History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 16

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II > Part 16

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CAPTAIN SANDERSON'S COMPANV.

COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Captain William L. Sanderson.

First Lieutenant Stewart W. Cayce. Second Lieutenant Thomas S. Kunkle.

Additional Second Lieutenant Henry Pennington.

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS.

Sergeant Aug. M. Jackson.

Sergeant R. F. Freeman.

Sergeant Thomas Gwin.

Sergeant George W. Lapping.

Corporal Benjamin F. Scribner.

Corporal George W. Smith.

Corporal Enos Taylor.

Corporal Thomas V. Stran.

PRIVATES.

William Aikin, William J. Austin, Goodheart Abbott, William Abbott, George Adams, l'rank Bailey, James Bailey,

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Michael Burris, William Bell, Isaac Buzby, Samuel Buchan- an, Larkin Cunningham, Hiram W. Catlin, William Cook, William Canada, Lewis Coulter, Jesse Fox, Samuel Finley, Thomas Frazier, Berry Gwin, James F. Gwin, Charles H. Goff, Albert L. Goodwin, John M. Hutchings, Martin Howard, Daniel Howard, John Howard, Thomas Howard, Samuel Howard, William Hopkins, John Hitch, Luther N. Hollis, George Hoffman, August E. Hughes, Henry Hardy, Alexander M. Jackson, Granville Jackson, William Lee, William H. Lilly, Edwin R. Lunt, John T. Lewis, Walter J. McMurtry, John M. Laughlin, Conrad Miller, Joseph Morgan, Nathan McDowell, John N. Mitchell, James B. Mulkey, Henry M. Matthews, Richard S. Morris, Emanuel W. Moore, John D. McRae, Harvey Paddock, William Pitt, Wesley Pierce, Hiram J. Reamer, Warren Robinson, Thomas Raper, David Rice, Apollos Stephens, Luther Steph- ens, Thomas W. Sinex, James Smith, Calvin R. Thompson, William W. Tuley, John Taylor, James Taylor, Thomas J. Tyler, Luke Thomas, James Wininger, James B. Winger, James Walts, Henry W. Welker, Charles Wright, Miles D. Warren, Philip Zubrod.

The company was soon called to the field with its regiment (which, by the way, was encamped near New Albany. Captain Sanderson here came near being elected colonel, but, it is alleged, was cheated out of his election). It encamped for ten days on the New Orleans battle-ground, and spent several months at Camp Bel- knap, a few miles up the east bank of the Rio Grande, then marched into the interior and took prominent part in the battle of Buena Vista, February 22, 1847, in which Captain San- derson was seriously wounded. Bela C. Kent, Esq., now a leading citizen of New Albany, was also on this field as an independent rifleman. The company was mustered out at New Orleans in June of the same year, and reached home on Independence day, where it had a grand wel- come.

Colonel Tuley gives the following account of the survivors of this company and of the field officers of the regiment, so far as he knows of them :

General Lane, the first colonel, died recently in Oregon. Of the officers, Second regiment, Major Cravens, of Wash- ington county, alone survives. All of our commissioned officers are dead except Lieutenant Pennington, who resides in this city. The sergeants are all dead except George W. Lapping, of this city. The corporals all reside in this city, but Enos Taylor, and he may be living or dead. William Akin is one of the firm of Akin & Drummond, founders. Louisville. William J. Austin is in Florida. William Bell died last year at Oxford, Indiana. Calvin E. Thompson, E. W. Moore and Sam Finley are in Iowa. William Cook is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Berry Gwin, Alexander Jackson, John Mclaughlin, Conrad Miller, Wesley Pierce, H. J. Reamer, William W. Tuley, James Taylor and Miles D. Warren are all residents of this county. J. F. Gwin lives in northern Indiana; John M. Hutchings, the Howards,

William H. Lilly, in Clarke county, Indiana; Nathan Mc- Dowell, at Glasgow, Kentucky ; James B. Mulky is practicing law at Bloomington, Indiana; Richard S. Morris at Galves- ton, Texas; William Pitt, dead. Where the others are, or whether living or dead, I know not.

THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.

