Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 123

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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The Irish element in Cincinnati was not far behind the German in their alacrity to spring to the cause of the Union, and, says Cist, "The well-known regiment, the Tenth Ohio, that did splendid work under Col. William H. Lytle, the 'Soldier Poet,' was ready for camp. The Fifth Ohio, with Col. J. H. Patrick, with many of the most promising young men of the eity as members, formed during the week ; and the ranks of the Guthrie Grays-the Sixth Ohio- were well filled, over one thousand strong, with the most prominent young men in all branches of society and business in the city, nnder W. K. Bosley. The latter part of the week orders were received by General Lytle to establish a camp of instruction, which was done at the Cineinnati Trotting Park, some six miles north of the city, and named Camp Harrison. To this eamp these regiments marehed with the music of bands and the waving of flags and amid the applauding cheers of vast erowds lining the streets and bidding them God-speed." A little later Camp Dennison was established sixteen miles out on the Little Miami Railroad and became the great rendezvous for Ohio in the war.

None of those early eity regiments at this time were in Federal uniforms. The German regiment was in the white clothing of the Turner Society with short white roundabout jaekets of linen ; the Sixth Ohio in the uniform of the Guthrie Grays; and the Fifth Ohio in red flannel shirts, making a gorgeous display as they marched down Sycamore street one thousand strong in platoons stretching from eurb to eurb.

In a very few days more, just at the edge of evening, the First and Second Indiana regiments disembarked at the Fifth street depot and marched through the eity, the whole length of Fourth street, en route for Western Virginia. Oliver P. Morton, the Governor of Indiana, a man of extraordinary executive as well as oratorieal ability, had regiments mustered into serviee in a surprisingly short space of time. A stigma of cowardice cast upon the conduct of Indiana troops at Buena Vista by Mr. Jefferson Davis during the Mexican war had rankled in the hearts of the Indiana people and they were eager for vengeance. These regiments, on departing from Indianapolis for the seat of war, had kneeled before the State Capitol and with bared heads had taken an oath to " Remember Buena Vista." Later they doubtless sang with unwonted gusto, in the war-song of the time,

CINCINNATI IN 1802. .

CINCINNATI IN 1810.

CINCINNATI IN 1846.

ULO

ING

SPRAGUE &CO.

FOURTH STREET, CINCINNATI, FEB. 2, 1858.

The above view was drawn by J. W. Barber for "Historical Collections, U. S.," by J. W. Barber and Henry Howe. The building with Grecian front was occupied as Post-office and Custom House, now the site of the Chamber of Commerce. Mitchell & Rammelsburg's furniture and Shillito's dry. goods establishments and the tower of the Unitarian Church appear beyond.

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"We'll hang Jeff Davis on a sour apple-tree,

Glory Hallelujah."

These Indiana regiments were the first regiments the Cincinnati people had seen beside their own, and they greeted them with great enthusiasm. They were two thousand strong, a fine body of bright young men, and splendidly equipped, with knapsacks slung and like all the early Indiana regiments attired in gray. Regiment after regiment of Morton's gray-attired men soon followed them. One of these, the Seventh Indiana, was reviewed a few weeks later by Major Anderson of Fort Sumter fame, from the residence of his brother, Larz Anderson, on Pike street. The major was a sedate-appearing gentleman and looked care-worn and dejected, the result it was said of the excessive mental strain put upon him by his experiences at Charleston.

The sudden change from the avocations of peace to those of war made the city seem as another place and the people another people. Under the excitement of a great overpowering emotion of patriotism all classes mingled with a surpris- ing degree of friendliness and good feeling ; even strangers greeted each other and neighbors that had been estranged for years forgot their petty jealousies. Their fathers and sons touched elbows as they marched away under the old flag amid their tears and prayers. The spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity largely dis- played tended to increase one's love of his kind : and it came, too, often from those who had been reputed to be hard and selfish. The angel in their natures came out smiling but blew no trumpet. One whom we knew, still know, and never can get rid of, neither in this world nor in any other, said to his landlord, " These are strange times ; my business is dead and now I have this great house of yours on my hands and no income to meet the rent : I shall have to move out and find some humble shelter for my family." "That," replied he, " will do me no good. Stay where you are and take care of my property ; no matter about rent. These are the times spoken of in Scripture when the hand of the father is against the son and brother against brother. We must help each other. If I get out of bread and you have it, I will call upon you ; and if you get out and I have it, come to me and I will divide the last crust." The dough for that last crust was never kneaded.

