EMINENT OHIOANS - 751 no opportunity of trying to give pleasure to another, I said, "I think, madam, I am favored this afternoon. There are multitudes in all parts of our country who would be highly gratified to have an interview with the mother of General Grant." It was true, I felt it, and it was a pretty thing to say. Not by a word or an expression of countenance did she show that she even heard me. Yet I was glad I said it. A duty had been performed, and it revealed a trait of character. From her General Grant must have got his immobility that on occasions when common civility demanded vocal signification showed in a reticence that was painful even to the bystanders. Neither mother nor son could help it. The faculty of social impressibility is necessary to every human being if they would widely win souls and fully fill their own. Conversation must be had for life's happiest, best uses, when eye speaks to eye, heart to heart, and the varied tones wake the soul in sympathy. Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln had words of cheer for everybody, and hence were widely loved. When Henry Clay was defeated for the presidency strong men bowed and wept ; when Lincoln was assassinated the whole nation writhed in agony. There was then no such love for Grant. It was because of his extreme reticence and that grim, fixed expression of face that gave no sign of the warm affections that were within. Few, we found, cared to have his portrait, while for those above named, together with the portraits of George and Martha Washington, there was a great demand. Years later this was changed : Grant himself grew social and won more the affections of the people, as they learned his sterling moral qualities. An analysis of the character of a great man always interests. It never can be only partially done. We never can fully comprehend ourselves, much less so another. Grant's moral qualities were of the best. They were modesty, magnanimity, self-repose, a total absence of vanity, self-seeking, jealousy, or malice. He loved truth and purity. His patriotism and sense of justice were so strong that he would elevate a personal enemy to a position if he was the best man for the public use. No man better loved than he, but his dreadful reticence allowed him to illustrate this only by acts. His mind was simple, direct in its action, and he had it in the perfect mastery of an iron will. His memory was like a vice. His topographical memory and capacity bordered on the marvelous. When in camp he soon knew the position of every brigade, the name of its commander and the whole country round with its roads, hills, woods and streams, and then it was all before him as a map on the table. During the siege of Vicksburg he heard of a Northern man living in the vicinity, a civil engineer familiar with the whole adjacent country from his surveys therein. He sent for him and adopted him in his military f amily. That gentleman afterwards said he never met such a head for a civil engineer as that of Grant's. This faculty made him superior to every other commander, so that with his breadth and clearness of views he could make his combinations and move his men on the field of battle with a well-calculated result, almost as certain as fate. He cared less than most commanders to discover the plans of his enemy. He had his own which they could not foresee, and his involved continued movement. Therein he acted on the knowledge that the greatest courage is with him who attacks, and that even a musket ball in motion is worthy of more respect than a cannon ball at rest. His faculty of concentration was so great, his nerves so rigid, that mid showers of bullets and the skipping of cannon balls he was as calm as on parade. Moreover, he had the invincibility of the faith that the Confederacy would ultimately totter and crumble, and the business of each day was to hasten on the time by action for the 752 - HISTORY OF OHIO rising of that dust. So he kept pounding away, and proved himself to be God's hammer to break up slavery. It was well for the amenities of that dreadful struggle that the commanders on both sides had been largely personal friends, youths together in the same military school, brother officers in the same army. Grant felt this bond of sympathy when Lee came into his presence to lay down the sword. And Lee deserved magnanimity in that hour of humiliation. I chanced to make the acquaintance f a Virginian, an elegant young man, who had been an aide of Lee. He told me that one evening at table early in the war the officers of his military family were speaking in no measured terms f indignation f a Virginian, perhaps it was General Thomas, for remaining in the Union army, when General Lee rebuked them, saying, "You do him a great wrong, young gentlemen, in denouncing him. He has acted from the same conscientious sense of duty as you have, and is worthy of your highest respect in his decision." Grant's mind was strong, but, from his want of imagination, severely practical, dry and naked. An older brother of mine, in the long past, a cadet at West Point, told me that when listening to a lecture there on the properties of a globe he found he could not comprehend it. Through his obtruding imagination that globe was enveloped in a blue flame, the result perhaps of the early theologic teaching which I happen to know he had. With Grant, I venture to say, when he came later to the same study the globe was as clear as a ball of crystal. He liked West Point for its mathematics mainly. What on earth can be drier? Even "the Pons Asinorum" is over a dry bed. He had no ear for music. Every tune was alike to him. Varied, weirdly-pleasing sensations that arise in the soul of some natures were probably weak in him, such as come from listening to the wind sighing through the pines, the murmurings of the mountain brooks, the cooing of the doves under the eaves, the chirp of the crickets and the nightly disputes of certain innocent, harmless insects who appear to have before them their especial question of the ages, whether "Katy did" or "Katy didn't." He seemed weak in the perception of the beautiful as derived from the contemplation of nature. It was a great deprivation, such will say who find exquisite enjoyment and lift their hearts in gratitude as they feel the benign presence of the universal spirit in the sparkling dew globule, the trembling leaf and the sweetly-tinted flower. To many a heart this love is a great panacea in a time of woe. They feel in the midst of sore struggles that the world of beauty is still theirs. But for this reflection they might sometimes seek relief in suicide. "Life," they will say, "is yet mine ; it is the great possession." During the eight years of his presidency, I was personally told by the librarian, Grant never entered the library of Congress, and there is no evidence that his information extended much into the leaves of books. I do know that the brightest of our men in ideas, such scholars and thinkers as Woolsey, Emerson, etc., were not his companions, but he seemed largely to find them in the lower strata of the kings of money and lords of fleet horses, gorgeous in their settings, luxurious and materialistic in their lives. Grant had the sense of moral beauty. He loved goodness and was incapable of an intentional wrong. Not an oath nor an impure expression was heard from his lips. He was as strong in his friendships as in his will, and he had that highest quality of citizenship, deep, fervent devotion to his own family. His dislike of exaggeration, his modesty, his calmness of spirit arid honesty of purpose are shown in every word he wrote or spoke. His memoirs, when published, will be found as charming from their terse simplicity and crystal clearness as the narratives of Defoe. Every child will comprehend every word. Grant's absence of imagination and his power of concentration gave EMINENT OHIOANS - 753 him a clear view of facts, while his marvelous memory gave him therein full breadth of comprehension, so that each fact would fall in at one view and in its relative place of importance. His calmness was so serene that no intruding emotion could disturb the perfect action of his judgment. Having no imagination, he never appealed to it in his soldiers, nor did they want it. War was with them business, not poetry. A poet was not wanted as commander of the Army of the Potomac, no matter what the direction for which the soul of John Brown was heading ; nor a looking-glass commander with his mind upon spreading epaulettes and bobbing plumes. He was a thoroughly independent, self-poised thinker, and in his simplicity and originality of expression often made two or three words do the work of an entire sentence. A notable instance of this was given when General Butler was imprisoned by the Confederates in the peninsula formed by the junction of the Appomattox with the James. He wrote that he was "bottled-up," two words that so comically expressed the dilemma he had been in that the public laughed at the quiet humor : He was bottled tight, Was bottled long ; 'Twas on the Jeems, So goes the song. 