Clark County, Indiana - Chapter 18: The Military History of Clark Couxty, 1909

Chapter 18: The Military History of Clark Couxty

The Forty-ninth Regiment of Indiana Vokmteers was organized at Camp Joe Holt, Jeffersonville, Indiana, on the i8th day of November, 1861, and mustered into service November 21, 1861, for three years or during the war. The staff officers for the whole tenn of their service were as follows :

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Ind. Ijq

The non-commissioned staff' was George F. Howard, sergeant major; Elisha L. Trueblood, quarter-master sergeant ; Beverly \\' . Sullivan, commissar}^ sergeant: Samuel Lingle and Preston C. Worrell, principal musicians. The Forty-ninth was the first and only regiment organized in Clark county for the ^^'ar of the Rebellion, and had so many Clark county men as field and line officers, besides the rank and file that it may be truly called a Clark count}'' regiment. Colonel Ray resigned after commanding the regiment from its muster into the service. X'ovember 21. 1861, until the following June, when he left it. and from that time until the regiment ser\-ed out their full term of enlistment of three years it was commanded by Col. James Keigwin. A part of the regiment re-enlisted in Texas and Captain Leeper was made lieutenant colonel, and sensed with the veterans up to the close of the war, when they were mustered out of the service at Louisville. Kentucky. September 13, 1865. having served their country three years and ten months as gallantly and faithfully as any soldiers that ever left the state. It would require a large volume to record the battles, skirmishes and hardships the old Forty-ninth endured during- its long and faithful service for their country and flag. The enlistments, first and last, of officers and men. numbered twelve hundred and sixty-eight, of whom two hundred and thirty-eight gave up their lives for their country. The regiment performed the duties required of it by anny regulations, and obeyed with alacrity all orders from superior officers, and were ready every hour of their three years and ten months' seiwice to kill the enemies of their country and flag, or be killed in defense of them. And well may Clark county be proud of her boys who wore the blue and performed their part so well in saving and making the greatest nation on the globe. "A government of the people, by the people and for the people."

One of the most amusing things occurred at the time the Forty-ninth was in camp at Joe Holt, and was published in all the papers in the country after its occurrence. Many of the recruits came from a dark corner of our state, and were not up to tlie fashions, etiquette and polished ways of the present day. They might have been called green if the hayseed in their hair had not been faded to a light dust color. They were told by their friends when they started for camp to wear the oldest and worst clothes they had, and throw them away when they drew their uniforms, which would save them the trouble and expense of sending their clothes home after they had drawn their uniforms. I can truthfully sa}- that they accepted the advice of their friends, and any sort of a judge of man's dress would say that they wore their worst clothes when they came t(i camp. On account of some delay of the quartermaster, the uniforms did not arrive as soon as expected, and the poor boys had to wear those "worst clothes" for a week or more, which was a great disappointment to the whole regiment. Colonel Keigwin recounts the following : "All the young ladies in Jeffersonville were casting wistful eyes at the young officers of the regiment, and using every endeavor to make their stay in camp as pleasant as possible. One of the debutantes of our city concluded that she would cast her hook into the military fish pond to catch a soldier, if possible, by giving to the officers of the regiment a reception at her home on Market street. (In our day it would be called a 'function' or some other Newport name.) The debutante wrote the invitations to the 'function' herself and it read : 'Tlie pleasure of your company is invited to attend a party to be given defenders of our flag and country.' The captain of the company that came into camp with their worst clothes on understood the invitation for him to appear wdth his company, and he came. I, being a distant relative of the young lady, of course it was my duty to make things go off as pleasantly as possible for the company, and to be the first on the ground to receive them. Just as it was getting dark I went to the front gate and looked down market street, and you can judge of my surprise when I saw the captain with his full company in their rag-tag motley garments they had left home in. \\'ell, just at that time I was worse rattled than I ever was when forming the regiment in line for battle. Jack Fallstaff and his famous company were well dressed as compared with that crew. Well, we did the best we could with them, inviting them into the parlors which we had taken so much pains to decorate with pictures of Washington and Jackson and other famous fighters of early times. The walls were decorated with flags and other ornaments suitable for a regimental 'function' in t86i. Refreshments for all that number? you ask. Well, we just cut the bits of cake which were small enough for one into two pieces and added a little more water to the lemonade, and all returned to camp well satisfied that he had learned what a real reception in Jefifersonville was forty years ago. The captain who brought all of his company to the reception has been dead for more than twenty-five years previous to this writing (1904), and it is to be hoped that tlie function he is now enjoying is of a different sort from the one he attended in Jeffersonville with his FaHstafifian company. Many hundreds of years ago a multitude of fi\-e thousand were served with five loaves and two fishes, and after all were satisfied there remained twelve baskets full of loaves and fishes, but I can truthfully say that not a crumb as big as a buck-shot was left after the well dressed company of the Forty-ninth Indiana had been sensed at that 'debutante function' on Market street in Ti^ffei'sonville fortv-two vears ago."

The Forty-ninth Regiment left their camp at Joe Holt, Jefferson\-ille, December II. 1 86 1, and made their first march through Louisville and out the Bardstown Pike. At that time Jefifersonville had a brass band, and they volunteered to escort the regiment across the river and through Louisville, where at that time, as many cheered for Jefferson Davis as shouted for Lincoln. William H. Fogg, Professor John Johnson. Henry Ewing, Abraham Carr and others were members and they tooted their horns vigorously marching through the city with one thousand armed men following them, but the danger of getting back with their horns exposed after escorting a Yankee regiment through (the streets of a rebel city, was too great to be risked, and they deposited their instruments in a house on the outskirts of the city and sent a wagon to haul them home. This trip was the last toot the band ever made on those horns.

