USA > Ohio > Ohio in four wars, a military history > Part 9
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pled to the front of the engine and pushed for- ward.
The wild chase was kept up until, nearing Chattanooga bridge, it was determined to stop and set fire to it; the last box car was uncoupled and left on the bridge to start the blaze. It was soon in flame, but the bridge was too wet to burn. The pursuing engine steamed onto the bridge and pushed the burning car ahead until it was side-tracked. This was disheartening; it was now apparent that the.expedition was a fail- ure and the only action left was to fight or flee. The last effort to escape was made by a new burst of speed; but all resources had been ex- hausted. There was nothing aboard to throw off to obstruct the track, and no water, wood or oil for steam or fire. The engine that had made the fearful race was now almost dead; the joints were loose, the journals and boxes were melted and the steel tires red hot. As a fare- well attempt at thwarting the pursuit, the en- gine was reversed for the purpose of collision with the on-coming train, but in vain - the en- gine was dead. Then Andrews gave the order "jump and scatter."
"The expedition thus failed," says Judge Holt, "from causes which reflected neither upon the genius by which it was planned, nor upon
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the intrepidity and discretion of those engaged in conducting it." If the conduct of the heroes was that of courage in their bold raid, the sub- sequent events of flight, escape, sufferings and death exhibited a moral bravery truly sublime. Scattered in all directions, they were hunted by men and hounds from Richmond to the Gulf of Mexico. The South was thrown into a fever of frightened anxiety, for they knew not when another plan of destruction would develop. At the same time there was rejoicing at the thwarting of the bold project, for it meant in- calculable injury to the Confederate cause. An estimate of its far-reaching character was pub- lished in the Southern Confederacy, April 15, a few days after the chase and flight: "The mind and heart shrink back appalled at the bare con- templation of the awful consequence that would have followed the success of this one act. We doubt if the victories of Manassas or Corinth were worth as much to us as the frustration of this grand coup d' etat. It is not by any means certain that the annihilation of Beauregard's whole army at Corinth would be so fatal a blow to us as would have been the burning of the bridges at that time by these men."
In time the whole party of twenty-two were captured. Words revolt at describing their suf-
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ferings in captivity. The heroic conduct of Jacob Parrott is a striking example. This young man, eighteen years of age, the junior of the band. when arrested, was without trial, taken possession of by a military officer and four soldiers who stripped him, bent him over a stone and inflicted a hundred lashes with a rawhide on his bare back. This was done in the presence of an inflamed mob who clamored for his blood, and had a rope ready to hang him. The object of this scourging was to force the young man to confess the object of the expedition and the names of his comrades, especially that of the en- gineer who ran the train. Three times in this
horrible flogging its progress was sus- pended and Parrott asked if he would confess, but resolutely to the last he refused a word to his tormentors until finally the brutal work was abandoned. The captives were held in the ne- gro jail at Chattanooga, a black hole, thirteen feet feet square, half under ground with not enough room for all to lie down. While here Andrews was tried, and, subsequently, June 7, was hung at Atlanta. Twelve were afterward removed to the prison at Knoxville, Tennessee, at which place seven were tried, and they also were afterward, June 18, hung at Atlanta ; these were William Campbell, George D. Wilson,
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Marion A. Ross, Perry G. Shadrack, Samuel Slavens, Samuel Robertson and John Scott.
The reader who desires to know more of the details of this heroic episode than these pages give, can find them in a report of the Judge Ad- vocate General to the Secretary of War dated March 23, 1863, and published in the official Government records. For a fuller historical and personal narrative, remarkable for its com- pleteness and interest, William Pittenger, one of the raiders, has written "The Great Locomo- tive Chase. A History of the Andrews Rail- . road Raid into Georgia in 1862" (New York, 1893).
The trials and tribulations of the survivors were protracted by a long and dreary imprison- ment after the death of their comrades. The next important turn in events was on October 16, 1862, when the following escaped: Wilson W. Brown, William Knight, John R. Porter, Martin J. Hawkins, Mark Wood, J. A. Wilson, John Wollam and Daniel A. Dorsey. Nearly a year after the interception of the adventure, March 18, 1863, the six remaining in prison at Richmond were exchanged; they were. Jacob Parrott, Robert Buffum, William Bensinger, William Reddick, E. H. Mason and William Pit- tenger.
