History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 49

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams
Number of Pages: 590

USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 49

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Pickaway, and Fairfield, report forthwith at Camp Chase to Brigadier General S. Mason, who is hereby authorized to organize said forces into battalions or regiments, and appoint, temporarily, officers therefor; it is further ordered that all such forces residing in the counties of Washington, Monroe, Noble, Meigs, Morgan, Perry, Hocking, and Athens, report forthwith to Colonel William R. Putnam, at Camp Marietta, who is hereby authorized to organize said forces into battal- ions or regiments, and appoint, temporarily, officers therefor.

DAVID TOD, Governor.

It was high time. Not even yet had the authorities begun to comprehend the tremendous energy with which Morgan was driving straight to his goal. While the peo- ple of Cincinnati were reading this proclamation, and considering whether or not they should put up the shut- ters of their store-windows,* Morgan was starting out in the gray dawn from Sunmanville for the suburbs of Cincinnati. Long before the rural population within fifty miles of the city had read the proclamation calling them to arms, he was at Harrison, which he reached at one P. M., Monday, July 13th. "Here," pleasantly ex- plains his historian, "General Morgan began to manœuver for the benefit of the commanding officer at Cincinnati. He took it for granted there was a strong force of regular troops in that city. Burnside had them not far off, and General Morgan supposed that they would of course be brought there. If he could get past Cincinnati safely, the danger of the expedition, he thought, would be more than half over. Here he expected to be confronted by the concentrated forces of Judah and Burnside, and he anticipated great difficulty in eluding or cutting his way through them. Once safely through this peril, his escape would be certain, unless the river remained so high that the transports could carry troops to intercept him at the upper crossings,"-unless, indeed ! "His object, therefore, entertaining these views, and believing that the great effort to capture him would be made as he crossed the Hamilton & Dayton railroad, was to deceive the enemy as to the exact point where he would cross this road, and denude that point as much as possible of troops. He sent detachments in various directions, seek- ing, however, to create the impression that he was march- ing to Hamilton."

This was a wise and prudent action in the audacious rebel commander; but, well as he read the purposes of his antagonists, he here made a mistake. He supposed that he was to be confronted by military men, acting on military principles. As it was, he deceived everybody. The Hamilton people telegraphed in great alarm that Morgan was marching on their town. A fire was seen burning at Venice; and straightway they threw out pick- ets to guard the main roads in that direction, to watch for Morgan's coming. Harrison sent in word of the passage of the rebel cavalry through that place at one o'clock, and of the belief that they were going to Ham- ilton. Wise, deputy sheriff, who had been captured by Morgan and parolled, hastened to tell that the rebel chief had conversed very freely with him, had shown no hes- itation in speaking of his plans, and had assured him that he was going to Hamilton. All this was retailed at

* Many thousand men wholly disobeyed the orders, and kept their stores or shops open through the day.

196

HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

the headquarters, on the streets, and in the newspaper offices.

That night, while the much enduring printers were put- ting these stories in type, John Morgan's entire command, now reduced to a strength of barely two thousand, was marching through the suburbs of this city of a quarter of a million inhabitants, within reach of troops enough to eat them up, absolutely unopposed, almost without meet- ing a solitary picket or receiving a hostile shot.

