USA > Mississippi > History of the Seventh Indiana cavalry volunteers, and the expeditions, campaigns, raids, marches, and battles of the armies with which it was connected. with biographical sketches of Brevet Major General John P. C. Shanks, and of Brever Brig. Gen. Thomas M. Browne, and other officers of the regiment; with an account of the burning of the steamer Sultana on the Mississippi river, and of the capture, trial conviction and execution fo Dick Davis, the Guerrilla > Part 19
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231
LIEUTENANT FRANCIS M. WAY.
After his muster out of the volunteer service, he was appointed First Lieutenant in the Tenth Regiment,of United States regular cavalry, which position he still holds.
Since the close of the rebelion, he has been stationed on the frontiers among the hostile Indians. His appointment to a Lieutenantcy in the regular army is sufficient proof of his ability as a soldier and officer.
LIEUTENANT FRANCIS M. WAY.
Lieutenant Wav enlisted with General Thomas M. Browne, in campany B, of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. He was mustered into the United States service, on the 28th of August, 1863, as First Sergeant of company B. On the 1st of October, 1863, he he was promoted First Lieutenant of the company. He took part with the regiment in its early operations in Kentucky and West Tennessee. On the return of the regiment to Union City, from Jackson, Tennessee. he got a leave of absence, to visit one of his children that was dangerously ill. Before his return, the regiment started on its march to Colliersville. On returning, he proceeded directly to Memphis, and rejoined his command at the former place. He then took comman I of his company, and gallantly led it through the dangers and trials of the expedition to West point. At Ivy Farm, on the evening of the 221 of February, pursuant to orders, he dismounted his company, and formed it for the support of the battery of the 4th Missouri Cavalry, but was soon ordered to horse, and joined in the sabre "harge. Company B was the last company, and Lieutenant Way the last man to leave the field. After the army had retreated some distance, he was sent back with a force to reconnoiter, and ascertain the purposes of the enemy. On reaching the field, be discovered that they were making no preparations to pursue, thus showing that they had received considerable punishment. . On returning to the regiment, it being dark, the Lieutenant was in considerable danger of being shot by his own men. He was riding a white horse, and in the darkness, was thought to be a rebel scout. The words: "shoot
232
LIEUTENANT FRANCIS M. WAY.
that man on the white horse," was passed from man to man, but the darkness that caused that trouble, proved to be his shield of protection, and he escaped unhurt.
He commanded company L, on the expedition to Port Gibson, and Grand Gulf, in the summer of 1S64.
When Forrest dashed into Memphis, Lieut. Way was at White Station, with a detachment of the regiment, that did not accompany Gen. Smith to Oxford, Miss. The troops at that post occupied a precarious position, and expected every hour to be captured. While there had been considerable picket firing, yet no direct attack had been made on the camp. It was not known there, which side held Memphis, whether Forrest or the Feder- als. The commanding officer dispatched Lieut. Way, with ten men, to ascertain. He proceeded cantiously toward Memphis. On coming in sight of the picket line, he saw the officer in charge, posting his men behind trees, and making preparation- for defence. The Lieutenant posted His men in a good position. and then rode forward alone, to ascertain whether the pieket- were friends or foes. When within hailing distance, he called for the officer to step out and hold a parley. He did so, and proved to be a Union officer. From him the Lieut. learned that Memphis was still in the hands of the Federal army. Here- turned to camp with the joyful intelligence.
Ile was with the detachment of the regiment in the last in- vasion of Missouri, by the rebel General Price.
When Price was at Independence, communication with Gen Rosecrans, at Lexington, thirty miles distant, was kept up by means of a courier line, with posts at intervals of three mile -. Lieutenant Way was placed in command of that line. The country swarmed with "bushwhackers," who killed many of the couriers.
After the fight at Independence, Lieut. Way was taken sick and sent to Lexington. He did not recover sufficient health to be again able for active duty, and on the 11th of February, 1-65. was discharged on surgeon's certificate of disability. Before his
233
LIEUT'S GLEASON, AND CRANE.
discharge, however, he was commissioned Captain of company B, but declined to muster as such. !
He was a strictly temperate man, and did not, during his entire service, taste a drop of any kind of liquor.
He returned to his home, at Winchester, Indiana. He still is, and for a number of years has been, postmaster at that place.
LIEUTENANT CHARLES H. GLEASON.
