Dubois County, Indiana - The Military History of Dubois County, 1910 (part 2 of 2)

The repeated raids made by the Confederates into the southern counties of Indiana caused much alarm in Dubois county. The people deemed it wise to organize home companies, which became part of the Indiana Legion. In August, 1863, the "McClellan Guards" were organized at Huntingburg. Leonard Bretz was captain, A. H. Miller was first lieutenant, and John R. Williams was second lieutenant. Their commissions bear date of August 27, 1863. The "Huntingburg Cavalry" was organized in September 1863. Morman Fisher was captain; Herman Rothert, first lieutenant, and Solomon Stillwell, second lieutenant. Their commissions are dated September 10, 1863. Captain Fisher entered the United States service as captain of company "M," loth Cavalry.

The "Ireland Guards" were soon organized with Daniel J. Banta, captain; George R. Mosbey, first lieutenant, and Samuel Dillon, Jr., second lieutenant. Lieut. Mosbey entered the United States service, and Samuel Dillon, Jr., became first lieutenant, and Lafayette Brittain, second lieutenant. The date of organization was October 3, 1863.

The "Anderson Rangers" were commissioned October 28, 1863. John Howard was captain; Jefferson Huff, first lieutenant, and Shelby Pruitt, second lieutenant. All these companies were part of the Fourth Regiment, First Brigade, Second Division, of the Indiana Legion. At Jasper, a company of about sixty members was organized. Dr. R. M. Welman was captain and Mathias Schmidt and Conrad Eckert were lieutenants; all had seen active service.

Michael Wilson, of Jasper, who had twice volunteered for services with the Union forces, but failed to pass successfully the physical examinations, became orderly sergeant of Captain Henry N. Whales' Company "A," 5th Regiment, Indiana Legion, under Col. Chas. Fournier and served during the war. Company "A" was also known as the "Newcomb Guards." In the Legion were many men who could not enter the main army, through physical causes, and many soldiers, who had been honorabl}^ discharged for disabilities from the Union army.

The "Indiana Legion" served its purpose and on March 6, 1S65, the general assembly of the state of Indiana resolved "That the thanks of the people of this state are hereby tendered to the officers and men of the Indiana Legion for the gallant and efficient manner in which they have discharged the important duties entrusted to them."

To the "Indiana IvCgion" the state chiefly owes the immunity it enjoyed from invasion, plunder, and murder by the guerrillas and marauding bands which infested many of the adjoining counties of Kentucky.

In the Spanish-American War no emergency existed that called for any special effort for enlistment. Thomas B. Wilson, of Company "A," 159th Indiana, was the first citizen of Dubois county to answer McKinley's call. He is credited to Knox county. He with two others constituted a committee to organize a company of cadets from Vincennes University. The company was organized and accepted. He was followed by George P.

Corn, Chas. Weger, and Benj. Niehaus. Niehaus was a member of the 159th regiment. These were probably the only men from Dubois county in an Indiana regiment. George Schultheis and Theodore Schultheis joined the Louisville Legion, and followed Gen. Miles in his march and conquest of Porto Rico. Wm. Brown, of Ireland, was a member of the United States Light Artillery that fired the first and last shot at the blockhouse on the hill at El Caney.

At Jasper, April 7, 1898, a company of one hundred one men was organized as a company of military reserves ready for the President's call in case of need. Lieut. W. W. Kendall was elected captain.

Private Jesse K. Stork, Troop "A," ist U. S. Cavalry, of Holland, was the first man to fall in the battle of La Ouasimas, June 28, 1898. Of all the men lost on Cuban soil, but one or two American soldiers died before this honored son of Dubois county. This is shown by the war records. Other Dubois county men were in this fight as members of the regular army. Jesse K. Stork was a member of the regular army, but went into the fight with Roosevelt's Rough Riders.