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To commemorate this most fascinating and dangerous mission of the Civil War, through which these brave Ohio boys gave their lives in the service of the Union, the State of Ohio ap- propriated five thousand dollars, March 20, 1889, to erect in the National Cemetery at Chat- tanooga a monument over their graves. There, over eight mounds, has been raised a character- istic memorial to the gallant and martyr dead. On a noble pedestal of Vermont marble stands in bronze a facsimile of the locomotive on which the raiders made their fateful ride. With names, companies and regiments of the exe- cuted, escaped and exchanged, is the inscription, "Ohio's Tribute to Andrews' Raiders, 1862. Erected 1890." Governor Joseph B. Foraker appointed the commission to erect the monu- ment. It was selected from the three regiments. of General Sill's brigade from whose ranks the members of the expedition were selected. This commission consisted of Judge Thaddeus Min- shall, a captain of the Thirty-Third Ohio In- fantry, and at the time of his appointment a Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of Ohio; Earl W. Merry, sergeant major of the Twenty-First Ohio Infantry, and Stephen B. Porter, a ser- geant in Co. B, Second Ohio Infantry. On the beautiful Memorial Day of 1891 the surviving
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raiders with ten thousand people assembled to dedicate the monument.
Former Governor Foraker delivered the ad- dress of the occasion, eloquently detailing the story of the expedition. After commenting on the glory of a united country and a patriotic North and South, he said:
The one great thought that lies at the bottom of every such demonstration as this, is that of profound gratitude to the men who saved us, and supreme thank- fulness to Almighty God for the great blessings that have come to our whole Country through the victory of the Union armies. This sentiment grows with the years and with our increasing greatness and prosperity as a people. Time therefore but makes more manifest our duty to all who periled and sacrificed their lives for these priceless results. But upon these particular men fell an uncommon misfortune. They not only lost their lives, but they lost them in such a way as to place a stigma upon their memory.
Ohio is here today to remove that stigma. By this action she reclaims them from all imputation of crime, and effaces forever the ignominy of a felon's death. She proclaims to the world and future generations that they were not thieves nor marauders, but brave and honor- able men and soldiers; that their punishment was un- merited, and that their names shall shine on the roll of honor among the brightest of all that illumine the pages of our history.
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Recurring to the domestic situation in Ohio in the summer and fall of 1862, we find a strange political revolution in action. The radi- cal Republicans in the Union Party were grow- ing restless under the conservative principles of the new party. There was a decided sentiment freely expressed by this section that the Repub- licans should rehabilitate their old party and adopt the principles of the National conventions of 1856 and 1860. The Ashtabula Sentinel, the organ of Joshua R. Giddings and Senator Wade, vigorously advocated this, as did the Cleveland Leader. Nevertheless, the conserva- . tive view prevailed, and a call for a Union con- vention was issued which was short and formal. It provided for exactly the same number of : delegates as were in the Union convention of the previous year, with the same apportionment. When the convention assembled, it adopted a platform of four brief resolutions, declaring (1) adherence to the opinions and principles put forth in the Union convention of September 5, 1861, held at Columbus, (2) expressing undi- minished confidence in the National Executive, and pledging to his support all the moral and physical power of the State in prosecuting the war, (3) approving Governor Tod's administra- tion, and (4) eulogizing the promptness of Ohio
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enlistments for the war. The Democrats had assembled in State convention in July, and this platform was almost wholly devoted to denounc- ing President Lincoln's Emancipation Procla- mation.