Lieut. Gleason was born July 5th, 1845, in Utica, New York. He enlisted in company A, of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry, in LaPorte, in the month of July, 1803. He passed through all the gradations of rank from Corporal to Ist Lieutenant, and Adjutant of the regiment. For about three months he was act- ing quartermaster of the regimeut. He was with the regiment in nearly all its expeditions, raids and battles. He acted as Adjutant on the expedition in Missouri after Gen. Price, in his last invasion of that State. He was a young man of irreproach- able character, a brave soldier, and a reliable officer.
At the battle of Brice's Cross-roads, in Mississippi, June 1Cth, 1864, the Author saw him under the severest fire during the day, and was impressed with his coolness and courage.
He served with the regiment until its final muster out. Since the close of the war, he has resided at Sardis, Mississippi, and was for six years Clerk of the Circuit Court. He is now manager of a hotel in Sardis. He married in Memphis, Tenn., and has one child, a daughter, three years old.
LIEUTENANT WILLIAM H. CRANE.
William H. Crane was born February 28th, 1840, in LaPorte county, Indiana. He is a farmer by occupation. He enlisted as a private of company C, Twenty-ninth Regiment of Indiana Infantry Volunteers, on the 7th of September, 1861. He served with the regiment in the siege of Corinth, in the spring of 1802, and on the march to Bridgeport, after the evacuation of the former place, and in the pursuit of Bragg to Louisville. On the 30th of December, 1862. he was discharged from the regiment, by reason of sickness, caused by the ex- 26
1 i
234
LIEUTENANT WILLIAM H. CRANE.
posures incident to the severe campaigns through which tle regiment passed.
He re-enlisted in the Seventh Indiana Cavalry, and was mus- tered September 3d, 1863, at Indianapolis, as a Sergeant of com- pany F, of that regiment. He performed active duty with it un to the 21st of February, 1864, at West Point, Miss. On the morning of the 21st, his face was severely burned with powder, from broken cartridges, that he was assorting. While so en- gaged, a spark from the camp fire flew into the powder, which exploded in his face. He was unable to take part in the battle the next day.
He came very near being captured on the evening of the 22d. The driver set him out of the ambulance, to get Lieut. Donch, and Capt. Parmelee, but found the portion of the field, where they fell, occupied by the rebels. On returning, he forgot Crane, and had passed him a considerable distance before he remem- bered him. He started back on the run, and by the time he got the Lieutenant into the ambulance, and started up, the rebels were but a few rod, from them. He did not recover from the powder barn so as to be able to participate in the Guntown ex- pedition in the following month of June.
He was with Capt. Skelton, in his night attack on the rebels, at Lamar Station, Mississippi, and fought bravely. He took command of the portion of the company that got separated from Capt. Skelton, marched it to Lagrange, Tennessee, and from thore in safety to the regiment at Holly Springs. Hle was with the expelition to Port Gibson, Miss., and in the Missouri cam. paign in the fall of 1-64.
In the latter campaign, when Gen. Pleasanton was approach- ing Independence, Mo., he had command of the extreme ad- vance gnard, an ? in coming in sight of the rebels, charged them, captured a few prisoners, and put the rest to flight.
Soon after his return to Memphis, from this expedition, he was commissioned 2d Lieutenant of comany F.
Ile was with the detachment of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry,
--
235
CAPTAIN JOHN DONCH.
that accompanied Gen. Grierson on his famous raid through Mississippi, in the winter of 1864-5, and proved himself a reliable officer. He was with the regiment in all its operations and marches afterwards.
On the consolidation of the regiment, he was transferred to company A, of the new organization, and was soon afterwards promoted Ist Lieutenant of the company.
On the ISth of January, 1866, he was mustered out with the regiment. He returned to his home in LaPorte county, where he still resides.
CAPTAIN JOHN DONCH.
John Donch was born on the 23th day of July, 1824, at Mecklar, Hessia Castle, Germany, in which country he lived till 1851. He served five years, as a private soldier, in the stand- ing army of that country. In August, 1851, he came to America, landing at New York City, since which time he has been a citizen of this country.
In 1952, he went to California, and engaged in mining until the fall of 1853, when he went to Lake county, Indiana, where he has ever since resided.
He entered the United States service, during the rebellion, on the 25th of September, 1801, as a private in the Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, and was in active service with that regiment, in Missouri and Arkansas. He was promoted to 2d Lieutenant of the regiment, and served as such until the 10th of January, 1563.
On the 10th of Angust, 1803, he enlisted at Indianapolis, as a private, in company A, of the Seventh Indiana Cavalry. On the 24th of August, of the mime year, he was mustered with the tulapany as Sergeant, and on the 1st of September following. he was promoted to First or orderly Sergeant of the company.