War was a matter about which the people were as ignorant as babes. The spirit of humanity, and not of ferocity and blood-shedding, was their natural characteristic. But for years blood-shedding was the great business of the city ; its industries were shaped to that end and supported its population. In those be- ginning days the public meetings were intensely exciting. Two or three of these we distinctly remember. One, about the very first, was in Pike's Opera House. It was packed from pit to dome, tier above tier. The venerable Nathaniel Wright attempted to read some spirit-spiriting resolutions and failing for want of voice they were passed over to Mr. Rufus King, when every syllable went forth in clear ringing tones to the ears and hearts of that packed, enthusiastic mass. Mr. King to this day we are glad to say has that magnificent voice in sound work- ing condition ; a voice that always goes out only for what is good.

It was in that very hall later on, on an October evening, 1864, that James E. Murdock read for the first time "Sheridan's Ride," that fine descriptive poem of Buchanan Read, a Cincinnati production, conceived and born on that very day wherein genius in song illustrated genius in war and the hearts of the nation beat in unison with the music.

A meeting of gentlemen aud ladies was held at Smith and Nixon's Hall to learn from O. M. Mitchell what he knew about war. He was an object of pride with the Cincinnatians. Through his exertions they had the honor of having established the first observatory, built by the contributions of a people, on the globe. He was a small and ordinarily silent man, dark complexion, erect in figure, his face strong, keen with its expression of thought. The little man

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seemed the concentration of nervous energy. He liad often addressed them on the subject of astronomy. His religious and poetical instincts were strong, he was all alive with feeling; he possessed great fluency and command of language and electrified his audiences with this sublime elevating topic as probably no man had ever done before. When the war broke out he said he was ready to fight in the ranks or out of the ranks; and he only asked permission from his country to have something to do. This sentence was the key-note of his character-patri- otism and intense activity. On this occasion he spake with fiery energy-the war was to be no child's play. "We read in the newspapers about steel netting for our soldiers to protect the breasts against bullets. What nonsense ! And they tell us of a famous cannon just invented that will carry seven miles-seven miles ! What ? Expect to put down this rebellion and drive the rebels into the last ditch, they talk so much about, and get no nearer than seven miles !" At this sally the audience roared.

Judge Bellamy Storer was another of Cincinnati's fiery, enthusiastic orators, and like Mitchell was overflowing with patriotism united to the religious instinct. The more sublime flights of oratory can never be reached without an infusion of the latter.

At a meeting in Greenwood Hall Judge Storer gave one of his fervid appeals, calling upon the young men to volunteer. As he closed, he drew his tall, impos- ing form to its utmost height and spreading out his arms exclaimed, "I'm an old man, rising of sixty years," then with a look as though about ready to spring into a fight, added, "and I now volunteer."

A few days later our eyes were greeted with the sight of a company of old substantial citizens called the " Storer Rifles," clad in handsome uniforms, marching through the streets to the sound of drum and fife-old, mostly wealthy, gray- headed men, some of them very obese, with aldermanic protuberances ; they were splendidly equipped, each at his own expense, and were named the " Storer Rifles." Among them was the Judge himself, bearing his shooting-piece and evidently as proud of his trainer clothes as any school-boy.

This company was organized to act as Home Guards for the protection of the city and to stimulate "the boys" to enlist for the war.

After a little it seemed as though the entire force of able-bodied men were drilling, and, where not for the army, to act as Home Guards. Within a week from the fall of Sumter at least ten thousand men were drilling in the city. The vacant halls were used as drill-rooms and the measured tramp of the recruits and the cries of the drill-sergeants, "left, left," arose from all over the city. The town wag of the time was Platt Evans, a tailor who had his shop on Main street, just below Fourth. Numberless were the stories told of his witticisms. He was a rather short, red-faced man, advanced in life, with a coarse complexion but of artistic tastes. Withal he stammered in speech, and this defect often gave a peculiar pungency to his wit. On being solicited to act as a captain of a company of Home Guards he blurted out, "you - foo-fools ; if-if I was m-m-marching you down B-B-Broad-B-B-Broadway, you all would be in the r-r-river b-b-b-be- fore I could ca-call ha-ha-halt !"