On the 15th day of May, 1861, the second day after the fall of Fort Sumter and the very day of the issue of President Lincoln's proclama- tion calling out seventy-five thousand of the militia of the States to aid in quelling the insur- rection. Governor Morton tendered to the President a contingent of ten thousand men from Indiana. The quota assigned to the State under the call, however, was something less than half this number, being six regiments of infantry or riflemen, numbering in all, as these commands were then organized, but four thou- sand six hundred and eighty-three men who would be received for a three months' term of service. The ranks of these regiments were filled instantly, and a large number of surplus companies were formed. These were organized by the Governor upon his own responsibility, into five more regiments, which were sworn into the service of the State to be used in its defense, if necessary, or for the general service, for the period of twelve months. The Legislature, at its next session, not only supported the action of Governor Morton, but went further, and author- ized the formation of six such regiments. Meanwhile, on the 21st of May, on the further requisition of the General Government, three of the regiments formed from the overflow under the three months' call had been transferred to the United States service and were mustered in for the period of three years. The subsequent calls by proclamation of the President of July 3 and August 4, 1862; of June 15, 1863 (under which four regiments of six months' men were sent to East Tennessee); October 17, 1863; February 1, March 14, July 18, and December 19, 1864, were responded to most patriotically by the gallant people of Indiana; and the contin- gents were in general, rapidly formed and sent to the several scenes of action. Nearly every Indiana soldier volunteered. A light draft was made under an order of October 6, 1862, but it was afterwards learned that the men drafted were not then actually due from the State. On the 30th of November, 1863, under the call of the Government for colored volunteers, six com-

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

panies were raised in Indiana, numbering five hundred and eighteen men, who were received into the Twenty-eighth regiment of United States colored troops.

. The rosters, hereafter published, will show that a full share of these, as of all other troops raised in the State, went from Floyd and Clarke counties. In the credits for veteran volunteers made up March 29, 1865, the former county had one. If this seem a small number, it should be noted that seven other counties of the State had only as many, and four counties had but two each. We give this figure here, partly to point the contrast between this isolated acci- dental credit, as it were, and the hundreds who became veteran volunteers from the two coun- ties, and the thousands who enlisted in the Fed- eral service for longer or shorter periods. Already, by the 19th of September, 1862, when the war had been in progress but sixteen months, it was ascertained that Clarke county had one thousand six hundred and twelve of her sons in the field, and that the total enrollment of those remaining of suitable age for military service was two thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, of whom two thousand two hundred and ninety- seven were subject to draft; and that the corres- ponding figures for Floyd county were one thou- sand and sixty seven, three thousand three hun- dred and twenty-nine, and two thousand eight hundred and eighty-four, a very honorable showing, truly. (It may be added just here that the return of Indiana militia made to the United States Government after the war, April 6, 1867, exhibited a total of four thousand, five hundred and fifty-five capable of doing military service in Clarke county, and four thousand two hundred and nine in Floyd). It is very gratifying to be able to record that so far as is now remembered there was no disloyal expression at any of the early war-meetings in these counties, while trea- son was outspoken in certain of the adjacent counties.

FURTHER OF THE HOME WORK.

Recruiting for the Union armies was begun very early and very efficiently in Clarke and Floyd counties. It was greatly stimulated by the organization at Jeffersonville of the first camp made by a Kentucky regiment forming for the Union army. This offered an excellent op- portunity to many patriotic Indianians, who were

unable to find places in the first regiments from this State or for any other reason preferred to en- list in a regiment in another State, to enlist in the noble command being recruited by General Rousseau, of Louisville. As will be seen by lists published at the end of the rosters of Floyd and Clarke county commands, a considerable number of officers in this and other Kentucky regiments were residents of Jeffersonville or New Albany. Doubtless a much greater num- ber of enlisted men from these cities and the adjacent country went into regiments from Ken- tucky and other States; but unhappily there are no means of identifying or naming them; and their honor must remain unsung, except in a general way, in this history. We are able to present the names of Indiana officers in Ken- tucky regiments only by the enterprise of the adjutant general of that State, who, in his report for the war period, took pains to make an alpha- betical fist of all officers in the service with Ken- tucky commands, and their places of residence.

THE INDIANA LEGION.

The elaborate report of the adjutant general of the State of Indiana for the war, in eight octavo volumes, makes especial mention of Col- onels John T. Willey and John N. Ingham, of Clarke county, and Colonels Benjamin F. Scrib- ner and William W. Tuley, of Floyd, for their services in aiding to raise the Indiana Legion in the fall of 1861. This organization of the State militia was formed under an act of the State Legislature, passed May 11th, of that year, in view of the war then imminently impending. It was not, however, put upon a war footing until the autumn of 1861, on account of the scarcity of arms, every gun that could be procured up to that time being needed to equip troops for the United States service. September roth Governor Morton commissioned Major John Love, of In- dianapolis, major general, and Colonel John L. Mansfield, of Jeffersonville, brigadier general, for the purpose of organizing the Legion. Com- panies were formed in nearly every county. They were grouped in two divisions, each commanded respectively, by Major Generals Mansfield and James Hughes (both promoted from brigadiers). The regiments of the Legion formed in Floyd and Clarke counties (full rosters of which will be found below), were assigned to the Second bri-

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

gade of the Second division of the Legion, com- manded at first by Brigadier General Hughes, and after his promotion to the command of a division, by Brigadier General Henry Jordon.

