History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 30

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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sand meals. It has recently been furnished with one hundred new iron bedsteads, at a cost of five hundred dollars. The establishment and maintenance of the home the members of the Cincinnati branch look upon as one of their most valuable works, second in importance only to the relief furnished by the " sanitary steamers" dispatched promptly to the battle-fields, with surgeons, nurses and stores, and with beds to bring away the wounded and the sick; and they may, perhaps, be per- mitted with some pride to point to these two important systems of relief inaugurated by them. The necessity for the last mentioned method of relief has nearly passed away; we hope it may soon pass away entirely, never to return. The home long stood, under the efficient superintend- ence of G. W. D. Andrews, offering food and rest to the hungry and wayworn soldier, and reminding us of the kind hearts and loyal hands whose patriotic contributions and patient toil, supplementing the aid furnished by the Government through the quartermaster and commis- sary departments of the army, enabled them to establish it. To this aid of a generous and benign government, dispensed with kindness and alacrity by the officers who have been at the heads of these departments in this city, this institution is indebted, in great measure, for its exist- ence and usefulness.

The importance of perpetuating the names of all soldiers whose lives had been or might be sacrificed in the defense of our Government, being an anxious concern of many of the niembers of our commission, and re- garded by them as of so much importance, they early resolved that, so far as they could control the matter, not only should this be done, but that their last resting place should be in a beautiful city of the dead, Spring Grove cemetery. An early interview was had with the trustees, who promptly responded to the wishes of the commission, and gratuit- ously donated for that purpose a conspicuous lot, near the charming lake, of a circular shape, and in size sufficient to contain three hundred bodies. In addition thereto, this generous association have interred, free of expense for interment, all the soldiers buried there. This lot having become occupied, the commission arranged for another of similar size and shape nearly, for the sum of one thousand five hundred dollars. The subject of the payment of the same having been pre- sented to the legislature of Ohio, the members unanimously agreed that, as a large proportion of those who were to occupy this ground as their last home were the sons of Ohio, it was the proper duty of the State to contribute thereto. In accordance therewith, an appropriation of three thousand dollars was made for the purpose, subject to the ap- proval of His Excellency, Governor Tod. A third circle, of the same size and shape, adjacent to the others, was therefore secured at the same price. The propriety of this expenditure was approved of by the governor, after careful examination of the ground and its value. Two of these lots have been filled, and the third is in readiness for occupancy, should it become necessary. A record is carefully made on the books of the cemetery of the name, age, company and regiment, of each sol- dier interred there, that relatives, friends and strangers may know, in all time to come, that we for whom their lives were given were not un- mindful of the sacrifice they had made, and that we properly appreciate the obligations we are under to them, for their efforts in aiding to se- cure to us and future generations the blessings of a redeemed and re- generated country.

In view of the work of this branch from the commencement, we can not but express our heartfelt gratitude to that kind Providence which has so signally blessed its efforts, and made the commission instru- mental in the distribution of the large amount of donations which have been poured into their hands by full and free hearts for the benefit of sufferers who are bravely defending our country and our homes.

It will be seen that one and a half per cent. of the cash receipts from the commencement will cover all expenses for clerk-hire, labor, freight, drayage, and other incidental matters; and this comparatively small expense is, in great measure, owing to the extreme liberality-which should here be gratefully acknowledged-of the free use of the tele- graph wires, and the free carriage of hundreds of tons of stores by the several express companies, railroads and steamboats.

With all this liberality, our supplies would long since have been ex- hausted by the constantly increasing requirements of our soldiers, had not the sagacity and enterprise of a number of energetic and patriotic gentlemen suggested the idea of and inaugurated the great western sanitary fair of this city, the wonderful result of which realized to the commission over a quarter of a million of dollars.

