USA > Ohio > History of Ohio, covering the periods of Indian, French and British dominion, the territory Northwest, and the hundred years of statehood > Part 40
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With high prices for farm products the people at home were pros- pering, and the mortgage debts had been decreased $10,000,000 since 1560. In 1863, $675,000 of public debt was paid, $150,000 advanced to the general government, and nearly $425,000 remained in the State treasury. The Ohio banks had over six and a half mil- lions of their paper money in circulation in 1863, but it was rapidly giving way, under the financial policy of Secretary Chase, to the national bank currency, the issue of which was begun in 1863, and the greenbacks, or national notes. Gold had gone out of circulation, and a gold dollar was worth two of paper, but wheat sold at $1.50 per bushel.
Though the constitution of Ohio tended to make the governor a figure-head, during the war the ocenpants of that office found abun- dant opportunity for action, and they were distinguished among the
*Governor Tod, near the close of his term, was near actual imprisonment on the charge of kidnapping as the result of a scheme for revenge ingeniously planned by Dr. E. B. Olds. Probably he was the second governor to be put under arrest. Governor Worthington about fifty years before was brought to the door of a jail on a writ of capias, sued out by Judge Jarvis Pike, who had contracted to clear the statehouse square, and was anxious for his pay.
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governors of the North for energy and wisdom in their efforts to maintain the Union and support the men in the field. None was more active than the last of the three, John Brough. He began his administration in 1864 by persuading the legislature to levy a tax of two mills on the dollar, to which county commissioners might add one mill, and city councils a half mill, for the support of soldiers' families, and he watched the enforcement of the law with an eagle eye, promptly exposing those recreant county and township officials, for there were some, who tried to divert the tax into the road fund. Ile also built up the State ageney for the relief of soldiers in the field, pushing the work ahead regardless of all conflict with the Sani- tary commissions. "He kept a watchful eye upon all the hospitals where any considerable numbers of Ohio troops were congregated. The least abuse of which he heard was made matter of instant com- plaint. If the surgeon in charge neglected it, he appealed forthwith to the medical director. If this officer made the slightest delay in administering the proper correction, he went straight to the surgeon- general. Such, from the outset, was the weight of his influence with the secretary of war that no officer about that department dared stand in the way of Brough's denunciation. It was known that the honesty and judgment of his statements were not to be impugned, and that his persistence in hunting down defenders was remorseless. *
By the beginning of 1564 there had been over 200,000 enlistments in Ohio, and in February over 50,000 more were called for; in March 20,000, in July 50,000, and in December 26,000 more. The method already adopted was used in raising these troops. First bonnties were offered until as much as a thousand dollars was paid to get a reeruit up to the mustering officer and as much more to get him to the front. This failing to secure enough men, there were drafts which were generally ineffectual. Nearly eight thousand were drafted in May, of whom the government got less than fifteen hun- dred in the ranks. These facts do not have a patriotic ring, but such was the record, and no state did better than Ohio, for some way or other she supplied the government with all the men called for, and more too. Eleven new regiments were organized in 1864, running the numbers up to One Hundred and Eighty-three of infantry, and oldl regiments were recruited.
In February a campaign was made by Gen. William Sooy Smith, a native of Delaware county, and graduate of West Point, who was assistant adjutant-general at Camp Dennison in 1861, and colonel of the Thirteenth regiment, and in 1862 brigadier-general. He served with credit at Shiloh and Perryville, and next was chief of cavalry in the Tennessee department. His campaign in February, 1864,
* Reid's Ohio in the War.
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was from Memphis into Mississippi, and resulted in several unsuc- cessful battles with General Forrest, the greatest of the Confederate cavalrymen.
