| PATRIOTISM. |
NOT only want of space, but also a distaste for repetitions, fulsome flattery and cheap praise for the patriotism of the Wells County soldiery, forbids us to indulge in such glittering generalities here, and we proceed at once to facts and figures.
The first wave of sound from the tumbling walls of Fort Sumter reverberated from the solid wall of the yeomanry of Wells County, bearing upon its crest the following sixteen patriots, the first to enlist from the county, without waiting for hortatory speeches, bounties, or what else might first turn up:
W. W. Angel, Saml. M. Karns, Dwight Klinck, Saml. D. Silver, Philip W. Silver, Jacob V. Kenagy, John T. Cartwright, James A. Starbuck, George M. Burwell, Andrew J. Barlow, Thomas J. Barlow, James A. Bounds, John C. Campbell, Isaac H. Lefever, Robert J. Rogers, Isaac P. Wilmington.
Uriah Todd, a resident of the county, enlisted from Ohio at the same time.
There being no railroad in the county, the above named patriots, recruited by the first on the list, went in large wagons to Fort Wayne the next day after Sumter was bombarded, and took the cars for Indianapolis, the place of rendezvous. They were placed in the Twefth Regiment.
At this point the imagination is impatient to cast aside and repress the external noise and rush of material things, and hover, charmed, over the motherly significance of every little convenience and comfort furnished the son of war as he goes forth to distant lands, with the chances against his ever returning alive. And when in the terrible battle-field or in the tedious, lonesome, malarious camp, he receives from home a bottle of preserves or a package of knick-knacks, done up in clean napkins as only feminine hands can do them, can he fix his mind, even for one moment, upon the real significance of these things, which is indeed more spiritual than material, without shedding a tear? And the longer the mind dwells upon it the longer it wishes to dwell, until it collapses into a vacuity of thought from sheer exhaustion. Let him feel these things who can; others cannot be made to feel them with ever so much rhetoric. This secret of life-and-welfare preservation, perceived only by true mothers, is too sacred even for poetry, or for words in any form.
The Glass school district, two miles west of Ossian, comprising twenty-one families, sent fifty soldiers to the last war! Can any community in the Union beat that? Volunteering was very prompt throughout Wells County; and the two drafts that were made argues nothing against the patriotism of the people, for many good citizens maintain, with a fair show of reason, that all our soldiery should be raised by draft.
October 6, 1862, there were drafted from Jackson Township, 18; Chester, 19; Liberty, 2; Rock Creek, 6; Union, 17; Nottingham, 28, and Harrison, 19; total 109. From Jefferson and Lancaster Townships none were drafted. A second draft, for eleven men, took place in 1864. There was no open resistance to the draft, or to any other execution of military law, during the war; but we are informed that there existed in this county a society of Knights of the Golden Circle.
The bounty paid by the county for volunteers during the war footed up $100,000; by the townships, $26,650; total, $126,650. Total paid by the county for the relief of soldiers' families, $1,424; by the townships, $10,000; total, $11,424. Grand total of moneys raised and paid out, $138,074.
In order to give some outline of the career of the Wells County soldiery in the battlefield, we subjoin a brief sketch of the engagements in which their respective regiments participated.
Some of the regiments—the Forty-seventh and Eighty-ninth Infantry and
the Eleventh and Thirteenth Cavalry—in which Wells County was represented,
are sketched in the history of Adams County in this work, and we here give
an account of the other principal ones.
TWELFTH REGIMENT.
For the one year service this regiment was organized from the surplus
of companies that had reached Indianapolis in answer to the call for six
regiments of three months troops, and was accepted for State service for
one year, May 11, 1861, with John M. Wallace as Colonel, succeeded by William
H. Link. A few Wells County men were in this regiment, and did duty in
General Banks' Army of the Shenandoah. In May, 1862, after the expiration
of their term, they were reorgan ized for the long term of three years,
with Colonel Link continuing in command. They fought in Kentucky and followed
Sherman in his grand march to the sea, and were mustered out June 8, 1865,
only 270 strong.
TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT.
This was organized at Madison July 15, 1861, for a three years' campaign,
with Jefferson C. Davis (then a Captain in the regu lar army) as Colonel.
