USA > Ohio > Ohio in four wars, a military history > Part 11
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State. Governor Tod's friends, however, were not stampeded; with Brough's, his name was presented to the Convention. On a ballot the result was that John Brough received two hun- dred and sixteen votes and Governor Tod one hundred and ninety-three. In a telegram to Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, dated June 22, 1863, Governor Tod said: "You will have heard of my defeat in the Union Conven- tion recently held in this city. It is proper that I inform you that personal considerations alone caused my defeat." With all this, he gave his opponent a loyal and hearty support in the most critical and momentous campaign in the history of Ohio.
The Unionist candidate for Governor was the son of an Englishman who came to this country in 1806; the father settled at Marietta, where his son was born September 17, 1811. The death of the father soon threw the son upon his own resources, and he entered a print- ing office to learn his trade. While at college at
Athens he pursued his course of study and at the same time worked nights and mornings at his trade. After his college life he read law but abandoned it to edit a newspaper at Peters- burg, Virginia. He remained there but a short while, when he returned to his old home, Mari-
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JOHN BROUGH
(From a painting by Allen Smith, after Caroline L. Ransome, in the Capitol in Columbus. )
Born in Marietta, Ohio. September 17, 1811; read law, and for many years was editor of various Ohio newspapers; elected to the Legislature, 1838, and in 1839 chosen State Auditor by the Legislature; elected Governor, 1863; died in Cleveland, Ohio, August 29, 1865.
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etta, to publish the Washington County Repub- lican. He removed to Lancaster and pub- lished the Ohio Eagle. His vigorous editorials soon attracted attention throughout the State, and in knowledge and treatment of the finances of the State they showed much more than or- dinary capacity. In 1838 he was sent to the Legislature from Fairfield and Hocking coun- ties. The next year he was elected Auditor of State by the Legislature.
It was in his position as Auditor of State that he exhibited those traits of character that led him to the Governorship. He was a deadly foe to corruption, untiring in hunting down ir- regularities which for years had existed in the Auditor's office, and by his systematic and busi- ness-like management he placed the financial condition of the State in better shape than it had ever been in its history. His honest and fearless movements for reform were neces- sarily a reflection upon the party in power, and the leading politicians of his own party endeav- ored to thwart him at every step. As an evidence of this it may be said that President Polk tendered him the portfolio of Secretary of the Treasury, but before Mr. Brough's an- swer could reach the President the proffered office was withdrawn. The political leaders
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whom Mr. Brough had offended had influenced the President in the meantime. When he was Auditor of State he bought a Cincinnati paper called the Phoenix and from it founded the Cincinnati Enquirer. After his political career he retired to private life to engage in railroad- ing, and it was from this business that he was called to accept the nomination for Governor of Ohio from the hands of the Union party.
Since the days of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" there has been no such canvass as the Vallandigham campaign of 1863. It was viewed with anxiety by the forces in the field and the entire country at home. It was known that the election of Vallandigham would be a rebuke to President Lincoln and his Adminis- tration, that it would array Ohio against the war and that it would in a general sense re- dound to the advantage of the Southern Con- federacy. It meant "Peace at any price," and the "Union as it was and the Constitution as it is," which included the maintenance of slavery. These were not the issues contended for by the Peace Democrats, but in the logic of events they would surely follow. The great issue in their minds was Vallandigham himself. To them he . was a pure and persecuted patriot. They saw in his unjust sentence the violation of the sacred
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rights of free speech, personal liberty and the destruction of the principles of Magna Charta. The Unionists, on the other hand, viewed the Democratic candidate as an enemy of the country, an "unhung traitor" and an aider and abettor of the rebels in arms.
The depressed condition of the Union cause added to the intensity of the situation. The Ohio election was looked upon as a deciding fac- tor between Union and Secession. In the be- ginning of the campaign the Union party, not only in Ohio but throughout the country, was filled with gloom. The year 1863 had not been an encouraging one in Ohio; there had been dis- affection over the military arrests, resistance to the drafts and a threatened invasion from the South. The results in the field were also dis- couraging. Victory seemed to have flown from the Stars and Stripes. The battle of Chancel- lorsville was a failure; General Lee was invading Pennsylvania; General Grant was still unsuc- cessful before Vicksburg; and the defeats at Gal- veston, another southern point, gave but poor comfort to the Union party in Ohio or else- where.
