USA > Ohio > History of Ohio, covering the periods of Indian, French and British dominion, the territory Northwest, and the hundred years of statehood > Part 38
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In this same doleful September Lee made his first invasion of Maryland, entting off the line of communication by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. Mcclellan was restored to command, and battles. were fought in Maryland to defend Washington and Philadelphia. It may be imagined that profound depression prevailed in Ohio in the midst of this unexpected result of the "On to Richmond" cam- paigns. But the Ohio troops did their duty in the emergency. The distinctively Ohio command in the Army of the Potomae during this famous campaign was the Kanawha division under the command of Gen. Jacob D. Cox. It was part of the Ninth army corps, under General Reno, and when the latter was killed at Sonth Mountain, General Cox was advaneed to eorps command. The Kanawha divi- sion led in the attack upon the strong position of the Confederates at Turner's Pass, September 14th, fought gallantly and lost heavily. The First brigade was in the advance of Reno's army, led by Col. E. P. Seammon, the Twenty-third regiment under Lieut .- Col. Rutherford B. Hayes, the Twelfth under Col. Carr B. White, and
* But he soon recrossed the river: Morgan's division was sent to Point Pleasant, and in October. Cox and Crook returned and the Kanawha valley was regained and permanently held.
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the Thirtieth under Col. Hugh Ewing. MeMullin's battery was advanced with the attacking column, and the second line was com- posed of the Second brigade, Eleventh, Twenty-eighth and Thirty- sixth Ohio, under Col. George Crook. A hill was won, and when the enemy attempted to retake it, the Thirty-sixth and Twelfth saved the position by a dashing charge. Hayes' regiment lost 130 killed and wounded, a very heavy casualty, for all the regiments were depleted. The total loss of the two Ohio brigades was 336. Hayes was wounded. He and Cox and Seammon and Crook here won their promotions and may be said to have begun their careers of distine- tion, though they had earned promotion in West Virginia.
In the great battle of Antietam that followed, General Cox com- manded the Ninth corps under General Burnside, and Colonel Seammon the Kanawha division, while Col. Hugh Ewing led the First brigade, and Crook the Second. Cox fought the famous battle for the possession of the bridge over Antietam creek, and the two Ohio brigades were in the heat of the struggle, winning a victory after stubborn fighting, but being compelled to yield the advantage to Lee's reinforcements, while MeClellan held out of the battle a corps that might have saved the important position gained and com- pelled the surrender of Lee's army. MeClellan was afraid to risk all on one tremendous blow that might have ended the war, and Lee escaped from the effects of his strategie blunder and peacefully retreated aeross the Potomac. Therefore many lives were wasted, among them two Ohio lieutenant-colonels, A. H. Coleman, and Clarke, of Miami county, and 36 killed and 188 wounded in the Kanawha division. At the other end of the field, where there was terrible havoe, an Ohio brigade fought under Major-General Mans- field ( killed ), and lost a hundred killed and wounded, the brigade at the close of the fight being under the command of Maj. Orrin J. Crane, of the Seventh. The other regiments with the Seventh were the Fifth and Sixty-sixth Ohio and Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania. The Eighth Ohio, in Kimball's brigade, under Lient .- Col. Franklin Sawyer, probably had harder fighting than any other Ohio command, half their number (324) being killed or wounded. Gen. E. B. Tyler, who had fought a battle against Stonewall Jackson in the val- ley. commanded a brigade of Pennsylvania troops in this battle and at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.