It started out in Missouri, under General Fremont, to relieve Colonel Mulligan
at Lexington; but before reaching him he had surrendered. It was then ordered
through Southern Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and was with Sherman in
the march to the sea, and back through the Carolinas to Washington, and
thence home.
THE THIRTIETH REGIMENT
was organized at Fort Wayne, and mustered into service September 24, 1861, with Sion [sic] S. Bass as Colonel, succeeded, after his death at Paducah, Kentucky, from a severe wound, by Joseph B. Dodge. This regiment fought through Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Texas, in which last State it remained on duty long after the war closed, having suffered severely in privations and in losses of men.
THE THIRTY-FOURTH REGIMENT
was organized at Anderson September 16, 1861, with Asbury Steele as Colonel. Remaining in camp at Jeffersonville until November 15, and then at New Haven, Kentucky, for a month longer, it embarked on transports on the Ohio River below Louisville, with General Nelson's Division, and arriving at Cairo it was detached, and arrived at New Madrid, Missouri, March 3. There it was engaged in the siege until the place was evacuated March 14. The next morning, at Merriweather's Landing, fourteen miles below, it repelled an attack by the enemy. With a battery of two thirty-twopounder siege guns it cut off the rebel retreat from Island No. 10, and this was the means of the subsequent capture of the whole garri son. Returning to New Madrid April 7, it remained there as a garrison until June 14, during which time it assisted in the capture of Fort Pillow. Thence it was taken by boat down the Mississippi River and up the White to Aberdeen, Arkansas, near which place it soon had a successful skirmish with the enemy. Remained at Helena, Arkansas, until the next spring, making frequent expeditions against the enemy, the most important of which was a successful two weeks' operation in clearing Yazoo Pass.
During the spring of 1863 it was engaged in constructing bridges near Vicksburg. May 1 it had a successful skirmish with the enemy at Port Gibson, capturing two field pieces and forty-nine prisoners, but lost forty-nine killed and wounded. On the 16th it participated in the battle of Champion Hills, where it captured a regiment, but lost seventy-nine men killed and wounded. Among the latter was Lieutenant-Colonel Swain, from Wells County, who died from his wounds on the 17th of the next month. The regiment participated in the siege of Vicksburg until its surrender, then in the siege of Jackson, Mississippi; next in Louisiana under General Banks; then in Texas and back to New Orleans, and then borne on a veteran furlough.
Returning to Texas, it fought the last battle of the war, May 12 and 13, 1865, at Palmetto Ranche, adjoining the old battle-field of Palo Alto, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. With a battery of six field pieces, 250 of the regiment drove 500 of the enemy, mounted, a distance of three miles in three hours. The Colonel, David Bransom, having received news of the surrender of Kirby Smith, the last one of the rebels holding out in the older States, gave the order to cease firing, with a peculiar, joyful fervency that is difficult to describe. But the firing could not cease, as our men were obliged to defend themselves for the moment, irrespective of defense of their country; for the enemy by this time got their gun in position and poured a destructive fire into the ranks of our men, compelling the main body to fall back. The Colonel ordered Companies B and E to remain toward the front as skirmishers to cover the retreat. These companies were soon surrounded and forced to surrender. The loss to the Thirty fourth was eighty-two, in killed, wounded and prisoners. This scene was witnessed by hundreds of men perched in the rigging of eighty men of war and other shipping, as the hazy sun quietly settled down in a fading glamor behind the sandy hills on the western bank of the Rio Grande. It would be interesting to know what member of the Thirty-fourth Indiana--possibly a Wells County man--fired the last gun of the greatest war that ever drenched the earth in blood!
After this the regiment was ordered to various places in Texas, and finally, long after the war closed, was mustered out.
The officers in this regiment from Wells County were Major John L. Wilson,
Lieutenant-Colonel William Swaim, Major Harrison L. Deam, Captains William
Wilmington and John Phipps, and Lieutenants George Harter and Andrew C.
Fulton.
SEVENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT.