'Twas there he fumed, 'Twas there he fretted, 'Twas there he sissed And effervesced. Grant's attachments to his friends was one of his best traits. Many public men, through selfish fear of the charge of nepotism, will allow those bound to them by the strongest ties f kindred to suffer rather than help them to positions which they know they can worthily fill. No such moral cowardice can be laid to his charge. He was alike physically and morally brave to the inmost fibre. A well-known illustration of his tenderness and strength of affection was shown by his grief on learning of the death f the young and brilliant James B. McPherson, who fell in the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 22, 1864, "when he went into his tent and wept like a child" ; and later in the letter which he wrote to the aged grandmother of the lamented general, when he said: "Your bereavement is great, but cannot be greater than mine." Such a sublimely pathetic and morally beautiful picture as that presented by Grant in his last dying work is seldom given for human contemplation. To what fine tender strains the chords of his heart must have vibrated, and how inexpressibly sweet his life must have seemed to him in those sad, melancholy days as he sat there, seated in the solitude of his chamber penning his legacy, while the warming sun shot its golden streamers athwart the carpet at his feet, and the air was filled with the joy of short-lived buzzing insects, shown by their low, monotonous notes reverberating from the window-panes. Could the world to which he was hastening offer to his imagination, when he had cast aside his poor, suffering body, anything more beautiful than this?" Night is over the great city and the stars with their silent eyes look down upon the tomb by the river as in the long ago they looked down there upon a wilderness scene when the prows of Hendrick Hudson moved past through the ever-flowing waters. And there the waters will continue to flow on and on until another great leader shall arise prepared for the last great conflict. And this conflict will not be one of blood, but intellectual and moral—one that shall adjust to the use f the toiling millions a righteous measure for their labor in a land overflowing with wealth and abundance more than sufficient for the 754 - HISTORY OF OHIO comfort and welfare of every deserving one, even to the very last, the humblest son and daughter of toil. But victory will never ensue until character and not gold has become the general measure of regard, and the race has attained that high moral plane where no one can wield vast possessions and live under the withering scorn that would befall him if he lived for himself alone. GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN General William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, February 8, 1820, son of Charles Robert and Mary (Hoyt) Sherman, grandson of Taylor and Elizabeth (Stoddard) Sherman, and a descendant of Edmond Sherman, who immigrated from Dedham, Essex County, England, and settled in Boston prior to 1636. William T. Sherman was adopted by Thomas Ewing, on the death of his father in 1829, attended school at Lancaster, Ohio, until 1836, and entered the United States Military Academy, from which he was graduated and commissioned second lieutenant, Third Artillery, July 1, 1840. He served in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians, 1840-42 ; was promoted to first lieutenant, Third Artillery, November 30, 1851, and was on garrison and recruiting duty, 1842-47. He was acting assistant adjutant-general of the Department of California, 1847-49; was brevetted captain, May 30, 1848, for services in California during war with Mexico ; was aide-de-camp to Major-General Persifer F. Smith, and acting assistant adjutant-general of the Pacific Division, with headquarters at San Francisco, 1849-50 ; was promoted to captain and commissary of subsistence, September 27, 1850, and was on commissary duty in St. Louis, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana, until 1853, when he resigned his commission. Captain Sherman, after his resignation from the army, became a partner in the banking firm of Lucas, Turner & Company at San Francisco until 1857, when he was appointed agent of the St. Louis branch of the firm in New York, but the firm failed in the same year and he entered into a law partnership with his brother-in-law, Thomas Ewing, Jr., at Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1859 he was appointed superintendent of a military school at Alexandria, Louisiana, completed the building and opened the academy, January 1, 1860, and was professor f engineering, architecture and drawing. In 1861 upon the secession f Louisiana, it was expected by his school colleagues and other people about him that he would ally himself to the secession cause, but he resigned his position and came North. He was commissioned colonel of the Thirteenth United States Infantry, May 14, 1861, and brigadier-general of volunteers, May 17, 1861. He commanded the Third Brigade, First Division, under Brigadier-General McDowell in the first battle f Bull Run, July 21, 1861. After reorganizing his shattered brigade, he was assigned to duty under General Robert Anderson, in the Department of the Cumberland, August 28, 1861, and succeeded General Anderson in the departmental command October 8, 1861, and occupied Muldraugh Heights for the purpose of defending Louisville, Kentucky, from a threatened attack by Col. S. B. Buckner, September-October, 1861. He was on inspection duty and in command of the camp of instruction at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, December 23, 1861, to February 14, 1862. He was in command of the district of Paducah, Kentucky, February-March, 1862, where he was engaged in sending supplies and reinforcements to General Grant, operating in Tennessee. He commanded the Fifth Division, Army of the Tennessee, under Grant, in the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, April 6-7, 1862, where he was twice slightly wounded. He was promoted to major-general May 1, 1862 ; and commanded his division in the advance from Pittsburg Landing to Corinth, Mississippi, April 15-May 30, 1862. Under orders from EMINENT OHIOANS - 755 General Grant, he took command of the right wing of the Thirteenth Army Corps, composed of all the troops at Memphis, and Gen. Frederick Steele's division at Helena, Tennessee, to co-operate in the combined attack against Vicksburg. Grant's army, pursuing another route, was intercepted by Van Dorn at Holly Springs. Sherman, arriving at Chickasaw Bluffs, December 27, 1862, and receiving no support, made an ineffectual attempt to capture the place, January 3, 1863. He was repulsed with a heavy loss and returned to Milliken's Bend, Louisiana. On January 4, 1863, General John A. McClellan, who was authorized by Secretary Stanton to raise troops for an expedition to open the Mississippi River, arrived at Milliken's Bend and took command f the Army, which he divided into two corps, the Thirteenth and the Fifteenth, and placed Sherman in command of the latter. On January 11, 1863, the army assaulted and carried Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post), taking about 5,000 prisoners. As a corps commander he took a distinguished part in the' operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was made brigadier-general in the regular army, to date from July 4, 1863, when the city surrendered. On July 5th he advanced toward Jackson, in pursuit of General Joseph E. Johnston, and occupied the city. He commanded the relief expedition from the Big Black River to Chattanooga, Tennessee ; was assigned to the command of the Army of the Tennessee with headquarters in the field, October 25, 1863, and formed the right wing of Grant's army at the Battle of Chattanooga, November 23-25, 1863, and in the attack on Missionary Ridge and the pursuit of the Confederates to Ringgold, Georgia. He now marched with a portion of the Army of the Cumberland toward Knoxville, Tennessee, and 756 - HISTORY OF OHIO his approach compelled General Longstreet to raise the siege of that place, December 1, 1863. In January, 1864, he returned to Vicksburg, and on February 3, 1864, with about 20,000 men, marched toward Meridian, Mississippi, to destroy the Mobile & Ohio and the Jackson railroads. Failing to meet an expected co-operating force, he abandoned the expedition and marched toward Central Mississippi, where his troops were transferred to Vicksburg and Memphis. On March 18, 1864, General Grant became lieutenant-general and General Sherman succeeded him as commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing all the troops in the territory west of the Alleghanies, and north of Natchez, and organized an army of 100,000 men at Nashville for the spring campaign of 1864. His command at Chattanooga was composed of the Army of the Cumberland under General Thomas, the Army of the Tennessee under General McPherson, and the Army of the Ohio under General Schofield, and he advanced on the Confederate Army under General Joseph E. Johnston at Dalton. Johnston retreated to Kenesaw Mountain, and from there was driven south to Atlanta. Sherman made a direct attack on Atlanta, July 17, 1864; battles were fought at Peach Tree Creek and at Ezra Church ; and on September 1, 1864, General John B. Hood, who had superseded General Johnston, evacuated Atlanta and moved upon Nashville, where he was defeated by the Army of the Cumberland under General Thomas. Sherman received the thanks of Congress for his services in the Chattanooga campaign, and was promoted to major-general in the regular army, August 12, 1864. He began his famous "March to the Sea," from Atlanta to Savannah, November 15, 1864, the march ending in the capture of Fort McAllister and of the city of Savannah, December 21, 1864. It was resolved by Congress, January 10, 1865: "That the thanks of the people and of the Congress of the United States are tendered to Major-General William T. Sherman, and to the officers and men under him, for their gallantry and good conduct in their late campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and the march thence to Savannah, terminating in the capture of that city." He commanded the Federal forces composed of the Army of the Ohio, under General John M. Schofield ; the Army of the Tennessee, under General Oliver O. Howard ; and the Army of Georgia, under Henry W. Slocum, in the campaign through the Carolinas, marching