USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. I > Part 17
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The saddest feature of the encampment was its close-the leaving of the troops for the front. They were leaving home, many of them forever. Many fell in battle or died during the service, but others returned to recount in story or in song the life in camp, on the march and in the field.
In Camp Buckingham the recruits donned the blue to fight for the preservation of the union of the states. And when the troops marched off to the Southland, the city of Mansfield was decorated with flags and banners, which well nigh canopied the streets. Amid cheers and prayers and tears, troops went forth to fight their country's battles and to uphold the starry flag.
The brigade, ready for service left Camp Buckingham, December 17 and 18, 1881. The Sixty-fourth left on the 17th for Louisville Kentucky. Two trains of twenty cars each were required to transport them. Mc- Laughlin's squadron of cavalry accompanied the regiment. On the 18th the Sixty-fifth and the battery left the camp, and the place which had seen so much bustle and life was quiet. After getting to the field the brigade was separated, and was never in service as a brigade, its regiments belonging to other divisions as their history in the field shows.
Mr. Sherman's duties as senator would not allow him to take command and upon leaving, issued an order expressing his grateful acknowledgments to all the officers and men composing the brigade for their prompt response to the call of their country in its time of need. Saying that he would ever remember with the warmest feeling of gratitude the assistance rendered in recruiting the force, and that he felt assured that they would reflect honor upon the state from which they went and upon the country they served.
As to the war history of the Sherman brigade, each of the survivors can today point to its record and state with pardonable pride that he was a mem- ber of the Sherman brigade.
THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE CIVIL WAR.
The first battle of the Civil War was fought at Philippi. West Virginia. June 3, 1861. In that engagement the Union troops, under command of Colonel Kelley, defeated the Rebels under Colonel Potterfield killing fifteen of their men. While this battle was comparatively small in the number of men engaged, it was of great importance in shaping the events which fol- lowed and its influence was far reaching in its results to the Union cause. The victory there was as inspiring to the North as it was discouraging to the South.
Philippi is an historical name. But this is not the Philippi where
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Brutus fell, but the Philippi where the Union troops won the first victory in the war of the Rebellion. There was a Scotch tradition that-
"Which spills the foremost foeman's life, That party conquers in the strife."
The fate of the battle was often anticipated by the Scotch by observing which party first shed blood. It is said that the Highlanders under Montrose were so deeply imbued with this idea that on the morning of the battle of Tippermoor, they murdered a defenselesss herdsman whom they found in the fields, merely to secure an advantage which they thought was of much consequence to their party. They also believed that the result of a war hung upon the result of the first battle. The Scottish tradition was verified in the result of the American War of the Rebellion, as it had frequently been in the clannish contests between the Highlanders and the Lowlanders of Scot- land, centuries before.
The day following the morning of the battle of Philippi, a Richland county captain had charge of the troops picketing one of the roads, with instructions to arrest any person who attempted to enter or leave the town. While the people of that vicinity knew that Colonel Potterfield and his rebel force were stationed at Philippi. and that the Union troops were in posses- sion of Grafton, and that the armies being so near to each other, a battle might occur at any time, they were surprised nevertheless when they heard cannonading at early dawn of the morning of June the 3rd. The cannonad- ing awakened the people of Barbour county as they had never been aroused before. After the cannonading ceased the people began to get anxious about the result, and men attempted to go to Philippi to get the news. In so doing, twenty-three men were halted and placed under arrest by the Mans- field captain before referred to, who took the men as prisoners into the town and reported them at headquarters. He was ordered to take the men out and have them shot. The business of war was new to us all then and we bad had no time to learn the rules and regulations thereof. This order seemed an unnecessarily murderous one, and the young captain was reluctant to carry it into execution. Then his knowledge of the law came to his relief, that although he had been ordered to have the men shot, no time had been set for the execution. Therefore, he concluded to defer carrying out the order, hoping it would be revoked. It happened during the day that a higher officer came to Philippi and took command of the troops there, and to this officer the Mansfield captain presented the case of the prisoners whom he was ordered to have shot, and the order was not only revoked but the prisoners were discharged and returned to their homes.
