Crawford County, Indiana - Chapter 14: The Civil War, 1926 (part 2 of 2)

'The Adjutant General replied promptly, sending me official leave of absence for twenty days and directing me to report at the expiration of the leave of absence to the nearest hospital post. This I did by reporting to Major Fry, Commandant of the New Albany Hospital post. My father accompanied me thither and succeeded in having me examined for discharge. The board of surgeons de-. cided that I was not fit for duty in the field and that I should not be sent there, but that I might be of good service in some hospital of that post. I was accordingly sent to Hospital No. 5 and assigned to light duties, such as sweeping the walks and aiding the quartermaster in providing rations for the men there.

Doctor Pleasant Shields, who seemed to fear that he might lose his job. At weekly intervals he had the convalescents line upon the pavement for physical examination, to ascertain who might be sent to their regiments at the front. I, thinking it my duty to get into that line, was twice marked to be sent to my regiment. Each time Major Fry struck my name from the list sent him, and on the second occasion rebuked the surgeon of my hospital. Peeved at this, the surgeon began to find fault, privately, with the work I was doing about the hospital. Learning of this, I wrote to my father, telling him of these facts, and. vowing that I didn't enlist to sweep walks, and was now determined to go to my regiment. My father, feeling that I could not long survive in the swamps at Milliken's Bend, near Vicksburg, and knowing my enlistment was not in accord with his expressed wishes, came promptly to New Albany, bringing with him an efficient witness, and immediately invoked a writ of habeas corpus to secure my release from the United States military service on the ground of minority. The case was tried at once in the civil court there, and I was discharged June 30, 1863. The original copy of the writ of habeas corpus releasing me from the military service 1s now on file in the War Department, and a verified copy of the court record at New Albany, Floyd County, Indiana, the same being a duplicate of the original habeas corpus action, is now in my possession.

"The Captain of Company F, Forty-ninth Indiana Infantry was fully advised at all times of my condition and whereabouts, and, in response to my request, sent me, while in the New Albany hospital, my descriptive list and payroll, which enabled me to draw pay due me, thus recog- nizing my acceptable continued connection with the military service. I have now in my possession a certified transcript of my service record in the Forty-ninth Indiana Infantry on file in the Adjutant General's office of Indiana, showing that I was enlisted in Company F of said regiment, November 19, 1861, and mustered into the United States service four days later (November 3) and discharged from said service at New Albany, Indiana, June 30, 1863.

'"While I was at New Albany the rebel Captain Hines made a raid into Indiana, passing through Crawford County and escaping with part of his company via the Blue River Island in the Ohio just above Leavenworth. Report of the daring raid excited me to a high pitch, so when a report came a few days later that a large force of rebel cavalry had entered our state via Flint Island, and a call for all soldiers at New Albany able to carry muskets to go by train to Orleans to meet and help repel the invaders, I went as one of the four hundred that were gathered up at New Albany.

''At Orleans, Orange County, we were furnished something to eat, after which we impressel horses that had been ridden into town by the excited farmers and went promptly southward eight miles to Paoli. A heavy dust covered the road and we were literally enveloped in clouds of it throughout that march. We bivouacked in the Paoli fairground; and, although it was June, the night was very cool, and in spite of the little fires made we, lying in the grass without other covering than our clothing, actually suffered. Next morning we learned that the alleged second invasion was a false report, and we returned to New

'*T reached home with my father about July 3, 1863, and five days later a report reached us that the rebel General, John H. Morgan, was crossing the Ohio at Brandenburg, Kentucky, with about five thousand of his seasoned cavalry, for a devastating raid through Indiana. General Hobson was following Morgan with a cavalry force of Federal troops numbering four or five thousand. But Hobson was at least a day's march behind Morgan. A general order was issued by Governor Morton calling out the Indiana Legion, the organized militia of the state, which was at that time about sixty thousand strong. The Marengo Light Guards (the militia company at Marengo) under Captain I. H. Girdner, were quickly assembled by bass drum beating and anvil firing. My father, an officer in the company, asked me whether I wanted to go. 'Certainly,' said I, 'I'd as soon fight rebels on Indiana soil as anywhere else.' He then told me to get a horse and come with him. That night we bivouacked at Leavenworth, and the captain gave me a cletail of seven men to picket the Mauckport road near the Blue River bridge. Next morning our Marengo company was divided - those on foot were sent, under command of my father, Captain Enoch Weathers, on the road to New Albany, while we who were mounted remained with Captain Girdner and went with the mounted force, commanded (as I recall it) by a Major of the Frist Indiana Cavalry, who happened to be at his home in Leavenworth on leave of absence.

or three miles of that town, we heard rapid firing of artillery. We were halted half a mile from town and two men (scouts) were sent forward to take a look at what was going on in Corydon. The scouts soon came galloping back, with a report saying that the town was literally crowded with cavalrymen galloping hither and thither. We were then ordered to countermarch. After going a short distance, we turned to the right and rode single file along a path that led through the woods to another road leading to Corydon. Forming and turning toward the captured town, we went almost in sight of it, and halted to bivouae.