from Savannah, Georgia, to Bentonville, North Carolina, destroying all the railroads in the interior, and receiving the surrender of General Johnston's army at Durham Station, North Carolina, April 26, 1865. On April 28, 1865, he began his march to Washington, D. C., this being the last of his great marches, which had covered in all 2,600 miles and, after passing in review before President Johnson and General Grant. May 24, 1865, the army was disbanded. General Sherman was promoted to lieutenant-general, United States Army, July 25, 1866 ; was in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at St. Louis, 1865-66, and of the Military Division of the Missouri, 1866-69. He was a member of the board to make recommendations for brevets to general officers, March 14-24, 1866, and was detailed on a special mission to Mexico, November-December, 1866. When General Grant became President of the United States, Sherman succeeded him as general of the United States Army, with headquarters at Washington, July 25, 1866. He made a tour f Egypt and the East, 1871-72, and retired from active service February 8, 1884. In 1886 he removed to New York City. The honorary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College in 1866, and Yale College in 1876, and by the College of New Jersey in 1878. General Sherman never forgot his old home at Lancaster, Ohio, where the formative years of his life were passed. After the close of the Civil war, on June 24, 1865, he revisited the place and made an address beginning with the salutation : "Friends f my boyhood." EMINENT OHIOANS - 757 After spending a few days here he started on his journey to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend a meeting of his comrades of the Army of the Tennessee. On his way he stopped at Cincinnati, where a reception had hastily been prepared for him. A great crowd of people assembled at the Burnett House where he was stopping. In response to their cheers he appeared on the balcony and was introduced by Henry Stan-berry. In opening his informal address he said : "I am not so accustomed to speaking as my friend Stanberry, and therefore you must be a little more silent as to noise, and charitable as to words. I am very proud that he, before every other man, has received me here on this portico, for, as he says, he knew my father before me and all my family. He knew me when I was a little redheaded boy, running about Lancaster stealing his cherries. * * * "While we are here together tonight let me tell you as a point of historical interest that here, upon this spot, in this very hotel, and I think almost in the room through which I reached this balcony, General Grant and I laid down our maps and studied the campaign which ended our war. I had been away down the Mississippi finishing up an unfinished job that I had down there, when he called for me by telegraph to meet him in Nashville. But we were bothered so much there that we came up here, and in this hotel sat down with our maps and talked over the lines and the operations by means f which we were to reach the heart of the enemy. He went to Richmond and I to Atlanta. We varied as to time but the result was just as we laid it out in this hotel in March, 1864." Thus it will be seen that two Ohio boys, who had risen to leadership in the Civil war, met on Ohio soil and formulated the plans that finally resulted in the triumph f the Union cause. General Sherman's view of war has perhaps been as widely quoted as any other expression that ever fell from his lips. For years there were doubts as to its authenticity. This doubt was dispelled years after his death by the report in a Columbus newspaper of a speech that he made on the old state fair grounds, now Franklin Park, Columbus, Ohio, on August 11, 1880, before a reunion of Civil war veterans and ex-prisoners of the war. In the course of his remarks he said : "There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, Nit, boys, war is all hell." General Sherman was married May 1, 1850, to Ellen Ewing, daughter of Thomas and Ellen (Cox) Ewing of Lancaster, Ohio. His son, Thomas Ewing Sherman, became a prominent Roman Catholic clergyman and served in the War with Spain as chaplain of the Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers. General Sherman died in New York City, February 14, 1891, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri. An equestrian statue in bronze, by Carl Rohl Smith, was erected in Washington, D. C. His statue by St. Gaudens was unveiled in New York City in 1903. GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN John and Mary (Minor) Sheridan, natives of County Cavan, Ireland, immigrated to America in 1830, first settling at Albany, New York, where on March 6, 1831, their third child was born, Philip Henry. The next year the family moved west to the village of Somerset, Perry County, Ohio. In that community "Phil" Sheridan lived until he was 17. His father, a contractor on roads and canals, was much away from home, and the source f most of his early training was his mother, a woman of excellent common sense and clear discernment. His education was limited to common school subjects, and after the age of 14 he was employed in the village stores as clerk and book- 758 - HISTORY OF OHIO keeper. The stirring events of the Mexican war gave him his inspiration for the life of a soldier. Having gained the acquaintance of the congressman from the district, Thomas Ritchey, young Sheridan addressed a letter to him, asking for an appointment to West Point, and the congressman promptly sent him his warrant for the class of 1848. A quarrel with a fellow cadet caused him to be suspended for one year, so that he did not graduate until July 1, 1853. This interval from the fall of 1851 until the summer of 1852 he spent at home, again employed as bookkeeper in the village store. As brevet second lieutenant he served on frontier and garrison duty in Kentucky, Texas, California and Oregon. He was promoted to second lieutenant, Fourth Infantry, November 22, 1854 ; first lieutenant, March 1, 1861 ; and captain, Thirteenth Infantry, May 14, 1861. His Civil war record began with his service as president of the board for auditing claims at St. Louis, Missouri, November 18-December 26, 1861 ; was chief quartermaster and commissary of the Army of Southwest Missouri, 1861-62 ; and served in the Mississippi campaign, April-September, 1862, as quartermaster at Major-General Halleck's headquarters during the advance to Corinth, Mississippi, April-May, 1862. He was commissioned colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry, May 25, 1862, and commanded a brigade on the raid to Booneville, Missouri, May 28, 1862, taking part in the skirmishes at Booneville, Black-land, Donaldson Cross-Roads, and Baldwin, and in the battle of Booneville, July 1, 1862. He was promoted to brigadier-general of United States Volunteers, July 1, 1862, and commanded the Eleventh Division, Army f the Ohio, in the advance into Kentucky, October-November, 1862, in the battle of Perryville, October 8, 1862, and the relief of Nashville, Tennessee, October-November, 1862. He commanded the Third Division, Army of the Cumberland, in the Tennessee campaign, 1862-1863; was promoted to major-general of volunteers, December 31, 1862, and engaged in the pursuit of the Confederates under Van Dorn to Columbia and Franklin ; captured a train and many prisoners at Eagleville, in March, 1863 ; commanded the advance on Tullahoma, June-July, 1863 ; took part in the capture of Winchester, Tennessee, June-July, 1863 ; crossed the Cumberland Mountains and the Tennessee River, and commanded the Third Division, Twentieth Army Corps, under General McCook, in the battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, September 19-20, 1863. He commanded the Second Division, Fourth Corps, of the army under General Grant in the Chattanooga campaign, November 23-27, 1863, where he led his division from Orchard Knob up Missionary Ridge, and drove the Confederate force from and down the summit. He was in occupation of East Tennessee, 1863-64. On April 4th of the latter year he was transferred to Virginia and given command of the cavalry corps of the Army of Potomac, there entering upon a career which has made his name famous for all time. On September 21, 1864, the Federals under Crook attacked Early's left and rear, and Early retreated to Mount Jackson, where he reformed and retired to Port Republic. On October 12, under orders from Secretary Stanton, Sheridan started for Washington to consult with Stanton and General Halleck, and on October 18th Early secretly moved a force at Cedar Creek and made an early morning attack. Sheridan stopped at Winchester on his way from Washington, and, hearing the sound f battle, he rode to Cedar Creek, a distance of twenty miles, and, as he passed the retreating troops, shouted : "Face the other way, boys ; we're going back !" Sheridan pursued the enemy to Mount Jackson. He was promoted to major-general, United States Army, November 8, 1864, and the thanks of Congress were tendered him, February 9, 1865, for "gallantry, military skill, and courage, displayed in the brilliant series of victories achieved by his army in the valley of the Shenandoah, especially at Cedar Creek." He took part in the closing EMINENT OHIOANS - 759 scenes of the chapter ending with the surrender of Lee at Appomattox Court House. He commanded the Military Division f the Gulf, July 17, 1865, and was in the command of the Department of the Gulf, August 15, 1866-March 11, 1867; of the Fifth Military District, composed of Louisiana and Texas, March 11-September 5, 1867, and of the Department of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1867-68. He conducted the campaigns against the Indians in the winter