It was fortunate for those prisoners that the Mansfield captain was a gentleman of humane feeling, otherwise he might have hastily executed the order without an effort to have it revoked or reconsidered, as was the case in the following incident: When prisoners were brought before Sir William Howard, who was an enthusiastic mathematician and at that time engaged in trying to solve a mathematical problem. a lieutenant approached and asked for orders as to their disposal. Sir William annoyed at the interrup-
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tion exclaimed, "Hang the prisoners!" and went on with his work. After he had finished, he went to inquire about the prisoners, and to learn with what they had been charged, and was horrified to learn that his exclamation "Hang the prisoners!" had been mistaken for an order and that they had all been executed.
In the battle of Philippi, J. E. Hanger, a young soldier of Colonel Potterfield's command, lost a limb by being struck by a cannon ball. He received attention from Dr. Robinson, of Wooster, who was then surgeon of the Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This was the first amputation performed in the Civil war. Mr. Hanger is still living. He resides in Wash- ington City and has been successful as a manufacturer of artificial limbs.
Here is another prisoner story: A story is told that early in the eighteenth century, in a Scotch camp, an orderly who had charge of bury- ing the dead after a battle, reported to the officer in command, saluted and said: "Sir, there is a heap of fellows lying out yonder who say they are not dead, that they are only wounded and won't let us bury them like the rest. What shall we do?"
"Bury them at once," replied the commander, "for if you take their word for it, they won't be dead for a hundred years to come." The orderly saluted and started off to carry out the order and the commander had to dis- patch another order at once and in haste to prevent his order from becom- ing a tragedy.
Captain Miller Moody's Company I, Sixteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a company that went out from Bellville, this county, was in the battle of Philippi, and the surviving members of the company are proud of the fact that they were not only in the first-call service, but also participated in the first battle of the Civil war and helped to earn the victory which was so far reaching in its results.
THE SULTANA DISASTER.
The One Hundred and Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry was organized at Mansfield in August, 1862. . There were three Richland county companies in the regiment: C, D and E companies, the latter commanded by Captain A. W. Loback of Bellville. Of the twenty-five men in Captain Loback's squad on board the Sultana, twenty-two perished in the disaster.
The Sultana disaster was one of the most appalling in the history of the world. The survivors hold annual reunions, and from the proceedings of the one recently held at Galion, the following is taken in part:
At Bellefonte, Alabama, on September 1, 1864, the One Hundred and Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry went on board the cars and remained on them fourteen days patrolling the Tennessee & Alabama railroad from Decatur, Alabama, to Columbia. Tennessee, and on the 15th of September went into camp at Decatur. On September the twenty-third, Colonel Given. in command of the post, was ordered to send four hundred men to reinforce the fort at Athens; this was done by taking about equal numbers from the One Hundred and Second Ohio and the Eighteenth Michigan, and the
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next morning this force met the rebels under General Forrest, near Athens, and by persistent fighting drove them about four miles, and twice cut their way through two brigades of the enemy; but upon arriving in sight of the fort they saw it had suurrendered, and that the starry flag had been hauled down and the rebel flag hoisted in its place. The Union troops were thus surrounded by an overwhelming force of the enemy, and in the conflict which ensucd a large number were killed and wounded, and the remainder taken prisoners. The officers were taken to Selma and the men to Cahaba, Ala- bama. The officers were afterwards transferred to Enterprise, and later paroled, then exchanged.
The One Hundred and Second Ohio prisoners, and those of the Eighteenth Michigan, and perhaps others, were kept at Cahaba from Septem- ber, 1864, until April, 1865, when they were paroled on account of high waters the Alabama river having risen so high that the prisoners were waist deep in water for five days. Paroled Union prisoners were also taken from Andersonville and Macon, Georgia, under flag of truce, to a parole camp on the Black river, near Vicksburg, and turned over to the federal forces after which they marched to Vicksburg to be sent North. While in this parole camp, the prisoners heard of the assassination of President Lincoln. They became wild with indignation, and started for rebel headquarters. The rebel major who had charge of them fled across the Black river bridge for safety.