'Next morning we went into the wrecked first capital of Indiana, which the Confederates had left during the night on their way to Salem. Soon after our entry into Corydon General Hobson's command came in, and we again pushed on after Morgan. We entered Salem shortly after midnight and learned that Morgan, after burning the railroad station and relieving the bank of its accumulation of ''filthy lucre,''? had departed eastward. Catching a little sleep, getting some food from the good people there, and replacing our lame horses with such as we could readily secure, we again took up the trail, now leading eastward.

''Onward we pressed along dusty roads, through Lexington, Versailles, North Vernon, Milan, and on, almost night and day, till we reached the Whitewater River, separating our state from Ohio, at a point opposite Harrison, Ohio, but there found the long covered wooden bridge across the river wrapped in flames. We saw many Confederate soldiers galloping through the streets of Harrison, but we were blocked. Soon, however, a citizen of that community led us up the river about half a mile to a ford in the river, along which we pushed to the distressed town, but from which the rebel rear-guard had just departed. Here we remained over night. Next day the Indiana militiamen turned back homeward, leaving Morgan and his men to the tender mercies of the Buckeye militia, Ilobson's weary troopers, and the vicious little gunboats patroling the Ohio on a vigilant outlook for the daring rebel invaders. The Marengo Light Guards were later paid $5.50 each for those mounted in that short but rigorous campaign, I being one of the recipients of that emolument, this amount, at fifty cents a day, showing that our eampaign lasted eleven days.

"While at home I was almost constantly concerned in activities arising from that great war, cooperating usually with detachments of our active militia company. We were sent at one time into Harrison County in search of desperate deserters from the Federal Army. We were constantly on the outlook for Colonel Bowles, one of the leading spirits of the treasonable organization known as 'Knights of the Golden Circle." We conducted a campaign of four days in Crawford County against the Knights of the Golden Circle, who had risen up in hostile destructive demonstration against the conduct of national authorities in prosecuting the war against disunion. On one occasion a number of us went to Milltown to protect a Major in filling his appointment to make an authorized Federal reeruiting speech.

discharged. Emery P. Toney, of near English, Crawford County, who was my Lieutenant in the Forty-ninth Indiana Infantry, got busy recruiting a company under the new call. Meeting me at Marengo, he asked if I didn't want to try wt again. I assured him that I did; and he promised to make me a company musician. Then I again besieged my parents for permission to enlist, for I was not yet eighteen years of age. They, especially my mother, strongly opposed the proposition. I pleaded that the Confederacy was a mere shell at that time and I wanted to be present when it collapsed. I finally prevailed, and on the ninth of February, 1865, our company, D, of the 144th Indiana Infantry was mustered into the service at Camp Carrington, Indianapolis. In March we were sent to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and thence up the Shenandoah Valley. Jfere a fine army of one year volunteers, mostly from Indiana, Ohio and Illinois, was organized under Major General Hancock.

''In April that fine army moved up the valley toward Richmond, the rebel capital. At the end of the second day's march, when we had halted to bivouac, an orderly galloped up to our Colonel and handed him a message. After examining the message, he called us to attention and read the same to us, which announced the fall of Petersburg, the strong defenses of Richmond. We threw our caps high in the air and the valley around Winchester resounded with our joyous cheers, for we knew that the rebellion was crushed. We went no farther south. Lee surrendered on April 9, and our noble President Lincoln was assassinated five days later.

within an hour after the fatal shot was fired. The regiment was called up and our Colonel, George W. Riddle, read the crushing message. We felt that the cowardly act had been inspired by the malevolence of a prostrate enemy. Next morning a message came from the War Department, ordering that any soldier heard to express gratification at the death of President Lineoln should be arrested and immediately tried by court-martial, and, if found guilty, shot to death. Before noon a man of the 150th Indiana Infantry, camping beside us, was heard to say that he thought the war would have closed earlier if Jiineoln's death had occurred sooner. This was enough. Ife was arrested, tried, and found guilty. and the fact reported to Washington. The War Secretary wired a modification of his first order, by directing that the soldier should be stripped of his uniform, clad in citizen garments, and drummed out of the service. The order was obeyed by drumming the unwise young man out of the service, our combined drum-corps. officiating, playing the Rogue's March.

'Our drum major having failed to return from leave of absence, I was promoted to a position on Colonel Riddle's staff, as principal musician of the 144th Indiana Infantry.