of 1868, commanded the Military Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at Chicago ; and was appointed lieutenant-general of the United States Army by President Grant in 1869. He visited Europe in 1870 and was a guest of the German staff during the battle of Gravelotte. He commanded the western and southwestern military divisions of the United States, 1878-83. Upon the retirement of General Sherman in 1883, Sheridan succeeded to the command of the United States Army, and in 1888, by act of Congress, approved by President Cleveland, he was given the rank and emoluments f general, United States Army, the title to terminate with his life. In the selection f names for a place in the Hall f Fame for great Americans, New York University, October, 1900, his name received twenty-three votes in class Soldiers and Sailors, this number being equalled by Stephen Decatur and Thomas J. Jackson, and excelled only by Grant, Farragut, Greene, Lee, Perry and Thomas. He was married in 1879 to a daughter f Gen. Daniel H. Rucker, United States Army. General Sheridan was taken ill from exposure caused by travel in the West, and died in Nonquitt, Massachusetts, August 5, 1888. "Sheridan's Ride" was one of the most stirring poems inspired by the Civil war. It was written by Thomas Buchanan Read at the urgent solicitation of the elocutionist and actor, James E. Murdoch. The ladies of Cincinnati had planned a reception to Murdoch who was returning from the headquarters of the Army of the Cumberland, and who was full of enthusiasm over the brilliant victory achieved by Sheridan and his troops at Cedar Creek. He urged Read to write a poem that he might read before the large audience that was sure to be present at Pike's Opera House in the evening. Read at first refused to undertake this, but finally yielded to the persuasion of Murdoch and finished the poem a short time before the meeting. In the presence of the great audience Gen. Joe Hooker, who was present in Cincinnati that evening, presented in behalf f the ladies a beautiful silk flag after which Murdoch read the poem by Read. At his conclusion the applause of the assembled thousands "shook the building" and the poem was launched on its career f popularity. GEN. GEORGE A. CUSTER The boy Custer inherited military tastes from his grandfather, who was a Hessian soldier in the American Revolution and married in Pennsylvania, afterwards removing to Maryland. His father, however, was connected with peaceful pursuits—first a blacksmith, afterwards a farmer. He married for his second wife, Mrs. Kilpatrick, whose maiden name was Mary Ward, and George A. Custer, born at New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio, December 5, 1839, was their eldest child. Young Custer is spoken of as a "smart lad with very quick appreciation, and a remarkable rapid student, but one who hated study." However, he received a fair district school and academy education, and then with his father's consent applied to the congressman of his district for appointment to the United States Military Academy, at West Point, which he entered in 1857. He graduated four years later, was immediately sent to Washington, D. C., and in July, 1861, was entrusted by Gen. Winfield Scott with despatches to be delivered to Gen. Irwin 760 - HISTORY OF OHIO McDowell, then at the front, preparing for the first battle of Bull Run. After delivering his despatches, he joined the Fifth Regiment, United States Cavalry, and took some part in the battle. He was next detailed as aide-de-camp to Gen. Phil Kearney, but in the fall of 1861 returned to Monroe, Michigan, where he had previously lived with his sister. This was the turning point of his life, as he solemnly pledged his sister to abstain from intoxicating liquor, a vow he religiously kept until his death. He returned to Washington in February, 1862, and in reconnaissance near Catlett's Station, Virginia, encountered Confederate pickets, which was his first experience with cavalry advance guards, the enemy retreating before his charge. In the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, Custer was assistant to the chief of engineers on the staff of General W. S. Smith, where he remained until the army reached Chickahominy River, his duty being the superintendence of balloon reconnaisances. This attracted the attention of General McClellan, who appointed him aide-de-camp on his staff with the rank of captain. Obtaining permission to capture Confederate pickets, with two companies of cavalry and one of infantry, just before sunrise, he opened fire on a post occupied by the "Louisiana Tigers," stampeded them, forced them down the river, and secured arms and prisoners and took with his own hands a stand of colors—the first taken by the Army of the Potomac. When McClellan was relieved of his command, Custer returned to his regiment, having been promoted to first lieutenant. He was next attached to the staff of General Pleasanton and commanded a cavalry division. He was in action at Brandy Station and Aldie, Virginia. In the latter battle he won his star as brigadier-general by his dashing and brilliant lead of a cavalry charge, this promotion placing him in command of the Michigan cavalry brigade which he afterwards made famous. The attempt of the Confederate cavalry at the battle of Gettysburg to turn the right flank of the Federal army was shattered, and the enemy was driven from the field by Custer's brigade, with those of McIntosh and Gregg. His handling of his brigade during the pursuit of Lee's army brought him additional honor. A few weeks of comparative rest was devoted to drilling and disciplining his brigade. He thus made that volunteer organization fully the equal f a regular cavalry command. In an engagement at Culpeper, Virginia, a piece of shell killed his horse, and inflicted a painful wound on his thigh. On a short furlough he went to Monroe, Michigan, and was married, February 9, 1864, to Elizabeth, the only daughter of Judge Daniel S. Bacon. On the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac in 1864, Gen. P. H. Sheridan became commander of the cavalry forces. General Custer's brigade was assigned to the First Division, in the extreme advance of the cavalry corps. On May 11th the cavalry force was within four miles of Richmond, but, lacking infantry support, was obliged to remove to Whitehouse Landing, on the Pamunky River. A second cavalry raid soon followed, and in a fight at Trevillian Station the enemy was so close upon Custer that his color bearer was .shot, and the general barely saved the colors by tearing them from the staff and concealing them in his clothes. In the Shenandoah Valley campaign, the cavalry charge on September 19, 1864, determined the victory, in which Custer's brigade had a large share. A week after, he was transferred to the command of the Second Division, but before he could join his command, was relieved and ordered to command f the Third Division, in which he had won his star as a brigadier. In company with General Merritt's division he fought on October 9, 1864, the battle of Woodstock Races, of which General Sheridan reported : "The enemy was defeated with loss of all his artillery but one piece, and everything which was carried on wheels. The rout was complete, and was followed up .to Mount EMINENT OHIOANS - 761 Jackson, a distance of some twenty-six miles." This battle was largely gained by the use of the sabre, a favorite weapon with Custer. Ten days afterward, at the second battle of Winchester, in the early part of the day the success of the enemy was stayed by the forces of Generals Merritt and Custer. The strange spectacle was presented of six or seven thousand horsemen with a few batteries holding in check and repulsing charge after charge from an army of 20,000 infantry, flushed with victory. In this battle the cavalry acted as a shelter behind which, several miles distant, the Federal Infantry was hastily forming. When Sheridan at the end of his famous ride reached the infantry, he completed its reformation and led it back to triumph over Early's forces. This accomplished the almost instant and total destruction f the last aggressive Southern army in Virginia, and sounded the death knell of the Confederacy. Custer's part in the battle added lustre to his already established fame as a cavalry division leader. During the following winter he received the brevet of major-general of volunteers. The last raid of Sheridan's cavalry began February 27, 1865. Custer's division numbered 4,600 men, all of whom ultimately joined General Grant's army to the southwest of Richmond. During the march his division fought at Waynesboro, Virginia, and to Custer were surrendered the keys of the public buildings at Charlottesville, Virginia. He was also able to annihilate the remaining forces of General Early, and nearly took him prisoner. After the union of Sheridan's forces with those of Grant, the battles of Five Forks and Dinwiddie Court House followed, and in these engagements General Custer bore himself as usual. He received the first flag of truce, a towel on a pole, with overtures of surrender, and was present at Appomattox Court House when the surrender took place. Custer's farewell order to his division was issued April 9, 1865, and after his participation in the great parade at Washington, D. C., his connection with the Civil war closed. After the cessation of the war, General Custer was assigned to military service in Texas, and on the formation of the Seventh United States Cavalry Regiment he became its lieutenant-colonel. He was mustered out as a major-general of volunteers at Houston, Texas, in March, 1866. He joined his regiment at Fort Riley, Kansas, and in the spring of 1867 he was in General Hancock's expedition against the Cheyenne Indians on the western