The admirable report of the adjutant general of the State (General W. H. H. Terrell) for the war period, gives the following account of the organization and services of the Floyd county regiment :

"SEVENTH REGIMENT, THIRD BRIGADE.

"From the report of Colonel E. A. Maginness, it appears that this regiment was organized under command of Colonel B. F. Scribner, during the spring of 1861, and consisted at that time of eighteen companies, numbering in the aggregate nine hundred men, most of whom were uni- formed, but not more than three hundred armed.

"During the first four months the most satis- factory progress was made in company and battalion drill, but protracted delay in procuring arms and accoutrements created general dissatis- faction, while the organization of two regiments of volunteers in this county and vicinity for the United States service absorbed many of the officers and men who had been the most active members of the Legion. Every company contrib- uted much of its best material to the two regi- ments, and several of them were thus entirely deprived of commissioned officers. From these causes most of the companies were disorganized, and the efficiency of those who retained their organization was seriously impaired. Here, as elsewhere, the Legion served the noble purpose of educating young men for active service and in infusing martial enthusiasm into the public mind.

"Colonel Scribner entering the United States service as colonel of the Thirty-eighth Indiana volunteers, the command of the Seventh passed to Colonel William W. Tuley in September, 1861. During the incumbency of Colonel Tuley he was requested by General Anderson, then on duty in Kentucky, to send Knapp's artillery con- pany of his command to a point opposite the mouth of Salt river, and to keep it supported by at least one company of infantry. The request was complied with, the artillery remaining on duty at the point designated about three months, during which time three infantry companies par- ticipated in the duty of supporting it, relieving each other from time to time. One company

was subsequently sent to Indianapolis to assist in guarding prisoners at Camp Morton, in which service it continued several months.

"Upon the resignation of Colonel Tuley in September, 1862, Colonel Maginness was placed in command. He found the regiment, with the exception of four companies, 'utterly broken up,' and 'even these four companies very much shat- tered' --- a condition which was not much im- proved at the date of his report, in December following. Colonel Maginness attributes the early dissolution of the organization to the ‘ut- terly and fatally defective law that gave it birth,' a law 'which discovers no inducements to allure, nor penalties to compel men to join the organi- zation."""

The following partial account of the services of the large regiment raised chiefly in Clarke county is also given in the same document:

"EIGHTH REGIMENT, THIRD BRIGADE.

"No detailed report of the inception and pro- gress of the organization in Clarke and Scott counties has been made by any of the officers commanding, nor has this office been furnished with reliable data relative to the services per- formed by this regiment, or any of the companies attached thereto. James Keigwin, of Jefferson, was first appointed to the colonelcy, under commission bearing date August 30, 1861, but almost immediately vacated the office to accept the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Forty- ninth Indiana volunteers. Colonel John N. Ingram held the command from September 6, 1861, to October 13, 1862, when his resignation created a vacancy which was filled by the ap- pointment of John F. Willey. This officer re- ports twelve companies in Clarke and five com- panies in Scott counties at the close of 1862. Portions of the command were frequently called out to repel threatened incursions of Kentucky guerrillas, and the regiment rendered good service in guarding the shoals on the Ohio, when the water was low and the danger of invasion in- minent. With resident rebel sympathizers, of whom there were a considerable number in these companies, the Legion unquestionably exercised a restraining influence. It was a prolific nursery for the volunteer service, a quickener of patri- otic impulses, and conservator of genuine loy- alty."