The companies composing this regiment of infantry were raised in the Eleventh Congressional District, the camp of rendezvous being at Wabash. They were mustered into service August 19, 1862, with John U. Pettit as Colonel, and comprised 1,036 men. Advancing to meet General Bragg's forces, it was ordered back; but soon afterward it gave chase to Morgan, the raider. Without crossing the Ohio River to the north, it was ordered to Murfreesboro. At this time it was a part of the "Indiana Brigade," which coinprised also the Eighty-seventh, and the One Hundred and Thirty-First regiments. In June following the Seventy-fifth started toward Tullahoma, and was the first to enter the rebel works there. September 19 and 20 following, in the battle of Chickamauga, it lost seventeen killed and 107 wounded.
Remaining at Chattanooga some months, it next engaged in the noted battle at Missionary Ridge, November 25, losing five killed and seventeen wounded. The next summer it was engaged in the siege of Atlanta, until its evacuation, and the ensuing winter marched with Sherman to the sea, and through the Carolinas and Virginia to Washington, where it was mustered out of service.
Many men from Wells County were in this regiment, among them Captain
Sandford R. Karns and Lieutenant James A. Starbuck.
THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH INDIANA INFANTRY,
in which nearly a full company of Wells County volunteers were organized,
was mainly recruited from the Fourth Congressional District, rendezvousing
at Fort Wayne. Mustered into service August 29, 1862, with George Humphrey
as Colonel, it was soon ordered to the front near Louisville, Kentucky,
to resist the approach of Kirby Smith. Next, under General Rousseau's command,
it pur sued General Bragg, engaging in the battle of Perryville, with considerable
loss of numbers in killed and wounded. Subsequently it participated in
the battle of Stone River, December, 1862, and January, 1863; remained
in camp near Murfreesboro till June 24; engaged in severe skirmishes at
Tullahoma, Hillsboro arid Elk River; in the battle of Dug Gap, Georgia,
repulsing the rebel General Polk; battles of Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain,
and all the battles leading to the occupation of Atlanta, and on the grand
march to the sea under Sherman, and so on with the main army on its return
to the North, and was mustered out at Washington, June 7, 1865. This regiment
did an immense amount of fighting and marching, spending very little time
in camp.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST
Regiment of Indiana Infantry took more of Wells County's sons than did any other, and it was made up wholly from the Eleventh Congressional District. In it were Major Peter Studabaker, Dr. C. T. Melsheimer as Assistant Surgeon, Captain Andrew J. Barlow, Captain George Lindsey, Lieutenant William Miller, Lieutenant Simon Krewsen and others. The members of the One Hundred and First rendezvoused at Wabash in August, 1862, and were mustered into service September 7, with William Garver, of Noblesville, as Colonel. Their first duty in the field was the defense of Covington, Kentucky, against the threatened attack by Kirby Smith. Next the regiment went in search of Bragg's forces, marching about to many a point, and then in pursuit of John Morgan for a week, in mud and rain, and was unsuccessful. Then it visited various points in Tennessee, engaging in skirmishes and other duties, with camp and headquarters at Murfreesboro. In March, 1863, our men (in the Second Brigade) were skirmishing around and beating up hidden rebels, and, happening upon Morgan with 3,700 men, repulsed him, with considerable loss. The One Hundred and First lost forty-three killed and wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Doan, of Marion, was in command.
On the 27th of April the regiment moved with its division to McMinnville, captured seventy prisoners, some stores, and destroyed the railroad in that vicinity. May 31 Colonel Garver resigned and Lieutenant-Colonel Doan assumed command. On the 24th of June the whole army made a forward movement, engaged iu a successful contest at Hoover's Gap, and marched from place to place, and, after marching all one night, arrived at the field of Chickamauga on the morning of September 19. Here the One Hundred and First participated in one of the bloodiest encounters of the war, and, with others, was repulsed with fearful loss, namely thirteen killed, eighty-five wounded and sixteen missing.
After another skirmish or two, the One Hundred and First took part in
the storming of Missionary Ridge, and then, in battles and skirmishes too
numerous to mention here, it fought its way along, with the rest of Sherman's
army, all the way to Savannah, and back through the Carolinas and Virginia
to Washington, making as brilliant a record for bravery and fidelity as
any regiment in the army. Mustered out at Louisville, Kentucky, after having
marched, during its term of service, 3,507 miles, traveled by railroad
759 miles, and by steamer 650 miles, a total of 4,916 miles.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTIETH.
