History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 17

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 17

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"The situation had seemed sufficiently danger- ous. Two regiments were isolated on the Indi- ana side; the gunboat was between them and their main body; while every hour of delay brought Hobson nearer on the Kentucky side, and speeded the mustering of the Indiana mi- litia. But the moment the gunboat turned up the river, all danger for the moment was passed. Morgan rapidly crossed the rest of his command, burned the boats behind him, scattered the mi- jitia and rode out into Indiana. There was yet

time to make a march of six miles before night- fall.

"The task now before Morgan was a simple one, and for several days could not be other than an easy one. His distinctly formed plan was to march through southern Indiana and Ohio, avoiding large towns and large bodies of militia, spreading alarm through the country, making all the noise he could, and disappearing again across the upper fords of the Ohio betore the organizations of militia could get such shape and consistency as to be able to make head against him. For some days, at least, he need expect no adequate resistance, and, while the bewilder- ment as to his purposes and uncertainty as to the direction he was taking should paralyze the gathering militia, he meant to place many a long mile between them and his hard riders.

"Spreading, therefore, all manner of reports as to his purposes and assuring the most that he meant to penetrate to the heart of the State and lay Indianapolis in ashes, he turned the heads of his horses up the river towards Cincinnati ; scat- tered the militia with the charges of his advanced brigade; burnt bridges and cut telegraph wires right and left ; marched twenty-one hours out of twenty-four, and rarely made less than fifty or sixty miles a day.

"His movement had at first attracted little at- . tention. The North was used to having Ken- tucky in a panic about invasion from John Mor- gan, and had come to look upon it mainly as a suggestion of a few more blooded horses from the " blue-grass " that were to be speedily im- pressed into the rebel service. Gettysburg had just been fought; Vicksburg had just fallen; what were John Morgan and his horse-thieves? Let Kentucky guard her own stables against her own outlaws !

"Presently he came nearer and Louisville fell into a panic. Martial law was proclaimed; bus- iness was suspended; every preparation for de- fense was hastened. Still, few thought of danger beyond the river, and the most, remembering the siege of Cincinnati, were disposed to regard as very humorous the ditching and the drill by the terrified people of the Kentucky metropolis.

" Then came the crossing. The Governor of Indiana straightway proclaimed martial law, and called out the legion. General Burnside was full of wise plans for "bagging" the invader, of

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

which the newspapers gave mysterious hints. Thoroughly trustworthy gentlemen hastened with their 'reliable reports' of the rebel strength. They had stood on the wharf-boat and kept tally of the cavalry crossed; and there was not a man less than five thousand of them. Others had talked with them, and been confidently assured that they were going up to Indianapolis to burn the State-house. Others, on the same veracious authority, were assured that they were heading for New Albany and Jeffersonville to burn Gov- ernment stores. The militia everywhere were sure that it was their duty to gather in their own towns and keep Morgan off; and, in the main, he saved them the trouble by riding around. Hobson came lumbering along in the rear-riding his best, but finding it hard to keep the trail; harder to procure fresh horses, since of these Morgan made a clean sweep as he went; and impossible to narrow the distance between them to less than twenty-five hours.

"Still the purpose of the movement was not di- vined-its very audacity was its 'protection. General Burnside concluded that Hobson was pressing the invaders so hard, forsooth, that they must swim across the Ohio below Madison to escape, and his disposition for intercepting them proceeded on that theory. The Louisville pack- ets were warned not to leave Cincinnati, lest Morgan should bring with them his artillery and force them to ferry him back into Kentucky. Efforts were made to raise regiments to aid the Indianians, if only to reciprocate the favor they had shown when Cincinnati was under siege ; but the people were tired of such alarms, and could not be induced to believe in the danger. By Sunday, July 12, three days after Morgan's entry upon northern soil, the authorities had ad- vanced their theory of his plan to correspond with the news of his movements. They now thought he would swim the Ohio a little below Cincinnati, at or near Aurora; but the citizens were more apprehensive. They began to talk about a "sudden dash into the city." The mayor requested that business be suspended and that the citizens assemble in their respective wards for defense. Finally General Burnside came to the same view, proclaimed martial law, and ordered the suspension of business. Navi- gation was practically stopped, and gun-boats scoured the river banks to remove all scows and

flat-boats which might aid Morgan in his escape to the Kentucky shore. Later in the evening apprehensions that, after all, Morgan might not be so anxious to escape, prevailed. Governor Tod was among the earliest to recognize the dan- ger; and, while there was still time to secure in- sertion in the newspapers of Monday morning, he telegraphed to the press a proclamation call- ing out the militia.