The regiment reached Bardstown on the 13th of December, and went into camp at the fair grounds, where they devoted all their time to drilling and fighting mouth battles, telling how they would lick the Johnnies and return to their homes in a few months to receive from their friends the palm of victor}-. The}' did not know as much about war then as they learned later. Col. James Keigwin's account of their service is as follows: "One thing which added greatly to our courage was the good old Nelson countv Bourbon whiskev whicli was sold at that time fur twenty-fi\'e cents per gallon, which brought it in reach of the most impecunious soldier in the regiment. Tlie only total abstinence man that I knew in the regiment at that time was Col. John W. Ray, who spent most of his time talking about the comforts of home as compared to those of camp life, and admonishing- us of the great danger of a too free use of "old Tambo" fas it was then called by the men in the regiment), and praying that Jeff Davis and his followers would soon find the folly of tr}'ing to break up the Union and tiying to lick such loyal fiohting men as he had in the Forty-ninth Indiana. Our colonel was from his boyhood days a better talker than a fighter, and he almost convinced me in some of his oratorical flights that the war could not last six months longer, and I was almost afraid that I would never have a chance to witness or take part in a battle. One beautiful, crisp, frosty moonlight night I suggested that we have a false alarm in camp to teach the men that when they lay down for the night to always put their arms, accoutrements and clothing where they could put their hands on them no matter how dark it might be. or under all sorts of danger or excitement, when called out in the night. No one knew that there would be an alarm but Ray, m3-self and ^lajor Thornton. About twelve o'clock we called up the drum corps and ordered them to beat the long roll, that the enemy was but a few miles from us, approaching on the Lebanon pike. They beat the roll earnestly, and we three field officers ran up and down the company streets commanding in a loud voice 'turn out ! fall in on the color front,' that the Johnnies were advancing on the pike and were but a few miles away. Well, it was one of the most excitable and amusing scenes I have ever witnessed. After getting them on the color front we found some of them with only one shoe on. some without a gun and others without a cartridge box ; in fact they would have put up a poor fight in the condition they were in. We double-quicked them out of the fair grounds, down the pike, formed line of battle and told them that there was no armed enemy within fifty miles of the place, and explained to them what the alarm was given for, and I can truthfully say that the regiment never forgot the lesson it learned that night. We had the roll called and found thirty "cofifee coolers" absent. Next day we held a court martial and found that all of the absentees had some sort of an excuse for his absence. I will never forget the excuse of a Company A man, who was the tallest in the company, which gave him the honor of marching in the first four at the head of the regiment. He had an idea that regiments went into battle endways and as the front files fell the others followed up until all were killed or wounded to the left of the regiment. He denied being absent and his excuse was that he was at the taller end of the regiment, that he thought the enemy might 'tak us at 'tother end and he wanted to be first in the fight. His excuse was so novel we had a good laugh over it and he was excused without punishment.

"The regiment left Bardstown January 12, 1862, under orders to reinforce General Thomas, who was watching General Zollicoffer, who was threatening Kentucky with another invasion, he having been defeated at Wildcat and driven through Cumberland Gap by our forces a few months before. The regiment marched through Springfield, Danville and Lebanon, Kentucky, reaching a point five miles south of Lebanon, where it received the news of General Thomas' victory at Mill Springs, Kentucky. We marched from Lebanon to Cumberland Ford, Kentucky, arriving there February 15, 1862, and remained there until the following June. \\'hile camped at this place the regiment was severely scourged by disease, losing by death a large number of its members. On the 14th of March, 1862, I took part of the regiment to Big Creek Gap, Tennessee, where we had a skirmish with the First Tainessee Cavalry, capturing their battle flag, which is now in the state library at Lidianapolis, and Lieutenant Colonel W'hite, Captain \\"inston, a lieutenant and thirtytwo men and seventy-five horses. We returned to the Ford and took part in . an ineffectual attempt to take Cumberland Gap. The regiment marched with

Gen. Georg-e W. Morgan's force over the Cumberland mountains into Powell valley. Tennessee, toward Cumberland Gap, and on the i8th of Januaiy, 1862, we occupied it, the enemy having evacuated it the same day. The regiment remained at Cumberland Gap, engaged in building fortifications, and having almost daily encounters with the enemy, by whom we were surrounded a greater part of the time until the night of the 17th of September, 1862, when the works were abandoned, the enemy having cut off all communication with the rear, preventing reinforcements and supplies from reaching the garrison.

"The first man killed in the regiment was Corporal Henry H. McCullum, in a skinnish near Cumberland Gap, August 25, 1862. The regiment was engaged in a number of skirmishes near Cumberland Ford and the Gap with only a few wounded. One incident that occurred while we were invested at the Gap I shall never forget because it brought to me a very valuable piece of property in the form of a fine black stallion, which was the property of Colonel Alston, a son of Governor Alston, of South Carolina. Gen. Samuel P. Carter, who commanded the first troops that reached Cumberland Ford, wanted to purchase the horse and asked me what I would take for him. 1 told him the horse was worth five hundred dollars, but in the locality in which we were at that time soldiering, and poor facilities for running away in case the Johnnies got the better of us in a fight, we were about to be engaged in, that I would not trade nor sell the horse for a steamer Jacob Strader, at that time the finest boat on the western rivers. I do not want my friends to think that I stole that horse from the government, to whom he belonged at the time of the capture so I must tell you the story of how I came by the horse honestly :