plains and had his first experience in fighting Indians. This war was protracted until the following year, when Custer closed it, November 17, 1868, by the battle f Wachita River. In this affair his command killed 103 warriors and took fifty-three squaws prisoners, totally annihilating the band. After this the Cheyennes returned to their reservation. The Seventh Cavalry in 1871 was divided and sent to Kentucky and South Carolina, Custer being assigned to Elizabethtown, forty miles from Louisville. Here two years were spent, where he wrote My Life on the Plains. The regiment in March, 1873, was ordered to Dakota to guard the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Here the regiment was in collision with the hostile Sioux. In July, 1874, he made a successful expedition to the Black Hills region in Montana. In the spring of 1876 the Sioux tribe confederated against the United States Government. Under orders from General Terry, Custer's regiment was ordered to the Rosebud River, a tributary to the Yellowstone, to the headwaters of the Little Big Horn, and thence down the latter stream in expectation of joining the column of Colonel Gibbon, who was en route for the mouth of the Big Horn, the purpose being to enclose the Sioux so their escape would be impossible. Custer on the first day marched his command twelve miles up the Rosebud ; continuing his march the next day, thirty-three miles were covered. The third day the trail of the Indians freshened with every mile, and the regiment, after accomplishing twenty-eight miles, went into camp. The following morning the troops crossed the divide between Rosebud 762 - HISTORY OF OHIO and Little Big Horn rivers. Indians had been seen, and no surprise was now possible, therefore it was determined by Custer to move at once to the attack. In accordance with his invariable method of attack, he divided his forces into three commands, so as to attack in front and both flanks at the same time. With five companies under his own command he moved up the right bank of the Little Big Horn River. The other two commands were led by Major Reno and Captain Barber. The Indian village was three and one-half miles long, and Custer, attacking the middle of it, commenced a fierce battle with a force of Sioux which many times outnumbered his own men. The two other commands failed to assist in the attack, and Custer's five companies were driven from point to point, one company after another of his troops were killed. Finally, fighting heroically to the last, he and some forty others sold their lives dearly. The fatal encounter lasted about three hours, resulting in the total extinction of the United States troops engaged. The Government in 1879 interred on the battlefield all of the slain, making it a national cemetery. Upon the spot where Custer fell a monument was erected bearing the names and titles of those who had lost their lives. The general's remains were removed to the United States Cemetery at West Point, New York. General Custer's qualities as a soldier are plain from his record, but the mainspring of Custer, the man, was his truth and sincerity, honor and bravery, tenderness and sympathy, unassuming piety and temperance. General Custer's personal appearance is described as follows : "He was nearly six feet in height, broad-shouldered, lithe and active, with a weight never above 170 pounds. His eyes were blue, his hair and mustache of golden tint. He was a man of immense strength and endurance, and, as he used neither liquors nor tobacco, his physical condition was perfect through all the hardships of his life." He was the ideal cavalryman of Civil war times and his promotion was early and rapid. "Eleven horses were shot under him in battle. At the age f twenty-three he was made a brigadier-general, at twenty-five a major-general." He had a brother, Thomas Ward Custer, born in New Rumley, Harrison County, Ohio, March 15, 1845, who was also a soldier with creditable record. Because of his youth he had difficulty in getting into the service in the Civil war. He finally succeeded, however, and served with his brother. After the war he served in the regular army and was with his illustrious brother in the fatal battle with the Indians on the Little Big Horn, where they fell fighting side by side. Not long before this battle General Custer was asked his opinion of his brother. His answer was : "If you want to know my opinion of Tom, I can only say that I think he should be the general and I the captain." GEN. JAMES B. McPHERSON The Ohio soldier of highest military rank killed in the Civil war was Gen. James Birdseye McPherson of Clyde, where he was born on the 14th of November, 1828. Little did the citizens of that village, who saw a sunny-faced, cheerful and studious boy running about the streets, imagine that he was eventually to be one f the real heroes of the conflict brought about by slavery. He was greatly attached to his family and neighbors, all of whom admired him. It was in battle, however, when every muscle and every tissue was in action that the real heroic qualities f McPherson were shown. He has been adopted as one of our national heroes, while his deeds and fame are sung not only in this section of the country but throughout every state f the Union. No name is held in more affectionate remembrance by the people f Ohio than that f General McPherson. His youth was comparatively uneventful, but he was everywhere EMINENT OHIOANS - 763 looked upon as upright and trustworthy and his friends were almost as numerous as his acquaintances. An appointment to West Point at the age of nineteen, opened up the door of opportunity. At that institution he soon took high rank. "We looked upon him," Professor Mahan wrote, "as one among the ablest men sent forth from the institution, being remarkable for the clearness and prompt working of his mental powers. His conduct was of an exceptional character. These endowments he carried with him in the performance of his duties as an engineer officer, winning the confidence of his superiors as a most reliable man. His brilliant after career in the field surprised no one who had known him intimately." He graduated in the class which numbered Schofield, Sill, Tyler, Hood and Sheridan. He taught at West Point for a year and then became engaged in engineering work. At the outbreak of the war he responded with enthusiasm to the call of his country. He was then just thirty-two years old. His first promotion was to a lieutenant colonelcy of volunteers with General Halleck. He was a member of the unfortunate expedition which ended at Pittsburg Landing, but no criticism fell upon him for that blunder. When Halleck was summoned to Washington, McPherson was promoted to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He was sent by Grant to the aid of Rosecrans at Corinth. Because of a successful attack at Hatchee, he was advanced to the rank of major general. Soon after he was assigned to the command of the right wing of the army of the Tennessee and showed real ability in the management of his troops. He joined Grant in the advance upon Vicksburg. His services here commended him to the favor of his superiors. In the spring f 1864 he removed his headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama, and shortly afterward embarked on his last campaign. He had an active part in the Atlanta campaign. While riding with an orderly to a battle that had been begun with the enemy, he was mortally wounded in an ambuscade on the 22d of July. The full account of the death of General McPherson was written by General Sherman on the day after his death when the sounds of battle still thundered in his ear and when his heart was torn by the loss of a comrade and friend whom he loved : 764 - HISTORY OF OHIO "General McPherson fell booted and spurred as the gallant and heroic gentleman should wish ; not his loss alone but the country's, and the army will mourn his death and cherish his memory as that of one who, though comparatively young, had risen by his merit and ability to the command of one of the best armies which the Nation had called into existence to vindicate her honor." History tells of but few who so blended the grace and gentleness of the friend with the dignity, courage, faith and manliness f the soldier." On the 22d f July, 1881, in the presence of a concourse of 15,000 people, there was unveiled in the cemetery at Clyde a monument to the distinguished soldier. It occupies- a knoll in McPherson Cemetery, where the hero with his father and mother and two brothers lie, and which once formed a portion f the homestead of the McPherson family where the general was born. General Sherman delivered a splendid eulogy upon the deceased hero : "You knew his genial, hearty nature, his attachment to his family and neighbors, but you could not see the man as I have seen him, in danger, in battle when every muscle and every tissue was in full action, when his heroic qualities shone out as a star in the darkest night." GEN. FREDERICK FUNSTON Gen. Frederick Funston was born November 9, 1865, in New Carlisle, Ohio, son of Edward Hogue and Ann E. (Mitchell) Funston. He was reared upon the home farm, and early manifested a great avidity for knowledge, being an industrious reader ; and he was of much assistance to his father, who was a writer and public speaker. Passing through a high school in Kansas, he was for two years a student in the University of that state. His active career began in a reportorial capacity on newspapers in Arkansas and Kansas City, Missouri. On one occasion he accompanied an army force sent out to repress Indian disorders and performed some soldierly duties, as well as writing a narrative history of the events. As assistant botanist he accompanied the United States Death Valley expedition in Southern