USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph County, Michigan; Volume I > Part 21
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Moore Park, a station on the Lake Shore & Michigan South- ern Railroad, was established in 1871, and so named from Hon. Edward S. Moore, whose picturesque homestead was in the vicinity.
CHAPTER XI.
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY IN WAR. BY HON. R. R. PEALER.
IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR-MEXICAN WAR AND HON. ISAAC D. TOLL-FRANCIS FLANDERS, JR .- IN THE CIVIL WAR-THE ELEVENTH MICHIGAN-HISTORY OF THE NINETEENTH- TWENTY-FIFTH INFANTRY-SEVENTH MICHIGAN-FIRST MICHI- GAN INFANTRY-SECOND MICHIGAN-FOURTH MICHIGAN-THE ISOLATED SIXTH-THE FIFTEENTH INFANTRY-THE ARTIL- LERY-OTHER MILITARY BRANCHES IN CIVIL WAR-SPANISH- AMERICAN WAR.
St. Joseph county was included in the "war scare" caused by the uprising of the Sacs and Foxes under Black Hawk in 1832. Its scattered settlers were especially susceptible to panic on this score, first, because of the threat of the able Indian warrior that he was on his way to sweep all the white settlements from his path between the Mississippi river and Detroit, whose inhabit- ants he would also massacre, and secondly, because of the pres- ence of the considerable band of Nottawa-seepe warriors on their reservation in the northern part of St. Joseph county and the southern part of Kalamazoo. The bands of Pottawatomies, Chippewas and Ottawas, which had been grouped under this name, had two villages in St. Joseph county; one in the present township of Leonidas and the other, and larger, on the southern banks of St. Joe river, opposite the site of the future Mendon. The Nottawa-seepe reservation included some of the choicest prairie lands and groves in the county, and many of the early settlers had located their farms just without its boundaries. When the excitement over the Black Hawk raids in Illinois reached this part of the state, it therefore rose to the greatest height in the
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country bordering the Indian reservation, as it was generally believed that the Pottawatomies, who formed the bulk of the red settlers thereon, sympathized with Black Hawk and might actu- ally join him in his war against the whites.
THE COUNTY IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR.
When it became known that Black Hawk had defeated the military sent against him, on May 14, 1832, the entire county was thrown into a ferment of unrest and apprehension. As soon as possible two companies were mustered; that under Colonel Stew- art, of White Pigeon, was to advance westward to the relief of Chicago and the frontier, and the force under Captain Henry Powers was considered a corps of observation to watch the Pot- tawatomies of the reservation. The first step toward an effective observation of anything, on anybody, is evidently to provide a suitable place from which to observe.
Fifty of Captain Powers' hundred men were drafted for active service and were ordered to the farm of Daniel H. Hogan, in the northwest corner of the present Colon township and ad- joining the southeast corner of the Indian reservation. This action was in pursuance of the majority report of the Committee on Ways and Means for the Public Safety, consisting of Martin G. Schellhous, Jonathan Engle, Sr., Benjamin Sherman, Amos Howe and Alvin Alvord, Sr. Of this little army of observation, Jonathan Engle, Jr., was lieutenant; Hiram Gates, ensign, and Frank McMillan, orderly sergeant. The report from the com- mittee was received by the company in the afternoon at four o'clock and Captain Powers ordered his fifty chosen men to repair at once to the five acres of ground which had been selected as the site of the proposed Fort Hogan. Before nightfall several furrows had been plowed the whole length of the western out- works; moreover, a ridge of earth two feet high, three feet at its base and seventeen feet in length, picketed with stakes varying from one to three inches in diameter, loomed up as another step in the founding of Fort Hogan.
Night brought repose, and perhaps calmer feelings through the assurances of the Schellhous brothers, Mr. Sherman and Mr. Engle, whose absolute fearlessness over the situation appears to have been largely a result of reliable information as to the atti- tude of the Pottawatomies toward the whites. At all events, at
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nine o'clock of the morning following the breaking of ground for Fort Hogan, only a few spiritless men of the original fifty who manifested their ardor so unmistakably the night before ap- peared on the site of the proposed fortress for observation, and they soon went away. Thus was Fort Hogan abandoned, and Messrs. Schellhous and Engle, who had dissented from the ma- jority report which recommended its erection, were vindicated.
