Perry County, Indiana - Chapter 28: Close of War, 1916

The presidential campaign of 1864 was decidedly spirited all over Indiana, and into Perry County were sent many leading men of both political parties, speeches being delivered by Thomas A. Hendricks and William H. English among others. Owing to the absence of so many voters with the army the number of ballots cast was greater by only fifteen than that of four years previously, although there had been some increase in the actual population of both Cannelton and Tell City. The votes polled gave as a result : Lincoln and Johnson, 1,112; McClellan and Pendleton, 1,042; showing that popular sentiment was still with the administration, despite a certain degree of bitterness engendered by the conscription and skilfully nurtured for partisan ends.

Three full companies - 293 men - were the quota required from the county by the staggering draft of July 18, 1864, and conscription was seen to be inevitable, though strenuous efforts were made, under the leadership of Judge Charles H. Mason, toward raising a bounty fund in Troy Township, where 176 volunteers were called for. While the Springfield was stationed at Cannelton some seventeen men from the vicinity enlisted for gunboat service ; and up to the autumn fortyfive recruits had been sent to the Twenty-sixth Regiment ; ten or twelve to the Thirty-fifth ; about fifteen to the Forty-ninth ; a dozen to the Fifty-third, and sundry small squads to other commands. But the draft could not be escaped, and late in September 185 men were conscripted, thus distributed among the townships:

About this time it became evident and was later acknowledged that through failure in making proper reports to headquarters of all her recruits under the last few calls. Perry County had not received her full credit for men in service, so the omissions were corrected, and some few others similarly discovered were beneficially rectified. The men conscripted went to New Albany during October and were assigned to various regiments. The final call of the war for troops, December 19, 1864, met with but meagre response, another draft being foreseen, though the liberal bounty offered - $640 - had its effect in sending some men to the old regiments, as it was felt that Sherman's March to the Sea was the beginning of the end.

About thirty-five men enlisted in Company I, of the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Regiment, mustered in squads during February, 1865, William H. Kyler becoming second lieutenant when regimental organization was effected March 6, at Indianapolis. By the draft of this same month at Jeffersonville, 44 men were conscripted from Troy Township, 19 from Clark, 17 from Oil, 8 from Leopold, the remaining townships having fully cleared themselves. But few of these entered actual service, owing to the speedy close of the war, but they were accredited to Perry County, placing her upon the honour roll of fifteen among Indiana's ninetytwo counties which filled every call, besides her excellent record of no less than nineteen Home Guard companies in the Indiana Legion, of which they formed the Fifth Regiment.

Colonel Charles Fournier had maintained his entire command in camp along the river between Rono (Magnet) and Troy, during the autumn months of 1864, on constant guard and patrol duty, a precaution rendered necessary by the appearance on the Kentucky border of guerilla forces with the presumable purpose of crossing the river to aid malcontents in resisting the draft, a plan of invasion which their own safety required them to abandon. A Confederate force under Major Walker Taylor took possession of Hawesville in December, notifying the Union commander that if left in undisturbed occupancy of that town they would refrain from molesting Cannelton of its citizens. Colonel Fournier met Major Taylor on board the ferry-boat Major Prescott in mid-river to discuss the proposition, but no terms were agreed upon and the interview ended all communication.

On December 23 a troop of marauders headed by William Davidson boarded with their horses the Louisville and Henderson packet Morning Star at the Lewisport landing, twelve miles below Cannelton, shooting four Union soldiers, drowning the negro steward, robbing the passengers of their money and valuables, after which the captain was compelled to take the guerillas to Hawesville, omitting all intermediate landings. Samuel K. Groves and wife (Eliza Huston Huckeby) of Rome, had ninety-five dollars taken from them, while another passenger, Paul Beisinger, suffered the loss of six hundred and ninety-five dollars, Davidson insolently writing out a receipt which he flung in the captains' face: "Received of steamer Morning Star five hundred dollars."

Directly upon learning of this outrage. Colonel Fouriner trained his against the Kentucky shore and called out all the companies at his command. A sufficient force could not be rallied during the night to cross the river with any prospect of success against the very considerable guerilla band just then collected there, but the enemy was effectually routed at an early hour the next morning by some few well-aimed shots thrown through the streets of Hawesville from the ten-pound Dahlgren gun which General Love had brought to Cannelton in September, 1862.