In the Spanish-American War, so far as now known, Dubois county lost but one man. That was Trooper Jesse K. Stork. Trooper Edward W. Raines, of Illinois, a fellow soldier, in speaking of Trooper Stork's death, says: gun-boats bombarded, and landed the 5th army corps. We pitched our tents and Jesse K. Stork and I went to a stream and had a fine bath. We had no more than returned, when we received orders to break camp and move toward Santiago. We marched all day and until 8:15 at night, when we went into camp. Jesse and I " rolled up together " and tried to sleep a little, but the rain prevented us. There was nothing we could do but walk around and take the rain as it came. We did not complain. We consoled ourselves with the thought of what a grand experience it would be for us, if we lived through the hardship, and the battle then before us. We had learned to look upon the bright side of everything. One morning we rolled our packs, shouldered our rifles, and marched away toward Santiago until 7:45 a. m., when all at once we were notified by a Cuban officer that the Spanish outposts were only a few hundred yards ahead of us. We were ordered to creep up a little stream as silently as possible and fill our canteens, so as to be in readiness in case of an attack. The next thing we were deployed and marched about fifty or a hundred yards, when the Spanish pickets fired a volley into "A" Troop. At that instant we were ordered forward, and on moving forward at a dead run, Jesse and I ran into some of " K " Troop and were thrown to the ground; just then the Spanish fired the second volley into us, and Jesse K. Stork was killed. The ball entered his stomach and came out through the spinal column.

When he was shot I volunteered to remain with him a short time, and was permitted to do so by Maj. Bell, who was also shot a very few minutes afterwards, and only a few feet away from where Mr. Stork was lying. He was the only officer near us when the first volley was fired at us by the Spanish out-posts. Jesse K. Stork had passed away before Maj. Bell was shot. Had we not been knocked down by a retreating squad of ^'K" Troop, Comrade Stork's wound might not have been fatal. He died with a pleasant smile on his face and did not speak to any one except to say "Oh! Lord, I am shot." His face gave evidence of a happy departure from this life. It almost broke my heart to see him sink away in death, but he did not struggle at all noticeable. I could not even realize that he was dying. It seemed that when he made an effort to speak to me, he smiled, and that smile never left his face. Maj. Gen. Wheeler came along and opened Jesse's belt. There was only a tiny hole and a red spot where the bullet entered the body.

About this time the hospital corps came rushing up and took charge of the body, so there was nothing more for me to do than catch up with my troop As soon as the battle was over and we had possession of the hill I reported the facts to my troop com" mander. The hospital corps kept the body until the next day. I did not get to go back to see the body, for we were preparing to move on Santiago. Jesse K. Stork was the first and only one in "A" Troop killed, June 28th. His remains were buried with seven others of the ist Cavalry in a grave dug to receive eight bodies, so the map of the situation shows.

Jesse K. Stork was born January 6, 1875, and was a graduate of the Holland public schools in 1891. In the transportation of the remains of soldiers from Cuba the identification of his body was lost and no remains were ever returned to his native town. However, a handsome monument has been erected to his memory in a cemetery at Holland. The monument bears this inscription:

''Jesse K. Stork, The Jirst Americaii soldier killed in battle in the Spanish. American War. Enlisted in Troop "A" ist U. S. Cavalry, May 4, 1896. Died June 28, 1S98. A Spanish Mauser bullet pierced his breast, in battle

It is thirty-two feet high, and is built of granite, marble and bronze. It is known as of "cottage style," and is surmounted by a bronze figure of a soldier at parade rest. It contains a room for war relics, and in this, stands first in Indiana, so far as county monuments are concerned.

The idea of erecting this monument was conceived upon the battlefield of Gettysburg, where a party of Jasper people were visiting in September, 1892. They had driven up to the monument marking the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion." The lessons taught by the thousands of monuments upon the field of Gettysburg caused them to agree to endeavor to secure the erection of one at home. It was done.