"We had an old Tennessean, a sergeant in the Second Tennessee Regiment of Infantry, who was the mcist reliable scout in the command. He knew every path and road through the mountains of East Tennessee, and everv man who kept a stallion in that part of the state. He ne\'er returned from a scouting expedition that he was not mounted on a horse of that kind. He was a great friend of the Forty-ninth Indiana, and seemed to have more confidence in Hoosier soldiers than those from his own state. He wnuld often come to me to get a detail of men to go with him on some of his dangenius journevs. He was known by all of the command as "Stud Reynolds.'' One dav at my quarters I said to him jokingly. "Stud I wish the next time ynu leave camp you would bring me a fine stud horse.' He laughed and said the next one he found he would bring to me. He said that his business at that time was to get some of my men to go with him down to Baptist Gap, five miles distant from our camp, to try to trap some rebels who had been crossing the mountains in our rear, and a few days before had killed Turkey Joe Turner, a Union man for giving us information in regard to the "Johnnies' at the Gap. I told him to take as many as he wanted, and to take the choice of any in the regiment. He selected twenty men and moved along the bench of the mountain' to Baptist Gap and divided bis men, placing ten of them about half way to the top of the mountain and the others be kept with liim about two hundred yards nearer the foot of tlie mountain. All of the men were concealed in the thick shrul)l)erv of the mountain side. He was there but a short time when he heard the clatter of horses' hoofs in the valley below. Soon they were ascending the path up the mountain gap. Stud kept quiet until Colonel Alston and five of his men rode past him when he charged into the path in their rear and ordered them to surrender. The squad charged into the path from above and there was no escape' for the colonel and his men. Colonel Alston at first refused to surrender to a private soldier, and demanded that they send for an ofificer before he would consent to give up his sword and dismount. Stud again ordered him to dismount, but the haughty South Carolinian began to parley about the matter, when Stud ordered, 'Ready! Take aim,' which brought the noble scion down from the saddle in short order. Stud mounted the black stud, ordered them to march in front, and brought them into camp, the most woe-begone looking cavaliers that ever left the state which fired the first shot at 'Old Glory,' waving over Fort Sumter and the emblem of the freest people on earth. Of course we rejoiced when the son of one of the aristocratic governors of that state, which was the first to secede from the Union, had been captured by private soldiers in the Union army. Stud Re^-nolds rode the ijlack stallion up in front of my quarters, saluted and said, 'Colonel, here is your stud hiirse.' Our chief (|uartermaster. IMajor Garber, from Madison, an old friend of mine, whose duty it was to take care of all captured propertv and report the number of horses on his rolls, had told me that anything in his corral that had four legs and a tail counted for a horse, and ha\ing one of that sort on hand at that time I just turned him into the corral and rode Colonel Alston's horse through the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and Louisiana, and I never mounted him but I thought that I was riding the state of South Carolina with sabre at my side and spurs on my heels.

"While at Cumberland Ford a part of the Forty-ninth Indiana ( Company B, under command of Capt. James Thompson) and a part of the Second Regiment East Tennessee Infantry, made a raid against Cumberland Gap. which was heavily fortified and occupied by a large force of the enemy under General Raines, C. S. A. Colonel Carter of the Second East Tennessee Infantry, with myself in charge of the above troops, was sent to Big Creek Gap which was blockaded and guarded by the First Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, Colonel Rodgers in command. Colonel Carter left Cumberland Ford on the moming of the 14th of March, 1862, without a wagon or any artillery, and the paths through which our guides were to lead us could only be trodden in places single file, and the officers, horses and thirty cavalrymen we had with us would often be several mdes ahead of the main column to find a path through which to lead their horses. I think that the route the guides took us was ahout sixty-five miles from the ford to Big Creek gap, our objective point. We left the ford with all the provisions we could carry in our haversacks and were alisent on the expedition eleven days, passing through a country scantily supplied with provisions in times of peace so you will understand tliat many of the boys went hungry a greater part of the time on the trip. When we reached the foot of the mountain after crossing it, we turned into the fields in the valley with only two hundred men left of our original command, the remainder being lost somewhere u]) in the mountains. It being nearly time for rexeille. we decided to attack with our force and Colonel Carter and I both taking half, he attacking the part of the enemy camping at the school-house and I that at Sharp's residence. It was just beginning to get light when we made the attack and I could see the Johnnies skedaddling up the bluff bank in the rear of their tents and running toward Jacksbnrough, where the rest of their troops were camped. There was a voung lieutenant in the Second Tennessee with about thirty men. who stayed with me and I ordered him to charge down the road, which he did in gallant style, capturing some of the enemy that would ha\e esca]ied. Capt. J. A\'. Tliompson with Company B, of the Forty-ninth Indiana, who was left on the mountai'i, heard the firing and he and his men came on the run, Steve Gil)bs leading the van, and when he got near to me he called out, 'Here we come, where do you want us?" After it was all over we formed the command across a field facing Fincastle. \\'e could hear plainly t!ie clatter of the horses' feet a long time before they came in sight and when our line fired they turned and returned to Fincastle as fast as they came. \\'e broke ranks and it was a jollv sight to see our boys gatherin.g the spoils of war. Plenty of corn meal, flour, sugar, coffee and tobacco, two hundred double-barreled shot guns, seventy-five horses with saddles and ec|uii)ment. We also captured Lieutenant Colonel \\'hite, one lieutenant, thirtv men and the regimental liatlle flag which was captured by Capt. James W. Thompson, Company B, Forty-ninth Indiana Infantry. The captain gave me the flag and I had it deposited in the state librar\- at Indianapolis, where it still remains, the first trophy of the valor of the Forty-ninth Indiana. This was the maiden fight of the regiment. We then advanced to Jacksborough where we captured Captain \\'inston and two other soldiers and the camp supplies and camp e(|uipage. the force having run away from us as we approached. We returned to Cumberland Ford and finding that the army had gone to the Gap, we followed, arriving there in time to see the first unsuccessful attempt to capture that stronghold. General Carter honored me by detailing me with a detail of men from the Forty-ninth to take the prisoners to the Louisville military prison, which was cpute a treat to us as it enabled us to get to our homes once more and ha\e a time with our friends. "The Forty-ninth Indiana was located at Cotteral Spring, three miles south of Cumberland Gap. and while there General Morgan ordered me to take a squadron of cavalry to g(i on to picket post to learn the nature of the flag of truce. The General instructed me that after the business of the truce was over to go toTazewell, Tennessee, with the rebels if they invited me. When I had concluded the business with the Confederate officer and we were about to separate, he invited us to go to Tazewell and spend the night. I thanked him. accepted the invitation and dismissed my escort of cavaliy from which I had detailed two to act as orderlies. Maj. S. S. Lyon, topographical engineer on Genera! ^lorgan's staff, and Lieutenant Montgomery, one of my aids, accompanied me, which made five of us and forty-one Confederates in the party. The rebels had, previously to this, approached our picket post several times and fired on it. Col. James Carter, of the Second East Tennessee Lifantry, with Company F, of the Forty-ninth Lidiana, set a trap to kill and capture them. On the night that I received a flag of truce at the ford. General ]\birgan sent a messenger to Colonel Carter to notify him that a flag of truce was there, but the messenger failed to find him in the woods, so the colonel kept on to a point on the road that the flag of truce party had taken. He inquired of a native whether he had seen any 'Johnnies' lately and was told that a company had gone to the ford about an hour before. Colonel Carter, in selecting a place to kill or capture the party, placed part of his men, in four ranks, with bayonets fixed, across the road to impale the horses should any reach that point. The remainder of his eight hundred men he deployed along the roadside. Company F, of the Forty-ninth Indiana was on his right side with orders to fire and wheel across the road in our rear to prevent escape that way. Our party came jogging along nicely : I was riding at the head of the column with Doctor Compton on my right and the Confederate sergeant with the flag of truce on my left. No one had a thought of the trap we were riding into, and the first intimation we had of danger was a volley from about eighty rifles so close to us that the fire from the muzzles reached past us. Down went about half of our party. The hoi'se that I was riding got a flesh wound in the first fire which caused him to nm in spite of all I could do to stop him. He carried me along that line of men who were not more than fifteen feet from the middle of the road in which the horse was running, followed by some of the riderless horses of the party. On we went, and every man by the roadside took a crack at us till the horse had run the gauntlet with me on his back, and no less than five hundred guns had been emptied at us as we flew liy them. The horse carried me to within two hundred feet of the men with fixed bayonets across the road, when a volley from about twelve guns flashed tlieir fire past us. and the last thing I remember was dropping my feet out of the stirrups and the horse and I came down with a crash on the hard turnpike road. I must have fallen on my head for I was knocked senseless. I was trodden on the back by the riderless horses following me, which paralyzed both of my legs for several weeks after it happened. It was several hours afterwards that