The famed Literary Club, converting their rooms into a drilling hall, formed into a military company. They were largely young lawyers, their business for the time crushed and they had no resource for occupation but to turn from law to war, from courts to camps. Some sixty went into the service, almost all became officers and some distinguished generals, as R. B. Hayes, M. F. Force, Ed. O. Noyes, etc. Mr. R. W. Burnet volunteered to drill the club. He was a dignified, quiet gentleman of about fifty years of age, a son of Judge Burnet, and had been educated at West Point. Ou taking charge he made a short address, in which he said his first military experience on graduating was as a young lieutenant in the nullification times of 1832, when he was sent with his company by Jackson to Charleston to throttle its rebellious citizens if they attempted to execute their

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treasonable threats. " And now," said he, " I can but reflect that it is these same pestilential people that have so wickedly plunged the country into a cruel, unnec- essary war, and I am again in service against them."

Finding himself, after the lapse of thirty years, somewhat rusty in his tactics, Mr. Burnet resigned and his place was supplied by a drill sergeant from the Newport Barracks. He was a coarse, rough, ignorant foreigner, and occasionally forgetting himself at some exhibition of awkwardness, would let slip an oath, "D-n you there, on the left, hold up your heads !" Then, remembering where he was, he would bow himself and in tones of great humility say, "I ask your pardon, gen- tlemen." Then, a minute later, again flying into a passion, he would let slip another oath, to be in like manner followed with another " I ask your pardon, gentlemen." And thus it was the Literary Club was initiated into the school of the soldier by oaths alternated with expressions of humility.

Cincinnati was especially prominent for the large number of eminent characters she supplied for the cabinet and the field-Hon. Salmon P. Chase, the great war secretary, and two of Ohio's war governors, Dennison and Brough, and many of the distinguished Union generals, as Major-Generals Rosecrans, McClennan, Mitchell and Godfrey Weitzell ; Brevet Major-Generals R. B. Hayes, August Willich, Henry B. Banning, Manning F. Force, August V. Kautz and Kenner Garrard ; Brigadier-Generals Robert L. McCook, William H. Lytle, A. Sanders Piatt, E. P. Scammon, Nathaniel McLean, M. S. Wade and John P. Slough ; and Brevet Brigadier-Generals Andrew Hickenlooper, Benjamin C. Ludlow, Israel Garrard, William H. Baldwin, Henry V. N. Boynton, Charles E. Brown, Henry L. Bennet, Henry M. Cist, Stephen J. McGroarty, Granville Moody, August Moore, Reuben D. Mussey, George W. Neff, Edward F. Noyes, Augustus C. Parry, Durbin Ward and Thomas L. Young; also Joshua L. Bates of the Ohio militia. A host of other Cincinnatians served in various civil and military capacities. Especially useful were its medical men; more than half the entire number of "United States volunteer surgeons" were from this city ; they entered the service independent of special commands. Among the medical men were William H. Mussey, George Mendenhall, John Murphy, William Clendenin, Robert Fletcher, George H. Shumard, etc. After the bloody battles of Fort Donaldson and Shiloh the Cincinnati surgeons went down to the fields in streams, attended to the wounded and their transportation to hospitals in the city, a number of buildings being im- provised for the purpose. A very efficient citizen of that era was Miles Green- wood, an iron founder, who cast cannon, rifled muskets and plated steamboats with iron for war purposes.

The Cincinnati branch of the United States Sanitary Commission was particu- larly efficient ; an outline of their work is given on page 190. Alike efficient was the local branch of the United States Christian Commission. It was under the management of A. E. Chamberlain, H. Thane Miller, with Rev. J. F. Marlay Secretary, and B. W. Chidlaw general agent. It distributed stores and money to the amount of about $300,000, the contributions of Soldiers' Aid Societies and Ladies' Christian Commission, mainly from the patriotic men and women of Ohio.

The most marked events in the war history of the city were what has been termed the "Siege of Cincinnati" in 1862 and the raid of John Morgan in the following year.

THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI.

