History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 15

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

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II > Part 15

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II. IN WARTIME-1862.

Seven weeks later, just as the gladsome spring had begun to diffuse its aroma of buds and blossoms, news of a different kind arrived, and a hush of deep anxiety fell upon the city. A tremendous battle had been fought on the Tennessee, and the blood of Ohio's best had been shed in torrents. Scores of families, in all parts of the city, awaited in chafing apprehension the first tidings of friends near and dear who had taken part in the conflict. It was the first experience in Ohio, on such a scale, of the fireside distress and desolation which follow in the wake of war. The slaughter had been immense, and a piteous appeal for succor and solace came from the bloody woods of Shiloh. Governor Tod, as will be narrated else- where, quickly and nobly responded with all the resources at his command, and all the energy of his generous heart. The Aid Society was equally prompt, and for the first time, because it was the first great opportunity, showed how fathomless and beneficent, how unreserved, helpful and farreaching was the patriotism of the women of Columbus. Their first information of the battles of April 6 and 7, was received on the ninth ; a few hours later their trusted, kindhearted messenger, Francis C. Sessions, was on his way with supplies to the scene of conflict. Let him narrate, in his own way, what he saw and did. On April 12, he wrote as follows from a steamboat then ascending the Tennessee and approaching Pittsburgh Landing:1

I telegraphed you yesterday that I was on my way to the battlefield with fifteen boxes of hospital stores from the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society of Columbus. At Evansville, Indiana, I met Major Holloway, the efficient Private Secretary of Governor Morton, of Indiana, with twentyfour physicians and surgeons, a large number of nurses and hospital stores for Indiana's sick and wounded. I showed him a letter I had from Governor Tod to Generals Halleck and Buell and told him my mission. He at once kindly invited me to take passage on the boat they had chartered and bring my stores on board as they would arrive on the battlefield some hours sooner than the boat I was on. We stopped at Fort lIeury, where we saw six of our dead who were brought down ; two Ohioans, one from Wellsville named Glass Patton, and the other an artillerist - I could not learn his name. We met four boatloads of wounded bound for St. Louis, Louisville, Evansville and Paducah. We hear a great many vague rumors of several Ohio regiments being cut to pieces, driven back to the river, and the gunboats turning on them to prevent their escaping across the river, etc., etc. That our troops have suffered severely there can be no doubt.

We just met a boat loaded with wounded and they say there is great need of surgeons and hospital stores, and that we are the first boat up with such supplies. We expect to arrive there tonight. I shall go to work immediately distributing among the needy. I have no doubt their wants are urgent. General Halleck, it is reported, passed up last night, and a great battle is pending at Corinth, if not now in progress. Reports come to us that General A. Sidney Johnson, Breck- enridge, Crittenden and other rebel generals are killed, and Beauregard wounded in the arm ; that they retreated in good order to Corinth; that they have been reenforced and have advanced two miles on our forces ; and that the two armies are ready for action. I shall write you all the news I can get, with the names of Ohio's killed and wounded.

The distance from the mouth of the Tennessee to Savannah is 200 miles; Pittsburgh Landing is ten miles above. The river is much wider than the Cum- berland - nearly half a mile wide. There are but few signs of civilization thus far ; once in a while a negro hut. The colored inhabitants appear to be quite enthusi-

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astie, coming to the doors and shouting and showing their ivory as we pass. We have just passed the railroad bridge of the Memphis & Ohio Railroad, destroyed by order of Commodore Foote after the surrender at Fort Henry.

We have just arrived at Pittsburgh Landing, and I went immediately to Doctor Hewitt, Medical Director, and told him that I had fifteen boxes of hospital stores. He said the articles were just what were needed, as they were out of every- thing except medicines ; that I was the first that had arrived with supplies. He allowed me to go to Ohio surgeons and have them make out their requisitions for what they needed. The wounded are now being sent away from here and there- fore no more articles will be needed here until another battle.

STEAMER GLENDALE, April 20.

