Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 14

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916

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While practising his profession at Kaskaskia an event occurred strikingly illustrative of his character. He was defending a man charged with manslaughter in the court at Kaskaskia, when his client in an unguarded moment seized the sheriff's rifle and fled. The sheriff made an appeal for a posse. Mr. Piatt, indignant at his client, said he would bring the man back if au- thorized by the court. This being given he hurried home, procured his rifle and horse, and went in pursuit. He overtook the criminal at the Mississippi river. The man had secured a hoat and was some distance from shore. Mr. Piatt dis- mounted and ordered the fugitive back. He was only jeered at. Mr. Piatt brought his rifle to bear at the instant the fugitive did his. But it was well known throughout the country that Benjamin M. Piatt was a most remarkable shot with the rifle, as he continued, until his failing sight robbed him in his old age of this accomplish- ment. The desperado knew this and looking along the deadly level of his lawyer's rifle dropped his own and returned to shore.

At this moment the sheriff arrived and the lawyer delivered his prisoner to the officer. To disarm and fasten the late fugitive to a horse was the work of a few moments. The man's legs were tied under the horse's belly, his arms strapped to his sides and his hands left enough at liberty to handle the reins. He was ordered to ride forward and sheriff and lawyer followed. They had scarcely got under way when the sheriff motioned his companion to ride more slowly. When far enough back not to be overheard the sheriff said in a low tone :

" Now, Benny, let's fix him for slow travelling. I'll take aim at his right leg and you at his left, and when I count three we'll fire a couple of bullets through his trotters." "You cowardly brute," cried Mr. Piatt, his eyes blazing fire, “ do you think I would consent to mutilate a helpless man?" "I wont be answerable for his return then." "Nobody asks you. 1 was authorized to arrest him. You get away from here. I will do it my own way." The indignant sheriff did ride away, and Mr. Piatt calling to the prisoner to halt, rode up and entting his bonds said : " Now we'll ride into towu like gentlemen," and they did.

The life in Kaskaskia was one of trial and hardship. Mr. and Mrs. Piatt found themselves among strangers, who spoke a different language, poor and struggling for the necessaries of life. There was little to encourage Mr. Piatt in the practice of his profession, yet he would willingly have persevered, had not his family been sub- jected to such great privations. His wife's devo- tion and untiring exertions overtaxed her strength, and she lost an infant, soon after his birth. Following immediately upon this Mr. Piatt was stricken with a serious illness brought on by exposure in the performance of his duties. There was also a constant dread of earthquakes, several convulsions having occurred. The proximity of the Indians was also a source of great uneasiness to Mrs. Piatt. .

After the war of 1812 the encroachments of the Indians became more alarming, and Mr. Piatt determined to return to Cincinnati. At Cincin- nati he formed a partnership with the celebrated Nicholas Longworth, and between the practice of law and judicions investments in real estate he accumulated quite a fortune for that day. In course of time he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the common pleas bench. After, iu 1816, he was elected a member of the State legislature, and as the records show, was the first to introduce a bill establishing the common school system. He proposed, however, that the State should meet half the cost of a pupil's schooling, and this should not go beyond reading, writing and arithmetic. The motion made subsequently to give every child a collegiate course he considered not ouly impossible but likely to break down the system " You make a system," he said, " where one boy gets a full meal and fifty boys go hungry."

In the prime of life and amid a most prosperous business career, Judge Piatt bought his farm of seventeen hundred acres, and building a double log-cabin for himself and family, devoted the rest of his life to agricultural pursuits, made pleasant by books and studies for which he had a mind and temperament to enjoy.

There is a singular strain of contradiction in the Piatt blood. Their ancestors left France because they would not be Catholics, and yet, "left to" themselves, have nearly all returned to the Catholic faith. While Colonel Jacob Piatt of the revolution and his son Benjamin M. were extreme Federalists, believing in Hamilton and a strong central government, their children to-day are ultra Democrats.

When the late civil war broke upon us Judge Piatt was aroused to great indignation at what he called the infamous crime of the Southern leaders, and engaged actively in sustaining the government. He not only gave freely from his means to organize volunteers but sent his sons and grandsons to the field. When in the midst of the war he was stricken down with a grave sickness,

LOGAN COUNTY.

and the suggestion made that his children be sent for, he said : "No, they cannot prolong my life, but they can and are serving their country ; let them alone."

