USA > Ohio > Ross County > Chillicothe > Ohio centennial anniversary celebration at Chillicothe, May 20-21, 1903 : under the auspices of the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society : complete proceedings > Part 17
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Happily, not one foot of the vast territory acquired from Mexico became slave territory, and later (1861-65) the inhabit- ants of all this territory were singularly loyal to the Union of the
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States, many volunteering to preserve the Union and to over- throw human slavery.
The Mexican War was not generally popular in Ohio, nor in the northern states. Ohio, however, furnished a full share of the distinguished officers and soldiers, regular and volunteer, for this war; also sailors.
The United States forces employed in the conquest of Mex- ico aggregated about 100,000 armed men-26,690 regulars, 56,926 volunteers, and about 17,000 in the navy .* Of these, Ohio fur- nished at least her quota, based on population, of officers, soldiers and sailors for the regular establishment; and she furnished her full share of volunteers for the army and navy.
The Ohio military forces were organized into five infantry regiments, fifteen independent companies of infantry and five companies (B, C, D, H, I), for the 15th U. S. Infantry, and one company (B), U. S. Mounted Riflemen, numbering approxi- mately, 7,000 officers and men, about one-eighth (adding enlist- ments in other regular organizations) of the entire forces em- ployed in the army during the war. A like proportion were in the navy.
FIRST OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
(MEXICAN WAR. )
This regiment was organized at Camp Washington (near Cincinnati) June 23, 1846, and was mustered out June 15, 1847.
Its field-officers were Colonel Alexander M. Mitchell, Lieu- tenant-Colonel John B. Weller, and Major Thomas L. Hamer. Luther Giddings was made major of the regiment on the promo- tion of Hamer to brigadier-general, July, 1846. General Hamer died at Monterey, Mexico, December 2, 1846. The other field- officers were mustered out with the regiment.
The following is a list of the original captains, showing their companies, by letter, and where recruited :
Captain Robert M. Moore (A), Cincinnati, Ohio.
Captain Luther Giddings (B), Dayton, Ohio.
Captain Lewis Hornell (C), Dayton, Ohio. Captain Edward Hamilton (D), Portsmouth, Ohio.
* History of Mexican War (Wilcox) 561.
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Captain John B. Armstrong (E), Cincinnati, Ohio.
Captain Edward D. Bradley (F), Lower Sandusky, Ohio.
Captain Sanders W. Johnson (G), Cincinnati, Ohio. Captain Phillip Muller (H), Cincinnati, Ohio.
Captain James George (I), Cincinnati, Ohio. Captain Wm. H. Ramsey (K), Cincinnati, Ohio.
This regiment fought first at Monterey and, later, in various engagements, and had twenty-four killed in battle, and many more died of disease.
SECOND OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
(MEXICAN WAR.)
This regiment was organized at Camp Washington, Ohio, June 23, 1846, and was mustered out, June 23, 1847, at New Orleans.
Its field-officers were Colonel George W. Morgan, Lieuten- ant-Colonel Wm. Irvin (promoted from chaplain), and Major William Wall; and they were mustered out with the regiment.
The following is a list of the original captains, showing their companies, by letter, and where recruited :
Captain Hobby Reynolds (A), Chillicothe, Ohio.
Captain Simon B. Kenton (B), Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
Captain David Irick (C), Hillsboro, Ohio.
Captain Simon B. Tucker (D), Logan, Ohio.
Captain Robert G. McLean (E), Athens, Ohio.
Captain John F. Mickum (F), Columbus, Ohio.
Captain Evan Julian (G), Lancaster, Ohio.
Captain Richard Stadden (H), Newark, Ohio.
Captain Daniel Bruner (I), Circleville, Ohio.
Captain Wm. Latham (K), Columbus, Ohio.
Colonel Morgan and Lieutenant-Colonel Irvine were, before the regiment was organized, captains, respectively, of Companies B and G.
This regiment was engaged under General Taylor; it fought at Aqua Fria, near Monterey, and was at Buena Vista. Its loss was six killed - sixty died of disease.
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THIRD OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
(MEXICAN WAR.)
This regiment was organized at Camp Washington in June, 1846, and was mustered out June 24, 1847, at New Orleans.
Its field-officers were Colonel Samuel R. Curtis, Lieutenant- Colonel George W. McCook and Major John L. Love, each of whom served until the regiment was mustered out.
The following is a list of the original captains, showing their companies, by letter, and where recruited :
Captain Wm. Mclaughlin (A), Mansfield, Ohio.
Captain Jesse Meredith (B), Coshocton, Ohio.
Captain Thomas H. Ford (C), Mansfield, Ohio.