California, drafting maps, recording temperatures, and the like ; and for two years afterward doing arduous and dangerous work in the collection of the flora of Alaska. In addition, he made a study of the seal fisheries and the questions connected with them. Returning to Kansas, he lectured on his adventures and experiences, and with the means this obtained he bought land in Mexico, with the intention of becoming a coffee planter; but, needing more capital, undertook to raise it in his own state and in the East. While so engaged was made deputy comptroller of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, with offices in New York City. His life found a different channel in 1896, when, attending a meeting f Cuban sympathizers, he found his interest awakened. He offered his services to the Cuban Junta, under countenance of which he recruited and drilled a company which he took to Cuba and reported to General Gomez. He had taken with him a few pieces of light artillery, which he commanded against the Spanish. In the battle at La Machuca he was wounded in the arm, but remained in command, participated in other engagements, and was promoted to the rank f major. At Las Tunas he made a brilliant charge, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. At Samai he was shot through the lung, and later injured a leg by being thrown from his horse in a charge. He was now taken with fever, and set out for home, but was taken by Spanish soldiers, by whom he was condemned to death, but finally was released and reached the United States in December, 1897, having been in twenty-two engagements of various magnitude. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, Colonel Funston, who had been on the lecture platform in favor of Cuban independence, EMINENT OHIOANS - 765 organized the Twentieth Kansas Regiment, patterning it somewhat after the Rough Riders of Wood and Roosevelt, was elected colonel, and in November, 1898, joined General Merritt at Manila. He led a column in pursuit of Aguinaldo, and with twenty picked men, swam a river, engaged the enemy, and brought away four times his own number as prisoners. Some days later, with forty-five men, he crossed the Rio Grande on a raft, and after a brisk fight drove the enemy from their works ; for which feat he was made brigadier-general of volunteers. In a later engagement he was shot through the hand, but led a successful charge. His feat, however, and which brought him great fame, was his capture of Aguinaldo, which he effected by the aid of a few chosen companions and about eighty natives. After a dangerous journey of seven days and nights, the party made Aguinaldo prisoner through a ruse. The capture of that famous chief was virtually the end of the war. Funston was commissioned brigadier-general in the regular army by President McKinley, and later received the congressional medal of honor. In 1909-10 he was commandant of the Army Service School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas ; commanded the Department of Luzon, 1911-13, and the Hawaiian Department, 1913-14 ; and in January, 1914, was assigned to the command of the Second Division, United States Army, at Texas City, Texas. In the following April he commanded the expedition to Vera Cruz, Mexico, and he served as military governor of that city until the following November. He was promoted to the rank of major general November 17, 1914. In February, 1915, he was appointed commander of the Southern Department, and in March, 1916, he was assigned to the general command of the United States forces along the Mexican border, as well as of the movements of the United States troops in Mexico, in pursuit of Villa. General Funston was distinctly a man of thought and action, and his life was an eventful one. He was a stalwart republican, was a vigorous writer f articles of political and economic order, and his political faith was that f his father, who represented Kansas in the United States Congress for a period of about fourteen years. It is worthy of mention that in the Alaskan experiences of General Funston he was on the spot where gold was discovered at Dawson City eight years in advance of this discovery. The general was much in demand on the lecture platform, and was the author of a valuable work entitled "Memories of Two Wars." His splendid military career was terminated by his death in 1917, only two months prior to the time when the United States became involved in the great World war. General Funston was married at Oakland, California, October 25, 1898, to Ida, daughter of Otto and Theresa Blankart. She accompanied the General to Manila, and endeared herself to his soldiers by diligently ministering to the comfort of their wounded comrades. HENRY W. LAWTON Lucas County furnished to the Nation one of the most heroic figures of the Spanish-American war as well as of the Philippine war in the person of Henry W. Lawton. He was born in Lucas County on the 17th of March, 1843, and served with credit during the Civil war, after which he entered the regular army. He was commissioned brigadier general in May, 1898, and commanded the Second Division of the Fifth Army Corps in Cuba, where he served in the first battle of the war at El Caney. He was promoted to major general and was in command at Santiago after the surrender. In December, 1898, he was transferred to the command of an army corps in the Philippines. On these islands he greatly distinguished himself in a number of engagements until killed in the Battle of San Mateo, Luzon, on the 19th f December, 1899. As an evidence of the 766 - HISTORY OF OHIO regard in which he was held by .the public at large, the sum of $100,000 was raised by public subscription and presented to his widow. ADNA R. CHAFFEE Adna R. Chaffee, who led a brigade in the Santiago campaign, and was promoted to major-general of volunteers, was born in Ashtabula County April 14, 1842, and died November 1, 1914. He entered the Union Army as private in. Troop K, Sixth Cavalry, July 22, 1861, and at the close of the war was a first lieutenant. He had been in service with the regular army over thirty years when the war broke out with Spain. May 4, 1898, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and on July 8th f the same year, a few days after the fall f Santiago, he was advanced to major-general of volunteers. Subsequently in the regular service he was made colonel of the Eighth United States Cavalry, May 8, 1899; major-general, February 4, 1901, and lieutenant-general, January 9, 1904. General Chaffee was assigned duty at western posts almost continuously for thirty years after the Civil war. In the Spanish-American war he commanded the Third Brigade, Second Division, Fifth Army Corps, from June to August ; the Second Division, Fifth Corps, in August and September, the First Division, Fourth Corps, in November-December, 1898 ; and from December 25, 1898, to May, 1900, was chief of staff, Division of Cuba. General Chaffee is perhaps best remembered as commander of the American contingent at Peking, China, during the Boxer rebellion. He was commander of this expedition from June 24, 1900, to May, 1901. Subsequently he commanded the Division of the Philippines, the Department of the East, was chief f staff of the United States Army from January 9, 1904, to February 1, 1906, when he retired at his own request after more than forty years of service. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States, born at Berkeley, Charles City County, Virginia, February 9, 1773, son of Governor Benjamin and Elizabeth (Bassett) Harrison. He made good use of his father's excellent library, preparing himself for admission to Hampden-Sidney College, from which he was graduated, then taking up the study of medicine in Philadelphia under the guardianship of Robert Morris. He was attracted by the western emigration and desired to enter the army for clearing the way for emigrants. The objections of his guardian were only overruled through the influence of President Washington, who commissioned the young man (April, 1791) ensign in the First United States Artillery Regiment, then stationed at Fort Washington, the site of the future City of Cincinnati, Ohio, the key to the southwest region, practically in Spanish possession and unexplored. General Wayne was attracted to him and made him lieutenant of the detachment that built Fort Recovery on the ground of St. Clair's defeat, and he was commended in general orders for his "excellent performance of a perilous duty." At the battle of the Maumee, or Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794), General Wayne said f him that "by his conduct and bravery he excited the troops to press to victory." In 1795 he was promoted to captain and placed in command of Fort Washington. In 1798 President Adams made him secretary of the Northwestern Territory under Governor St. Clair, and he resigned his military commission. He was frequently acting governor during St. Clair's absences, and resigned in October, 1799, having been elected to Congress as one of the first two territorial delegates. In Congress he secured the subdivision of the public lands into small tracts in the interest of bona fide 768 - HISTORY OF OHIO settlers and to the disappointment of speculators. When the Territory of Indiana was formed, he was appointed governor by President Adams and was reappointed by Jefferson and Madison. The authority granted him was extensive. He appointed all civil officers and all military officers under the rank of general and held the pardoning power as well as supreme authority to treat with the Indians. In 1803 the immense Louisiana territory was added to his jurisdiction. His sterling integrity was evidenced by the fact that with unlimited opportunities for speculation, he would not take a single