A respectable representation of Wells County's patriotic citizens risked their lives for their country in this regiment, among the officers being Captains William H. Covert and James A. Millikin and Lieutenant John S. Campbell. The regiment was recruited wholly from the old Eleventh Congressional District, then comprising the counties of Wells, Adams, Jay, Blackford, Grant, Huntington, Wabash, Tipton, Madison and Hamilton during the winter of 1863—'64, rendezvoused at Kokomo, and mustered into service March 12, 1864, with Charles S. Parrish, of Wabash, as Colonel. The men were immediately ordered to Nashville, Tennessee, and then to Charleston, East Tennessee, where they were in camp until May 3, when they took up the line of march until they first met the enemy at Rocky Face Ridge, away down in Georgia. After participating in the battle there, they were again engaged in various skirmishes, terminating in the celebrated battle of Resaca, where they successfully repelled a furious charge from the enemy. Pursuing the Confederates still further, skirmishing was the order of exercises every day, in rain, without rations, etc., until they again met the enemy, June 17, at Lost Mountain. Subsequently they were engaged in the battles of Pine Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, the siege of Atlanta, battle of Jonesboro, etc., until the army extinguished Hood's forces near Nashville.
Returning North, the One Hundred and Thirtieth was ordered via Washington,
D. C., to Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and to other points in succession
until it reached Newbern, that State, and Kingston, near which place it
encountered the enemy and drove him back. Shortly after it joined Sherman's
army at Goldsboro, which army was soon turned over to General Schofield,
for a short period. On reaching Smithfield, on the 11th of April, 1865,
our men received the news of Lee's surrender and the virtual close of the
war. During the summer and fall ensuing the regiment was on guard duty
at Charlotte, and was finally mustered out of service December 2, with
27 officers and 540 men.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH,
which had a number of soldiers from Wells County, was a 100-day regiment.
Edward J. Robinson, of North Madison, was Colonel. It was organized and
mustered into service at Indianapolis, May 27, 1864, and proceeded to Tennessee.
It served more than 100 days, doing duty along the lines of the railroads
which supported Sherman in his advance upon Atlanta.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHTH INFANTRY,
also a 100-day regiment, had three companies from the old Eleventh Congressional
District. James H. Shannon, of La Porte, was Colonel. These recruits were
organized and mustered into service at Indianapolis May 27, 1864, along
with several other 100-day regiments, and did the same service as described
above for the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh.
THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THIRD INFANTRY
contained a full company of volunteers from Wells County,—Company E,—of
which Benjamin F. Wiley, of Bluffton, was Captain; John M. Henry, of Ossian,
First Lieutenant, and Marvin W. Bennett, of Ossian, Second Lieutenant.
Oliver H. P. Carey, of Marion, was Colonel. This was a one year regiment,
wholly from the Eleventh Congressional District. It left Indianapolis March
5, 1865, for the battle-field, and operated in Kentucky, skirmishing, fighting
guerrillas and guarding the city of Louisville, until September 4 of that
year, when it was mustered out of service.
INDIANA LEGION.
Harrison Guards: Captain Herod T. True and First Lieutenant Picket P. Connett, of Bluffton.
Jefferson Guards: Captain James Gorrell and
First Lieutenant John W. Todd, of Ossian.
From the Banner of May 21, 1885, E. Y. Sturgis, editor, we copy the following list, as complete as could be made, of the soldiers from Wells County who died or were killed in the last war, with their place of burial or the places at which they died:
Officers. — Lieutenant - Colonel William Swaim, Thirty-fourth Infantry, buried at Ossian; First Lieutenant J. Sharpe Wisner, Company A, Forty-seventh Infantry, Bluffton; Second Lieutenant John B. Louis, Company A, Forty-seventh Infantry, Bluffton; First Lieutenant Lewis W. Dailey, Company I, Twenty-second Infantry, Murray; Second Lieutenant Uriah Todd, Company K, Seventy-fifth Infantry, Prospect; Captain Sanford R. Karns, Company K, Seventy-fifth Infantry, Bluffton; First Lieutenant Simon Krewson, Company G, One Hundred and First Infantry, Prospect; Second Lieutenant Abe S. Masterson, Company B, One Hundred and First Infantry, Six Mile; Captain James A. Milliken, Company F, One Hundred and Thirtieth Infantry, Ossian.
