HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 175 dress of welcome and Kossuth replied in a speech of which differing reports exist. The facts are that the great Hungarian had prepared carefully for this occasion, but he was in miserable physical condition and his voice could not meet the demands made upon it. Therefore, he contented himself with a few felicitations in order to meet the emergency and left his oration unspoken. The speech he did deliver was stenographically reported and brilliant passages from it have been frequently quoted with approval. The text of the intended speech was afterward presented, in manuscript form, to the General Assembly and now rests in the archives of the Ohio State Library. Inasmuch as Kossuth used much of the same materials elsewhere on his American tour, the following paragraph is of interest, offering, as it does, a suggestion of a later pronouncement by our own Civil War President : "Applying the touchstone of philosophical scrutiny to that instruction which history affords, we cannot fail to remark that almost every century had one predominant idea, which allabsorbingly prevailed, and impressed a common direction to the activity of nations. This predominant idea is the spirit of the age ; invisible yet omnipresent ; impregnable yet all-pervading, scorned, abused, opposed, and yet omnipotent. The spirit of our age is Democracy—All for the people, and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people—That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency of the spirit of our age." Kossuth had been brought to this country by enthusiastic Americans who wished to aid him in his struggle for the independent national existence of Hungary. His tour was a success in that it was a continuous ovation and resulted in the collection of a considerable sum of money for the Hungarian cause, Columbus contributing some two thousand dollars, but Kossuth never achieved his ambition to become the liberator of his people. He was denied citizenship in his own country and died in exile in 1894. However, something of his spirit lived on and the peace following the World War finally materialized his dreams. These were the days of great activity in the anti-slavery agitation fast approaching a climax. The Whig party, founded on sound money, protective tariff and opposition to executive usurpation, after 176 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY a brief success, was disintegrating. The southern Whigs were forming other political alliances on account of the slavery question. Ohio was the storm center of all factions seeking to bring about an unification of all elements opposed to slave extension. A momentous step was taken when, on February 13, 1854, there appeared in the Ohio State Journal a call for a public meeting to express opposition to the violation of existing compromises between the free and the slave states of the Union. This was signed by Free Soilers, Whigs, Democrats and Knownothings. A result of this meeting was a call for the state convention, then known as the "Anti-Nebraska Convention," at which the Republican party was really launched on its career, although the name was not adopted until a later date. At this convention a committee was appointed to correspond with groups in other states on the subject of a national convention. This committee was composed of Henry B. Carrington, of Columbus, and J. H. Baker, of Chillicothe, Whigs ; Joseph R. Swan, of Columbus, and Rufus P. Spalding, of Cleveland, Democrats ; and Dr. J. B. Coulter, of Columbus, Free Soiler. At this convention Joseph R. Swan was nominated as a candidate for a place on the Supreme Bench of Ohio and at the ensuing election was chosen by almost eighty thousand plurality. The following year (July 13, 1855) there was a larger and more enthusiastic state convention held in the old Town Street Methodist Church, composed of the same political elements, at which the name "Republican" was adopted and Salmon P. Chase nominated for governor. The convention was called to order by Joshua R. Giddings, and John Sherman, but lately elected to Congress for the first time, was made the permanent chairman. At this convention all the antislavery sentiment of the generation was crystalized in eloquent oration, ringing resolutions and practical plans for political manipulation to consolidate the strength of the nation for "free speech and free men." Chase, a former resident of Franklin County, was nominated for governor and the Republican party at once assumed national importance. Possibly Columbus happened to be the place of nativity of a great political party by the choice of chance ; nevertheless, few if any greater distinctions have ever come to it. The Knownothing wave reached its crest in 1855, but before breaking and disappearing in spray, left some unpleasant marks. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 177 Primarily the Knownothings were organized secretly to stem the tide of foreign immigration by legitimate political methods. The organization had a mushroom growth and was fast getting out of hand when interest gave way to greater issues and the movement died. In Columbus it expressed itself by a show of physical violence toward certain German societies. On the Fourth of July a parade composed of a German Fire Company, a military company and the Turners was attacked on High Street near Town by unorganized spectators. Stones and other missles were thrown with more or less accuracy and there was some shooting, as a result of which a young man named Foster was killed. A score of the Germans were arrested and one of them charged with the killing; but there was too much evidence, all of it conflicting, to procure a conviction and the matter was allowed to drop in the shadow of approaching troubles of greater magnitude. Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the hero of two expeditions into the then unknown frozen North, died at the age of thirty-seven in February of 1857, in Havana, Cuba, where he had gone in search of health. His remains were brought back by way of the Gulf and Cincinnati. At Columbus the funeral car was laid off and the explorer's body taken to the state house where it laid in state in the Senate chamber guarded by the State Fencibles over Sunday. Memorial services were held in the Capitol, and military and civic respect paid to the man who had practically given his life in attempts to save others and to extend the boundaries of human knowledge. On the 2nd of June, 1859, the Republicans of Ohio met in convention at Columbus and nominated William Dennison, of Franklin County, as their candidate for governor. He was the first citizen of Franklin County to be elected to this high office and there has been but one other since. Dennison was a lawyer by profession, with pleasing personality and popular where known, but his largest success had been gained in the business world and he lacked the statewide acquaintance that is almost necessary to a successful gubernatorial candidate, both before and after election. The situation was unfortunately complicated by the failure of the convention to renominate Judge Joseph R. Swan, chief justice of the Supreme Court, who was serving his first term. Judge Swan had incurred the dis- 178 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY pleasure of the radical abolitionists by his part in the decision of the court in what was known as the "Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Case." Some Oberlin students, led and encouraged by a member of the college faculty, had taken part in the attempted rescue of a fugitive slave. Two of them were arrested, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in the Cleveland jail by the Federal Court. They were brought before the Supreme Court of Ohio on a habeas corpus proceeding and Judge Swan, ignoring popular clamor and indifferent to his own political future, wrote and delivered the opinion of the court declining to interfere with the action of the United States District Court and remanding the prisoners. Every lawyer of standing in the state and every thoughtful citizen knew that Swan was right, but he was sacrificed on the "altar of political expediency." The Democrats nominated Judge Rufus P. Ranney, of Portage County, as Dennison's opponent. Ranney was a lawyer of high professional standing and enjoyed a wide acquaintance. He had been a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850 and had served a term on the Supreme Bench of Ohio. He was a worthy adversary on any field. He was supported in his campaign by United States Senator George E. Pugh, Allen G. Thurman, S. S. Cox, George H. Pendleton and former United States Senator William Allen, with others of scarcely lesser note. Dennison was supported by Governor Chase, Joshua R. Giddings, Senator Ben Wade, Thomas Corwin, John Sherman and a host of others on the threshold of the temple of fame. The campaign was pressed with zeal on both sides. The gubernatorial candidates met in debate on several occasions and, to the surprise of everybody, Dennison got the popular verdict over his heavier and slower competitor. Then the Democrats, in somewhat desperate straits, sent for their supreme attraction, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois ; and the Republicans, fighting to retain every advantage and win every possible point, sent for Abraham Lincoln. Douglas spoke in Columbus on September 7th and Lincoln spoke on the east terrace of the state house on the afternoon of the 13th and in the city hall in the evening. He was introduced by Dr. George M. Parsons. Standing tall, sober and almost saturnine in appearance, he began his speech in a diffident, half apologetic manner. Then, taking advantage of an attack made upon him that morning by HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 179 the Ohio Statesman, in which he was accused of favoring negro suffrage and social equality, he speedily unlimbered his artillery and was soon "firing at will" on every position of the enemy. Early in his discussion of this subject he asid : "I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position, but I hold that, nevertheless all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence—the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas, he is not my equal in many respects—certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man." A little later he reaffirmed the sentiment of a former speech : "I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it ; but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there was no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand uphold the law of the state, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes." From this on the spectators became auditors. The Ohio State Journal the next morning said : "Mr. Lincoln was enthusiastically received and hold the attention of the audience for two hours, his clear and irresistible points eliciting frequent marks of approbation." It is probable that the audience was not a large one, as charged by the opposition paper, possibly owing to the fact that the state fair was in full swing with the "largest and most varied aggregation of rare attractions ever collected in a single show," but the speech was printed in full in the Journal and rapidly circulated in pamphlet form throughout the state. This and the speeches at Dayton and Cincinnati played full part in winning the victory that followed at the election. This visit also gave Lincoln an opportunity to strengthen friendships already made in central Ohio and it led to the publication of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, including the two Ohio speeches, 180 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY by Follett, Foster and Company, of Columbus, the wide circulation of which in the east fixed the attention of political leaders on Lincoln as a national figure worthy of consideration for the highest office in the land. The Ohio General Assembly played host to the legislative bodies of Kentucky and Tennessee on January 26, 1860. These neighbors to the south were invited to visit Ohio's capital in a spirit of good will to strengthen cordial relations for the doubtful days many of the leaders saw just ahead. It is probable that this effort was fully justified. If Massachusetts and Georgia could have exchanged similar visits a few years earlier, the Civil War might have been averted —or precipitated on a smaller and less costly scale. CHAPTER XI THE CIVIL WAR. LINCOLN ON HIS WAY TO WASHINGTON—SECESSION AND EARLY RESULTS—FIRING ON FORT SUMPTER—GOVERNOR DENNISON AND FIRST VOLUNTEERS—CAMPS JACKSON AND CHASE—ONE MILLION DOLLARS APPROPRIATED FOR WAR PURPOSES—OHIO IN THE WEST VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN—VISITS OF ANDERSON AND FREMONT—GENERAL McDOWELL AND THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN—AMMUNITION MADE IN COLUMBUS— GOVERNOR TOD'S ADMINISTRATION—BATTLE OF SHILOH, OHIO RELIEF —AVOIDING THE DRAFT—CINCINNATI THREATENED—THE SQUIRREL HUNTERS—STONE RIVER—MORGAN'S RAID—TOD BARRACKS—BROUGH AND VALANDINGHAM— CELEBRATION OF LEE'S SURRENDER—THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN—LADIES AID SOCIETY—VISITS OF GENERALS SHERMAN AND GRANT. Abraham Lincoln, on his way to Washington to be inaugurated President of the United States, came to Columbus again on the 13th of February, 1861. His reception was in strong contrast to that of his previous visit. All open space to the west of the old railway station was densely packed with anxious people, and when Lincoln