In April Governor Brough conceived the idea of calling out State militia to hold the frontier and lines of communication, so that the experienced troops could be released to take part in the united effort to crush the rebellion. On his suggestion a meeting of western gov- ernors was held at Washington, and Brough, Morton, Yates, and Stone of Iowa offered President Lincoln 85,000 militia for such a purpose. Thirty thousand were immediately called for from Ohio, and the work of organizing them fell upon Adj .- Gen. B. R. Cowen. People doubted if the militia would respond, and on the day set a vold, heavy rain fell, that seemed a gloomy token of failure. But at night came the thrilling news that thirty-eight thousand were in camp for duty, at various towns and cities of the State. The gov- erment at Washington was amazed, and was not ready with muster- ing officers, so that the movement of the men was delayed. Governor Brough asked that he might send more than thirty thousand, and Stanton accepted all he could raise, to fill up the deficiencies of other states, saying: "They may decide the war." In brief, Ohio sent forty regiments, clothed, armed and equipped, to the points that the government designated, for one hundred days' service. Some of these men did more than guard duty in the Shenandoah valley, on the Virginia peninsula, around Petersburg and Richmond, at Monoc- acy and in the works around Washington. Three of the regiments went into Kentucky to meet Morgan's last raid, and at Cynthiana lost heavily in killed, wounded and captured. The war was not ended when their term of service expired, but they did much to "decide the war," for Grant needed all the veterans they released for his campaign in Virginia.
In the army that moved across the Rapidan early in May, under the command of General Grant, who at the same time directed the movements of Sherman in Georgia and Banks in Louisiana and ('rook in West Virginia, were a comparatively small number of Ohio regiments. The veteran Fourth and Eighth Ohio, with Carroll as their brigade commander, represented Ohio in Hancock's corps. The Hundred-and-Tenth, Hundred-and-Twenty-second and Hun- dred-and-Twenty-sixth were in Sedgwick's corps; the Sixtieth and Second cavalry in Burnside's corps. The Sixth cavalry was the only Ohio regiment then under the command of Phil Sheridan, but George A. Custer, son of a Harrison county blacksmith, who had been sent to West Point by Congressman Bingham, commanded one of the cavalry brigades. Though few in numbers the Ohioans were conspicuous for gallantry at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court- house and Cold Harbor, and their losses were among the heaviest.
The most efficient officers in the army of General Butler, that
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should have taken Richmond, were Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore, a native of Lorain county, and Gen. Angust V. Kautz, reared in Brown county, a soldier of the Mexican war in the First Ohio, and com- mander of Ohio cavalry in Kentucky, who led Butler's little cavalry division with great energy ; but there were only two veteran Ohio reg- iments in that army, the Sixty-second and Sixty-seventh.
Another small group of Ohio regiments (five) mixed with West Virginians, under General Crook, with Rutherford P. Hayes as one of the brigade commanders, operated through the western Virginia mountains, cutting the western railroad communications of Rich- mond, and fighting a severe battle at ('loyd's Mountain, where the Ohioans lost 300 killed and wounded. Crook's division, with other Ohio regiments, was also in the Lynchburg campaign, and six of the newer Ohio regiments were represented in Lew Wallace's battle at Monocacy, losing heavily in killed, wounded and captured. Later in the year, Crook's division was with Sheridan in the famous Shenan- doah valley campaign #-Haves', Wells' and Johnson's brigades of Ohioans, and with them were J. Warren Keifer's brigade of three Ohio regiments, and two Ohio regiments of cavalry. Gen. Will- iam H. Powell, of Ironton, who organized the Second West Virginia cavalry, mainly Ohioans, commanded a division of Sheridan's army.
In the far distant Red River campaign Ohio was represented among the division commanders by Gen. T. Kilby Smith, and among the troops by an Ohio brigade, under Col. J. W. Vance, four regi- ments in all.
But the great inass of the Ohio soldiers at the front were concen- trated in May, 1864, in north Georgia, for the campaign to Atlanta. William Tecumseh Sherman led the grand array of a hundred thousand effective soldiers, comprising the Army of the Cumberland under Thomas; the Army of the Tennessee, under MePherson ; and the Army of the Ohio under Schofield. With "Pap" Thomas were twenty-two Ohio regiments and five batteries; D. S. Stanley com- manding a division, and Samuel Beatty, Harker, Willich and Gib- son, Emerson Opdycke, and Isaac M. Kirby, brigades, in Howard's corps; in Palmer's corps twenty-one Ohio regiments and two bat- teries, with A. G. MeCook, Dan MeCook, M. B. Walker, Van Der- veer, John G. Mitchell and Este leading brigades ; in Hooker's corps, nine regiments and two batteries, with Dan Butterfield commanding a division and Candy and James S. Robinson brigades. Under McPherson were thirteen Ohio regiments and a battery in Logan's corps, with C. R. Woods and Hazen rising from brigade to division
* Sheridan's famous victory at Cedar Creek, October 19th, inspired Thomas Buchanan Read, at his Cincinnati home, to write the well-known poem, "Sheridan's Ride," which Murdock read for the first time at an entertain- ment given for his benefit, as he had been giving all his talent to the cause of the Sanitary commission. The walls of every schoolhouse and lyceum in the North soon resounded with "Hurrah! Hurrah for Sheridan!"