foot of public land and he refused the proffered gift by the people of St. Louis of one-third of the site upon which the city was' subsequently laid out. When the Indians became troublesome in 1811, he held an unsuccessful conference with them at Tippecanoe, and having reported to Washington, was authorized to force them into submission. With 1,000 regular troops and militia, he built Fort Harrison, near the present City of Terre Haute, Indiana, and with part of the force marched toward the Indian village. He was attacked by Tecumseh and his band while in camp at night, but he defeated them and was highly complimented by the President. When the War of 1812-14 opened, the Indians sided with the British who had taken possession of Detroit. The Kentucky Legislature commissioned Harrison major-general, though he was not a resident of the state, and he proceeded with the troops furnished him, but was unable to reach Hull, who had surrendered. On September 2, 1812, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and on returning to Vincennes he was appointed to the command of all troops in the Northwest. After an active but futile campaign, he journeyed to Cincinnati to obtain supplies. He was commissioned major-general March 2, 1813. He held Fort Meigs against two severe attacks and after Perry's naval victory on Lake Erie, led his troops on an expedition into Canada, overtaking the British and Indians in the battle of the Thames, capturing the entire British force and killing Tecumseh and dispersing his band. This battle ended the war in Upper Canada and Harrison was the popular hero. In 1813 he resigned his military commission on account of an affront from the secretary of war. He was Indian commissioner in 1814-15 and member of Congress from Ohio, 1816-19. In Congress he advocated a general militia bill, which was defeated, but his bill for the relief of soldiers of the late war was passed. He was a state senator in 1820-21; was defeated for Congress in 1822, and a presidential elector on the Clay ticket in 1824. He was elected United States senator in 1825, succeeded Andrew Jackson as chairman of the Military Affairs Committee, and resigned in 1828 to accept the position of minister to Colombia under appointment by President John Quincy Adams, but was soon recalled through the influence of General Bolivar. He retired to his farm at North Bend, Ohio, and served as president of the County Agricultural Association and as clerk of the Common Pleas Court at Cincinnati. He was a Jeffersonian republican in politics and when the whig party was formed in 1834, he joined it professing states' rights views on the bank, tariff and internal improvements. In 1835 he was nominated for president by some of the whig legislatures in the western and middle states, but he was defeated by Van Buren, the democratic nominee. He was the successful candidate and was elected four years later, after one of the most exciting canvasses in the history of the country, in which "the log cabin," "hard cider," "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" campaign cries were heard through the land. He was iaugurated March 4, 1841, selected his cabinet and on March 17 called an extra session of Congress to take up financial questions. Not believing in the power of Congress to create corporations in the states, he had in mind a bank of the District of Columbia, branching with state assent. The trials of his position and the apprehension f a breach with Henry Clay, the leader of the whigs in Congress, brought on an attack of pneumonia of which he died April 4. His wife had not yet taken up her residence in the White House and EMINENT OHIOANS - 769 was not present at his death. His body lay temporarily in the congressional burying ground at Washington City and was later removed to North Bend, Ohio. President William H. Harrison married in 1795, Anna, daughter of Col. John Cleves Symmes, founder of the Miami, Ohio, settlement and United States judge, district of New Jersey. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES Rutherford Birchard Hayes, nineteenth President of the United States, was born in Delaware, Ohio, October 4, 1822, son of Rutherford and Sophia (Birchard) Hayes. His father had died in July, 1822, leaving the mother in moderate circumstances. The son received a common school training, studied the classics, attended an academy at Norwalk, Ohio, and in 1837 was sent to Connecticut to Isaac Webb's preparatory school at Middletown where he was fitted for college. He was graduated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, 1842, valedictorian f his class, and received his A. M. degree in 1875. He was graduated at Harvard, LL.B. in 1845, was admitted to the Ohio bar the same year, practiced at Lower Sandusky and in 1849 removed his law office to Cincinnati where he was city solicitor, 1858-61. On June 7, 1861, Governor Dennison commissioned him major of the Twenty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, and in July he led the regiment into West Virginia. He was judge-advocate of the Department of Ohio, September and October, 1861; was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, October 24, 1861; and saw active service in the field, 1861-62. At the battle of South Mountain, September 14, 1862, he led a charge, held his position, though severely wounded, and relinquished his command only when carried from the field. He was promoted to colonel, October 24, 1862, and on recovering resumed command of the regiment in the field. He commanded two regiments with artillery against Morgan at the time of his raid in Ohio and prevented his escape across the river, which action compelled the surrender of the Confederate leader. He commanded a brigade in General Crook's division in the expedition to cut off communication between Richmond and the Southwest in the spring of 1864; and distinguished himself at Cloyd Mountain, Virginia, May 9, 1864, in storming a fortified Confederate position. He was conspicuous in the engagement at Berryville, Virginia, September 3, 1864, and at Winchester, September 19, 1864, he led an assault upon a battery across a morass ; his horse mired, he found himself alone in front f the battery, but waving his cap, he signaled his men to follow, and with forty of the first to reach the battery, he led in an assault resulting in a hand to hand encounter, which caused the Confederate gunners to desert their guns and flee. He commanded the Second Division, Army of West Virginia, under Gen. George Crook at the battle of Fisher's Hill, routing the enemy and capturing their artillery. At Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864, his action secured his commission of brigadier general at the request of General Crook. He was brevetted major-general of volunteers, March 13, 1865, for gallant and distinguished services during the campaign of 1864 in West Virginia and particularly at the battles f Fisher's Hills and Cedar Creek, Virginia. The military record of Rutherford B. Hayes was a brilliant one. He was wounded six times in battle and had four horses shot under him. With the exception of James Monroe he was the only soldier elected President of the United States, who had been wounded in battle. In 1864 General Hayes was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, taking his seat December 4, 1865. In this Congress he favored the reconstruction measures f the republican party ; maintained the sacredness of the public debt and opposed repudiation in any form ; commended President Johnson for refusing presents ; opposed the increase of pay of representatives ; and framed a constitutional amendment fix- EMINENT OHIOANS - 771 ing representation upon voters rather than on population. He was re-elected to the Fortieth Congress and supported the impeachment of President Johnson. He was elected Governor of Ohio in 1867, his opponent being Allen G. Thurman, and he was re-elected in 1869 against George H. Pendleton. He declined in 1873 to oppose John Sherman in a contest for United States senator, although assured of success by the help of promised democratic votes. In 1872 he declined a nomination as representative in the Forty-third Congress but was nevertheless nominated, and after making a vigorous canvass, was defeated. President Grant named him as United States assistant treasurer at Cincinnati, which office he declined. In 1873 he removed to Fremont, Ohio, intending to retire from public life. In 1875 the republican state convention, in order to stay the effect of the Greenback success of the last gubernatorial election, called on him as the ablest representative of sound money to take the nomination of the party for governor, and much against his inclination, he made the canvass with Governor William Allen, the incumbent, as his opponent. The canvass involved national questions, each side being supported by the ablest speakers from other states. In addition to the greenback question, the division of the school fund between Roman Catholic and Protestant schools was made an issue, and ex-Governor Hayes advocated secular education. He carried the state by 5,500 majority. As an advocate of sound currency, and opposed to an unlimited issue of government paper money, he became a conspicuous figure in national politics. The republican state convention of Ohio named him as its choice for president in the republican national convention. When that convention met at Cincinnati, June 14, 1876, his name was presented, as were the names of James G. Blaine, Oliver P. Morton, Benjamin H. Bristow, Roscoe Conkling and John H. Hartran ft. On the first ballot he had sixty-one votes, and on the seventh ballot the opposition to Mr. Blaine gave him the nomination, which was made unanimous. The democratic party made Samuel J. Tilden its candidate, and