USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 66
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A MILITIA COMPANY OF 1812.
The Champaign-Logan history of 1872 contains an article by Mrs. Sallie Moore, in which she describes the uniform of one of the militia com- panies and also other interesting facts of these fighting forefathers of ours. It follows :
About the time of the War of 1812 a company of young men was organized in Champaign and Logan counties by Capt. Alexander Black. It was an independent company of home guarda, or minute-men, and was called a rifle company, each man being armed with a good trusty rifle gun, shot-pouch, powder-horn, bullet-moulds, gun-flints, etc. Each furnished bis own ammunition and was expected to hold him- self in readiness at a minute's warning for any emergency, we at that time being the
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frontier settlement on the north and exposed to danger from the Indians who might be prowling about In the neighborhood.
The uniform of the company consisted of a black hunting shirt, trimmed or fringed with white all round the body, made as a loose coat or wrapper reaching a little above the knees, and open in front and fringed; then a large circular cape with collar fastening all together at the neck. It was usually made of home-made linen about one and one-half inches wide, and sewing it on the garment and then raveling it out about half the width. Then a stout leather belt with large burkle in front, or some have a white belt, white pants and stockings. The hat was like one in fashion in the seventies, high crown with narrow rim. Each man had a white plume fastened to the left side of his hat.
The feather was made by skilfully adjusting the white feathers of n goose around a ratan or a stick long enough to reach to the top of the hat, carefully and firmly wrapping them with thread, and on the top was a tuft of red feathers, a bit of scarlet cloth or the scalp of the red-headed woodpecker.
The company was called together three or four times a year for muster or company drill, and you may be assured their mothers and sisters, their wives and sweethearts were proud of them when they saw them dressed up in their uniforms and marching under their gallant captain. They were never called out to active service however.
But there was a company of men who were called rangers, who were stationed at Manarie's Blockhouse, whose duty It was to range the country as spies. This fort or blockhouse was situated on the land of Col. James McPherson, near where the county house now stands, Vance's Blockhouse was situated on an eminence, a short distance north of Loganville.
Some of our young friends may be ready to inquire what sort of a thing is a blockhouse? Well. it was not built of the blocks that fall from the carpenter's bench which our little four-year-olds like to build on mamma's carpet, but it was built with huge logs, but so compactly fitted together as to withstand the shots of an enemy without, with port boles for the inmates to shower the deadly bullets from within. Thus lived the pioneer settlers of our now populous and wealthy country.
LOCAL COMPANY TO THE FRONT.
The most important movement of the local volunteer companies occurred in the spring of 1813. In May of that year the British were besieging Ft. Meigs on Lake Erie and runners were dispatched from Urbana to all parts of the state urging all male citizens to arm themselves and assemble imme- diately at Urbana. Great excitement prevailed all over the state and within a short time men from all corners of the state-and at that time Urbana was the farthest town to the north-began to assemble at Urbana. Simon Kenton took a very active part in stirring up the citizens of Champaign county to a sense of their duty, and was ably assisted by Joseph Vance. This motley col- lection of volunteers elected officers by acclamation and by the first of June were ready to move forward to the relief of the besieged fort. Under com- mand of Col. Duncan McArthur, they marched north along Hull's Trace and had proceeded a considerable distance when they met Col. William Oliver,
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John McAdams and an Indian who had been dubbed "Captain Johnny." They had been sent forward as spies to reconnoiter and report the condition of affairs. They brought the welcome news that the British had lifted the siege and left with their forces, and that there was no need of the valiant little force continuing any farther. They had already been on the march four days. They returned to Urbana at once and were discharged. This seems to have been the last time the local militia companies were called out during the war.