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command, and Gen, Charles 6. Walcott commanding a brigade; in Dodge's corps four regiments and a battery, with Gen. J. W. Fuller commanding a brigade or division as emergency demanded, and Gen. John W. Sprague and Col. R. N. Adams brigades; in Blair's corps, which joined the army in June, five Ohio regiments and three bat- teries, with M. D. Leggett commanding a division and Force and R. K. Scott and B. F. Potts brigades. Under Schofield were eight Ohio regiments and two batteries ; J. D. Cox commanding a division, and Bond, Reilly and MeLean brigades. In the cavalry there were four Ohio regiments, and Ed MeCook and Kenner Garrard com- manded divisions, and Long the Ohio brigade.
In all Ohio contributed eighty-six regiments and sixteen batteries to this magnificent army, that manenvered and fought for a hundred days from Dalton to Jonesboro and occupied Atlanta in the early days of September, while Grant was still waiting outside the breast- works of Petersburg and Richmond, and Banks had been driven back from Shrevesport, and Sheridan was preparing to begin the conquest of the Shenandoah valley. Thousands of these Ohio soldiers were numbered among the killed and wounded in the battles of Resaca, New Hope, Kenesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta and Jones- boro, and the innumerable skirmishes. There was no death in that year that so saddened the nation as the death of the gallant MePher- son, who fell in the pine woods near Atlanta, July 22d.
In the assault at Konesaw Mountain the brave generals, Dan MeCook and Ilarker, fell mortally wounded. "If they had lived," wrote Sherman afterward, "I believe I should have carried the posi- tion." Col. Jolm II. Patrick fell at Dallas, Col. James W. Shane at Kenesaw.
When Sherman marched to the sea he took with him forty Ohio infantry regiments, three of cavalry and two of the Ohio batteries. Among his division commanders were C. R. Woods, W. B. Hazen and M. D. Leggett, and brigades were led by B. D. Fearing, Theodore Jones, W. S. Jones, J. W. Fuller, M. F. Force, R. K. Scott, John S. Pearce and George P. Este. All of these shared in the honor of eap- turing Savannah, and Hazen, by the capture of Fort MeAllister, won promotion to major-general.
During this campaign Gen. Robert S. Granger, a native of Zanes- ville, was in command in north Alabama, and with the Hundred-and- Second Ohio among his troops did conspicuous service in holding Forrest in cheek, and later in the year made a splendid fight against Hood at Decatur. At the same period General Steedman was in com- mand of the garrison at Chattanooga, and Gen. Ralph Buckland at Memphis.
Over thirty Ohio regiments were left in Tennessee under General Thomas, when Sherman marched from Atlanta, and they shared in the bloody victory of Franklin and the rout of Hood's army before
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Nashville. Ohioans were conspicuous in leadership. Schofield, in chief command at Franklin, reported that Gen. J. D. Cox, command- ing the Twenty-third corps, "deserves a very large share of credit for the vietory :" Gen. D. S. Stanley, commanding a division, was "deserving of special commendation," and General Reilly, command- ing a division of brigades under Cox, captured twenty rebel battle- flags. Emerson Opdyeke won the brevet of major-general. At Nashville Stanley commanded a corps and Samuel Beatty, C'ox, Steedman and Kenner Garrard divisions, and were highly distin- guished. AAmong the brigade connanders was Col. C. H. Grosvenor.
