History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196

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Several hasty clothing contracts were made. " Messrs. J. & II. Miller, of Colum- bus, were to furnish four thousand overcoats at 86.65 apiece ; Mack & Brothers and J. H. Luken, of Cincinnati, English & Co., of Zanesville, and MeDaniel, of Dayton, were each to furnish one thousand uniforms (coats and trowsers only), at sixteen dollars -onesixth to be delivered weekly. Mr. Robinson, of Cleveland, was to furnish two thousand at the same rates. Stone & Estabrook were to furnish one thousand flannel shirts at one dollar and a half apiece. Other prices were in pro- portion, and on all it appeared that large profits were likely to accrue.""

In the sudden and tremendous exigency which had been precipitated, it was almost a matter of course that advantage would be taken of the necessities of the public service. The proper economy would have been to prepare for the exigency during the preceding months of its steady and obvious approach.

Immediately after the fall of Fort Sumter great apprehension began to be felt for the safety of the National Capital. The earliest of the troops to be organized were therefore demanded for its defense, and the Governor of Ohio was urged to send forward the first regiments available, with all possible dispatch. He protested that he had no uniforms, arms or ammunition for the men, but to this came the reply : " Send them on instantly and we will equip them here." Accordingly, two regiments were hastily organized on the eighteenth from the companies at Columbus; before dawn of the nineteenth they were on their way, by rail, to Washington. As they had not yet chosen their field officers, Mr. George W. McCook, a prominent politician, was appointed to conduct them. An order of April 18, from the Adjutant-General of Ohio announced their constituent campanies as fol- lows :

First Regiment, Major E. A. Parrott commanding - Lancaster Guards, Lafayette Guards (Dayton), Dayton Light Guards, Montgomery Guards, Cleveland

IHISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Grays, Hibernian Guards (Cleveland), Portsmouth Guards, Zanesville Guards, Mansfield Guards and Jackson Guards ( Hamilton).

Second Regiment, Major Lewis Wilson, commanding - Rover Guards (Cincin- nati), Columbus Vedettes, Columbus Fencibles, Zonave Gnards (Cincinnati), Lafayette Guards, Springfield Zouaves, Pickaway Guards, Steubenville Guards, Covington Blues (Miami County), and Baldwin Rifles (Urbana).

On April 19 the Sixth Massachusetts Infantry, likewise en route to Washing- ton, was mobbed in the streets of Baltimore. The President, in order to allay the excitement in that city, directed that no more troops should be marched through it if "in a military point of view, and without interruption or opposi- tion," they could be marched around it. In consequence of this order and the serious nature of the Baltimore disturbances the two unarmed Ohio regiments were halted first at Harrisburg, then at Philadelphia. They were still in citizens' dress, untrained, and very indifferently supplied with food. To rush troops in such a condition to the front of conflict was little less than military madness. Its only results were to betray weakness, stimulate rebellious activity and produce complaint. But the state authorities, although severely blamed, had in this matter simply executed the commands of the War Department, then directed by a man very shrewd in politics but utterly destitute of military knowledge.

The departure of twenty companies for Washington reduced the number to be provided for at Columbus, but not long; their places were almost immediately filled. With swelling tide and constant clamor of drum and fife the volunteers kept pouring in. As soon as the sheds at Camp Jackson were ready, they took their course thither, and made themselves comfortable as best they could. For the time being the camp was the designated rendezvous of all the troops north of Hamilton County and south of the Western Reserve. It was soon crowded. Lieutenant-Colonel H. Z. Mills was announced as its commandant, but on April 18, was relieved at his own request. His immediate successor was Colonel E. A. King. On April 22, the Ohio Statesman announced that there were already troops enough in Camp Jackson to form a third regiment.10 By the twenty - seventh Columbus alone had furnished seven companies, five of which were at the camp ; the other two - Vedettes and Fencibles - had left for Washington. The scenes in and about the camp at this time are thus sketched in the Ohio State Journal :

The gates of the high picket fence are guarded by sentinels who keep baek the baffled and impatient crowd which surges to and fro from morning till night and only gets now and then an eyefull of the inside by looking through the pal- ings. . . . Within, the scene is full of warlike interest. The white tents are pitched in the plain in the centre of the park beneath the yet leafless trees - peaceful above all that martial parade and clamor - and the young grass is crushed and ent in a thousand furrows by the feet and wheels that have passed over it. A large wooden building hastily erected near the tents adds nothing to the pie- turesqueness of the scene but adds immensely to the comfort of the soldiers, for it is full of " bunks," and is much better defense against the weather then canvas. Wagons are continually coming and going and the camp is strewn with straw from a stack brought thither for bedding.

