USA > Ohio > Clark County > Springfield > The centennial celebration of Springfield, Ohio, held August 4th to 10th, 1901 > Part 14
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What part did the citizens of this. city and Clark County have in determining these great questions? Small as Clark County is, in comparative area and numbers, it has had her soldiers and sail- ors ready to rush to battle and sacrifice wherever duty and country called in all our Republic's wars.
Springfield was born amid savagery, and her earliest settlers were in constant danger of the tomahawk and scalping knife. The battle at Piqua Indian village, on Mad River (six miles west of Springfield, August 8, 1780) drove back the federated Indian tribes for a few miles only, leaving them to roam over this coun- try for a third of a century longer.
The early inhabitants of what is now Clark County were, per- force, soldiers for the defense of their homes, and were subject to be called into temporary service at any time. The region round about here was, on account of its healthful perennial springs, rich pastures, quantities of fish in the pure waters, wild fruits, berries and nuts, abundant deer, bear, turkeys and other wild game neces- sary to sustain man in a savage state, much coveted by the Indian tribes, and they fought for it with a desperation seldom witnessed in other parts. It was the ancestral home of more than one fierce tribe. At the Piqua Shawnee Indian village, Tecumseh and the Prophet, sons of a Shawnee chief, were born. They became the most famous of the Indian war chiefs, and they waged war on the frontier settlers longer than others of the wild tribes.
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Simon Kenton, a spy, guide, scout, hunter, and Indian fighter for forty-five years, resided for a time within the present limits of Springfield.
Within these limits have been held councils with Indians to settle real or pretended grievances, notably one attended by Te- cumseh and other great Indian war chiefs in 1807.
REVOLUTIONARY AND TERRITORIAL TIMES.
There came to what is now Clark County, as to other parts of the West, some Revolutionary soldiers, bringing with them their patriotism and generally their poverty. Their love of liberty was, however, put in practice, and, by example, these veteran sol- diers did much to build up peaceful communities. William Baird (Harmony Township), Merrifield Vicory and Andrew Pinneo (Springfield Township). Abraham Rust (German Township) and William Holmes ( Bethel Township) are of the sol- diers of the Revolution who settled. lived and died in Clark County, and who left descendants to honor their names by a life of usefulness. There were, doubtless, others of the Revolutionary War, whose names are unknown to me, who did likewise.
Some of those who were with General Anthony Wayne ( Mad Anthony) in his campaign to the Maumee and in the battle of Fallen Timbers ( 1794) and at the Treaty of Greenville (1795). and who were in other Indian expeditions, settled and died in Clark County.
In territorial times, and long after the State of Ohio was ad- mitted ( 1802) into the Union, it was a requirement of law that all able-bodied men within certain ages should muster, at least an- nually, under officers, generally of their own selection, thus to familiarize them with movements in organized bodies and with arms in their hands. These musters were gala-days, and were not always conducted, in the then wild state of society and free- dom of habits, with that regard for peace and propriety conducive . to military discipline. As the militia were not generally armed. save with their own rifles, or, for want of them, with sticks and corn-stalks, the training in the manual and use of arms for war was little. In time these militia musters fell into disrepute. be- came unpopular, and were by common consent discontinued, then
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abolished by law. Some distinguished citizens had rank in the militia as brigadier-general, notably Samson Mason and Charles Anthony, both of whom were distinguished lawyers of Spring- field, and each left sons who have served in the United States Army in time of war.
Passing, for want of detailed information, too lightly over the worthy pioneers, who almost constantly acted in the semi- capacity of soldiers, being on guard with rifles in hand, whether in field, at church, or home, to guard against Indian massacres. we go to the history of wars on a large scale.
We must remark that the annals of our young Republic are surpassingly bloody. From Lexington to Appomatox ( 1775- 1865), almost one year out of five, not counting our constant In- dian wars, was, on an average, a year of war.
