The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 1

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Ohio > The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2 > Part 1

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جورج ٠٢٠٨٨٠٠

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معارمع مراليد

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الساعة

سلمة

الإجابة

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بعرواد من قصص

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مبار كه الافي

ـكية جابية معفي

ـفيميا

اللحام اسيد احيم كيفصيد

Gc 977.1 B52 pt.2 1932145

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REYNOLDS MITURICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION

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BIOGRAPHICAL

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19th THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

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CINCINNATI AND PHILADELPHIA: GALAXY PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1876.

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under the command of Judge Martin Crain, and thence to Camp Dennison, Company K was commandled by Captain Woodward, of Dayton, while the colonel of the regiment was K. V. Kantz. Having received their horses and full equipment at the latter camp, they were sent to Lexington, Kentucky, during the winter of 1862-63, via Covington, overland, where they passed some months. Leaving there they marched to Somerset, and there, being attached to the 23d Corps, participated in the raid on Knoxville and East Tennessee, under General Burnside, and were in all the battles and skirmishes that occurred, until General Long- street was driven out of Eastern Tennessee. Ile was on the celebrated John Morgan raid, from the time that guerilla chief left Kentucky, through the States of Indiana and Ohio, and in all the battles and skirmishes that took place between the two contending forces, including the battle at Buffington's Island, until he was captured near the Pennsylvania line. After these two campaigns were ended the 2d Ohio Cavalry was transferred to the Army of the Potomac over the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Though a member of Company K of that regiment, he was unable, through sickness, to be present at the battles of the Wilder- ness, in which they participated; but on their return from that hard-fought Geld he joined his company at Camp Stoneman, near Washington, District of Columbia, and thence went into the valley of the Shenandoah, under General Sheridan, General George A. Custer being the brigade commander. He took part in all the conflicts that occurred in that valley, including the battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek, and until the rebel General Early left the valley. The Union cavalry followed in pursuit of him up the valley, frequently skirmishing with portions of his command, thence out to the James River Canal, and along the line of that canal and to the left of Richmond and Petersburg, until they reached General Grant's army. Pass- ing to the south of Petersburg his regiment participated in raising the siege of that city, and after the evacuation they following the retreating army of General Lee, fighting them almost every day. Ile was in the battle of Five Forks, as well as all the others that occurred in that pursuit; as also in the one that took place on the evening of the 8th and the morning of the 9th of April, 1865, in front of Appomat- tox Court House, and until General Lee surrendered at that place on the last-named day. On April 10th his regi- ment started for Petersburg, which they reached in due time, and were then ordered to the rear of General John- son's army. When they had reached a point of one day's march from the rear, they learned that he had surrendered,

and returned at once to Petersburg. While sojourning there they learned of President Lincoln's death by the hands of a rebel assassin. Leaving Petersburg they marched through Richmond and to Washington City, crossing the Long bridge over the Potomac river, and went into camp within a few miles of the capital. Ile had been some time previous promoted to the grade of Sergeant. Ile was pres-

ent at the grand review of the Army of the Potomac, in the capital city of the nation-the grandest sight ever witnessed there -- and passing out the regiment was placed upon the train for Parkersburg. On their arrival at that place they found two steamers ready to convey them to St. Louis, Missouri ; one of them, the " Columbia," received Company K, and in the carly part of June they landed at that city. On the roth day of that month he was mustered out of the service at Benton Barracks. Ile shortly after this left for home, where he arrived on the 16th of June. In August of the same year he entered the Ohio University, at Athens, and after a year's sojourn returned home and taught school for a term. Ile next entered the office of General Enochs, to commence the study of the law, and in the autumn of 1867 became a student in the law department of the Uni- versity of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. In 1870 he established a law office at Ironton, Ohio, where he is now actively engaged in the practice of his profession.