I. IN WARTIME-1861.

The visitors admitted to the grounds are not many and are chiefly ladies. Most of the men's faces you encounter are those of the volunteers, who are splendid looking fellows, and are for a great part fresh from the fields of the country. They are of all ages, from the man whose head is already gray to the boy on whose cheeks the down has not obscured the bloom. All the faces are resolute and there is fight in them ; some are gay, some are grave - as the temperament is, but all are determined. Physicially the troops are of good size and in good condition ; and having courage and muscle, a week's drill will fit them for active service. . .

A hastily improvised building near the main entrance to the park is set with long tables and substantial edibles. Great cooking ranges roar with preparation and the provisional government is marvelously efficient. The officers' quarters are in the building lately occupied by the keeper of the park and here all the busi- ness of the camp is transacted, though the headquarters are, of course, at the State- house. 11

The patriotie women of Columbus were no less zealons than their brothers, sons and husbands in signifying their loyal support of the national cause. Prompt to lead in this respect was the wife of the Governor, Mrs. Dennison, around whom rallied a host of willing and carnest coadjutors. On Monday morning, April 22, a meeting of ladies "interested in repairing clothes for the citizen soldiers" was held in the basement of the First Presbyterian Church. The call for this meeting, signed by Mrs. John S. Hall, Mrs. F. W. Hurtt and Mrs. S. A. Champion, solicited " contributions of money, flannel, woolen socks, etc.," and concluded with this appeal : " Mothers! wives! sisters ! let us do our part in our country's cause ! " At the meeting thus summoned the first Soldiers' Aid Society in the city was organized. Mrs. Governor Dennison was chosen President, Mrs. H. F. Norton Treasurer, and Miss Pamela Sullivant Secretary. Working committees were appointed,12 after which the Society adjourned to reconvene the following after- noon at the Ambos Hall, the use of which was generously tendered by its proprietor, Peter Ambos. From this time forward the work of the society was active and continuous. On May 10 a military hospital was established at Number 208 South High Street, with Doctor R. N. Denig as visiting physician and Mrs. Rebecca A.S Janney as matron. Up to July 15 this Hospital had contained 300 patients.

A board to examine applicants for commissions to serve the new regiments in the departments of medicine and surgery was named about this time by the Governor. Its members were, Doctors J. W. Hamilton of Columbus, L. M. Whiting of Stark County, and J. W. Russell of Mount Vernon. Doctor Ball, of Zanesville, was the surgeon in charge at Camp Jackson.

On May 24 the City Council appropriated $20,000 for the relief and mainten- ance of the families of Columbus volunteers. A proposition from responsible ladies of the eity to attend to the proper distribution of this fund was at the same time received.

On April 26 the following pledge numerously signed by the business men of the city was published :

Owing to the exigency of our state and national affairs it becomes the duty of the people of Columbus, in common with the citizens of the whole country to prepare for war. Many of the young men engaged as clerks in this city have responded to this call of duty. It is necessary that they should be drilled. We

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

therefore request all merchants of this city to close their business houses at eight o'clock P. M. For this purpose and to make this arrangement equal and fair, all who sign this paper agree to do so.12

Many employers, including merchants, railway managers and others gave assurances to their men that any of them who enlisted would be received back to their positions on returning from the field.

On April 26, Camp Jackson contained about 7,000 men ; on the twenty- seventh this number rose to 7,826. The barracks on the grounds were crowded to their utmost capacity, yet were far from being sufficient to shelter all the troops which had arrived. The public halls and armories of the city, the legisla- tive chambers, Supreme Court room, State Library room, rotunda and basement of the Capitol and all the available apartments of the State asylums were brought into nse as sleeping apartments of the volunteers, and still the accommodations were inadequate. In this predicament, with more troops on their hands than they knew how to dispose of, the Commissary and Quartermaster-General became the subjects of such bitter and general complaint that resolutions demand- ing their removal were introduced in the General Assembly and were adopted in the llonse by a vote of 61 to 24. A few days later a joint legislative committee to which the complaints giving rise to these resolutions had been referred, reported exculpating the Governor and justifying his arrangements as the best under the circumstances, that could have been made. Meanwhile grounds had been leased near Loveland, for a new rendezvous, to which General Mcclellan, then command- ing the Western Department, gave the name of Camp Dennison.14 Fifteen com - panies were transferred from Columbus to this eamp April 29, still leaving 6,435 men in Camp Jackson. That the latter was still not an ideally comfortable place of sojourn appears from the following newspaper statement of May 4: " Yesterday was a wet, cold disagreeable day and the mud on the campground was nearly ankle deep."15 The normal capacity of the camp at this time was adequate to the Jodgment of about six thousand men.