WAR OF 1812-1815.
The War of 1812 became necessary to secure commercial and maritime rights denied to this nation by Great Britain.
The incomplete list of names of soldiers and sailors of Clark County of that war is still too long to be here given. Colonel John Dougherty, Major James Neely, Captains John McPherson. Arthur Layton, Samuel Black, Philip Kizer and Samuel Stewart. and Lieutenants William Ward. Nathaniel Williams and .Will- iam Lamme, of the cavalry and infantry, and Captain Benjamin Hathaway, of the navy, from this county, were in that war ; and among others who served from Clark County, principally on the then extreme Western frontier, fighting the English and their savage allies, may be mentioned ( Pleasant Township) Charles Botkin, Jonathan and William Curl. A. McConkey, William H. Hunter, Joseph Coffey, Amos Neer: ( Moorefield Township) Horatio Banes, William Hunt, James Foley, John Humphreys. Andrew Hodge. Simon Kenton, and Abraham Yeazell; (Pike Township) Andrew Black. James Black, Obediah Lippencott. James Fuller, Thomas Stafford; (German Township) Benjamin Frantz, G. Gard. David Kizer (father of Thomas Kizer, long County Surveyor of Clark County). Jacob Kiblinger, David Jones, Benjamin Morris, John Ross, John Pence. John, Philip. and Samuel Baker; (Bethel Township) Elnathan Cory, James
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and Jonathan Donnell. John Forgy, Jacob Fross, William Hust- ler, John Hay, Peter Sheets, William Layton. Benjamin P. Gaines, Abraham Smith, George Lowman, David Lowry, W. G. Serviss, Michael Minnick, William Crawford, John Paul (sup- posed to be the first settler of this county), John Wallace, Sr .. Hugh Wallace, and Henry Williams; (Springfield Township) Louis Bancroft, John Kelly ( father of Oliver S. Kelly, a success- ful manufacturer, now an honored citizen of Springfield), Samuel Lisle, David Hughes, Joseph Keifer (father of J. Warren Keifer), William Minach, J. W. Ross ( killed at the Battle of Thames), Andrew Pinneo (probably the same who served in the Revolution ), and Nathan Reddish; (Harmony Township) John and Peter Baird, Hamilton Busby, William Foreman, John Judy, Edward Rice, Nathan Smith, William Osborn and Jacob Olinger, (Madison Township) Conrad Critz, Isaac Davidson, Philip Hed- rick, Enoch Jones, John McCollum, and David Vance; (Greene Township) George and Samuel Albin, Jacob Garlough, Thomas Mills, John T. Stewart ( father of Captain Perry Stewart, of the Civil War), O. S. Stewart, George Sroufe, James Todd, Joseph Weller, and Benjamin Whiteman ; ( Mad River Township) Melyn Baker, Samuel Davis, Richard Hughel, Daniel Mead, Daniel Jen- kins, and Rule Peterson.
We have named but few, for as many as five hundred are reported to have enlisted in the War of 1812 from Clark County, and many more who served honorably in that war, later settled in the county and were of its best citizens. Among whom were Archibald Mitchell ( father of Captain James A. Mitchell, killed in the Civil War), the ancestor of distinguished soldiers of later wars ; also Adam Rockel, Benjamin Wilson, Peter Sager, William Donovan (buried at Bethel Church), and Christian Overhaltzer.
MEXICAN WAR, 1846-1848.
The enlistments from Clark County for the Mexican War- a war to acquire territory to devote to slavery-were but few, Andrew F .. Biddle and Edward Boggs, George Cox, Isaiah Che- ney, Daniel Harsh, and Adam Evans are of the number. Vincent Nowotay and others who served in that war later settled in the county. Captain Simon H. Drum, a graduate of West Point.
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appointed from Springfield, was killed fighting a battery of the Fourth Artillery. U. S. A., just inside of Belen Gate (Garita de Belen) in the final assault and capture of the walled City of Mexico (September 13, 1847). His body is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery.
CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865.
The number of residents of Clark County, who, as officers, soldiers and sailors in the regular and volunteer service, joined the army or navy on the Union side in the Civil War, and who. having joined from other places, afterward became residents of the county, can only be approximately estimated. This number will reach about twenty-five hundred and fifty (2550). not count- ing double enlistments. Those included in this number who en- listed elsewhere will hardly exceed the large number, residents of the county, who were credited elsewhere, still leaving about 2550. the actual number of residents of the county who joined the army or navy in that war. Some of these were found in the regular army or navy, but for the most part they belonged to volunteer organizations, principally the following.
SECOND OHIO INFANTRY.
Captain Edwin C. Mason's company. enlisted here within twenty-four hours after President Lincoln's first call for volun- teers (April 15, 1861), became Company F of the Second Ohio Infantry (three months), and it fought under Captain David King at the first Bull Run (July 21, 1861) and many from this county served with the regiment in the Southwest in the three- years' service. Edwin C. Mason later became Colonel of the Sev- enth Maine. then still later of the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio. He was appointed ( 1861) captain in the regular army, and was retired a few years before his death with the rank of Colonel and brevet brigadier-general. Mason distinguished himself in the Civil War, then in the Modoc Indian War.
Captain James R. AAmbrose, of this city, commanded a com- pany in the Second Ohio in the three-years' service. This regi- ment did much heavy fighting and hard campaigning.
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THIRD OHIO INFANTRY.
Captain James C. Vananda enlisted here. about April 20. 1861, what became Company D, Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a three months and three years regiment. This company fought at Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861), in about the first battle of the war; at Elk Water and Cheat Mountain, in West Virginia, and . campaigned and fought in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama, notably at Perrysville, Kentucky (October 8, 1862), and at Stone's River, Tennessee, and it was captured on the Streight raid in Alabama in 1863.
SIXTEENTH OHIO INFANTRY.
Captain Philip Kershner took a Springfield company into the Sixteenth Ohio Infantry, where it saw much service in West Vir- ginia and in the Southwest. participating in many battles and sieges. This regiment came to be commanded by Colonel John D'Courcey, of royal English blood, afterward sitting in the House of Lords as Lord Kinsale.
THIRTY-FIRST OHIO INFANTRY.
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Captain William H. Wade (since for several terms in Con- gress from Missouri) took from this county Company K, Thirty- first Ohio Infantry, and it saw much hard service and fighting in bloody campaigns and battles, principally in the Southwest, in- cluding Corinth. Perrysville and Stone's River (1862), Chicka- mauga and Missionary Ridge ( 1863), and the Atlanta campaign, etc., in 1864.
Captain William H. H. McArthur, of this county (grandson of General and ex-Governor Duncan McArthur), was of this regiment.
FORTY-FOURTH OHIO INFANTRY.
This regiment was organized on this Fair Ground in 1861. and it contained many Clark County men ( Hugh Blair Wilson, its Lieutenant-Colonel, was of Springfield), and it saw service in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Later it became the Eighth Ohio Cavalry, and as such served with distinction in Vir-
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ginia campaigns and battles. Major Charles H. Evans was of this regiment ; also Lieutenant-Colonel August Dotze.
SEVENTY-FIRST OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
The Seventy-First Ohio was organized in 1861. Colonel Rodney Mason, of Springfield, was its first commander. Com- pany I, commanded by Captain Sol J. Houck, was organized in this county. Captain William S. Wilson (New Carlisle), now of Springfield, commanded a company in this regiment. It fought at Shiloh and in many battles and campaigns under Grant and Sherman.
EIGHTY-SIXTH OHIO VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
Howard D. John, of Springfield, enlisted Company B of this three-months' regiment, organized about June 1, 1862.
