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- HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY, OHIO -
A History of the County; Its Townships, Towns, Churches,
Schools, Etc.; General and Local Statistics; Portraits of
Early Settlers and Prominent Men; History of the
Northwest Territory; History of Ohio; Map of
Brown County; Constitution of the
United States, Miscellaneous
Matters, Etc., Etc.
ILLUS TRATED
Published: Chicago: W. H. Beers & Co.
1883
CHAPTER X
MILITARY HISTORY
Pg. 334 THE WAR OF 1812
IT is impossible, at this day, to learn the number of men from the region
now forming Brown County who served their country in the last war with
England. A list even of the commissioned officers from the county
cannot be obtained. There are on file in the Adjutant General's office
at Columbus only nine of the muster rolls of the war of 1812. As the
terms of service for which the men were called out were generally short, not
exceeding six months, the number of persons who served at some time during
the war was quite large, and the names of the commissioned officers would
form an extended list. The military system under which the war was
carried on would by no means have answered the purposes of the Government in
the great war of the rebellion. In many cases, the raw militiamen had
scarcely learned to drill as soldiers when their terms of service expired,
and they were succeeded by fresh, un trained recruits. But in every
vicissitude of the conflict, the conduct of the people of the county was
patriotic and honorable. They volunteered with alacrity, and endured
the hardships of the campaigns in the Northwest with patience and
cheerfulness.
A company of riflemen, commanded by Capt. Jacob
Boerstler, went from the vicinity of Williamsburg, and formed a part of
the Third Ohio Regiment of Volunteers, and, in the march to Detroit, was
attached to Col. Cass’ regiment, of the First Brigade, of the First
Division. The period of service of this company was six months - from
April 24 to October 24, 1812. This company was engaged in the battle
of Brownstown, in which the Captain and three privates were killed.
Another company, raised in Clermont County, was
commanded by Capt. Stephen Smith, of Williamsburg.
This company, after the battle of the Thames, in October, 1813, was ordered
to take charge of about four hundred British prisoners captured by the
American army, and conduct them through the swamps of Northwestern Ohio to
Newport, Ky. The Black Swamp, as it was called, was nearly covered
with water, and extended for many miles through a dreary wilderness.
The commissioned officers becoming sick, the command devolved on William
H. Raper, afterward a distinguished Methodist preacher. In their
march, the guides became bewildered and lost their way, and the company,
with the pri_oners, were three days and nights in the swamp without food.
In the first year of the war, Allen Trimble,
of Highland County, was appointed Colonel of one of the regiments raised in
Southern Ohio, and in 1813, a regiment was raised from Highland and Adams
Counties, of which Trimble was Major. This regiment marched to Upper
Sandusky.
George Edwards was Colonel of the Second
Ohio Regiment, which was discharged at Sandusky in 1814.
Col. Mills Stephenson, one of the earliest
pioneers of Union Township, who had served in the Indian wars, was an
officer in the war of 1812. Fort Stephenson, at the site of Fremont,
Ohio, then known as Upper Sandusky, was named in his honor.
Page 335 -
Capt. Elijah
Martin, of the vicinity of Aberdeen, recruited, in 1812, a rifle
company, and commanded it during the period of its service - one year.
A company of mounted volunteers, raised chiefly in what
was then Clermont County, for the relief of Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson,
was commanded by Capt. Robert Haines, and served from July 27 until
August 13, 1813 —a period of sixteen days.
Lebanon and Chillicothe were the chief places of
rendezvous for the troops raised in Clermont and Adams Counties.
MEXICAN WAR
Perhaps no county in the State of Ohio exhibited more promptness and
alacrity in meeting the call for volunteers for the war with Mexico.