And so the grand old patriot .passed to his final rest, when the war whose drum-beats his very heart echoed in its last throbs was drawing to a triumphant end. "I do thank God," he said, "that my dying eyes will not close on a dissevered Union. So long as I have children to remember me, let them remember this, my last will and testament to them."

Benjamin M. Piatt's quiet, philosophical life was in striking contrast to that of his younger brother, John H., and recalls the lines of the German poet as translated by Longfellow :

"The one on earth in silence wrought, And his grave in silence sought ; But the younger, brighter form Passed in battle and in storm."

GEN. A. SANDERS PIATT.

GENERAL A. SANDERS PIATT'S stately home stands sentinel where the Mac-o-chee meets the Mad river valley, and the noisy little stream glides like an eel, through the narrow opening of the wooded hills. General Piatt was a born soldier-tall, erect and well proportioned, and with great force of character. His career in the army was brief but brilliant. He was among the first to volunteer in response to President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand men, and he left the field only after being disabled by an attack of typhoid fever, from which he has never entirely recovered. For a brief mention of his services we quote from "Ohio in the War ; " and can but add that in his patriotic effort to raise a brigade at his own expense, he brought on financial embarrassments from which he yet suffers, so that both in body and fortune he carries scars that are decora- tions to one who is without fear and without reproach. Whitelaw Reid says :

" He solicited and received authority from Mr. Lincoln to enlist a brigade for the war. Relying upon his own means he selected a camp, and or- ganized the first Zonave regiment (so called, though for no reason save that they wore a fancy red-legged uniform which they were soon forced to discard) in Ohio.

" He subsisted his regiment for one month and six days, and was then commissioned as colonel and ordered to Camp Dennison. The regiment was designated the 34th. He continued reernit- ing, with permission from the State authorities, and a second regiment was subsequently organ- ized and designated the 54th. This second regi- ment was being rapidly filled up when Colonel Piatt was ordered to report with the 34th to General Rosecrans, then commanding in West Virginia.

"On his way to join Rosecrans he met an organized band of rebels in a strongly fortified position near Chapmansville, West Virginia.

"After making a reconnoissance he attacked and drove the enemy in utter ront from his position, and wounded and captured the com- mander of the force, Colonel J. W. Davis.

" Colonel Piatt next attacked and defeated a rebel force at Hurricane, which was co-operating with General Floyd, then at Cotton Hill."

In March, 1862, he was obliged to return · to Ohio on account of a serious attack of typhoid fever. Before his recovery he was commissioned brigadier-general.

In July he was assigned from General Sigel's command to a brigade in General McClellan's army, and a month later took a very gallant part in the battle of Manassas Junction. Reid says :

"Here he halted his brigade while the one in front marched on toward Washington. General Piatt remarked to General Sturgis that he had gone far enough in that direction in search of General Porter, and that with his permission he would march to the battle-field. He then ordered his men into the road, and guided by the sound of artillery he arrived at the battle-ground of Bull Run at 2 o'clock P. M. The brigade went into action on the left, and acquitted itself with great courage. General Pope, in his official re- port, complimented General Piatt very highly for the soldierly feeling which prompted him, after being misled and with the bad example of the other brigade before his eyes, to push forward with such zeal and alacrity to the field of battle.'

" In the battle of Fredericksburg General Piatt occupied the right, and had the satisfaction of being assured by his superior officer that his brigade performed well the duty assigned to it."

Since his return from the army General Piatt has lived the retired life of a farmer, enlivened by books and literary pursuits. He is a clever wielder of the pen, and not only an essayist but a poet. His contributions to the magazines, notably the North American Review, mark him as a clear thinker, of a vig- orous, incisive style. He has taken part in politics always as a Democrat when not a Greenbacker ; as of the last he was once nominated by that party as their candidate for Governor, and would have received a heavy vote but for the fact that the two candidatos in the field at the time. being Hon. Chas. Foster and Hon. Thomas Ewing, were something of Greenbackers themselves.

General Piatt has the temperament and

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all the qualities that go to make a successful leader of men. In illustration of this we have an event told by a correspondent of the New York World.