Captain John Patterson (D), St. Clairsville, Ohio. Captain David Moore (E), Wooster, Ohio.
Captain James F. Chapman (F), Tiffin, Ohio.
Captain Chauncey Woodruff (G), Norwalk, Ohio.
Captain Asbury F. Noles (H), Zanesville, Ohio.
Captain John Kell, Jr. (I), Steubenville, Ohio.
Captain James Allen (K), Massillon, Ohio.
This regiment served on the Rio Grande under General Tay- lor. Its dead list was sixty-four men, killed and died of disease ..
FOURTH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
(MEXICAN WAR.)
This regiment was organized in Cincinnati in June, 1847, and was mustered out at that place July 24, 1848.
Its field-officers were Colonel Charles H. Brough, Lieuten- ant-Colonel Melchior Werner (first) and August Moor, and Major Wm. P. Young. Lieutenant-Colonel Werner resigned September, 1847; the others were mustered out with the regiment.
The following is a list of the original captains, showing their companies, by letter, and where recruited :
Captain August Moor (A), Cincinnati, Ohio.
Captain Otto Zirckel (B), Columbus, Ohio.
Captain Samuel Thompson (C), Lower Sandusky, Ohio.
Captain George Weaver (D), Ganges, Ohio.
Captain Michael C. Lilly (E), Columbus, Ohio.
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Captain George E. Pugh (F), Cincinnati, Ohio. Captain Thomas L. Hart (G), Millersburg, Ohio. Captain George A. Richmond (H), Cincinnati, Ohio. Captain Josiah M. Robinson (I), Cincinnati, Ohio.
Colonel Brough and Major Young were, before the regiment was organized, respectively, captains of companies I and H.
Their regiment served under General Taylor on the Rio. Grande (Matamoras), and at Vera Cruz, and fought at Alexo, Mexico. It lost five killed in battle, and seventy-one died of dis- ease.
SECOND SECOND OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY .*
(MEXICAN WAR.)
This regiment was organized at Camp Wool (Cincinnati),. about September 1, 1847, and was mustered out July 26, 1848,. at Cincinnati, after the close of the war.
Its field-officers were Colonel Wm. Irvin (formerly lieuten- ant-colonel of the Second), Lieutenant-Colonel Wm. A. Lathanı, and Major Wm. H. Link. They were each mustered out with their regiment.
The following is a list of the original captains, showing: their companies, by letter, and where recruited :
Captain Nathan H. Miles (A), Cincinnati, Ohio.
Captain Richard Stadden (B), Newark, Ohio.
Captain John W. Lowe (C), Batavia, Ohio.
Captain Wm. A. Latham (D), Columbus, Ohio.
Captain Joseph W. Filler (E), Somerset, Ohio.
Captain Wm. T. Ferguson (F), Lancaster, Ohio.
Captain James E. Harle (G), Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Captain Joseph E. Smith (H), Circleville, Ohio.
Captain John G. Hughes (I), Columbus, Ohio.
Captain George F. McGinnis (K), Chillicothe, Ohio.
Major Link was captain of Company H prior to the organi- zation of the regiment.
This regiment went to Vera Cruz, later marched to Pueblo and the interior of Mexico and performed valuable service, losing in skirmishes and disease seventy-four men.
*This is sometimes maccurately called the Fifth.
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INDEPENDENT COMPANIES.
(MEXICAN WAR.)
There were fifteen independent companies, which were each known by the name of its captain, as follows:
Duncan's (John R.), mustered in at Cincinnati June 1, 1847, and mustered out there August 2, 1848. This company was mounted.
Dauble's (John G.), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there December 7, 1846.
Churchill's (Frederick A.), mustered in June 15, 1846, and mustered out October 14, 1846.
Kessler's (Herman), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there October 17, 1846.
Durr's (George), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there December 7, 1846.
Caldwell's (John), mustered in May, 1846, and mustered out at Bucyrus October 26, 1846.
Donnell's (H. O.), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there October 17, 1846.
Ward's (Thomas W.), mustered in June, 1846, and mus- tered out at Cincinnati, October 14, 1846.
Moor's (Augustus), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there October 14, 1846.
Hawkin's (Joseph L.), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there November 5, 1846.
Stout's (Atlas L.), mustered in June 5, 1846, and mustered out at Dayton, Ohio, November 4, 1846.
Link's (Francis), mustered in at Cincinnati June 15, 1846, and mustered out there October 14, 1846.
Love's (John S.), mustered in June 4, 1846, and mustered out at McConnellsville, Ohio, October 29, 1846.