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

Colonel Willey reports the services of his command for 1863-64, as follows:

"We had five battalions, and were called into service by order of the Governor, June 20th, to meet the raid under Captain Hines. June 21st, relieved from duty; June 22d, a false alarm; were sent to guard White river bridge: June 24th dis- missed the command; July 6, 1863, called into service by Lazarus Noble, adjutant-general; ren- dezvoused at Jefferson; July 7th, dismissed the command; July 8th, met at Jefferson to repel Morgan raid; were in line of battle, but no enemy came; July 15th, relieved from duty and com- mand dismissed; June 9, 1864, called into service, by order of the Governor, to meet a raid in Kentucky by Morgan; dismissed June 25th; August roth, called companies A and H to picket the Ohio river in the vicinity of the Grassy flats, to stop guerrillas from crossing under rebel Jesse; pickets fired on by guerrillas; re- turned the fire, but no one hurt; dismissed August 20, 1864. We had two battalion drills in April, 1864, one regimental drill in May, and one in October. The regiment is well drilled for militia, and is ready and willing to turn out whenever called on."

THE DRAFT IN CLARKE AND FLOYD.

The draft assignment to Clarke county was very light-only ten to Silver Creek township; and to Floyd county was not great-but twenty- four to Lafayette township, and two hundred and twenty-nine to New Albany. T. D. Fouts was appointed draft commissioner; John Stockwell, marshal; and W. F. Collum, surgeon for Clarke county. The corresponding appointments in Floyd were Jesse J. Brown, Henry Crawford, and William A. Clapp.

May 1, 1863, Colonel J. B. Merriwether, of Jefferson, was appointed provost marshal for the Second Congressional district, and served until his honorable discharge, July 31, 1865. His ser- vices of course, reached far beyond the light duty connected with drafts in this case, as, it will be noticed, they also reached some months be- yond the close of the war.

It should be noted here, to the enduring honor of both these counties, that there were no de- serters whatever in Clarke county for the drafts under the calls of July 18th, and December 19, 1864; and but three from Floyd county.

THE SCARE OF 1862.

The advance of a Confederate army under Gen- erals Heath and Kirby Smith into Kentucky in the late summer and early fall of 1862, naturally ex- cited the liveliest apprehensions in all the counties of Indiana and Ohio bordering upon the great river. There was good reason for fear, although finally no foot of soil of either State was touched by the enemy during this movement. So close and threatening, however, were their demonstra- tions back of Covington, that they gave some color to the somewhat fanciful title given to this period in that quarter as "the siege of Cincin- nati." Many days before this, on the 5th of August, 1862, a military order had been issued proclaiming martial law in all the towns and counties of Indiana on the Ohio river, closing all places of business in them at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of every day, and requiring all able bodied whites between the ages of eighteen and forty-five in these counties to organize in com- panies, elect officers, and report to the command- ing officer of the legion in their respective coun- ties, armed with such weapons as could be pro- cured, and paying strict attention to drill and discipline. These orders were cheerfully and pretty thoroughly obeyed in most quarters-no- where more so than in the two counties which are the subject of this volume; and these meas- ures, it is believed, were among those which de- terred the enemy from attempting the crossing of the Ohio. Among the most noticeable steps taken in this region, were the planning of works and the actual planting of batteries upon the heights of New Albany, under the direction of Colonel Carrington and Major Frybarger, in order to cover with their fire the lowlands and fords of the river west of Louisville.

THE MORGAN RAID.

The next year-in the historic month of July, 1863-the enemy came vastly nearer, furnishing by far the most exciting episode of the war to nearly the whole of southern Indiana and Ohio. For the first and last time during the long con- flict, the Confederate was present in armed force upon the soil of Floyd and Clarke counties, though only for an instant, as it were, and upon or near the northern borders of the counties. We refer to the raid of John Morgan and his bold riders, which carried consternation through a

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

wide tract of the Northland during a few hurried days, and then ended in wild flight and utter disaster on the banks of the upper Ohio. We give the story from the beginning of the rapid march to the exit from Indiana into Ohio, as found in the admirable and truly monumental work of Whitelaw Reid, entitled Ohio in the War, and published in 1868 by Messrs. Wilstach, Baldwin & Co., of Cincinnati. It should previ- ously be observed, however, that Morgan under- took the movement against the express order of his superior, General Bragg, then commanding the Confederate army at Tullahoma, who had given him orders to make a demonstration in Kentucky, capturing Louisville if he possibly could, and going whithersoever he chose in the State, but by no means to cross the Ohio. Mor- gan determined, however, upon his own respon- sibility, to disregard the injunction, and so in- formed his second in command, Colonel Basil W. Duke, now an attorney in Louisville. He sent scouts to examine the fords of the upper Ohio, where he thought he should cross on his return, unless Lee's movement on Pennsylvania should make it expedient for him to keep mov- ing eastward until he could unite his force with the army of Northern Virginia. We now follow Ohio in the War:

"On the 2d of July he began to cross the Cum- berland at Burkesville and Turkey Neck bend, almost in the face of Judah's cavalry, which, ly- ing twelve miles away, at Marrowbone, trusted to the swollen river as sufficient to render the crossing impracticable. The mistake was fatal. Before Judah moved down to resist, two regi- ments and portions of others were across. With these Morgan attacked, drove the cavalry into its camp at Marrowbone, and was then checked bythe artillery. But his crossing was thus secured, and long before Judah could get his forces gath- ered together, Morgan was half way to Colum- bia. He had two thousand four hundred and sixty men, all told. Before him lay three States- Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio-which he meant to traverse ; one filled with hostile troops, the others with a hostile and swarming population.