A very large amount of money and sanitary stores was handled by this branch of the commission. From the date of its organization to August 11, 1864-long before its final work was done-a total of three hundred and thirteen thousand, nine hundred and twenty-six dollars and thirty cents had come into its treasury, of which there was still on

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

hand, in government securities and cash in the bank, the handsome remainder of one hundred and twenty-two thousand, nine hundred and five dollars and fifteen cents. Nearly three hundred different articles had been purchased or received as donations-some of them in great quantity-and used in the soldiers' home or local hospitals, or for- warded to the troops. Among these "sanitary stores" were checker- boards, solitaire boards, puzzles, "pretzels," and some other things, of which people would hardly think in this connection, but which were undoubtedly found useful in aiding the prevention or cure of disease. The total value of the sanitary supplies distributed by the branch to the close of 1863-about the middle of the war-was not far from a mil- lion of dollars.

The Great Western Sanitary Fair, to which reference is made in the foregoing sketch, had its origin in an impulse received from the success of a similar fair held in Chica- go in October, 1863. As a result of consultations be- tween gentlemen of the Sanitary Commission and the National Union association, of some agitation through the newspapers, and several meetings, a very extensive and efficient scheme for such an exposition was set on foot. Mr. Reid says:

Presently the whole city was alive with the enthusiasm of a common generous effort. Those who best know the usually staid and undemon- strative Queen City unite in the testimony that she was never before so stirred through all the strata of her society, never before so warm and glowing, for any cause or on any occasion. Churches, citizens' associa- tions, business men, mechanics, took hold. of the work. Committees were appointed, embracing the leading men and the best workers in every walk of life throughout the city; meetings of ladies were held; circulars were distributed; public appeals filled the newspapers."

General Rosecrans, who had been temporarily retired from service in the field, but had lost none of his popu- larity at home, was secured as president of the fair; and his appointment and active efforts contributed largely to its success. The fair was opened by an address from him on the morning of December 21st, and continued through the holidays. So extensive were the prepara- tions that five different halls and buildings-two of them expressly erected for the purpose, in the Fifth and Sixth street market spaces-were needed. Mozart and Green- wood halls, and the Palace Garden, were' the permanent buildings occupied. It was a splendid exhibit and bazaar, and led, with the public readings, lectures, and other en- tertainments gratuitously at the Mozart hall in aid of the movement, to "such a lavish expenditure of money as the city had never before dreamed of." The cash re- ceipts of the enterprise were about two hundred and sixty thousand dollars, of which only eight and one-fifth per cent. was absorbed in expenses, and the magnificent sum of two hundred and thirty-five thousand four hun- dred and six dollars and sixty-two cents was poured into the treasury of the Branch. This was a larger sum, in proportion to population, than was realized from any other fair of the kind, except in Pittsburgh and St. Louis, which camc later and had superior advantages.

Mr. Reid says of the operations of this Branch:

The largest and most noted organization in Ohio for the relicf of sol- diers was, of course, the "Cincinnati Branch of the United States San- itary Commission." This body, throughout its history, pursued a policy little calculated to advance its own fame-admirably adapted to ad- vance the interests of the soldiers for whom it labored. It had but one salaried officer, and it gave him but a meagre support for the devotion of his whole time. It spent no large funds in preserving statistics and multiplying reports of its good works. It entered into no elaborate scientific investigations concerning the best sanitary conditions for large armies. It left no bulky volumes of tracts, discussions, statistics, culo-

gies, and defences-indeed, it scarcely left a report that might satisfac- torily exhibit the barest outline of its work. But it collected and used great sums of money and supplies for the soldiers. First of any con- siderable bodics in the United States, it sent relief to battle-fields on a scale commensurate with the wants of the wounded. It was the first to equip hospital boats, and it led in the faithful, patient work among the armies, particularly in the west, throughout the war. Its guardian- ship of the funds committed to its care was held a sacred trust for the relief of needy soldiers. The incidental expenses were kept down to the lowest possible figure, and were all defrayed out of the interest of moneys in its hands before they were needed in the field-so that every dollar that was committed to it went, at some time or other, directly to a soldier in some needed form. In short, it was business skill and Christian integrity in charge of the people's contributions for their men in the ranks. . The Cincinnati Branch of the Sanitary Commission continued to devote its moneys sacredly to the precise pur- pose for which they were contributed. At the close of the war many thousand dollars were in the treasury. These it kept invested in United States bonds, using the interest and drawing on the principal from time to time, as it was needed for the relief of destitute soldiers, and specially for their transportation to their homes, in cases where other provision was not made for them. Three years after the close of the war, it still had a remnant of the sacred sum, and was still charging itself as care- fully as ever with its disbursement.

