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A Standard History
of
Erie County, Ohio
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular
Attention
to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial,
Civic and Social Development. A Chron-
icle of the People, with Family
Lineage and Memoirs.
By
HEWSON L. PEEKE
Assisted by the Board of Advisory Editors
Volume I.
ILLUSTRATED
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1916
Chapter XXX.
The Military History of Erie County.
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The following is a list of
Revolutionary soldiers buried in Erie County:
John McMillen - Died in
Huron, Ohio; age, 81 years; a private in the New Jersey Continental
line; a pensioner; buried in McMillen Cemetery, Huron; on pension
list September 18, 1818, under act of Congress, March 18, 1818.
Daniel Carpenter -
Private Connecticut Continental; on pension list February 10, 1820,
under act of Congress, March 18, 1818.
Michael Chapman - Private
Connecticut Continental; on pension list July 5, 1828, under act of
Congress, March 18, 1818; buried at Huron.
Henry Cherry - Huron;
private New Jersey Continental; on pension list June 7, 1819, under
act of Congress, March 18, 1818.
John or (Johnathon) Church
- Pennsylvania Continental; on pension list October 18, 1819, under
act of Congress, March 18, 1818.
Isaac Curtis (Custis) - Huron; private New York
State troops; on pension list September 16, 1833, under act of
Congress, July 7, 1832.
C. Lambert Sheffer - Private New Jersey
Continental; buried about two miles south of Birmingham, Ohio,
Florence Township, on the bank of Vermilion River on pension list
May 23, 1833, under act of Congress, July 7, 1832.
David Carswell - Born 1764; died
1844; private in New York Continental line; buried in Oakland
Cemetery, Sandusky, Ohio; a pensioner.
Aaron Van Benschotin -
Born 1746; died 1836; private in Captain Coulter New York
Company; at one time hostler for George Washington; buried in
Peaks Burying Ground, near Ceylon, Ohio.
Jabez, Parsons - Born 1753; died
1836; sergeant in Wolcott's Regiment, Connecticut; buried in Huron,
Ohio.
Johnathan Hunt - Served as a private during
the whole war; buried near Spragues Corners, Florence, Ohio.
John Brooks, Sr. - Served as a private during the
whole war; buried near Spragues Corners, Florence, Ohio.
Frederick Falley - Born
1764 in Westfield, Massachusetts; died July 3, 1828; at eleven years
of age was fifer in his father's company at the battle of Bunker
Hill; buried at Castalia; Massachusetts records; reported as having
listed and served as fifer in Capt. Warham Park's Company,
June 10, 1775; Colonel Danielson's regiment of eight-months'
men; was with the army at the siege of Boston.
Chauncey Cook - Aged
eighty years; Oxford Township, Erie County, Ohio.
Robert Ransom -
Eli Halliday -
Pg. 344 -
Joseph Remington - Groton
Township; age, seventy-seven; resided in Erie County, 1840.
Joseph Ransom - Private Connecticut State
troops; placed on pension list July 24, 1833, under act of Congress,
June 7, 1832.
Veterans of War of 1812.
One of the most prominent
of the veterans of War of 1812 was Col. William McCartney,
who served in the Mexican war later. He died March 9, 1878.
The Register of April 13, 1871,
contains a list of six veterans of the War of 1812, then living in
Erie County, and furnished by S. C. Wheeler:
William Bridgman, aged
ninety-five years, August 5, 1870. He enlisted May 9, 1812, in
Captain Towl's Company, Nineteenth Regiment United States
Infantry, and was discharged August 19, 1817. He took part in
the battle of Sackett's Harbor, was married to Mary
McKinney, March, 1820, at Buffalo, New York, and in 1871 lived
in Sandusky.
Elihu Parker, aged seventy-four years, August
12, 1870. He entered Colonel Codgram's Regiment,
Ohio Militia, in January, 1813, and served until the following
August. He marched through the wilds of Ohio and Michigan to
Detroit and to Fort Gratiot, where he worked on the fortification.