Before the news of the slaughter at South Mountain and Antietam brought mourning to Ohio homes, the State was alarmed by the great invasion of Kentucky. First came word that Kirby Smith was coming up to Ohio over the old Warrior's trail through Cumberland Gap. Gen. George W. Morgan, commanding a division, including the Sixteenth and Forty-second Ohio in Colonel De Courey's brigade, had occupied Cumberland Gap, but was flanked out of the position and compelled to retreat to the Ohio river. General Manson
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attempted to check the Confederates at Richmond, Ky., August 30th, and was swept away, one Ohio regiment, the Ninety-fifth, sharing in the battle, and losing 48 killed and wounded, among the wounded their colonel, William L. MeMillen. News of the battle reached Cincinnati Saturday night and on Monday came the infor- mation that General Buell, lately planning to take Chattanooga, was retreating toward Louisville, and Bragg was advancing with the main Confederate army to unite with Smith. Cincinnati was exposed to the combined Confederate forces. It is not surprising that the city was alarmed. Yet there was no panie. The people resolved to defend their homes. Gen. Lew Wallace was sent to take command, and he at once proclaimed martial law and ordered the citizens to suspend all business and assemble for military service or work. "The principle adopted is, Citizens for the labor, soldiers for the battle," he said; "The willing shall be properly credited, the mwilling promptly visited." This vigorous order was generally and cheerfully obeyed. Every store was closed, the street cars stopped running, and even the schoolteachers reported for duty. By noon thousands of citizens were drilling in companies, and many were at work on the fortifications traeed back of Newport and Covington. At the close of the day a pontoon bridge connected Cincinnati and Cov- ington, and lumber for barracks and material for fortifying was being transported. Governor Tod, meanwhile, reached the city and ordered forward all the available troops and munitions of war. "Through- out of the interior, church and fire bells rang, mounted men galloped about spreading the alarm, there was a hasty cleaning of hunting rifles, molding of bullets and filling of powder horns, and village musters of volunteers." The trains for Cincinnati were crowded that night, and by daybreak of September 3d the "Squirrel Hunters" began pouring into Cincinnati. These, as the self-armed volunteers were called, with their homespun clothes and sportsman outfits, mingled in the streets with fragments of militia companies and invalid veterans and portions of partly organized regiments, march- ing over the pontoon bridge into Kentucky. "The ladies of the city furnished provisions by the wagon load; the Fifth-street market house was converted into a vast free eating saloon ; halls and ware- honses were used as barracks." By the 4th Governor Tod had sent to the point of danger twenty regiments, and twenty-one more were in organization, besides the militia. Among them was the newly organized Hundred-and-Fourth, under Col. J. W. Reilly. The stringent orders regarding business were relaxed in a few days, but the people continued their work of defense. Details of white citi- zens, three thousand a day,-judges, lawyers, elerks, merchant- princes and day laborers, shoveled side by side in the red Kentucky elay, and a negro brigade reinforced them. The Confederate demon- stration was pushed far enough to cause some skirmishing before
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Wallace's line by September 10th, but by the 15th it was apparent that the prompt measures for defense of the city had saved it from all danger of attack, and the "Squirrel Hunters"# were able to return to their homes and the citizens to business. This was the "siege of Cincinnati," which left its monuments in extensive military works on the hills of Newport and Covington. After it was over, the peo- ple laughed, but they had done a glorious as well as necessary work, unparalleled in the history of the United States. As General Wal- lace said in his farewell address: "Paris may have seen something like it in her revolutionary days, but the cities of America never did. Be proud that you have given them such an example."
The relief of Cincinnati from danger was caused by the advance of Buell from Louisville, compelling Bragg to concentrate for a bat- tle, which was fought at Perryville, Ky., October Sth. Ohio troops had a very important part in this famous combat, and sustained one- fourth of the total casualties. The battle was fought almost entirely by Gen. Alexander McCook's corps, and the brunt of the Confederate assault was borne largely by the brigades commanded by Col. Leonard A. Harris, of the Second regiment : Col. William H. Lvtle, of the Tenth ( who was wounded and captured ) : Col. Albert S. Hall, of the Hundred-and-Fifth, and Col. George Webster, of the Ninety- eighth ( who was killed). Under these Ohio officers were eight Ohio regiments, which lost 1,059 killed, wounded and captured. Four of these, the Tenth, Third, Hundred-and-Fifth and Ninety-eighth, lost 222 killed and 625 wounded. No regiment lost so many killed or wounded or fought more gallantly than the Tenth Ohio, in that part of the field held by Lytle. Colonel Beatty's Third fought side by side with them, and the two, by a stubborn defense, did a great deal to avert disaster when the other wing of the army was crumpled up under the Confederate assault.
While these andacions campaigns were being carried on toward the north, another Confederate army, under Price and Vandorn, attempted to drive Grant and Rosecrans out of Mississippi and east Tennessee. Rosecrans, whose merit had by this time been reeog- . mized by command of the Army of the Mississippi, attacked the enemy at Inka, September 19th and won a victory. Gen. David S. Stanley, a native of Wayne county, who had had a distinguished career in Missouri and on the Mississippi, commanded a division. Col. John W. Fuller's Ohio brigade ( Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third regiments) was engaged, the Thirty- ninth regiment winning honorable mention, and no command was more highly spoken of in the general's report than Sands' Ohio bat-
* There were fifteen thousand of the "Squirrel Hunters." from the various counties of the State. Brown and Gallia contributing over two thousand.