The political campaign of 1864 in Ohio is also to be noticed as one of the important occurrences of the war period. There was opposi- tion to the renomination of Mr. Lincoln, and for a time Salmon P. Chase listened to the voices that urged his candidacy, but he with- drew his name from consideration when the Ohio legislature indi- eated a preference for Lincoln, and later in the year became chief justice of the United States supreme court. Lincoln was renom- inated in a convention presided over by ex-Governor Dennison, and the Democratic convention put in nomination Gen. George B. MeC'lel- lan for president and George H. Pendleton for vice-president. This was a ticket that should have particularly appealed to Ohio, but the platform declared that "after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war," the situation demanded a cessa- tion of hostilities and a convention of the states to make peace. Such a sentiment lost force after the capture of Atlanta. A smaller, tem- porary political party, called Peace Democrats, in which Alexan- der Long of Ohio, was prominent, was more radically opposed to war. Mr. Pendleton, in October, expressed himself as devoted to the Union and in favor of no terms of peace that did not restore the Union entire. But the majority of the people took the view expressed by the famous war Demoerat, General Dix, in a speech at Sandusky, that "a cessation of hostilities would lead inevi- tably and directly to a recognition of the insurgent states." Ohio gave Lincoln a majority of nearly sixty thousand, but there were over 200,000 votes for MeClellan. The majority would have been only thirty thousand if 50,000 soldiers in the field had not voted four to one for Lincoln. But no other state, save Massachusetts, gave Lin- coln so large a majority. He carried New York by less than seven thousand out of a total vote of over seven hundred thousand.
In the midst of the political campaign, and while a draft was impending, discovery was made of a secret organization, opposed to the war and enlistment of troops, akin to the "Knights of the Golden ('irele." The adjutant-general estimated that it embraced from eighty to a hundred thousand members in Ohio. But no serious trouble resulted. There were rumors later in the year, of expedi- tions from Canada to release the Confederate prisoners, of whom I-23
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there were large numbers held at Camp Chase, near Columbus, and on Johnson's island. An attempt was actually made against John- son's island in September, by John Yates Beall, of Virginia, who, with a few comrades, seized the steamer Philo Parsons, at Sand- wich, captured and scuttled the steamer Island Queen, and cruised about Sandusky hay, awaiting a signal from another conspirator to make an attack on the war boat Michigan. But the scheme failed, the Parsons was scuttled on the Canada shore, and Beall, being eap- tured later and accused of attempting to wreck an express train, was hung at Governor's Island, N. Y.
The year 1865 opened with Sherman marching northward from Savannah to ernsh the united remnants of the Confederate armies that had held Atlanta and Charleston, and Grant and Sheridan wait- ing for passable roads to compel the surrender of Richmond. To aid Sherman, Schofield's corps was sent from Nashville east and by boat to Wilmington. General Cox was in immediate command of the corps, and Gens. N. C. MeLean and J. W. Reilly in command of divi- sions, that included twelve regiments of Ohio infantry. With Sher- man in the northward march were the Ohio regiments that had marched to the sea, and Gens. C. R. Woods, W. B. Hazen, M. F. Force and M. D. Leggett commanding divisions of the army. Sher- man and Cox, between them, pulverized the forces of Johnston, Bragg and Hardee, and compelled their surrender soon after Grant had cornered Lee at Appomattox and put an end to the career of the greatest of the Confederate armies. With Grant in this famous campaign, among the conspicuous generals were George Crook, one of the staunchest and bravest of Ohio soldiers, and his gallant men of the old Kanawha division, under Keifer and C. H. Smith, and Gen. Charles Griffin, a native of Lieking county, who had made a most honorable record in Virginia, from Bull Run, where his battery was in the center of the hardest fighting, to Appomattox where he commanded a corps and received the arms and colors of the defeated army. With the Army of the James, before Richmond in the last days, were four Ohio regiments, and Weitzel and Kautz were high in command of the troops.
The telegraphie news of the surrender of Lee, April 9, 1565, was received with the wildest rejoicing at home. A week later the State was plunged in mourning by the horrifying news that President Lin- coln was assassinated. Ohio has had to mourn two other presi- dents, her own sons, foully taken off, but there has never been in the history of America, such a moment of horror and dismay and such a cry for vengeance as followed the death of Lincoln. The voice that most potently reassured the nation was that of General Garfield-a few broken sentences spoken to the frantie crowd that gathered in the streets of New York :
"Fellow citizens: Clouds and darkness are around Him. His
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pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds. Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne. Merey and truth shall go before His face! Fellow citizens, God reigns. The government at Wash- ington lives."
In the sad journey of Lincoln's body to Illinois, a stop was made at Cleveland, where the coffin was placed under an open temple and viewed by thousands. At Columbus the body lay for a day in the rotunda of the capitol, upon a mound of flowers, while the walls about were hung with the tattered battleflags of Ohio regiments. The streets were draped in mourning, minute guns sounded through the day, and the people crowded in tearful silence about the body of the great leader of the Union.