He fought in the battle of Mackinaw. In 1871 he lived in
Oxford Township.
David Cronk, aged seventy-seven years, January
26, 1871. He was drafted at Summers, New York, in June, 1813,
and entered Colonel Swartout's Squadron of Light Horse.
He was quartered three months on the south side of Long Island under
the command of General Courtland. He was married
January 28, 1820, at Covert, Seneca County, New York, to Miss
Martha Sneed, and in 1871 lived in Perkins Township.
Henry James, aged seventy-three years, October
10, 1870. Enlisted in December, 1813, in the Thirteenth
Regiment, United States Infantry, under Colonel Sprawl, which
was quartered at Green Bush, near Albany, New York. He was in
the battles of Sackett's Harbor, Plattsburg, Lundy's Lane,
and after the war served the balance of five years at Fort Gratiot,
Michigan, in Captain Pellman's Company. He came to Ohio
in 1818 and settled in Margaretta Township, where he still resided
in 1871.
Benjamin D. Wheeler was
seventy-three years of age in 1871, and then lived in Carroll
Township, Missouri, Mandeville County. He entered Captain
Ross' Company in February, 1814, and was discharged at Upper
Sandusky in August.
Nathan Ladd, aged
seventy-five years, May 26, 1870, was drafted in September 1814,
from Hampden, Massachusetts, and entered Captain Day's Company,
Colonel Mack's Regiment. On March 23, 1820, he was
married to Hannah Webster and in 1871 lived in Milan
Township, where he had resided with his wife for forty-five years.
On March 28, 1885, a reunion of veterans of the Mexican
war was held at Sandusky, Ohio, and the Register notes as among the
Erie
Pg. 345 -
County veterans present, William Wermuth, Joseph Boals, John
McGookey, Judson A. Rathburn, John Ray and C. Schelb.
Civil War.
As early as the year 1832
John N. Sloan, then an enterprising merchant at Sandusky, was
commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the First Light Infantry
Battalion, Second Brigade and Third Division. After this time,
and while the people of the county were engaged in the arts of
peace, they were unconsciously perhaps, preparing for war.
Various portion of the county had their representative companies.
In Sandusky many of the older
people will remember the days of glory of the Bay City Guards, an
organization formed in 1851, and under the command of Capt. R. R.
McMeens, a physician of the city; the Sandusky Flying Artillery,
A. Silva, commandant; the Yeager Rifle Company, L. Traub
commanding, and others, perhaps, whose greatest victories were
achieved among the fair sex.
But there came a time a few
years later when these had an opportunity of exhibiting their valor
upon the bloody fields of battle from the first Bull Run to the
Appomattox; from the state of Pennsylvania to the Gulf of Mexico.
When on that fateful morning of
April, 1861, there appeared, in answer to Moultrie's guns, upon our
political horizon the words "Civil War," the sturdy men of Ohio were
at once to the fore, and from that day to the time that Lee yielded
to that old hero, "Unconditional Surrender" Grant, this state was
seldom behind her quota. Let us see what Ohio did during this
four years of internecine strife.
Upon the authority of Mr. Reid it may be stated
that under Mr. Lincoln's call, on April 15, 1861, for 75,000
men, Ohio furnished 12,357; July 22, 1861, 84,116; July 2, 1862,
58,325; August 4, 1862, ----- (nine months' men); June 15, 1863,
2,736 (militia); October 17, 1863, 32,837; March 14, 1863, 29,931;
April 22, 1864, 36,254 (one hundred days' service); July 18, 1864,
30,823; December 19, 1864, 23,275. In all Ohio furnished under
these several demands for men on aggregate of 420,654 men, while her
total quota amounted to 306,322 men.
The fact appears that the County
of Erie was represented by men in no less than thirty different
regiments, although the number in each averaged considerably less
than 100. Among those were some of the most daring fighters in
the service.