"In this night march around Cincinnati," writes again the historian of Morgan's cavalry, "we met with the greatest difficulty in keeping our column together. The guides were all in front with General Morgan, who rode at the head of the Second brigade, then marching in ad- vance. This brigade had, consequently, no trouble, but the First brigade was embarrassed beyond measure. Clark's regiment was marching in the rear of the Second; if it had kept closer up we would have had no trouble, for the entire column would have been directed by the guides. But this regiment, although composed of superb material, and unsurpassed in fighting qualities, had, from the period of its organization, been under lax and care- less discipline; and the effect of it was now observable. The rear companies straggled, halted, and delayed the First brigade-for it was impossible to ascertain immedi- ately whether the halt was that of the brigade in advance or only these stragglers-and, when forced to move on, they would go off at a gallop. A great gap would thus be opened between the rear of our brigade and the ad- vance of the other ; and we who were behind were forced to grope. our way as best we could. When we would come to one of the many junctions of roads which oc- cur in the suburbs of a large city, we would be com- pelled to consult all sorts of indications in order to hit upon the right road. The night was intensely dark, and we would set on fire large bundles of paper or splinters of wood to afford a light. The horses' tracks on roads so much travelled would give us no clue to the route which the other brigade had taken at such points; but we could trace it by noticing the direction in which the dust 'set- tled' or floated. We could also trace the column by the slaver dropped from the horses' mouths. It was a terrible trying march. Strong men fell out of their saddles, and at every halt the officers were compelled to move continu- ally about in their respective companies, and pull and haul the men, who would drop asleep in the road-it was the only way to keep them awake. Quite a number crept off into the fields and slept until awakened by the enemy. At length day appeared, just as we reached the last point where we had to anticipate danger. We had passed through Glendale and across all of the principal subur_ ban roads, and were near the Little Miami railroad. Those who have marched much at night will remember that the fresh air of morning invariably has a cheering effect upon the tired and drowsy, and awakens and in- vigorates them. It had this effect on our men on this occasion, and relieved us also from the necessity of grop- ing our way. We crossed the railroad without opposi- tion, and halted to feed our horses in sight of Camp Den- nison. After a short rest here, and a picket skirmish, we

resumed our march, burning in this neighborhood a park of government ·wagons. That evening at four o'clock, we were at Williamsburg, twenty-eight miles east of Cin- cinnati, having marched since leaving Sunmansville, in Indiana, in a period of about thirty-five hours, more than ninety miles-the greatest march that even Morgan had ever made. Feeling comparatively safe here, he permitted the division to go into camp and remain during the night."

From this picture, by a participant, of the march of two thousand rebel cavalry, unopposed, through the sub- urbs of Cincinnati, we turn to the heart of the city. Through the day there had been a little excitement and some drilling. Part of the business houses were closed, but the attendance at the ward meetings was very meagre. General Cox, under directions from General Burnside, had divided the city and county into militia districts, as- signed commanders to each, and ordered the completion of their organizations. The following is that part of the orders which relates to the county at large :

Hamilton county, beyond the limits of the city, will be divided into military districts as follows, and commandants of military companies will report to the following named officers:

I. Mill Creek township, report to Genlral J. H. Bates, city.

2. Anderson, Columbia and Spencer townships, report to James Peal, Pleasant Ridge.

3. Sycamore and Symmes townships, report to C. Constable, Mont- gomery.

4. Springfield and [probably Colerain] townships, re- port to Henry Gulick, Bevis post office.

5. Crosby, Harrison, Miami, and Whitewater townships, report to W. F. Converse, Harrison.

6. Delhi, Storrs, and Green townships, report to Major Peter Zinn, Delhi.

The above named officers will immediately assume command and es- tablish their headquarters.

The district commandants had ordered the militia to -- "parade to-morrow!" By "to-morrow, " as we have seen, John Morgan, after riding through the suburbs, was twenty-eight miles away. Toward midnight glimmerings of how it was being overreached began to dawn upon the public mind, as may be seen from the latest bulletins from headquarters, which the newspapers were permitted to publish. While the printers were busy with them, Morgan was marching his straggling, exhausted, scattered columns through the suburbs of Cincinnati. About the time city readers were glancing over them, he was feed- ing his horses and driving off the pickets at Camp Den- nison :

II:30 P. M .- A courier arrived last evening at General Burnside's headquarters, having left Cheviot at half past eight in the afternoon, with information for the general. Cheviot is only seven miles from the city. He states that about five hundred of Morgan's men had crossed the river at Miamitown, and attacked our pickets, killing or capturing one of them. Morgan's main force, said to be three thousand strong, was then crossing the river. A portion of the rebel force had been up to New Haven, and another had gone to New Baltimore, and partially destroyed both of those places. The light of the burning towns was seen by our men. When the courier left, Morgan was moving up, it was reported, to attack our advance.

I A. M .- A courier has just arrived at headquarters from Colerain, with dispatches for General Burnside. He reports that the enemy, sup- posed to be two thousand five hundred strong, with six pieces of ar- tillery, crossed the Colerain pike at dark at Bevis, going toward New Burlington, or to the Cincinnati and Hamilton pike, in the direction of Springdale.

I:30 A. M .- A dispatch from Jones's station states that the enemy are now encamped between Venice and New Baltimore.