Within a few weeks, the elder and less excitable men of the locality had had informal talks with Cush-ee-wees, head chief of the Pottawatomies, and other principal men of the Nottawa In- dians, and arranged for a formal council at Captain Powers' house. At that interview it transpired that the Indians were not only anxious to adjust all their differences with the white settlers of St. Joseph county, but that several members of the tribe had actually gone with Captain Hatch, a trader, to join General Atkinson's forces at Chicago and assist the Pottawatomies at that point, who had always been friendly to Fort Dearborn and the village cluster- ing around it. This council at Captain Powers' house, at which all the differences between the whites and the Nottawa-seepe Indians were explained and adjusted, occurred in the early part of August, 1832, and the following day came the news of Black Hawk's defeat and capture in Wisconsin, which occurred on the second of that month.
In the meantime, the southern contingent of troops, under Captain Stewart, had been holding themselves in readiness at White Pigeon to move to the relief of Chicago, in case Black Hawk invested Fort Dearborn and the village. Captain Stewart, by being placed in command of the Eleventh regiment of the territory, became a colonel, and was afterward elected brigadier general of the Sixth brigade; but the Black Hawk war did not call him from Michigan. Under stress of the first excitement, forty of his men were drafted to march westward, but the order was revoked. The war scare was revived with the invasion of Wisconsin by Black Hawk, and fifty of Captain Stewart's men were drafted for immediate service, but before they could leave White Pigeon the news reached them of the defeat and capture of the great Indian warrior, who had struck terror into so many western settlements.
An incident of this time and place is thus related by the late John Hamilton, of Constantine: "When his father's family were coming to the county they arrived at Adrian just as the news came through of the advance of Black Hawk into Illinois, and Roberts,
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who was traveling in company of Hamilton, having considerable cattle and several small children, decided to return to Monroe county and wait until the war should be over. Hamilton submitted the question of advance or retreat to his son John, then about eigh- teen years old, and his son-in-law, Alfred Roe, who, with the father, decided to go on, and did so, arriving in Constantine in due time. The very day after their arrival, Roe and young Hamilton were enrolled in the militia, making an even hundred in White Pigeon township, as the territory was then called. The draft for forty men was then made, and Roe drew a prize to go to the west. This order for a draft was revoked, and another one for fifty men was ordered and made, and Roe drew the prize again, Hamilton drawing a blank each time. The next day the news of Black Hawk's cap- ture came, and the men were sent home, or never got together; but drew eight dollars in cash (a month's pay) and forty acres of land."
To give St. Joseph county full credit for what she did in the raising of men for the Black Hawk war, mention must also be made of the independent rifle company organized in Sturgis township, in command of Captain Hunter. Among its members were Hiram Jacobs, Asa W. Miller, P. H. Buck, John Parker, Moses Roberts and Edward Mortimer. They volunteered for a sixteen-days' cam- paign, but, as one of the boys remarked after he was gray-headed, "there being no enemy on whom to forage, they made their princi- pal raid on the commissary supplies and had a 'big time.' "
MEXICAN WAR AND HON. ISAAC D. TOLL.
The ablest and most heroic citizen of St. Joseph county to fig- ure in the brave deeds performed by her sons on the bloody battle- fields of Mexico was Hon. Isaac D. Toll, of Fawn River. Having enjoyed a partial collegiate education, he accompanied his father to Centerville, from New York state, in 1834. There, and at Fawn River, they engaged in mercantile and manufacturing pursuits, and continued in those lines until 1846 and, after the Mexican war, until 1853. The son, Isaac D., showed an early aptitude and liking for politics, commencing his public life as assessor of Fawn River township at the age of twenty-one. He was then supervisor for fifteen years, and in 1846 was elected to the lower house of the leg- islature. For years he had also been an enthusiast in military matters, and at that time, although but twenty-eight years of age
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and the youngest member of the Michigan legislature, was major general of the state troops. General Toll was made chairman of the committee on militia and framed the bill for the organization of the state troops which subsequently became law, and has been pro- nounced unexcelled by any similar legislation of that day. In the following year he was sent to the upper house, and at the close of the session accepted a captaincy in the Fifteenth United States Infan- try for service in the Mexican war.