Up to April 26 the Adjutant-General had accepted 312 companies, 175 uncon- ditionally and 137 subject to future requisition. Further acceptances were dis- continued, others already made were recalled, and thirty companies accepted and present for duty were, much to their disgust, disbanded. Of the patriotie zeal of the volunteers, thus liberally indicated, Camp Jackson furnished the following illustration narrated under date of May 2.

An affecting incident took place when Captain [John] Beatty's company from Morrow County was being mustered into service. Major Burbank, of the United States Army, whose duty it is to examine each man, rejected a private who had the misfortune to have lost an eye. He had been instrumental in getting up the company and was a favorite among them. When he heard the stern decision of the major he burst into tears. At this juncture the first lieutenant resigned his office and the rejected man was voted lieutenant by acclamation.

Directly after the departure of the First and Second regiments for Washing- ton, the organization of the remaining eleven required under the President's call was begun. The companies assigned to the Third Ohio Infantry were: A and

I. IN WARTIME-1861.

B of the Governor's Guards, under Captains Marrow and Wing ; the Montgomery Guards, under Captain Turney ; 16 Captain Vananda's company, of Springfield ; Captain Rossman's, of Hamilton ; Captain Abbott's, of Zanesville; Captain McDougal's, of Newark; Captain Beatty's, of Morrow County, and Captain Cope's, of Wellsville. Isaae II. Marrow, of Columbus, was chosen Colonel ; John Beatty, of Cardington, Lieutenant-Colonel ; and J. W. Keifer, of Springfield, Major. The five right companies of this regiment were transferred to Camp Den- nison April 29, the remainder May 1.

The companies assigned to the Fourth Ohio Infantry were: Those of Cap- tains Crawford and Powell, of Delaware ; two from Knox County, under Captains Andrews and Banning; two from Hardin County, under Captains Weaver and Cantwell ; two from Marion, under Captains Gilmer and Brown; the Canton Zouaves, under Captain Wallace, and the Given Guards nnder Captain McMillen. Lorin Andrews was chosen Colonel, James Cantwell Lieutenant-Colonel and James H. Godman Major. This regiment was transferred to Camp Dennison May 2, and was there mustered into the threemonths service on May 4 by Captain Gordon Granger. On May 3 the Columbus companies were thus distributed : Feneibles and Vedettes at Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Governor's and Montgomery Guards at Camp Dennison ; and the Steuben Guards and Captain C. C. Waleutt's Company at Camp Jackson. By the commandant of that camp a night patrol for the city and a guard for the State Arsenal were detailed. Of the remaining regiments of threemonths volunteers organized at Camp Jackson, the Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth were transferred on April 29, May 8 and May 9, respec- tively, to Camp Dennison, and the Fifteenth on May 8 to Zanesville. The Seventh Ohio Infantry, organized at Cleveland, halted at Jackson, en route to Dennison, May 5. Ten regiments, additional to the thirteen originally called for, having been authorized by the General Assembly for the State service, they were mustered into that service and held ready for emergencies deemed to be possible and destined soon to arrive.