Another most efficient organization, for which Cincin- nati became distinguished during the war, was the local branch of the United States Christian commission. The religious elements in the city had been stirred profoundly, and excited to the most ardent patriotism, by the out- break of the war. Some of the earliest volunteers for military service had been of the city clergy, of whom at Icast one, the Rev. Granville Moody, achieved great dis- tinction and a brigadier's commission, and most of the Cincinnati pulpits gave forth no uncertain sound in aid of the Union cause. On the third of June, in the first year of the war, the association of Evangelical ministers in the city adopted the following energetic and whole- hearted deliverance:

Deeply grateful to Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, for his past mercies to this nation, and particularly noting at this time His gracious goodness in leading our fathers to establish and preserve for us a Con- stitutional Government unequalled among the Governments of the earth in guarding the rights and promoting the entire welfare of a great people-we, the Evangelical ministry of Cincinnati, have been led by a constrained sense of accountability to Him, the author of all our good, and by unfeigned love for our country, to adopt the following statc- ment :

We are compelled to regard the Rebellion which now afflicts our land and jeopardizes some of the most precious hopes of mankind, as the result of a long-contemplated and widespread conspiracy against the principles of liberty, justice, mercy, and riglitcousness proclaimed in the word of God, sustained by our constitutional Government, and lying at the foundation of all public and private welfare. In the pres- ent conflict, therefore, our Government stands before us as representing the cause of God and man against a rebellion threatening the nation with ruin, in order to perpetuate and spced a system of unrighteous op- pression. In this emergency, as ministers of God, we cannot hesitate to support, by cvery legitimate method, the Government in maintain- ing its authority unimpaired throughout the whole country and over this whole people.

Among other demonstrations of loyalty, Archbishop Purcell had the flag of the Union raised over St. Peter's cathedral in Cincinnati and the churchcs elsewhere in his diocese, and throughout the war cast his immense in- fluence among his people steadily for the Federal cause. After a time the Cincinnati branch of the United States Christian commission was organized, and did a noble work. It received and disbursed the sum (including cight thousand one hundred and forty-four dollars from the Cleveland branch) of one hundred and seventeen

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

thousand and thirty-three dollars, besides stores to the value of two hundred and eighty-nine thousand six hun- dred and two dollars, and publications worth three thou- sand and twenty-four dollars. The final statement of the operations of the branch says: "From the opening of the office at No. 57 Vine street, until it closed, an unin- terrupted stream of money and stores poured in upon us from the patriotic men and women of the west, and espe- cially of the State of Ohio. Soldiers' aid societies, and ladies' Christian commissions by scores and hundreds, kept us supplied with the means to minister largely to the comfort and temporal wants of our noble boys in blue." Mr. A. E. Chamberlain, of the firm of A. E. Chamberlain & Co., served continuously and faithfully as president of the branch, and gave office and store room without charge. Mr. H. Thane Miller was vice-presi- dent; Rev. J. F, Marlay, secretary ; Rev. B. W. Chidlaw, general agent; and the committee included some of the best-known Christian workers and residents of the city.

The chief events of the war, as most closely related to Cincinnati-the siege of the city and the Morgan raid- are narrated in other chapters. We give here only that portion of the orders issued by General Cox, under di- rection of General Burnside, during the raid of Morgan, which more particularly concerned the city :

HEADQUARTERS, DISTRICT OF OHIO, { CINCINNATI, July 13, 1863.

I. For the more perfect organization of militia of the city of Cin- cinnati, the city is divided into four districts, as follows: First district, consisting of the First, Third, Fourth, and Seventeenth wards, under command of Brigadier General S. D. Sturgis ; headquarters, Broadway hotel. Second district, consisting of Second, Fifth, Sixth, and Four- teenth wards, under command of Major Malcolin McDowell; head- quarters, Burnet house. Third district, consisting of Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh wards, under command of Brigadier General Jacob Ammen ; headquarters, orphan asylum. Fourth district, consisting of the Eighth, Twelfth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth wards, under command of Colonel Granville Moody ; headquarters, Finley Methodist Episcopal chapel, on Clinton, near Cutter street.