The government had chartered the steamer "Sultana," a packet plying between St. Louis and New Orleans, to bring the prisoners north, their des- tination being Camp Chase, at Columbus, Ohio. The steamer left Vicks- burg with over two thousand parole prisoners and two companies of infantry under arms, making a total of over two thousand five hundred, including other passengers, among whom were twelve women. The boat arrived at Mem- phis, Tennessee, at about seven o'clock on the evening of April 26, 1865. After unloading several hundred hogsheads of sugar and taking on a supply of coal the steamer started up the river for Cairo, Illinois. Between two and three o'clock on the morning of the twenty-seventh when about eight miles above Memphis, as the boat was passing through a group of islands known as "The Old Hen and Chickens," and while about opposite Tangleman's landing, one of the boilers exploded, the boat caught fire and in a short time was destroyed. Hundreds jumped into the water and many of those who could swim were saved. Others were killed by the explosion, burned to death or drowned. Of the twenty-five hundred passengers, over seventeen hundred were lost, and many more died from burns or exposure. A little rain was falling at the time, and the night was very dark. The river at that place was three miles wide and very high, having overflown its banks. On account of the intense darkness, the men who jumped into the water could not see which way to take to reach the bluffs, the flats being covered with deep water. The survivors were picked up by passing boats and taken to Memphis hospitals.
One of the survivors of the "Sultana" disaster states: "After leaving Vicksburg, the clerk and myself had quite a chat and he seemed to take an
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interest in having me state some of my prison experience. In return, I asked him how many were on board the boat. The clerk replied that if we arrived safe at Cairo it would be the greatest trip ever made on the western waters, as there were more people on board than were ever carried on one boat on the Mississippi river. He stated that there were twenty-four hundred soldiers, one hundred citizen passengers, and a crew of about eighty-in all over twenty-five hundred people. Little did this throng know what awaited it; that in a few more hours some were to be roasted-yes burned to death- while others would be struggling with the waves only to sink to rise no more."
Another survivor says: "I was through all the war, this being my sec- ond term, but the horror and suffering of that morning I never saw approached. Pen cannot write or describe it, tongue cannot tell, and mind cannot picture the despair of twenty-three hundred scalded and drowning men in a cold deep river on a dark night, with a current running twelve miles an hour, and those men just released from prison, not half fed nor quarter clothed. They did not have the strength to battle with a trial like that. It was the most heart rending scene I ever witnessed."
William Lockhart, was a Richland county boy and is a survivor of the Sultana disaster.
At the time of the catastrophe, Mr. Lockhart was lying asleep with some of his Bellville comrades upon the upper deck. In narrating his experience he says the first he knew that anything had happened, he was thrown by the explosion to the stern end of the boat, and was trying to get his breath and didn't know what had occurred. Soon realizing that a terrible accident had befallen the steamer, he started forward to find his comrades. The first man he met was Lash Holtom and he saw by the light of the burning boat that Holtom had been injured in the face, one side of which was cov- ered with blood. Holtom remarked that he could not swim and did not know what to. do to save himself. They met Jacob Irons and Jacob Byerly. and all four being Bellville men, they resolved to keep together. Lockhart suggested that they try to get a gang-plank and push it off and all get on and try to help each other. That was agreed to, and they started forward for the front end of the boat to climb off, and when they got just beyond the wheelhouse, the deck gave way and all went down together. Lockhart was near the side of the boat and caught hold of the steps and pulled himself out, after being considerably burned about his face and hands and his hair was all singed off. Holtom, Trons and Byerly went down into the burning pit. and Lockhart, while clinging to the stairs saw them perish in the flames. He says he then got a deck bucket and drew up water which he poured over himself, his clothes being on fire. The reason he did not jump overboard was because the hundreds of people he saw in the water, were in bunches of ten, twenty or thirty, holding to each other and sinking in a bunch. He finally climbed to the top of the wheel house, where he stood and gazed at the awful spectacle about him.