"It was high time. Not even yet had the au- thorities begun to comprehend the tremendous energy with which Morgan was driving straight to .his goal. While the people of Cincinnati were reading this proclamation, and considering whether or not they should put up the shutters of their store-windows,* Morgan was starting out in the gray dawn from Sunmansville for the sub- urbs of Cincinnati. Long before the rural popu- lation within fifty miles of the city had read the proclamation calling them to arms, he was at Harrison (Hamilton county, Ohio, on the State line), which he reached at 1 P. M., Monday, July 13th."

The end of the terrible race for life is thus told :

"Until he reached Pomeroy he encountered comparatively little resistance. At Camp Denni- son there was a little skirmish, in which a rebel lieutenant and several privates were captured; but Lieutenant Colonel Neff wisely limited his efforts to the protection of the bridge and camp. A train of the Little Miami road was thrown off the track. At Berlin there was a skirmish with the militia under Colonel Runkle. Small militia skirmishes were constantly occurring, the citizen soldiery hanging on the flanks of the flying in- vaders and wounding two or three men every day, and occasionally killing one.

"At last the daring little column approached its goal. All the troops in Kentucky had been evaded and left behind. All the militia in In- diana had been dashcd aside or outstripped. The fifty thousand militia in Ohio had failed to turn it from its pre-determined path. Within precisely fifteen days from the morning it had crossed the Cumberland-nine days from its crossing into Indiana-it stood once more on the banks of the Ohio. A few hours more of

*Many thousand men wholly disobeyed the orders, and kept their stores or shops open through the day.

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

daylight, and it would be safely across, in the midst again of a population to which it might look for sympathy if not for aid.

"But the circle of the hunt was narrowing. Judah, with his fresh cavalry, was up, and was marching out from the river against Morgan. Hobson was hard on his rear. Colonel Runkle, commanding a division of militia, was north of him. And, at last, the local militia in advance of him were beginning to fell trees and tear up bridges to obstruct his progress. Near Pomeroy they made a stand. For four or five miles his road ran through a ravine, with occasional inter- sections from hill roads. At all these cross-roads he found the militia posted; and from the hills above him they made his passage through the ravine a perfect running of the gauntlet. On front, flank, and rear, the militia pressed; and, as Morgan's first subordinate ruefully expressed it, "closed eagerly upon our track." In such plight he passed through the ravine; and shaking clear of his pursuers for a while, pressed on to Chester, where he arrived about 1 o'clock in the afternoon of the 18th of July.

"Here he made the first serious military mis- take that had marked his course on Northern soil. He was within a few hours' ride of the ford at which he hoped to cross; and the skir- mishing about Pomeroy should have given hını ample admonition of the necessity for haste. But he had been advancing through the ravine at a gallop. He halted now to breathe his horses and to hunt a guide. Three hours and a half thus lost went far toward deciding his fate.

"When his column was well closed up, and his guide was found he moved forward. It was eight o'clock before he reached Portland, the little village on the bank of the Ohio nearly op- posite Buffington island. Night had fallen-a night of solid darkness, as the rebel officers de- clared. The entrance to that ford was guarded by a little earthwork manned by only two or three hundred infantry. This alone stood be- tween him and an easy passage to Virginia.

"But his evil genius was upon him, He had lost an hour and a half at Chester in the after- noon-the most precious hour and a half since his feet touched Northern soil; and he now de- cided to waste the night. In the hurried coun- cil with his exhausted officers it was admitted on all hands that Judah had arrived-that some

of his troops had given force to the skirmishing near Pomeroy-that they would certainly be at Buffington by morning, and that gun-boats would accompany them. But his men were in bad condition, and he feared to trust them .in a night attack upon a fortified position which he had not reconnoitered. The fear was fatal. Even yet, by abandoning his wagon-train and his wounded, he might have reached unguarded fords a little higher up. This, too, was men- tioned by his officers. He would save all, he promptly replied, or would lose all together. And so he gave mortgages to fate. By morning Judah was up. At daybreak Duke advanced with a couple of rebel regiments to storm the earthwork, but found it abandoned. He was rapidly proceeding to make dispositions for cross- ing, when Judah's advance struck him .. At first he repulsed it, and took a number of prisoners, the adjutant general of Judah's staff among them. Morgan then ordered him to hold the force on his front in check. He was not able to return to his command till it had been broken and thrown in full retreat before an impetuous charge of Judah's cavalry, headed by Lieutenant O'Neil, of the Fifth Indiana. He succeeded in rallying and reforming his line. But now advancing up the Chester and Pomeroy road came the gallant cavalry that, over three States, had been gallop- ing on their track-the three thousand of Hob- son's command-who for nearly two weeks had been only a day, a forenoon, an hour behind them.