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ISHER, ALBERT WEISER, . Physician and Ilealth Officer of Toledo, Ohio, was born in Sunbury, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, of American parentage and pure Anglo- Saxon ancestry. Ile received his education in the Iligh School and academy of his native place, and after leaving school he removed to Milton, Pennsylvania, where he engaged as a salesman in a drug store. After remain- ing there, so occupied, for a time, he removed to Lewis- burg, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the same occupa- tion ; and after remaining there for an interval he returned to Sunbury, and there again engaged as salesman in a drug store. Ile spent three years and a half in the drug stores of Milton, Lewisburg and Sunbury, when he removed to Philadelphia, and there was engaged in the wholesale drug store of Messrs. Miller & Elliott. He remained with them a year, and during a part of that time attended the College of Pharmacy. At the end of the year he returned to Sun- bury, his native place. There he engaged in business for himself, as a druggist, and at the same time performed the duties of agent for Adams' Express Company. Ile re- mained so engaged from 1857 to 1861, and in the mean- time he studied medicine with Dr. Jacob B. Masser, graduating in 1861 from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. In the mouth of October, in the same year, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the 57th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Ile remained with the regiment during General MeClellan's campaign in West Virginia, after which he resigned and left the army. In November, 1862, he removed to Toledo, Ohio, where he has ever since resided. In Toledo he at once commenced the prac- tice of his profession, and by his knowledge, skill and untiring devotion to his professional duties he rapidly achieved a solid and enduring success. Ile soon earned

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and has steadily sustained the reputation of being one of the | Point in his gift, Mr. Ewing bestowed it upon the child of best physicians of the place, and is in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative practice. His professional duties occupy most of his energies and most of his time, so that he has little leisure to bestow upon polities. He takes the interest of a good citizen in political matters, however, and his political faith is that of a staunch Republican. On the Ist of Jmuary, 1875, he was elected to the position of Health Officer for the city, and performed the duties of the position in a manner so satisfactory that he was re-elected to the office in January, 1576. Ile was married on the 25th of March, ISor, to Many E. Wise, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and their marriage has been blessed by five children, four boys and one girl.

HERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEII, General- in-Chief of the United States Army, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, February 8th, IS20. IIe is of English extraction, being descended from the Shermans of New England. In 1634 two bro- thers and a cousin of that name emigrated from the county of Essex, England, and joined the infant colony in Massachusetts Bay. One of these, the Hon. Samuel Sher- man, afterwards settled in Connecticut, where his descendants flourished and prospered for nearly two hundred years. In 1815 the grandfather of the future general, and the great- grandson of the original settler, died, and his widow with her family sought a home in the West. One of her sons became distinguished in the practice of law, and in 1823 one of the judges of the Supreme Court. Ile was married in ISIo to Mary Hoyt, an intelligent, Christian woman, and a member of the Presbyterian church. Of the eleven chil- dren born to them, the sixth was William Tecumsch, and the eighth the present Hon. John Sherman. In 1829 Judge Sherman died suddenly of cholera, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. It had been his wish and hope that William T. should be given a military education, and had named him after the Indian chief Tecumseh, slain in battle but a short time before his birth, and for whom he had a great respect. Having left no adequate provision for his large family, it was agreed among his brethren of the legal profession that some of the children should be edu- cated and supported at their expense. IIon. Thomas Ewing said to the widow that he must have the smartest of them, and thereupon selected " Cump," as he was called, then nine years of age. He became an inmate of the Ewing family, attending school and growing in their esteem for the next seven years. Of his habits Mr. Ewing says : " There was nothing very remarkable about him, excepting that I never knew so young a boy who would do an errand so correctly and promptly as he did. . . lle was trans- parently honest, faithful, and reliable. Studions and correct in his habits, his progress in education was steady and sub- stantial." Having a vacancy at the Academy at West | San Francisco, struggling to make a success of his new

