USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Four > Part 14
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seven were tried, and they also were afterward, June 18, hung at Atlanta; these were William Campbell, George D. Wilson, Marion A. Ross, Perry G. Shadrack, Samuel Slavens, Samuel Robertson and John Scott.
The reader who desires to know more of the details of this heroic episode than these pages give, can find them in a report of the Judge Advocate General to the Secretary of War dated March 23, 1863, and published in the official Government records. For a fuller historical and personal narrative, remarkable for its completeness and interest, William Pittenger, one of the raiders, has written "The Great Locomotive Chase. A History of the Andrews Railroad Raid into Georgia in 1862" (New York, 1893).
The trials and tribulations of the survivors were protracted by a long and dreary imprisonment after the death of their comrades. The next important turn in events was on October 16, 1862, when the following escaped: Wilson W. Brown, William Knight, John R. Porter, Martin J. Hawkins, Mark Wood, J. A. Wilson, John Wollam and Daniel A. Dorsey. Nearly a year after the inception of the adventure, March 18, 1863, the six remaining in prison at Rich- mond were exchanged; they were Jacob Parrott, Robert Buffum, William Bensinger, William Reddick, E. H. Mason, and William Pittenger.
To commemorate this most fascinating and danger- ous mission of the Civil War, through which these brave Ohio boys gave their lives in the service of the Union, the State of Ohio appropriated five thousand dollars, March 20, 1889, to erect in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga a monument over their
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graves. There, over eight mounds, has been raised a characteristic memorial to the gallant and martyr dead. On a noble pedestal of Vermont marble stands in bronze a facsimile of the locomotive on which the raiders made their fateful ride. With names, compan- ies and regiments of the executed, escaped and ex- changed, is the inscription, "Ohio's Tribute to Andrews' Raiders, 1862. Erected 1890." Governor Joseph B. Foraker appointed the commission to erect the monu- ment. It was selected from the three regiments of General Sill's brigade from whose ranks the members of the expedition were selected. This commission consisted of Judge Thaddeus Minshall, a captain of the Thirty-Third Ohio Infantry, and at the time of his appointment a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio; Earl W. Merry, sergeant major of the Twenty- First Ohio Infantry, and Stephen B. Porter, a sergeant in Co. B, Second Ohio Infantry. On the beautiful Memorial Day of 1891 the surviving raiders with ten thousand people assembled to dedicate the monument.
Former Governor Foraker delivered the address of the occasion, eloquently detailing the story of the expedition. After commenting on the glory of a united country and a patriotic North and South, he said:
"The one great thought that lies at the bottom of every such demonstration as this, is that of profound gratitude to the men who saved us, and supreme thankfulness to Almighty God for the great blessings that have come to our whole Country through the victory of the Union armies. This sentiment grows with the years and with our increasing greatness and prosperity as a people. Time therefore but makes
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more manifest our duty to all who periled and sacrificed their lives for these priceless results. But upon these particular men fell an uncommon misfortune. They not only lost their lives, but they lost them in such a way as to place a stigma upon their memory.
"Ohio is here to-day to remove that stigma. By this action she reclaims them from all imputation of crime, and effaces forever the ignominy of a felon's death. She proclaims to the world and future genera- tions that they were not thieves nor marauders, but brave and honorable men and soldiers; that their punishment was unmerited, and that their names shall shine on the roll of honor among the brightest of all that illumine the pages of our history."