Kenneally's (Wm.), mustered in at Cincinnati October 5, 1847, and mustered out there July 25, 1848.
Riddle's (Robert R.), mustered in at Cincinnati October 26, 1847, and mustered out there July 17, 1848.
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Captain Duncan's Independent Company (mounted volun- teers) performed valuable service on the Rio Grande Route, with headquarters mainly at Ceralvo, Mexico.
Captains Kenneally's and Riddle's Independent Companies. (First and Second Foot), also performed valuable service in Mexico.
Company B (U. S. Mounted Riflemen), in regular estab- lishment (Captain Winslow F. Sanderson) was recruited at Columbus, Norwalk and Wooster, Ohio, May to July, 1846, and served on the Vera Cruz Route and at Pueblo, Mexico, ren- dering much valuable and hard service. It was mustered out. at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., August 28, 1848.
FIFTEENTH U. S. INFANTRY.
By act of Congress this regiment was organized to serve during the Mexican War. Its field-officers were Colonel George W. Morgan, Lieutenant-Colonel Joshua Howard, and Majors: Leslie H. McKenney and Frederick D. Mills (killed August 20, 1847, San Antonio, Mexico.)
It was recruited in April and May, 1847, and was mustered out at Cincinnati, Ohio, August 13, 1848.
The following companies were recruited in Ohio:
Captain David Chase (B), at Toledo, Lower Sandusky and. Defiance.
Captain James A. Jones (C), Norwalk, Ohio.
Captain Edward A. King (D), at Dayton, Ohio.
Captain John L. Perry (H), at Cleveland, Ohio.
Captain Moses Hoagland (I), at Millersburg, Ohio.
This regiment served on the Vera Cruz Route, and partici- pated in battles under General Scott, and lost heavily, especially at Chapultepec and in the capture of the City of Mexico.
Thomas L. Hamer was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers June 6, 1846, and died at Monterey, Mexico, Deceni- ber 2, 1846. (He was the first major of the First Ohio Volun- teer Infantry.)
A careful scrutiny of the list of volunteer officers who served in the organizations named will enable us to discover many who, later, distinguished themselves as officers in the Civil War, and in other relations of life.
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Captains Ferdinand Van Derveer and Carr B. White, of the First Regiment, each served with distinction as colonels in the war to preserve the Union.
Colonels George W. Morgan (Second Volunteers and the Fifteenth U. S.) and Samuel R. Curtis, Lieutenant-Colonel George W. McCook, and Lieutenant Samuel Beatty (Third Vol- unteers), each became a general officer in the Civil War.
Lieutenant-Colonel August Moor and Captains James Irvine and John C. Groome (Fourth Volunteers) became colonels in the Civil War. Of the Second, Captain John W. Lowe became a colonel, Lieutenant Robert B. Mitchell a major-general, and Lieutenant Wm. Howard a lieutenant-colonel in that war.
The brilliant Captain Wm. H. Lytle (Kenneally's Foot), of poetic fame, as a brigadier-general gave up his life on bloody Chickamauga's field.
Others of the volunteers became distinguished and are worthy of special mention.
REGULAR OFFICERS.
Of the Ohio regular officers who served in the Mexican War a few only will be named.
Irvin McDowell (assistant adjutant-general), a captain by brevet for gallantry at Buena Vista, became a major-general and commanded armies in the Civil War.
William Tecumseh Sherman (Third Artillery), for special service in California during the Mexican War was made a brevet captain. He became a major-general and commanded a large army in the Civil War, became a lieutenant-general, then gen- eral, commanding the United States Army.
Second Lieutenant John S. Mason (Third Artillery), became a brigadier-general in the War of the Rebellion.
Captain Simon H. Drum (Fourth Artillery) (Springfield) pushed his battery through Belen Gate, City of Mexico, but was killed as the city capitulated.
Lieutenant Charles C. Gilbert (First Infantry), became a brigadier-general in the Civil War.
Lieutenant Don Carlos Buell (Third Infantry ) was brevetted a captain for distinguished services in Mexico. He became a major-general and commanded an army in the Civil War.
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Ulysses S. Grant (Fourth Infantry) was brevetted first lieu- tenant and captain for gallantry at Molino del Rey and Chapul- tepec. He became a brigadier-general, major-general, lieutenant- general and general - commander-in-chief of all the armies of the United States, and famed as the greatest general of his age. He received his first baptism of fire at Palo Alto (tall tree) May 18, 1846, near where (Palmetto Ranche) nineteen years later (May 13, 1865) the last angry shot was fired in the War of the Great Rebellion, in which he then commanded a. million of men. He was for two terms president of the United States
Both for the army and the navy did the Mexican War serve, in some sense, as a school of preparation for officers who . fought against each other in the most sanguinary contest of arms - the bloodiest of modern times.