As before stated, it is not known how many men from Champaign county served in the War of 1812. They were not credited to the several counties of the state as they were in the Civil War, and in the absence of official records it never will be known how many from Champaign county enlisted or, of the number enlisted, how many lost their lives. In the Con- cord cemetery are the graves of the following soldiers of this war: Jacob Barger, Daniel Crim, Joseph Longfellow, James Mitchell, Samuel Neer, Sr., Robert Russell and William Sims. Probably the last living veteran of the war was Hugh Bay, of Goshen township, who died at Mechanicsburg on November 8, 1878. He is buried in Mechanicsburg. There are many other soldiers who fought in the War of 1812 buried in the cemeteries of the county, but no effort has ever been made to list them.
The effect upon Champaign county and Urbana of the war was made manifest in several ways. First of all. it removed all danger of further Indian uprisings, and therefore hastened the settlement of the county. Then, there were scores, and probably, hundreds of people who came to the county as a result of being with the army while it was stationed in or passing through the county seat. It brought artisans of many kinds, business men, profes- sional men, farmers and men in every walk of life. Thus, it may be seen that the war was of incalculable benefit to the county and more especially to Urbana.
MEXICAN WAR.
The Mexican War of 1846-48 did not seem to attract many volunteers from Champaign county. There is no record to be found of any company recruited in the county for service in the war, nor do the local newspapers of the town throw much light on the part the county took in that struggle. The few Champaign county volunteers were found in companies raised in other counties in the state, and most of them were attached to companies in the Army of the Rio Grande.
The following volunteers are known to have served for varying terms
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at the front during the progress of the war: Gatch Ambrose, Thomas Con- nerton, Findlay Dunham, Stephen Hagerbaugh, George Hoover, Evan Jen- . kins, Frank Jenkins, Oliver Jenkins, Thomas Lowe, John Needler, Isaac N. Pierce, Johnson K. Putnam, George Seibert, Leopold Wagner, Robert Wallace and Thomas Wilson. The career of Gatch Ambrose was spectacular. When the war opened he was an engineer on a Mississippi river steamboat, but at once enlisted for service in Mexico. He passed through all of the battles of his regiment unharmed and later became a member of Walker's Nicaraguan expedition in 1852. This expedition, led by "the gray-eyed man of destiny," enlisted many brave young men, practically all of whom paid the penalty of their folly with their lives-and young Ambrose was one of them.
THE CIVIL WAR.
The complete history of Champaign county in the Civil War will never be written. It is possible to enumerate all of the men who went to the front, to list all of those who lost their lives and to make a roster of all who returned. It is possible to ascertain to a cent how much money was appropriated by the county commissioners, by the various townships, and by the state for mil- itary purposes. The amount of bounty money and the amount of relief money can be figured up; a fair summary can be made of the donations made by the many private organizations of the county. In other words, the matter of men and money can be set down in figures-they are tangible.
THE TRAGEDY OF WAR.
But who can measure the heartaches, the sleepless nights, the days of longing and nights of waiting? Who can describe the anguish suffered by the women who waited for husbands who never returned, or measure the grief of the children who waited in vain for the father who was left on a Southern battlefield? There are some things which cannot be measured with a foot-rule or weighed by scale-and these are some of them. If three thousand young men-and most of them were under twenty-five-went out from Champaign county, there must have been at least three thousand hearts left behind to await their return. Day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year, they waited: the toll of dead and wounded appeared in the papers of Urbana week by week. Who can describe the fear and trem- bling with which hundreds of mothers picked up the weekly paper and looked
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to see whether their sons' names were listed among the dead, or the wounded, or the captured? These are some of the things which baffle the pen of the most skillful historian to describe. Therefore, may it again be said, the whole story of Champaign county in the Civil War can never be written.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION.
It is practically impossible to determine the exact number of volunteers furnished by Champaign county for service during the Civil War. The diffi- culty in writing an accurate history of the part Champaign county played in the Civil War arises from the fact that the local records are imperfectly kept, and that even the official roster of the state adjutant-general's office is incom- plete. Another factor which renders it difficult to get at the exact number the county furnished comes from the fact that there were many regiments which contained only a few men from the county, and so few that no record was kept of them. In the compilation of this chapter concerning the Civil War the historian had had recourse to the following sources of information : (1) The county commissioners' journal for the years covering the war; (2) four blank record books kept by the county military committee; (3) "Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-66"; (4) files of Champaign county newspapers during the sixties (missing from spring of 1861 to spring of 1865); (5) "History of Champaign county, 1881: (6) "Centennial Album," 1905; (7) "Soldiers of Champaign County who Died for the Union," W. A. Brand, 1876; (8) various regimental his- tories of regiments containing Champaign volunteers; (9) Howe's "Histori- cal Collections;" (10) Grand Army of the Republic records; (11) records of 'state pensioners under act of 1900: (12) interviews with old soldiers still living.