I was found and tlie men who found me said that I was lying on my face apparently dead. They doubled their blankets and carried me to a log house near where they had gathered all of the wounded. It was daylight before I was brought to consciousness and Major Lyon and I were placed side by side and hauled by ambulance over the rough roads, six miles to the Gap. It was reported that I was dead and Major Lyon seriously wounded. His wounds received that night finally caused his death, and here I am writing about it fortyone years afterward. The retreat of the army through the mountains of Eastern Kentucky was a long and arduous one, the troops subsisting mosth' on green corn during the entire distance of two hundred and fifty miles, occupying seventeen days and nights of almost constant marching and fighting. The regiment reached Greenupsburg, Kentucky, on the Obin river on the night of October 4. 1862. and proceeded from there to Oak Hill, Ohio, where they received a new outfit, all their camp and garrison equipage having been destroyed when we evacuated the Gap. At Oak Hill I received my commission as colonel of the regiment on my birthday, October i8, 1862. From Oak Hill the regiment marched to GalHpolis, Ohio, and crossed into ^\'estern Virginia, going up the Kanawha ri\-er as far as Cole's Mouth, where it went into winter quarters, but in a few da^s received marching orders and proceeded down the river to Point Pleasant where, on the 17th of Xovember, 1862, it embarked on transports for ^lemphis, Tennessee, arriving there the 30th of the same month. We embarked at Point Pleasant on the steamers, Sunny Side and New York. Nothing of importance occurred on the trip until we got almost in sight of old Jeffersonville, and I well knew that there was not a soldier in the regiment who would not be delighted to take one more look at Spring street before continuing his journey. When we left Cincinnati. I requested the Secretary of War to pemiit me to let the men, who nearly all lived near the bank of the river, to let me land and furlough thenr home for three days to see their families and sweethearts before continuing our journey. The secretary declined to grant the request. I knew that if I landed at either Louisville or Jeffersonville, nearly all of the regiment would go to their homes in spite of all that I could do, so I concluded to anchor the boats near the middle of the river, double the guard and trust to luck. The bar-keeper on the Sunny Side had a barrel of whiskey on the boiler deck in front of his bar. Just as we could see the lights of Jeffersonville the boys got that barrel of whiskey down to the lower deck, had it back in the deck room with the head knocked in, and were taking it straight and filling their canteens. I called the officers to me and we made haste to the barrel where the men were as thick as flies around a molasses barrel in summer. W'e threw it overboard, searched all the canteens and poured out all the whiskey we could find. Without this precaution there was no telling what the men would have done to the boats that night. They did cut the anchor line on the New York, but it was discovered in time to save her from the Falls of the Ohio.

