrus Leland, for many years the dominant figure in Kansas Republican politics. "Cy" Leland's home is in Troy, and it is natural his soldiers were gathered from this section. The regiment responded to President Lincoln's call for men in 1862. Perry Hutchinson, of Marysville, who in later years made his name famous all over the State by his flour, was a captain of com- pany E, of which company John N. Cline, of Centralia, was second lieu- tenant. Of Company G, William Blackburn, of Vermillion, was captain and Levi Hensel, of Seneca, first lieutenant. John Schilling, of Hia- watha, was captain of Company I, and the entire regiment was formed of men who returned at the close of the war and made northeastern Kansas the garden it now is, from the wilderness of the war times.
The regiment joined General Blunt and assisted in driving General Hindman across the Arkansas River at Van Buren. They fought in the battle of Prairie Grove and finished the winter's campaign. They saw service in the Indian Territory in the Cherokee nation; served under
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General Schofield, fought in Arkansas, and performed garrison duty in Springfield, Mo., and outpost duty at Fort Scott. During the month of August, 1863, the Thirteenth Kansas marched 400 miles over Missouri and Arkansas in pursuit of General Cooper and other rebel generals. Guerillas mortally wounded Captain Marion Beeler, and General Bowen was taken prisoner by them when within firing distance of his own lines. Nemaha county lost in this regiment John T. Spencer, of Grana- da, who died of wounds received at Rosevale, Ark. Thomas B. Cum- mings was killed by guerillas at Greenfield, Mo. The company was mustered out at Little Rock, Ark., June 26, 1865. Members of the Thir- teenth and Ninth regiments were enlisted by George Graham. George R. Benedict, an early settler of Granada, fought with the Thirteenth and was later transferred to the Second Kansas, colored, receiving his dis- charge as a second lieutenant of the regiment.
John Y. Benfer served with the One Hundred and Twenty-third Ohio volunteers, fighting in the celebrated battle of Winchester, and serving with the Army of the James River. He was taken prisoner three times and was released, the third time only by the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. James L. Brockman, who has served Seneca as city clerk with efficiency, fought with the Thirteenth. James Draney who came to Nemaha county in 1857, served as a teamster during the war in Colonel Taylor's State militia. Elbert Dom Dumont was one of the youngest soldiers who have ever made Nemaha county their home. He was barely sixteen when he joined the Ninth Michigan volunteers and served until 1865. After he left the army he went to school at the sem- inaries of Ovid and Fulton in New York. He came to Seneca many years after the war closed as an architect and builder. He erected the jail, the Centralia school house, which fire later destroyed, the opera house in Wetmore, and many residences and business blocks. He mar- ried Miss Mary Bruner, of Nemaha county. Two sons of E. J. Emery met remarkable deaths during their service in the war. George Emery was drowned in the Ohio river and Edwin was ship-wrecked off the North Carolina coast and presumably drowned.
A. J. Felt, affectionately called, over the State, "Andy," founder of several newspapers, once editor of the Seneca "Tribune" and Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, was a soldier with the Seventh Iowa regiment. He was taken prisoner at Belmont, Mo., and held for nearly a year, and aft- erward was in a hospital for four months. He rejoined his regiment and was promoted to sergeant. Mr. Felt founded the "Tribune." He was the father-in-law of Senator William H. Thompson. He died about twelve years ago. Dr. Hayes, who has made Seneca his home since 1881. was but seventeen years old when he enlisted with the Indiana volunteers, serving with the famous armies of the Cumberland and Tennessee and fighting at Shiloh, Chattanooga and other famous battles. After the war he returned to his home in Newcastle. Ind., and to school as well. Dr. Hayes having had a taste of adventure, shipped
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on the Polaris for the North Pole in 1871. He was picked up by the ship Arctic after two years in the Arctic regions, carried to Scotland and thence made his way home. Since then he has settled down to doctor- ing, after government work in Washington and a few years at a medical school. Judge Lanham, almost the first Nemaha county resident, served in the army before anyone. He served on picket duty in 1854. He was wounded, but with the beginning of the Civil war he served with the wonderful Eighth Kansas, through until the end, including the terrible march to San Antonio. J. H. Larew was with the Fifth Missouri; J. W. Larimer with the Fourth Iowa, marching with Sherman to the sea; J. L. McGowan enlisted first with the Second Missouri, later raising a Kansas Militia company; N. H. Martin, at sixteen years, enlisted with the Forty-sixth Iowa infantry ; Mort Matthews, the venerable county surveyor who has held his job for over thirty years without opposition, was a soldier with the Thirty-fifth Ohio infantry; James Parsons en- listed with the Denver Home Guards, later recruiting a New Mexican regiment, and finally entered the field as second lieutenant of the Sec- ond Colorado infantry. Mr. Parsons was the first Nemaha county sur- veyor and was elected in 1858. R. S. Robbins fought with the Twenty- second Ohio and became a captain. Capt. Lewis Sheeley did not get enough fighting with Missouri regiments and chasing guerillas but stayed with the army in Hancock's veteran reserve corps for a year aft- er the war closed and became colonel of the Kansas State militia. He had lived in Seneca since 1860. Edward Sterling saw plenty of war dur- ing the Smoky Hill and Indian raids in which the Eleventh Kansas par- ticipated. He was a stage driver in that section during that excitement.