NINETY-FOURTH OHIO INFANTRY. 1
Companies A and G of this regiment were of Clark County, commanded respectively by Captains Perry Stewart and Charles C. Gibson. David King (once of the Second Ohio) was first Major, then Lieutenant-Colonel of this regiment. Captain Ama- ziah Winger succeeded Captain Stewart in the command of Com- pany A. Lieutenants Hezekiah Kershner and Henry C. Cushman were of this company ; also George and Robert N. Elder, Jacob A. Hinkle, Richard Leedle and other excellent soldiers and citizens. Nathan M. McConkey succeeded Gibson as Captain of Company G. George W. Wilson ( since a distinguished lawyer, London, Ohio, and two terms in Congress ) was a First Lieutenant in Com- pnay G of this regiment. The regiment fought in Kentucky and Tennessee ( 1862-1863) and was in Sherman's Atlanta campaign and with his army from "Atlanta to the Sea" (1864) ; then marched and fought up the Atlantic coast through the Carolinas and to the end of the rebellion.
ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH OHIO INFANTRY.
This regiment (Colonel J. Warren Keifer) had two con- panies ( ['and C) under Captains Luther Brown and Nathan S. Smith enlisted from Clark County. They saw much service in
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the Virginias and in Maryland, and participated in many battles and campaigns. The regiment was in the battles at Winchester, and in New York City to put down riots and to enforce the draft, and in the battle of Orange Grove, Virginia ( 1863) ; and it was in the Wilderness campaign under Meade and Grant ; in the bat- tle of Monocacy, and under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley (1864), and it was engaged in the seiges of Richmond and Peters- burg; in the last assaults at the latter place, and it fought and participated in the last general field battle (Sailor's Creek) and campaign of the war, resulting in the surrender of Lee at Appo- mattox, April 9. 1865. Captain William A. Hathaway, of this county, was killed and buried at Monocacy. Captain Thomas J. Weakley (now of Dayton) was of Company I.
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH OHIO.
This (a six-months regiment) was commanded by Colonel Howard D. John, of this county. Its Company C was commanded' by Captain Richard Montjoy. William J. Irvin and Charles An- thony were Lieutenants in that company ; Charles H. Pierce was its orderly sergeant. These and others of that company are well known as of our best citizens, This regiment performed valuable and hard service, and did fighting, chiefly ( 1863) at and about Cumberland Gap, Kentucky.
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIXTH OHIO INFANTRY.
Two companies ( D and I) of this one hundred day regiment were enlisted and officered from Clark County about May 2, 1864. and Thomas W. Bown was its Major. Captain Alfred Miller. First Lieutenant Thomas E. Stewart and Second Lieutenant Har- vey H. Tuttle were the officers of Company D, and Captain Alfred Bown, First Lieutenant Valentine Newman and Second Lieuten- ant Elijah G. Coffin were the officers of Company I. The officers and men of these companies were mostly from South Charleston and vicinity, and their service was mainly at Fayetteville, West Virginia.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SECOND OHIO INFANTRY.
In this regiment were a part of the one hundred days men from Clark County, who patriotically responded ( May, 1864) to
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an emergency call for troops. Many of our citizens went to the field under this call. This regiment saw hard service and did good campaigning in Virginia and West Virginia. It was in the memorable Hunter raid, up the Shenandoah Valley in June, 1864. Captains Asa S. Bushnell and Charles A. Welch each commanded .companies (E and K) from Clark County in this regiment. Ben- jamin H. Warder was a first lieutenant in K Company .. In E Company were A. P. Linn Cochran, John C. Miller. Clifton M. Nichols and George C. Rawlins, together with others of our most distinguished citizens.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THIRD OHIO INFANTRY.