appeared on the rear platform of his train, he was greeted with tremendous applause. Brigadier General Lucian Buttles, as marshal of the day, and the Columbus Vedettes, as guard of honor, escorted the President-elect and his party, down High Street, between solid lines of wildly cheering multitudes, to the Capitol Building. Here the throng was so great that the utmost difficulty was experienced in providing a way for the visitor to reach the executive office, where he was received by Governor William Dennison and immediately conducted to the hall of the House of Representatives where he briefly addressed the joint session of the two houses of the General Assembly. After - 181 - 182 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY this he spoke to the concourse of people gathered about the west front of the building and covering every inch of the lawn to the street. He then held a public reception in the rotunda where all of his great physical strength was taxed by the enthusiastic greetings of those who pushed and jostled for a chance to touch the man intuition told them was marked for immortality. After this ordeal was over at last, he was allowed a few hours rest at the home of Governor Dennison, but in the evening and until late at night he received and conferred with members of the Legislature, state officers and prominent citizens from "round about Ohio." The next morning he went on his way to fulfill his destiny. Lincoln's last visit to Columbus gave the people an opportunity to satisfy a natural curiosity and to express the love and loyalty the great majority of them felt for him personally and held for the government he was about to administer. But all this was against a background of fear and foreboding. On the 20th of the previous December the state of South Carolina, through a convention especially assembled for the purpose, had formally seceded from the Federal Union and, before Lincoln's Columbus appearance, the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana and Texas had taken like action and on February 4th, accredited representatives of these independent sovereignties had met at Montgomery, Alabama, had created the Confederate States of America and had elected Jefferson Davis as their President. Before Lincoln was inaugurated hostilities had been initiated by the seceding states without arousing a murmur of protest from James Buchanan, who cowered in the White House and shrank from the shadow of coming oblivion. On February 18th a Federal force, under General David E. Twiggs, had surrendered to the military representatives of the state of Texas, the sub-treasury at New Orleans, containing over half a million dollars, had been turned over to the Confederacy, and forts and war vessels within the territory of the revolutionaries had been captured or surrendered to them. For more than a month after the fourth of March President Lincoln sought to avert the impending conflict, probably on the general principle that it takes two to make a war but when, on April 12th, demand was made on Major Robert Anderson, commandant of Fort HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 183 Sumpter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, to haul down the American flag and surrender his garrison of seventy men, he refused ; and when the guns of Fort Moultrie and newly installed shore batteries opened fire on him, he replied with shot and shell. After thirty-six hours of incessant bombardment, with defenses practically demolished and ammunition exhausted, Anderson was compelled to surrender the fort, he and his men being allowed to depart with the honors of war. But major Anderson had given the reply of the national government to the pretensions and demands of the southern states, and that reply meant war. Before the cannon of Sumpter and Moultrie had time to cool, the men of the North were arming for battle. Before the President issued his first call on April 15th for seventy-five thousand militiamen to suppress the insurrection, in Ohio twenty regiments had been offered to Governor Dennison. Within twenty-four hours of the call, troops began to arrive in Columbus. First came the Lancaster Guards, then the Dayton Light Guards, and by April 18th there were enough soldiers in Columbus to organize the first and second regiments of volunteer infantry. The Montgomery Guards, of Columbus became Company D of the First Regiment ; and the Second Regiment included the Columbus Vedettes as Company B and the Fencibles as Company C. Of the Fencibles' original enlistment of seventy-five men, thirty-seven afterward became commissioned officers. The Governor's Guards and the Steuben Guards were quickly recruited to full strength and placed in early regiments. As Washington was supposed to be in immediate danger, the first and second Ohio regiments departed for the national capital before daylight on the morning of the 19th of April, without arms, accoutrement or uniforms, Ohio's quota of the President's first call was 13,000—it was answered by 30,000. At once Columbus became a military camp. Every train brought volunteers. They came in organized companies, in squads and as individuals. While Camp Jackson was being prepared in Goodale Park these potential soldiers were quartered in the Capitol Building, in Starling Medical College and the various state institutions including the penitentiary, and they were fed at odd times and haphazard until W. G. Deshler, C. P. L. Butler, Theodore Comstock and Luther 184 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY Donaldson organized and financed temporary provisioning plans by which the soldiers were given proper care. The Legislature met the governor's request for money by an appropriation of a million dollars, the bill being passed without a dissenting vote in either house—a remarkable circumstance indicating a sudden and complete change of front on the part of many who had opposed Lincoln's election and had sympathized with every contention of the southern states and had cried for peace at any price until the flag of their country had been fired upon and hauled down in surrender. The amount of the appropriation had to be borrowed on certificates of indebtedness at six per cent interest, but it was subscribed as speedily as authorized. Cincinnati took one-fourth of the total, D. W. Deshler's bank alone took $100,000, and the remainder of the loan was over-subscribed. Within a week there were enough troops quartered in Camp Jackson to form the Third Regiment and on April 26th the camp was crowded with 7,826 men. Camp Dennison, named in honor of the governor, was immediately established near Cincinnati and on the 20th fifteen companies were transferred to that point. During the first six weeks of war preparation there was more or less confusion, some blunders were made and many more narrowly averted. The state had no military organization to speak of ; there were no arms, no ammunition and no equipment and, even worse, the state's military authorities were destitute of the slightest professional training in the work so suddenly thrust upon them. Nevertheless, before the second proclamation of the President, calling for 42,000 volunteers for three years service, was received, twenty-two organizations, mostly full regiments, had been recruited for the three months service. In immediate response to the call of May 3rd, the Twenty-third Regiment, with Colonel W. S. Rosecrans in command, was organized at Camp Jackson and promptly forwarded to Clarksburg, West Virginia. This regiment contained two men who afterward became Presidents of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, the ranking major, and William McKinley, Jr., a captain. The Twenty-fourth Regiment, in command of Colonel Jacob Ammem, speedily followed. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 185 Governor Dennison considered the position of Ohio one of extreme danger. Kentucky on the south was permeated with southern sympathizers and ultimate alignment of that state was a matter for anxious speculation ; on the east was Virginia and nothing but the shallow waters of the Ohio River ready to check invasion from that quarter. He had commissioned George B. McClelland, of Hamilton County, as major general, and was urging, praying and ordering that exponent of masterly inactivity to proceed, with the troops he had at Camp Dennison and others ready to move, with the invasion of western Virginia, where northern sentiment was preponderant and conditions for successful operations most favorable. Grafton was occupied by the Confederates on May 20th and four days afterward, when the governor's appeals were seconded by the secretary of war, McClelland moved with an Ohio army and carried the war into the enemy's territory. He had with him, or was speedily joined by, seventeen regiments of infantry, one battery of artillery and Burdsall's Ohio Dragoons. Among these was the Third Ohio, containing Companies A and B of the Governor's Guards and a company of the Montgomery Guards. The campaign of this Ohio army of volunteers won for the Union the thirty-four counties of the Old Dominion, afterward formed into the state of West Virginia, and was the first military demonstration of the North against the southern Confederacy. On the 28th of May the work of moving Camp Jackson to a site four miles west of the city was begun. One hundred and sixty acres of land on the south side of the National Road, high and level, was being ploughed and rolled for drill grounds and barracks, depots for quartermaster's and commissary's stores, and houses for officers' quarters were being constructed by shifts of men working through all of the daylight hours. By June 12th the new camp was ready for use and Goodale Park was practically abandoned. A week later the name of the new camp was changed to Camp Chase, a designation the locality still retains. Major Robert Anderson, the defender of Fort Sumpter, passed through Columbus on May 16th and was given a great reception during the few minutes his train was held at the Union Station. He 186 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY was on his way to assume command of the Department of Kentucky and the Cumberland, a post he held with the brevet rank of major general, until his shattered health compelled his retirement with honors a year later. On July 24th Major General John C. Fremont, the pathfinder and hero of California, visited Camp Chase on his way to take command of the army of Missouri. He was lionized by the soldiers and his appearance everywhere was hailed with war time enthusiasm. A week afterward a train with twenty-seven cars containing ammunition and artillery for his army passed through Columbus, the whole being shipped and handled as express. This was the first of a series of war express trains to pass through the city for armies in the west and south. During the same month Colonel H. B. Carrington opened a recruiting station for the Eighteenth United States Infantry and quickly enlisted some two hundred men, mostly from Franklin County, who were quartered in Camp Thomas, located on the Beers farm near Worthington. Volunteers for the Forty-Sixth Ohio were also encamped in the same neighborhood. This regiment was recruited by Colonel Thomas Worthington and Major Charles C. Walcutt, of Columbus, and numbered among its officers John B. Neil and Mitchell C. Lilley, also of Columbus. The situation at home was complicated and rendered vexatious by the almost daily return and mustering out of early regiments dispatched to Washington and West Virginia under the three months' call. Ten regiments over and above Ohio's quota, not formally accepted as national troops, were being held in the state, mostly at Camp Chase, on the responsibility of the governor, awaiting orders. They were afterward mustered out, with one month's pay and sent home, and might have remained there permanently but for the nation-wide awakening that occurred on July 21st. Major General Irvin McDowell, in command of an army of 30,000 men, mostly raw recruits, was ordered to dislodge Beauregard, who was encamped at Mannassas Junction on Bull Run, within thirty miles of the national capital. The news of McDowell's advance was broadcast to friend and foe alike, with such optimistic additions as "on to HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 187 Richmond," and the general public assumed that the war was practically over. At this distance it is impossible to picture the wave of consternation that swept over the North, beginning at Washington, when Beauregard not only failed to melt away, but, after receiving timely additions to his army, turned the tide of battle and beat the invaders back to the very gates of Washington, disorganized, routed, crushed. For the first time the government, as well as the people themselves, began to realize that this thing was war and that the day of trifling was past. Under an act of Congress authorizing the President to accept one million volunteers, a call was made for 500,000 men in addition to the 300,000 called on July 1st. Then North and South prepared for a struggle to the death. Ohio's quota under these calls was 67,365. The work of recruiting, organizing and drilling regiments necessary to meet these demands necessitated the establishment of several military stations in other parts of the state, but the headquarters were here ; the hurry and haste, the noise and confusion, the pressure for place, the intriguing for contracts, the shout and the tumult of preparation were centered in Columbus and gave the people of