The Democrats entered the campaign filled with vigor and earnestness. Their meetings ex- celled those of the Union party in numbers and
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enthusiasm. Their leaders, all men of great ability on the stump, deeply impressed their fol- lowers with the justice of their cause and the certainty of victory. They argued for Val- landigham's election because of the principle in- volved in his arrest and banishment; they seldom referred to the great issue of the preservation of the Union. We may well imagine how a stren- uous campaign led by George E: Pugh, Allen G. Thurman, George H. Pendleton, Samuel ("Sun- set") S. Cox and Sam Medary would affect their partisans. And yet all were not for Vallandig- ham. There were thousands of Democrats who feared the result of his election; they preferred to follow the example of Hugh J. Jewett, Rufus P. Ranney and Henry B. Payne - all old-time Democrats and each at one time a candidate of the party for Governor, who took no part in the campaign.
The Union party was led in the canvass by John Brough himself, who was by far the most effective orator of all engaged. He was a fluent and logical speaker, and at times could be rug- gedly and earnestly eloquent. He was bold in his assertion that Vallandigham's election "would be . an invitation to the rebels in arms to come up and take possession of our soil." George E. Pugh passionately declared that if his candidate
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were elected there would be fifty thousand "fully armed and equipped freemen of Ohio to receive their Governor-elect at the Canadian line and escort him to the State-house to see that he takes the oath of office." Then Brough in rejoinder said Vallandigham's election would inaugurate civil war in Ohio. "For," said he, "I tell you there is a mighty mass of men in this State whose nerves are strung up like steel, who will never permit this dishonor to be consummated in their native State." Brough's vigorous cam- paigning was sustained by Governor Tod, Sen- ators Sherman and Wade, and Governors Oliver P. Morton of Indiana and Richard P. Yates of Illinois. Both sides were also represented by hundreds of orators of lesser note, who nightly addressed meetings in country schoolhouses and on the city streets.
The year thus far had been full of great in- tensity of feeling, and so bitter was it that in- numerable instances of life-long attachments and neighborly friendships were severed. At the same time there was a remarkable freedom from disorder. The only exception occurred in March, and was the mobbing and wreck- ing of the Democratic newspaper, The Crisis, .at Columbus. This paper was one of the ablest and most widely circulated, as well as the
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best hated by the Union party, of all the Demo- cratic publications in Ohio during the war period. Its editor, Samuel Medary, was, in his editorials, brilliant, aggressive and taunting against the party in power and the Government at Washing- ton .. The Crisis vigorously opposed President Lincoln at every step of his administration, de- nounced the war and the soldiers of the Union Army, and in every way possible obstructed the suppression of the Rebellion. Its course angered the Union soldiers, many of whom were stationed in Columbus at the time. On the night of March 5, 1863, a mob of about two hundred soldiers and citizens proceeded to the office of the news- paper, broke open its doors, and in the absence of the editor sacked and destroyed its contents. Notwithstanding the bitter opposition to the paper and its editor the Union authorities and the Union press, especially the Ohio State Jour- nal, denounced and deplored the act. The com- manding officer at Columbus, General Cooper, called it "a cowardly attack and a felonious out- rage."
In the midst of this political situation there came great assistance to the Union cause by the victory of Gettysburg and by General Grant's capture of Vicksburg. It was felt that the high tide of Confederate success had been checked and
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broken, and renewed encouragement and addi- tional strength were given to the Union party in Ohio. Notwithstanding this, however, the Democrats were sanguine of success, while Brough was confident that he would have about five thousand majority. Neither party seemed to be sure of a very pronounced victory.
The election proved a vast surprise to every- one. With all the enthusiasm and energy dis- played in his support, Vallandigham was beaten worse than any candidate ever before offered to the people of Ohio. Brough's vote was 228,826 and Vallandigham was 187,728, registering the former's majority as 101,098. Vallandigham carried but eighteen of the eighty-eight counties of the State. Brough made gains in both the Union and Democratic counties. There was abundant evidence of a silent vote throughout the State growing out of a fear among con- servative Democrats that Vallandigham's suc- cess meant civil war at home.