Colonel Israel Stough (once Captain Forty-Fourth Ohio). from Clark County, commanded this (a hundred day) regiment, which was organized in May. 1864, on the same call with the One Hundred and Fifty-Second, and, like it, contained many of the ·county's best citizens. Captains James I. Mckinney and Harrison C. Cross commanded companies (E and F) made up of men of this county. The regiment did duty along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. A detachment of it engaged the enemy at Hammack's Mills, North River, West Virginia, and was captured ; some were held as prisoners, and a few died in Andersonville, Georgia, and Florence, Alabama, prisons.
SIXTEENTH OHIO INDEPENDENT BATTERY.
This battery was enlisted and mustered in ( 1861) from Clark .County. It was commanded by Captain James A. Mitchell, of :Springfield, who descended from the Revolutionary and War of 1812 soldier stock, already mentioned. This battery served prin- cipally along the Mississippi. Captain Mitchell lost his life in the Vicksburg campaign (Champion Hill) while serving under ·Grant.
In this company served Lieutenant Edward H. Funston (since a Representative for several terms in Congress from Kan- .sas ), of New Carlisle, the father of now Brigadier-General Fred- .erick Funston, U. S. A., famed for, among other things, the recent .capture of Aguinaldo in the Philippine Islands. General Funston
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was born in New Carlisle, this county, his mother being a Mitchell.
SEVENTEENTH OHIO INDEPENDENT BATTERY.
This battery was composed, principally, of Clark County men. Besides its Captain, Ambrose A. Blount, Lieutenants Will- iam Hunt, Jr., Absalom H. Mattox and Jeremiah Yeazell, of the county, were its officers. This battery campaigned and fought chiefly down the Mississippi, at Arkansas Post, on the Vicksburg campaign, and at Mobile, Alabama,
SQUIRREL HUNTERS, 1862.
When Cincinnati was threatened (September, 1862) by the Kirby Smith raid, Clark County furnished her full share of those patriotic citizens who, without military training and poorly armed, rushed to camp and were thence taken to Cincinnati to aid in the defense of that then imperiled city. Among those who thus went to war were the most estimable and prominent of our citizens.
FIRST KENTUCKY INFANTRY.
Captain Ralph Hunt, early in 1861, enlisted in Clark County what became Company C of the First Kentucky Infantry, in which it performed heroic and valuable service in many battles and campaigns in West Virginia and in the Southwest.
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Others, as officers, soldiers and sailors, of Clark County's sons served with great credit in volunteer orgainzations not men- tioned, and in the regular army and navy. Of those from Clark County who were distinguished as surgeons, may be mentioned Majors Henry H. Seys, of the Third and Fifteenth, and John H. Rodgers, of the Forty-fourth and One Hundred and Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiments, still living.
At one time ( 1864) during the Civil War, three-fourths of the men of the required age, fit for duty, and above fifty per cen- tum of the voting population of Clark County were in the mili- tary and naval service of the United States.
There were many who enlisted in the Union Army from.
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other places, even other States, who, after serving valiantly in the Civil War, came to live among us. These we love to adopt. honor and claim as our own. Colonels R. L. Kilpatrick, Aaron Spangler (One Hundred and Tenth Ohio). James E. Stewart (each now deceased). and Captains Edward L. Buchwalter and R. A. Starkey and Rev. George H. Fullerton D. D. (Chaplain First Ohio Infantry) are among this number.
UNITED STATES NAVY.
There have been at least two sons of Springfield who have. through education and distinguished services, reached high rank in the United States Navy.
Reed Werden and Joseph N. Miller each graduated at the Naval Academy. each served with distinction on many seas and in the Civil War, and each was rewarded with the rank of Rear- Admiral.
Admiral Werden also did good service in the Mexican War 1846-1848) and Admiral Miller in the Spanish War ( 1898) ; the former died in 1886, and the latter is still living.
Others of Springfield who were graduated at the Naval Academy hold good rank and deserve mention for their high attainments and successful career. Lieutenant Clarence Williams, now in the United States Navy, is of this number.
UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY.