I have now been nearly two weeks upon the battlefield and vicinity, dis - tributing hospital stores, sending the sick and wounded to the boats and assisting in various ways. Early this beautiful morning I heard the shrill notes of the Calliope. I waited for the approach of the boat, which had the hospital signal flying, and among the first persons I noticed was the genial face of Doctor S. M. Smith, of your city, and the commanding form of Lieutenant-Governor Stanton. He soon called me to come down to the boat and he was the first one to jump ashore and enquire at once for the Medical Director. We waded through the mud nearly .knee deep and found him just getting up. We at once made known our business and the Doctor went to work immediately to make preparations for receiving the sick and wounded of the soldiers. In a little over one day the boat is loaded and we are on our way home. I was glad to see friends from Columbus once more. It seemed as if I had been about six months from home, having seen so much and not having had a regular night's sleep.

We stop at Savannah and take on board about twenty Ohio and several Ken- tucky soldiers who seem grateful enough that they are not left there to die. Scattered all over the town, in every house for a mile and a half around, our wounded have been placed. Of course there has been much neglect and suffering, as no one could well attend to all. About thirty miles below we take on more sick of the First Ohio Cavalry, stationed there to guard the river. Two boats have been fired into, while going down the river, by the rebels, and two persons killed. A number of the rebels were taken prisoners, and the little town near the ferry burned. We have about 250 sick and wounded on board who are divided off into wards, having surgeons and nurses detailed for each ward.

It is surprising how one becomes interested in the men one is caring for. The ward assigned to Doctor Roby, of the Senate, Doctor Bowers, Rev. E. P. Goodwin, Messrs. Bickett and MeNeilly, of Columbus, and myself, is the largest ward, consisting of forty men, nearly all sick. The men improve under their kind treatment ; they are so grateful, and their countenances brighten up wonderfully, and they so improve every day that one is well paid for any little inconvenience or selfdenial one may suffer to alleviate their condition. One poor fellow from Marietta died last night. I understand he was married in September and enlisted next day. In his pocket were found letters from his wife and a little book in which he had written : "Philip Shaub. Given me by my Chaplain, B. W. Chidlaw."

During the month of April a great many sick and wounded soldiers arrived at Columbus on their way home from the front. Many of them were destitute of money as well as disabled by sickness or wounds. The ladies of the city were therefore appealed to for contributions of food, and for such attentions to these men as would alleviate their distresses while waiting between trains. The response to this appeal was prompt and generous.

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II. IN WARTIME-1862.

On April 25 the Ohio State Journal made the following exuberant remark apropos to apparent military success then recent: " It is evident that the end of the rebellion draweth nigh." The same paper of May 25 thus imparted the news of the evacuation of Yorktown before MeClellan's army :

They [the enemy ] fled on Saturday night, destroying of their stores all they could withont revealing their flight; the remainder was left for our occupancy and possession. NOW ON TO RICHMOND ! will be no vain demand. THE REBELLION IS SUPPRESSED, THE CONFEDERACY IS ALREADY CRUMBLED.

These remarks doubtless reflected to some extent the popular feeling at that time-a feeling which received very little further encouragement during the re- mainder of this disastrous year. The consummation so long and so devontly wished-a movement of the Army of the Potomac -had at least been realized, but the movement ended only in repulse, and humiliating and disastrous withdrawal from before Richmond. While Mcclellan was advancing up the James River peninsula, Stonewall Jackson swooped down the Shenandoah, cleared the Valley of Virginia of Union troops, appeared before Harper's Ferry and meditated, it was supposed, a quick raid on Washington. This brilliant exploit of Jackson's caused a panic at the War Department and produced tremendous consternation throughout the country. Appealed to from Washington, Governor Tod issued a hasty call-May 26-for threemonths volunteers to defend the National Capital, supposed to be in imminent peril. The popular response to this summons was instantaneous. On the very next day citizens came pouring into Camp Chase, and for several days thereafter they kept coming, until the volunteers thus offered numbered about five thousand. From these the Eighty-fourth, -fifth, -sixth, -seventh and - eighth regiments were organized, the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-eighth for service in the State.