+ The Second. Thirty-third. Ninety-fourth, Third. Tenth, Hundred-and-Fifth. Fiftieth. Ninety-eighth and Hundred-and-Twenty-first.
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tery, that fought brilliantly in an exposed position, losing 16 killed and 35 wounded, a loss seldom equalled in the artillery service.
Two weeks later Rosecrans, in the works at Corinth, was assailed by the Confederate forces, and successfully resisted desperate and repeated assaults, practically destroying the Confederate army brought against him. In this fight Fuller's Ohio brigade fought in the place of greatest danger, at Battery Robinett. The Sixty-third lost 24 killed and 105 wounded, the Forty-third 20 killed and 76 wounded, the Twenty-seventh 62 in all, and Col. J. L. Kirby Smith, of the Forty-third (nephew of the Confederate Kirby Smith), fell with a mortal wound, Adjutant Heyl dropping with him. Colonels Sprague, Swayne and Noyes were particularly commended in the official reports. The Eightieth, Twenty-second and Eighty-first infantry, Fifth cavalry and Sands' battery, also did their duty, and lost more than a hundred men.
This was the only decided success in the enemy's country to cheer the people of the North in the fall of 1862. Lee and Bragg retreated, but to positions that continued to threaten the North. Buell, made the subject of a court of inquiry, gave place to Rosecrans, who won in a remarkable degree the confidence and love of the Army of the Cumberland, that he now set about reorganizing at Nashville.
Not only was the course of the war discouraging, but the proposi- tion to emancipate the slaves of the South as a war measure was not agreeable to all. The Democrat party in Ohio declared its alle- giance to the Union, but opposed emancipation and arraigned the administration for those arbitrary exertions of power which aecom- pany war. Their platform found so much favor that they carried the State, electing W. W. Armstrong secretary of state, and Judge Ranney to the supreme court, by a majority of seven thousand. The danger of Ohio's sending a congressional delegation opposed to the administration was so great that Schenck and Garfield became can- didates for Congress. They were elected, but only three other Republicans pulled through, while sixteen Democrats were success- ful.
In October, Maj .- Gen. O. M. Mitchel, who had lost his command in Alabama because of a tremendous ontery against some plundering by his soldiers, died of yellow fever on the Carolina coast. The State had expected much of him, he was regarded as one of the ablest and most brilliant generals, and his death was deeply mourned.
There was little in the events of the war during the remainder of the year to inspire hope. The army in Virginia was defeated with frightful loss at Fredericksburg, December 13th, the Fourth and Eighth Ohio sharing in the casualties of the charge against Marye's hill. In Mississippi Grant was thwarted in his campaign against Vicksburg, and Sherman, attempting to carry the Confederate works north of that river post, suffered a grievous repulse and heavy loss,
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nearly a third of which was borne by Ohio troops, who had 68 killed, 250 wounded and 200 captured. Gen. George W. Morgan, of Ohio, commanded the division that did most of the fighting, and Colonel De- C'ourey commanded the brigade that led the assault. The Sixteenth Ohio was particularly distinguished, and suffered the heaviest loss on the field, 16 killed, 103 wounded, and 194 captured before the Confederate works. Sherman, on account of this battle, again went under temporary eelipse, while Roseerans, in conunand of the main army of the west, gained renown by advancing to Murfreesboro and fighting in the elosing days of 1862 and beginning of 1>63 the famous battle of Stone River. It began something like Pittsburg Landing, but Roscerans showed himself as great as Grant in his refusal to admit defeat, and finally compelled his enemy to retire.