A number from the county have been graduated at West Point, but none, however, have reached high rank in the army. One, John (Jack) Williamson, was graduated in the same class with U. S. Grant. and he shortly after enjoyed at his home here a personal visit from Lieutenant U. S. Grant, since the most dis- tinguished soldier of any age. Williamson resigned from the army and died comparatively young.
We do not pretend to exhaust the list of men from Clark County, who fairly won lasting fame in the military and nava! service. Among the rank and file were some of the best and bravest ; and the Ohio rule of claiming great men applies to Clark County. All persons born or who have ever lived in the county.
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however short the time, and regardless of where they lived, when, or the circumstances under which they reached distinction, are,. under this rule, Clark County men.
From Big Bethel to Appomattox, wherever bloody sacrifices. were to be made, on river, sea or land, men of Clark County were found ready to make them.
They fought and fell under McClellan, Rosecrans, McDowell, Thomas, Sheridan, Sherman, Meade and Grant, and under the many other equally brave commanders of the Union Army. These volunteer citizen-soldiers shed their blood at Bull Run ( 1861), ( 1862) ; at Antietam, at Winchester ( 1862-1863), at Gettysburg, Orange Grove (1863), and in the many other large and small engagements in Virginia and on the Eastern theatre of war prior to 1864; and they fought and died at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, New Orleans, Iuka, Corinth, Perrysville, Stone's River (1862) ; Vicks- burg, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain (above the clouds), Chickamauga, Knoxville (1863) ; Resaca, Kenesaw, Peach Tree Creek, Jonesboro, and in the battles around Atlanta and on the march from Atlanta to the sea ; at Franklin and Nash- ville, and on other sanguinary and bloody fields in the West and Southwest (1864) ; again, in the East, in the battles of the Wil- derness, at Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia : at Monocacy, Maryland ; Opequon. Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, in the Shenandoah Valley ( 1864), and at Five Forks and in the assaults on the fortifications and over the ramparts around Richmond and Petersburg; at Bentonville, N. C .; at Sailor's Creek (the last general field engagement of the Civil War) ; at Appomattox and Mobile ( 1865), and on the hun- dreds of other fields of carnage, all to preserve the integrity of the Union .of Washington and his patriot compeers of the Revo- lution of 1776, and the Constitution, resulting, under the provi- dence of God, in destroying slavery (the curse of the ages ) in our Republic, where it had existed for two hundred and fifty years.
The number of soldiers and sailors of the Civil War from the county, killed or who died of wounds and disease contracted in the service. cannot be ascertained. For the most part they were buried where they fell, and many were subsequently transferred to National Cemeteries. In each of these cemeteries will be found
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the names of soldiers or sailors from this county, marked by a grateful country on headstones, and recorded in registers.
Any attempt at a list of soldier dead, buried in private ceme- teries and graveyards, must be a failure, and will prove unsatis- factory.
I have seen a fairly complete list of such dead, showing the names of about one hundred and seventy buried in Bethel Town- ship : about one hundred and sixty in Maidson Township, and I have seen only an imperfect list from Mad River Township. From other townships no lists have been accessible to me.
A still incomplete list of fifty soldiers buried in Greenmount Cemetery. Springfield, shows many once familiar names of wor- thy men, among whom I can here mention only Lieutenant Jerry Klinefelter. Major James C. Vananda, Captains William R. Mon- roe and David Sparks ; a like incomplete list of about two hundred soldiers and sailors buried in Ferncliff Cemetery shows still other familiar, heroic names, among which are: Lieutenant-Colonel E. M. Doty, Colonel Howard D. John, Colonel J. P. Sanderson, Major Luther Brown, Major Andrew J. Williams (U. S. A.), Captains Hezekiah Winger, Levi M. Rinehart, W. P. Cummings (U. S. A.), W. A. Stewart. Thomas P. Clarke and William H. Drum, U. S. A. (killed at City of Mexico), and General Edwin C. Mason, U. S. A. -
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