197

HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

2 A. M .- Another dispatch says the enemy are coming in, or a squad of them, from New Baltimore toward Glendale, for the supposed pur- pose of destroying a bridge over the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad near Glendale.

2 A. M .- A dispatch from Hamilton says it is believed that the main portion of Morgan's force is moving in that direction, going east. At this writing-a quarter past two in the afternoon-it is the impression that Morgan's main force is going east, while he has sent squads to burn bridges on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, and over the Miami river; but he may turn and come down this way on some of the roads leading through Walnut Hills and Mount Auburn.

As a matter of fact, squads of Morgan's men did pass from Lockland through Sharpsburgh and Montgomery, and even so close to the city as Duck creek, two miles from the corporation line, stealing all the fine horses they could lay their hands upon.

The next day, with the revelation that Morgan was gone, began the gathering of the militia. Some hurried to Camp Chase, to be there held for the protection of the capital, or thence thrown toward southeastern Ohio, on his front. Others assembled at Camp Dennison, to be hurried by rail after him. All over the southern part of the State was a hasty mustering and crowding upon extra trains, and rush to the points of danger. Hobson, who, in spite of Morgan's tremendous marching, was only a few hours behind, pressed so hard upon his trail that the flying band had little time for the burning of railroad bridges, or indeed for aught but the impressment of fresh horses. Judah, with his troops, was dispatched by boats to gain the front of the galloping column and head it off from the river.

Meantime the excitement and apprehension in all the towns and villages within thirty or forty miles of Morgan's line of march was unprecedented in the history of the State. Thrifty farmers drove off their horses and cattle to the woods. Thrifty housewives buried their silver spoons. At least one terrified matron, in a pleasant in- land town forty miles from the rebel route, in her hus- band's absence, resolved to protect the family carriage horse at all hazards; and, having no safer place, led him into the house and stabled him in the parlor, locking and bolting doors and windows, whence the noise of his dis- mal tramping on the resounding floor sounded through the livelong night like distant peals of artillery, and kept half the citizens awake and watching for Morgan's en- trance.

There was, indeed, sufficient cause for considering property insecure anywhere within reach of the invaders. Horses and food, of course, they took wherever and whenever they wanted them; our own raiding parties gen- erally did the same. But the mania for plunder which befel this command and made its line of march look like a procession of peddlers, was something beyond all ordi- nary cavalry plundering. We need look for no other stronger words, in describing it, than the second in com- mand has himself chosen to use: "The disposition for wholesale plundering," he frankly admits, "exceeded any- thing that any of us had ever seen before. The men seemed actuated by a desire to pay off in the enemy's country all scores that the Union army had chalked up in the South. The great cause for apprehension which our situation might have inspired seemed only to make

them reckless. Calico was the staple article of appropri- ation. Each man who could get one, tied a bolt of it to his saddle, only to throw it away and get a fresh one at the first opportunity. They did not pillage with any sort of method or reason. It seemed to be a mania, senseless and purposeless. One man carried a bird cage, with three canaries in it, for two days. Another rode with a chafing dish, which looked like a small metallic coffin, on the pommel of his saddle, till an officer forced him to throw it away. Although the weather was intensely warm, another slung seven pairs of skates around his neck, and chuckled over the acquisition. I saw very few articles of real value taken; they pillaged like boys robbing an orchard. I would not have believed that such a passion could have been developed so ludicrously among any body of civilized men. At Piketon, Ohio, some days later, one man broke through the guard posted at a store, rushed in, trembling with excitement and avarice, and filled his pockets with horn buttons. They would, with few ex- ceptions, throw away their plunder after a while, like children tired of their toys."

Some movements of our own were, after their different fashion, scarcely less ludicrous. Some militia from Camp Dennison, for example, marched after Morgan till near Batavia, when they gravely halted and began felling the trees, to check him in case he should decide to come back over the route he had just travelled! A worthy mi- litia officer telegraphed to Governor Tod Morgan's exact position, and assured him that the rebel forces numbered precisely four thousand seven hundred and fifty men! Burnside himself telegraphed that it was now definitely ascertained that Morgan had about four thousand men. At Chillicothe they mistook some of their own militia for rebel scouts, and by way of protection burned a bridge across a stream that was, at that season, fordable any- where, and near the bridge the water scarcely came to the horses' knees! Governor Tod felt sure that only the heavy concentration of militia at Camp Chase had kept Morgan from seizing Columbus and plundering the State treasury. Several days after the bulk of the raiding force had been captured the governor gravely wrote to a militia officer at Cleveland, whom he was exhorting to renewed vigilance: "I announce to you that Morgan may yet reach the lake shore."