It was after the gathering upon the fields of Chickamauga of Union and Confederate officers to designate the lines of battle and prepare the ground for a great National Park. General Piatt made one of the number on a belated train of the Queen and Crescent when a frightful collision occurred. The correspondent says :

"We were thrown out of our seats by the con- cussion that had a deafening crash and then a no less deafening escape of steam. Although much shaken up the passengers were unhurt, aod we hastily tumbled out. The scene that met our eyes was terrible. The two huge locomotives were jammed into each other, a great mass of wrenched and broken iron. The freight train loaded with ties was scattered in piles each side of the track. The baggage car was telescoped in the postal car, and the two made a stack of broken boards and timber piled on each other. As we swarmed about the ruins I saw the tall, soldierly form of General Sanders Piatt climbing upon the wreck. He suddenly began gesticulating, but what he said we could not hear. Suddenly the escaping steam ceased, and then the startling

SARAH M. B. PIATT.

JOHN JAMES AND SARAH M. B. PIATT .- It is difficult to think of these two poets separate and apart from each other. Yet while both are poets and possess a like delicacy of touch and deftness of expression, they are really wide apart in their several spheres of thought and feeling. John James is of the sunny woods and nelds made dcar and familiar by sweet human gossip. With a verse all his own he tells of the Pioneer Chimney " with a touching pathos that comes of clear knowledge of the inner thoughts, feelings and motives of humble, honest life. The love of home, the loftier love of country called patriotism, are his, while the wife is the poet of motherhood.

cry came to us from General Piatt : 'There are live men under this wreck ; come on !' Sure enough, we could hear the feeble moans of one and the agonizing screams of another.

" It was singular tosee how one man could take control in the emergency as General Piatt. He not only worked himself, but directed the others, officers of the railroad, veterans of the army and passengers. It was not only a heroic effort of a strong man, but an intelligent one. I noticed two men armed with axes cutting at a part of the under car that remained intact. General Piatt saw them. 'For God's sake don't do that,' he cried, ' you will bring down tons on us.' In an hour, that seemed five to us, the hurt men were got at. It was pitiful to see their mangled forms lifted tenderly out by the laborers, then as black as negroes from the soot that had settled on every- thing. The gallant old veteran who directed the work was so exhausted when the work was done that we had to carry him back to the passenger car that yet remained upon the track. General Piatt bad won his laurels on hard-fought battles of the war, but no brighter crown could beawarded him than his labors on this occasion."

A. Sanders Piatt was born in Cincinnati, May 2, 1821. But for a brief period of his life in Boone county, Ky., he has been a resident of Logan, where he yet will have, we trust, many years of happy life.

JOHN J. PIATT.

Her power is circled by the home made merry by the musical laugh of children, and so quaint in their infant imaginings and odd fancies that are full of infant wisdom and delicate humor. Then again the mother in- tervenes, and there is a page one reads through tears. Her power is only second to that of Mrs. Browning ; if, indeed, in her peculiar walk, she is not the better of the two.

John J. Piatt, now fifty years of age, began his literary life with Wm. D. Howells, the two when quite young publishing a volume of verse. They havedrifted apart, though remain- ing warm friends, and each in his way winning the laurel crown of fame if not of fortune.

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Nearly all the literary people of the United States petitioned President Arthur to give John James a consulate. The prayer was granted, and since then, as United States consul at Cork, he has resided with his beautiful family at a picturesque old home covered with ivy near Queenstown. John is a Republican, as his poetry proves, and when President Cleveland was inaugurated there was a fearful rush made for this post at Cork. The President sent for John's record at the State Department together with the recom- mendations that gave Mr. Piatt the position. "Why," said the President, "we don't want a poet consul anywhere." "No," responded Secretary Bayard, "we do not, but we do want an honest, capable man, and if you will look at Mr. Piatt's record you will find that he is all that. Then, again, here are Joseph McDonald, John G. Carlisle, Frank Hurd, Dan Voorhees and fifty more Democrats asking his promotion. I think at least we had better let him remain." And remain he did and does. We give as a specimen a poem of John J. Piatt's :

THE BRONZE STATUE OF WASHINGTON. (April, 1861.)