Captain Toll received his commission in March, 1847, and at once started for home to organize a company. St. Joseph, Kent, Kalamazoo, Cass and Jackson counties all furnished men, those who went from the home territory being as follows: Isaac D. Toll, cap- tain; John Cunningham, first sergeant; Francis Flanders, Jr., first sergeant; William S. Smith, sergeant; Daniel P. Hanks, corporal; Horace Bartholomew, corporal; Theron Bartholomew and Levi Bar- tholomew (three brothers, of Fawn River) ; Fitch Cornell, a half brother of Corporal Hanks; Abraham Berss, Ludlow Cox. Richard W. Corbus, Samuel B. Corbus, Nathaniel Crofoot, James H. Davis, Solomon Gilman, Wesley Gordon, Daniel W. Hamblin, Sylvester Holiday, John Ladd, Clark Munson, William J. Norton and Isaac A. Smith.
The St. Joseph company (E) left Detroit for the seat of war in Mexico in April, 1847. Its immediate destination was Vera Cruz. The company was engaged at Riconada Pass, June 24th ; Contreras and Churubusco, August 19th and 20th; Molina del Rey, Septem- ber 8th, and Chepultepec September 13th. Captain Toll com- manded in every engagement except Chepultepec, reaching that battle toward its close and being conveyed thither in an ambulance from the Mexcoac hospital, before he had recovered from his wounds at Churubusco. At the latter battle, which was especially disastrous to St. Joseph county men, he had command of the regi- mental colors. The regiment, under command of Colonel Morgan, was thrown into disorder by a fierce attack of the enemy who out- numbered the Americans eight to one. In this assault the com- manding officer was severely wounded, First Lieutenant Goodman, of Company E, killed, and Orderly Sergeant Cunningham mortally wounded. Captain Toll rallied the men on the colors, preparing for a charge, when the flanking companies of the regiment fell back, leaving Company E unsupported and fully exposed to the fire of the Mexicans. But the men bravely supported their captain, who rallied not only his little command but the entire regiment
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driving the enemy from his position which was protected by a ditch and a maguey fence.
The victory, however, was gained at terrific cost to Company E, the brave men from St. Joseph county sharing largely in the casualties and the glory. Besides Captain Toll and Sergeant Cunningham, who were wounded, Corporal Hanks received his death wounds; Richard W. Corbus, Hamblin, Holiday, Ladd and Munson also died of their injuries; Cornell was shot through the head, but recovered; and Samuel B. Corbus, Nathaniel Crofoot, Davis, Gilman, Gordon, Norton and Isaac A. Smith were wounded more or less severely. Sergeant William S. Smith, a brave soldier, who participated in every engagement and came through unscathed, died of chronic diarrhoea on his way home.
FRANCIS FLANDERS, JR.
Francis Flanders, Jr., who left for Mexico as first sergeant of his company, was transferred to another regiment as chief musician, which gave him the rank of major. He had served in the Florida war before going to Mexico, and after hostilities in the latter country had ceased, lived in California and Mexico until the summer of 1876, when he returned to Sturgis. He was the leading musician of the first brass band organized in St. Joseph county. It was formed at Sturgis, was called the St. Joseph County Democratic Brass Band and was commanded by Captain A. S. Drake. Mr. Flanders' grandfather was a soldier of the Revolution; his father a Vermont soldier in the war of 1812 and a pioneer wool carder and justice of the peace of Fawn River township; and as he himself participated in the Florida and Mexican wars, it is in strong evidence that the Flanders men were of fighting stock. And Francis Flanders, Jr., is one of the very few who enlisted from St. Joseph county for the Mexican war and was fortunate enough to escape unwounded from its battle fields.
IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Michigan furnished to the Union armies of the Civil war, thirty regiments of infantry, eleven of cavalry and fourteen of artillery ; one of mechanics and engineers; one of sharpshooters; and several companies which were incorporated into the com-
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mands credited to other states. In the Michigan organizations, St. Joseph county is represented in all but the Eighteenth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second regiments of infantry. The Eleventh Infantry was raised almost entirely in St. Joseph county, and she also sent full companies to the First, Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Eleventh, Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Nineteenth and Twenty-fifth, as well as supplied three batteries (D, F and G) of the twelve which composed the First Regiment of Michigan Light Artillery. Altogether, the county raised 2,692 of the 90,747 Union soldiers which Michigan sent forth to the battlefields of the Civil war.
Not a single important campaign or battle of the war can be mentioned in which some Michigan regiment or company did not lead a desperate movement, or stand the brunt of some fierce assault of the enemy. Michigan soldiers were stanch, depend- able troops, as well as dashing and impetuous ones, who were ever ready to take the initiative.