But if there was an error in the zeal displayed, it was on the safe side. Over fifty thousand Ohio militia ac- tually took the field against the sore-pressed fleeing band. Not half of them, however, at any time got within three- score miles of Morgan.

That officer was meantime intent neither upon the lake shore nor yet upon the treasury vaults at Columbus ; but, entirely satisfied with the commotion he had created, was doing his best to get out of the State. . He came very near doing it.

On the morning of the sixteenth of July, he was stop- ping to feed his horses in sight of Camp Dennison. That evening he encamped at Williamsburgh, twenty- eight miles east of Cincinnati. Then, marching through Washington Court-house, Piketon (with Colonel Richard Morgan going through Georgetown), Jackson, Vinton,

198

HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

Berlin, Pomeroy, and Chester, he reached the ford at Buffington Island on the evening of the eighteenth. But for his luckless delay for a few hours at Chester, it would seem that he might have escaped.

Until he reached Pomeroy, he encountered compara- tively little resistance. At Camp Dennison there was a little skirmish, in which a rebel lieutenant and several privates were captured; but Lieutenant Colonel Neff wisely limited his efforts to the protection of the bridge and camp. A train of the Little Miami road was thrown off the track. At Berlin there was a skirmish with the militia under Colonel Runkle. Small militia skirmishes were constantly occurring, the citizen soldiery hanging on the flanks of the flying invaders and wounding two or three men every day, and occasionally killing one.

At last the daring little column approached its goal. All the troops in Kentucky had been evaded and left behind. All the militia in Indiana had been dashed aside or outstripped. The fifty thousand militia in Ohio had failed to turn it from its pre-determined path. Within precisely fifteen days from the morning it had crossed the Cumberland-nine days from its crossing into Indi- ana-it stood once more on the banks of the Ohio. A few hours more of daylight, and it would be safely across, in the midst again of a population to which it might look for sympathy if not for aid.

But the circle of the hunt was narrowing. Judah, with his fresh cavalry, was up, and was marching ont from the river against Morgan. Hobson was hard on his rear. Colonel Runkle, commanding a division of militia, was north of him. And, at last, the local militia in advance of him were beginning to fell trees and tear up bridges to obstruct his progress. Near Pomeroy they made a stand. For four or five miles his road ran through a ravine, with occasional intersections from hill roads. At all these cross-roads he found the militia posted; and from the hills above him they made his passage through the ravine a perfect running of the gauntlet. On front, flank, and rear, the militia pressed; and, as Morgan's first subordinate ruefully expressed it, "closed eagerly upon our track." In such plight he passed through the ravine; and shaking clear of his pursuers for a while, pressed on to Chester, where he arrived about one o'clock in the afternoon of the eighteenth of July.

Here he made the first serious military mistake that had marked his course on northern soil. He was within a few hours' ride of the ford at which he hoped to cross; and the skirmishing about Pomeroy should have given him ample admonition of the necessity for haste. But he had been advancing through the ravine at a gallop. He halted now to breathe his horses and to hunt a guide. Three hours and a half thus lost went far toward decid- ing his fate.

When his column was well closed up, and his guide was found he moved forward. It was eight o'clock before he reached Portland, the little village on the bank of the Ohio nearly opposite Buffington Island. Night had fal- len-a night of solid darkness, as the rebel officers de- clared. The entrance to that ford was guarded by a little earthwork manned by only two or hree hundred infan-

try. This alone stood between him and an easy passage to Virginia.