This process so vividly recalled to all the citizens of Hancock County Captain Edmond Morgan's brief bombardment only a few months earlier that even most ardent Confederate sympathizers cheerfully discontinued any extended hospitality toward guests whose presence entailed such calamity upon their entertainers, so the guerillas ate their Christmas dinners elsewhere than in Hawesville.

Doubly joyous, however, through the restored sense of security, was Cannelton's holiday merry-making, and a charity entertainment brought together in Mozart Hall a crowded assembly to witness one of the amateur theatrical entertainments always so popular with a generation who never dreamed that celluloid films would one day supersede the spoken drama in public favour.

Right generous, too, was the carnival programme offered - charades, tableaux vivants, and drama, interspersed with music. Misses Isabelle Beacon (Mrs. Edmond Morgan), Emeline McCollum (Mrs. Alfred Vaughan), and Indiana Vaughan (Mrs. Samuel King), were among the notable charade performers. French history was drawn upon for a tableau in three scenes, "The Divorce of Josephine," rendered with sumptuous fidelity to detail. Mrs. Charles H. Mason (Rachel Huckeby) a woman of superb appearance, impersonated the unfortunate Empress with artistic accuracy of costume, attitude and expression. Miss Sallie Marshall supporting her in the role of the beautiful Hortense. Captain Edward N. Powers represented Napoleon, with Captain John P. Dunn as Marechal Ney.

Appropriate to the holiday season the principal play staged was the ever-new "Cinderella," in which Miss Mary Jaseph (Mrs. John H. Wade) played the title part, with Miss Mollie Archer (Mrs. Schmuck-Hofmeister) as the fairy godmother whose wand of enchantment wrought its miracle over the pumpkin. Mrs. John H. Thompson (Margaret Patterson), Misses Hattie Patterson (Mrs. Simeon Jaseph, Jr.), and Madge Armstrong (Mrs. Edwin R. Hatfield) enacted the cruel stepmother and haughty stepsisters. Palmer Smith and William Huckeby Ferguson were popular comic singers, and the closing tableau, "The Death of Minne- haha" was accompanied by a musical recitative, Miss Isabelle Huckeby (Mrs. de la Hunt) having composed her own setting to Longfellow's poetry, a melody of surpassing pathos, never given to publication.

Several of the same performers, with many others, took part in a similar entertainment during the same winter, in aid of the Methodist Church; and for the benefit of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, which had been damaged by fire, the most ambitious histrionic effort ever attempted in Cannelton was produced early in May, an abridgment of the "Merchant of Venice," rehearsed and staged under the personal supervision of Mrs. Hamilton Smith (Louise Rudd).

A literary club giving particular attention to Shakspere had existed for one or two winters among the young people, humourously styled "The Parsonage Literary Institute," with the Rev. William Louis Githens at its head, so that Mrs. Smith found plastic material ready for her moulding hand. Shylock, Joseph W. Snow; Duke, Edwin R. Hatfield; Bassanio, Sidney B. Hatfield; Antonio, Thomas James de la Hunt; Portia, Miss Isabelle Huckeby; and Nerissa, Miss Margaret Armstrong, were the leading characters of the cast. Contemporary accounts give high praise to the rendition, especially the Trial Scene, where the fair young doctor, the "wise and excellent young man," delivered, with beautiful conception of masculine strength made subservient to the delicate perception and unbounded love of a cultured woman, that matchless appeal for mercy, the noblest lines ever penned by "sweetest Shakespear, Fancies childe." An element of romance underlay it all, by no means lost upon the audience of familiar friends who afterward accused Antonio of being more captivated by the curling ringlets escaping below Portia's hood, and the bewitching sweetness of her undisguised accents, than by the acumen of her legal pleading. A double bill was invariably expected by the audience, so the perennial "Mistletoe Bough" was given as the afterpiece. Miss Mollie Archer win-

The fall of Richmond and removal of the Confederate capital to Danville filled all hearts with joy at the beginning of April, as it was realized that the end could be a matter of days only, and the tidings of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House was welcomed with jubilant demonstrations all over the county. Homes and public buildings were decorated with the national colours by day and illuminated at night, while bonfires lit the heavens, salutes of cannon and musketry rent the air, bands played, and exultant people ran to and fro, shaking each other by the hand in congratulation.