What words are too strong for the heroic conduct of the Eleventh, under Colonel W. L. Stoughton, at Stone River and Chickamauga, where it so added to the renown of the great Thomas! Then there was the Nineteenth, which led the advance of Sherman's magnificent army against Atlanta; the Twenty- fifth, which at Green River bridge, Kentucky, repulsed Morgan's famed cavalry, saved Louisville, and afterwards bore itself so nobly at Resaca and Atlanta; the Seventh, which first crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, in the face of the concentrated Confederate fire, and whose gallant ranks were so terribly mowed down at Antietam and Gettysburg; the First, which shared with Ellsworth's New York Zouaves the honor of first occupying Alexandria, which uncringingly received its real baptismal of fire at First and Second Bull Run, losing among its gallant officers the lamented Colonel H. S. Roberts, and shared in the disappoint- ments and victories of the awful battles of Antietam, Chancellors- ville and the Wilderness; the Second, which was always "there," whether called upon at Fair Oaks, Knoxville or in the Wilder- ness; the Thirteenth, heroes also of Stone River and Chicka- mauga ; the Fourth, which covered the retreat of the Union army at First Bull Run, opened Mcclellan's Peninsula campaign, was in the advance across the Chickahominy, at Malvern Hill lost its gallant Colonel Woodbury and Captains DePuy and Rose, and continued its brilliant career at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Vol. I-16
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the Wilderness; and the Sixth, isolated from the other Michigan Regiments, but in the campaigns of the far south splendidly up- holding the fighting and military reputation of the state-among the first of the Union troops to occupy New Orleans, under General Butler, repulsing the Confederates from Baton Rouge, leading Sherman's division in its assault on Port Hudson, and finally earning fame as a heavy artillery regiment during the investment of Mobile. And this was by no means the full meed which stands to the credit of the regiments in whose ranks and among whose officers fought the men which St. Joseph county sent to the front to uphold the Union idea by the awful force of war; three of her batteries, incorporated into the First Light Artillery of Michigan, boldly and valiantly spoke at Chickamauga; and in numerous regiments of infantry, among the Union sharpshooters who hourly risked their lives for the cause, and in many organizations of cavalry and artillery scattered from Texas to Virginia, the sons of Michigan and St. Joseph county were content to sink their state, their county and themselves in the great army which rep- resented their principles and their patriotism.
THE ELEVENTH MICHIGAN.
That the Eleventh Michigan Infantry was pre-eminently a St. Joseph county command will be admitted from the facts that 610 men and officers were recruited within its borders; that four full companies were raised in the county, and that its staff offi- cers, from organization to honorable discharge, were nearly all St. Joseph men. The four full companies recruited in this county were as follows : A, Captain David Oakes, Jr., Nottawa, who died at Murfreesboro; C, Captain Calvin C. Hood, Sturgis; D, Captain Benjamin C. Bennett, Burr Oak, promoted to major and killed at Missionary Ridge; E, Captain Henry N. Spencer, Lockport, re- signed, and Lieutenant Thomas Flynn, promoted to vacancy and killed at Stone River, and Second Lieutenant Charles W. New- berry, of Burr Oaks, promoted to captaincy and killed at Chick- amauga. Besides these companies, Company G, officered by Cap- tain Moase and Lieutenant Comstock, of Branch county, had over fifty men from St. Joseph county, and Company F, commanded in the later part of its career by Captain Myron C. Benedict, of Leonidas, had nearly as many more. Company I had a squad of about fifteen, recruited by Lieutenant Henry S. Platt, of Sturgis.
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The original roster of the regiment, including the line officers of the St. Joseph companies, was as follows: Colonel, William L. May, of White Pigeon, who resigned April 1, 1862.
Lieutenant colonel, William L. Stoughton, Sturgis.
Major, Benjamin F. Doughty, Sturgis; resigned August 18, 1862.
Surgeon, Dr. William N. Elliott, White Pigeon.
Assistant surgeon, Nelson I. Packard, Sturgis.
Chaplain, Holmes A. Pattison, Colon.
Quartermaster, Addison T. Drake, Sturgis.
Adjutant, Samuel Charwick, Lockport.
Sergeant major, James M. Whallen, Burr Oak.
Quartermaster's sergeant, John Underwood, White Pigeon. Commissary sergeant, Elva F. Peirce, Nottawa.
Captain Company A, David Oakes, Jr., Nottawa; first lieuten- ant, Christian Haight, Leonidas; second lieutenant, Aaron B. Sturgis, Sturgis.
Captain Company C, Calvin C. Hood, Sturgis; first lieuten- ant, Mathias M. Faulkner, Sturgis; second lieutenant, Loren H. Howard, Fawn River.
