History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 155

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

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These and other facts too numerous to mention here, were communicated to President Jefferson, and led to the arrest and trial of Burr.

Colonel George Morgan and his sons, John and Thomas, were witnesses on behalf of the Government at Burr's trial; and it was at Richmond, where the trial took place, that Thomas Morgan and Katherine Duane, the future parents of George W. Morgan, first met. Miss Duane was daughter of Colonel William Duane, editor of the Aurora, the recognized organ of Thomas Jefferson. His father, John Duane, married Anastatia Sars- field, a collateral relative of General Patrick Sarsfield, who commanded the Irish troops at the famous battle of Limerick. John Duane and wife emigrated from Ireland to the United States in the first half of the Eighteenth century, and settled near Lake Champlain in the State of New York. Their son William was born in 1760, and after the death of his father, in 1771, his mother returned to Ireland, where he received a clas- sical education, and greatly excelled as a linguist. Anastatia Duane was a devout Catholic, and became forever estranged from her son because he married Katherine Corcoran, a Pres- byterian.

In 1784 William Duane went to Calcutta, in India, and es- tablished a journal called The World, one side of which was printed in English and the other in Hindoostan. The paper acquired great influence, and Duane amassed a considerable fortune in a few years. He dreamed of an Anglo-Indian em- pire; and the governor general became uneasy at the influence of The World. One fine morning when a ship was about to sail for England Duane was invited to breakfast with that officer, and was entertained with every semblance of hospitality. The breakfast over, in marched a guard of soldiers, who ar- rested Duane and conveyed him on board the English ship. His large property was confiscated by the governor general,

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and on his arrival in England he in vain sought for redress. He soon became the editor of The Advertiser, the organ of the pronounced liberals who followed the lead of John Horne Tooke. In consequence of the boldness of his articles he was arrested for Ifbel; and in 1795 he returned to the United States, and became the associate editor with Bache of The Aurora, and soon became the sole editor and proprietor. That journal led the opposition to the administration of John Adams, and upon the action of the Senate, Duane was indicted and tried for libel under the sedition laws. He was heavily fined, but the fines were afterwards remitted by President Jefferson.

Duane was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel in a regiment of rifles in the army of the United States, and held that rank in the War of 1812. He was the author of a number of scientific and literary works, among which was a work on tactics, which for many years was recognized as authority. His son, William J. Duane, was Secretary of the Treasury under Andrew Jackson, with whom he had a rupture. Duane refused to remove the public deposits from the United States bank, on the ground that the bank was entitled to hold them until the expiration of its charter. As a compromise, Jackson tendered him the mis- sion to Russia, which he declined. He was then removed, and Roger B. Taney was appointed his successor.

George W. Morgan was born at Washington, Pennsylvania, September 20, 1820. The course of his education was irregular. He was for four years in what was then known as the English department connected with Washington college, and was in the grammar school before enrolling as a private soldier in the army of the Republic of Texas.

He early evinced a fondness for history, and read with avidity the Lives of Plutarch, Rollins' Ancient History, and the separate lives of the great military captains. After his return from Texas he entered Washington college, and was in that in- stitution about eighteen months, when he was sent to the mili- tary academy, where he remained two years.

On the sixth day of September, 1836, Captain Thomas J. Morgan organized a company of volunteers for service in the Republic of Texas, then menaced with a second invasion by Mexico, and George enrolled his name as a volunteer in his brother's company. Not long after the arrival of the company in Texas, George was promoted to be first sergeant, and entered with zeal on the discharge of his duties.

The army of Texas was then in Camp Independence, on the La Bacca, under the command of Brigadier General Felix Huston, late a lawyer of Natchez, Mississippi. He was a man of eloquence, courage, and energy, and by instinct a soldier. His army was well drilled, but not well disciplined. As a com- mander, Huston was after the style of Wallenstein, and gov- erned his soldiers by his personal magnetism; and they would have followed him wherever he chose to lead. During the in- tervals of drill he would make passionate harangues to his troops; recite the tragedy of the Alamo, and the butchery of Fannin and his five hundred comiades at Goliad. Then would follow a glowing description of Mexico; a thrilling narrative of the conquest by Ferdinand Cortez; and he promised to lead his soldiers to the halls of the Montezumas, if the l'resident and Congress would allow him to do so. Sam Houston was then President, and Congress was in session at Columbia, the capital of the State. Albert Sidney Johnston, who afterwards fell at Shiloh, was the adjutant general of Texas. He was a graduate of the United States military academy, and was rec- ognized by all who knew him as possessing many clements of

greatness. With a kindly heart, he was grave, dignified, and reserved, but without the magnetism that was one of the chief characteristics of Sam Houston.