Recurring to the domestic situation in Ohio in the summer and fall of 1862, we find a strange political revolution in action. The radical Republicans in the Union party were growing restless under the conserv- ative principles of the new party. There was a decided sentiment freely expressed by this section that the Republicans should rehabilitate their old party and adopt the principles of the National conventions of 1856 and 1860. The Ashtabula Sentinel, the organ of Joshua R. Giddings and Senator Wade, vigorously advocated this, as did the Cleveland Leader. Neverthe- less, the conservative view prevailed, and a call for a Union convention was issued which was short and formal. It provided for exactly the same number of delegates as were in the Union convention of the previous year, with the same apportionment. When the convention assembled, it adopted a platform of four brief resolutions, declaring (I) adherence to the
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opinions and principles put forth in the Union conven- tion of September 5, 1861, held at Columbus, (2) expressing undiminished confidence in the National Executive, and pledging to his support all the moral and physical power of the State in prosecuting the war, (3) approving Governor Tod's administration, and (4) eulogizing the promptness of Ohio enlistments for the war. The Democrats had assembled in State con- vention in July, and this platform was almost wholly devoted to denouncing President Lincoln's Emanci- pation Proclamation.
The Democrats carried the election, and their candidate for Secretary of State received a majority of 5,557. The Union leaders ascribed their defeat to the loss of the soldier vote, claiming that of the 80,000 voters in the field a large majority would have voted the Union ticket. This, of course, cannot be accurately known. But there is no doubt that other important considerations also affected the result. The Emanci- pation Proclamation was not approved heartily by many of the Union party; many of the Republicans in the Western Reserve were not in accord with some of the acts of President Lincoln, notably his removal of General John C. Fremont. In the congressional elections, although the State had been redistricted by the Union party to its own advantage, it elected but five out of the nineteen Congressmen. There was one conspicuous figure, however, that failed to share in this victory. This was Vallandigham, who was defeated for reelection for Congress, due to the addition under the gerrymander of Warren county to his old district.
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To all appearances Ohio had reversed her judgment on the prosecution of the war, and the result of the election filled the Union party in the State with discouragement.
CHAPTER IX. OHIO IN THE CIVIL WAR (CONTINUED) THE VALLANDIGHAM CAMPAIGN OF 1863 ELECTION OF JOHN BROUGH, GOVERNOR
W ITH the year 1863 there came a new situa- tion in Ohio in relation to the war. It appeared that a great deal of the patriotic enthusiasm prevalent a year before had gradually subsided. There was a cessation of Union progress in the field, as there had been in Ohio, as the election showed. Such depressing conditions had their effect on the popular mind. Grant was unsuccess- fully beleaguering Vicksburg, Maryland was invaded by the Confederates and they were threatening Pennsylvania. Rosecrans had been inactive since Murfreesboro. These situations encouraged the Peace Democrats of Ohio and correspondingly discouraged the Union party. They afforded a fruitful field for the agitators of discontent and fault-finding. In the chorus could be heard the voices even of some of the Union party who were opposed to Lincoln's emancipa- tion proclamations, the preliminary one issued Septem- ber 22, 1862, and the final one January 1, 1863. The latter feeling however, was temporary, and it soon disappeared when calm judgment regained control in the Union party.
The leader of the pessimists of the time was Clement L. Vallandigham. He gloried in the depressed pros- pects of National success in the field, and hailed with joy its losses at the polls. His personal defeat stim- ulated his opposition and his feeling was not less acute because it was a Union General, Robert C. Schenck, who had been selected to succeed him in Congress. When he returned to Washington to attend the last session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, he assumed a more hostile attitude to the Administration and prose- cution of the war than ever before.
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This was declared in a speech of great power, of sur- passing ability and eloquence, delivered in the House of Representatives January 14, 1863. As the greatest speech of his whole life of opposition, it was circulated both in this country and Europe. His subject, "The Great Civil War in America," afforded him the oppor- tunity of discussing the perilous situation of the country in all its phases. It was a pessimistic philippic against the prosecution of the war, and a bitterly severe indict- ment of President Lincoln and his Administration for their part in its conduct. Its practical effect was to aid secession and encourage the Confederate cause. His position was that of open and bold opposition to the war. Said he, "You can never subdue the seceded States. Two years of fearful experience have taught you that. Why carry on this war? If you persist, it can only end in final separation between the North and South. And, in that case, believe it now, as you did not my former warnings, the whole Northwest will go with the South!" He argued for peace either by foreign intervention or domestic agreement, and contended that slavery must be recognized in any peace settlement. "In my deliberate judgment," he declared, "African slavery, as an institution, will come out of this conflict fifty-fold stronger than when it was begun." This speech had a great influence in the North in increasing the power and position of the Peace party and in embarrassing the Union cause. By the friends of the Union throughout the country Mr. Vallandigham's utterances were regarded as "words of brilliant and polished treason."
