USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > History of the city of Columbus, capital of Ohio, Volume II > Part 21
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Many scenes during the day were affecting and impressive, but to chronicle them would fill a volume. All felt the sorrow, and countenance and act mirrored it with striking plainness. Thousands of persons stood in line on High Street, four abreast; the lines extending in either direction north from the west gateway to Long Street, and south from the west gateway to Rich Street, patiently await- ing their opportunity. For more than six hours a steady stream of humanity poured through the channel, all eager to gaze at the martyred President on his bier.
The time appointed for the oration was three o'clock P. M. ; the place, the East Front of the Capitol. The orator was HIon. Job E. Stevenson. An immense audience gathered around the platform which was erected for the speaking
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VICTORY AND SORROW-1865.
immediately in front of the eastern entrance, and upon which appeared, besides the orator, Major-Generals Hunter, Hooker and Barnard, Brigadier-Generals Townsend and McCallum, Colonels Swords, Simpson and Lathrop, Captain Tay- lor, Hon. T. B. Shannon of California, Hon. T. W. Ferry of Michigan, Hon. Mr. Clarke of Kansas and Reverends E. P. Goodwin and C. E. Felton, of Columbus. After military music, and a hymn sung by a choir, directed by J. A. Scarritt, prayer was offered by Mr. Goodwin, another hymn was sung and the oration was delivered. Mr. Coggeshall thus describes the departure of the remains :
At six o'clock in the evening the doors of the Capitol were closed, the bugle sounded the assembly, the soldiers took arms and the procession began reforming for the final escort to the depot. As the body was being borne ont to the funeral car at the west gateway of the Capitol grounds a national salute was fired. Soon after, the procession moved, and the remains of the President were transferred to the funeral car at the depot of the Indiana Central Railway for transportation to Indianapolis.
The committee superintending the catafalque in the rotunda determined to allow it to remain until the remains of Mr. Lincoln were consigned to the tomb at Springfield, and it is to be recorded as a memorable deed for the citizens of Colum- bus, that every morning until that fourth of May fresh flowers were placed around the dais where the President's coffin had rested, and thousands of men, women and children visited and revisited the catafalque, and again and again with sad emotion viewed the symbols of grief which decorated the rotunda of Ohio's Capitol, in which, in February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln had been given the most enthusiastic reception ever bestowed by the people of Ohio upon a citizen of the Republic.
NOTES.
1. Ohio State Journal, April 10, 1865.
2. Lincoln Memorial, 1865.
CHAPTER XIII
RETURN OF THE VOLUNTEERS.
With the victories in Virginia the prodigious activities of war preparation came to a sudden halt. By order of April 14 all further recruiting in Ohio was suspended. Up to that date, however, the work of organizing and forwarding troops was in no wise relaxed, and during the first months of the year various military movements of local interest took place. On January 8 the Fiftyeighth Ohio Infantry arrived from Vicksburg for musterout, which took place Jannary 14. On February 22 the One Hundred Eightyfourth, a oneyear regiment organized at Camp Chase, quitted that camp for Nashville. The One Hundred Eightyfifth, oneyear, organized at Camp Chase February 26, set out the next day for the same destination. The One Hundred Eightysixth, oneyear, which com- pleted its musterin at Camp Chase Mareh 2, left for Tennessee the following morning. The One Hundred Eightyseventh, oneyear, organized at Camp Chase March 1, left for Nashville March 3. The One Hundred Eightyeightb, oneyear, organized at the same eamp March 4, left on the same day for the same destina- tion. The One Hundred Eightyninth, organized at Camp Chase for one year March 5, left for Huntsville, Alabama, March 7. The One Hundred Ninetyfirst, organized for one year at Camp Chase March 10, left the same day for Winchester, Virginia. The One Hundred Ninetysecond, organized at the same camp on the same date and for the same term, left for Halltown, near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, March 12. The One Hundred Ninetythird organized at Camp Chase for one year, left for Harper's Ferry March 13. The One Hundred Ninetyfourth, organized for one year at Camp Chase March 14, left the same day for Charles- town, Virginia. The One Hundred Ninetyfifth, organized at Camp Chase for one year, left for Harper's Ferry March 20. The One Hundred Ninetysixth, organized for one year at Camp Chase March 25, set out immediately for Winchester, Virginia. The One Hundred Ninetyseventh, which completed its organization at Camp Chase April 12, for one year, left on April 25 for Washington City. The recruits for new organizations received at Camp Chase from Jannary 2 to February 4, 1865, numbered 2,480. Seven hundred and sixty paroled Union soldiers arrived from Annapolis February 23.