Thirteenth Regiment. — William Allen, killed at Stone River; Ebenezer Taylor, Prospect; J. Lepper, died in Southern prison; Joseph M. Gardiner.
Thirty-fourth Regiment.—George Wilson, Ossian; Sylvester Catton, Prospect; Francis M. Fry, killed at Port Gibson; Richard M. Goshorn, Ossian; Josiah H. Houtz, died in Louisiana; Daniel Kitchen, Prospect; James McConnell, Ossian; William Ogden, Iowa; James Patterson, killed at Champion Hills; Steven Parkison, died at Brazos Santiago, Texas; Samuel Richardson, Helena, Arkansas; William Alley, mortally wounded at Champion Hills; De Witt C. Clark, James Hague, Jacob Hess, Leonard Prough, Peter Pence, John West and Thomas Bell, died in Wells County; Warren Housel, died in New Orleans; W. Thompson, died in Helena, Arkansas; Joseph Proctor, died at Camp Wickliffe; Miland J. True, drowned in Mississippi River; Othello Welcheimer, died at New Madrid, Missouri; J. Craven, died at Memphis, Tennessee; Milton P. Wilson, Nashville, Tennessee; Ed. Courtney, Joseph Kline, Henry Hartup, Caleb Ayers, Daniel Justice, Wilson Gibson, William Hammon, L. Ray, Daniel Calkins.
Forty-seventh Regiment.—Joseph W. Stout and W. O. Butterfield, died at St. Louis; John Custard, Helena, Arkansas; John S. Devoss, died of wounds received at Chapel Hill; Job I. Devoss, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; David H. Bender, Bluffton; William H. Stobie, died in Missouri; Madison Hall, Memphis, Tennessee; William H. Jeifreys, died in the West; Abel S. Johnson, died in St. Louis; Isaac Johnson, killed in Mississippi; John Jones, Tiptonville, Tennessee; Levi Mechling, Mound City, Illinois; Theodore McLaughlin, Benton, Missouri; Evan H. Phillips, New Orleans; John Snow, Wells County; John Tate and William H. Thorp, Helena, Arkansas; E. Thrailkill, killed in Mississippi; David Updegraft, Wells County; Thomas J. Helm and John Wilson, New Orleans; Joshua Snider, Prospect; Jonathan Ady, Benton, Missouri; Jesse M. Routh, Bluffton; Marshall Clark, Milliken's Bend; Thomas Boden, Bluffton; William Henley, killed at Champion Hills; Josiah Singleton, Benton, Missouri; Henry Singleton, Nelson's Furnace, Kentucky; Robert Walder, Champion Hills; Sanford Witham, Morganza, Louisiana; J. W. Stanton, Rockford; Reed Shaw, Michael Hodgson, Thomas Crumley, James Wallace.
Seventy-fifth Regiment.—Ross McFadden, Munfordville, Kentucky; Abe Wilson, Bluffton; J. G. Cartright, Nashville, Tennessee; William Cupp, Louisville, Kentucky; Thomas Allen, Evansville, Indiana; Patrick Boyle, Ringgold, Georgia; John W. Lancaster, Twibell's cemetery; Silas Lancaster, Log Mountain, Tennessee; William Brown, Peach Tree Creek; James Burwell, Bluffton; Henry J. Cartwright, Ossian; William Ware, Mossburg cemetery; John Graham and Silas Smith, Murfreesboro; Andrew J. Harter, Chickamauga; William Mason, Scottsville, Kentucky; John C. Millikin, Ossian; Royal V. Rich, Gallatin, Tennessee; W. Templeton, New Albany, Indiana; J. S. Wilson, Tullahoma, Tennessee; Columbus Bennett, killed at Chickamauga; O. Wilmington, Gallatin, Tennessee; Leander Slusser, New York Harbor; Adam Perry, William Powell, J. Dumond, Thomas Ricker, D. A. Riley, J. Jellison, William Ware (Company E), William Luckey, William Williams.