SOLDIERS FURNISHED BY CHAMPAIGN COUNTY.
The census of 1860 returned a total population of 22,698 for the county, and Captain A. C. Deuel, provost marshal, reported 4,112 men of military age on September 1, 1862. On that date the county was credited with 1,493 volunteers and when the draft was ordered on that date, there were 152 ordered from Champaign county. The draft went into operation on October 6, but by that time the county had furnished 212 volunteers, or 60 more than its quota. This brought the total number of volunteers of the county on October 1, 1862, up to 1,705. The enrollment of men of military age for
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1863 was 3.769, while for 1864 the enrollment was 2,950. The office of the adjutant-general furnished the following data concerning Champaign county in the Civil War :
The last call by the President for troops was dated December 19, 1864. the call being for 300,000 troops. On June 30, 1865, the record of the provost marshal's office shows that Champaign county's quota was 266; recruits furnished, 166; raised by draft. 19; deficiency, 41. This indicates that the county was only 41 short of its quota at the close of the war. Thus it may be safely assumed that the county furnished its full quota under all the calls except the last. and under this call the state was short 2752. which can be accounted for by the fact that the war practically came to an end in April, 1865, when recruiting and enforcement of the draft censed.
The record of the county during the final year of the war shows that it maintained its loyalty to the Union to the last. No doubt the deficiency of forty-one would have been amply covered if there had been any occa- sion to need the men. Adjt .- Gen. A. B. Critchfield, who furnished the above data to Capt. J. T. Woodward, of Urbana, concluded his statement regarding the contribution of the county to the Civil War with this state- ment : "Assuming that the county furnished her full quota under all calls, which assumption, we think, is justified by the records, the number fur- nished by the county was about three thousand. The record shows that two hundred and" three Champaign county soldiers re-enlisted under the call of the war department for veteran volunteer soldiers."
REGIMENTS REPRESENTED IN COUNTY.
The largest body of men from the county in one organization was enrolled in the one hundred and thirty-fourth Regiment which was mus- tered in May 6, 1864, for the hundred-day service. the county furnishing about seven hundred and fifty men for this one regiment. The other regi- ments of the county which included large bodies of Champaign volunteers were the Second, Thirteenth, Twenty-sixth, Thirty-second, Forty-second, Forty-fifth, Sixty-sixth, Ninety-fifth and One Hundred and Thirteenth. In 1864, after the county had furnished several companies for the One Hun- dred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, the military committee reported that the county had furnished two thousand nine hundred and fifty volunteers.
Many men and women are living in Champaign county in 1917 who can vividly recall the days of Civil War. The present year can bear no comparison to the cloud which hung over the nation during the trying days of the sixties, a cloud which at times seemed to cover the nation like a pall.
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Politics must answer for many things, and among these history will un- doubtedly asseverate that this something which we Americans call politics was responsible for a needless amount of suffering during the Civil War.
KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.
In 1863 there was a peculiar situation in the United States in the Northern states, in Ohio, and in Champaign county. No man has ever sat- isfactorily explained why there were men during those trying days of 1863, who, because their fathers happened to be Democrats, felt that the North was in the wrong and that the war was an unjust war. No one has ever explained why thousands and tens of thousands of good men in the North- ern states, in Ohio and even in Champaign county, felt that they were doing the right thing when they joined the Knights of the Golden Circle. History does not record a Republican who joined this organization, and there is not a Democrat in 1917 who condones the work which was done by this sin- ister organization.