Captain Company D, Benjamin G. Bennett, Burr Oak; first lieutenant, John R. Keeler, Burr Oak.
Captain Company E, Henry N. Spencer, Lockport; first lieu- tenant, Thomas Flynn, Lockport; second lieutenant, Charles W. Newberry, Burr Oak.
Captain Company G, Charles Moase, Branch county; second lieutenant, Silas G. Comstock, Branch county.
Second lieutenant Company I, Henry S. Platt, Sturgis.
The rank and file of the Eleventh always considered that they most gloriously met the supreme test of their fortitude at Stone River and Chickamauga. At the former battle, commanded by Colonel Stoughton, it was in Thomas' corps, near the center of the Union lines, and received and checked one of the fiercest assaults delivered by the Confederate army. The Eleventh Mich- igan and the Nineteenth Illinois charged in advance of Negley's division, to which they were attached, and drove back an entire Confederate division. The loss to the Michigan command was
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thirty-two killed, seventy-nine wounded and twenty-nine missing. After describing the first and indecisive engagement of Decem- ber 31st, Colonel Stoughton takes up the second battle of Stone River, in which the Eleventh were also heroes of the day. "On the second of January," he says, "we were again called into action. In the afternoon of that day we were posted as a reserve in an open field in the rear of batteries, on the right of the left wing of our army. Between three and four o'clock the enemy made a heavy attack with artillery and infantry on our front. My command was kept lying upon the ground, protected by a slight hill for about half an hour.
"At the expiration of this time the enemy had driven back our forces on the opposite side of the river, one regiment crossing in great disorder and rushing through our ranks. As soon as the enemy came within range, my regiment with the others of the brigade rose up, delivered its fire and charged across the river. In passing the river my line was necessarily broken, and I led the regiment forward to a fence on a rise of ground and re-formed the line. Here the firing continued for some time until the enemy was driven from his cover and retreated through the woods. My regiment was then promptly advanced to the edge of the woods and continued to fire upon the enemy as he fled in disorder across the open field in front of his line of intrenchments. At this time the ammunition was nearly exhausted, and my regiment, with the others in advance, formed in line of battle, threw out skirmishers and held our position until recalled across the river. The Eleventh was among the first to cross Stone river, and assisted in capturing four pieces of artillery abandoned by the enemy in his flight.
"I cannot speak too highly of the troops under my command. They fought with the bravery and coolness of veterans, and obeyed my commands under the hottest fire with the precision of the pa- rade ground. The officers of my command behaved with great gal- lantry and firmness. Where all nobly discharged their duty, it would, perhaps, be unjust to discriminate. Lieutenants Wilson and Flynn were killed while gallantly leading their companies. Major Smith and Lieutenants Hall, Briggs and Howard were wounded, the former two severely, and Lieutenant Hall is a prisoner."
At the battle of Chickamauga, Colonel Stoughton commanded a brigade and the Eleventh regiment was led by Lieutenant Colonel Mudge. On the last day of that terrible conflict, the brigade formed
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one of the most important links in Thomas' great chain of defense and successfully repelled many charges of the enemy in greatly su- perior force. The regiment was one of the last to retire in the darkness of that fearful night; its casualties were seven killed (in cluding Captain Charles W. Newberry, of Burr Oak), seventy-six wounded and twenty-three missing. On the following morning Colonel Stoughton occupied the approach to the battlefield, held it during the day and at night covered the retreat of the Union army to Chattanooga. He silently drew off his artillery by hand, re- mained on the picket line until the following morning, made a forced march to Chattanooga without the loss of a man, and carried out his movements, from first to last, with such coolness and military skill that he was complimented personally by General Thomas.
At Missionary Ridge Major B. G. Bennett, then in command of the regiment, met his death in the last and decisive charge; entire loss, in killed and wounded, thirty-nine. On the fourth of July following, in charging the enemy's works near Marietta, Colonel Stoughton was so severely wounded that he lost his leg, and Lieuten- ant Myron Benedict, his right arm. The Eleventh suffered a loss of eleven killed and wounded, and in front of Atlanta, August 7th, Lieutenant Edward Catlin lost his life among the fifteen men killed and wounded there. After a fruitless pursuit of the rebel cavalry leader, General Wheeler, the regiment left two commissioned offi- cers and one hundred and fifty men at Chattanooga, whose terms of enlistment had not expired, and the balance of the command started for Michigan, and was mustered out at Sturgis, September 25, 1864.
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