The military arrivals and departures at Tod Barracks during the first months of 1865 were almost continuous. On March 15 five hundred exchanged soldiers
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RETURN OF THE VOLUNTEERS.
arrived from Annapolis. On April first 650 substitutes and recruits were sent to the field ; on April fifth 1,086 paroled men were received. A general conrt- martial held its sittings at the barracks during the same month. Among the arrivals in May were five or six hundred paroled from Annapolis, Maryland, and 125 sick, disabled and paroled from Alexandria, Virginia. On June fourth 350 drafted men and substitutes returned to the barracks from Alexandria for musteront. They had been assigned to various Ohio regiments in the Army of the Cumberland and had reached Atlanta just in time to participate in Sherman's march to the seacoast.
One of the earliest Confederate arrivals of the year was that of 2,200 captives taken by General Thomas, and delivered at Camp Chase January 4. Twelve hundred more taken from Hood's army arrived January 6. During the month of February Lieutenant-Colonel R. J. Breckenridge, supposed to have been sent into Ohio by the Confederate authorities to induce deserters from their armies to return, was arrested and confined in the Penitentiary. In May he was transferred to Johnson's Island. An order of the War Department authorizing the organization of a battalion of the Confederates at Camp Chase for western service being announced to the prisoners in Mareh, two thousand of them offered to volunteer for that service. On May fifth 522 captives from North Carolina were received. On May fifteenth, 108 took the oath of allegiance, and were furnished transporta- tion to their homes. The number of Confederates in Camp Chase June 10 was 3,200. Six hundred who had taken the oath of allegianee left for their homes June 12; seven hundred more who had taken the oath were at the same time awaiting transportation. By June 28 the camp was entirely cleared of Confeder- ates, a few only having refused to take the oath of allegiance. A good many of the released captives sought employment in and about the city. In the early spring refugees from the South arrived at Columbus almost daily. Fortythree prisoners from Arkansas who had been convicted as spies, guerrillas, ete., were delivered to the Penitentiary June 26.
The discharge of Government employes at Columbus began early in May. A committee of citizens to arrange suitable receptions for the returning volunteers was appointed June 5, with J. J. Janney as chairman, and C. S. Dyer as secretary. This committee soon had plenty to do. Among the very first to command its attentions were various deachments from Sherman's army which were received at Tod Barracks June 8. Several more detachments from the same army arrived June 9 and were marched to the capitol, where they were addressed by Hon. David Tod and Hon. Charles Anderson. They were then conducted to Goodale Park where they were served with a dinner, and further addressed by Governor Brough, Colonel Given, Samuel Galloway and Granville Moody. The Ninety- seventh and One Hundred Twentyfirst Ohio Infantry arrived at Camp Chase for final pay and musterout June 14. These regiments and detachments of various others were dined at Goodale Park on that date and were on that occasion addressed by Hon. Samuel Galloway and others. On the same day the Twenty- fourth Ohio Independent Battery passed through the city en route to Camp Den- nison. The One Hundred First passed Columbus to Cleveland June 15; on the
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
same date the Fortyfifth arrived and was mustered out at Tod Barraeks. The Seventyeighth was paid and discharged at Tod Barracks June 16. On the next day a reception was given to the Fortyfifth and various other troops at Goodale Park. Speeches were made on this occasion by Governor Brough, Peter Odlin and State Treasurer Dorsey. For a time these formal receptions were kept up, but the daily arrival of battalions and regiments for several successive weeks soon made their repetition monotonous, and after some further heroic efforts to main- tain them they were discontinued.
The One Hundred Seventysixth arrived and was paraded in the Capitol Square June 17. It was mustered out at the Tod Barracks June 18. On June 20 the One Hundred Seventyninth was formally received at Goodale Park. The speakers of the occasion were Messrs. Galloway and Dorsey. Eight hundred and eighty men were discharged at the barracks June 24. The One Hundred Fifteenth passed the city en route to Cleveland June 28. On June 29 a wagontrain of 250 vehicles from General Sherman's army passed through the city going westward on the National Road. The wagons, each drawn by a team of six mules, were accompanied by a drove of 500 of these animals. The One Hundred Twenty- second, One Hundred Twentysixth and part of the One Hundred Tenth were formally received at Goodale Park June 29. Speeches were made by Chief Justice Chase and Hon. Samuel Galloway.