On July 1 the President called for 300,000 additional volunteers, and on August 4 ordered a draft of 300,000 men to serve nine months. In pursuance of these calls, recruiting efforts were redoubled, and, " to secure greater economy, convenience and efficiency " in raising the new threeyears regiments and in re- plenishing those already in the field, the State was divided, by an order from the Adjutant-General's office, into five military districts, of which the fifth comprised the counties of Franklin, Licking, Madison, Champaign, Logan, Union, Delaware, Marion, Morrow and Knox, with its rendezvous at Camp Chase. The disappoint- ing issue of the peninsula campaign bad in no wise diminished the patriotic ardor of the people; on the contrary it stimulated them to surpass all their previous records for patriotic and resolute action. " War meetings" to promote enlist- ments and provide for the families of absent soldiers were held in all parts of the State, and were both enthusiastic and nonpartisan. A meeting of this kind, extraordinary in size and earnestness, was held July 15, at the West Front of the Capitol, and was addressed by Governor Tod, who was also its chairman. Other addresses were made by Hon. J. W. Andrews and Hon. Samuel Galloway. Messrs. Lewis Heyl, Louis Hoster, D. W. Deshler and Horace Wilson served the meeting as vice presidents, and H. R. Beeson and H. C. Noble as secretaries. Messrs. J. R. Swan, F. C. Sessions, J. P. Bruck, Isaac Eberly, L. Yerington, F. C.

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

Kelton and C. N. Olds reported, as they were appointed to do, a series of resolu- tions, which were enthusiastically adopted, pledging a most cordial and unquestion- ing response to the call of the country. Among the sentiments thus expressed and ratified were the following :

As it has been ascertained on examination that an appropriation of funds by our City Conncil, which was anticipated, cannot be legally made for want of proper authority, and as such funds as may be needed must be raised by the private liberality of our citizens ; therefore

Resolved, that a committee of seven be appointed by the chairman of this meeting to obtain subscriptions to a military fund which shall be paid to James H. Riley, Treasurer of the County Military Committee, said fund to be applied under the direction of said Military Committee, to aid in recuiting our quota of the volunteers of Ohio under the late call of the President, and for the relief of soldiers in the service; further, that the military committees of the several town- ships in the county be and they are hereby requested to call meetings in their respective townships and cause committees to be appointed to obtain subscriptions to said connty military fund.

The manner in which the appeal for subscriptions was responded to by the meeting is thus recorded :

One says, " put me down for $1,000," and amid the cheers that rise to the very stars he turns to his friend and remarks : " I have five chileren, and that is an investment of $200 for each of them in our nation's safety fund !" His friend, touched with the same emotion, says : " Put me down for a thousand," and amid other cheers he replies to his neighbor : "I have no children, but there is a thous- and as a loan to posterity!" and in this spirit that great mass meeting felt and spoke and acted. We have heard of but one man who, the next day, felt dissatisfied with his subscription ; him we saw yesterday with eager countenance anxiously seeking the committee to correct the amount of his subscription. We saw him too as he made his way to their books and as he seized a pen and with a dashing band wrote down a thousand dollars where before had stood but five hundred, saying also to the committee : "Gentleman, if it becomes necessary, make it five thousand." That was the venerable and patriotic Doctor Goodale. . . . The sum of $500 had been subscribed for him in his absence by a friend the evening before. . .. We understand that fully twentyfive thousand had been tendered up to last evening.2

An additional war meeting was held in Columbus August 20. Among the speakers of the occasion were Hon. William Allen and Hon. H. J. Jewett. The attendance was large.

Activity in recuiting having relaxed somewhat during the latter part of July and earlier part of August, the Franklin County Military Committee adopted the following resolution :

That a bounty of twenty dollars be paid each recruit for the volunteer three years service, procured in this county, subsequent to July 1, 1862, provided no bounty has been received ; said bounty to be paid on the certificate of the surgeon of the regiment to which the recruit or recruits are assigned ; or of the colonel of the regiment provided the colonel has the certificate of the captain of the com- pany to which the recruit or recruits are attached ; such certificates showing in all cases that said recruits have been enlisted since July 1, 1862, and that they have been examined, accepted and sworn into the service of the United States for three years or during the war.

Henry Te Neig

II. IN WARTIME -- 1862. 113

By this and other means taken by patriotie citizens, acting through their eom- mittees, the full quota of volunteers assigned to Franklin County was furnished without resort to the draft. The total of enlistments in the county, up to October 19, reached 3,476, of which 1,431 had been furnished by the City of Columbus. In anticipation of the draft which the county so praiseworthily avoided, Ilenry C. Noble was appointed a district provost marshal, and C. N. Olds was named as a commissioner for the city and county to hear excuses and determine as to exemp- tions from military service. The draft finally took place in the State at large on October 1 ; the whole number of recruits obtained by it was 12,251.