Uplifted when the April sun was down, Gold-lighted by the tremulous, fluttering beam, Touching his glimmering steed with spurs in gleam,

The great Virginia Colonel into town Rode, with the scabbard emptied on his thigh, The Leader's hat upon his head, and lo! The old still manhood on his face aglow, And the old generalship quick in his eye ! "O father!" said I, speaking in my heart, " Though but thy bronzed form is ours alone, And marble lips here in thy chosen place, Rides uot thy spirit in to keep thine own, Or weeps thy land, an orphan in the mart ? " The twilight dying lit the deathless face.

SARAH M. B. PIATT, whose delicately beau- tiful head we reproduce, was Miss Sarah M. Bryant, of Kentucky. She contributed po- etry to the Louisville Journal, when the witty Prentice was editor, and John James assistant editor. Both were struck by the girl's originality and beauty of expression. The admiration so won on the younger jour- nalist that he made a pilgrimage to the inte- rior of Kentucky to see the gifted one. Admiration melted into love, and won the inspired maiden. We give as a specimen, taken at random, one of Mrs. Piatt's poems :

"WHEN SAW WE THEE?' BY SARAH M. B. PIATT.

Then shall He answer how He lifted up, In the cathedral there, at Lille, to me

The same still mouth that drank the Passion-cup, And how I turned away and did not see.

How-Oh, that boy's deep eyes and withered arm !- In a mad Paris street, one glittering night,

Three times drawn backward by his beauty's charm,

I gave him-not a farthing for the sight.

How in that shadowy temple at Cologne,

Through all the mighty music, I did wring The agony of his last mortal moan From that blind soul I gave not anything.

And how at Bruges, at a beggar's breast,

There by the windmill where the leaves whirled so,-

I saw Him nursing, passed Him with the rest, Followed by His starved mother's stare of woe.

But, my Lord Christ, Thou knowest I had not much,

And had to keep that which I had for grace

To look, forsooth, where some dead painter's touch

Had left Thy thorn-wound or Thy mother's face.

Therefore, O my Lord Christ, I pray of Thee, That of Thy great compassion Thou wilt save, Laid up from moth and rust, somewhere, for me, High in the heavens-the coins I never gave.

Col. DONN PIATT was born in Cincinnati. Ohio, June 29, 1819. He was educated partly in Urbana and at the Athenaeum (now St. Xavier College, Cincinnati), but left that school before completing his course. He studied law under his father, and was, for a time, a pupil of Tom Corwin. In 1851 he was appointed Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas of Hamilton county. He was made Secretary of the Legation at Paris, under Hon. John Y. Mason, of Virginia, during Pierce's and Buchanan's administra- tions. When the minister died in October, 1859, Colonel Piatt served as charge d'af- faires for nearly a year.

On his return home he engaged actively in the presidential canvass, in behalf of Abra- ham Lincoln. In company with General Robert C. Schenck he stumped Southern Illinois, and his services were publicly ac- knowledged by the President-elect.

During the civil war he served on the staff of General Robert C. Schenck, who was in command of the Middle Department, with headquarters at Baltimore. While General Schenck was temporarily absent from his post, and Colonel Piatt, as chief of staff, in command, he issued an order, contrary to the policy of the administration at that time, to General William G. Birney, who was then in Maryland, to recruit a brigade of negro sol- diers-to enlist none but slaves.

The effect of this order was to at once eman- cipate every slave in Maryland, and it was thought to greatly embarrass Mr. Lincoln and the cabinet. Colonel Piatt had taken the step against General Schenck's wishes, at the advice of Henry Winter Davis, Judge Bond and other distinguished Union men from Maryland ; and against the wishes of Reverdy Johnson, Montgomery Blair and other earnest Union men and slaveholders. He was summoned to Washington and threat- ened by Mr. Lincoln, in a stormy interview, with shameful dismissal from the army. This he was spared by the intercession of

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COLONEL DONN PIATT.

LOUISE KIRBY PIATT.

Secretary Stanton, and permitted to retain his rank in the army, though, on account of . this rash act, he was always thereafter denied further promotion. But it was a consolation for him to know that his one act had made Maryland a free State. Word went ont and spread like wild-fire that " Mr. Linkum was a callin' on de slaves to fight fo' fredum, " and che hoe-handle was dropped, never again to be taken up by unrequited toil. The poor creatures poured into Baltimore with their families, on foot, on horseback, in old wag- ons, and even on sleds stolen from their masters. The late masters became clamorous for compensation, and Mr. Lincoln ordered a commission to assess damages. Secretary Stanton put in a proviso that those cases only should be considered wherein the claim- ant could take the iron-clad oath of allegiance. So, of course, no slaves were paid for.