Among the July arrivals for musterout were those of the One Hundred Seventyfourth, July 5; the One Hundred Seventyeighth, July 8; the Twenty- second Independent Battery (Neil's), same date ; the One Hundred Twentyeighth, from Johnson's Island, July 11 ; the Twelfth Independent Battery, July 10; the Seventyeighth Ohio Infantry, July 11; the Fortythird, July 13; the Twentieth, July 16 ; the Sixtysixth, July 19; General Sherman's Headquarters Guard, July 20; the One Hundred Eightieth, July 23; the One Hundred Eightythird, same date; the Ninetysixth, July 24; the Twenty-first, July 26; the Fortysixth, same date; the Eightysecond, July 28; the One Hundred Eightythird, same date; the Thirtysixth, same date ; the Ninth Cavalry, July 31. The Twentythird Ohio Infantry arrived from Cumberland en route to Cleveland. On July 8 the One Hundred Thirteenth was given a formal reception and dinner in Goodale Park. Speeches were made by General J. G. Mitchell, H. C. Noble, Colonel James A. Wilcox, Lieutenant-Colonel D. B. Warner and General J. D. Cox. The ceremonies were interrupted by rain.
The One Hundred Ninetyseventh arrived at Tod Barracks August 3, and the One Hundred Ninetythird at Camp Chase August 6. On August 15 the One Hun- dred Fourteenth arrived at Tod Barracks and the Seventeenth Independent Bat- tery at Camp Chase. The Ninetyfifth arrived at Tod Barracks August 16, and on the seventeenth was banqueted at the Neil House. Before an unoeeupied ehair at this banquet was placed a garland of white flowers bound with red, white and blue ribbon and occupied by a card inscribed : "Captain Oscar Dwight Kelton." Captain Kelton had been killed at the battle of Guntown. Tod Barracks received the Thirtieth Ohio Infantry August 21, the Eightieth August 23, and the Fifty- seventh August 24. The Second Heavy Artillery was discharged at Camp Cuase
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August 29. Camp Dennison having by this time been broken up, and Tod Bar- racks appropriated for other purposes, Camp Chase was the only remaining ren- dezvous for the payment and discharge of Ohio troops. The socalled Permanent Party, organized by Major Skiles for guard duty at the Tod Barracks, and consist- ing of about one hundred disah'ed veterans from various Ohio regiments, was dis- banded June 15. Of ten companies of the Veteran Reserve Corps which arrived from Baltimore for guard and garrison duty in Ohio July 22, four companies were assigned to Tod Barracks and six to Camp Chase. The barracks ceased to be a military post September 11. Major Skiles had been relieved from duty some days before to accept a ticket agency on the Columbus & Indiana Central Railway. He was a onearmed veteran, and had discharged the duties of his arduous position with great efficiency. The barracks were reopened as a military rendezvous Jan- uary 23, 1866, and were not finally elosed until August 1 of that year. The last commandant was Lieutenant F. W. Robinson, successor to Colonel George A. Woodward. The material composing the barracks buildings was sold April 11, 1867, for about $1,400.
Further arrivals of returning volunteers in 1865 were as follows : One Hun- dred Ninetysecond, September 3 ; Seventysecond, September 16; One Hundred Eightysixth, September 22; One Hundred Eightyeighth and First Ohio Cavalry, September 25; One Hundred Twentyseventh Colored Infantry, October 5; One Hundred Twentyfifth, October 15; Eighteenth, October 22; Fiftyfirst, October 30 ; Fifth Cavalry, November 10; Twentysixth Infantry, November 12; Twelfth Cavalry, November 17; Fortyfirst Infantry and Fifth Cavalry, November 18 ; Twelfth Cavalry ( mustered out), November 22 ; Fortyfirst Infantry ( mustered out), November 26; Sixtyseventh, December 12; One Hundred Ninetyfifth, December 21 ; Sixtyfifth, December 27; Fortyninth, December 28.
An army train of 250 wagons, each drawn by six mules, passed through the city, bound for Fort Leavenworth, September 22. It had come, by the National Road, from Washington. Another train of 256 wagons, bound for the same des- tination, under Captain Hoskins, Assistant-Quartermaster, arrived September 28, and was corraled over night at Franklinton. It had traveled from Washington by the National Road at the rate of 153 miles per day. This train also was bound for Fort Leavenworth, but its march ended at Springfield, Illinois, where the mnles were sold and the wagons forwarded by rail.