Major Gray, Captain T. J. Morgan, and probably other offi- cers, informed the President through the adjutant general, of the demoralized condition of the army.

Felix Huston was brigadier general in command of the army in the field, while the rank of Sidney Johnston was colonel. Congress authorized the President to commission a first briga- dier general, a grade till then unknown, and the commission was bestowed on Johnston.

In the meantime Sam Houston visited the camp on the La Bacca. He was a man of majestic presence; six feet four inches in height, and nobly developed in person. He was alike great as a statesman and as a soldier. Having called upon General Huston, he visited the hospital, cheered the sick, and here and there recognized an old comrade of San Jacinto. The next day he reviewed the army; caused it to be formed in double column closed in mass, and addressed the troops in deep and solemn tones, as a father miglit speak to his erring chil- dren.

When Felix Huston harangued the army, as he often did, the cheers of the soldiers could be heard far away over the prairies. But when Sam Houston spoke, there was an impres- sive silence. He briefly reviewed the struggle of Texas for independence. The most dangerous enemies of Texas, he said, were not in Mexico, but in the United States. Texans had no cause to fear those who would meet them in the field, with arms in their hands; but real danger to Texas was to be apprehended from the charges of those who represented the Texans as a lawless banditti. He appealed to the soldiers to aid him in making Texas respected by the nations; and that could only be done by every citizen and soldier yielding cordial obedience to the laws.

When he closed his address not a cheer went up, but the spell in which Felix Huston had held the army was broken.

A few days after President Houston had returned to Colum- bia, while Felix Huston was manœuvering his troops on the prairie, several horsemen were seen to approach along the trail lea ling towards the capital. It was Sidney Johnston and his staff.

At a glance, Felix Huston comprehended the situation; and advanced to meet the man, by whom he had been overslaughed. Their saluations were courteous and dignified. Huston invited Johnston and his staff to sup with him, and the invitation was accepted. These two men were of opposite types in every thing, but courage. In aspect, Johnston was bronzed and stern. His hair was was thick and nearly black; his forehead, broad and high; his brows, heavy and projecting; his eyes, dark brown, and serious in their expression. No one ever met Sidney John- ston, who did not feel he was in the presence of a remarkable man.

Felix Huston was the taller, but not the heavier man. His complexion was fair; his eyes, in one of which was a slight cast, were grey-blue; and his hair, light brown. He possessed more magnetism than Johnston, but was not so great man. Huston had a dash of recklessness in his composition, and the faults which belonged to his temperment; but was as generous, as he was brave.

While thus, the rival chieftains, greeted each other, the eye of every soldier was bent upon them; and as they parted, young Sergeant Morgan, turned to his brother and said: Tom,

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those men will fight! "Tut, tut," the captain answered, "there is nothing to fight about."

The supper passed off pleasantly; but scarcely had Johnston reached his quarters, when Major Ross of Huston's staff, delivered him a cartel from his chief. The correspondence, the author has never seen, and what he narrates of the duel, is legendary ; but believed to be true.

In his note, Huston said there was no man in Texas, under whom he would be more proud to serve, than General Johnston, for whom he entertained great respect as an officer, and gentle- man. But the President, with authority of Congress, had promoted a junior officer over him. That as he could not demand satisfaction of them all, he requested the honor of a meeting with their representative; and that Major Ross was authorised to make the necessary arrangements. Johnston promptly replied, reciprocating the courteous sentiments ex- presed by Huston, named sun-rise the next morning, as the time, and the west bank of the La Bacca as the place of meet- ing; and designated Colonel Moorehouse as his friend.