Franklin County a taste of the stress of war second only to the battlefield itself. Among the many military activities was the establishment of a state laboratory for the manufacture of fixed ammunition, located in a building formerly occupied by the Kimball & Ridgeway car shops on the west side. More than two hundred and fifty employes, half of them women and girls, were engaged here during this period and up to December 15th had produced over two and a half million cartridges for small arms and artillery. By the end of 1861 Ohio had expended for war purposes, out of her own funds, $1,212,134.45, and stood for unpaid claims amounting to a quarter of a million dollars more. Up to this time there had been organized for the three months service twenty-three regiments, and eighty-two regiments for the three years service. Ohio had raised 20,000 soldiers above her quota. All of this had been accomplished in nine months of the administration of Governor Dennison, Franklin County's first representative in the executive chair of the state. Yet he could not be re-elected. 188 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY He had been obliged to do too many things that were necessary but not popular. He gracefully stepped aside and his own party nominated and elected David Tod, of Mahoning County, as his successor. Governor Tod retained Adjutant General C. P. Buckingham as his chief of staff, but in April the general was transferred to the War Department at Washington and Charles W. Hill became his successor. Quartermaster General George B. Wright and Commissary General Columbus Delano remained on the staff. Surgeon General C. E. Weber shortly retired on account of impaired health and was succeeded by Dr. Samuel M. Smith, of Columbus. During the early months of 1862 the people of Franklin County experienced all of the emotions common to the country at large—elation, depression and apprehension—differing only in degree, Ohio being then the third largest state in the Union and Columbus being the busiest capital city in the North in the work of war preparation. The fall of Fort Henry on February 6th and Fort Donaldson ten days later raised high hopes culminating in a public outburst of rejoicing; but the sanguinary battle of Shiloh on April 6th and 7th put the city in mourning. No general less stubborn than Grant could have withstood the furious assault of the first day by Johnston and Beauregard, and probably no general with less cunning than Beauregard could have escaped with 3,000 prisoners at the end of the second day's battle. The losses of the two armies were practically equal, 1,700 killed and 8,000 wounded on each side, but the large number "missing" from the Union army added a dread uncertainty to the sorrows of those back home. No field hospital at that time was equipped properly to care for so large a percentage of casualties and Ohio was called upon for aid—almost one-fourth of the Union army was from this state. The response was prompt and intelligent. The late Francis C. Sessions, of Columbus, with ample supplies of all kinds, was dispatched to the front and his timely arrival contributed to the saving of lives and the comfort and speedier recovery of many hundreds. Many of the sick and wounded were brought to Columbus for better hospital facilities as fast as they could be moved. In the latter part of May, while McClelland was capturing Yorktown and threatening to March on Richmond, Stonewall Jackson made a counter-demonstration in the Shenandoah Valley and got as HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 189 far as Harper's Ferry in his threat against Washington. Additional troops were thought to be required for the defense of the national capital, and the governor called for volunteers for three months service, which was quickly answered, and Camp Chase was soon crowded to capacity. Five regiments, the Eighty-fourth to Eighty-eighth, were formed of those who responded to this call. Under the presidential draft of August 4th for 300,000 nine months men, the state was divided into five districts, Franklin County being in the fifth district. In order to escape whatever unpleasant notoriety might be attached to being drafted, the citizens of Franklin County proceeded to encourage volunteering. Several enthusiastic public meetings were held, committees appointed and resolutions adopted, as a result of which $25,000 was raised for the purpose of guaranteeing the care of the families and dependents of soldiers in the field and paying bounties where necessary. The consequence was that the county furnished 3,476 enlisted men, 1,431 of whom were from the city of Columbus and the draft was not made. At the end of August, 1862, the Confederate General Kirby Smith, with 20,000 men and forty pieces of artillery, invaded Kentucky from Tennessee. He occupied Lexington and sent General Heath with 5,000 men to capture Covington and Cincinnati. The people of Cincinnati met the situation without panic. General Lew Wallace, with a single regiment of volunteers, took command of the situation and proceeded to fortify the Kentucky hills. Governor Tod called for "minute men" to congregate at Cincinnati for the defense of the city and arranged with the railroads to convey all armed men to that destination at the expense of the state.. The response was one of the most spontaneous and dramatic incidents of Ohio history. Men armed with shotguns, muzzle loading muskets and pistols—anything that would shoot—with powder horn and pouch, with and without uniforms, many clad in homespun, descended upon Cincinnati by twos and tens and companies, boys and old men, until the Queen City held an army—an army of individual sharp-shooters that could have annihilated General Heath, without organization or orders, if that discreet commander had ever come within gunshot. However, he didn't come, and a debacle was avoided. On account of the favorite weapon of these "minute men" being a shot gun, they were immedi- 190 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY ately labeled "squirrel hunters," a name afterward officially recognized by the Ohio Legislature. Columbus furnished 700 of them and many years after the war the engraved certificates of service issued to these squirrel hunters could be seen framed in offices and homes, displayed as patents of nobility. Many an elevation to the peerage has been made with less reason ! The year 1863 began with the battle of Stone River, in Tennessee, the Union army being commanded by General W. S. Rosecrans, a native of central Ohio. In this battle General John Beatty, of Columbus, then a colonel but in command of a brigade, won signal distinction. The withdrawal of General Bragg with his shattered army on the night of January 3rd left the laurels of victory with the North, but