his old friend. Ile was admitted to the Academy in June, 1836, and remained there, with the exception of a two months' furlough, until his graduation in June, 1840. He was graduated sixth in his class, and was assigned to the artil- lery. It had been the wish of his guardian that he should graduate in the engineer corps, but this, for some reason, was not possible. While at the Academy he kept up a cor- respondence with his future wife, the daughter of Mr. Ewing, and wrote in a confiding way of his ambitious and purposes in life. For two years after his graduation he served in Florida, mostly on garrison duty, although he took part in several expeditions against the Seminoles. In March, 1342, he was sent to Fort Morgan, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, and from thence, in the summer, to Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor. Here a round of gayety with the aristocratie Charlestonians followed, but his cquable temperament kept him from dissipation or frivolity. An officer's uniform secured admittance to the best society, but his heart resisted all the fascinations to which it was ex- posed, and remained true to the object of his boyish affec- tions. In 1843 he obtained a four months' furlough to visit the family of his guardian, and became formally en- gaged to Ellen Ewing. He was next assigned to duty on a board of officers appointed to examine the claims of Georgia and Alabama militia for horses lost in the Seminole war. IIe now became a rather hard student, and begun the study of that topography of the Southern country which enabled him to so successfully prosecute his campaigns. A dull military routine of duty for the next year or so, and the Mexican war broke out. Ile was sent to Pittsburgh on re- cruiting service. He repeatedly requested to be sent into more active service, and was finally sent around the Cape, and up the west coast of South America; on reaching Cali- fornia he was made an Aide-de-camp to General Persifer F. Smith, and afterwards Acting Assistant Adjutant. General to Stephen W. Kearney. He really saw no " active service " in the sense that he understood it, but he discharged his duties with such ability as to merit praise from his superiors. Returning to the States, he was married, May Ist, 1850, to Ellen, daughter of IIon. Thomas Ewing, the Secretary of the Interior. Among the guests at the wedding were President Taylor, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay. Ilis next military duty was at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, and shortly after he was made Brevet Captain for " meritorious services in California during the war with Mexico," and sent as commissary first to St. Louis, and then to New Or- leans. Becoming tired of his slow progress in military life, and its dull routine, he accepted an offer from a St. Louis banking house to manage a branch establishment in Cali- fornia, and on the 6th of September, 1853, resigned his commission, having been in the army thirteen years, and in military life seventeen, if his eadetship at West Point is in- cluded. During the next four years he was at his post in

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venture, At last he left California, and embarked in the | five thousand troops was made, he denounced it as folly, sune business in New York, but gave it up after a brief trial, and joined his brother -in-law, the Ewings, in Kansas, where with them he engaged in the law business. Two yes' experience in this field disgusted him, and he con- cluded that he was not of the stuff that made lawyers, An advantageous offer that he received about this time no doubt hastened his resolve to leave the law. Ile was made Super- intendent, and Professor of Engineering, Architecture and Drawing in the State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy of Louisiana, just established. Nearly his whole term of military service had been passed in the South, and his political opinions were known to be strongly Southern. But the unsettled state of the country did not make him feel secure in the position, and he did not remove his family to the scene of his aew duties. As the excitement grew more threatening, efforts were made to have him espouse the cause of disunion. He was found to be very efficient in his work, which made it all the more desirable to retain him to aid the cause of the South. ITis only and repeated answer was that it was the duty of a soldier to fight for the flag and the government to which he had sworn allegiance. The attitude of the South at last fired his patriotism, and he re- signed in a manly letter to the Governor of Louisiana, as follows :

SIR : As I occupy a quasi military position under this State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such a position when Louisiana was a State in the Union, and when the motto of the seminary inserted in marble over the main door was : " By the liberality of the general govern- ment of the United States: The Union-Esto perpetua." Recent events foresha low a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Fed- eral Union, I prefer to . maintain my allegiance to the okdl Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives, and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word. . . . I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me as Superintendent the moment the State determines to secede, for on no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile to or in defiance of the old government of the United States.