No one will ever know how many men in Champaign county belonged to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and it is just as well that the fact remains a secret forever. No doubt there are men living in the county today who belonged to it, but it is equally true that they did not realize the kind of an organization to which they were giving their support when they joined it. The local newspapers and the county commissioners' records bear ample witness to the fact that the western part of the county was not as loyal to the Union as it might have been. On more than one occasion the Home Guards were called out to suppress incipient riots stirred up by Southern sympathizers. Practically all of the deserters in the county were to be found in the western townships, and it was there that the draft had to be resorted to in order to meet the county's quota. But this phase of the county's record should be considered.as a curious result, lamentable though it was, of our blind adherence to a political party. It happened that the Democratic party was dominant in the South at the opening of the Civil War; the result might have been just the same if it had been the Republican party that had been the strongest; then the Knights of the Golden Circle might have been formed among the Republicans of the North.
But Champaign county had probably as little of the Southern sentiment as any of the counties of the central and southern part of the state. To offset any tendency in this direction, there were hundreds of loyal "War Democrats" in the county who stood unswervingly by the Union and did
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everything in their power to assist in putting down the Rebellion. In the enlistments from the different townships, especially from the central and eastern portions of the county. the Democrats vied with the Republicans in volunteering. Certainly, the Democrats, as a party, were loyal in Cham- paign county, if one may judge from the views expressed by their party organ.
ANTI-WAR SPIRIT IN THE COUNTRY.
Although the Civil War did not open until April, 1861, Champaign county had begun to evidence its faith in the Union as early as January of that year. When South Carolina seceded in December, 1860, the people of the United States, both North and South, intuitively felt that the impending crisis was at last about to come to a climax. As state after state seceded, as fort after fort fell into the hands of those opposed to the Union, the feel- ing grew apace that bloodshed must ensue. This story is only, however, of the part Champaign county played in this great struggle.
The local papers tell us that on the evening of January 17, 1861, a public meeting was called by the mayor of Urbana to discuss the condition of the nation's affairs. Mayor William Patrick, one of the county's most distinguished citizens, called the meeting to order in the court house and appointed a committee to present resolutions for the consideration of the citizens of the county. A crowded court room greeted the mayor as he called John Russell to the front to act as secretary. The mayor briefly stated that the meeting was for the single purpose of considering the question of a united nation, and the steps which should be taken to bring the Southern states back into the Union.
Prominent in the meeting were such men as John H. Young. Joshua Saxton, Christopher Ryan, A. M. Pence, A. F. Vance, F. M. Wright, Levi Geiger and John D. Burnette. Here were Republicans, Democrats of both stripes, Whigs of former years, and men of other political faiths-but all for the Union. Vance was a Bell-Everett man; John H. Young was a Douglas Democrat ; John D. Burnette was a Breckenridge Democrat ; Levi Geiger was a Lincoln Republican; F. M. Wright was a follower of Chase. And yet these men of such diverse political views were united on one thing -and that was the preservation of the union.
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RESOLUTION PRECIPITATES DEBATE.
There were four resolutions prepared by this committee representing four shades of political belief and the first three were adopted with little opposition. The fourth resolution was divided into six parts: (1) That we recommend the repeal of all personal liberty bills; (2) that the fugitive slave law be amended for the prevention of kidnaping; (3) that the Consti- tution be amended to prohibit interference with slavery in any of the states where it now exists; (4) that Congress shall not interfere with the inter- state slave trade; (5) that there shall be a perpetual prohibition of the African slave trade; (6) that the line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, shall be run through all the existing territory of the United States and that north of that line slavery shall be prohibited, and that south of that line neither Congress nor the territorial Legislature shall hereafter pass any law abolishing, prohibiting, or in any manner interfering with African slavery, and that when any territory containing a sufficient popu- lation for one member of Congress in any area of sixty thousand square miles shall apply for admission as a state, it shall be admitted with or with- out slavery as its Constitution may determine.