While some of the counties of Southern Ohio sent scarcely a dozen soldiers
into the field during the whole of that war, Bown raised one of the first
companies of volunteers, and more men proffered their services than could be
accepted. This was largely due to the influence of Thomas L. Hamer,
who zealously maintained the justice and necessity of the war measures of
the national administration, by his eloquence roused the patriotism of his
fellow-citizens, and himself volunteered. "His example became
contagious; his law partner, S. W. Johnston, volunteered; and finally
the young son of Hamer presed forward to join the patriotic throng,
but his father kindly stayed his steps." The Brown County volunteers,
on the organization of volunteers at Camp Washington, Cincinnati, became
Company G, First Ohio Regiment. Its first official were:
Sanders W. Johnston, Captain; James P. Fyffe, First LIeutenant;
W. P. Stewart and Carr B. White, Second Lieutenants.
After the death of Gen. Hamer, Capt. Johnston resigned and returned
home. Carr B. White was then elected Captain. This
company was soon called to see the stern realities of war in the storming of
Monterey, and Gen. Taylor, in his official dispatches, called
attention to the good conduct of Capt. Johnston at that hard-fought
battle.
The term of enlistment was one year. On the 1st
of septembr, 1847, about twenty-two men from Brown County, under Lieut.
James P. Fyffe, enlisted and, uniting with forty-two men from Clermont
County, formed Company C, Second (re-organized) Ohio Regiment of Volunteers.
Of this company John W. Lowe was Captain; James P. Fyffe,
First Lieutenant; and Milton Jameson and William
Howard, Second Lieutenants.
William Wall served in the war against Mexico as
Major of the Second Ohio Regiment. Educated at West Point, he excelled
in the science of mathematics. He taught school in this county, and
afterward occupied the chair of mathematics in the Ohio University at
Athens. He was thoroughly versed in military science, was a member of
the bar, and, for a short time, editor of a newspaper published at
Georgetown. He died Nov. 17, 1856, aged sixty years five months and
twenty-two days, and was buried at Georgetown.
Ulysses S. Grant,
who, three years before, had graduated at West Point, to which institution
he was sent a cadet from Brown County, served in the regular army in the
Mexican war, with the rank of Lieutenant.
August V. Kautz, afterward Major General of
Volunteers, when but eighteen years of age volunteered as a private in the
first company from Brown County in this war.
THE CIVIL WAR.
The record of Brown County in the
war of the rebellion is one which will ever be contemplated with pride by
her people. Though a majority of her
Page 336 -
citizens were decided opponents of the election of Lincoln, yet, when the
national flag was fired upon, the county was prompt and thorough in response
to the call to arms, and the great mass of her people exhibited alacrity and
patriotism in bearing their share of the burdens of the momentous struggle.
Until fire opened upon Fort Sumter, the mass of the
people did not apprehend civil war. Even after the inauguration of
President Lincoln, with Jefferson Davis ruling at
Montgomery - two Presidents with their Cabinets, two Governments standing
face to face - the people still seemed incredulous as to the imminence of a
clash of arms. While a minority of the people of the county were
willing to see a civil strife begun as a means for the destruction of
slavery, the great majority hoped for a happy and peaceful issue from the
national complications. Probably a majority were disposed to favor
such measures of conciliation as the repeal of the personal liberty bills in
the Northern States which interfered with the enforcement of the fugitive
slave law, and to give assurance that slavery should never be interfered
with in any of the States where it then existed.
Immediately after the proclamations of President
Lincoln and Gov. Dennison, calling for volunteers, were
received, the following call for a meeting was issued, signed by J. G.
Marshall, D. W. C. Loudon, Maj. C. B. White, Lieut. T.
T. Taylor, Capt. R. H. Higgins, W. H. Sly, Alfred
Jacobs and fifty six others:
UNION MEETING.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Brown County, Ohio, in compliance with the
call of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, through
Gov. Dennison, hereby present to the citizens of said county the
following call for a meeting to be held at the court house of said county,
on Saturday, the 20th of April, A. D. 1861, for the purpose of taking into
consideration the formation of a volunteer company to aid in the enforcement
of the laws and in quelling the rebellion now progressing in our Union.
Believing that the present hour is the darkest and most
dangerous ever experienced by our Confederacy, and that our liberty and
Union will be endangered, if not absolutely destroyed, by the success of
said revolution, we trust all Union-loving and law-abiding citizens will
once more rally round the Stars and Stripes, and adopt measures that will
secure the prompt compliance and the call of our Chief Magistrate, the
President of the United States.