While this was going on, Dr. Ezra Reed, lately deceased at Terre Haute, called at the quarters-half tent, half house-of Captain Morgan, to borrow from the assistant surgeon -

一, who messed there, a pocket case of surgical instruments, to amputate the crushed finger of a poor fellow, as Reed said, who had been accidentally injured. Sergeant Morgan exclaimed: "And so it requires pocket instruments to amputate a finger, does it?" The captain still discredited the idea of a duel. The next morning, as young Morgan was calling the roll of his company at reveille, two pistol shots were heard from the direc- tion of the river; and the sergeant, without finishing the roll call, ordered: "Break ranks! march ! "and exclaimed: "Boys, Johnston and Huston are fighting," and broke for the river, on the opposite bank of which, but out of view, the duel was tak- ing place.

There was but one brace of duelling pistols in camp; they belonged to Huston, and of necessity were used. The spring of one of the locks was weak; Huston called attention to the fact, and chose that pistol for himself. Johnston had never pulled a hair trigger, while Huston was a crack shot. To equalize the chances it was arranged, at Huston's suggestion, that the elbow of the pistol arm should be kept against the hip, and that the forearm alone should be raised to fire. At the first shot Johnston's ball cut a twig, which fell at Huston's feet. He took it up, and said: "A capital shot, General." Johnston passed a finger through a bullet hole in the lappel of his coat, and replied: "Not so good as yours, General." Huston missed at the second shot, and the ball of Johnston entered the ground a few feet from him, on the line of fire. At the third shot Johnston missed his aim, and Huston's pistol snapped. Hc sat down at the root of a tree, and braced the spring by insert- ing a small splint of wood. While doing so, he noticed that Moorehouse, Johnston's second, was about to load with a de- fective ball when Huston called out, " Here, Colonel, is a good ball. The flaw in that one would catch the wind," and Johns- ton's pistol was loaded with the perfect bali taken from Huston's pocket. At the fourth shot Johnston fell. The ball entered the hip on the right side, and was extracted from the left by a simple incision of the skin. The wound was painful, and not free from danger. When Johnston fell, he promptly raised himself on his elbow, and said: "Gentlemen, I call upon you all to bear witness that this affair has been conducted honor- ably."

The combatants now repose in death. Huston died, long since, in the south; and Johnston fell at Shiloh. His friends believe, that had he not fallen, the fate of that day had been different.

In February, 1837, Sergeant Morgan was promoted to a sec- ond lieutenantcy of artillery, in the regular army, and was or- dered to report to the commandant of the post on Galveston island.

In an army, and especially in such an army, inaction breeds discontent, and discontent is the parent of mutiny. Nearly every State in the Union was represented, and every man had gone to avenge Fannin, and Travis, and Crockett, and Bowie. Every man wished to aid in transferring the lone star of Texas, to our National banner, but the Mexicans threatened and made demonstrations, but did not seek those whom they denounced as invaders. The fare of the army was rough; for long months at a time the soldiers lived on beef, coffee, and tobacco, without bread or vegetables. But if the fare was rough, the clothing was worse, for the treasury of Texas was empty, and the soldiers received no pay. And for all this, never, in the world's history, did any country do so much for her soldiers as Texas has done. Those who enlisted for the war, on their discharge, received a warrant for one thousand two hundred and eighty acres of land. One-third of a century after Texas was annexed to the Union, every surviving veteran of the Texan revolution was given a pension of one thousand dollars; and, several years ago, an additional land grant of six hundred and forty acres was made to every indigent veteran who had served in that revolution; and on the fifteenth of March, 1881, by act of the Texas legisla- ture, another grant of one thousand two hundred and eighty acres was made to every surviving veteran, or to his widow.

Nevertheless, a mutinous epidemic broke out in the camp of the main army in 1837, and spread to every post in Texas. Amidst a terrific midnight storm, Colonel Teal was shot dead in his tent. Who fired the shot has never been known.

Shortly afterward a mutiny broke out at ('amp Johnston, on the Navadad. The leaders were arrested and put in irons. The guard was doubled, and Captain Thomas J. Morgan was cap- tain of the guard: During the night, a large body of armed men assembled in front of the guard tent and demanded the release of the prisoners. The guard was under arms ready to obey orders. Captain Morgan stepped to the front and briefly addressed the mutineers. He spoke to them in a kindly man- ner, but with firmness. He appealed to them to return to their duty, and told them they could only reach the prisoners over the dead bodies of the guard. His firmness and presence of mind restored discipline, and as a recognition of his services he was commissioned major; by which title he was known until the hour of his death.