To this great battle Ohio furnished thirty-two regiments of infan- try, nine batteries of artillery and three cavalry regiments, and if losses are a criterion the Ohio troops bore at least one-fourth of the burden of the conflict, for they lost 3,641 men, and the total casual- ties were 13,249. The most distinguished among the killed was Brig .- Gen. Joshua W. Sill, who had ably commanded a division of the army. There also fell Col. Minor Milliken, of the First cav- alry; Col. John Kell, of the Second infantry; Col. Joseph G. Hawkins, of the Thirteenth: Col. Fred C. Jones, of the Twenty- fourth; Col. Leander Stem and Lieut .- Col. M. F. Wooster, of the Hundred-and-First, and many other gallant officers and men. In this battle Philip HI. Sheridan, reared at Somerset, and appointed to West Point from Ohio, won great fame in command of a division of infantry. Colonel Kennett led a division of cavalry. John Beatty, Timothy R. Stanley, Jolm F. Miller, Moses B. Walker, Daniel MeCook, Charles G. Harker, William B. Hazen, Samuel Beatty, James P. Fvffe, Sammel W. Price, Lewis Zahm, Ohio colonels, and Gen. James B. Steedman, commanded brigades, and Gen. Samnel Beatty succeeded VanCleve in command of a division. Alexander MeCook commanded the right wing of the army. Colonel Barnett was chief of artillery.
In January, 1863, Senator Wade was elected for a third term, his opponents being Hugh J. Jewett and Thomas Ewing. He contin- ned in the senate to be the powerful leader, with Thad Stevens. of the uncompromising party that sustained the war. But the opposi- tion became more active. Roseerans' battle, a costly victory, did not greatly inspirit the people at home in the early days of 1863, and there was a field for labor for the agitators of discontent and fault- finding, supported by those who were opposed to the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln, issued January 1, 1563. In Noble county there was a little rebellion, and a squad sent to arrest a deserter was met by an armed force that asked the United States officers to surrender and be paroled as prisoners of the Confederate
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army. Two companies of troops marched through the disaffected region and arrested a large number of citzens, a few of whom were punished by imprisonment and fine. The leader in Ohio in opposi- tion to the administration was Clement L. Vallandigham, who had been defeated for Congress in the previous fall, despite the general triumph of his party. General Burnside took command at Cincin- nati, and issued an order intended to rigidly repress acts tending to discourage enlistment or create enmity to the general government. Vallandigham was arrested at Dayton, May 2d, just after he had made a speech at Mount Vernon, and his paper, The Dayton Empire, annonneed next day: "The cowardly, scoundrelly Aboli- tionists of this town have at last succeeded in having Hon. C. L. Vallandigham kidnapped," and followed this up with invective against the Union party. The result was that the newspaper office was wrecked and burned by a mob, and several buildings were con- sumed before the flames could be extinguished. The county was put under martial law, but no other disturbance followed. Mr. Val- Jandigham issued an address from his confinement at the Burnet House, Cincinnati, which he called a "bastile," declaring that he was a good Union man, and his enemies were "abolitionist disunionists and traitors." On the trial of Mr. Vallandigham it was shown that he had denounced the war as "wicked, cruel and nunecessary," waged not for the preservation of the Union, but for "the purpose of crush- ing out liberty," and that he had indulged in various inflammatory utterances about "Lincoln and his minions," and their "usurpa- tions." He was defended before the court-martial by Messrs. Pugh and Pendleton, but there could be no denial of his violent utter- ances, and he was sentenced to close confinement until the end of the war, a punishment which President Lincoln commuted to banish- ment within the Confederate lines.
By an application for writ of habeas corpus, the Vallandigham case was brought before Judge Leavitt, of the United States district court,# who, after elaborate arguments by Mr. Pugh and District Attorney Perry, refused the writ, holding that there had been no unwarranted exercise of the powers intrusted to the president of the United States as commander in chief of the army in time of war. There were many, however, who disagreed with the judge, and asserted their right as American citizens to emulate the freedom and ineur the unpopularity of Thomas Corwin when he advised the Mexi- cans to welcome American soldiers to hospitable graves.
After the Vallandigham episode, there was a serious resistance to the draft in Holmes county, and Governor Tod sent a body of troops against the insurgents, issued a proclamation warning the people at
* Judge Humphrey Howe Leavitt had held this office ever since his appoint- ment by Andrew Jackson, in 1834.
I-22
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fault, and told General Mason to grant no quarter if they did not obey. A thousand armed men collected in a fortified camp to fight the Ohio troops, but, after a skirmish, dispersed, and peace was soon restored, without any loss of life.
The political campaign of 1863 was one of the most remarkable in the history of Ohio. Some leaders of the Democratic party, and a great part of the rank and file, excluding of course that large num- ber who had from the first supported the war for the Union, were carried away by the theory that the war was being waged unnecessar- ily by the administration at Washington, when an honorable peace might be made. Aside from the theory of peace, remonstrances were made against General Burnside's order No. 38, which led to the arrest of Vallandigham. Judge Pugh," in his address at the state convention of 1863, said in reference to Vallandigham: "We will not talk of war, or peace, or rebellion, until our honored citizen has been restored to us. If you make that your platform you will be victorious. If not I counsel you to seek a home where liberty exists."