After the grand review at Washington the Ohio troops with Grant and Sherman returned to their homes in June and July, and the men with Thomas and other commanders also came home, all being received with the highest manifestations of honor and approbation. But it was some time before all returned, for fifteen regiments assen- bled in Texas to expedite the departure of the French army from Mexico, and many were kept in garrison throughout the South. General Steedman remained in command of the department of Georgia, Gen. C. R. Woods in Alabama, Sherman in command of the division of the Mississippi and Sheridan of the division of the Gulf.
Before the close of 1865 all but eight of the Ohio regiments had ceased to be, and the soldiers were again quietly engaged in the pur- suits of civil life. Fears of the growth of a military despotism were proved to be utterly unfounded. The last of Ohio's volunteer army, the Twenty-fifth infantry, Eleventh cavalry and Battery B, First artillery, were mustered out in June and July, 1865 .*
The summaries compiled by the adjutant-general of the State show that Ohio furnished troops under the various calls as follows:
Call of April 15, 1861, for 75,000. 12,357
July 22, 1861, for 500,000 $4,116
July 2, 1862, for 300,000 55,325
June 15, 1863, for militia. 2,736
October 17, 1863, for 500.000 32,837
March 14, 1864, for 200,000 29,931
April 22, 1864, for militia 36,254
July 1s. 1864, for 500,000. 30,523
December 19, 1864, for 300,000 23,273
Grand total 310,654
These were four thousand more than the State was allotted as her share, and redneed to department standard they represent quite
* King's "Ohio."
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240,000 three-year soldiers. The total list of Ohio organizations ineludes 230 regiments, 26 independent batteries, five independent companies of artillery, several corps of sharpshooters, large parts of five West Virginia regiments, two Kentucky regiments, two of United States colored troops, and a large proportion of two Massa- chusetts colored regiments. Besides, the State gave nearly 3,500 men to the gunboat service on western waters. According to Reid's summary, Ohio contributed one-third of a million men to the war. Out of her troops who went upon the field, 11,237 were killed or mortally wounded (of which 6,563 were left dead on the field ), and 13,354 died of disease.
Ont of every thousand, on an average, 37 were killed or mortally wounded, 47 died in hospital, 79 were honorably discharged for dis- ability, and 44 deserted. But sneh an average, like most averages, is deceptive. The item of desertions is hardly applicable to the regiments that went to the front, and, while some regiments suffered scareely any loss in battle, others were nearly destroyed. A brief dipping into the military records will illustrate. The First regi- ment lost 527 killed and wounded in twenty-four battles : the Second 537. The Third went on Streight's raid into Georgia and were all killed, wounded, or captured and confined in prison pens where many died. The Seventh, ont of 1,800 enlisted from time to time, returned home with but 240 able-bodied men. Similar figures might be given of other regiments.
The total war expenses of the State government, beginning with a million and a half in 1861 and ending with over half a million in 1865, was $4,741,373, to which should be added the fund for relief of soldiers and their families, which rose from half a million in 1862 to two millions in 1865, and aggregated $5,618,864. Besides the total of these two items, over ten millions, more than fifty-two mil- lions were paid as local bounties to soldiers, and over two millions in bounties of $100 each to 20,70s veterans in 1864. Furthermore, Ohio paid $1,332,025 in direct national tax for the support of the war, a sum that was refunded in later years. The grand total of war expenditure is given at nearly $65,000,000.
This enormons total does not, of course, represent all the pecuniary sacrifice of the State. Notable among the other contributions were those made through the agency of the Sanitary commission. The Cincinnati branch, laboring efficiently all through the four years for the relief of Ohio soldiers, devoted large amounts of money to the cause and forwarded vast stores of clothing and supplies donated from all parts of the State. It established a Soldiers' home in 1562, and a soldiers' cemetery at Spring Grove, and under its auspices was held the Great Western Sanitary Fair at Cincinnati, that yielded the commission over a quarter million dollars. Ontside of Cinein- nati the principal association was the Soldiers' Aid society of Cleve-
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land, the first general organization in the United States for such a purpose, which disbursed in money and goods and food much more than a million dollars, established a home, and also held a fair that brought in $78,000. The Columbus society, active in the same sort of work, established a Soldiers' home in 1862. In every part of the State, these greater efforts were rivalled, according to the ability of smaller communities, and the work was without compensation or hope of reward. Everywhere the women gathered to serape lint for bandages, and make up boxes of elothing and dainties for the brave men in eamp or hospital.
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