Ile departed for St. Louis at once, where he entered into street railway speculation, and became President of the Fifth street line. About the time President Lincoln was in- augurated he went to Washington. Ilis brother, llon. John Sherman, had just been elected to the United States Senate to succeed Salmon P. Chase, and it seemed likely that his influence would be beneficial. He talked freely of the situation, and tried to impress Mr. Lincoln with its danger. Hle volunteered his services in any capacity. " We shall not need many men like you," said the hopeful I'resident ; " the affair will soon blow over." At last he made application for the Chief Clerkship in the War De- partment, and, although strongly backed, failed to secure the place. When Joseph E. Johnston resigned the Quarter- master. Generalship to enter the rebel service, he applied for this position, but failed again. When the call for seventy-

saying that the whole North should organize at once for a desperate struggle. So warningly did he represent the danger of the hour that he was looked upon as an alarmist. He was advised to go home to Ohio, and obtain a command, but he refused and made his way back to St. Louis, much disgusted with the situation of affairs, But his thoughtful brother did not neglect his interests. An order came to strengthen the regular army with eleven new regiments, and he was given the command of one of them, the 13th Infantry. In the movement upon Manassas he was given command of a brigade. In the battle that ensued he acquitted him- self admirably. Ilis force were infected by the panic that followed, and he reported their retreat as " disorderly in the extreme." Influence was brought to bear to make him a brigadier general, and he received his commission, August 3dl, 1861, the same to date from May 17th previous. About the last of August he was sent to the Department of Ken- tucky, then in command of General Robert Anderson, of Sumter fame. When Anderson retired on account of ill health, he found himself in command of the department. But he did not please the government in his new field-in fact, became decidedly unpopular with the people-and was relieved and sent to Benton Barracks, Missouri, to drill raw recruits. Ilere he stayed until the spring of 1862, when Halleck drew him forth from his retirement and placed bim at Paducah to attend to the forwarding of troops and supplies in Grant's movement on Fort Donelson. Ile was afterwards given the command of a division in the movement up the Tennessee, and at Pittsburgh Landing he was in the ad- vance. In this engagement his division was much cut up and demoralized, but he himself, behaved with great gal- lantry, doing much to check the reigning confusion, which at one time seemed likely to result in a panic-stricken retreat. lle was slightly wounded, and had three horses shot under him. Ilalleck reported to the government, with the general approval of his officers, that " General Sherman saved the fortunes of the day on the 6th, and contributed largely to the glorious victory on the 7th." He was recom- mended for, and accordingly promoted to, a major-general- ship. He took an important part in the battle of Corinth, was quick and daring in all his movements, and his division was the first to occupy the town. Ile was now ordered. further westward, and was eventually sent to Memphis to take charge of the district. Ile adopted vigorous measures here to suppress guerilla warfare, and to ferret out the spies with which Memphis swarmed. Ile supported Grant in his first effort to reduce Vicksburg. The movement was unsuc- cessful, as the rebels were too strongly fortified. His com- mand was badly repulsed, and he reluctantly withdrew. lle fell into unpopularity again for a time, was relieved, and reduced to the command of two divisions. Although deeply chagrined, he never faltered in his determination to serve his country in any capacity. Hle accompanied his late command in a subordinate position on the expedition up the

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Arkansas river to Arkansas Post. In this successful move. ment the commanding general spoke of him as " exhibiting his usual activity and enterprise." In the next movement on Vicksburg he was the adviser aud friend of Grant, who had never lost confidence in him. He was assigned to the left in this effort to take the city, and acquitted himself well in whatever he undertook. When the rebels had been badly beaten, and the siege of Vicksburg had fairly opened, he was sent off with a force to watch Johnston, who was endeavoring to relieve the city. The latter was badly de- feated, fleeing in confusion and destroying his stores. The great success that attended this movement against Johnston drew from Grant warm praise in his reports. He was given a Brigadier-General's commission in the regular army. The country, so fickle in its likes and dislikes, now began to appland him. The existing system of recruiting the army arrested his attention about this time, and he wrote a letter to the Governor of Ohio proposing a new plan. He urged him to discountenance and prevent the forming of new regi- ments, or the consolidation of old ones, and to fill up those in the field to the full standard. Ile argued that the old regiments were officered by men of military experience, and therefore better able to handle raw recruits. No wiser policy of recruiting was presented to the government during the war. In such discussions of war policy, and in elaborate letters urging his views, in the miscellaneous work of the corps, and in the pleasant reception of a visit from his family, but which had a sad sequel in the loss of a favorite child, the summer passed away. In the meantime, while lying thus idle, attention was directed to the danger of Rosecrans, That general, with an inadequate force, was making his way toward Chattanooga. So, in the early fall, with all the troops that could be spared he was sent to co- operate with Rosecrans, as it was supposed that Johnston and Longstreet would strengthen the rebel force opposed to him. Not realizing the full danger of the situation, he was slow in his movements, and tarried at different places to "repair railroads, and it was fully two months before he reached Chattanooga. There was some sharp skirmishing along the route. In the succeeding actions at Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge he bore himself well, although he did not carry off the honors of the day. With his wearied men he at once pushed on to the relief of Burnside at Knox- ville, and arrived near that place in less than a week. The troops having now had some three months of ceaseless activity required rest, but their commander seemed to need none, for he at once set about to inspect the department that had been assigned to him while on the march to Chattanooga. He was now given command of an expedi- tion to secure the safer navigation of the Mississippi by de- stroying the railroads by which the rebels reached it, and then establishing military posts in the interior to keep guer- illas away from its banks. With a large force he disap- peared from view, emerging again after a month's absence, having destroyed long stretches of railroads, depots, arsenals,