The meeting was held at the appointed time and place, and was called to
order at 2 o'clock P. M. The meeting was large, and was marked by a
general and enthusiastic approval of armed measures for the suppression of
the rebellion. G. W. King, Esq., was called to the
chair. Earnest and patriotic addresses were made by the President of
the meeting, Hon. C. A. White, John G. Marshall, D. W. C. Loudon and
D. Murphy. Democrats and Republicans forgot their differences
and resolved to stand together in support of the constitution and the Union.
Whatever spirit of conciliation and concession had before existed, there was
now no more talk of coaxing or pleading with traitors, who had dared to aim
their cannon at the national flag. At the close of the meeting,
volunteers were called for to form a company to leave at once for the
service of their country, and some thirty men were enrolled, who proceeded
to ballot for officers. The following were elected: Captain, Dr.
Carr B. White; First Lieutenant, William Hays; Second
Lieutenant, T. T. Taylor, then Prosecuting Attorney. Among the
volunteers were five physicians and five attorneys. The company was
soon made up, and, on the following Wednesday, left for Camp Chase.
The sight of real soldiers was new to most of the people, and the marching
to camp or a company for the three-months service made more ado than was
afterward occasioned by the departure of a regiment for the three-years
service. The ladies of Higginsport prepared a bountiful supper for the
volunteers, which was spread upon a long table in the public square.
At Cincinnati, the company was entertained at the Broadway Hotel
Page 337 - [BLANK PAGE] Page 338 -
ROBERT COCHRAN.
Page 339 - free of expense. The company bore with them
a war-worn flag under which Capt. White had fought in the Mexican
war.
The first company which left the county under the
telegraphic call was the Ripley company, which left on Tuesday, April 23.
Its first Captain was Jacob Ammen, a graduate of West Point,
who volunteered two days after the firing on Port Sumter, and reported at
Columbus with his company on April 24. The next year, he became a
Brigadier General.
On April 20, the Town Council of Ripley, in behalf of
the people of that place, adopted resolutions declaring that, while they
were prepared and determined to defend themselves against invasions, attacks
or unlawful interference from any quarter, they contemplated no hostilities
against their neighbors of Kentucky, and that they would not countenance any
movements hostile to them, and proposed to the authorities of Maysville,
Dover and Augusta that they take measures to co-operate with the authorities
of Ripley in preserving the peace along the border and protecting the
citizens on both sides of the Ohio. These resolutions met with
favorable and friendly responses from Augusta, Dover and Maysville.
The war spirit was soon aroused throughout the county.
The national flag was seen floating from stores, workshops and residences.
The whole country was filled with the noise and excitement of military
preparation.
The women of the county were earnest in their
ministrations to the soldiers. From the beginning until the
close of the war, they were constant in their efforts to supply those
comforts and delicacies needed in the field, and still more in the hospital,
and which no government does or can supply.
On May 3, the President issued his first call for men
to serve three years or during the war. Then began the serious work of
enlistment. Early in the war, there was appointed in each county of
the State a standing military committee, which had the charge and direction
of the military matters of the county. The raising of funds for
bounties, enlisting recruits and looking after the families of those who
were absent in the army, and many other duties, devolved upon the committee.
The Governor consulted with this committee before commissioning military
officers. The war called for so large a proportion of the entire male
population that the quota of the county was not in all cases filled without
difficulty. Drafts and the offer of large bounties to volunteers were
found necessary. Liberal provisions were made for the support of the
families of soldiers and marines in active service. Of the men who
filled the quota of Brown County, all, except an inconsiderable fraction,
were volunteers. Within eighteen months after the first call for
three-years’ men, the county, with a total militia enrollment of 5,127, sent
into the service 1,753 men, of whom only 129 were drafted.
Most of the recruits, on being mustered into the
service, received a considerable bounty. Under the last calls of the
President, the local bounties were unusually large, amounting to upward of
$500, while still larger sums were paid to acceptable substitutes. In
this way an enormous sum was expended. The money for this purpose was
raised in part by taxation, under the authority of law, but more largely by
the voluntary contributions of the stay-at home citizens. The large
bounties were a great incentive to desertion, and it was estimated that of
the recruits enlisted to fill the quota of Ohio under the call of July,
1864, more than ten thousand deserted. The deserters would present
themselves at a new recruiting station, or, with a change of name, to the
same station, be again mustered in. receive a second large bounty, and again
desert. To put a stop to this “bounty-jumping,” the plan was adopted
of withholding the bounty until the recruit had reached his regiment.