Into the midst of this universal rejoicing the news of Lincoln's assassination came like a bolt from the blue, bringing a revulsion of unspeakable terror to all. As after the taking of Fort Sumter, so again the fatal message reached Perry County by boat at an early hour upon a Sunday - April 16, the morning of Easter Day. But not even the spiritual joy of the Risen Lord could comfort the first outbursts of indignant grief over the martyred chief of a mighty nation, nor soften the furious passion felt toward his murderer.

By the following day mourning draperies had supplanted the tri-coloured bunting, and a public massmeeting was held pursuant to call, at Cannelton, in the Court House solemnly festooned with black. Joshua B. Huckeby presided as chairman, Gabriel Schmuck acting as secretary, and the object of the meeting was impressively stated by Judge Charles H. Mason, with a sadness befitting the unprecedented occasion. A committee was appointed to draw up resolutions, during their absence the large audience listening to brief remarks from Edvdn R. Hatfield, Walter Bynum and G. B. T. Carr. The series of resolutions, eight in number, were then read by Judge Mason, eloquently voicing the sorrow of Perry County over the dastardly crime, at the same time expressing a fixed determination to spare no effort nor sacrifice toward vindicating the supremacy of the government, reuniting the Union, and accomplishing complete restoration of national authority.

After unanimous adoption of the resolutions by a rising vote, Major de la Hunt was called upon and spoke, with deep emotion, of how "all over the land from where 'the mournful and misty Atlantic' moans under the beetling cliffs of New England, to where the sunbeams and zephyrs of California's golden shores sighingly whisper their story to the great Pacific" the people were bewildered with sorrow. "The lover of his country," he said, "has lost the noblest of presidents ; the vanquished, the most benevolent of conquerors."

A further brief address was made by Major Nicholas L. Lightfoot, of Hancock County, Kentucky, who had spoken on the preceding day at the Court House in his own home town of Hawesville, where all other plans for Easter Day had been entirely set aside, flags draped in mourning, and bells tolled incessantly as for a funeral. In the morning, the Rev. Samuel C. Helm had preached an appropriate discourse at the Methodist Church South, and in the afternoon a becoming funeral sermon was delivered by the Rev. James H. Brown, in the Baptist Church, the entire community, whether Union or Confederate, acting and feeling truly alive to the great and unexpected calamity which had bereft Kentucky of a native son no less than a national executive.

That undaunted loyalty which has been a characteristic of the Switzer race from the days of Walter Fuerst and Herrman - asserting itself in Arnold Winkelried, and again in the deathless courage of ill-starred Marie Antoinette's Garde Suisse, immortalized by Thorwaldsen in his Lion of Lucerne - shone with its olden lustre under Indiana skies, and the valiant colonists of Tell City who went forth in '61 to fight for the altars and fires of their infant community, mourned with profoundest sorrow the loss of their beloved president in

'65. Nowhere in Perry County was deeper sentiment manifested than in the memorial exercises at Tell City, and meetings of similar nature were held in Troy, Rome, Leopold and other places. On the day of the funeral St. Luke's Church, Cannelton, was opened for solemn service which a large congregation attended. The Episcopal burial ofRce was read by the rector, the Rev. William Louis Githens, and the Methodist pastor, the Rev. J. B. Likely, delivered an address which brought tears into many eyes unaccustomed to weep.

No military occurrences followed this, save the return from time to time of the boys in blue, and Independence Day witnessed a public picnic in their honour, held on "Brier Hill," and managed by a committee of women at whose head were Mrs. Charles H. Mason (Rachel Huckeby), Mrs. Daniel L. Armstrong (Susan James), and Miss Kate Kolb. General Walter Q. Gresham, announced as speaker of the day, was unable to fulfil his engagement, and Edwin R. Hatfield made an able substitute in the grace of fluent oratory. Ferdinand Mengis, of Tell City, spoke to the Germans present in their mother tongue, and the sounding aisles of the green woods rang once more with the anthem of the free, "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The knowledge that the cruel war was over filled "to its highest topsparkle each heart and each cup," though among the sturdy lads who had gone away in youth's flush of health, some came home as aged men of broken constitution, with perhaps an empty sleeve or frightful scars. Others had crossed the river to rest under the shade of the trees, in the faraway Southland "where all the golden year the summer roses blow." Whether the resting place of their sacred dust is marked today by gleaming marble or lost under the verdure of fifty fleeting years, both North and South have come at length to realize that for Federal and Confederate hero alike,