"As Hobson's guidons fluttered out in the little valley by the river bank where they fought, every man of that band that had so long defied a hundred thousand knew that the contest was over. They were almost out of ammunition, ex- hausted, and scarcely two thousand strong; against whom were Hobson's three thousand and Judah's still larger force. To complete the overwhelming odds, that in spite of their efforts had at last been concentrated upon them, the ironclad gun-boats steamed up and opened fire. Morgan comprehended the situation as fast as the hard-riding troopers, who, still clinging to their bolts of calico, were already galloping to- ward the rear. , He at once essayed to extricate his trains, and then to withdraw his regiments by column of fours from right of companies, keep- ing up meanwhile as sturdy resistance as he

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

might. For some distance the withdrawal was made in tolerable order ; then, under a charge of a Michigan cavalry regiment, the retreat became a rout. Morgan, with not quite twelve hundred men, escaped. His brother, with Colonels Duke, Ward, Huffman, and about seven hundred men were taken prisoners.

"This was the battle of Buffington Island. It was brief and decisive. But for his two mistakes of the night before, Morgan might have avoided it and escaped; yet it cannot be said that he yielded to the blow that insured his fate without spirited resistance and a courage and tenacity worthy of a better cause. Our superiority in forces was overwhelming, and our loss trifling.

" And now began the dreariest experience of the rebel chief. Twenty miles above Buffington he struck the river again, got three hundred of his command across, and was himself midway in the stream when the approaching gunboats checked the passage. Returning to the nine hundred still on the Ohio side, he once more renewed the hurried flight. His men were worn down and exhausted by long continued and enor- mous work ; they were demoralized by pillage, discouraged by the scattering of their command, weakened most of all by the loss of faith in themselves and their commander, surrounded by a multitude of foes, harassed at every hand, intercepted at every loophole of escape, hunted like game night and day, driven hither and thither in their vain efforts to double on their remorseless pursuers. It was the early type and token of a similar fate under pursuit of which the great army of the Confederacy was to fade out; and no other words are needed to finish the story we have now to tell than those with which the historian of the army of the Potomac (Swin- ton) describes the tragic flight to Appomattox Court House :

" Dark divisions sinking in the woods for a- few hours' repose, would hear suddenly in the woods the boom of hostile guns and the clatter of the troops of the ubiquitous cavalry, and had to be up to hasten off. Thus pressed on all sides, driven like sheep before prowling wolves, amid hunger, fatigue, and sleeplessness, continu- ing day after day, they fared toward the rising sun :

Such resting found the soles of unblest feet."

Yet to the very last the energy this daring

cavalryman displayed was such as to extort our admiration. From the jaws of disaster he drew out the remnants of his command at Buffington. When foiled in the attempted crossing above, he headed for the Muskingum. Foiled here by the militia under Remkle, he doubled on his track, and turned again toward Blennerhasset Island. The clouds of dust that marked his track be- trayed the movement, and on three sides the pur- suers closed in upon him. While they slept in peaceful expectation of receiving his surrender in the morning, he stole out along a hillside that had been thought impassable-his men walking in single file and leading their horses; and by midnight he was out of the toils, and once more marching hard to outstrip his pursuers. At last he found an unguarded crossing of the Mus- kingum at Eaglesport, above McConnellsville; and then, with an open country before him, struck out once more for the Ohio.

This time Governor Tod's sagacity was vindi- cated. He urged the shipment of troops by rail to Bellaire, near Wheeling; and by great good fortune Major Way, of the Ninth Michigan cav- alry, received the orders. Presently this offi- cer was on the scent. "Morgan is making for Hammondsville," he telegraphed General Burn- side on the twenty-fifth, "and will attempt to cross the Ohio river at Wellsville. I have my section of battery, and shall follow him closely." He kept his word, and gave the finishing stroke. "Morgan was attacked with the remnant of his command, at 8 o'clock this morning," announced General Burnside on the next day, July 26th, "at Salineville, by Major Way, who, after a severe fight, routed the enemy, killed about thirty, wounded some fifty, and took some two hundred prisoners." Six hours later the long race ended. "I captured John Morgan to-day, at 2 o'clock P. M." telegraphed Major Rue, of the Ninth Ken- tucky cavalry, on the evening of the 26th, "taking three hundred and and twenty-six prison- ers, four hundred horses and arms."