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT
Born at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio, April 27, 1822; graduated from West Point Military Academy, 1843; served with distinction in the Mexican War, and afterward continued in the army, rising to the rank of Captain; resigned his commission in 1854 and settled on a farm near St. Louis; removed to Galena, Illinois, in 1860; appointed Colonel of an Illinois regiment, June 17, 1861; became Brigadier General of volunteers, August 7, 1861; appointed Major General of volunteers, February 16, 1862, Major General of the United States army, July 4, 1863, Lieutenant General, March 2, 1864; served as Commander in Chief of the army from March 9, 1864 to March 4, 1869; Secretary of War under Johnson from August 12, 1867 to January 14, 1868; eighteenth President of the United States, March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877; appointed General on the retired list March 3, 1885; died on Mount McGregor, New York, July 23, 1885.
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the War. Said he, " You can never subdue the seceded Stats. Two years of fearful experience have taught jos that Why carry on this war? If you persist ic can only end in final separation between the North And South. And, in that case, believe it now, as yey did not my former warnings, the whole Northwest will go with the South!" He argued for peace eithes by foreign intervention ut somntatie agreement, and contended that slavery wat Ww recognized in any peace seulement. "In my Abate judgment, he declared, "African slavery, as an institution, wul come out of this conflict fifty-fold stronger than when it was begun." This speech had a great influence in the North in increasing the power And position of the Peace party and in embarrasing the Union cause. By the friends of the Union throughout the country My Vallandigham's utterances were regarded 05 "words of brilliant and polished treason."
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
It is worth while to digress here in order to obtain a closer view of the character and motives of Vallandig- ham in his strong-willed and impetuous opposition to the war. As one of the most striking figures of his period, he forms the subject of an interesting study. Whatever may be said of him, he was neither a coward nor a demagogue. Both friend and foe had to acknowl- edge that he was a man of unflinching courage, indomit- able will and boundless energy. No one who lacked those attributes could have taken and maintained the stand he did. It was not a popular position, and if he had simply craved the applause of a prevailing sentiment he could have raised his voice for the prose- cution of the war and reaped honors and distinction. He had all of these within his grasp if he had but followed the course of his great party leader, Stephen A. Douglas, whom he so earnestly supported for the Presidency in 1860. To better comprehend his polit- ical course, an intimate knowledge of the mental qualities acquired by him through heredity and educa- tion will aid the reader.
His ancestors on the paternal side were Huguenots, and on the maternal, Scotch-Irish. The family orig- inally came from French Flanders, and the name was Van Landeghem. After migration to Virginia about 1690, for euphony it was changed to Vallandigham. In this stock can be seen the wellsprings of conviction and courage, and it accounts in a large way for the temperament of the descendant. Add to this the training and environment of a Christian home of the type of the covenanter, and we have the basis for a character at once strong and conscientious. The
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Vallandighams were Presbyterians for generations, and in a home of that atmosphere Clement L. was reared. He profited by precept and example, and we note in his letters to his mother and brother while at school a deep vein of religious enthusiasm, the sincerity of which was evidenced by the purity of his everyday life. He carried this earnest and sincere faith throughout his manhood, and we find him in later years, even amid his exciting Congressional surroundings, writing in the same spirit to his wife that he did in his schoolboy days to his mother. His appreciation of the impor- tance of faith and recognition of Divine Providence are observable in many of his letters to intimate friends. With all his intensity he was not a bigot; he never uttered an unkind word of another's faith.