But his evil genius was upon him. He had lost an hour and a half at Chester in the afternoon-the most precious hour and a half since his feet touched Northren soil; and he now decided to waste the night. In the nur- ried council with his exhausted officers it was admitted on all hands that Judah had arrived-that some of his troops had given force to the skirmishing near Pomeroy -that they would certainly be at Buffington by morning, and that gun-boats would accompany them. But his men were in bad condition, and he feared to trust them in a night attack upon a fortified position which he had not reconnoitred. The fear was fatal. Even yet, by aban- doning his wagon-train and his wounded, he might have reached unguarded fords a little higher up. This, too, was mentioned by his officers. He would save all, he promptly replied, or would lose all together. And so he gave mortgages to fate. By morning Judah was up. At daybreak Duke advanced with a couple of rebel regi- ments to storm the earthwork, but found it abandoned. He was rapidly proceeding to make dispositions for cross- ing, when Judah's advance struck him. At first he re- pulsed it, and took a number of prisoners, the adjutant general of Judah's staff among them. Morgan then or- dered him to hold the force on his front in check. He was not able to return to his command till it had been broken and thrown in full retreat before an impetuous charge of Judah's cavalry, headed by Lieutenant O'Neil, of the Fifth Indiana. He succeeded in rallying and re- forming his line. But now advancing up the Chester and Pomeroy road came the gallant cavalry that, over three States, had been galloping on their track-the three thousand of Hobson's command-who for now nearly two weeks had been only a day, a forenoon, an hour be- hind them.

As Hobson's guideons fluttered out in the little valley by the river bank where they fought, every man of that band that had so long defied a hundred thousand knew that the contest was over. They were almost out of ammu- nition, exhausted, and scarcely two thousand strong; against whom were Hobson's three thousand and Judah's still larger force. To complete the overwhelming odds, that in spite of their efforts had at last been concentrated upon them, the ironclad gun-boats steamed up and opened fire.

Morgan comprehended the situation as fast as the hard- riding troopers, who, still clinging to their bolts of cal- ico, were already galloping toward the rear. He at once essayed to extricate his trains, and then to withdraw his regiments by column of fours from right of companies, keeping up meanwhile as sturdy resistance as he might. For some distance the withdrawal was made in tolerable order; then, under a charge of a Michigan cavalry regi- ment, the retreat became a rout. Morgan, with not quiet twelve hundred men, escaped. His brother, with Colonels Duke, Ward, Huffman, and about seven hun- dred men were taken prisoners.

This was the battle of Buffington Island. It was brief and decisive. But for his two mistakes of the night be-

199

HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.

fore, Morgan might have avoided it and escaped; yet it cannot be said that he yielded to the blow that insured his fate without spirited resistance and a courage and ten- acity worthy of a better cause. Our superiority in forces was overwhelming, and our loss trifling. Among the few killed, however, was Major Daniel McCook, of Cincinnati, a patriotic old man, for whose fate there was a very gener- al regret. He was not in the service, but had accompan- ied the cavalry as a volunteer. He was accorded a mili- tary funeral at Cincinnati, which was largely attended. He was the father of Robert L., Alexander M., and George W. McCook, besides several other sons, nearly all of whom, with notable unanimity, had been in the service from the outbreak of the war, and most of whom had risen to high rank.

The prisoners were at once sent down the river to Cin- cinnati, on the transports which had brought up some of their prisoners, in charge of Captain Day, of General Ju- dah's staff, of whose manly and soldiery courtesy they made grateful mention, albeit not much given to praise- ing the treatment they received at the North. The troops, with little rest, pushed on after Morgan.

And now began the dreariest experience of the rebel chief. Twenty miles above Buffington he struck the river again, got three hundred of his command across, and was himself midway in the stream when the approaching gun- boats checked the passage. Returning to the nine hun- dred still on the Ohio side, he once more renewed the hurried flight. His men were worn down and exhausted by long-continued and enormous work; they were de moralized by pillage, discouraged by the scattering of their command, weakened most of all by the loss of faith in themselves and their commander, surrounded by a mul- titude of foes, harassed at every hand, intercepted at every loophole of escape, hunted like game night and day, driven hither and thither in their vain efforts to double on their remorseless pursuers. It was the early type and token of a similar fate under pursuit of which the great army of the confederacy was to fade out ; and no other words are needed to finish the story we have now to tell than those with which the historian of the army of the Potomac (Swinton) discribes the tragic flight to Appomattox Court House :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 49

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams Number of Pages: 590

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp; Williams, L.A. & co., Cleveland, O., pub
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio, L. A. Williams
Number of Pages: 590