"Tliere was a small covered opening on the top of the wheel house of the Sunny Side that I knew nothing about and failed to guard it. As soon as we dropped anchor there appeared all of the skiffs in Jeffersonville, loaded with all the old soldiers' friends and cronies frcmi Jeffersonville. When they found that thev would not be permitted to take their friends ashore, they hid their skiffs under the wheelhouse and Steve Gibbs, Tom McCawley, Beverly Sullivan, Jim AMieat and al)i.ut twenty ntlier Jeffersonville boys went down through the wheel, and from what I heard, had a high old time in Jeffersonville that night. They had all returned for roll call in the morning. The next day we passed through the canal, where wt took aboard the soldiers' wives, friends, and sweethearts. One of the most heroic deeds that I have ever witnessed in saving a life occurred as we were passing" through. Lieutenant Thomas Bare, Company B, was an officer of the guard that day, and I must say that no braver or more generous soldier ever wore Uncle Sam's blue than Tom Bare. There was a soldier in his company from our old town, named Thomas Smith, who had married a few months before his enlistment. During his absence from home his wife bore him a little babe: it was natural that his wife should want the husband to see the child, and of course the husband was anxious to see it. She crossed the river and walked from the ferryboat down to the canal, carrying the young babe, wrapped in a red shawl in her arms. The river was low and as the boat bumped along the sides of the canal many stepped from the shore to the boat, and Bare and the men were assisting them to get aboard. \\'hen Mrs. Smith arrived the boat was swinging away from the wall, and Lieutenant Bare told her to hand him the little child and that the men would assist her in getting aboard. She passed the little one to the lieutenant and as he took it the boat swung away from the wall about three feet. Bare thought he had the urchin secure, but it was so small that it slipped out of the shawl into the canal. Down the poor little fellow went and Bare, with uniform, sash and sword, after him. Down he went under the water, he scooped up the little one in his arms, passed it up, saved its life, and was hauled out of the water by his comrades. The mother fainted, fell on the shore, the boat was stopped, she was brought aboard, restored to consciousness and you can imagine that meeting of husband and wife and the darling babe whose life had been saved by the brave and generous Lieutenant Bare, and you can imagine the cheers that went up from a thousand men for the officer's brave act. He lived to be eighty-three years old, and died during the Spanish war. The father, Samuel Smith, never saw the child after that day: he was killed at Vicksburg on the 19th of May, 1863. I ne\-er heard f)f the widow afterward. After the boats passed through the canal, I ordered them to land at New Albany, and ordered the soldiers' families and friends ashore. After they were sent ashore the boats ran down the river about twentv miles and dropped anchor for the night. A short time afterwards an officer approached me and told me that there were two women from Xew Albany with their sweethearts, Thomas Killick and Charles Yack. hidden abaft the ladies' cabin. I went back and found them sitting as close together as lovers are apt to get on all occasions at that happy period of man and woman's life, when they don't care if all the world knows they are lovers. I approached them and said : 'Ladies, did you not hear the order for all persons to go ashore at New Albany?' The girls spoke up and said that they had heard the order, but they were engaged to be married to the boys, that they were going to Memphis with us, and would get married down there. I said, 'You will not go to Memphis with us. for I will put you on the first l)oat we meet going up or at the first town we come to in the morning.' Tlie\' seemed to be so disconsolate over the order that I left them alone until after supper and found that the\' were in earnest about going to ^Memphis with us and marrying the two young soldiers. I thought about the matter for a while and concluded that it would be better for them to marry that night and prevent a scandal upon the good morals and virtues of the best regiment in the service : a regiment that had always up to tliat time been noted for its good conduct and piety. What could we do ? We had a good chaplain who could perfomi the ceremony that uould make four souls with but a single thought, four thoughts that beat as one, happy, if not for life, at least for the time being. I finally came to the conclusion that they ought to marry and save their reputations, and that of the regiment I had such a fatherly care over. We had the minister, but where could we get the license for parties to be joined together in 'holy wedlock,' anchored amid the stream with the nearest court-house twentv miles awav? I took the matter under careful consideration, and finally came to the conclusion that as all the laws of the land were in a chaotic state, and not strictly observed in the territorv where the boats were anchored, I ci~included to make the jijining of the couples a military necessity, and issued an order to my chaplain to perform the ceremon}'. He objected at first to the proposition, but finally consented to join the couples in the Imlv bonds of matrimony, pro\-ided all the officers of the regiment signed a request for him to perform the ceremony, which they willingly did. He said he wanted the paper to protect himself from charges that might be brought against him in the conference to which he belonged. The tables were put nut of the way in the cabin, and the parties called forth and joined together as husband and wife. Two of the best rooms in the ladies' cabin were assigned them, and we all retired for the night feeling certain that we had four happy souls aboard, regardless of the dangers and hardships we knew were to follow. Arriving at Memphis the newly wedded pairs got boarding for their wives in the city and were permitted to spend their time with them. The young soldiers had plenty of money which thev expended freelv on their wives for clothing and jewelry and seemed well satisfied with the choice they liad made for life partners. It is an old adage that absence conquers love, and it seems to have been true in their case.

"'I'lie regiment fought its way down the ]\Iississippi river to New Orleans and fn ini there to Texas. About eighteen months after the happy event had tai-cen place I received a letter from one of the ladies saying that she had consulted a lawyer and that he said she was not legally married and if I did not let the soldier come home and marry her she would prosecute me to the £xtent of the law, and wound up the missive with the old adage, 'A word to the wise is sufficient.' About a month after my letter was received, her husband received a letter stating that she had found a man she loved better than him, and had married him. I am no lawyer, but it has always been a question in my mind whether or not the lady was guilty of bigamy. The other lady remarried a short time after and the young soldiers have long since joined the 'invisible caravan,' who have passed on before, and I have made up my mind that in making military laws for matrimony, I haven't proved a success.

"On the 19th of December. 1862, the regiment embarked with General Sherman's army on the first campaign against Vicksburg, landing at Chickasaw Bayou on Christmas day, and engaging in the seven days' battle that followed, in which its losses in killed and wounded were cjuite severe (fifty-six). The attempts to take the enemy's works were unsuccessful, and I will never forget the jollification the "rebs" had that beautiful, frosty, moonlight night, when all the citizens of Vicksburg, including the ladies, came out to jollify over our defeat. You can imagine how we felt in the bottom, below the works, where we could hear every word the speakers uttered, the cheers of the men and the ringing laughs of the ladies as they rejoiced over tlie bravery of their soldiers, who had proved conclusively by that day's fighting that one 'Jnlmnie' could lick five 'Yanks' every day in the week.