On the first of November, ISU3, he was commissioned 2d Lieutenant, and on the 20th of the same month, and before h- had mustered on his first commission, he was promoted Ist Lien-
236
CAPTAIN JOHN DONCH.
tenant of his company. These promotions followed in rapid suc- cession, and were conferred on a worthy soldier.
He was with the regiment in all its operations in Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi up to the battle of Okolona, February 22d, 1864. In the gallant sabre charge, made by the regiment at Ivy Farm, on the evening of that day, he was shot through the right arm, and also in his body. He became unconscious and fell from his horse, and was supposed to be dead, and when the regiment retired, he was left on the field. On regaining consciousness, he went to a log cabin a short distance from where he fell, and was received by the rebel soldiers there in a brutal manner. They cursed and swore at him, and threatened to kill him. True to the principles of the chivalry, they deprived him of his watch and pocket-book. A rebel surgeon dressed his wounds. A chivalric bystander asked the doctor, with a know- ing wink, if the Lieutenant's hand needed amputating. The doctor replied : "This man will fight no more while this war lasts," and thus his hand was saved. He lay for that night on the ground, beside a large number of other wounded.
On the next day he was taken, with others, in a wagon to Okolona, and placed in a temporary hospital, where he remain- ed nine weeks. During most of that time, he was in a critical condition. But receiving from the surgeon and nurses proper attention, he was so fair recovered at the expiration of nine weeks, as to be able to be moved to Cahawba, Alabama. From that place, at the expiration of four weeks, he was taken to Ma- con, Georgia, and! imprisoned with sixteen hundred other feder- al officers.
When General Stoneman was making his raid on Macon in 1534, with the intention of releasing the prisoners at that place. the rebel anthorities sent six hundred of the prisoners to Charles- ton, South Carolina, and six hundred to Savannah, Georgia Lieut. Donch was of the number -ent to the latter place. From. there, with other federal officers, he was sent to Charleston. A: at place the rebels exhibited the highest type of chivalry, !
237
CAPTAIN JOHN DONCH.
compelling the prisoners to stand under the fire from the federal batteries, that were bombarding the city. For eighteen days the Lieutenant was kept in the yard of the State prison, with- out any shelter whatever. His clothing was nearly worn out. His beding consisted of an old, nearly worn out horse blanke :. At night he slept on the bare ground, with his old boots for a pillow. His food was principally worm-eaten rice. While in that place he took the scurvy, and was sent to a hospital out of the city. While there, the yellow fever broke out among the prisoners, of which many of them died. But the Lieutenant es- caped that plague.
On the 13th day of December, 1864, he was paroled. He re- ported at Washington city, where he received a leave of absence, with orders to report at Camp Chase, Ohio, at its expiration.
His appearance at his home in Lowell, Lake county, Indiana, astonished his friends, who believed him dead. He was himself astonished to learn that he had been treated as a dead man, and that his estate had been administered on, and his affairs settled up. He instituted proceedings to set aside the administration. He established his identity, and the court, thinking him a rath- er lively dead man, annulled the letters of administration, and the proceedings under them.
He then went to Camp Chase, where he remained till the 31st of March, 1865. At that time he was exchanged, and ordered to rejoin his regiment, at Memphis, Tenn., which he did on the 19th of April, 1805.
He went with the regiment to Alexandria, Louisiana, and from there on the long, dreary march to Hempstead, Tex is.
On the consolidation of the regiment, he was transferred.to company C, and was soon promotedl Captain of the company. He was with the rogiment in all its marches in Texas, and was mis- tered out of the service with it on the Isch of February. 1569. He was a brave soblier, and a capabie officer. He fought des- perately and suffer I mach for his adopted country.
Since his return from the way, he is been there plagget
23S
CAPTAIN SYLVESTER L. LEWIS.
Sheriff of Lake county, which office he still holds in this centeu- nial year.
CAPTAIN SYLVESTER L. LEWIS.
Captain Lewis entered the military service during the rebel- lion, at the early age of seventeen. He enlisted under General Browne, in company B, of the 7th Indiana cavalry. On the 28th of August, 1863, he was mustered as 2d Lieutenant of that company. He was promoted successively, Ist Lieutenant and Captain of company B. He was mustered as Captain, April 9th, 1865. He was at that time but eighteen years of age, and was probably the youngest Captain in any of the Indiana regi- ments.