J. F. Clough, founder of the Sabetha "Republican," fought with the Sixty-ninth Ohio. He was shot twice during the battle of Mission Ridge, a bullet piercing his lung. He was a year in a hospital.
Ira F. Collins, one of the brilliant, early day citizens of the county, who today is as fascinating and interesting a man as he was forty years ago, enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourteenth Illinois. He was taken prisoner at Mobile and held in one of the southern prison pens until the close of the war. He had served under Grant at Vicksburg and saw about every side of life in the army. When he was asked recently how many rebels he supposed he had killed, he replied, "Oh, just about as many as they killed of me." Mr. Collins was the first mayor of Sa- betha, State representative and State senator. John E. Corwin was a soldier with General Sherman with the Ninety-seventh Indiana infantry. He was in the Grand Review. S. B. Freelove as lieutenant and S. B. Mc- Allister as captain were members of the Plainfield battery that tendered to President Lincoln its services before the firing on Sumter. He fought through the war with the Eighth Illinois cavalry.
J. E. Price, the elevator man for whom the station of Price was named, enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment. He was wounded at An- tietam but when his wound healed he went back into the fray and
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stayed until the game was called at Appomattox. He retired a lieuten- ant, a post given him for conspicuous bravery in manning a gun aban- doned at the siege of Richmond where he was a member of the Light Artillery, one of the few Nemahans to be in the artillery. J. E. Price did not forget his military training after his removal to Sabetha. He taught a crowd of young girls a broom drill, the perfection of which, as fem- inine drillers, is still told with pride. The little station of Price still has standing its two elevators, but the rural free delivery put the post- office out of business. The elevators are used when the season's crops are especially good.
N. S. Smith, for years and years the city attorney of Sabetha until his resignation about a years ago, was a member of the One Hundred and Twelfth Illinois. He was sick, in a hospital in 1865, after fighting through the Atlanta campaign in Tennessee, and was discharged in Au- gust, 1865.
Z. Bean, of Wetmore, served under Sheridan in the Fifth Wiscon- sin regiment. John Dudley came out to Kansas from Illinois to farm. Conditions here were so desolate that he found relief in enlisting as a private in the Third Missouri. He was wounded and taken prisoner, held for several months, freed, again captured, and escaped, swimming across the Saline river, and wearing a pair of pantaloons which he made himself, by ripping the sleeves out of his coat. Returning to Wetmore, farming in Kansas has since seemed a less trying job.
Dr. J. W. Graham, of the Forty-fourth Illinois, has kept among his treasures a paper signed by President Lincoln and countersigned by Secretary Stanton, conveying especial thanks to him for conspicuous bravery and service. Dr. Graham was a physician in the abandoned town of Capioma going later to Wetmore, where he was the first drug- gist, postmaster, justice of the peace and a good citizen at large.
J. H. Hart was a member of Company I, Thirty-third Iowa, who was present at the fall of Mobile, was transferred to Mexico and Texas, mustered out at Rock Island, Ill., and then came to Nemaha county, set- tling on a farm near Granada.
Alfred Johns was one of the few Nemahans to have fought with the Fifteenth Kansas. The Fifteenth was recruited by Colonel Jellison to protect the Kansas border after the terrible Quantrill raids, culminat- ing in the Lawrence massacre. The officers were mainly from Leaven- worth, Olathe, and that section, with a notable exception in the case of the lieutenant colonel, who was George H. Hoyt, of Boston, Mass. The Fifteenth remained on the job as border protectors until the famous Price raid, when their work in that historical event was conspicuous for its courage.
A. J. McCreery and his three sons served in the Rebellion, all in dif- ferent regiments. A. J., with the Eleventh Kansas; Alvin, with the Ninth Indiana and William with the Tenth Kansas. The Tenth was a consolidation of the Third and Fourth Kansas regiments and a portion
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of the Fifth under the command of Col. W. F. Cloud, of Emporia. This section of the State was well represented in the Tenth. Among the il- lustrious names is that of Judge Nathan Price, of Troy. He is the fath- er of Mrs. Paul Hudson, wife of the editor of the New Mexican "Her- ald." who in all the present Mexican difficulties has stuck to his post. The Tenth was called first to the Indian difficulties on the Neosho; they battled with Quantrill, fought at Paririe Grove and finally were detailed to Alton, Ill., to take charge of the military prison there.