After the unfortunate battle of Richmond, on the 29th of August, Kirby Smith, with his 15,000 rebel veterans, advancing into the heart of Kentucky, took possession of Lexington, Frankfort, and Maysville. Bragg with his large army was then crossing the Kentucky line; while Morgan, with his guerilla cavalry, was already joined to Smith. Pondrous-proportioned Humphrey Marshall was

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also busy swelling the rebel ranks with recruits from the fiery young Kentuckians. Affairs looked threateningly on the border.

General Lewis Wallace was at once placed in command at Cincinnati, by order of Major-General Wright. Soon as he arrived in the city, on Thursday, the 4th of September, he put Cincinnati and the two cities on the Kentucky side of the Ohio, Newport and Covington, under martial law, and, within an hour of his arrival, he issued a proclamation suspending all business, stopping the ferry-boats from plying the river, and summoning all citizens to enrol themselves for defence. It was most effective. It totally closed business, and sent every citizen, without distinction, to the ranks or into the trenches. Nor was it needless, for the enemy, within a few days thereafter, advanced to within five miles of the city, on the Kentucky side, and skirmished with our outposts. Buchanan Read, the poet, painter of the time, draws this picture of the events. Read was a volunteer aid to General Wallace.

The ten days ensuing will be forever memorable in the annals of the city of Cin- cinnati. The cheerful alacrity with which the people rose en masse to swell the ranks and crowd into the trenches was a sight worth seeing. Of course, there were a few timid creatures who feared to obey the summons. Sudden illness overtook some. Others were hunted up by armed men with fixed bayonets ; ferreted from back kitchens, garrets and cellars, closets and even under beds where they were hiding. One peacefully excited individual was found in his wife's clothes, scrubbing at the wash-tub. He was put in one of the German working parties, who re- ceived him with shouts of laughter.

The citizens thus collected were the repre- sentatives of all classes and many nativities. The man of money, the man of law, the mer- chant, the artist, and the artisan swelled the lines, hastening to the scene of action, armed either with musket, pick, or spade.

But the pleasantest and most picturesque sight of those remarkable days was the almost endless stream of sturdy men who rushed to the rescue from the rural districts of Ohio and Indiana. These were known as the squirrel-hunters. They came in, files, numbering thousands upon thousands, in all kinds of costumes, and armed with all kinds of firearms, but chiefly the deadly rifle, which they knew so well how to use.

Old men, middle-aged men, and often mere boys, like the "minute men" of the old Revolution, they dropped all their peculiar avocations, and with their leathern pouches full of bullets, and their ox-horns full of powder, by every railroad and by-way, in such numbers that it seemed as if the whole State of Ohio were peopled only with hunters, and that the spirit of Daniel Boone stood

upon the hills opposite the town beckoning them into Kentucky.

The pontoon bridge over the Ohio, which had been begun and completed between sun- down and sundown, groaned day and night with the perpetual stream of life, all setting southward. In three days there were ten miles of intrenchments lining the Kentucky hills, making a semicircle from the river above the city to the banks of the river below ; and these were thickly manned, from end to end, and made terrible to the astonished enemy by black and frowning cannon.

General Heath, with his 12,000 veterans, flushed with their late success at Richmond, drew up before these formidable preparations and deemed it prudent to take the matter into serious consideration, before making the attack.

Our men were eagerly awaiting their approach, thousands in rifle pits, and tens of thousands along the whole line of fortifica- tions, while our scouts and pickets were skirmishing with their outposts in the plains in front. Should the foe make a sudden dash and carry any point of our lines, it was thought by some that nothing would prevent them from entering Cincinnati.

But for this provision was also made. The city above and below was well protected by a flotilla of gunboats, improvised from the swarm of steamers which lay at the wharves. The shrewd leaders of the rebel army were probably kept well posted by traitors within our own lines, in regard to the reception pre- pared for them, and taking advantage of the darkness of night and the violence of a thunder storm made a hasty and ruinous retreat. Wallace was anxious to follow, and was confident of success, but was overruled by those higher in authority.