the losses on both sides were heavy. At least a third of Rosecrans' army was composed of Ohio troops and the number of Ohio wounded was reported at 2,000. The governor again sent Francis C. Sessions to the battle field with means of relief and care for the suffering. The state rented what was then known as the Esther Institute on Broad Street, the site of the Athletic Club, for hospital purposes and here some three hundred and fifty convalescents were cared for as soon as they could be removed from the field hospitals. What is generally referred to as the decisive battle of the Civil-War ended at Gettysburg on July 3rd. The news of the result reached Columbus on the morning of the 4th and was received with wild rejoicing. There were parades by day and torch light processions by night. The fervor of enthusiasm had only begun to abate when the news came through that Vicksburg had surrendered to Grant and the town went wild again. Within forty-eight hours all Confederate hopes of an invasion of the North had been blasted and the solid South had been split by the opening of the Mississippi River, Texas and Arkansas isolated and a solid foundation laid for the inevitable end. Little wonder that High Street ran riot. The feeling of satisfaction stimulated by these two victories gave way, however, before the scare that accompanied General John H. Morgan's raid into Ohio. General Morgan, in command of a brigade of Confederate cavalry, had been ordered by General Bragg to make a demonstration through northern Kentucky, probably for the purpose of diverting the attention of the opposing army under Rosecrans HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 191 to matters nearer home with the capture of Louisville as one possible objective. Morgan succeeded in avoiding the Union army, except for a brush with Judah's cavalry, and proceeded with 2,460 men through Kentucky to the neighborhood of Louisville where, finding that city prepared for him, he made a detour and struck the Ohio River sixty miles below. The record indicates that Morgan had made up his mind to disregard the express orders of General Bragg and to invade Indiana and Ohio on an orgy of plunder, with the exceptation of recrossing the river at his own convenience either into Kentucky or a part of West Virginia where he would be among friends or neutrals ; or, in certain contingencies, to continue his raid across West Virginia into Virginia. He crossed the river at Brandenburg, Meade County, Kentucky, on captured boats, into Indiana on the 9th of July and reached the Ohio border on the 12th. That night he passed through the suburbs of Cincinnati and within easy hailing distance of Camp Dennison without arousing any opposition. He then continued his ride through Clermont and Clinton Counties, passed through Washington Courthouse, within forty-five miles of Columbus, and proceeded through Ross, Highland, Brown, Adams, Pike, Vinton, Jackson, Gallia and Meigs Counties. In Meigs County at Buffington's Island he made his first attempt to recross the river into West Virginia. In the meantime there was a furore throughout the state. When the news of Morgan's invasion of Indiana reached Columbus, Governor Tod called out 50,000 Ohio militia for defense. The response was prompt and enthusiastic. Franklin County furnished forty-nine companies, numbering 3,952 men. Part of this force was dispatched to General Burnside at Cincinnati, a sufficient number retained at Camp Chase for the defense of the capital and the remainder forwarded to points along the Ohio River for such service as might develop. The raiders had not entirely escaped damage in their wild ride through the state of Ohio. Here and there detachments of militia, local minute men and sharpshooters had peppered away and picked off stragglers and individuals bent on private looting expeditions had been captured by the sturdy yoemanry. 192 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY When Morgan attempted to ford the Ohio at Buffington's Island he expected and was prepared for some opposition, but he did not know that General Judah had crossed the river from Kentucky at Portsmouth and was now upon him and that General E. H. Hobson, who had followed his every step across Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, had at last overtaken him. In addition to these, two gunboats had been patrolling the river for days and when their opportunity for action came they made the most of it. Morgan escaped with 1,200 of his men and twenty miles up the river attempted again to cross. Three hundred of his men actually succeeded in getting into West Virginia, but the gunboats arrived in time to turn back the remaining 900. From then on the raid degenerated into a hopeless flight. He could not turn back, and going forward he ran into the Ninth Michigan Cavalry at Salineville, Columbiana County, on July 26th and lost almost half of his men in killed, wounded and prisoners. On the afternoon of the same day he was taken into custody by Major George W. Rue, of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. He had left but 336 men. The raid was over, but it had cost the state of Ohio over a million dollars, half of that amount being expended in the pay and transportation of the militia and the remainder for property damages inflicted by the raiders. Morgan, with a number of his officers, was confined in the Ohio penitentiary. On the 27th of November he and six of his captains escaped through a tunnel, largely of their own construction. They boarded a Little Miami train without exciting suspicion, got off before reaching Cincinnati and crossed into Kentucky without difficulty. He had given Ohio the scare of its history and cost the state treasury a fortune, but he had disobeyed the orders of his superior officer in a harebrained venture of no military advantage, had lost a brigade of cavalry, and he spent the remainder of his life in bitterness if not actual disgrace. On October 17th, 1863, the President issued a call for 300,000 additional volunteers, the quota of Franklin County being 700. The war was fast drawing to a close, this section had been bled white and, for the first time, the county was slow in meeting the demand made upon it—but it was met. HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 193 About the same time the construction of Tod Barracks was begun. It was located just north of the Union Station on the east side of High Street, with a frontage of 316 feet and exended 750 feet east. It was surrounded by a high board fence, enclosing one-story frame buildings for officers quarters and for the accommodation of recruits, sick and wounded and the temporary detention of deserters. Later, when Camp Chase was being abandoned after the war, Tod Barracks became its successor for