The raid of Col. John Morgan through
Southern Ohio occurred in July,
Page 340 -
1863. The excitement and apprehension throughout the region within
twenty miles of the line of march of the raiding party was unprecedented in
the history of the State. The farmers, with prudent forethought, drove
off their horses and cattle and concealed them in the most unfrequented
woods. Morgan’s men, following the example of the Union raiding
forces in the South, took horses and provisions wherever they could find
them, if they were needed. They made few attempts at wholesale
destruction of property, but frequently carried off small articles, some of
which were utterly useless to the raiders, and were soon thrown away.
The militia in the southwestern counties was called out by Gov.
Tod on the 12th of July, the militia of Brown being ordered to report at
Camp Dennison. Col. John Morgan encamped at
Williamsburg on the evening of July 14, after having marched more than
ninety miles in about thirty-five hours - the greatest march ever made, even
by Morgan. “The column could be tracked by the slaver dropped from
the horses’ mouths. It was a terrible, trying march. Strong men
fell out of the saddles, and at every halt the officers were compelled to
move continually about in their respective companies, and pull and haul the
men, who would drop asleep in the road. It was the only way to keep
them awake. Quite a number crept off into the fields and slept until
they were awakened by the enemy.” [Duke’s History of Morgan’s
Cavalry.]
On the next day, July 15, the main body of the raiders
passed through the northern portion of Brown, being closely pressed by the
Union troops following them. About two or three hundred of the rebels,
under the command of Col. Dick Morgan, passed through Georgetown,
Russelville and Decatur.
In 1864, the Legislature ordered the appointment of a
Board of Commissioners to examine and pass upon the claims for damages to
property during the Morgan raid. This commission largely
reduced the claims, and classified them into damages done by the rebels, by
the United States troops, and by the State militia, respectively. The
following are the figures for the amounts claimed and passed upon for Brown
County:
Claims for damages by the rebels, $28,992.51; claims
for damages by Union forces under United States officers, $8,967.35; claims
for damages by Union forces not under United States officers, ______; total
amount claimed, $37,959.86. Amount allowed for damages done by rebels,
$25,556; amount allowed for damages by Union forces under United States
officers, $7,228; amount allowed for damages by Union forces not under
United States officers, _______; total amount allowed, $32,784.
The following list of: the
commissioned officers from Brown County in the war of the rebellion was
prepared by Capt. C. F. King, of the Adjutant General’s office:
Twelfth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Col. C. B. White,
Maj. E. M. Carey, Capt. W. W. Liggett, Lieut. A. M.
Ridgway, Lieut. F. M. Slade, Lieut. J. H. Palmer, Lieut.
E. C. Devore.
Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Capt.
Thomas J. Loudon.
Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Col.
Jacob Ammen (appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers)
Thirty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Maj. C. W.
Boyd, Capt. O. P. Evans, Lieut. F. G. Shaw, Lieut. I.
N. Anderson.
Forty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Col.
Thomas T. Taylor, Lieut. G. W. Reeves.
Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Col.
James P. Fyffe, Capt. Lewis J. Egbert, Capt. R. H. Higgins,
Capt. C. F. King, Capt. F. R. Kautz, Capt. O. J. Hopkins,
Lieut. H. F. Liggett, Lieut. William H. Lawrence, Lieut. W.
T. Trout, Lieut. G. P. Tyler, Lieut. James Jennings,
Lieut. Hamer J. Hig- Page 341
-
gins, Lieut. John O'Conner, Lieut. Michael Sells, Lieut.
Michael Lynch, Lieut. W. W. McColgin, Lieut. J. P. Purden,
Lieut. J. W. Shinn, Lieut. R. C. Drake, Lieut. G. H.
Dunham, Assistant Surgeon S. C. Gordon.
Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Lieut. Bowen
Dunham.
Seventieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Col. D.
W. C. Loudon, Lieut. Col. W. B. Brown, Capt. Joseph
Blackburn, Capt. F. G. Sloane, Capt. John Campbell,, Capt.
Marquis de La Fayette Hare, Capt. John J. T. Brady, Lieut. W.
R. Harmon, Lieut. Alfred Loudon, Lieut. Amos F. Ellis,
Lieut. R. C. Menaugh, Lieut. James Brown, Lieut. Lewis
LOVE, Chaplain John M. Sullivan.
Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry - Col. John
G. Marshall, Maj. William Hays, Capt. J. H. Jolley, Capt.
D. V. Pearson, Capt. T. H. B. Norris, Capt. John S. Lakin,
Capt. C. E. Harrison, Capt. G. H. De Bolt, Lieut. J. W.
King, Lieut. Dudley King, Lieut. F. M. Creekbaum.
Ninety-seventy Ohio Volunteer Infantry -
Surgeon Thomas W. Gordon.
One Hundred and Ninety-fifth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry - Lieut. H. C. Loudon.
One Hundred and Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry - Capt. A. J. Applegate, Lieut. J. H. Sellers, Lieut.
F. M. Fowler.
Second Ohio Volunteer Cavalry - Col. A. V.
Kautz.
Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry - Maj. James
McIntyre, Capt. R. C. Rankin, Capt. John McColgin, Lieut.
Samuel Dryden, Lieut. John V. Srofe, Lieut. B. F. Powers,
Lieut. William McKnight.
Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry - Maj.
Wesley LOVE, Lieut. C. W. Waters.
First Regiment Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery -
Maj. D. T. Cockerill, Capt. G. A. Cockrill, Lieut. S. M.
Espy, Lieut. Norval Osborn.
Fourth Ohio Independent Cavalry Company y-
Capt. J. S. Foster, Capt. J. L. King, Lieut. W. H. Hannah,
Lieut. Thomas J. Thompson, Lieut. J. F. Thomas Lieut. S. D.
Porter, Lieut. Thomas C. Yates.
The private soldiers of Brown County were scattered
through so large a portion of the United States army, and in so many
regiments and branches of the service, that the record of the county can
only be given in the record of Ohio in the rebellion. Such a record,
to be complete, should exhibit the military history of every soldier and
officer - name, age, rank; when, where and by whom enrolled; when, where and
by whom mustered into service; the nature and date of every promotion; date
of death, discharge, muster out, transfer or desertion - in short,
everything pertaining to the soldier’s military career. The military
records in the Adjutant General’s office at Columbus are now being
transcribed, and it is hoped that the completed work will supply the
information necessary for the full war record of every soldier in an Ohio
regiment during the rebellion.
Brown County claims her full share of the glory in
the achievements of Ohio soldiers in quelling the rebellion.
Whitelaw Reid, in his “ Ohio in the War,” says:
“Ohio soldiers fought on well nigh every
battle-field of the war. Within forty-eight hours after the
telegraphic call, two Ohio regiments were on their way to the rescue of the
imperiled capital in the spring of 1861. An Ohio brigade, in good
order, covered the retreat from the first Bull Run. Ohio troops formed
the bulk of the army that saved West Virginia; the bulk of the army that
saved Kentucky; a large share of the army that took Fort Donelson; a part of
the army at Island No. 10; a great part of the army that, from Stone River,
and Chickamauga, and Mission Ridge, and Kenesaw, and Atlanta, swept down to
the sea, and back through the Carolinas to the Old Dominion. They
fought at Pea Ridge; they charged at Wagner; they campaigned
Page 342 -
against the Indians at the base of the Rocky Mountains; they helped to
redeem North Carolina; they were in a siege of Vicksburg, the siege of
Charleston, the siege of Richmond, the siege of Mobile. At Pittsburg
Landing, at Antietam, at Gettysburg, at Corinth, in the Wilderness, before
Nashville, at Five Forks, at Appomattox Court House - their bones, reposing
o the fields they won, are a perpetual binding pledge that no flag shall
ever wave over these graves of our soldiers but the flag they fought to
maintain."
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