We can readily understand how, with such a nature, he could become a zealot in his political views. He was not a broad-minded man, but he clung logically to a naked principle and was willing to go wherever the sequence would lead him. A believer in the doctrine of States' rights, he could see no farther, and insisted on its maintenance regardless of results. A devotee of the "Constitution as it was," he was willing to see it shattered to pieces rather than do the things neces- sary for its preservation. It was this spirit that prompted him to urge the surrender of every power of the Government in order to secure peace by com- promise. Gifted with talents, courage, integrity and eloquence, they were inflexibly concentrated on one idea which his zealous nature would never surrender. To him may very appropriately be applied Goldsmith's characterization:
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"Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind."
Such was the fearless and earnest head of the Peace party, not only of Ohio but of the country at large, in whose person was typified the most effective antago- nism the Government had to encounter in the Civil War outside of the Confederate armies. The logical out- come of his leadership was to infuse into the rank and file of his party practical resistance to the enlisting of troops. This first made its appearance in Noble county in the middle of March. It came to the knowl- edge of the United States authorities that there was organized opposition to drafting by the Government, that desertion was openly solicited, and that nearly a hundred citizens were organized, armed and officered to resist the Federal laws. Companies B and H of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio, with ten days' rations and forty rounds of ammunition, were dispatched to Noble county to assist the United States Marshal in making arrests. These troops marched through the county arresting a large number. Some of them were punished by the United States Court at Cincinnati with fines and imprisonment. This was the first open and armed antagonism to the Federal authorities in Ohio. It was evident, however, that the opposition to the war was growing, and the boldness manifested by the Peace party against the Government was increasing daily. A bitter personal feeling between citizens was developed that found expression in violent party demonstrations.
As a result of such bitterness Governor Tod was arrested in his office in the State House, April 2d. It
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grew out of the arrest of Dr. Edson B. Olds the year before, referred to in the last chapter. Dr. Olds filed an affidavit against the Governor which resulted in an. indictment by the grand jury of Fairfield county. When the arrest was made the Supreme Court was in session at Columbus, and the Governor was released on a writ of habeas corpus. The case dragged on until it was transferred to the United States Court at Cin- cinnati, when it was finally dropped. Dr. Olds also filed a civil suit against the Governor for $100,000 damages; and John W. Kees, who had been arrested at the same time as Dr. Olds, sued Governor Tod for $30,000. Nothing came of either of the cases. They are referred to in order to show the state of public feeling at the time and the persistent fight that was made against all Federal authority.
It was with reference to these events and other open demonstrations against the Government and its defend- ers in the field, as well as the efforts made to encourage desertion and discourage enlistments, that General Ambrose E. Burnside saw the necessity of taking cogni- zance of the situation. General Burnside therefore issued an order as follows:
"Headquarters, Department of the Ohio, "Cincinnati, April 13, 1863.
"General Orders, No. 38.
"The Commanding General publishes, for the infor- mation of all concerned, that hereafter all persons found within our lines who commit acts for the benefit of the
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enemies of our country will be tried as spies or traitors, and, if convicted, will suffer death. This order includes the following classes of persons :
"Carriers of secret mails.
"Writers of letters sent by secret mails.
"Secret recruiting officers within the lines.
"Persons who have entered into an agreement to pass our lines for the purpose of joining the enemy.
"Persons found concealed within our lines belonging to the service of the enemy, and, in fact, all persons found improperly within our lines, who could give private information to the enemy.
"All persons within our lines who harbor, protect, conceal, feed, clothe, or in any way aid the enemies of our country.
"The habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons com- mitting such offenses will be at once arrested, with a view to being tried as above stated, or sent beyond our lines into the lines of their friends.
"It must be distinctly understood that treason, expressed or implied, will not be tolerated in this Department.