Salineville is in Columbiana county, but a few miles below the most northerly point of the State touched by the Ohio river, and between Steuben- ville and Wellsville, nearly two-thirds of the way up the eastern border of the State. Over such distances had Morgan passed, after the disaster at Buffington, which all had supposed certain to end his career, and so near had he come to

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

making his escape from the State, with the hand- ful he was still able to keep together.

This raid occurred at a perilous time for Jef- fersonville and New Albany, where $4,000,000 worth of Government stores were deposited and awaiting movement. These cities were in the District of Kentucky, and so under the orders of General Boyle, commanding at Louisville; but General Hughes assumed to order out the companies of the Legion and the minute-men, to defend the threatened district. Before Mor- gan had reached the Ohio Knapp's battery, from New Albany, the artillery of Floyd county, was ordered to move on a steamer to the mouth of Salt river to prevent Morgan's crossing there. As he crossed many miles below, they saw noth- ing of him. General Hughes went to Mitchell, on the Ohio & Mississippi railroad, and got to- gether a force of two thousand militia, to resist any rebel demonstration that might be made in that direction, moving thence, by rail, eastward to Vernon, as the march of the rebels passed on. New Albany was left in command of a Federal surgeon, Major Thomas W. Fry. To him Col- onel Lewis Jordan, who had four hundred men of the Legion in front of a portion of Morgan's force near Corydon, appealed urgently for rein- forcements. Fry referred the request to General Boyle, in Louisville, at least sixteen hours before the whole rebel command had come up and con- fronted Jordan's lines. The latter sent repeated requests for aid, but no attention seemed to be paid to them, and after a gallant and hard fight, the colonel had to surrender his little band. Morgan then marched his right wing through Greenville, in the northwest part of Floyd county, and through New Providence, in Clarke; while his left wing took the direction of Paoli, Orange county. Scouts and squads of the enemy also pushed from the main body south- ward here and there, and in at least one case came down even to the Ohio, which they struck at a point between Jeffersonville and Utica. Some incidents of that part of the raid which traversed these two counties will be found in our histories of the townships.

On the afternoon of the same day that Mor- gan reached this vicinity, a brigade of infantry and a battery of artillery, the whole commanded by General Manson, was placed on board the cars at Jeffersonville, to be hurried out in the

hope of intercepting or pursuing the raider; but they were stopped and disembarked by order of General Boyle before leaving the depot, he doubtless realizing the futility of pursuit, now that Morgan had passed, or perhaps thinking that the force would yet be needed for the pro- tection of the Government stores and buildings at New Albany and Jeffersonville.

Little harm seems to have been done by the raiders in their passage thought Clarke county; but from Floyd county claims for damage, amounting in all to $30,291.61, were presented for payment by the State of Indiana; of which a little more than one-third, or $11, 188.71, were allowed.

Again, in June, 1864, upon the occasion of Morgan's last invasion of Kentucky, the militia of this region were called out, the Harrison and Floyd counties regiments of the Indiana Legion, and the two New Albany batteries en- camped at that place-likewise the Clarke county regiment at Jeffersonville-ready to move to the protection of Louisville, or for other service, at a moment's notice. Adjutant General Noble came personally from Indianapolis to New Albany to see that the men of the Legion were in proper condition, and that the batteries were in good shape for movement or action; but, happily, the services of none of them were required.

BOUNTIES AND BENEFITS.

The following is an exhibit from the first volume of the adjutant-general's reports for 1861-65 of the amounts expended in Clarke and Floyd counties for local bounties, the relief of soldiers families and miscellaneous purposes con- nected with the war:

CLARKE COUNTY.

Townships.

Bounty.

Relief.

Jeffersonville (including city).

·$39,000.00 $1, 565.00

Utica

10,000.00

400.00

Charlestown

8,341.00

552.00

Owen

1,820.00

Bethlehem

1,538.45

359-45

Washington

3.982.00

586.00

Monroe. .

6,000.00

Sitver Creek

3.120.00

150.00

Wood.

5,500.00

Oregon.

4,500.00

486.00

Carr.