II. The independent volunteer companies will report to Colonel Stanley Matthews ; headquarters at Walnut street house.

By command of Brigadier General J. D. Cox.

G. M. BASCOM, Assistant Adjutant General.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SIEGE OF CINCINNATI .*

In the early days of 1862, a new name was growing at once into popular favor and popular fear among the pru- dent rebels of the Kentucky border. It was first heard of in the achievement of carrying off the artillery be- longing to the Lexington company of the Kentucky State guard into the confederate service. Gradually it came to be coupled with daring scouts by little squads of the rebel cavalry, within our contemplative picket lines

along Green river; with sudden dashes, like the burning of the Bacon creek bridge, which the lack of enterprise, or even of ordinary vigilance, on the part of some of our commanders, permitted; with unexpected swoops upon isolated supply-trains or droves of army cattle; with saucy messages about an intention to burn the Yankees of Woodsonville the next week, and the like. Then came dashes within our lines about Nashville, night at- tacks, audacious captures of whole squads of guards within sight of the camps and within a half a mile of di- vision headquarters; the seizure of Gallatin; adroit ex- peditions upon telegraph operators, which secured what- ever news about the National armies was passing over the wires. Then, after Mitchel had swept down into northern Alabama, followed incursions upon his rear, cotton-burning exploits under the very noses of his guards, open pillage of citizens who had been encour- aged by the advance of the National armies to express their loyalty. These acts covered a wide range of coun- try, and followed each other in quick succession; but they were all traced to John Morgan's Kentucky cavalry, and such were their frequency and daring that, by mid- summer of 1862, Morgan and his men occupied almost as much of the popular attention in Kentucky and along the borders as Beauregard or Lee.

The leader of this band was a native of Huntsville, Alabama, but from early boyhood a resident of Kentucky. He had grown up to the free and easy life of a slave- holding farmer's son, in the heart of the Blue Grass coun- try near Lexington; had become a volunteer for the Mex- ican war at the age of nineteen, and had risen to a first lieutenantcy; had passed through his share of encoun- ters and "affairs of honor" about Lexington -- not with- out wounds-and had finally married and settled down as a manufacturer and speculator. He had lived freely, gambled freely, shared in all the dissipations of the time and place, and still had retained the early vigor of a pow- erful constitution and a strong hold upon the confidence of the hot-blooded young men of Lexington. These followed l.im to the war; they were horsemen by instinct, accustomed to a dare-devil life, capable of doing their own thinking in emergencies, without waiting for orders, and in all respects the best material for an independent band of partisan rangers the country has produced. They were allied by family connections with many of the people of the Blue Grass region, and it could but result that, when they appeared in Kentucky-whatever army might be near-they found themselves among friends.

The people of Ohio had hardly recovered from the spasmodic efforts to raise regiments in a day for the sec- ond defence of the capital, into which they had been thrown by the call of the Government, in its alarm at Stonewall Jackson's rush through the valley. They were now rather languidly turning to the effort of filling out the new and unexpected call for seventy-four thousand three-years' men. Few had as yet been raised. Here and there through the State were the nuclei of form- ing regiments, and there were a few arms; but there was no adequate protection for the border, and none dreamed that any was necessary. Beauregard had evacuated Cor-

* From Reid's "Ohio in the War," volume I, chapter 8, by permis- sion, with unimportant omissions and slight changes,

Chas Aub-v 1.

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

inth; Memphis had fallen; Buell was moving eastward toward Chattanooga; the troops lately commanded by Mitchel held Tennessee and northern Alabama ; Kentucky was mainly in the hands of her home guards, and, under the provisions of a State military board, was raising vol- unteers for the National army.