There are three bronze tablets, a bronze door and a crowning figure of bronze. The east, or front tablet represents a soldier who has been wounded in a charge. His muscles seem to be relaxing and the expression of death" is on his face, yet in his dying moment, he braces himself by his right foot and his left knee, while his arm rests appealingly on that of his son's left shoulder. The son's left arm has been disabled and is carried in a sling, while his right arm is about his father's neck. In this position the father is talking to his son for the last time. It commemorates an incident in the battle of Champion Hill, in which Nicholas Kremer and his son John Kremer were fatally wounded, and the wounded son tried to encourage his father to the last, though both died, May 16, 1863, the day of the battle. The Kremers were members of company "I," 49th Indiana, under command of Capt. John J. Alles, of Celestine.

At the time of enlistment the father was forty-five years old, five feet six inches tall, had light hair, blue eyes and was fair complexioned. The .son enrolled December 5, 1862, and met the regiment at Memphis, Tennessee. He was nineteen, five feet, five inches tall, with black hair and black eyes, and marked light complexioned on the muster roll.

Yield not to grief the tribute of a tear, But 'neath the fore-front of a spacious sky, Smile all exultant, as they smiled at fear. Who dared to do where doing meant to die; So best may comrades prove remembrance dear, So best be hallowed earth where soldiers lie.

The bronze door is on the west of the monument, facing the court house. A figure of a soldier on " picket duty" adorns the door. On the lower part of the door are these words:

The bronze tablet on the south side of the monument represents a soldier as a sharp-shooter, a tribute to Capt. Bantams Company, "E" (58th Ind. ) that went out from Ireland. This is pronounced, one of the best pieces on the monument. Far above, on one of the stones is the word Antietam, in honor of the Dubois county men who fell upon that memorable field while fighting one of the bloodiest pitched battles of the Civil War, September 17, 1862. In the stone below the tablet appears this stanza from Will Carleton:

Cover the thousands who sleep far away - Sleep where their friends cannot find them to-day. They who in mountain, and hillside, and dell, Rest where they wearied, and lie where they fell.

The bronze tablet on the north side represents a widow looking over a battlefield a few months after the close of the war. She has just found evidences of a fearful clash - a broken wheel and an unfired cannon, part of a saber, drum thumbs, rusting bayonets, battered bugle, etc. ' 'Peace" is brought to mind by the bird's nest in the cannon and the unmolested appearance of the bird as it sits upon the wheel of the cannon. Above is the word Gettysburg. In the stone below the tablet are these words from Scott's "Lady of the I^ake:"

The crowning figure is that of a private soldier at parade rest. The figure is six feet in height. Above the battle-stone four cannon of black granite show their open mouths. The monument stands on a plot of ground donated by the town of Jasper. The ground is enclosed by a stone coping and an iron fence. The construction of the monument was paid for by private donations. It will stand for ages, to teach the rising generations the love of country, liberty, and union.

The Articles of Association of the Dubois County Soldiers' a7td Sailors' Momimental Association bear date of February 17, 1893. The monument was dedicated October 17, 1894. Addresses were delivered by Hon. Claude Matthews, governor of Indiana, Col. I. N. Walker, commander-inchief of the Grand Army of the Republic, Hon. A. M. Sweeney, clerk of the supreme court of Indiana, Brig. Gen. Mehringer, and others.

These long lists of names may not have been interesting reading to many, but when one realizes that the surrender at Yorktown at the close the American Revolution, did not make America a free country, but that it took the flower of the land in the greatest of modern wars - the Great

Civil War - to accomplish that, he sees with pride and satisfaction, reads with pleasure, and remembers with honor, the names hereinbefore mentioned. The Great Civil War was but the closing climax of a long line of thought, reason, spirit, and sentiment, long dormant, but never dead, since the days of 1776.

Let it be said with honor and glory that in the Civil War Dubois count}' acted well her part. No words from this pen can ever do justice to the brave men who answered lyincoln's call to the colors and who constituted her contribution to our countrj^'s cause. The contagion of example was great, and when the first men answered from the "Buffalo Trace" those south of the old "military road" soon caught the spirit and followed the flag. In a short time the rattle of musketry, the roar of cannon, the bursting of shell, and the tumult of the charge were but a part of daily occurrences, that eventually united the states, it is to be hoped, forever.