and public stores, and spread alarm among the people of Mississippi. Ile subsisted his army on the people, as in the memorable march to the sea. Some time after this he was appointed to the chief command between the Mississippi and the Alleghenies. He was summoned to meet Grant, then made Lieutenant-General, at Nashville, and he trav- elled as far north with hin as Cincinnati. It would cover too much space to detail his movement against Atlanta, first opposed to Johnston and then Ilood. The rebels fought desperately, and although outnumbered two to one, contested the ground inch by inch, and fought as bravely as men ever did. The fall of Atlanta was dearly earned, and the cam- paign was attended with great sacrifice on both sides. The invader now began to develop his plans for his " march to the sea," with all its attendant but unavoidable horrors. " War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it," were his mem- orable words at the outset. Towards the close of September his plans were somewhat matured. After a month or so of inactivity on the part of the army, in which he was preparing plans to circumvent Hood, whose mysterious movements puzzled him, he placed as many men as he could spare under General Thomas to watch him, and on the 12th of November, 1864, disappeared from the Northern gaze, and the " march " had commenced. His objective point was not known to the public, and the country was mystified at his disappearance. Even the government could learn noth- ing of him, except from the Richmond papers passed through the lines-a very lame source indeed, but neverthe- less eagerly sought. He had with him sixty-five thousand men, and these spread over a breadth of thirty miles, " marching through Georgia." But the rebels were as be- willered as the government was ignorant, and even the cavalry sent to harass him were perplexed as to his destina- tion. A comparatively small force could have compelled him to concentrate, and thus prevent the wide devastation in his wake. But in this very uncertainty lay his safety, for the rebel force was scattered and placed on garrison duty in the threatened towns. In twenty-four days his army had marched from Atlanta to Savannah, a distance of over three Indred miles. But little resistance was made, except in a few skirmishes with insignificant numbers of eavahy. His loss on the march was five hundred and sixty-seven, of whom but sixty-three were killed, and two hundred and forty-five wounded. Ilis only misfortune was his failure, through the mistake of Kilpatrick, to liberate the poor Union prisoners at Millen, To the very last the mystification was kept up. Many writers have censured him for his relentless severity to the inhabitants, but he believed in making war horrible while it lasted, and he was determined that the hot-bed of Ireason should experience a little of what the Unionists of the border had been suffering for a long time. It is to be regretted that helpless women and innocent children were compelled to suffer these horrors, but it is equally to be re- gretted that there was cause for the invasion. The whole North was aglow with the story of the march, and many

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The Biographical encyclopedia of Ohio of the nineteenth century. Pt. 2, Part 1

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub Publication date: 1876 Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company Number of Pages: 760

Author: Robson, Charles, ed; Galaxy Publishing Company, pub
Publication date: 1876
Publisher: Cincinnati, Galaxy publishing company
Number of Pages: 760