To the military history of Erie County there attaches
an additional interest from the fact of Johnson's Island, having
been made a national depot for the detention of captured rebel
officers. This island is not a part of Erie County, but
Sandusky seems to have been the central and prominent point and the
base of all operations on the island. From here all prisoners
were placed on boats and conveyed to the island, and furthermore,
all supplies were obtained here. The establishment of a
prisoner's depot on Johnson's Island was brought about through the
energy and exertions of a few of the leading business men of
Sandusky,
Pg. 346 -
who at once saw that such a station would be of great
value to trade in the city and that the officers' quarters would be
in and about the town rather than on the island.
The officer of the war department to whom was entrusted
the duty of selecting a site for the depot was inclined to favor
Detroit, and came to this city mainly in fulfillment of a duty and
not that he desired to locate the place of detention here; but the
business men accorded him such a worm reception, and showed a
willingness to give the enterprise such substantial aid, that the
agent could not well to do otherwise than accept the offers made
him.
One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Regiment.
The guarding force of this
important point was made up, in the main, of Ohio troops, prominent
among which was the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment;
therefore, the history of that regiment, a portion of which was from
Erie County, is closely associated with the events that transpired
during the occupancy of the island for the purposes stated, and will
be written in connection therewith. A still greater interest
and importance was given this locality during the years of the war,
through the exploits of John Yates Beall, who
made a fruitless attempt to rescue the prisoners on the island,
which attempt will be found detailed in these pages, together with
an account of the execution of that daring young officer.
For the following account of the history of the
Johnson's Island Prisoners' Depot, and the One Hundred and
Twenty-eighth Regiment, we are indebted to the work entitled "Ohio
in the War," edited by Mr. Whitelaw Reid, later
of the New York Tribune. The narrative was compiled and
written so soon after the close of the war that it is doubtful
whether any additional facts can be stated, even at this time;
therefore, we copy from Mr. Reid, giving him full credit for
the original production:
"The One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Ohio, although
chiefly occupied in guard duty within the borders of the state was
an organization of three years' troops, enlisted and mustered into
the United States service wherever required. It attained
minimum strength on the 25th of December, 1863, and consisted of
four companies, before known as the 'Hoffman Battalion' raised at
different times in 1862. At and before the time of forming the
regiment of Hoffman Battalion was under the command of a
lieutenant-colonel and major. Six new companies were mustered
in at Camp Taylor, near Cleveland, between the 8th and 15th of
January, 1864. The four old companies had been on duty at
Johnson's Island nearly all the time since their muster-in, but had
frequently furnished detachments for service elsewhere, including a
short and very active campaign in pursuit of rebel troops in West
Virginia in 1862.
"The One Hundred and Twenty-eighth having been chiefly
occupied at the frontier posts of Johnson's Island and Sandusky, its
services
Pg. 347 -
necessarily involves much of the military history of these
posts, and can better be understood by giving a brief synopsis of
that history.
"Early in 1862 Johnson's Island became a depot
exclusively for rebel officers who were held as prisoners of war.
"It should be remembered that a cartel for a general
exchange of prisoners of war had long been expected, and was finally
agreed upon July 22, 1862. Under that cartel and special
arrangement exchanges went on until July, 1863, and a continuance
was expected. This expectation, with the belief of general
loyalty in the north, and the want of help in Canada, had their
legitimate influence on the prisoners, and undoubtedly prevented
efforts at outbreak and resistance until late in the fall of 1863.
"In the spring and summer of 1862 the garrison on the
island was strengthened by one company of the Sixty-first Ohio,
relieved by one company of the Eighty-eighth. The stoppage of
exchanges, followed by the assembling of considerable forces from
the rebel army and navy in Canada, and the machinations of disloyal
organizations in Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere known to intend to
rescue these prisoners with attendant devastations on the lake towns
and commerce, showed these posts to be unsafe without considerable
reinforcements. Six companies of the Twelfth Ohio Cavalry
(dismounted), with the Twenty-fourth Battery (six guns), and two
detachments of the First Ohio Heavy Artillery (with seven heavy
guns) were sent to the island early in November, 1863, followed
promptly by the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Regiments of the National
Guard and a Pennsylvania Battery. The Forty-ninth and Fiftieth
remained only eight or ten days, and the Pennsylvania Battery was
soon relieved. The other troops remained all winter.