"The next day, at the crossing of Green river, he came upon Colonel Moore, with a Michigan regiment, whom he vainly summoned to sur- render, and vainly strove to dislodge. The fight was severe for the little time it lasted ; and

Morgan, who had no time to spare, drew off, found another crossing, and pushed on through Campbellville to Lebanon. Here came the last opportunity to stop him. Three regiments held the position, but two of them were at some little distance from the town. Falling upon the one in the town, he overwhelmed it before the others could get up, left them hopelessly in his rear, and double-quicked his prisoners eight miles northward to Springfield, before he could stop long enough to parole them .* Then, turning northwestward, with his foes far behind him, he marched straight for Brandenburgh, on the Ohio river, some sixty miles below Louisville. A couple of companies were sent forward to cap- ture boats for the crossing; others were detached to cross below and effect a diversion ; and still others were sent toward Crab Orchard to dis- tract the attention of the Union commanders. He tapped the telegraph wires, thereby finding that he was expected at Louisville, and that the force there was too strong for him ; captured a train from Nashville within thirty miles of Louis- ville ; picked up squads of prisoners here and there, and paroled them. By ten o'clock on the morning of the 8th, his horsemen stood on the banks of the Ohio. They had crossed Ken- tucky in five days.

" When theadvance companies, sent forward to secure boats, entered Brandenburg, they took care to make as little confusion as possible. Presently the Henderson and Louisville packet, the J. J. McCoombs, came steaming up the river, and landed as usual at the wharf-boat. As it made fast its lines, thirty or forty of Morgan's men quietly walked on board and took posses -* sion. Soon afterward, the Alice Dean, a fine boat running in the Memphis and Cincinnati trade, came around the bend. As she gave no sign of landing, they steamed out to meet her, and, before captain or crew could comprehend the matter, the Alice Dean was likewise trans- ferred to the Confederate service. When Mor- gan rode into town a few hours later, the boats were ready for his crossing.

" Indiana had just driven out a previous invader -Captain Hines, of Morgan's command-who, with a small force, had crossed over "to stir up the Copperheads," as the rebel accounts pleas-

* Some horrible barbarities to one or two of these prison- ers were charged against him in the newspapers of the day.

tóo

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

antly express it. Finding the country too hot for him, he had retired, after doing considerable damage ; and in Brandenburg he was now await- ing his chief.

"Preparations were at once made for crossing over, but the men crowding down incautiously to the river bank, revealed their presence to the militia on the Indiana side, whom Captain Hines' recent performance had made unwontedly watch- ful. They at once opened a sharp fusilade across the stream, with musketry and an old cannon which they had mounted on wagon-wheels. Mor- gan speedily silenced this fire by bringing up his Parrott rifles; then hastily dismounted two of his regiments and sent them across. The militia re- treated and the two rebel regiments pursued. Just then a little tin-clad, the Springfield, which Com- mander Leroy Fitch had dispatched from New Albany, on the first news of something wrong down the river, came steaming towards the scene of ac- tion. Suddenly "checking her way," writes the rebel historian of the raid, Colonel Basil Duke, in his History of Morgan's Cavalry, "she tossed her snubnose defiantly, like an angry beauty of the coalpits, sidled a little toward the town, and commenced to scold. A bluish-white, funnel- shaped cloud spouted out from her left-hand bow, and a shot flew into the town, and then, cranging front forward, she snapped a shell at the men on the other side. I wish I were suf- ficiently master of nautical phraseology to do justice to this little vixen's style of fighting ; but she was so unlike a horse, or even a piece of light artillery, that I cannot venture to attempt it." He adds that the rebel regiments on the Indiana side found shelter, and that thus the gunboat fire proved wholly without effect. After a little Morgan trained his Parrotts upon her; and the inequality in the range of the guns was such that she speedily turned up the river again.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 16

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 680

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 680