"The regiment re-embarked on the transports and left Chickasaw Bayou on the 2d of January, 1863, and proceeded to Young's Point. Louisiana, In mi where it went on the expedition against Arkansas Post. Arkansas. In the capture of that stronghold on the nth of January. 1863. with General Churchill and over five thousand prisoners of war. the Forty-ninth performed gallantly their part. The day of the battle was a beautiful, warm day. and after the prisoners had been corralled on the bank of the river, many of them without coats or blankets, it commenced raining anfl then followed the hardest snow storm that ever fell in that latitude. It then turned very cold and froze everything .stifY as pokers. Our men sufifered severely from the cold and you can judge of the suffering of those five thousand prisoners, their clothing first soaked by rain and then frozen to their skins. This was a big victory for our army at that time, and following so soon after the licking we got at Chickasaw Bayou, it removed some of the humiliation we felt after the Chickasaw Bayou campaign.

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Ind. Iqi

ditch across the point, b}- which lie hoped to turn the IMississippi ri\er away from Vicksburg, in order to pass our naval fleet and transports out of reach of tlie fortifications at that place. The canal was a failure and all the labor expended on it was in vain. The regiment remained at Young's Point until April 2, 1863. when it moved with Grant's army down the west bank of the river to a point opposite Grand Gulf, Mississippi, which the army had strongly fortified. Admiral Porter fought the river batteries for five and one-half hours and withdrew from the contest with his fleet badly disabled. The army marched down the river, passing Grand Gulf to Dishroon's plantation, five miles below. During the night the army and navy transports ran the blockade at the gulf, landed alongside the army and bivouaced on the levee. The next morning the army went on board gunboats and transports, which took them to the landing at Bruinsburg, near the mouth of Bayou Pierre.

"It was on the 30th day of April, w-e crossed the river to the side of the enemy in Mississippi. Rations were issued and the army left the river about 4 o'clock, marching on the road to Port Gibson. The enemy at the Gulf spiked their guns, destroyed their magazines and other property, marched to Port Gibson and down the road we were marching on, meeting our army about four miles from Port Gibson at 2 :oo o'clock, a. m., May ist. The battle opened at daylight, and continued until 4 p. m.. when the enemy retired from the field, and our army scored the first victory on Mississippi soil. The Forty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry was the first to open the battle on the left of an army at Thompson's Hill, or Port Gibson, Mississippi. It was the Forty-ninth Indiana that killed Confederate General Tracy. Early in the morning they were relieved after firing all of their ammunition but six rounds, by the Forty-Second Ohio. Colonel Pardee. They supported the First Wisconsin battery until abijut 3 p. m., when they were ordered by General Osterhouse to charge the rebel battery in front that had held its position on the field near a farm house filled with rebel sharpshooters, who had sent many of our comrades to eternal rest during the day. The batteiy was called the 'Botetourte Virginia Artillen'.' The charge of the Forty-ninth Indiana on that battery is so iuflelibly photographed on my memory that I can see it every time I think of it. At this writing (1903). forty-one years afterward, I can see the Forty-ninth with bayonets fixed, in column by division on the center. I can see the ravine in front, across which we were to charge the battery on the other side. I can still liear m_\' voice command, 'Attention ! Battalion ! Forward. ]March !' The left foot of every man steps ofi^ and we are of¥ to capture that battery or die in the attempt. After moving a short distance I gave the command. 'Deplo}' into line on center division : campanies right and left face, double quick, march !' The companies obeyed the command and performed the evolution as nicely and quickly as they would have performed it on drill, with no enemy near them. As the companies tlouble quicked into line on the center division, the next command is given: 'Forward! Double quick! March!' We are now near enough to hear the officers order the pieces loaded with canister. On, on, the Forty-ninth go in the face of shot and shell with their victorious shouts - over the battery and beyond it to the house where they capture seventeen sharpshooters between the upper tier of joists and rafters, who had removed enough shingles to give them a clear view of our battle line. About forty feet in the rear of the house was another valley about two hundred yards wide, beyond it an open field about two hundred yards to a dense forest. The Forty-ninth passed the house and about thirty feet in the rear of it was a high rail fence, running along the bank at the top of the valley, up which the Sixth Missouri Regiment was marching in as soldierly a manner is if on dress parade. Not more than thirty or fortv men were up with the colors at the time we met the Sixth IMissouri, with nothing but the fence to separate us. As soon as the colonel of the regiment saw that we had captmxd the battery and the house we had been fighting for all day, he halted and ordered them to fire and they did it without wounding a man in the Forty-ninth, faced about and down they went into the valley, where half of them threw down their guns and fell on their faces in token of surrender. The rest of them followed their colonel, a gallant fellow, who lay flat over the front of his saddle, hugging his horse's neck tighter than he ever hugged his sweetheart in his young days. The colonel and about half of his men escaped to the woods on the other side of the field. I never was so busy as I was at that time, urging the men to load and fire at that colonel and his men as they were running before us. Many fell in crossing the field, killed or wounded. After the firing was over General Osterhouse rode up and standing in his stirrups shouted, 'Put that Forty-ninth flag on the top of the house : no other shall go up there,' and up it went to the chimney top, where it could be seen all over the field, giving notice that the battle was won and the enemy on the run to Port Gibson. We followed them as fast as we could w'ith that jubilant feeling that no one can describe after the battle is won, a sensation the evangelist tells us the sinner feels after life's cares are over and he has reached the portals of that Heavenly abode of rest. On the contrary when the battle is lost and you are on the skedaddle and the enemy following at your heels, it is like that hot place with the short name where the wicked and weary are never at rest. After the Forty-ninth Indiana had made that charge which ended the battle of Thompson's Hill and the men had halted, it was then that General Grant rode up, raised his hat and saluted the regiment and said, 'Men, I thank you for what you have just accomplished.'

"Alay 2d, we reached Port Gibson, crossed Bayou Pierre and with the advance division of the army commanded by Gen. Peter J. Osterhouse, we drove the Confederate army before us as far as Raymond. Mississippi, where the enemy offered battle and were defeated bv Gen. John A. Logan's division.