CHAPTER VII
THE CIVIL WAR (CONTINUED)
T HE raid of General John H. Morgan and his two thousand troopers through Southern Ohio in the midsummer of 1863 was one of the most remarkable expeditions of the war. The audacity of its design, the char- acter of the command, the distance and rapidity of the mad race and the completeness of its fail- ure form one of the most exciting and important military events of that period. There has always been either uncertainty or obscurity as to the object of the raid. It has been said that the" political condition of Ohio at this time, its citi- zens being bitterly divided in a campaign, was an invitation to Morgan to invade the State in the expectation that the friends of Vallandigham would rally to his standard. If this was in his mind, it was soon dispelled when he crossed the border, for Ohioans without regard to party joined in his chase and capture. Another reason given and a more plausible one, was that Morgan believed that by making an assault upon Ohio, he would draw the Federal Army from points in
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the South, thus relieving the pressure against the Confederate lines. Still another motive is given to the raid by the fact that General Hob- son, with his cavalry, was in hot pursuit of Mor- gan, and that he (Morgan) crossed the Ohio as a desperate movement not originally contem- plated by him.
Whatever the motive, the fact remains that it is not worthy of being dignified as a military movement. It was a reckless foray into an enemy's country, teeming with an unfriendly population and overladen with resources he could not hope to subdue. The sole result of the raid was plunder and unnecessary destruction of pri- vate property. Nothing was accomplished that was of value in a military sense. No cities or military posts were attacked or captured, in fact he avoided these; no public depots of supplies were destroyed and no important railway prop- erty was burned. But country stores, private houses and well stocked stables suffered. Gen- eral Basil W. Duke, who was the second in com- mand, as well as the historian, of the marauders, in his "History of Morgan's Cav- alry" (Cincinnati, 1867), gives a very graphic description of the pilfering and pillaging of this raid.
"This disposition for wholesale plunder," says
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he, "exceeded anything that any of us had ever seen before. The men seemed actuated by a de- sire to 'pay off in the enemy's country' all scores that the Federal Army had chalked up in the South. The great cause for apprehension, which our situation might have inspired, seemed only to make them reckless. Calico was the staple article of appropriation - each man (who could get one) tied a bolt of it to his saddle, only to throw it away and get a fresh one at the first oppor- tunity. They did not pillage with any sort of method or reason - it seemed to be a mania, senseless and purposeless. One man carried a bird cage, with three canaries in it, for two days. Another rode with a chafing dish, which looked like a small metallic coffin, on the pommel of his saddle, until an officer forced him to throw it away. Although the weather was intensely warm, another, still, slung seven pairs of skates around his neck, and chuckled over his acquisi- tion. I saw very few articles of real value taken - they pillaged like boys robbing an orchard. I would not have believed that such a passion could have been developed so ludicrously, among any body of civilized men. At Piketon, Ohio, some days later one man broke through the guard posted at a store, rushed in (trembling with ex- citement and avarice), and filled his pockets with
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horn buttons. They would (with few exceptions) throw away their plunder after awhile, like chil- dren, tired of their toys.' יי
Unfortunately the plundering was not confined to the petty pilfering described by General Duke. Although he declares that he "saw very few articles of real value taken," the facts developed by subsequent official investigation show that the vandalism and thefts committed by the in- vaders were frightful. This is all demonstrated in the abstract of claims presented to and passed upon by a Commission appointed by Governor Brough. This Board was created by the Legisla- ture March 30, 1864, to examine claims for dam- ages and destruction of property growing out of this raid. The results of their labor is set forth in great detail in a "Report of the Commissioners of the Morgan Raid Claims to the Governor of the State of Ohio, December 15, 1864." This Commission was composed of Alfred McVeigh of Fairfield county, George W. Barker of Wash- ington county and Henry S. Babbitt of Franklin county. The report shows that four thousand, three hundred and seventy-five claims of all kinds for damages were filed before the Com- mission, including the appropriation of upwards of twenty-five hundred horses, and the total amount allowed was $576,255 for damages
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growing out of the raid. Of this amount, $428,168 was for damages done by Morgan and his men and $148,087 for damages by Union forces in the campaign for Morgan's capturc. So much for the general character of the raid; now for its history.