Nathaniel Morris, of Wetmore, was a fighter with the Seventh Il- linois, a regiment of laurel winning soldiers, who seemed to win where- ever they went. Morris became a sergeant. Stories are told of a daring capture made by Morris. Dressed in citizen's clothes he captured a rebel officer. His own horse was stolen by a Quantrill man, and later recovered. Before moving to Nemaha county from Linn county he had taken part in the border war down there. David Scott was a second lieutenant in the Third Iowa, and later a color bearer in the Twenty- second Iowa.
The youngest Nemaha county soldier, and perhaps the youngest in the State, was Daniel Smith, who enlisted with the Thirteenth Kansas at the age of fourteen, in fact, he was not quite fourteen when he en- listed. Nemaha county claims that he is the youngest soldier who ever entered either Union or Confederate armies during the entire Rebellion. He served through the three years of his enlistment, carrying his gun as bravely as any soldier. Returning to Wetmore he made his home there, becoming a plasterer. Daniel Birchfield was a member of the Ninth Kentucky. He was captured on the retreat from Richmond but was ex- changed. At the close of the war he drove three oxen across the deso- late country to Montana. He prospected and floated down the Yellow- stone and Missouri to Omaha in a Mackinaw boat, then settled down in Centralia.
James F. Brock, of Centralia, served with the Twenty-fourth Iowa infantry ; George R. Hunt was a member of the Twelfth United States infantry, a regiment which was noted for quelling the draft riots of New York; W. A. Lynn enlisted with the Eighth New York cavalry, which fought at Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Winchester, straight through to Lee's surrender, a very noted regiment. Mr. Lynn says it was to the lieutenant colonel that the flag of rtuce was waved at Ap- pomattox.
Isaiah Stickel was principal of the Union Academy in Sparta, Ill., when the war broke out. He enlisted as a private in the Second Illinois and left the army a lieutenant. At Holly Springs, Miss., the captain of his company was taken prisoner and the conduct fell upon him. With six men in canoes he penetrated the bayous for thirty miles during the Vicksburg campaign pursuing a boatload of rebels and capturing two officers. These are but two instances of his fine work during the war. He came to Centralia in 1866, was the first postmaster of the town and
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was in the mercantile business before going into farming and stock rais- ing. J. O. Barnard, of Oneida, served with the Ninety-fourth Illinois. G. H. Johnson, later a postmaster of Corning, was a member of the Eighty-ninth New York infantry; Morrison Mackley with the One Hundred and Seventy-third Ohio; Joseph Mccutcheon, with the Sixty- first Pennsylvania; George F. Roots, who came to this country from England in 1850, and to Nemaha county in 1856, enlisted with the Thir- ty-sixth Illinois. Mr. Roots lived in Illinois before coming to Kansas and it was he who named Illinois creek. He had some knowledge of surveying and laid out much country around Corning.
E. S. Vernon fought with the Seventy-eighth Ohio at the battles of Shiloh, Fort Donelson and all the others of fame; J. C. Warrington with the Thirteenth Iowa; David Bronson, of Granada, with the Fifty-sev- enth Illinois; A. B. Ellit was with the Second Kansas that routed Quantrill and his men. The three Haigh brothers, James, Urias and Joseph, fought in the Rebellion.
J. O. Hottenstein, of a western Kansas county, was captain of the company in which "Uncle" Dave Wickins, postmaster of Sabetha, served during the Civil war, and he after many years, hunted Mr. Wick- ins up. Mr. Wickins recalls one incident of their service together very well. There was a skirmish in Mississippi in which Wickins was hit three times and Hottenstein was hit once. Both men were injured at al- most the same moment. Hottenstein was shot through the left breast just above the heart. Wickins was shot in the leg, hand and arm. "Let Hottenstein alone, and give other wounded attention; Hottenstein can't live anyway," said an attendant. Hottenstein made a great fuss at this and swore he would live to see the funeral of most of his company. In a few weeks he was well and at the head of his company again. The scar on David Wickin's right hand was caused by the wound in this en- gagement.
A. H. Hybskmann, seventy-eight. a pioneer, died at his home in Cen- tralia. He was born in Denmark in 1838. He was a Danish soldier in the Danish-Prussian war of 1864. The Danish army being defeated, he came to America in 1867, rather than be drafted into the Prussian army and fight his own country. He came to Centralia in 1870. He operated one of the first steam flour mills in this part of the State.