An important departure for Columbus as a military rendezvous was thus an- nounced May 28: "Workmen were engaged yesterday in taking down the bar- racks for the purpose of removing [them] to a new camp to be organized four miles west of the city. It is to be a regular camp. It will contain one hundred acres. It is plowed, harrowed and rolled smooth and will make a good place, for drilling purposes." 17 The camp thus referred to, comprising a total area of 160 aeres, was under National-not State-control, and began to be occupied about June 1. It bore the name of Camp Jackson until June 20, after which date it was known as Camp Chase. By June 12 it was said to have " assumed the appearance of a liberally sized town with great uniformity of houses, about 160 in number." 18 Its officers at that time were : Commandant, Colonel E. A. King; Commissary, E. A. Dennison ; Adjutant, Theodore Jones ; Assistant Adjutant, Jonathan Nee- reamer ; Quartermaster, R. E. Champion ; Assistant Quartermaster, Mark Simon- ton ; Post Hospital Nurse, Mrs. Elizabeth Richards. On June 24 Colonel King was succeeded in command by Colonel E. P. Scammon, who in turn, when called to the field, gave place to Colonel E. P. Fyffe. The surgeon of the camp was Doc-

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

tor Norman Gay, and its Sutler, William Jameson, both of Columbus. Mr. Jame- son was appointed in August to succeed Messrs. Carpenter, deposed. In December a contract for provisioning the camp was awarded to Messrs. Zettler at $11.65 per hundred rations.

Nearly contemporary with the change of location and general control of the Columbus rendezvous other important arrangements were made which brought great relief to the state anthorities and commensurate benefit to the publie serv- ice. Governor Dennison had been fortunate in obtaining the assistance and counsel of Charles Whittlesey and Lieutenants O. M. Poe, J. W. Sill and W. S. Rosecrans, all men of military education and all destined to win distinction in the course of the war. Of equal and still more enduring benefit were the changes in the exceutive staff by which, on July 1, C. P. Buckingham, of Mount Vernon, beeame Adjutant-General, and George B. Wright, of Newark, Quartermaster- General of the State. The good effects of these appointments were immediate and farreaching.19

A second proclamation by the President, calling for 42,000 volunteers for three years, was issued on the third of May. The retention in an organized state of part of the militia which had responded in excess of the thirteen regiments required by the first call was therefore fortunate and favored execution of the plans conceived by Governor Dennison for pushing an army of occupation into Western Virginia. Accordingly the Twentythird, -fourth, -fifth and -sixth regi- ments were at once organized for that service on the three years basis, and by the middle of June we find all these regiments at Camp Chase. Other regiments of antecedent numbers were more mature than these, and as fast as ready were sent across the border. The Fourteenth, Colonel Steedman, arrived and was armed at Columbus May 22, moved on the twentythird to Zanesville, and on the twenty- seventh set out from thence for Parkersburg. The Fifteenth, Colonel Moses R. Diekey, was organized at Camp Chase May 4, moved to Zanesville May 16, set out for Grafton May 24, and arrived at the front in time to take part in General Kelley's movement on Philippi. The Nineteenth, Colonel Samuel Beatty, arrived at Camp Chase from Cleveland May 28, was armed from the State Arsenal, and at once set out for Bellair and Western Virginia. The Twentieth, Colonel Charles Whittlesey, left Camp Chase for Camp Goddard, near Zanesville, May 17. The Twentyfirst, Colonel Jesse S. Norton, from Cleveland, arrived and was armed at Columbus May 23, and pushed on at once to Gallipolis. The Twentythird, Colonel W. S. Rosecrans, was organized at Camp Chase Jnne 12, and on July 25 was ordered to Clarksburg, Virginia, where it arrived two days later. The Twentyfourth, Colonel Jacob Ammen, was organized at Camp Chase, and from thence set out for Western Virginia July 26. The Twentyfifth, Colonel James A. Jones, organized at Camp Chase June 28, quitted Columbus for Western Virginia June 29. The Twentysixth, Colonel Edward P. Fyffe, was organized at Camp Chase and thence set out for Western Virginia, July 30. The Third and Fourth regiments passed Columbus from Camp Dennison to Virginia during the night of June 21. The Seventh and Tenth regiments passed by on June 24, and the Sixth on June 30, all bound eastward. On May 27 the First and Second regiments were

I. IN WARTIME-1861.

at Washington, whither Mr. William A. Platt, of Columbus, was dispatched by the Governor as a special agent to inquire into their condition, and supply, if possible, their immediate wants.

Of the minor military events which took place in Columbus during these memorable days it is not easy to make any systematic classification. Perhaps those which deserve mention may as well be recorded in the order of their occurrence.

Major Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumter, arrived at Columbus from Pittsburgh, May 16, and received the attentions of many citizens during the few minutes that his train halted. Governor Dennison accompanied him on his westward journey as far as London, Ohio.