military purposes. Some of the old buildings of this barracks were standing as late as 1890. As the year drew to a close a strong sentiment developed to the effect that Governor Tod, like his predecessor, could not be re-elected, and for the same reasons. However, Tod did not retire without a contest. He made a fight for renomination and went down with colors still flying. The convention nominated John Brough, of Marietta, with the belief that he could unite the supporters of the war from all parties. The Anti-war Democrats nominated Clement L. ValandIngham, who had gained national notoriety by his opposition to the war and all the policies of the Union in relation thereto. Shortly before his nomination. Mr. Valandingham had been convicted by a military tribunal of conspiracy against the government and had been conveyed through the Confederate lines under a flag of truce and turned over to his supposed friends. The Confederates received him with some embarrassment and delightedly assisted him to escape to Canada where he received the news of his nomination for governor of Ohio and from which asylum he conducted his campaign for election. His defeat was not surprising, but Brough's majority of more than a hundred thousand was phenomenal at the time and contributed immensely to the permanent discouragement of the "copperhead" element whether organized as Knights of the Golden Circle, or otherwise. Governor Brough was inaugurated January 11, 1864, and began at once to devote his undoubted executive ability to war problems. He joined with the governors of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa in a plan to organize militia for the purpose of guarding forts and railways and relieving veterans so employed for service in the field. He endeared himself to the soldiers here and everywhere by his personal 184 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY interest in the welfare of the sick and suffering and did much in his short administration to make the way easier for many who had fallen and needed help to rise again. He died in office August 29th, 1865, and was succeeded by Lieutenant Governor Charles Anderson, brother of the defender of Fort Sumpter. However, Brough lived to see the end of the conflict. April opened with news of Sheridan's victory at Five Forks, followed by the fall of Richmond and on April 9th the news of Lee's surrender reached Columbus within four or five hours by the aid of unusual newspaper enterprise. It was a quiet Sunday evening but the glad tidings quickly spread throughout the city. Church congregations were hastily dismissed with the shortest of prayers and joined hurrying throngs on the streets pressing toward the State House. Cannons cast to hurl death were loaded without shot and thundered thanksgiving, while bells of every sort chimed the story of peace once more. A multitude collected about the Capitol Building was addressed by the governor and others, the scene lighted by impromptu bonfires. On Friday of the same week a more formal celebration was held on the east front of the Capitol at which Dr. George M. Parsons presided and John Sherman delivered one of the best speeches of his career. But nothing could eclipse the spontaneous enthusiasm of that Sunday night when the shock of a great joy spent itself as a gale that no man can guide. In the evening, while the whole city was illuminated with every lighting device known at the time and the Capitol blazed like a great jewel in a cluster of lesser gems, President Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington. The news did not reach Columbus until the next morning (Saturday, April 15th) and was received in bewildered silence. The people who so recently had been exhausted by emotions of joy, were stunned, and dumb or rebellious. Business was suspended, the flags hung at half staff, the passers in the street spoke in whispers and hurried on. On Sunday evening the largest assembly that ever gathered in Capitol Square joined in community services. On the west terrace the Rev. A. G. Byers, long prominent in local and state affairs, spoke to the people, and on the east terrace, the Rev. Granville Moody, the fighting parson, gave such consolation as faith had to offer. The day of the funeral in Washington (the HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 195 19th) business was again suspended and every mark of respect paid to the memory of the dead leader. Ten days later the train bearing the body of the martyred President came to Columbus from Cleveland on its way to Springfield, Illinois. The most stately and imposing procession that the city ever saw was formed in five divisions to receive the mortal remnant and bear it to the State House where an oration was delivered by the Hon. Job E. Stevenson. The body lay in state in the rotunda until six o'clock in the evening, when it was conveyed back to the train with the same honors it was received. The end of the war did not immediately stop all activities incident to its conduct. On June 1st there were yet 3,200 Confederate prisoners at Camp Chase; but four weeks later they had all been discharged. Military contingents returning home from the field were received at Columbus and mustered out almost continuously until the end of the year. Tod Barracks succeeded Camp Chase as headquarters for officers here on special duty. Government employees were discharged as the work of demobilization went on. Slowly the state and the county returned to normal as swords were beaten into plowshares. During the years of the war the work of recruiting, caring for soldiers temporarily quartered here and relieving the sick and wounded was ably supplemented by local organizations of citizens. A branch of the United States Sanitary Commission was organized in 1861. Among other things it established a soldiers' home near the railroad station, constructing a building 24 x 140 feet for its uses, which was operated until May, 1866. Here transient soldiers were lodged, protected and cared for. During its existence some 50,000 men were given lodgings and 136,000 meals were served. Large quantities of supplies were sent to the front as in the cases mentioned in charge of F. C. Sessions. Other agents who rendered conspicuous like services were Drs. S. M. Smith and Starling Loving. The Ladies Aid Society began its ministrations with the opening of hostilities. Mrs. William Dennison, wife of the governor, was its first president and had much to do with forming the plans that afterward proved so successful. She was succeeded by Mrs. W. S. Ide. The roll of devoted women who were indefatigable in the labors of this society is too long for inclusion here, but among those remem- 196 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY bered at this late day were Miss