The autumn of 1862 was distinguished by great events in the theatre of war, and much anxiety and excitement throughout the North. Particulars of the great battles of August 28, 29 and 30, between the armies of Generals Pope and Lee in Virginia, and the withdrawal of Pope's forces within the defenses of Washington, began to reach Columbus September 2, and caused a great deal of apprehension. Just a fortnight later the telegraph brought information of the military operations in Maryland, resulting in the bloody battle of Antietam. As to the manner in which the favorable account of the opening of that battle at South Mountain was received we have the following record :

The cheering news yesterday morning [September 16] sent a glad thrill of joy and feeling of victory through the blood of our citizens during the entire day. The deadly roar of cannon had hardly died away over the victorious plains of Middletown before our city trembled with the concussion of a full national salute. Major Bliss brought out one of the new rifled sixpounders on the eastern capitol lawn, the report of which soon brought the rejoicing citizens together from every quarter. The shouts and huzzas for MeClellan and victory formed an appropriate chorus for the deafening notes of the eannon.3

During the first five days of September an advance of Kirby Smith's Con- federate army northward through Kentucky with evident intent to attack Cincin- nati, which had been left in a defenseless state, caused a tremendous sensation throughout Ohio. At the call of the Governor, minutemen, uniquely named Squirrel Hunters, rushed instantly to the defense of the imperilled metropolis, and by their promptness and vim quickly thwarted the enemy's scheme of invasion. The Ohio State Journal of September 6 thus referred to this outpouring :

The oldest inhabitant on the face of this wide planet, not even excepting the Wandering Jew, has ever seen anything like the present pouring forth of brave and patriotic men for the defense of their homes. . . . The word went forth that Ohio was menaced, that her Queen City was threatened; and immediately from farm and forge, from shop and study, from office and factory, there came forth a swarm that no man could number and no rebel army withstand. They came with their own tried and trusty guns. They stood not upon the order of their going, but went at once. They clutched the rifle that hung upon the buckhorns in the kitchen ; they snatched up the venerable musket that had long stood neglected in the corner, they seized the doublebarreled shotgun with which they sported for small game, all bringing their own ammunition, and poured out en masse upon the railroad lines, along which every station was crowded with eager patriots begging to be carried forward towards the rebel invaders. Yesterday morning, from Columbus north along the Cleveland road, more than a thousand men were

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

found awaiting the arrival of trains to carry them on towards Kentucky. . . But the trains could not receive them. They were already crowded with other sneh and no more could be taken. As they passed our depot the air was rent with huzzas and spiritstirring songs that went up from a thousand loyal hearts.

The year closed with the battle at Fredericksburg, December 13, and that at Stone River, December 31. The first, a blundering, wholesale, useless slaughter of brave men and a climax of military incompteney and disaster, marked the very midnight of the war and produced general sadness and dejection. Of the impres- sions it produced in Columbus we have this account :

Yesterday [December 14] might be termed a Sabbath of solicitude in the city. On the way to church in the morning the people were startled. by running news- boys crying Journal Extra, " bloodiest battle of the war," " Fredericksburg in flames," etc. All day excited groups were gathered on the corners and at the public houses, discussing the events of the previous day and conjecturing of the probable carnage of every hour. Newspaper men and telegraph operators were hailed from every quarter by anxious inquiry, " anything more from the Rappa- hannock ?" " What about Burnside?" " How is the battle by this time ?" . At evening our office was crowded with people nervous for news and who seemed loth to hear that nothing would come over the wires until 10 P. M. To all we come this morning with our bloody offering.4

After this horrible human hecatomb had closed, at least for Virginia, the year's dismal record, the humor and the yearning of the American people were aptly expressed in the contemporary lines of Edmund Clarence Stedman :

Back from the trebly crimson field Terrible words are thunder tost, Full of wrath that will not yield, Full of revenge for battles lost ! Hark to the echo as it erost The capital, making faces wan : " End this murderous holocaust ; Abraham Lincoln, give us a Man !

"Give us a man of God's own mould, Born to marshal his fellowmen ; One whose fame is not bought and sold At the stroke of a politician's pen ; Give us the man, of thousands ten, Fit to do as well as to plan ; Give us a rallying ery, and then, Abraham Lincoln, give us a Man !