To the above general view of the siege we contribute our individual experience. Such an experience of the entire war in a diary, by a citizen of the genius of Defoe, would outlive a hundred common histories ; centuries hence be preserved among the choice collections of American historic literature. It would illustrate as nothing else could, the inner life of our people in this momentous period, their varying emotions and sentiments ; their surprise and indignation at the treason to the beautiful country of their love ; their never-equalled patriotism and generosity ;

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their unquenchable hope; the almost despair that at times settled upon them, when all seemed but lost, through the timidity and irresolution of weak generals in the field ; the intrigues and intended treachery of demagogues at home. Then the groping forward, like children in the dark, of millions of loyal hearts for some mighty arm to guide ; some mighty intellect to reveal and thus relieve the awful suspense as to the future ; as though any mere man had an attribute that alone is of God. Finally, through the agony of sore adversities, came the looking upward to the only power that could help. Thus the religious instincts became deepened. Visions of the higher life dwarfed the large things of this : and through faith came greater blessings than the wisest among the good had hoped.

On the morning the city was put under martial law, I found the streets full of armed police in army blue, and all, without respect to age, compelled to report at the head- quarters of their respective districts for enrol- ment. An unwilling citizen, seeing the bayonet levelled at him, could but yield to the inexorable logic of military despotism. It was perilous to walk the streets without a pass. At every corner stood a sentinel.

The colored men were roughly handled by the Irish police. From hotels and barber shops, in the midst of their labors, these helpless people were pounced upon and often bareheaded and in shirtsleeves, just as seized, driven in squads, at the point of the bayonet, and gathered in vacant yards and guarded. What rendered this act more than ordinarily atrocious was, that they, through their head men, had, at the first alarm, been the earliest to volunteer their services to our mayor, for the defence of our common homes. It was a sad sight to see human beings treated like reptiles.

Enrolled in companies we were daily drilled. One of these in our ward was com- posed of old men, termed "Silver Grays." Among its members were the venerable Judge Leavitt, of the United States Supreme Court, and other eminent citizens. Grand- fathers were seen practicing the manual, and lifting alternate feet to the cadence of mark- time.

At this stage of affairs the idea that our colored citizens possessed war-like qualities was a subject for scoffing ; the scoffers forget- ting that the race in ancestral Africa, includ- ing even the women, had been in war since the days of Ham ; strangely oblivious also to the fact that our foreign-born city police could only by furious onslaughts, made with Hibernian love of the thing, quell the frequent pugnacious outbreaks of the crispy-haired denisons of our own Bucktown. From this view, or more probably a delicate sentiment of tenderness. instead of being armed and sent forth to the dangers of battle, they were consolidated into a peaceful brigade of workers in the trenches back of Newport, under the philanthropic guidance of the Hon. William M. Dickson.

The daily morning march of the corps down Broadway to labor was a species of the mottled picturesque. At their head was the stalwart, manly form of the landlord of the Dumas house, Colonel Harlan. Starting

back on the honest, substantial, coal-black foundation, all shades of color were exhibited, degenerating out through successive grada- tions to an ashy white ; the index of Anglo- Saxon fatherhood of the chivalrous American type. Arrayed for dirt-work in their oldest clothes ; apparently the fags of every con- ceivable kind of cast-off, kicked-about, and faded-out garments ; crownless and lop-eared hats, diverse boots; with shouldered pick, shovel, and hoe ; this merry, chattering, pie- bald, grotesque body, shuffled along amid grins and jeers, reminding us of the ancient nursery distich :

"Hark ! hark ! hear the dogs bark, The beggars are coming to town, Some in rags, some in tags, And some in velvet gowns."

Tuesday night, September 9, 1862, was starlight ; the air soft and balmy. With others I was on guard at an improvised armory, the old American Express buildings, on Third street near Broadway. Three hours past midnight from a signal tower three blocks east of us a rocket suddenly shot high in the air ; then the fire-bell pealed an alarm. All was again quiet. Half an hour passed. Hurrying footsteps neared us. They were those of the indefatigable, public-spirited John D. Caldwell. "Kirby Smith," said he quickly, "is advancing on the city. The military are to muster on the landing and cross the river at sunrise."

Six o'clock struck as I entered my own door to make preparations for my departure. The good woman was up. The four little in- nocents-two of a kind-were asleep in the bliss of ignorance, happy in quiet slumber. A few moments of hurried preparation and I was ready for the campaign. The provisions were these : a heavy blanket-shawl, a few good cigars, a haversack loaded with eatables, and a black bottle of medicinal liquid-cherry bounce-very choice.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 123

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006