G. K. Hatch, of Granada, served as a member of the One Hundred and Ninety-fifth Pennsylvania, partook of the pursuit and capture of General Lee and was in at the finish. G. W. Conrad enlisted with the Twenty-eighth Iowa, fought under Sheridan and told great stories of Sheridan's ride. Lewis Logan was with the Twenty-second Iowas; A. J. Morgan with the Fourteenth Indiana, barely escaping capture at Get- tysburg. J. F. Randel served six months with the Twenty-second Kan- sas at the close of the war. F. F. Fisher enlisted with the Twenty-third Wisconsin. J. Hollingsworth, when but fifteen years old, enlisted with the Thirty-third Illinois. These enlistments in regiments of other
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States show a remarkable range of citizenship which has gathered to- gether under Nemaha county's banner. Another odd circumstance is that no two were members of the same regiment.
Any attempt to fully handle stories and reminiscences of the war is futile. A three-volume novel could not contain those of Nemaha coun- ty veterans. Still there are anecdotes that are irresistable. Uncle Jock Matthews, veteran rural mail carrier, who for twenty years has held the record for shortest time in delivering his mail out of Sabetha, joined the Pennsylvanians in a cavalry regiment. He got on his horse to go to war. He did not even stop to put down his knapsack, let alone drill, or stack arms, or make camp. He was rushed immediately into battle, and the battle was the second Battle of Bull Run. Recently F. A. Gue, a few miles from Sabetha, with Mrs. Gue took an odd journey : a visit to all the prisons where Mr. Gue was held during the war. They visited Chickamauga, where Mr. Gue was captured while taking care of thirty- eight Union soldiers, as assistant surgeon. Mr. Gue spent 526 days in prison during the War of the Rebellion. He was at Libby, Pemberton, Danville, Andersonville, and Salisbury, N. C. The Salisbury prison, merely a stockade, burned down and Mr. Gue was taken to Flor- ence, S. C., where he was kept until near the close of the war. Mr. Gue's health was in as miserable a state as might be imagined after such an experience. He settled near Sun Springs where there is a mineral well, the waters of which restored his health. Lyman Fair marched with Sherman to the sea. He says it was during this famous tramp that the song, "Marching through Georgia," was conceived. The song was start- ed by the men in the ranks and compiled as they marched along. It passed from man to man, line to line, company to company, and regiment to regiment. As they walked along the whole army sang the song on their way to the sea.
There are few wars of prominence of the past century with whichi Nemaha county has not had more or less connection. Almost every man in the county fought in the War of the Rebellion. Three have been mentioned who fought in the Crimean war. Comes now Herman Alt- house, splendid farmer and father of fine sons and daughters, whose father was a soldier under the great Napoleon Bonaparte. Conrad Alt- house, father of Herman, was a captain under Napoleon and fought at Piedmont and was with Napolean at his tragic downfall at Waterloo. Captain Althouse came to America, where he married. His eldest son, Herman, was born in Somerset county, coming west with his parents in the early days of Missouri's settlement. Herman Althouse's wife was Miss Susanna Howard, whose father was one of the original settlers of the famous Platte Purchase in Missouri. Herman Althouse is a pioneer of Nemaha county and for years and years a prominent figure in the eastern part of the county.
C. P. Branigan, of Rock Creek township, whose wife, Miss Rebecca H. Hawkins, was one of the first school teachers in the county, was
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driven out of Washington county by Indian raids, with a number of other Nemaha county citizens, who settled in this county where Indians were not rampant. Archibald Moorhead was frequently raided during the border war for food and lodging, but was otherwise uninjured.
W. B. Slosson, who opened the first store in Albany in December, 1861, brought his goods from Salem, Neb. He got the stock most rea- sonably. The owners of the goods feared they would be seized by bor- der ruffians. Mr. Slosson was one of the organizers of League No. 40 for the purpose of protecting runaway slaves. He saw as much of the border was difficulties as any one in Nemaha county. He barely es- caped death at the hands of a border ruffian in Nebraska City, escaping with three runaway slaves by bribing the ferryman to row them to safe- ty across the river. The ferryman was in favor of slavery, which argues well for either the persuasive powers of Mr. Slosson or the speak- ing power of a little gold. Col. W. S. White, one of the pioneer settlers of Nemaha county, was a personal friend and neighbor of Abraham Lin -. coln in Illinois.
Three Nemaha county men were members of the famous First Min- nesota infantry that saved the day at the battle of Gettysburg; W. H. Dooley, R. Wilson and L. J. Mosher, none of whom are now here. But forty-five men were left when the battle ended out of three hundred who entered with their regimen. Nemaha county's share of the survivors was rather unusual.
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