The Democrats carried the election, and their candidate for Secretary of State received a ma- jority of 5,557. The Union leaders ascribed their defeat to the loss of the soldier vote, claim- ing that of the 80,000 voters in the field a large majority would have voted the Union ticket. This, of course, cannot be accurately known. But there is no doubt that other important con- siderations also affected the result. The Eman- cipation Proclamation was not approved heartily by many of the Union party; many of the Re- publicans in the Western Reserve were not in accord with some of the acts of President Lin- coln, notably his removal of General John C. Fremont. In the congressional elections, al- though the State had been redistricted by the Union party to its own advantage, it elected but five out of the nineteen Congressmen. There was one conspicuous figure, however, that failed to share in this victory. This was Vallandig- ham, who was defeated for re-election for Con- gress, due to the addition under the gerry- mander of Warren county to his old district.
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To all appearances Ohio had reversed her judgment on the prosecution of the war, and the result of the election filled the Union party in the State with discouragement.
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CHAPTER VI
THE CIVIL WAR (CONTINUED)
W ITH the year 1863 there came a new situation in Ohio in relation to the war. It appeared that a great deal of the patriotic enthusiasm prevalent a year before had gradually subsided. There was a cessation of Union progress in the field, as there had been in Ohio, as the election showed. Such depress- ing conditions had their effect on the popular mind. Grant was unsuccessfully beleaguering Vicksburg, Maryland was invaded by the Con- federates and they were threatening Pennsyl- vania. Rosecrans had been inactive since Mur- freesboro. These situations encouraged the Peace Democrats of Ohio and correspondingly discouraged the Union party. They afforded a fruitful field for the agitators of discontent and fault-finding. In the chorus could be heard the voices even of some of the Union party who were opposed to Lincoln's emancipation procla- mations, the preliminary one issued September 22, 1862, and the final one January 1, 1863. The latter feeling however, was temporary, and
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it soon disappeared when calm judgment re- gained control in the Union party.
The leader of the pacifists of the time was Clement L. Valandigham. He gloried in the de- pressed prospects of National success in the field, and hailed with joy its losses at the polls. His personal defeat stimulated his opposition and his feeling was not less acute because it was a Union General, Robert C. Schenck, who had been selected to succeed him in Congress. When he returned to Washington to attend the last session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, he as- sumed a more hostile attitude to the Administra- tion and prosecution of the war than ever be- fore.
This was declared in a speech of great power, of surpassing ability and eloquence, delivered in the House of Representatives January 14, 1863. As the greatest speech of his whole life of op- position, it was circulated both in this country and Europe. His subject, "The Great Civil War in America," afforded him the opportunity of discussing the perilous situation of the coun- try in all its phases. It was a pessimistic philip- pic against the prosecution of the war, and a bitterly severe indictment of President Lincoln and his Administration for their part in its con- duct. Its practical effect was to aid secession
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and encourage the Confederate cause. His po- sition was that of open and bold opposition to the war. Said he, "You can never subdue the seceded States. Two years of fearful expe- rience have taught you that. Why carry on this war? If you persist, it can only end in final separation between the North and South. And, in that case, believe it now, as you did not my former warnings, the whole Northwest will go with the South!" He argued for peace either by foreign intervention or domestic agreement, and contended that slavery must be recognized in any peace settlement. "In my deliberate judgment," he declared, "African slavery, as an institution, will come out of this conflict fifty- fold stronger than when it was begun." This
speech had a great influence in the North in in- creasing the power and position of the Peace party and in embarrassing the Union cause. By the friends of the Union throughout the country Mr. Vallandigham's utterances were regarded as "words of brilliant and polished treason."
It is worth while to digress here in order to obtain a closer view of the character and mo- tives of Vallandigham in his strong-willed and impetuous opposition to the war. As one of the most striking figures of his period, he forms the subject of an interesting study. Whatever may
CLEMENT LAIRD VALLANDIGHAM
Born in New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio, July 29, 1820; admitted to the bar, 1842; member of the Legislature, 1845-46; member of Congress, 1858-63; Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio, 1863; died in Lebanon, Warren county. Ohio, June 17, 1871.