NAVY.
Admirals Reed Werden, John F. Schenck, L. C. Rowan and Roger M. Stembel held commands, though with junior rank, in the U. S. Navy during the Mexican War, and performed well their duties on shipboard, and sometimes important duties on land. Reed Werden (then lieutenant), led a party of seamen in the capture of Tupsan, Mexico. Schenck (then lieutenant) served as chief military aid to Commodore Stockton on the Pacific Coast and participated (on land) in the capture of Santa Barbara, San Pedro and Los Angeles, California, and was at the bombardment and capture of Guaymas and Mazatlan. Rowan (then lieutenant), also served under Commodore Stock- ton in the Pacific Squadron, and fought both by sea and land on the Pacific Coast, notably at the battle of Mesa, which re- sulted in the capture of Los Angeles, then California's capital, and the surrender of California by the Mexican governor to the United States authorities.
To the prompt and efficient action of the navy on the Pa- cific Coast is due, in large part, our acquisition of California, with its splendid harbors, then in danger of being seized, to be permanently held by Great Britain.
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These and other Ohio officers of our navy who served in the Mexican War, performed valuable service on shipboard, and rose to distinction and high rank in the Civil War.
Ohio is entitled to a full share of the glory won by our army and navy in the Mexican War.
II.
OHIO IN THE CIVIL WAR - 1861-65.
By 1860 Ohio had reached a population of 2,339,511; the whole Union a population of 31,443,321, including 3,953,760 slaves. Secession, or rebellion, was then about due, with war- clouds in the sky. The fangs of venemous battle were being shown. The necessity for war was as certain as that the cause. of it existed. Only blood could atone for our nation's sins and wash out the crime of human slavery. The American people. were then divided, or dividing, on the issue of freedom and slavery. Slavery had been abolished, in large part, in the old nations of the world, or their glory had departed; many slave nations had ceased to exist.
Our Republic, boastful of its free institutions, of its con- stitutional liberty, its free schools and churches, of its glories. in the cause of liberty and humanity, its patriotism, resplendent history, inventive genius, wealth, industry, civilization, and Chris- tianity, maintained slavery until it was only saved from the common doom of slave nations by the atoning sacrifice of its best blood and the mercy of an offended God.
Slavery could not exist in our Republic, unless it dominated all our institutions, civil and religious.
Slavery, like all wrong, could not stand still; to flourish, it must be aggressive and progressive. To limit it was to cause. it to languish, then to die. There never were more brilliant, more devoted, more earnest, more infatuated, and yet more in- consistent propagandists of the institution of human slavery than in this country during the thirty years preceding the se- cession of the southern states. With the secession of eleven of the fifteen slave states came the formation of the Confederate. States of America, its would-be constitution framed on the con-
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stitution of the United States, but with a clause making human slavery therein perpetual. This attempt to organize a new na- tion was the first - the only - attempt in the history of nations -semi-barbaric, semi-civilized or civilized, wherein a nation was. organized avowedly solely to preserve and perpetuate human slavery; this, in free America, in the afternoon of the nineteenth century.
This attempt was born of the infatuation of an otherwise civilized people, who, for two hundred and fifty years, had nourished slavery as a domestic necessity until they came to believe it to be morally right and necessary to a refined and higher civilization than mankind could attain to without it; and also that it was of divine origin. By its aggressions slavery courted its death.
The best sentiment was culminating in the North - indeed throughout the civilized world - so strongly against human slavery that it was soon to be assailed from every standpoint, physically as well as morally. This sentiment could not longer be stayed; its flood-tide had come.
It is now useless and vain to attempt to lay the outbreak of the Civil War to any class or section of our people. The cause of it had been planted in the colonies, had been fostered, nurtured and protected under the Articles of Confederation, and under the constitution of Washington and his compatriots until it had grown to be a hideous political monster that could only perish by a violent death.
The attempted dissolution of the Union to save slavery was only an expedient, or experiment, in a final effort to save slavery. To have upheld the so-called Confederacy would have recognized the right to perpetually enslave human beings through political governmental power - a long backward step in the civilization of man. The years of war, from Sumter to Appo- mattox - 1861-65 - were necessary to eradicate the institution of slavery, and with it the baneful political doctrines which it had given birth to in attempts to perpetuate it.