"All officers and soldiers are strictly charged with the execution of this order.
"By command of Major-General Burnside. "Lewis Richmond,
"Assistant Adjutant-General."
This order was received with violent denunciations by the leaders of the Peace party. It served to stir up the deepest hostility to the Administration and
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was denounced as an act of military despotism. Val- landigham was not long in publicly arraying himself against the order and in coming within the sphere of its operations. The occasion was a mass meeting of his party held at Mt. Vernon, May Ist, when, before enthusiastic thousands in words of burning eloquence, he defied President Lincoln, Governor Tod and General Burnside. He declared the war "a wicked, cruel and unnecessary war"; "a war for the purpose of crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism." He said that "He was a free man and did not ask David Tod, Abraham Lincoln or Ambrose E. Burn- side for his rights to speak as he had done and was doing"; that "his authority for so doing was higher than General Orders No. 38-it was General Orders No. I-the Constitution;" that "General Orders No. 38 was a base usurpation of arbitrary power"; that, "he had the most supreme contempt for such power, he despised it, spat upon it, trampled it under his feet." He closed by warning the people not to be deceived, that "an attempt would shortly be made to enforce the conscription act; they should remember that this war was not a war for the preserva- tion of the Union-it was a wicked Abolition war, and that if those in authority were allowed to accomplish their purposes the people would be deprived of their liberties and a monarchy established."
Vallandigham's speech was reported to General Burnside by two army officers who attended the meet- ing in citizens' clothes. On May 4th orders were issued for his arrest. At two o'clock the next morn- ing he was arrested at his home in Dayton. This
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was accomplished by a detachment of soldiers, who, on being refused admittance, broke open the various doors of the residence until they found Mr. Vallandig- ham in his bedroom, whereupon he was taken to Cin- cinnati. It was daylight before the news of the arrest was generally known in Dayton. Then there broke out an excited and bitter protest, with which developed a fierce spirit of resistance. Nothing seemed to be within reach upon which the friends of the distinguished prisoner could wreak their vengeance but the office of the Dayton Journal, the Union newspaper of that place. This was promptly wrecked and burned by a mob, and other buildings were burned as a result of the rioting. It was with the utmost difficulty that the Democratic leaders could prevent their exasperated partisans from destroying the dwellings of prominent Unionists. As .it was, the railroads entering Dayton were torn up and the telegraph wires were cut. There were all the premonitory symptoms of a civil war. At ten o'clock that night troops from Cincinnati and Columbus poured into Dayton. Quiet had been restored, but it was because the mob had worn itself out for lack of arms and organization.
In the meantime Vallandigham had been imprisoned at Cincinnati in the Kemper Barracks, from which place he issued the following:
"Military Prison, "Cincinnati, Ohio, May 5, 1863.
"To the Democracy of Ohio:
"I am here in a military bastile for no other offense than my political opinions, and the defense of them and
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of the rights of the people, and of your constitutional liberties. Speeches made in the hearing of thousands of you in denunciation of the usurpations of power, infractions of the Constitution and laws, and of mili- tary despotism, were the sole cause of my arrest and imprisonment. I am a Democrat-for Constitution, for law, for the Union, for liberty-this is my only 'crime.' For no disobedience to the Constitution; for no violation of law; for no word, sign or gesture of sympathy with the men of the South, who are for disunion and Southern independence, but in obedience to their demand as well as the demand of Northern Abolition disunionists and traitors, I am here in bonds to-day; but
" 'Time at last sets all things even!'
Meanwhile, Democrats of Ohio, of the Northwest, of the United States, be firm, be true to your principles, to the Constitution, to the Union, and all will yet be well. As for myself, I adhere to every principle, and will make good through imprisonment and life itself every pledge and declaration which I have ever made, uttered or maintained from the beginning. To you, to the whole people, to time, I again appeal. Stand firm! Falter not an instant.
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