The Forty-nintli took an active part in that engagement as well as those that followed at Champion's Hill, May i6th, losing twenty men killed and wounded there. At Black River bridge. May i/th, the Forty-ninth Regiment was ordered by General Lawler to support his brigade, which was going to charge. Before I had reached the regiment after receiving the order, his men sprung up like magic and were off. Just as they started an aid on the general's staff rode up and said that the general desired that I go in the charge and the Forty-ninth and Sixty-ninth Indiana were oft' like race horses when the button is touched that tlirows up the barrier across the track on the race course. Myself and Adjutant George \\'. Riddle being the only mounted officers on that part of the field our men being nearest to the rifle pits, from where we started gave us some advantage in being the first to reach it. There was a small bayou running parallel to the rifle pits with about a foot of water in it and full of fallen trees. We knew nothing of this c:)bstacle until we were close to it. Fortunately for us, just before we reached it our rebel friends ceased firing and in token of surrender pulled little tufts of cotton from the cotton bales along the rifle pits and put it Ijetween the rammer and the muzzle of their guns, which plainly indicated to us that they had quit firing for that day, which was one of the loveliest Sundays I have ever seen. On we went over them, Riddle's horse and mine jumping over their heads, and the Forty-ninth colors being the first inside the works. As soon as the enemy on the bridge and boats saw that we had captured the place, they first got their artillery horses across, then fired both bridge and boats leaving on our side of the river one thousand seven hundred prisoners and seventeen pieces of fine artillery, which some of the men in the Forty-ninth who were well drilled in artillery tactics turned upon tlie enemy and fired all the ammunition in the limber chests at them on the other side of the river. The pontoon was laid across the Big Black river just above the burnt bridge and we crossed on the morning of May 18, 1863, and marched ten miles which brought us in sight of the enemies' fortifications at Vicksburg and the Forty-ninth took an active part in the actions here, including the assaults on the 19th and 22d of May.

2 p. m., on the 19th of May, 1863, our brigade (First Brigade, Ninth Division, Thirteenth Amiy Corps) under command of General Lee was deployed in line of battle, followed by the Second Brigade as a supporting column. We moved to the top of the hill in our front, where we discovered the enemy waiting for us and ready to give us a hot reception by a salute from all the guns on our front with an accompaniment of small arms that made a racket which would put a Fourth of July celebration to shame. On we went until we reached the top of a hill, which left another valley between us and the enemy. Just as we started to go across the valley. General Lee fell, seriously wounded. The brigade went a short distance further and concluded that discretion was the better part of valor, halted and opened fire on the enemy. This continued until the 22d day of May, 1863, when General Grant assaulted the works with the whole of his army. He was repulsed with great slaughter, and then began the siege which lasted until the 4th day of July, when the army surrendered thirty-five thousand prisoners to General Grant. After the surrender of Vicksburg July 4, 1863. the regiment marched to Jackson, Mississippi, and took an active part in the seven days' fighting at that place and vicinitv. Returning to Vicksburg the regiment embarked August loth for Port Hudson, from whence it proceeded to New Orleans, when it was assigned to the Department of the Gulf. From New Orleans the regiment was transported on cars to Brasher City on Berwick's Bay or Atchafalia Bay, and took part in the expedition up the Tesche, going as far as Opelousa, Louisiana, passing through the towns of Pattersonville, Franklin and New Iberia, on that river. I must relate another characteristic event that occurred when the regiment was in camp at Carrion Crow Bayou, Louisiana, November ist to November 15, 1863, with the Thirteenth Army Corps under command of Major Gen. E. O. C. Ord. We camped on that bayou about four weeks and I don't think there was an officer or soldier in the command who knew what we were there for, as there was no enemy within two hundred miles of the place. It is an old saying that idleness is the devil's workshop, and I am certain that he had personal supervision over the shop at that time. It seemed to me that the corps became somewhat demoralized about that time. Old Nick started a gambling epidemic in his shop, and the consec|uence was that all. from the highest officer to the lowest private in the rear rank engaged in the sport. The disease became so violent a type that it became necessary to check it if possible. The soldiers could hardly be kept in line long enough for roll call. They raced our horses, fought cocks, played chuck-a-luck, honest frank, old sledge, euchre, draw poker, faro, red and black, in fact all the games that covild be played with cards or dice. I often think what an unfortunate thing it was for our poor soldiers of the Civil war that craps was unknown to the gambling fratemitx' at that time. The mania became such a nuisance that Col. Thomas Bennett, of the Sixty-ninth Indiana Infantry and myself went to General Ord and requested him to issue an order prohibiting all sorts of gambling in the corps. He issued the order: it was read that night on dress parade, and cast a gloom over the men of the command as great as if half of their comrades had been killed and wounded in battle. The order, however, had the effect of stopping the gambling. A few' days after this order was promulgated. Colonel Bennett and I were walking together and noticed quite a number of soldiers under the shade of a tree. Coloael Bennett said, T wonder if those fellows have a chuck-a-luck game running over there?' I replied, 'No, I don't think the boys would dare violate General Ord's order.' 'Let us go over,' said he 'and see what they are doing. As we approached them, I said, 'Hello, boys, playing chuck?" One of them spoke up and said,