One Hundred and First Regiment.—Harrison Foncannon, Bluffton; J. L. Morgan, Chickamauga; Thomas Lagan, Munfordville, Kentucky; John Glass, Louisville, Kentucky; Francis M. Clark, Andersonville prison; G. W. Barton, Munfordville, Kentucky; Abraham Bender, Louisville, Kentucky; J. S. Clark, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Reuben Crist and J. M. Connett, Murfreesboro; Levi D. Deaver, died of wounds; William Ewing, Lebanon, Kentucky; William Falor, Cowen, Tennessee; William V. Lewis, Murfreesboro; J. Lesh, W. W. Miller and S. Sims, Andersonville prison; Charles Miller, John Thompson, John R. Weaver, Jacob Bowman, L. D. Harvey, H. B. Peck, David Sides, George Smith and C. Vandine, Murfreesboro; A. Nevins, Joseph Torrence and William Confer, killed at Chickamauga; Alex. S. Oaks, Danville, Virginia, prison; Jacob Weiser, Munfordville, Kentucky; Harrison Taylor, Jeffersonville, Indiana; L. D. Wilson, Indianapolis; Lyman M. Peck, Zanesville; R. W. Chalfant and J. P. Cherry, Munfordville, Kentucky; Enos Feltz, Zanesville; Henry Griffith, Sonner's graveyard; A. J. Nash, Gallatin, Tennessee; William Nelson, killed at Milton, Tennessee; Joseph Ormsby, Prospect; A. B. Columbus, shot; Jacob Palm, Ossian; Sanford Nelson, Orlande Leeper, William Ewing, A. J. Barlow, Hugh Ayers, Robert, Abner and Charles Sinkler, Josiah Smith, John Schoch, Charles Hixon.
One Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment.—John M. Nash, Charlotte, North Carolina; D. Connett, Andersonville prison; Isaac Caston, killed by guerrillas; George Clark, Nashville, Tennessee; W. R. Gardiner, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Lewis Hendry and Joseph King, killed by guerrillas; Joseph Haynes, Knoxville, Tennessee; James Wilson, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Thomas S. Harter, Tullahoma, Tennessee; George Barton, died in Andersonville prison; Henry Connett, Uriah Nash, Thomas Moran.
Other Regiments.—Andrew Byrd, Henry Schell, James Brown, Eleventh Infantry.
Samuel Patterson, J. Arnold, Fifty-first Infantry.
Elmore Johns and Richard Beard, Fifty-seventh Infantry.
William Peppard, Company K, One Hundred and Forty-second Infantry.
Robert Campbell, Company K, One Hundred and Fifty-third Infantry.
M. V. Davis and Joseph F. Aker, Fifty third Infantry.
John Higgs, Company C, Forty-fourth Infantry.
William and James Allen, Thirteenth Cavalry.
John Calkins, Fifty-fourth Infantry.
George Roush, Fifty-second Infantry.
Nelson G. Fulton, Twenty-second Infantry, killed at Rome, Georgia.
Thomas Phipps, Twenty-second Infantry, died in Missouri.
John A. Stobie, Thirtieth infantry, Murray.
Jacob Keller, Fifth Indiana, Mexican war.
Henry Echert, Bluffton.
Allen L. Miller, killed at Champion Hills.
John Thomas, Six Mile.
Albert Lindsey, Mexican. war, old cemetery.
William Carpenter, drowned in White River.
Hampton Osborn, died at Louisville, Kentucky.
Mont Wilson, signal service, died at New Orleans.
James Jackson, war of 1812, Mendenhall cemetery.
John Jackson, Markle.
Levi Sayler, Chickamauga.
Thomas Deaver, Mission Ridge.
Henry Mossburg, war of 1812, Mossburg cemetery.
Rural Wright, war of 1812.
Charles Sloan, Sparks cemetery.
A. Price and Mr. Dickey, Rockford cemetery.
Silas H. Wentz, old cemetery.
Thomas Deaver, William Griffey, David Miller, William Beasley, war of 1812.