This fourth resolution, with its various sections, precipitated acrimon- jous debate, and brought forth impassioned oratory from several speakers. Finally, when it was seen that something had to be done, Henry T. Niles arose and offered as a substitute the following resolution: "That we as citizens of Urbana are in favor of the Union, the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws." No one seconded the resolution and the debate was again directed to the original resolution. A. F. Vance, L. H. Long, R. C. Fulton, John S. Leedom and Ichabod Corwin favored the adoption of the fourth resolution, while Levi Geiger, George B. Way, A. C. Deuel, Joseph C. Brand and John A. Corwin opposed its adoption. In order to stop the debate which was getting to the place where it was likely to result disastrously for the meeting, Levi Geiger moved to table the resolution, and his motion carried. The meeting closed after the following was offered and unanimously adopted :
"We, the people of the town of Urbana, are unalterably and forever attached to, and in favor of, the supremacy of the Constitution, and of all laws passed in pursuance of it, and of the union of these states; and for the maintenance thereof against all attacks from all quarters, we pledge to each our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
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THE FALL OF FT. SUMTER.
And it was this feeling, so fittingly expressed, that animated the people of Urbana during the progress of the war. When the South opened fire on Ft. Sumter on the morning of April 12, 1861, it was not realized that the nation was going to be thrown into a maelstrom of carnage and bloodshed which was to last four years. When Captain Anderson surrendered his little band of defenders three days later and the news was telegraphed to all corners of the United States, there was a feeling of intense patriotism throughout the Northern states. The long-expected date arrived; war had finally come upon us.
The surrender of Ft. Sumter was followed immediately by a procla- mation of President Lincoln callnig for seventy-five thousand volunteers. The fact that they were asked to serve only three months shows that neither the President nor his advisers realized the situation. Ohio responded with an amazing quickness to the call for volunteers, and two days after the call was made Champaign county had a company ready to go to the front. Unfortunately the issues of the local papers for the four years of the war are missing, but there are many still living in 1917 who can recall the enthusiasm which followed the call for troops in Champaign county.
GENERAL STATEMENT.
Ohio furnished 310,654 men for service during the Civil War and Cham- paign county furnished approximately 3,000 of this number. At least four regiments mustered in for the three-months service in 1861 contained vol- unteers from Champaign county. These regiments were the First, Second, Third and Thirteenth. The Eighty-sixth Regiment, also a three-months regiment, was called into the service in June, 1862.
During the summer of 1864 the state was called upon to furnish over 100,000 men, most of them for the hundred-days service, or approximately three months. Practically all of the volunteers of 1864 were for the hun- dred-days service and most of them from this county were in the One Hun- dred and Thirty-fourth Regiment.
The first considerable body of men from Champaign county to enlist for the three-year service were in the Twenty-sixth Regiment, which was organized in June and July, 1861. Edward P. Fyffe, of Urbana, was the colonel of this regiment and it included probably fifty men from the county.
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The next regiment of three-year volunteers to draw men from the county was the Thirty-second, which was recruited in August and September, 1861. The county furnished most of the volunteers for Company B. The Forty- second Regiment was the next to draw heavily from the county, Company I recruiting about a third of its numbers from the vicinity of St. Paris. Jason P. Kite of St. Paris is one of the few members of the Forty-second Regiment still living in the county. The Sixty-sixth Regiment which was organized in the fall of 1861 contained more three-year enlistments from Champaign county than any other regiment. It was the only regiment which was organized with its headquarters at Urbana. It contained approxi- mately seven hundred men of Champaign county.
Three other regiments drew substantial additions from Champaign county for the three-year service: Forty-fifth, Ninety-fifth and One Hun- dred and Thirteenth. The Forty-fifth Regiment contained between seventy- five and one hundred volunteers from the county. most of them being in Company H, a few being in Companies E, C and I. The Ninety-fifth con- tained nearly two full companies in the county, E and G. The One Hun- dred and Thirteenth had between eighty-five and one hundred volunteers from the county in Company E, most of the enlistments being from the western part of the county.
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