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be said of him, he was neither a coward nor a demagogue. Both friend and foe had to ac- knowledge that he was a man of unflinching courage, indomitable will and boundless energy. No one who lacked those attributes could have taken and maintained the stand he did. It was not a popular position, and if he had simply craved the applause of a prevailing sentiment he could have raised his voice for the prosecu- tion of the war and reaped honors and distinc- tion. He had all of these within his grasp if he had but followed the course of his great party leader, Stephen A. Douglas, whom he so earn- estly supported for the Presidency in 1860. To better comprehend his political course, an inti- mate knowledge of the mental qualities acquired by him through heredity and education will aid the reader.
His ancestors on the paternal side were Hu- guenots, and on the maternal. Scotch-Irish. The family originally came from French Flanders, and the name was Van Landeghem. After mi- gration to Virginia about 1690, for euphony it was changed to Vallandigham. In this stock can be seen the wellsprings of conviction and courage, and it accounts in a large way for the temperament of the descendant. Add to this the training and environment of a Christian
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home of the type of the covenanter, and we have the basis for a character at once strong and con- scientious. The Vallandighams were Presby- terians for generations, and in a home of that atmosphere Clement L. was reared. He prof- ied by precept and example, and we note in his letters to his mother and brother while at school a deep vein of religious enthusiasm, the sincerity of which was evidenced by the purity of his everyday life. He carried this earnest and sincere faith throughout his manhood, and we find him in later years, even amid his exciting Congressional surroundings, writing in the same spirit to his wife that he did in his school- boy days to his mother. His appreciation of the importance of faith and recognition of Divine Providence are observable in many of his letters to intimate friends. With all his intensity he was not a bigot; he never uttered an unkind word of another's faith.
We can readily understand how, with such a nature, he could become a zealot in his political views. He was not a broad-minded man, but he clung logically to a naked principle and was willing to go whatever the sequence would lead him. A believer in the doctrine of States' rights, he could see no further, and insisted on its maintenance regardless of results. A dev-
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otee of the "Constitution as it was," he was willing to see it shattered to pieces rather than do the things necessary for its preservation. It was this spirit that prompted him to urge the surrender of every power of the Government in order to secure peace by compromise. Gifted with talents, courage, integrity and eloquence, they were inflexibly concentrated on one idea which his zealous nature would never surren- der. To him may very appropriately be applied Goldsmith's characterization :
Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.
Such was the fearless and earnest head of the Peace party, not only of Ohio but of the coun- try at large, in whose person was typified the most effective antagonism the Government had to encounter in the Civil War outside of the Confederate armies. The logical outcome of his leadership was to infuse into the rank and file of his party practical resistance to the en- listing of troops. This first made its appearance in Noble county in the middle of March. It came to the knowledge of the United State au- thorities that there was organized opposition to drafting by the Government, that desertion was openly solicited, and that nearly a hundred citi-
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zens were organized, armed and officered to re- sist the Federal laws. Companies B and H of the One Hundred and Fifteenth Ohio, with ten days' rations and forty rounds of ammunition, were dispatched to Noble county to assist the United States Marshal in making arrests. These troops marched through the county ar- resting a large number. Some of them were punished by the United States Court at Cincin- nati with fines and imprisonment. This was the first open and armed antagonism to the Federal authorities in Ohio. It was evident, however, that the opposition to the war was growing, and the boldness manifested by the Peace party party against the Government was increasing daily. A bitter personal feeling between citi- zens was developed that found expression in vio- lent party demonstrations.
As a result of such bitterness Governor Tod was arrested in his office in the State House, April 2d. It grew out of the arrest of Dr. Ed- son B. Olds the year before, referred to in the last chapter. Dr. Olds filed an affidavit against the Governor which resulted in an indictment by the grand jury of Fairfield county. When the arrest was made the Supreme Court was in session at Columbus, and the Governor was re- leased on a writ of habeas corpus. The case
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dragged on until it was transferred to the United States Court at Cincinnati, when it was finally dropped. Dr. Olds also filed a civil suit against the Governor for $100,000 damages; and John W. Kees, who had been arrested at the same time as Dr. Olds, sued Governor Tod for $30,000. Nothing came of either of the cases. They are referred to in order to show the state of public feeling at the time and the persistent fight that was made against all Federal au- thority.