On June 27, 1863, General Morgan and his cavalry, or, more properly speaking, mounted in- ... fantry, were at Sparta in White county, Ten- nessee. From this point he commenced his foray. He started out under orders from General Bragg to raid Kentucky and if possible capture Louis- . ville, but under no circumstances cross the Ohio River. He had not proceeded very far when he confided to his Colonel, Basil W. Duke, that he intended to disregard Bragg's orders and enter Indiana and Ohio. In anticipation of this, he sent scouts to examine the crossing places on the upper Ohio River - particularly Buffington's Island. According to Colonel Duke, Morgan de- clared his intention to recross at that point and to join Lee in Pennsylvania or the army in Northern Virginia. These were Morgan's plans as recited by his second in command. With this in view he fought his way through Kentucky, with a loss of about fifty killed and two hundred and fifty wounded; he struck the Ohio River at Brandenburg in Meade county, Kentucky. At
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT
Born at Point Pleasant. Clermont county, Ohio, April 27, 1822; graduated from West Point Military Academy, 1843; served with distinction in the Mexican War. rising to the rank of Captain; resigned his commission in 1854; served as Commander-in-Chief of the army from March 9. 1864 to March 4, 1869; Secretary of War under Jolinson from August 12. 1867 to January 14, 1868; eighteenth President of the United States, March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877; appointed General on the retired list March 3, 1885; died on Mount Mc- Gregor, New York, July 23, 1885.
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this point he captured two steamboats and crossed the river. Now on Northern soil, he rode across Southeastern Indiana, burning public buildings and laying tribute for not burning private ones. Stable, kitchens, stores and gran- aries were all subject to his forced loans.
On July 13th, the Confederate raider, with his troops, crossed the Indiana line into Ohio and rendezvoused at Harrison in Hamilton county. · On the day before, General Burnside at Cincin- nati, in command of the "Department of the Ohio," declared that city under martial law and prepared for its defense. Governor Tod, also by proclamation, called out the organized militia of the southern counties of the State. He ordered the companies of Hamilton, Butler and Clermont counties to report at Cincinnati to General Burnside. Those of the counties of Montgomery, Warren, Clinton, Fayette, Ross, Highland and Brown were to report to Colonel . Neff, the military commander at Camp Dennison. The companies in Franklin, Clark, Madison, Greene, Pickaway and Fairfield counties were ordered to report to General Mason at Camp Chase, and those of Washington, Monroe, Noble, Meigs, Morgan, Perry, Hocking and Athens counties to Colonel Putnam at Marietta. The militia of certain counties were ordered out at
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their respective homes to meet any exigency that Might arise. Although nearly fifty thousand men responded to the Governor's call, but compara- tively few of these participated in the campaign against the raid.
While Cincinnati was under martial law, and General Burnside was preparing to receive Mor- gan, the Confederate leader managed to spread the news that his point of attack would be Hamil- ton; and accordingly all the military and civil authorities directed their entire attention to preparations for defending that place. The pro- posed movement against Hamilton was a feint, and while it attracted attention Morgan and his men managed to slip past Cincinnati, through its very suburbs, without the slightest resistance. He passed through Glendale, fed his horses in sight of Camp Dennison, and stopped long enough to impress the first installment of Ohio horses into the service of the Confederacy from the stables of Thomas Spooner, the United States Collector of Internal Revenue for the Cin- cinnati district. During all this time, he was pursued by General Hobson, who had been on his trail from the raider's start in Tennessee. In addition, followed forces sent by General Burnside, as well as the assembled militia. Now
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came the whirlwind race of the flying squadron of the Southern Confederacy across Ohio.