The convention nominated Vallandigham for governor of Ohio. This was followed by a written appeal addressed to President Lincoln, for the restoration of Vallandigham to his home. and a remonstrance alleging, among other things, that the arrest of Val- landigham was an insult to Ohio. Lincoln, in his answer said: "Your nominee for governor, in whose behalf you appeal, is known to you and to the world to declare against the use of an army to sup- press the rebellion. Your own attitude, therefore, encourages desertion, resistance to the draft and the like, because it teaches those who ineline to desert and escape the draft to believe it is your purpose to protect them, and to hope that you will become strong enough to do so." Lincoln adroitly proposed that the committee sign a statement that a war was in existence tending to destroy the national Union, that an army and navy were constitutional means of suppressing it, that none of them would do anything to impair the efficiency of the army and navy, or hinder enlistment, and that they would do all they could to maintain the soldiers. In that case the President would return Vallandigham to his home. But the campaign went on with Mr. Vallandigham in Canada, where he went from Wilmington on a blockade-runner, the Confederates refusing to keep him except as a prisoner. In Canada there were many other refugees who opposed the war, and some sceret agents of the Confed- Pracy plotting for the release of prisoners. From Niagara Falls, Vallandigham issued an address to the people of Ohio, declaring him- self the champion of "free speech, a free press, peaccable assem- blages of the people, and a free ballot."
But alnost simultaneous with the Vallandigham convention, Jolm
* As quoted in Reid's Ohio in the War.
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Brough, remembered as a great Democratic leader in the days of Harrison and Jackson; founder of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the ablest of the Ohio anditors of state, for the past fifteen years a rail- road manager, made one of his powerful publie addresses at Mari- etta, in support of the war, and E. D. Mansfield, in the Cincinnati Gazette, proposed Brough for governor. The proposition found instant favor, and at the "Union" convention, a week later, Brough was nominated by a small majority over those who supported the re- nomination of Tod. The platform upon which he appealed to the people was essentially this: "The war must go on with the utmost vigor, until the authority of the national government is re-estab- lished, and the Old Flag Hoats again seenrely and triumphantly over every state and territory of the Union."
This was all on the heels of the terrible disaster at Chancellors- ville. But soon the faith of the war party was vindicated by the great military triumphs of the early days of July, that opened the Mississippi river to the gulf and ended the invasive career of the C'onfederate army led by General Lee.
General Grant, with the Army of the Mississippi, obtained a lodg- ment on the river below Vieksburg, May 1st, fighting a successful battle at Port Gibson, in which several Ohio regiments were actively engaged. One corps of his army was commanded by James B. McPherson, a native of Sandusky county, thirty-five years old at that time, who had been Grant's chief engineer at Shiloh, and Halleek's before Corinth, and in less than a year had been advaneed from cap- tain to major-general. MePherson, after Port Gibson, pushed on toward Jackson, Miss., and Logan's division of his command, on May 12th, fought a fierce little battle at Raymond, in which the Twentieth Ohio, under Col. Manning F. Force, was particularly dis- tinguished, losing 10 killed and 58 wounded. Sherman and MePher- son, united, then struck a blow at Joseph E. Johnston's army at Jackson, which brought into battle Gen. Ralph B. Buckland's bri- gade, and the Eightieth Ohio. Turning westward and concentrat- ing. Grant defeated Pemberton at Champion's Hill, where Gen. George F. McGinnis, an Ohio soldier in the Mexican war, now an Indianian, ably commanded the brigade that fought at the most important point and suffered the greatest loss. The Fifty-sixth Ohio, of Slack's brigade, fighting on an extension of MeGinnis' line, lost 20 killed and 90 wounded. Gen. Mortimer D. Leggett com- manded the brigade of Logan's corps that comprised the Twentieth, Sixty-eighth and Seventy-eighth Ohio, and these were hotly engaged, as also were the three Ohio regiments of Lindsey's brigade.
Then followed the ront of the Confederate rear guard at Big Black river, and the investment of Vicksburg. In the assault of May 19th two regiments of Gen. Hugh Ewing's brigade, the Fourth West Virginia and Forty-seventh Ohio, got close to the Confederate works,
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