The last of the volunteers to return to Columbus from the field arrived in the year 1866 as follows: Sixtyfourth, January 3; Eightyeighth (Camp Chase guard), July 3; Thirteenth, January 11; One Hundred Eightyseventh, January 27 ; Seventyseventh, March 23; Fiftysixth, May 4; Fortyeighth, May 23; Twentyfifth, June 12. The last Ohio troops in the field were the Eleventh Cavalry, which had been engaged in service against the Indians on the Western Plains. This regi- ment arrived at Tod Barracks July 18 and was there mustered out July 20 and 21. The last volunteers to be discharged in Ohio were Lieutenant F. W. Robin- son's detachment from the Fourth Regiment of Veteran Reserves. The soldiers of this detachment, twentyseven in number, were from other States than Ohio. They were mustered out August 3.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
Thus the volunteer army reached its final extinction so far as it was enlisted from or held organized connection with the State of Ohio.
Under date of June 17, 1865, the Ohio Statesman thus vouched for the good behavior of the returning veterans :
For a week or more soldiers have been arriving at this point and daily departing for their homes, having received their pay and discharge at Camp Chase and Tod Barracks, yet every citizen will bear witness that fewer soldiers have been seen loitering about town than at any former period since the commencement of the war. While civilians are daily arrested and fined for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, it is rare, indeed, that a soldier is found at the morning levees of Mayor Bull.
One of many interesting incidents of the return is thus recorded in the Ohio Statesman of June 12, 1865 :
Some three years ago a young man, Gershom Rose, residing at Claypoole's Mills, near Zanesville, in Muskingum County enlisted in Company B, Seventyeighth O. V. I. He left a most affectionate and devoted mother, of whom he wasboth the darling and the pride. For a long time past she had not heard a word from him, as he was with Sherman's army in its grand sweeping campaign through the South. She had almost given up her darling boy as lost. But, unexpectedly, about ten days ago, a letter came from him saying that a detach- ment of men from the Seventyeighth would start in a few days for Columbus, and he should come home with them.
The fond mother could scarcely believe her eyes when she read this letter. The news was too good to be true. It formed the subject of her thoughts by night and by day. At length, on Saturday morning last, as she was out in the yard of her dwelling attending to some household work, a neighbor called and stated that the expected detachment of the Seventy- eighth had arrived at Tod Barracks, and that her son was among the men. The full realiza- tion of the actual truth that her longlost boy was so near home was too much for the mother's physical frame. " That loving heart throbbed violently for a few moments, and then was still forever. On Saturday evening a friend of the family arrived at the barracks and announced to the young soldier the sad news of his mother's death. That night he left for home to attend his mother's funeral yesterday.
A soldier eager to return to civil life without unnecessary formality wrote as follows to the Governor:
CAMP NEAR SWEATWATER, TENASEE, August 4th, 1865.
Governor Brough, Sir: - The demoraliseing effect of woods life having become so vividly portraid to me I would earnistly recomend that the 12th O. V. C. now at this place be mustered out of the U. S. Servis at the earlist posable oppertunity.
ADREAN SHAW.
Resolved also that I Adrean Shaw do hereby theas presents respectfully tender my resig- nation wich I hope will meet with the necessary Promptitude of action required.
PRIVATE A. SHAW.
The Ohio State Journal of March 27, 1866, contained the following :
Soldiers on their entry into a city, after discharge, with pockets full of money sometimes do very foolish things and make odd purchases. Not least among the last mentioned are the suits of new and awkwardy fitting clothes that they jump into at the first opportunity. On Monday evening a returned veteran glorying in all the finery of a new rig, not excepting kid gloves, was marching along High Street in a pair of bootees just purchased. They were several sizes too small, and the feet, so used to the freedom of the flatbottomed army shoes, rebelled. Veteran was in misery; veteran couldn't walk and immediately resolved that
Firestone
See page 323 ; and page 920, Vol. I.
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RETURN OF THE VOLUNTEEPS.
"something must be done." He had been too many years a soklier to be disconcerted long, so he seated himself on the pavement, took off shoes and socks, but not his kid gloves, and resumed his march toward the barracks with a free, roundI swinging gait that spoke of the " Grand March " and of many a raid on the Rio Grande and total indifference as te cold and the observation of spectators.