Baird S History Of Clark Co., Ind

'You Stopped the onh' amusement we had in camp and we have found a new game that does not violate the order." I said. 'What is it?' The soldier answered, 'We are running louse races." 'Well/ said Colonel Bennett, 'that's one of the games I never heard of; how do you play it?" Come into the ring and we will show you,' replied the soldier. We stepped in and found a cracker box in the center of which was a circular piece of paper about ten inches in diameter, fastened to the box by a pin in the center. Those who entered for the race just put up a quarter of a dollar in the judge's hands, and when the pool was made up those in the race searched under their shirt for the gamest-looking thoroughbred grey-back he could find and then held it over the pin in the center of the paper. When the judge said, 'Go!' they let the grey-back drop and the first off the paper got the pot. The game being novel to both Bennett and I. being somewhat sporty ourselves, we concluded to take a hand, and I said, 'Bennett. I'll bet you five dollars that a Forty-ninth thoroughbred can beat a Sixty-ninth one over the course.' Colonel Bennett said it was a go. We put the money in the judge's hands and I said to a Forty-ninth soldier, 'Now get me a thorough-bred.' The Si.xty-ninth man had his ready, the judge said 'Go!' and the Sixty-ninth greyback won the money for Colonel Bennett. There had alwaj's been a rivalry between the two regiments and when the Sixty-ninth bug won the money, they cheered as loudly as they ever did when they put the Johnnies to flight. The Forty-ninth boys were as mum as they ever were when the "Johnnie Rebs" won the victory. About a week after the race, the Forty-ninth soldier, who entered the greyback in the race for me, having some business at my c|uarters, I discovered a large greyback on the collar of his blouse, and was reprimanding him for his carelessness about the care of his person. He looked the bug over very carefully, picked him up and put him under his shirt, remarking, '^^1^y colonel, Fve had that fellow in training for the last week to beat that Sixty-ninth Indiana fellow and win back that five dollars from Colonel Bennett that he won from you the other day.'

"The regiment, after leaving camp at Carrion Crow Bayou, was ordered back to New Orleans, from whence, on December 19, 1863. it embarked on steamers for the coast of Texas, reaching Decroe's Point, Matagorda Peninsula, on the 14th of December, 1863, after a rough voyage across the Gulf of Mexico. From Decroe's Point the reg-iment crossed Matagorda Bay to Indianola, where, on the 3d of February, 1864, one h.undred and sixty-seven men and four officers re-enlisted for three years, or during the war. In March. the regiment moved to Fort Esperanza. on Matag'orda Island, where it remained until April 19th, when it re-embarked and crossed the gulf back to New Orleans, where it took passage on the steamer, 'Emma.' for Alexandria, Louisiana, to re-inforce General Bank's army on Red river, which had met with disastrous defeat on that river campaign. The regiment, after arriving at

Alexandria, were moved to the front and engaged thirteen days in driving the enemy from the ^-icinity of where our army was constructing dams on the falls of that river, where our naval fleet had been left above them by low water. After the gun boats were safely landed below the falls, the regiment on May 13. 1864, retreated with the army to ]\Iorganza Bend on the Mississippi river. From ^Nlorganza Bend the regiment was again ordered to New Orleans, and went into camp at Chalmette. Jackson's old battle ground below the city, from whence in a few days the veteran portion of the regiment proceeded to Indiana on veteran furlough, reaching Indianapolis July 9. 1864. At the expiration of their furlough, the veterans were ordered to Lexington, Kentucky, passing through Jeffersonville. The citizens of the city gave them a royal reception : the tables were loaded with even'thing to tickle the palate and stomach of an old soldier. They were waited on by all the loyal matrons and beautiful lassies in the city, and the veterans have not to this day forgotten the reception given to them by the patriotic loyal women of Jeffersonville. The tables were on the ground where the city hall now stands, which makes that spot of ground hallowed abo\'e all others in my native town, except the place of my birth, a few hundred feet below on the same street. That good, patriotic, loyal old citizen of Jeffersonville. known to ever}' one in the city. Dr. Nathaniel Field, made the reception address, which was cheered and applauded by all the old veterans and their friends who turned out to welcome them. That good woman. Mrs. J. H. McCampbell. one of the pioneers of our old town, who had known me all of my life, claimed the honor of waiting on your humble sen^ant at the table and it is unnecessary to say that I was well served, in fact all the ladies of old Jeffersonville did everv'thing in their power to make the reception pleasant for the boys, and the boys enjoyed and fully appreciated their efforts.

"The veterans were sent to Lexington, Kentucky, where they had light service the remainder of their enlistment, serving as provost guards, and in charge of the militar}- prisons in that city until the war closed. On the 7th of September, 1865, they were ordered to Louisville and from thence to Indianapolis, where on September 13, 1865, they were finally discharged from the L'nited States service after serving their country honorably three years and ten months. Well may the survivors and friends of the Forty-ninth be proud of the old regimental organization that was raised and officered by so many natives of our loyal old city, who served their country so faithfully and honorably through four years of bloody war in defence of the old flag, the emblem of our nationality, that floats triumphantly over the greatest and freest people on the face of the earth.

"After the departure of the veterans from Chalmette in July, 1864. the non-veteran portion of the regiment was ordered to Algiers. Louisiana, just across the river from New Orleans, where it did garrison duty in the city un- til November 5, 1864, when it embarked on an ocean steamer for Xew York- City, arriving there November 20th, after a roug-h vovage. From New York the regiment went by rail to Indianapolis, where on the 29th day of November, 1864. it was honorably discharged from the service of the United States, having sen-ed three years, one month and eight days. On the voyage from New Orleans to New York one man died, and Black Ann, a company cook, had a child born on the voyage. Our surgeon. Dr. Emanuel R. Hawn. reported to the health officer at New York that the regiment was all present or accounted for - one died and one born, which made the number they started out with from New Orleans correct. The doctor was a great wag. and it would take a volume to tell all the amusement he furnished for the regiment." Thus ends the history of the largest and most notable militan,^ organization that Clark county ever furnished. At this writing ( 1908) but few of the survivors remain and another decade will find the roster of living members of the gallant Forty-ninth but a blank, yet they have indelibly inscribed their names on the roll of fame of their city and county, and history will forever record their hardships and deeds, their victories and ultimate success, and the Clark county citizen of years to come must needs remember that this brave band of men who went out from our borders to fight and die for the cause of liberty and justice and the Union did not suffer in vain, and though they have passed through the valley of the shadow of death, have crossed the ri\-er and rest under the shade of the trees, their deeds li\-e after them.

James Keigwin, their colonel, was a man of the highest patriotic ideals, of braverv' unquestioned, and the peer of any in gallantry. A high type of the American soldier he lived and died beloved of all, a ' fitting character for emulation among the younger men at arms of later davs.