As an officer he was brave and capable. He did as much, if not more, hard, active duty, as any other officer of the regiment. He was in the battles of Okolona, Brice's cross-roads, Port Gib- son, and Grand Gulf, Miss., in brief, in every raid, expedition, and battle in which the regiment took part.
He performed more crouting luty about Memphis than any other officer of the regiment. Tirit kind of service, during the year 1304 and the Spring of 1-55, was extremely hazardous. He was mustered out of the service Sept. 19th, 1865, on the consolidation of the regiment.
1 A GUERRILLA ATTACH UTON OFFICERS AT DINNER. DEATH OF
A BROTHER OF DICK DAVIS.
The following is furnishni by General Browne.
Many circumstances, at the time of their occurrence really thrilling, are constantly trang iring in the field that will never find a place in the history of this war. They are not, taken alone, little things, bit ting up in the over-awig shadows of those that y great that they pass un- noticed by the historie . at victory-the sanguinary feld with its thou in 1. in Alain -- the fearful charge of intantry against intrea bient on;den and impetuous dash of cavalry upon the chetty . ha ot glittering bayonets, must eyer occupy the foreground of the picture-must ever stand
---
259
ELLIOTT-RYAN-WOODS.
in the way of individual instances of courage and the lesser in- cidents of peril. The fame of how many personal acts of hero- ism is tied up in the laurel wreaths that crown the stately brows of Grant, Sherman and Sheridan? He who would attempt to make these small events of war interesting, may fail, but as I have no literary reputation at stake, I take the hazard of the effort.
Our cavalry camp at White's Station was situated in a beauti- ful grove, on undulating ground; the stately trees threw out their long leafy branches, shutting out the scorching sun, giving us a cool shade for horses and men. It was in that most delight- ful of Southern months, May, we pitched our tents and went into camp, after a winter and spring of long marches and rapid raids through Western Tennessee and Northern Mississippi, to give a season of rest to our weary men, and to recuperate our jaded and broken-down horses. One day, while at this camp, as I was seated in front of my tent, under the thick boughs of a thrifty dogwood, enjoying my morning paper and my pipe, a young man in the unchanging garb of butternut, so common in this constry, presented an order from headquarters, giving him per- mission to look through the camp for a pair of mules which he professed to have lost. He scrutinized the quadrupeds at the pieket ropes, failing to discover his missing property-visited our sutler's tent, drank a few glasses of lager, and then quietly walked out of camp.
A day subsequent to this event, Capt. Elliott, Lieut. Rvan and Lieut. Woods, having grown tired of their unvarying meals of "hard tack and greasy bacon," thought to enjoy a more re- freshing repast at a farm-house, which stood but a short distance beyond the pickets. Having previously orderel it, they repair- ed to the place a short time before noon, enjoying the keen appetite of hungry soldiers, which they expected to appease with the coming dinner. Supposing that they would meet a no more formidable foe than a venerable chicken or tough beef stake, they went unarmed.
Now that the reader may fully understand what is to come, it is necessary that we should take a short survey of the farm-house and its surroundings. It was a two-story structure, with a verandah on the north, a long kitchen at the rear, and several negro cabins on the right or west side. To the front and north was an open lawn of about one hundred yards in extent, at the elge of which, adjoining the woods, was stationed a picket
240
ELLIOTT-RYAN-WOODS.
reserve of some twenty-five men. To the south-east was an wood reaching to the yard fence, and some half mile beyond, the crooked Nonconnah creek coiled through the thickets of trees and bushes.
As it happened Col. W -- had, on that morning, sent into the country a foraging party of some twenty men, of the 4th Missouri cavalry, to procure some little delicacies for his mess table. This party of foragers had been beyond the creek and were returning by a road that led them to camp, and which passed near by the farm-house where our half famished officers were "snuffing from atar" the odors of the dinner pot. When passing carelessly through the woods that line the margin of the creek, and within a half mile of camp, a little cloud of white smoke puffed curling up from the bushes-the sharp crack of a half dozen revolvers fell upon the ear, and three of them-one killed and two wounded-were in an instant put hors du combat: the others surprised and frightened by the suddenness of the ambuscade, scampered away "pell-mell, helter-skelter," with- out stopping to give tight or to ascertain the numbers of the foe. The guerrillas, for such they were, made instant and vigor. ous pursuit, and an exciting race of half a mile ensued. The Missourians made the best time, and made camp a short dis- tance in advance of their pursuers. The bushwhackers, seeing they had lost the race when at our very lines, suddenly changed their direction, and de shed up to the rear of the farin-house, keeping it between themselves and the picket reserves.