M. L. Swayne, Mrs. S. M. Smith, Miss Pamela Sullivant, Mrs. H. C. Noble, Mrs. Harvey Coit, Mrs. Joseph H. Geiger, Mrs. William G. Deshler, Mrs. Walter Brown and Mrs. F. C. Sessions. While the armies of the Union were being disbanded in 1865, Columbus took advantage of a sojourn General William T. Sherman was making in his old home at Lancaster and formally invited the great commander to visit the capital city. On July 13th he came to Columbus by way of Groveport, where he stopped to pay his respects to John S. Rarey, the famous horse-tamer. There he was met by Governor Brough's military staff and a delegation from the city council and escorted to Columbus. The immense ovation tendered the general during his stay cannot now be appreciated without its back-ground of war clouds, lifting but not dissipated, and recollection of the fact that he was born and raised in an adjoining county. He was obliged to make several speeches in response to addresses of welcome. In his first speech on the north front of the State House he gave the key to his attachment for all things concerning Ohio: "I can tell you nothing new about the war, can describe no new scenes in our long campaigns, for, from Columbus to Portsmouth, from the Ohio River to the lakes, you will find in every house and every hamlet a blue-coated boy who marched with Sherman from Tennessee down through Georgia to the sea and who has told the story better than I can do it, because he saw it inside and outside." At noon on the 3rd of October, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant came to Columbus. He was accompanied by his family and members of his staff. But a few days after his acceptance of the invitation remained for the making of arrangements for his reception, but soldiers and civilians from all over central Ohio crowded the city and packed every vantage point from which a view of the hero of Appomattox could be had. He maintained his reputation for being a man of few words and made no speeches other than the briefest of acknowledgments but he stood for hours in the rotunda of the State House and received the thousands who pressed for the privilege of doing honor to the man who was great enough to command their homage then—but greater than they knew. Among the 2,000 school HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 197 children who participated in that reception are a score or more of survivors whose memories, though growing dim with the passing years, preserve unchanged the picture of meeting Grant. During the Civil War there were 6,687 enlistments from Franklin County. However, this figure does not represent the number of individuals who responded to the various calls, as many enlisted and served more than once. Of these 389 were killed in battle ; 504 died of wounds or disease ; 728 were wounded, and 932 were discharged for physical disability. CHAPTER XII OUR GENERALS. IRVIN McDOWELL—JOHN WAGER SWAYNE—CHARLES C. WALCUTT—JAMES W. FORSYTHE—JOHN G. MITCHELL—JOHN BEATTY—HENRY B. CARRINGTON— JAMES M. COMLY—ISAAC MINOR KIRBY—WILLIAM T. WILSON—THEODORE JONES—COWAN, RICE, MOODY AND ZIEGLER— COLUMBUS SURGEONS IN THE WAR. The record shows that Ohio furnished to the Union cause during the Civil War 346,362 men. Of this great army almost eight thousand were from Franklin County. It is obviously impossible to make mention of the hundreds deserving praise in the history of a county where so much has taken place. Franklin County in the Civil War would make a book without the inclusion of any other matters. There is justifiable pride, however, in the memories of the general officers who either went to the front from this county, or, returning from the field, made this their abiding place thereafter and brought their honors with them. One of the first Franklin County citizens to enter the war, because he was already in the army, was : MAJOR GENERAL IRVIN MCDOWELL. He was born in Franklinton, October 15, 1818. His father, Abram McDowell, served in the War of 1812 in a regiment of Kentucky volunteers of which his uncle was the colonel. At the close of that war Abram McDowell moved to Franklinton and became one of its pioneers. His wife, Eliza Lord, was a member of the Starling family. The McDowells, the Lords and the Starlings were of the colonial aristocracy and young Irvin inherited the traits of character - 188 - HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY - 189 that afterward brought upon him the censure of the envious and the abuse of the mob, but also enabled him to bear the attacks of "outrageous fortune" with serenity. When he was fourteen years of age he was sent to France where he spent a year at the College de Troyes and upon his return was appointed as a cadet to West Point, where he graduated July 1st, 1838. Upon graduation he was appointed a second lieutenant of artillery in the army ; served as adjutant at West Point, 1841-45; aide-de-camp to General Wood and as adjutant general of his division, in the war with Mexico, in which he distinguished himself and was appointed brevet captain and assistant adjutant general. In February, 1861, he was ordered to Washington and was engaged in the muster and organization of volunteers. In May he was commissioned brigadier general and assigned to the command of the Department of Northeastern Virginia and the defense of Washington ; and on May 27th to the command of the Army of the Potomac, with which he fought and lost the first battle of Bull Run on July 21st. The story of this battle is an oft told tale. Viewed now, with all of the facts arranged in their proper relation, McDowell is credited with having laid a plan without flaws, a plan that should have succeeded and would have succeeded if he could have had his own way in the first instance as to the time of striking the blow or if his orders had been obeyed on the day of the battle when his attack should have been launched hours earlier before the Confederate reinforcements could have arrived. The whole subject is summed up by Whitelaw Reid in two sentences : "After all the display of ability which the war has called out, we would be puzzled today if called upon to name any officer who, if put in McDowell's place, would have done better. We may doubt indeed if there are any who, on the whole, would have done so well." Upon the appointment of General McClelland to the command of the Army of the Potomac, McDowell was placed at the head of a division and later of the First Corps. He was made a major general of volunteers March 13, 1862. During General Pope's campaign in northern Virginia he was engaged at Cedar Mountain, Rappahannock Station, and the second battle of Bull Run, where his command covered the retreat and enabled Pope to extricate himself from extreme peril, concerning which action General Halleck declared "that