It was with reference to these events and other open demonstrations against the Govern- ment and its defenders in the field, as well as the efforts made to encourage desertion and dis- courage enlistments, that General Ambrose E. Burnside saw the necessity of taking cognizance of the situation. General Burnside therefore is- sued an order as follows:
HEADQUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, CINCINNATI, April 13, 1863.
GENERAL ORDERS NO. 38.
The Commanding General publishes, for the infor- mation of all concerned, that hereafter all persons found within our lines who commit acts for the benefit of the enemies of our country will be tried as spies or traitors, and, if convicted, will suffer death. This order includes the following classes of persons :
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Carriers of secret mails.
Writers of letters sent by secret mails.
Secret recruiting officers within the lines.
Persons who have entered into an agreement to pass our lines for the purpose of joining the enemy.
Persons found concealed within our lines belonging to the service of the enemy, and, in fact, all persons found improperly within our lines, who could give private information to the enemy.
All persons within our lines who harbor, protect, con- ceal, feed, clothe, or in any way aid the enemies of our country.
The habit of declaring sympathies for the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons committing such offenses will be at once arrested, with a view to being tried as above stated, or sent beyond our lines into the lines of their friends.
It must be distinctly understood that treason, ex- pressed or implied, will not be tolerated in this Depart- ment.
All officers and soldiers are strictly charged with the execution of this order.
By command of Major-General Burnside.
LEWIS RICHMOND, Assistant Adjutant General.
This order was received with violent de- nunciations by the leaders of the Peace party. It served to stir up the deepest hostility to the Administration and-was denounced as an act of military despotism. Vallandigham was not long
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in publicly arraying himself against the order and in coming within the sphere of its opera- tions. The occasion was a mass meeting of his party held at Mt. Vernon, May 1st, when, be- fore enthusiastic thousands in words of burning eloquence, he defied President Lincoln, Gover- nor Tod and General Burnside. He declared the war "a wicked, cruel and unnecessary war"; "a war for the purpose of crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism." He said that "He was a free man and did not ask David Tod, Abraham Lincoln or Ambrose E. Burnside for his rights to speak as he had done and was do- ing"; that "his authority for so doing was higher than General, Orders No. 38 - It was General Orders No. 1-the Constitution"; that "Gen- eral Orders No. 38 was a base usurpation of arbitrary powers"; that, "he had the most su- preme contempt for such power, he despised it, spat upon it, trampled it under his feet." He closed by warning the people not to be deceived, that "an attempt would shortly be made to en- force the conscription act; they should remem- ber that this war was not a war for the preser- vation of the Union - it was a wicked Aboli- tion war, and that if those in authority were al- lowed to accomplish their purposes the people
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would be deprived of their liberties and a mon- archy established."
Vallandigham's speech was reported to Gen- eral Burnside by two army officers who at- tended the meeting in citizens' clothes. On May 4th orders were issued for his arrest. At two o'clock the next morning he was arrested at his home in Dayton. This was accomplished by a detachment of soldiers, who, on being refused admittance, broke open the various doors of the residence until they found Mr. Vallandigham in his bedroom, whereupon he was taken to Cin- cinnati. It was daylight before the news of the arrest was generally known in Dayton. Then there broke out an excited and bitter protest, with which developed a fierce spirit of resist- ance. Nothing seemed to be within reach upon which the friends of the distinguished prisoner could wreak their vengeance but the office of the Dayton Journal, the Union newspaper of that place. This was promptly wrecked and burned by a mob, and other buildings were burned as a result of the rioting. It was with the utmost difficulty that the Democratic leaders could pre- vent their exasperated partisans from destroy- ing the dwellings of prominent Unionists. As it was, the railroads entering Dayton were torn up and the telegraph wires were cut. There
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were all the premonitory symptoms of a civil war. At ten o'clock that night troops from Cin- cinnati and Columbus poured into Dayton. Quiet had been restored, but it was because the mob had worn itself out for lack of arms and or- ganization.
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