Our officers were, at this time, quietly seated in the kitchen, sinacking their lips in anticipation of the good things that would soon be in readiness for them, all unconscious of what was tran- spiring without. In a moment afterwards, however, they were brought to a sudden sense of their forlorn and defenseless con- dition, by having a fellow of warlike appearance thrust the muz- zle of a revolver into their faces, and demanding "an immediate and nuconditional surrender." Their astonishment at this ap- parition may be imagined. In beating a laisty retreat lay their only hope. To fight withont arms, against revolvers, was an odds too fearful to be contemplated with coolness. The guer- rilla was between them and the door, and escape in that direc- tion was ent off. They couldn't jump through the root, and be- ing in the rear of the bons;, they could neither be seen or heard by the reserves. Fortunately the kitchen windows were up, and in a twinkling, Elliott and Ryan went through them, but not
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ELLIOTT-RYAN-WOODS.
without being greeted with a bullet that whistledl harmlessly by their heads. They ran into the main building, thence up stairs . and out on the upper verandah, and called vigorously to the re- serves, who, without losing a moment's time, responded to their frantic appeal for help by moving on "a double quick" to the house.
While this was going on, the women, children and negroes, were screaming and running wildly in almost every conceivable direction, making the scene peculiarly grotesque and exciting. Woods and the guerrilla, were, in the mean time, having a sin- gle-handed bout in the kitchen. Woods was too late in his at- tempt to escape, and was compelled to rely upon strategy. Adopting measures adequate to the emergency, he closed with his antagonist and kept him so busy, that he was unable to use his revolver. A rough-and tumble-combat was progressing with about equal chances of success, when the footsteps of the ap- proaching soldiers admonished the bushwhacker that events were thickening about him, and that it was high time for him to call off his forces and retreat. He suddenly faced about and ran from the kitchen door in the direction of the negro quarters, but before he could reach hus destination, four bullets rattled through his carcass and he fell instantly, dead. The four others of Lis ganz, who accompanied him, but did not dismount, ded etfly in the fray without having fired a shot.
The fight of the frightened foragers, and the firing of the pickets. created quite a commotion in camp. Happening to be on horse-back at the time, and half a dozen officers and twice as many men similarly situsted, we gave pursuit to the theins guerrillas, but before we could reach them, they had scattered in the creek bottoms, and our effort to capture them was unavail- ing. Our dead and wonndel were found and cared for, and We returned to camp. As we returned, the dead marauder liv un- der the shade of a forrest tree, surrounded by a knot of sollen He was immediately recognized as the man who had visi ... l camp the day before, seeking his lost mules. He was a member of the band of guerrillas of which Dick Davis was the leader. and was a half brother to that noted robber chieftain. The boys mule his grave at the edge of the woods near the farm hove. where his remains now He; and two large gate posts, constitut- ing his head and foot boards, are the only monuments reared to Lis memory.
27
LIEUTENANT THOMAS S. COGLEY.
I was born on the 24th of November, 1840, at Liberty, the county seat of Union county, Indiana. My father, Robert Cog- ley, was a physician of that place. The most of my life ha been spent in my native State. In 1859, I went to LaPorte county, Indiana, from the State of Iowa, where my father at that time resided, and since that time LaPorte county has been my residence. I was living and attending school in the city of Lu- Porte, in the county of that name, at the outbreak of the rebel- lion. On going to dinner from school, I read for the first time, the Proclamation of the President, calling for seventy thousand volunteers, to suppress the rebellion. On returning to school after dinner, I stepped into a recruiting office that had just been opened, and wrote my name as a volunteer. On arriving at In- dianapolis, it was ascertained that the company had more names on its roll than could be mustered with it. The officers selected the number they were authorized to muster, and there were leit fifteen or twenty others, among them myself. We felt as if we were disgraced for life, and some of us got together and resolved never to return to LaPorte county to be laughed at. The orh Indiana regiment of three months troops was not full, and I en- listed in company C of that regiment, and served with it until it was mustered out on the expiration of its term of enlistment. I was with it in the battle of Rich Mountain in West Virginia. After being discharged, I returned to LaPorte, thinking I could do so with honor. In the Fall of 1861, I enlisted under Capi. Silas F. Allen, in company C, of the 20th Indiana infantry vol- unteers, and on the 30th of Angust, 1So1, was mustered as Ist or orderly Sergeant of the company. I served with that regi- inent, without losing a day, up to the second day of the battle of Shilo, April 7th, 1802. On that day I was wounded in the right knee with a minnie ball, while the brigade to which the
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