"The First Brigade, Third Division, Sixth Corps,
including five regiments, attended by two brigadier-generals form
the Army of the Potomac, reached Sandusky on the 13th of January,
1864. Four of the regiments, with General Shaler, were
stationed on the island. The other regiment, with General
H. D. Terry, commanding the whole, was at Sandusky. They
all remained until April 14, 1864, when three regiments under
General Shaler left to rejoin the Sixth Corps. The
Twenty-fourth Battery was stationed in Sandusky, and the six cavalry
companies left for Camp Dennison in March. Soon after, the six
new companies of the Twenty-eighth, pursuant to orders from
Washington, were moved to Sandusky, and on the 14th of April, 1864,
with the colonel, were stationed on the island. The whole
regiment was thus, for the first time, assembled as one command.
"On the 8th of May, 1864, Colonel Hill, of the
One Hundred and Twenty-eighth, succeeded General Terry in the
command, and the two remaining regiments from the Sixth Corps moved
off to rejoin that corps. On the 12th of July, 1864, the
detachment from the First Heavy Artillery returned to their
regiment, and on the 7th of August following the Twenty-fourth
Battery left for Chicago. Other troops came to the island and
departed as follows: May 11, the One Hundred and Seventy-first
Ohio National Guard; it left June 9th for Cleveland and Kentucky;
Pg. 348 -
returned June 20th much reduced, eight of the companies being then
paroled prisoners, not subject to duty; they were mustered out
August 20. The One Hundred and Sixty-fifth Ohio National Guard
(five hundred and forty-nine men) reported for duty May 21, and left
July 16. The Eighth Battery Ohio National Guard reported
September 22, and left October 19, and was succeeded by the Second
Battery Ohio National Guard, which left November 26. These
National Guard troops were sent to the island chiefly as a place of
rendezvous, equipment and instruction preparatory to service
elsewhere. On the 24th of September the Sixth Veteran Reserve
Corps (five hundred and sixty-three men) from Washington reported
for duty.
"The One Hundred and Twenty-eighth from the time its
being first assembled on the island was kept under strict drill and
discipline.
"The condition of the island, and of the docks, roads
and barracks upon it required heavy details of working parties to
open ways of communication for defense, complete and improve and
quarters, enlarge the prison grounds and accommodations, and improve
the sanitary condition of the island, which had been much neglected
for many months.
"The strength of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth,
present for duty from early in May until late in the fall, was much
reduced by detachments and heavy details for special duty and
necessary working parties, the guard-duty became very severe; often,
and for considerable periods, requiring the majority of the men
remaining for that service to go on guard duty every other day.
"The number of prisoners of war confined on the island
during the year 1864 ranged as follows, varied chiefly by new
acquisitions and special exchanges: January 31, 2,603; February 29,
2,206; March 31, 2,192; April 30, 2,088; May 31, 2,134; June 30,
2,309; July 31, 2,441; August 31, 2,556; September 30, 2,663;
October 31, 2,621; November 30, 2,747; December 31, 3,209.
"From the foregoing table it appears that the
average strength of prisoners for the different years was as
follows: Average for 1862, 788; 1863, 1,205; 1864, 2,480.
"In 1865, until discharges on oath of allegiance
or parole became more numerous, following the surrender of Lee's
army, the number of prisoners ranged considerable higher, and
excepting about one hundred, they were all officers of the rebel
army and navy, of all grades, from second lieutenant to
major-general.