The route of the raiders was through the counties of Clermont, Warren, Clinton, Fayette, Ross, Brown, Highland, Adams, Pike, Vinton, Jackson and Gallia, concentrating finally in Meigs county, where Morgan attempted to ford the Ohio at Buffington's Island. During this por- tion of the chase there was daily skirmishing . and the militia were harassing Morgan's column effectively. As he came to the Ohio River, Gen- eral Hobson was closing up on the rear and General Judah had crossed at Portsmouth, hav- ing withdrawn his troops from Kentucky. At Berlin, in Jackson county Colonel Ben P. Runkle, with a detachment of militia, forced Morgan to stand and fight, and at points in Meigs county the militia retarded his progress toward the river; but at one o'clock, July 18th, he reached Chester in that county. He was now within a few miles of a ford which, when crossed, would place him in Jackson county, West Virginia, among friends and sympathizers. After resting an hour and a half, he reached Portland, a vil- lage on the river bank opposite Buffington's Island. Here he found earthworks and three hundred militia behind them. With exhausted horses and men, he decided to rest for the night
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and make the crossing in the morning after dis- persing the militia. When daybreak came, Col- onel Duke, with two regiments, attacked the breastworks, but found them abandoned. Gen- cral Morgan at this time had no knowledge of the force or position of the Federals who were pursuing him, and he was ignorant of the fact that they were closing in on him from every direction. But when he prepared to cross the river in the morning he was made aware of all this. General Hobson's forces attacked him in the rear, General Judah in his flank and two gunboats opened upon his front. He attempted to rally and withdraw, but his ranks were di- vided, and a general rout followed. In the en- gagement he lost one hundred and twenty killed and wounded, and seven hundred surrendered.
These prisoners were placed aboard boats and hastily taken to Cincinnati.
General Morgan and twelve hundred of his men escaped, and twenty miles above Buffing- ton's Island he attempted to cross the river to Belleville in West Virginia. Three hundred of his men passed safely over, but the gunboats ar- riving, kept Morgan and the remainder on Ohio soil. Thus ended the raid; there was nothing left for Morgan but flight and an attempt to get out of the State of Ohio. He now turned to the
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Muskingum River, but he was met by the militia under Colonel Runkle, when he struck for Blen- . nerhassett's Island. Although his pursuers practically surrounded him, he escaped while they were sleeping and crossed the Muskingum at Eaglesport in Morgan county. Then taking to the open country, he endeavored to again reach the Ohio. At Salinesville in Columbiana county, he was attacked on Sunday, July 26th, by Major Way of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, losing thirty killed, fifty wounded and two hun- dred prisoners. On the same day at two o'clock in the afternoon, near New Lisbon, the county seat of Columbiana county, he was made pris- oner by Major George W. Rue of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. With General Morgan were taken three hundred and thirty-six men and four hundred horses and guns.
With General Morgan's capture, the people of Ohio breathed a sigh of relief. The raid had been a matter of great expense and suspense to the State, and there was consequent rejoicing at the capture and destruction of one of the most formidable cavalry forces of the Confederacy. The command had been a terror to the Union people of Kentucky and Tennessee for two years, and any sort of success would have prolonged its stay in Ohio. The chase after Morgan 14
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proved very costly to Ohio. Governor Tod called out the militia of thirty-eight counties, composed of 587 companies, aggregating 49,357 men. Some of these were very soon dismissed. For instance, of those that assembled at Camp Chase, one-half were dismissed two days after Morgan entered Ohio; those of the southwestern part of the State were dismissed early in the campaign and the remainder soon after the fight at Buffing- ton's Island. The cost of the raid to the people of Ohio was over a million dollars, divided as follows: for the payment of the militia, $250,000; for their subsistence and transporta- tion, $200,000, and the amount of damages re- ferred to in this chapter, $576,255. Of the regu- lar volunteer force of Ohio, the Forty-Fifth In- fantry and the Second and Seventh Cavalry shared in the pursuit of Morgan. Although a brief, it was a hard campaign. The cavalry regi- ments rode for twenty-six days, twenty hours out of the twenty-four and through three states, and both were in the engagement at Buffington's Island.
On October 1st, General Morgan with a num- ber of his officers and men, by order of the United States authorities, were confined in the Ohio Penitentiary at Columbus. Just after mid- night, November 27th, he and six of his captains
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escaped. This was accomplished by tunneling beneath the wall of the prison. It was a bold and adroit feat and the State was amazed when it became known. Captain Thomas H. Hines, afterward Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, was one of the seven fugitives, and left a memento to the Warden in a note ad- dressed: "Hon. N. Merion, the Faithful, the Vigilant," and reading as follows:
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