Lockhart says he knew not what to do. The fire was raging and his position could not be held but a few moments longer. To remain he would
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soon be consumed by the flames as his comrades had been. To jump into the river he would be seized by the struggling, agonizing mass of drowning men and would be carried under the water with them. . Fate soon decided the matter for him. The wheel house burned off and in falling into the river, threw Lockhart out beyond the reach of those who were struggling in the water. Being an expert swimmer he struck out, not knowing which way to reach the shore. After drifting some distance, he saw a man floating, holding on to two shutters. Upon reaching him, he found that the man's head was beneath the water-that he was dead. Securing the shutters, he was enabled to swim and float until he reached a cotton-wood tree, about six miles below where the disaster had occurred. The broad Mississippi had over- flown its banks and was about ten miles wide at the place. Lockhart had drifted toward the Arkansas shore, and the cotton-wood tree to which he clung was upon the overflowed land. He was enabled to retain his hold in the branches of the tree until rescued about nine o'clock the next morning, after having been in the water seven hours.
William Lockhart was born and reared at Bellville, and is the eldest son of the late Rev. Benjamin Lockhart, a minister of the Christian church, who was noted for his evangelical work along the lines of the doctrine pro- mulgated by Alexander Campbell, that "the Bible should be the sole creed of the church." Rev. Lockhart removed to Missouri in 1863 where he con- tinued his ministerial work until his death, which occurred a few years ago.
Daniel Garber was a member of Captain Loback's company who resided near Butler, this county, until his death a few years since. In giving his experience said :
"My first recollection was that I was on my feet and enveloped in a cloud of hot steam, and was considerably scalded in the face. I was told that the vessel had been blown up. I then began to look around to devise some means of escape. I got a shutter and board off the pilot house and tied them together with a pair of drawers. I looked around for a clear place to jump, for I knew if I jumped in where men were struggling they would seize my board and as I could swim but little, I would be lost. Finally I saw my chance, threw my board and jumped with it. I went down in the water quite deep, but came up all right and floated away from the boat. I was picked up four miles below Memphis by two men in a yawl and rowed to the gunboat Pocahontas, where I was taken in, about eleven miles from the scene of the disaster."
J. W. VanScoye, a Richland county boy who was a member of company A, of the Sixty-Fourth, O. V. I., in giving an account of the disaster says:
"I was lying on the cabin deck asleep at the time of the explosion. I was stunned so that I did not realize anything. When I came to, I was under the water. I swam around until I found a board and floated down the river within four hundred yards of Memphis, when I was picked up by some party in a skiff. I was scarcely out of the water until I was entirely helpless, and it was sometime before I recovered."
Joseph Bringman, a Mansfield boy, was a member of company D of the One Hundred and Second O. V. I. Mr. Bringman was sick and weak, re-
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sulting from his prison confinement. The explosion threw him off the boat into the river and he was not fully conscious when he rose to the surface. He managed to get hold of some floating debris, and by that means was able to keep above the water. In describing the event, he says: "I shall never forget that terrible ordeal. The water was icy cold and in every direction men were shivering and calling for help, while the current was carrying us swiftly down the stream. I could see the buildings on the bank at Memphis, as I floated down past the city. There were twelve of my company on board that boat and only two of us escaped." Mr. Bringman was picked up below Mem- phis. His injuries were a fractured arm, three broken ribs, scalded face, scars and bruises. He was in the hospital for some time and then discharged.
Among the passangers on board the "Sultana" were twelve women be- longing to the Christian commission, only one of whom was saved. One of the ladies had extraordinary presence of mind and heroic courage. Stand- ing upon the burning deck, she directed the men how to try to save them- selves and thus perished in the flames.
The following lines are taken from William H. Norton's poem, entitled "The Burning of the Sultana." Mr. Norton was a member of the One Hun- dred and Fifteenth O. V. I.
On sails the steamer through the gloom, On sleep the soldiers to their doom, And death's dark angel-oh! so soon- Calls loud the muster-roll.
Out from the flames' encircling fold, Like a mighty rush of warriors bold, They leap to the river dark and cold, And search for the hidden shore.
Out on the river's rolling tide, Out from the steamer's burning side, Out where the circle is growing wide, They battle with the waves.
And drowning men each other clasp, And writhing in death's closing grasp They struggle bravely, but at last Sink to watery graves.
