Henry County, Indiana - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 7 of those read), 1906

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 7 of those read)

Summary of Troops Furnished to the U. S. Service - The Same Reduced to A Three- Year Basis - State Troops Additional to the \'olunteer Force - Number of Military Commissions Issued - War Expenditures - Killed and Died of Wounds - Call for Troops - Indiana's Battle Record - Commanders of the Military District of Indiana - Commanders OF Departments Which Have Embraced the State of Indiana - Nativity of Indiana Soldiers - Height and Ages of Indiana Soldiers - Delegates to the Peace Convention of i86i - Grand Total of Enlistments by States, During the Civil War - Another View of Governor Oliver P. Morton.

Accounted For And Unaccounted For

Enlisted men not accounted for on the returns, (including those who died in distant hospitals, by the wayside, stragglers, etc., never heard from) 13,779

State Troops Additional To The Volunteer Force

Enlisted for home service and organized into companies, battalions and regiments employed in repelling rebel raids, guarding the Ohio River Border against Confederate invasion, etc.; 735 companies; aggregate number of men 51,400

Commanders Op The Military District Of Indiana

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Wood, United States Army, was Chief Mustering Officer and Post Commander at Indianapolis, from May - , 1861, until October 11. 1861.

Colonel Henry B. Carrington, United States Army, reported at Indianapolis as Chief Mustering Officer for Indiana, and Commander of the Post at Indianapolis, August 18, 1862, and continued to discharge the duties of those positions until he, as Brigadier General, was assigned to command the District of Indiana, March 23, 1863.

State Of Indiana

Major General George B. McClellan, from May 3, 1861, to September 19, 1861. Brigadier General Ormsby M. Mitchell, from September 19, 1861, to November 9, 1861.

Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell, from November 9, 1861, to August 19, 1862. Major General Horatio G. Wright, from August 19, 1862, to March 25, 1863. Major General Ambrose E. Burnside, from March 25, 1863. to November 16, 1863.

Xortherx Departivient

Major General Samuel P. Heintzelman, from February - , 1864, to October 1, 1864. Major General Joseph Hooker, from October 1, 1864, to July 5, 1865.

Nativity Of Indiana Soldiers

There is no record of the nativity of about one-fourth of the soldiers who served from this State during the Civil War. A partial list is as follows:

Delegates To Peace Convention, 1861

Held at Washington, District of Columbia, in February, 1861, to prepare a plan of adjustment of the difficulties between the national government and certain revolted States in the South.

In pursuance of a joint resolution of the Indiana Legislature, passed January, 1861, the following delegates to said convention were appointed by Governor Morton, February 1, 1861: Caleb B. Smith of Indianapolis, Pleasant A. Hackleman of Rushville, Godlove S. Orth of Lafayette, Thomas C. Slaughter of Corydon, Erastus W. H. Ellis of Goshen.

Grand Total Of Enlistments

Summary of the number of men called for by the President of the United States, and furnished by, and credited to, the States and Territories during the Civil War.

Another View Of Governor Oliver P. Morton

At the outbreak of the war the attitude of Kentucky was uncertain. The sympathies of the governor, Beriah Magoffin, were wholly with the seceding states, and to President Lincoln's call for troops he had answered that "'Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing her sister southern states." It was Magoffin's purpose to force Kentucky to secede, or, failing in that, to assume the position of "armed neutrality." The farce planned by Magoffin was not successful in the land of Henry Clay and soon ran its course, but, while it lasted, Indiana was practically a border state. It was fortunate for the state and for the Union cause that at this time there was in the office of governor a man of unquestioned loyalty, of tremendous energy, and of indomitable will. In the four vears that followed, the name of Oliver P. Morton became a household word throughout the United States. No governor in any northern state inet with more bitter opposition: none worked for the success of the Union, cause with more untiring energy, or looked after the welfare of the soldiers of his own state with more watchful and careful solicitude.

]\Iorton was then in the prime of vigorous manhood - a man of far-seeing sagacity, of great endurance, of dauntless courage; a man who could have taken Cromwell's place in England, and who needed all of Cromwell's force of character to fill the place of governor of Indiana. Clearly foreseeing from the beginning the magnitude of the Rebellion and the tremendous efforts that must be made to suppress it, he often chafed under what he thought to be the puny and tardy measures of the Federal government. When the Federal authorities were too slow in supplying arms for the Indiana troops, he bought them on his own responsibilit}-. When the government became short of ammunition, he established at Indianapolis an arsenal for its manufacture, soon having 600 men employed, and ammunition enough for the Indiana troops and some to spare to the government. When the legislature in 1863 adjourned, after refusing to make any appropriation to carry on the state government, he borrowed money sufficient for two years without closing a single state institution and without stopping the organization of a single regiment.

I20 Hazzard S History Of Henry County

The President's proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers was issued April 15 and six three-months' regiments with 4,683 men were required of the state of Indiana. Within a week 12,000 men had responded - twice as many as could then be armed. The four three-year regiments required under the President's call of May 3 were raised at once, and ten more besides in adv^ice of the call in July, and before January i, 1862, Indiana had 60,000 troops in the field.

The Morgan raid found Indiana almost destitute of armed soldiers, but within twent\- four hours after Morgan had touched her ITorders 15,000 men were hastening to Indianapolis ; and before two days had passed Morton had 30,000 assembled to repel the invaders.

No orator ever lived in Indiana whose speeches had such weight as those of Morton. He never attempted to be funny; he never indulged in the "spread-eagle" stvle of oratory ; he never resorted to the tricks practiced by the modern professional "spell-binder." But under his sledge-hammer logic all opposition went down as the gates of Torquilstone went down under the blows of Richard the Lion-hearted. Probably no one speech ever delivered in America left such a deep impress upon the public mind as ^Morton's Masonic Hall speech in 1866.

]Morton's care for the Indiana troops in the field was proverbial throughout all the armies. Surgeons and nurses were sent by him to ever\^ battle-field. Often lie went himself to give his personal attention to the care of the wounded. His strong hand was the chief support of the Indiana Sanitary Commission, whose s]iecial business it was to care for the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals. No regiment passed through Indianapolis, either going to or returning from the front, that did not enjoy the fruits of his provident hospitality. His kind and sympathetic feeling for his sufifering fellow men was not Jimited to soldiers of the L'nion armies. It extended to the Confederate prisoners confined at Indianapolis, and nowhere in the North were they more humanely treated.

He was omnipresent; now buried in the details of the work of carrying on the state government, or preparing troops for the field ; now going about the state making speeches and infusing into the people some of his own enthusiasm ; now visiting battle-fields and camps at the front - wherever he was most needed during the war he was always to be found. It was chiefly to his untiring efforts that Indiana enjoyed the distinction of having furnished to the Federal armies over seventy four per cent of the entire fighting population of the state. No obstacles stopped him ; his tremendous energy overcame them all ; no disasters dismayed him - they only strengthened his courage and inspired him with renewed determination. He will live in history as the greatest war governor of his time.