To settle the portentous issue, whether or not slavery should be fundamental as a domestic, social and political in-
o. c .- 12
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stitution, the hosts on either side were summoned to battle ; those supporting slavery responded with a zeal and heroism worthy of a holier cause. Those loyal to the Union came with a patriotic zeal and self-sacrificing courage only possessed by a free Saxon race. The conflict was of four years' duration, wherein a half million of men fell in battle, another half million or more men died of wounds and disease; above 60,000 soldiers died in southern prisons; and imagination cannot compass or language adequately portray, the incident sufferings and sor- row, agony and despair which pervaded the entire country, say- ing nothing of the cost in billions of treasure, and the loss in yet other billions of property destroyed by devastating armies. At the end slavery was dead, new decrees for liberty were writ- ten in our organic national law; our flag was respected around the world ; political heresies were overthrown; the Union of the States was secured and civilization had moved higher. An era had ended; a new and better epoch was begun.
But what part or lot did Ohio take in the settlement of this great issue; in the tragic events; in the battlefield defeats and successes; in the bloody sacrifices and sufferings; in the final success; in the nation's achievements for humanity and immortal glory; in re-cementing the Union of the States; in unfurling to the world the purified Stars and Stripes as the flag, only, of the free, where, it may be hoped, it will ever triumphantly wave as the strongest and brighest emblem of re- generated man, and, as a guarantee of protection for civil and religious liberty, and to be hailed, through time, as such, by all nations and peoples ?
In 1860 the population of the eighteen free states and the territories of the United States was 19,127,948, which, added to the population of the four (Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware) non-seceding slave states (3,136,961) gives a total of 22,264,909 population. The four slave states named furnished a fair quota of volunteers to the Union Army, and Virginia (West Virginia), Tennessee and others of the seceded states furnished many more.
Ohio's population in 1861 may fairly be estimated at one-
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tenth of the population of the states and territories which did not join the Confederate States.
Her adult population did not then much exceed 500,000 men.
Her total vote in the presidential election in 1860 was 442,- 44I. It represented a divided sentiment in Ohio. For Abraham Lincoln, who represented a party opposed to the extension of slavery, 231,610 votes were cast; for Stephen A. Douglas, who then represented the doctrine of popular sovereignty as to slavery in the territories as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States (Dred Scott Decision) were cast 187,232 votes ; for John C. Breckenridge, who represented the party who claimed slavery had a right to exist in the territories by force of the constitution and that it was the duty of the Federal Gov- ernment to protect it, there were cast II,405 votes, and for John Bell, who represented the "Constitutional Union" party, a party without any announced or defined principles, 12,194 votes were cast.
Ohio's contribution of statesmen to the war must first be referred to. Some were radically opposed to the aggressions of slavery; others were conservative on all matters relating to slavery, going to the extent of conceding all demands made in its behalf. But what a galaxy of great men were to be seen in the then political arena! Salmon P. Chase, whose life had been devoted in opposition to slavery, had recently been Ohio's governor for four years, and a prominent candidate for president in 1860; later was secretary of the treasury, and chief-justice of the United States. Benjamin F. Wade was then, and had long been, in the United States Senate. He stood for all that was heroic in resisting all attempts to advance the cause of liberty, and in opposition to slavery's political aspira- tions. Joshua R. Giddings, who took rank with the greatest of statesmen in opposition to slavery, though still alive, had just closed his long public career in Congress, having there, and on the stump, impressed his views indelibly on the people of his state. John Sherman was, prior to and when the war broke out, a prominent figure in Ohio, and stood with Chase, Wade and others in Congress, for the Union, and in opposition to slavery
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extension. He entered the United States Senate as the suc- cessor of Chase in March, 1861, where he served throughout that war, and since. He was secretary of the treasury under President Hayes, and secretary of state under President Mc- Kinley. Thomas Corwin (a conservative) was in Congress when Lincoln became president in March, 1861. He was of the old school, and conservative, though loyal and patriotic, like many others of that time. He sought to avert the war by compro- mise, and reported an amendment to the constitution of the United States, which, receiving the requisite two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress, was submitted to the states for rati- fication, but fortunately was not ratified. Only two states voted to ratify it - Ohio and Delaware. It guaranteed slavery a per- petual existence in the United States, under the constitution. George H. Pendleton (twice a nominee for vice-president, 1864, 1868) was in Congress throughout the war, and, though differ- ing, politically, with President Lincoln's administration, sup- ported it in putting down the rebellion. He stands for a class of his party, such as Samuel S. Cox, Wm. S. Grosbeck, Henry B. Payne, Allen G. Thurman, Milton Sayler (all of Ohio), and many others, who have served in the Congress of the United States. A very few (of whom Clement L. Vallandingham, of Ohio, was a strong type) in some ways opposed the prosecu- tion of the war.
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