The prison property at Camp Chase was offered for sale at public auction July 14, by order of General Richardson. An inspection of the camp was made October 12 by General Thomas M. Vincent of the United States Army, and a general courtmartial was held there in November, 1865, and again in January, 1866. By order of the Secretary of War Camp Thomas was discontinued as a recruiting depot for the regular army early in October. During the first week in February, 1866, the military records and documents at Camp Chase were removed to Colum - bus, and that camp ceased to be considered as an army post, although, for safety of the public property it was still under guard of a detachment of the Veteran Reserve Corps. A sale of the Government property at the camp began in March but was suspended by order from the War Department. By the middle of April all the Government property had been removed except the buildings, and these were tenantless. On May 3 the condition of the camp, a few months previously the scene of so much activity and excitement, was thus described :1
It is no longer a military centre, no more a living thing ; the city is deserted, the giant form a skeleton. Hundreds and thousands of armed men paraded as the guardians of the living thing ; a single man unarmed keeps watch and ward over the remains of the thing dead waiting for burial. Two years ago you entered the precincts of Camp Chase armed with passes signed and countersigned ; were directed by shortspoken orderlies ; warned by straight up-and-down sentinels ; received with punctilious standoffishness by officials ; and came away duly impressed with the military power of the country. Now, you drive up to the gate as you would to that of a cemetery ; the guardian presents himself in his shirt- sleeves ; you tell him your desires ; he kicks away a huge stone ; opens the gate ; cautions you a little, and you enter unchallenged and unheralded to the mighty presence of the great solitude of loneliness. The rows of barracks remain unchanged; the flowers planted by some careful wife of some careless officer are ready to record that "the hand of woman has been here ;" the flagstaff stands without pulley, rope or flag ; the chapel with its halfchange in the latter day to a theatre remains a monument of the one, a telltale of the other ; the prison pens frown still with barred gates, but are silent within. In one, the scaffold on which Hartrup and Oliver were executed? stands firm - the grim guardian of the ghostly solitude - and with beam in place and trap half sprung seems waiting for another victim. Everywhere are the marks of the skeleton. The pumpstocks have all been withdrawn from the wells ; the windows from the buildings ; grass growing on the paradeground. Old shoes tumbled into promiscuous groupings tell which buildings have been last occupied, and the martin boxes give some signs of life. A little fruittree in the midst of all this loneliness blossoms and puts forth leaves with all the proud defiance of nature, and with a scornful fling with every wave of wind for the works of man perishing on every side.
For the military post of Columbus very few noteworthy events remain to be recorded. Toward the end of September, 1865, Surgeon J. Y. Cantwell was relieved from duty as post surgeon, his services being no longer needed. In November General James A. Wilcox, Provost-Marshal-General for Ohio, was directed to close all the offices of district provost-marshals and transfer their
11*
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS.
records to Columbus. General Wilcox assumed command of the Military District of Ohio January 30, 1866, but in the following September we find him out of the service and resuming the practice of law.3 In July, Major Henry Douglas, wbo had for more than a year been mastering and disbursing officer at Columbus, was relieved by Captain George McGown. Early in August, Colonel H. P. Wolcott, who was for a long time paymaster at the post, was ordered to Washington.
At this point of transition from the turbulent conditions of war back into the serene atmosphere of peace, some further retrospect of the soldiers' relief work in Columbus may properly be taken. During the summer of 1861 a branch of the United States Sanitary Commission was organized in the city. Its Presi- dent was William M. Awl; Vice President, J. B. Thompson : Secretary, John W. Andrews ; Treasurer, T. G. Wormley ; Executive Committee, J. B. Thompson, Peter Ambos and F. C. Sessions. The latter, on the resignation of Mr. Andrews, suc- ceeded bim as secretary. On April 22, 1862, a Soldiers' Home was established by this society at the railway station, with Isaac Dalton in charge. A twostory build- ing erested near the station during the spring and summer of 1883, for the use of the Home, was occupied during the ensuing October. Additions to this building after- wards increased its dimensions to 24x140 feet, besides a small annex, the whole costing about five thousand dollars and being chiefly furnished by citizens of Co- lumbus. The superintendents were T. E. Botsford and Isaac Dalton. It was their duty to provide for the sick and wounded, to furnish transient soldiers with meals and lodging, to advise and assist them at the arrival and departure of trains, and to be generally helpful to all sojourning and traveling soldiers while in the city. To keep soldiers from being swindled or otherwise imposed upon a police force at the station was maintained. The Home was finally closed May 7, 1866. Dur- ing the period of its operations it gave lodgings to about fifty thousand men, and dispensed 136,000 meals. It also fed a considerable number of refugees from the South. The buildings were finally sold by the trustees on March 16, 1867.
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