A secession flag, captured at Carrick's Ford by the Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, was received at Columbus July 6. It was 6 x 15 feet in size and bore red stripes and a blue ground containing seven stars among which was coiled a large rattle- snake skin stuffed with cotton.

Some serious instances of disorderly conduct by soldiers in camp and in the city are mentioned. On May 18, a party of thirtythree broke gnard at Camp Jackson. An armed squad was sent in pursuit and recaptured ten of the fugi- tives. On June 30 some intoxicated men of the First Regiment destroyed a fruit stand kept by a colored man at the corner of High and Gay streets and mobbed the business place of C. A. Wagner. Two companies of Columbus volunteers under Captains Crum and Parks were called out to suppress these disorders. During the autumn of 1861 a good deal of unseemly conduct by soldiers in the streets was complained of.

On July 24, Major-General Fremont visited Camp Chase in company with Governor Dennison and " was received by nearly five thousand soldiers with tre- mendous cheers and applause."" He quitted the city on the same day for the West.

Early in July a recruiting office for the Eighteenth United States Infantry was opened by Colonel H. B. Carrington at the Broadway Hotel. Associated with him in the enlistment and organization of volunteers for this regiment were Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd, Major Frederick Townsend, Majors Benton and Underwood, Captain W. S. Thurston and others. By the end of July about two hundred men were enrolled and a regimental rendezvous was established on the farm of Mr. Beers about four miles north of the city, on the Worthington Plank- road. In honor of the Adjutant-General of the Army21 this rendezvous was named Camp Thomas. The regiment, so far as organized, set out for Louisville, Kentucky, on December 2, under Major Edmund Underwood, and was followed by three additional companies during the ensuing February.

Early in September a rendezvous for the Fortysixth Ohio, then being recruited under Colonel Thomas Worthington and Lieutenant Colonel C. C. Walentt, was established near Worthington. It was at first called Camp Wade, afterwards Camp Lyon. To a prisoners' camp organized during the same month was given the name of Camp Carlisle.

100

HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

The return of the threemonths volunteers began during the latter part of July. The Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, Colonel Steedman, arrived at Columbus from Western Virginia on the twentyfourth of that month, bringing numerous trophies from the battles of Carrick's Ford and Rich Mountain. The Columbus companies, Vedettes and Fencibles (B and C of the Second Regiment), arrived July 29, and were met at the railway station by a great crowd of assembled friends. A fund had been raised by general subscription to pay the expenses of the welcome and many substantial tokens of greeting were brought for delivery to the volunteers as soon as they should alight from the train. A grand evening reception was given to the returned companies at the Theatre on State Street.

The Ohio State Journal of August, 1861, said :

For the past two days our city has been filled with brave men who par- ticipated at Bull Run in by far the hardest fought battle ever fought upon this continent. In the popular mind, addicted as the sympathies are to the martial and heroie, these men find no little favor. . . . Each soldier is accredited with the performance of deeds rivaling in daring the actions of the farfamed old Scan- dinavian Seakings, and like Æneas, being permitted to relate his own story, he chooses his own embellishments and is listened to by the entranced crowds with the most unwearied interest.

With the return of the threemonth's volunteers a new difficulty arose which was very embarrassing to the State administration. Nine regiments which had been mustered into the State service in excess of the requisition of the War Depart- ment under the 75,000 call had never been mustered as United States troops although their retention under arms had been an act of wise forethought and their services in the rescue of Western Virginia, in pursuance of the plans of Gov- ernor Dennison, had been invaluable. On the last day of July Camp Chase was crowded with these men awaiting discharge and final payment, but, much to their disappointment, they received no attentions whatever from the national anthor- ities. Governor Dennison had obtained timely pledges from the War Department that they should be mustered out and paid as United States volunteers, but for some reason these pledges were not redeemed. A paymaster who arrived from Washington refused to recognize them as national troops. They were therefore sent home without pay except that for a single month's service which they had received from the State. Of course this treatment of men who had performed excellent service caused great dissatisfaction, and the State administration was again most unjustly censured on account of delinquencies for which it was in no wise responsible.

On July 18 the advance of McDowell's army from Washington was given the following headline announcement in a Columbus paper :22

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 13

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co Publication date: 1892 Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1196

Author: Lee, Alfred Emory, 1838-; W. W. Munsell & Co
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: New York and Chicago : Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1196