"Here were officers enough for an army and navy of
eighty thousand men. They were within a short distance of the
Canada main, and still nearer to a Canada island. The
prevailing sympathy in Canada was largely in favor of the rebels;
and their every facility and encouragement, short of direct
participation in our war, was extended to the large rebel force from
the rebel army and navy maintained in Canada to effect a rescue of
these rebel officers. If by such efforts war should be brought
on between the United States and England a great point would be
gained by the rebels. No other depot of prisoners of war was
on a frontier or exposed like this. During the season of
navigation it could
Pg. 349 -
be reached from Canada in a few hours' night
run, and during the winter season men and teams could conveniently
cross the lake from island to island, not over five miles of ice
intervening in any place. During the season of ice the
location of the depot of prisoners practically ceased to be an
island. The capture of that depot or the rescue of the
prisoners confined there, would not only be of immense advantage to
the rebel cause and give them great eclat, but would be a deep
humiliation to our government and people, and would almost certainly
be attended by attacks upon our lake commerce and devastation upon
our lake towns. The rebel officers confined at the island had
a large range of acquaintances and friends in the loyal States.
For them the rebel emissaries traveling in those States, and the
secret orders known as the "Knights of the Golden Circle' and 'Sons
of Liberty,' had an especial sympathy, and were anxious to aid them
by means of rescue, or with places of refuge and concealment.
They had the means of knowing each other. These facts, with
the difficulty about exchanges, stimulated machinations for rescue,
front and rear, and kept the prisoners constantly on the quivive,
ready for any desperate adventure until after the fall of
Petersburg."
It appears that there was but a single well organized
attempt to effect a rescue of the prisoners on Johnson's Island, and
that attempt was made in the month of September, 18964, although
prior to that it was well known that the Canadian side of the lake
swarmed with agents of the rebel government and sympathizing
residents, subjects of England, who were ever willing to lend aid to
the Confederate cause in an under-handed manner, but were not so
willing to participate in open, warlike hostilities.
The plan of rescue that led to the open attempt on the
19th of September was conceived by John Yates Beall. He
was to conduct the operations from the Canada side while one Cole
was entrusted with the work of gaining the confidence of the
officers at Sandusky, and particularly of the commanding officers of
the gun-boat Michigan, that lay in the waters of Sandusky Bay in the
immediate vicinity of the island. The Michigan was the only
Government boat then acting in the defense of the island, and with
an ample crew of marines, and here eighteen guns she could repel any
attack that might be made, especially when acting in conjunction
with the guard force of infantry and artillery on the island and at
Sandusky. The first step, therefore, in accomplishing the main
undertaking was to obtain control of the boat, and this was the part
of the program assigned to Cole. He was well remembered by
many of the residents of Sandusky as an active and energetic fellow,
possessing education beyond the average, a fine conversationalist,
and a royal entertainer. He made a prodigal use of his money,
with which commodity he appeared to be abundantly supplied. He
dined and wined the officers of the Michigan and sought to
ingratiate himself wholly in their favor. But in the
chivalrous acts of this daring young fellow he rather overdid the
matter, and Yankee cunning proved more than a match for his arts.
When he thought he had the officers just
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SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
On May 26, 1899, Company B
returned from thirteen months' service in the Spanish war.
They came in about 1.15 o'clock P.M. on the Big Four and were
welcomed with a parading escort and an enormous crowd which went
wild as the boys marched down the street headed by Capt. Charles
Stroud. They made a creditable record in the war.
The company left Sandusky on the 26th of April, 1898, and went to
Toledo and thence to Columbus, where they were mustered into the
service of the United States. They endured hardship and
disappointment at Chickamauga, Knoxville and Cienfuegos, Cuba.
On the 17th of January, 1899, the regiment was divided, the Second
Battalion under Maj. George Barker being sent to Santa Clara
Province, where Company B was stationed. The regiment remained
in Cuba four months and was then ordered to return to be mustered
out. On the 25th day of April, 1899, the regiment sailed on
the steamer Chester for the United States, arriving at quarantine
Charleston Harbor April 29th, where they remained five days.
On May 2nd the regiment went into camp at Augusta and was mustered
out May 24, 1899.
Gen. Henry W. Lawton, who commanded at Santiago,
was born at Venice, Ohio, July 19, 1848,and his career as a soldier,
which was ended at the battle of San Mateo in the Phillippines by
his death, is part of the creditable record of Erie County Soldiers.
END OF CHAPTER XXX -
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