Having been sent to observe the situation at Winchester, Va., previous to Lee's inva- sion of Pennsylvania, Colonel Piatt, on his own motion, ordered General Robert H. Milroy to evacuate that indefensible town and fall back on Harper's Ferry. The order Was countermanded by General Halleck. Three days afterwards, Milroy, surrounded by the Confederate advance, was forced to cut his way out, with a loss of 2,000 prison- ers. Had Colonel Piatt's order been carried out, the command would have been saved, and two regiments of brave men (who under Schenck and Milroy were the only force that ever whipped Stonewall Jackson) not need- lessly sacrificed. He was Judge-Advocate of the commission which investigated the charges against General Buell, and favored his acquittal.

After the war he became the Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, distinguishing himself as a writer of great brilliancy.

Col. Piatt subsequently founded and edited the Washington Capital for two years, mak-

ing it so odious to government officials that at their instance during the presidential con- troversy of 1876 he was indicted-but, as he naively says, "though trying very hard, never got into jail." On the contrary he sold the Capital at a very handsome figure and returned to the peace and quiet of Mac-o-chee, where he has since been engaged in literary work and farming. "In all his writings he is apt to take a peculiar and generally un- popular view of his subject," says an eminent critic, and the observation is just.

His entertaining volume, "Memories of the Men who Saved the Union," whom he designates as Lincoln, Stanton, Chase, Sew- ard and General George H. Thomas, is sharply critical, and severe on General Grant. But its strong passages and just appreciation of the great deeds of the other great men atone for this fault. Its sale has been large and is steadily increasing. The Westminster Review describes it as "The record of great geniuses, told by a genius."

Col. Piatt has published a delightful little book of love stories, true to life and of pa- thetic interest, mostly war incidents, called "The Lone Grave of the Shenandoah and Other Tales." In 1888 he edited Belford's Magazine as a free trade journal, and made the tariff issue strangely interesting and pict- uresque. He contributes regularly to the leading English reviews, and is at present en- gaged with General Charles M. Cist, of Cin- cinnati, in preparing a life of General George H. Thomas.

In 1865 he was elected as a Republican as Representative from Logan county to the Ohio Legislature. "I made a fight for negro suffrage," says he, "and won, by a decreased majority. Then, after spending a couple of winters at Columbus, I quit, by unanimous consent." Ile had opposed local legislation, taken an active part in pushing the negro-suffrage amendment through, and was accused of doing more legislating for

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Cincinnati, his old home, than all the Hamil- ton county delegation together. His ability as a speaker and usefulness in the committee- room were widely recognized and praised.

(Frank Henry Howe, Photo., 1890.) MAC.O-CHEE, COL. PIATT'S RESIDENCE.

Who can describe the beauty and charm of Mac-o-chee Valley ? As seen from his great stone mansion it presents one of the fairest prospects that ever delighted the vision of man. There is no description truer than Tom Corwin's : "A man can better live and die here than in any place I have ever seen." Above is an excellent picture of the ivy- crowned west and south fronts, and entrance into one of the best libraries in Ohio. The beautiful residence harmonizes with the grand scenery about it-like the castles along the historic Rhine, one of which it closely re- sembles and is modelled after.

(Frank Heury Howe, Photo., 1890. THE OLD CHURCH.

Near the old mill on the direct road from Col. Piatt's to Urbana is the family burying- ground, just back of the old log Catholic church, which is now almost destroyed. Here the Piatts for four generations have wor- shipped and near by many are buried.

In the hillside just below the old church Col. Piatt has had erected a substantial stone vault. It is the tomb of the wife of his early manhood, a gifted and charming lady.

(Frank Henry Howe, Photo., 1890.) THE TOMB.

A more appropriate epitaph, or one so touching, could hardly be written than that chiselled in marble on the reverse side of the medallion, shown in the picture. It was written by Col. Piatt and reads as follows :

To thy dear memory, darling, and my own, I build in grief this monumental stone ; All that it tells of life in death is thine, All that it tells of death in life is mine ; For that which made thy pure spirit blest, In anguish deep has brought my soul unrest You dying, live to find a life divine, I living, die till death shall make me thine.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume II, Part 14

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 916

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 916