'Our discharge certificates were made out and dated August 5, 1865, and soon thereafter we were loaded into freight cars, like those used in bringing us eastward, and carried to Indianapolis, where we were paid off in full up to August 15, 1865, (the only pay day we had during that service of six months. Pay of soldiers was withheld after the war closed until they were discharged, this being

""Soldiers of the Civil War had learned valuable lessons of independence, so after a few days' rest and talk with those who welcomed their return home, they went to work at some profitable activity. Soon after my return I entered Indiana University (January 2, 1866). While there I was, for a short time, a member of a military company at the university. But finding this unprofitable, I got out of it, that I might have more time for study and bachelorhall requirements.

'* About the year 1872, while I was teaching in the Marengo Academy, a party committee at Leavenworth (the county seat at that time) asked me to allow my name to eo before an approaching convention as a candidate for the State Legislature. T consented, but when at the convention my name was suggested, a rival objected, saying that a 'Tlistory of Indiana in the War of the Rebellion,' just out, showed that 1 was a 'deserter' from Company F, Fortyninth Indiana Infantry. This was shocking news to me, as well as my father and other friends. My father, at an early date, called upon the Captain of my company in the Forty-ninth Indiana and asked him to explain that vicious record. The Captain stated that the charge of 'deserter' was entered against me and sent off in his bi-monthly report before he learned of my inability by reason of sickness to follow the regiment; that others, who had left the boat at Leavenworth when I did, went home for a few days, and then came back to the regiment, had been freely exonerated; and that the obnoxious record against me had gone hurriedly into this state history, but

"The matter quieted down, and for ten years I heard nothing more of it. But while I was engaged at school work at Cannelton, Perry County, about 1882, my father, speaking of the fact that many soldiers of the Civil War were applying for pensions, asked me why T didn't apply, assuring me that I could easily establish a good claim. I told him I was able to teach and make a living in that way and that the nation was deeply involved in debt. He said that should cut no figure in my ease, and asked me to 'meet him at Leavenworth some day soon and sign my name to an application. I did so, and soon received a statement from the Pension Office advising that nothing further could be done until a charge of 'desertion' was removed from my War Department record.

""Tfere I received my second shock. TI wrote immediately to the War Department, protesting against the false record. In response to this I was asked to explain my whereabouts after November 25, 1862.

"T promptly comphed with this eall and explained in detail each of my movements up to the close of the Civil War. Ina short time [ received a certificate of exoneration from the erroneous record, of which the following is an exact copy:

"*War Department, Adjutant General's Office, '* "Washington, April 14, 1886. "John It. Weathers, New Albany, Indiana. "Sir: Referring to the application for removal of charges of desertion and absence without leave of Novem- ber 24 and 25, 1862, standing against your record as of Company F, Forty-ninth Indiana Volunteers, I have the honor to inform you that, as an investigation of the case has established that said charge was erroneously made, it has been removed from your record in this office, and your record has been changed to show that you were discharged upon writ of Habeas Corpus, June 30, 1863, while in No. 5 General Hospital, New Albany, Indiana. '" "Very respectfully, your obedient servant, '*"O. D. Greene, Asst. Adjt. General.' ''

'Soon after getting this exonerating certificate, I received a pension for disease of the lungs. But, while the false charge of record against me was promptly expunged at Washington and Indianapolis, yet it still stands in the early published 'History of Indiana in the War of the Rebellion,' and must, of course, continue until that history shall have been revised and republished.

''During my years of work in the Bureau of Pensions at Washington, D. C., I personally learned of scores of erroneous 'desertion' records against volunteers of the Civil War, some of these charges having been made against brave men who, though unaccounted for soon after an engagement with the enemy, had actually been captured and carried away to some rebel prison. Much and great injustice was done faithful volunteer soldiers during the Civil War by hasty, petulant, or ill-advised reports forwarded to Washington by company officers.

'In order to make complete this epitome of my military career and aspirations, it is proper to add that in 1889 I enlisted and became First Lieutenant in a company of Na- tional Guard at New Albany, Indiana, from which after activities of a week's encampment at Camp Hovey, near Indianapolis, in 1890, I resigned to enter the Federal civil service at Washington, D. C., and that, while so employed, I tendered my service to the Governor of Indiana on the second call for troops in the War with Spain, which was declined by the Governor on the ground that the Presidential call did not necessitate new organizations but was simply for replenishing with recruits from Indiana. Even now, at the age of seventy-six, while physically unable to do much 'hiking,' I would not hesitate to enter, if necessary, any military line of defense against rebellion or invasion of our country.

"'T trust that the foregoing sketch of the vicissitudes and trials of probably the youngest Crawford County lad to wear the Federal blue in the greatest of American wars, may be accepted as a true recital. My sole thought and purpose throughout that terrible conflict was to serve my country usefully and creditably. I am therefore truly thankful for this providential opportunity to set forth in this new history facts in defense of my honor and repute as a Hoosier volunteer in the sixties.

''Looking back through the vista,of a long life of earnest and hopeful endeavor, I feel that the famous poet of the Avon spoke wisely when he said: 'There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may.'