Suddenly, while the newspapers were trying to explain McClellan's change of base and clamoring against Buell's slow advance on Chattanooga, without a word of warning or explanation, came the startling news that John Mor- gan was in Kentucky! The dispatches of Friday after- noon, the eleventh of July, announced that he had fallen upon the little post of Tompkinsville and killed or cap- tured the entire garrison. By evening it was known that the prisoners were paroled; that Morgan had advanced, unopposed, to Glasgow; that he had issued a proclama- tion calling upon the Kentuckians to rise; that the au- thorities deemed it unsafe to attempt sending through trains from Louisville to Nashville. By Saturday after- noon he was reported marching on Lexington, and Gen- eral Boyle, the commandant in Kentucky, was telegraph- ing vigorously to Mayor Hatch at Cincinnati, for militia to be sent in that direction.

A public meeting was at once called, and by nine o'clock that evening a concourse of several thousand cit- izens had gathered in the Fifth street market-space. Meantime more and more urgency for aid had been ex- pressed in successive dispatches from General Boyle. In one he fixed Morgan's force at two thousand, eight hun- dred; in another he said that Morgan, with fifteen hun- dred men, had burned Perryville, and was marching on Danville; again, that the forces at his command were needed to defend Louisville, and that Cincinnati must defend Lexington! Some of these dispatches were read at the public meeting, and speeches were made by the mayor, Judge Saffin, and others. Finally, a committee was appointed, consisting of Mayor Hatch, Hon. George E. Pugh, Joshua Bates, Thomas J. Gallagher, Miles Greenwood, J. W. Hartwell, Peter Gibson, and J. B. Stallo, to take such measures for organized effort as might be possible or necessary. Before the committee could organize came word that Governor Tod had or- dered down such convalescent soldiers as could be gath- ered at Camp Dennison and Camp Chase, and had sent a thousand stand of arms. A little after midnight two hundred men, belonging to the Fifty-second Ohio, ar- rived.

On Sunday morning the city was thoroughly alarmed. The streets were thronged at an early hour, and by nine o'clock another large meeting had gathered in the Fifth- street market-space. Speeches were made by ex-Senator Pugh, Thomas J. Gallagher, and Benjamin Eggleston. It was announced that a battalion made up of the police force would be sent to Lexington in the evening. Ar- rangements were made to organize volunteer companies. Charles F. Wilstach and Eli C. Baldwin were authorized to procure rations for volunteers. The city council met, resolved that it would pay any bills incurred by the com- mittees appointed at the public meeting, and appropri- ated five thousand dollars for immediate wants. Eleven

hundred men-parts of the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-sixth Ohio, from Camp Chase-arrived in the afternoon and went directly on to Lexington. The police force, under Colonel Dudley, their chief, and an artillery company with a single piece, under Captain William Glass, of the city fire department, also took the special train for Lex- ington in the evening. - Similar scenes were witnessed across the river at Covington during the same period. While the troops were mustering, and the excited people were volunteering, it was discovered that a brother of John Morgan was a guest at one of the principal hotels. He made no concealment of his relationship or of his sympathy with the rebel cause, but produced a pass from General Boyle. He was detained.

Monday brought no further news of Morgan, and the alarm began to abate. Kentuckians expressed the belief that he only meant to attract attention by feints on Lex- ington and Frankfort, while he should make his way to Bourbon county and destroy the long Townsend viaduct near Paris, which might cripple the railroad for weeks. The Secretary of War gave permission to use some can- non which Miles Greenwood had been casting for the Government, and Governor Morton, of Indiana, fur- nished ammunition for them, the Columbus authorities having declined to supply it, except on the requisition of a United States officer commanding a post. The tone of the press may be inferred from the advice of the Gazette that "the bands sent out to pursue Morgan" should take few prisoners-"the fewer the better." "They are not worthy of being treated as soldiers," it continued; "they are freebooters, thieves, and murder- ers, and should be dealt with accordingly."

For a day or two there followed a state of uncertainty as to Morgan's whereabouts or the real nature of the danger. In answer to an application for artillery, the Secretary of War telegraphed that Morgan was retreating. Presently came dispatches from Kentucky that he was still advancing. Governor Dennison visited Cincinnati at the request of Governor Tod, consulted with the "committee of public safety," and passed on to Frank- fort to look after the squads of Ohio troops that had been hastily forwarded to the points of danger.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 30

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666