The post at Velasco next suffered. Lieutenant Sprowl joined the mutincers, and was shot and instantly killed by Captain Snell, commandant of the post.

At that time there were two companies at Galveston, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Lynch, and the disease of mutiny next attacked them. The entire want of pay, for Texas had no money; the want of proper food-the soldiers having lived on fresh fish for three weeks; the want of clothing; and, more than all, the want of an active and glorious campaign, were the combined causes which demoralized the army.

Lieutenant Berth had been a sergeant in the army of the United States, and in that service would have been efficient as an adjutant-he was the adjutant of the post of Galveston. He

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was as cold and precise as a machine, and the soldiers detested him. He received an anonymous warning not to sleep in his quarters; and that very night a shell exploded under his bed and blew it to pieces, while Berth lay concealed in the grass near by. The next day he fled from the island.

Adam Clendennin, Morgan's captain, was very unpopular. He was young, haughty and brave. A note was sent to him, demanding that he should leave the island. He treated it with contempt. The next night, while Clendennin and Morgan were in their quarters, built of sand sod, matted together by the roots of grass, Herculano, a Mexican servant, came running in, pale and trembling, and exclaimed: "The soldiers! the soldiers !"

Seizing their swords, they rushed out, and saw three soldiers loading a cannon pointed at their sand sod building, and not over fifteen paces from it. They rushed toward the gun; the would-be assassins sunk in the tall prairie grass and disap- peared. The gun was spiked, and left in its position. On the next morning, while Clendennin and Morgan were at breakfast, the crack of a musket was heard, and a ball crashed through the slats of the window in front of the table at which they were seated. A prompt, but fruitless search was made. They re- turned to breakfast, and consulted as to what was best to be done. Clendennin determined to ask for orders to proceed to Houston, to report the condition of affairs at the war office. He had made but a step from the door, when the report of a musket was heard, and a ball whistled close to his head. He took the first boat for Houston.

First Lieutenant Beaumont had resigned, and Morgan was left in command of the company. A committee of three, com- posed of First Lieutenant Agnew, a half-breed Indian, named Smith, and another, called on Morgan to assure him that he had nothing to fear if he did not interfere. He replied that it was their place to obey orders, not to give them; that he was in command of the company by the authority of his commis- sion, and would do his duty. The military forms of roll call, parade, and guard-mounting were continued, but the mutineers were in frequent consultation. That day and night passed off quietly, but towards morning Morgan was awakened by Ordi- nance Sergeant Keoph, who told him that Smith was ring- leader of the mutiny; that he was trying to pursuade the men to kill the remaining officers, seize a brig, then lying in the bay, and put to sea. That on the coming midnight a general con- sultation was to be held in the street formed by the huts occu- pied by Morgan's company. Ten of Morgan's men, and Ser- geant Grover remained true, but feigned to sympathize with the mutineers. By prearrangement they were detailed for guard duty, on the following day, and by the roster it fell to Morgan's lot to be officer of the day.

The new guard was mounted; the day passed off with unusual quiet, and at night Morgan had the faithful Herculano conceal himself in the grass to watch any movement on part of the mu- tineers. Toward midnight he crept to Morgan's quarters and told him they were assembling, but without arms. The Mexi- can was sent with written orders to Sergeant Grover to meet Morgan with his ten men in rear of his company's quarters. The tall grass concealed their approach. Their arms were loaded with buck shot. Grover was charged to look to Smith. The guard noislessly filed between the huts, faced to the muti- neers with their backs to a hut. The surprise was complete. Morgan had cautioned the guard not to fire unless he gave the word. He commanded, "Make ready!" The half-breed stepped

forward and commenced to draw a heavy blunderbuss pistol but was instantly struck over the head and knocked senseles by the butt of Grover's musket. Morgan then told the men that only seven of them were guilty, and, calling their names, ordered them to step to the front, or be fired upon. They came for- ward and were ironed, marched to the guardhouse, and the re- mainder of the command were dismissed to their quarters, with the injunction to return to their duty. The suddenness of the surprise, the fall of Smith, the sense of guilt, and the chance of being regarded as innocent, demoralized those who were on the verge of desperate mutiny.