" Hearts are sorrowing in the North While the sister rivers seek the main, Run with our lifeblood flowing forth- Who shall gather it up again ? Though we march to the battle plain Firmly as when the strife began, Shall our offering be in vain ? Abraham Lincoln, give us a Man !

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II. IN WARTIME-1862.

"Is there never, in all the land, One on whose might the cause may lean ? Are all the common men so grand, And all the titled ones so mean ? What if your failure may have been In trying to make good bread of bran,

Of worthless metal a weapon keen ? Abraham Lincoln find us a Man !

"O, we'll follow him to the death, Where the foeman's fiercest columns are !

O, we will use our latest breath Cheering for every sacred star ! His to marshal us nigh and far, Ours to battle as patriots can

When a Hero leads the Holy War ! Abraham Lincoln, give us a Man !"

The man so longed for was destined to be found-but not yet l

The military movements to and from Ohio's capital during the year may be briefly recorded.

The Twentyninth Ohio Infantry, organized in Ashtabula County, in 1861, moved to Camp Chase in December of that year, and in the following January to Cumberland, Maryland. The Sixtyseventh quitted Camp Chase for Romney, Virginia, January 20. The Sixtysixth, from Urbana, passed Columbus for the same destination January 17. On January 25 the Eightysecond, from Kenton, passed Columbus going eastward, bound for Grafton, Virginia. The Seventy- second, from Fremont, arrived at Camp Chase January 24, and in February was ordered to report to General Sherman, in Kentucky. The Sixtyeighth, organized in Henry County, moved in January to Camp Chase, and thence set out for Fort Donelson, Tennessee, February 7. The Fortysixth moved from Camp Lyon, near Worthington, to Camp Chase, February 11, and on the eighteenth of the same month set out for Kentucky. Three companies of the Eighteenth United States Infantry quitted Camp Thomas for the same destination February 17; on May 31 five more companies of this regiment and one of the Sixteenth Regulars set out for Corinth. On February 24 the Seventyfourth arrived at Camp Chase from Xenia ; on April 20 it was ordered to Nashville, Tennessee. The Sixtyninth set out for the same destination April 19; it had arrived at Camp Chase from Hamilton February 19. The Fiftyseventh, which arrived at Camp Chase from Findlay, January 22, set out for Kentucky February 18. The Fiftyeighth, a German regiment organized at Camp Chase, embarked from Columbus for Tennessee February 10. Part of the Fiftysecond arrived at Camp Chase April 21. The Sixtyfirst, organized at Camp Chase April 23, left for Western Virginia May 27. The Eightyfourth left Camp Chase June 11 for Washington. The Eightysixth, organized at Camp Chase June 11, left for Clarksburg, Western Virginia, June 17. The Eighty seventh was ordered from Camp Chase to Baltimore June 12. The Ninetyfifth was mustered in at Camp Chase August 19, and on the next day was ordered to Lexington, Kentucky. The Fortyfifth, organized at the same camp in August,

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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.

departed on the twentieth of that month for Cincinnati and the South. Thirty deserters were forwarded to their regiments September 4. A dispatch sent from Cincinnati by Governor Tod September 3 stated that Colonel McMillen was on his way home with 600 men of this regiment who had been captured and paroled, and that the remainder were killed, wounded or missing. A large detachment of the regiment arrived September 6. Among thousands of troops which passed Columbus September 5, bound for the front, was the Twentysecond Michigan Infantry. The Eightysixth Ohio returned from Clarksburg September 18, and went to Delaware to be mustered out. The Eightyfourth arrived for musterout September 17. It was ordered to Camp Delaware, as was also the Eightyseventh, which arrived September 23. The One Hundred Seventh, a German regiment organized at Cleveland, passed through to Camp Delaware October 3. Five com- panies of the One Hundred Fifteenth arrived at Camp Chase for guard duty Octo- ber 10. The One Hundred Tenth, from Camp Piqua, passed through to Zanes- ville October 19. The One Hundred Twelfth left Columbus for camp at Mansfield October 23. The One Hundred Thirteenth, from Camp Zanesville, passed through to Camp Dennison December 15. The rendezvous of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry was changed from Camp Zanesville to Camp Chase October 28. The One Hundred Seventh, from Camp Delaware, passed eastward for Washington October 30.

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History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II, Part 15

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