2,885.00

25.00

Union

4,500.00

176.00

Besides $3,680 for bounties, $2,377.52 for re- lief, and $261.47 for miscellaneous expenditures on war account, from the county at large, making

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HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

several totals of $94,916.45, $6,776.97, and $261.47, and a grand total of $101,954.89.

FLOYD COUNTY.

Locality.

Bounty. Relief. Mis.

New Albany City.

$ 14,813.74 $ 4,803.76 $930

New Albany township.

71,027.90

74,427.50 ....

Greenville township.

9,800.00

2,563.00

Georgetown township.

1,830.00

Lafayette township.

3,500.00

1,325.00

Franklin township.

7.970.00

834.00

County at large.

17,750.00

Totals .$124,861.64 $85.780.26 $930

And a grand total of $211,571.90 for this county, and of $313,526.79 for the two counties.

Under the act of the State Legislature bearing date March 4, 1865, for the benefit of soldiers' families, the State auditor, August 10th of the same year, provided for the distribution to 203,- 724 beneficiaries, of the total sum of $1,646,- 809.92. Of this amount $19,173.84 fell to 2,373 needy ones in Clarke county, and $18,- 640.56 to 2,307 beneficiaries in Floyd.

It may be noted here that, in the closing year of the war, Jesse J. Thomas, of New Albany, was appointed the director from the Ninth dis- trict for the Indiana Soldiers' Home.

May 9, 1861, Governor Morton wrote to Gen- eral McClellan that Louisville ought to be com- manded by batteries on the Indiana side, as a security for the good conduct of that city. Two pieces of heavy ordnance were accordingly sent to New Albany, but none for Jeffersonville. The latter place afterwards went to some extent into the manufacture of gun-carriages, Dawson & Marsh, of that city, in 1863, furnishing the Gov- ernment with twelve, at two hundred and fifty dollars each.

On the 2d of Octoher, 1861, Governor Morton had all the arms in the arsenal at Indianapolis sent down to Jeffersonville for distribution to the Home guards of this part of Indiana and also of Kentucky.

At one time in the early part of the war, goods that it was supposed were destined for the enemy, were stopped in transit at New Albany.

In 1861 the Jeffersonville, Madison & In- dianapolis railroad carried on war account 6, 109 men, exclusive of regiments going to the field, for which it was paid the sum of $9,413.66. The Louisville, New Albany & Chicago road similarly carried 9, 105, and was paid $9, 149.42.

The Indiana regiments which rendezvoused

and organized at New Albany during the war were the Twenty-third, under Colonel William L. Landrum, under authority issued June 24, 1861, mustered into service July 29, 1861, and out .of service July 23, 1865; the Fifty-third, under Colonel Walter Q. Gresham, authorized in October, 1861, mustered in February 26, 1862, mustered out July 21, 1865; the Sixty- sixth, under Colonel Roger Martin, mustered in August 19, 1862, and out June 3, 1865; and the Eighty-first under Colonel William W. Caldwell, authorized August 13, 1862, mustered in August 29, 1862, and out June 13, 1865. The Jeffer- sonville regiment was the Forty-ninth, organized by Colonel John W. Ray, under authority granted August 23, 1861. It was mustered into service November 21, 1861, and out of service June 13, 1865. The Fifth Kentucky regiment of infantry, under Colonel Lovell H. Rousseau, was also or- ganized here, as before noticed, at Camp Joe Holt.

The whole number of troops furnished the Union armies by Indiana during the late war was 208,367; of these 652 commissioned officers and 23,764 enlisted men were killed in action or died of disease; 10,846, sad to say, deserted the flag; and 13,779 remain unaccounted for.

THE ROSTER.

The distinguished adjutant general of the State at the close of the great struggle, General William H. H. Terrell, builded better than he knew for the local historian in the preparation of his magnificent report for the war period. This is in better shape, for the purposes of the historian, than any other report of the kind that has fallen under the eye of the writer of this history. It contains, not only full rosters of the regiments and other commands that were recruited in In- diana during the war, but also, where the officers or clerks of the companies have done their duty, full memoranda of the residences of officers and men. It is thus practicable-which it is not generally possible to do in adjutant generals' re- ports of the war-to identify soldiers as certainly belonging, at the time of their enlistment or discharge at least, to one or the other county of the State. It is to be regretted, how- ever, that in some cases the residences of the men of an entire company or regiment have been omitted from the rolls; and, if any Clarke

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. II, Part 17

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