Oh! for the star's bright silver light! Oh! for a moon to dispel the night! Oh! for the hand that should guide aright The way to the distant land.
Clinging to driftwood and floating down, Caught in the eddies and whirled around, Washed to the flooded banks are found The survivors of that band.
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Dr. George Mitchell, of Mansfield, was the assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Second, and was in charge of the hospital at Pulaski, Ten nessee, at thé time the "boys" were captured at Athens, Alabama. While on duty there a member of rebel General Forrest's staff was brought to the hos- pital, severely wounded. Wishing to do a fair thing even by a rebel, Dr. Mitchell and his assistants called in the two citizen doctors of the place for consultation and to witness the operation which had to be performed. A limb was amputated, and as the officer was otherwise wounded he only par- tially rallied and died within twenty-four hours. To work up a feeling against the Union surgeons, the citizen doctors reported that the staff officer had not been properly treated.
Just as a portion of Forrest's force appeared in sight of Pulaski, railroad trains arrived with two regiments of colored troops. Their commander said, "Men, remember Fort Pillow. Forrest takes no colored prisoners. Fight for your lives." And so they did, and drove the enemy away.
Joe L. Hott of Mansfield, was in the hospital at the time the "boys" were captured at Athens, and thus escaped being taken prisoner.
MEMORIAL DAY MUSINGS.
Among the graves that are annually decorated in the Mansfield ceme- tery each Memorial Day, that of Robert M. Johnson, a soldier of the Mexican war, whose burial was the first interment in the Mansfield cemetery is one of the most noted.
The graves of soldiers are, in a certain sense, like those of the saints, on an equality. The place where an officer is buried, like that of a private, is simply the grave of a soldier. Death obliterates all rank, class and distinc- tion. The grave of an humble Christian is on an equality with that of a prelate, for-"The graves of all His saints He blest."
While in death all are equal, each has while living his individual part. Robert M. Johnson was the son of Rev. James Johnson, who was the pastor of the U. P. church of Mansfield from 1821 to 1852.
When but eighteen years of age, Robert Johnson enlisted to fight under his country's flag in our war with Mexico, and died at Saltillo, May 11. 1847. one month before the expiration of his term of enlistment. With loving hands his comrades brought his body home with them and he was buried in the (then) newly opened cemetery. A marble monument stands on the burial lot on which is the following inscription: "Robert M. Johnson, May 11, 1847."
"A Volunteer to the Mexican War. Died at Saltillo. His remains were Borne Home by his Beloved Fellow Soldiers to his Grief-stricken Parents. The first burial in, this cemetery. This lot was donated to him by the Directors."
The text-inscription on the Johnson monument is: "Blessed are the Dead who die in the Lord."
In the same lot lie the remains of the minister-father and the soldier- son. The following might be added as a text: "Honor to the Dead, who in
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Life Defended their Country's Flag." In that spirit the graves of American soldiers are decorated with flowers each recurring Memorial Day.
Major Samuel Poppleton, a Green Mountain boy, who fought under Colonel Ethan Allen, and who had the honor of placing the American flag on Fort Ticonderoga at its surrender, May 10, 1775, lived in Richland county a number of years and is buried in the Everts graveyard, a mile south of Bellville. The Major was a color-sergeant at the time of the surrender, and stood near to Colonel Allen and heard his demand for the surrender of the fort, "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress."
Upon a bloody page of history is recorded American bravery and devo- tion to principle excelled nowhere else in the annals of the world. It is the story of the Alamo. For several days the Mexican Army under Santa Anna had successfully bombarded the fortress, and on February 23, 1836, the Alamo was stormed-four thousand infuriated Mexicans against one hun- dred and eighty-three Americans (Texan patriots). Charge after charge had been repelled and for every patriot killed a dozen Mexicans bit the dust. When the Mexicans entered the last enclosure, but six of the defenders of the Alamo were alive-Crockett and five of his comrades. Santa Anna's chief of the staff implored Crockett to surrender and thus spare the lives of his comrades and himself, but Crockett would not surrender. And when the Mexicans made the final charge, the last man of the little band was shot down, the Alamo was taken, but its capture cost Santa Anna one thousand five hundred of his four thousand men.
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