In the meantime Clendennin was not idle. He rallied a large body of officers who had just been furloughed, and armed to the teeth, and reenforced by a party of citizens who were keen for a fray, took a steamer and reached Galveston on the night following the arrest of the ringleaders. It was well they came. Toward morning a large body of mutineers by their numbers overawed the guard and liberated the prisoners. By this time Clendennin's reinforcement had landed, and the mutineers qui- etly retired to their quarters. On the beach near Lynch's quar- ters were two heavy guns which he had turned towards the bar- racks of the two companies, and they were ordered to parade. The order was obeyed, and the ringleaders were again returned to the guardhouse.

Ten minutes afterwards, Colonel Lynch, by Surgeon Shep- pard, sent a challenge to Clendennin. It had been reported to Lynch that Clendennin had uttered some serious reflections against him at Houston. The challenge was peremptory, and was instantly accepted, the duel to take place immediately after the adjournment of the court martial, which was at once to as- semble to try the mutineers. Lynch was the president; Morgan, as junior officer, the judge-advocate; and Clendennin was a member of the court.

The court immediately assembled. The accused were jointly tried, and found guilty. But the court considered all the cir- cumstances of mitigation, and was lenient in its sentence. All pay, and one thousand two hundred and eighty acres of bounty land were forfeited, and the mutineers were dishonorably dis- charged, and sent from the island, with a warning not to return.

Lynch and Clendennin proceeded from the court to the beach, and while Morgan was writing the report of the proceedings of the court, the report of the pistol of the combatants was heard. The principals, at the word, wheeled and fired. Clendennin was struck in the side, but the ball, striking a button, glanced, and the wound was slight.

Morgan was immediately promoted to the first lieutenantcy, made vacant by the resignation of Beaumont, and on the reor- ganization of the army, under President Lamar, he was made captain in the First regiment of regular infantry, commanded by Colonel Bruleson, and at eighteen years of age commanded the post at Galveston.

Peace was never ratified between Texas and Mexico, and a quasi war continued until the conclusion of the treaty of peace between the United States and Mexico, in 1848.

Morgan enlisted in the service of Texas September 6, 1836, and resigned his commission of captain on September 6, 1839.

In June, 1843, Captain Morgan, as he was then known, came to Mt. Vernon. He had but fifty cents in his pocket, and there were only three persons in Knox county whom he had ever met-Caleb J. McNulty, A. Banning Norton, and Dr. A. C. Scott. He was young, strong, full of hope, and ready to work. He entered the law office of the Hon. John K. Miller

MUSS EN

ANDREW B. MERRIN.

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as a law student, and became the partner of his preceptor as soon as he was admitted to the bar. But the following spring the war with Mexico broke out, and he abandoned the law office, to become the captain of "The Young Guard," which organ- ized in Mt. Vernon. He had been in Ohio only three years, when at Cincinnati he was elected colonel of the Second Ohio, by the unanimous voice of his company officers.

As is generally the case, every one seemed to believe that the war would be of short duration; and the volunteers were en- listed to serve for a single year. They could have been as readily enlisted for the war. During that year Colonel Morgan served in the army, commanded by General Zachary Taylor. For some months he was stationed at Camargo, which enabled him, with the efficient assistance of Lieutenant Colonel Irwin and Major William Wall, to bring his regiment to a high state of drill and discipline. Not the discipline of regulars, for the very nature of the volunteer service renders that impracticable. Nay, more, it requires years to establish such discipline, under favorable circumstances, but when once established an army acts with the certainty of a machine, and it is superior to a ma- chine because action is guided by reason. But there are advantages in the volunteer system. There is more individual- ity; and the road to promotion and glory is open to every soldier in the ranks ; which is the inspiration of success.

Morgan's regiment was well disciplined; and in the rapidity of its evolutions, and in steadiness of courage, it was the equal of any regular regiment. On the twenty-sixth of Febru- ary, 1847, with a batallion of his regiment, he fought and repulsed General Urea and a force of lancers ten times Morgan's strength. The march and fight was in a square, and Morgan's men displayed the coolness and steadiness of veterans. Had they been less steady or less cool, not a man would have been left to tell the story of slaughter and defeat. Taylor devoted a special report to that series of actions, and that report secured the promotion of Morgan to the senior colonelcy of the eight additional infantry regiments in the regular army; and he was the only officer in that war who commanded a separate volun- teer and regular regiment.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 155

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096