his record as Governor of New York gave him the support of many dissatisfied republicans. The result of the election was a question of long and bitter contest. The electoral votes of Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida were in dispute and fraud was charged on both sides. The canvassing boards of the states in dispute were visited by statesmen from Washington representing both parties and all blinded in a measure by political prejudices. A double set of certificates of election were sent to Washington, one by the governors of the states who were republicans and the other by the democratic governors who claimed to have been elected but kept out of office by the Federal Government under the reconstruction act and the presence of Federal soldiers. The two sets of certificates certified to two different sets of electors. To avoid a deadlock, should the election be referred to Congress, an electoral commission of five senators, five representatives and five judges of the United States Supreme Court was created by a special act of Congress, advocated by both parties, the decision of this commission to be final. The commission refused to go behind the certificates of the governors, and decided in each contested case, by a vote of eight republicans to seven democrats, in favor of the republican electors. The electoral vote, as decided by the electoral commission, was 185 for Hayes and Wheeler, and 184 for Tilden and Hendricks. Mr. Hayes was privately sworn into office as president on Saturday, March 3, 1877, and he was publicly inaugurated Monday, March 5, 1877. He at once proceeded to satisfy the Southern states by withdrawing from them the Federal troops and leaving the local government to the people in the two disputed states then under a dual government. The troops were withdrawn from the state house at Columbia, South Carolina, April 10, 1877, and Wade Hampton, democrat, was acknowledged to be the duly elected governor ; and from the state house of Louisiana, April 20, 1877, Francis T. Nichols, democrat, was 772 - HISTORY OF OHIO recognized as governor. This course, while heartily approved by the democrats, was severely criticized by the republicans, who thus lost the votes of the southern states. In the appointment to office, with the exception of a few members of the Louisiana returning board, his policy was to regard the views of the advocates of civil service and his appointments were generally very acceptable. Competitive examinations were instituted and applications were considered irrespective of partisan control. On May 5, 1877, President Hayes called Congress in extra session to meet October 5, 1877, to make necessary appropriations for the support of the army. In July, 1877, he suppressed railroad riots caused by a strike, on application from the governors of West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Illinois, by sending United States troops to the several points of disturbance after issuing his proclamation ordering the rioters to disperse. In his message to Congress, December 3, 1877, he congratulated the country on the peaceable and prosperous condition of affairs in the southern states ; recommended the payment of government bonds in gold ; favored the limited coinage of silver ; insisted that the Constitution imposed upon the Executive the sole duty and responsibility of the selection of Federal officers. He recommended that Congress make a suitable appropriation for the use of the civil service commission and the passage of laws to protect the forests on lands of the United States, but these recommendations were disregarded. He vetoed the silver bill, passed by both houses, on the ground that the commercial value of the silver dollar was then less than its nominal value and that its use in the payment of debts already contracted would be an act of bad faith ; the bill was passed over his veto by a two-thirds majority. In his annual message of December 1, 1879, he congratulated the country on the return to specie payment and urged upon Congress the suspension of silver coinage, fearing that the cheaper coin would eventually become the sole standard of value ; and recommended the retirement of United States notes with the capacity of legal tender in private contracts. In his last annual message, December 6, 1880, President Hayes again urged civil service reform, competitive examinations for applicants for positions in the larger post-offices, custom houses and in the executive departments ; for a law against political assessments ; and suggested that an act be passed, "defining the relations of members of Congress with regard to appointments to office by the President" ; that the tenure of office bill be repealed ; and that a provision be made to place General Grant on the retired list of the army, with rank and pay befitting his great services. On March 4, 1881, he assisted in the inauguration of James A. Garfield, as president, and then retired with his family to Fremont, Ohio, and devoted much of his time to benevolent enterprises. He was president of the trustees of the John F. Slater Education Fund ; president of the National Prison Reform Association and an active member of the National Conference of Corrections and Charities ; a trustee of the Western Reserve University, of the Ohio Wesleyan University, and of various other institutions, educational and charitable. In army organizations he was senior vice commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion and commander of the Ohio commandery of the same order ; the first president of the Society of the Army of West Virginia and president of the Twenty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Association. He received the degree of LL.D. from Kenyon College in 1868, from Harvard University in 1877, from Yale University in 1880, and from Johns Hopkins University in 1881. He died in Fremont, Ohio, January 13, 1893. "The Life of Rutherford Birchard Hayes," in two volumes, by Charles Richard Williams, and "The Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes," edited by the same author, present a sympathetic record of his career from boyhood and faithfully reflect the spirit and much of the history of the times through which he lived. EMINENT OHIOANS - 773 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD James Abram Garfield was born in Orange Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 19, 1831, son of Abraham and Eliza (Ballou) Garfield. The father was descended from Edward Garfield, who came from England in 1636 to Massachusetts. Abraham Garfield settled in Ohio where his son, James Abram Garfield, was born in a log cabin of but one room. He died when James was but two years old and the mother continued to work the farm with the aid of her ten year old son, Thomas. As soon as large enough, the future president took his share of farm labor, interspersed with driving a team on the canal tow path and in winter attending the district school. At the age of seventeen he began attending the Geauga Seminary. remaining two sessions and then teaching a school. In 1850 he again attended the seminary, then teaching another winter. From 1851 to 1854 he was a student at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, paying his way by teaching and then entering Williams College, from which he was graduated in 1856. He taught penmanship in Pownal, Vermont, one winter and in 1856 was called to the institute from which he had graduated as instructor in ancient languages and literature and in the following year was called to the presidency, meantime entering upon private law studies. This institution, under charge of the Disciples (Campbellites), later (1867) became known as Hiram College. While president of the institute he sometimes preached for that denomination. The public career of James Abram Garfield may be said to have begun in 1856, when he allied himself with the republican party at its formation and took the stump for its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont. In 1860 he was elected to the State Senate and in 1861 was admitted to the bar. He left both his senatorial and professional pursuits at the outbreak of the Civil war to take the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Forty-second Ohio Infantry regiment, which he had mainly recruited from the alumni of educational institution over which he had presided. He brought the regiment to a high condition of efficiency and became its colonel just before taking the field. In December, 1861, he reported it to General Buell at Louisville, who placed Colonel Garfield at the head of a brigade with which he aided in expelling Humphrey Marshall from the state after a sharp battle at Middle Creek, Kentucky, and for which Colonel Garfield was made brigadier-general. With his brigade he reached General Grant at Shiloh on the second day of the battle in which he took part. After further operations in Tennessee, he was invalided for a short time, and then served upon the court-martial in the case of Gen. Fitz John Porter. He reported to General Rosecrans, commanding the army of the Cumberland in February, 1863, and was made chief of staff to that officer. He advised a general advance against the written opinions of sixteen of the general officers and the advance was ordered. General Garfield wrote for his chief all the orders for the battle of Chickamauga, except that by which the battle was lost. He made a hazardous ride to General Thomas at some distance and his information enabled that commander to save the army of the Cumberland. Garfield was rewarded with promotion to major-general of volunteers "for gallantry on the field that was lost." He declined the command of a division under General Thomas to enter Congress in December, 1863, having been elected while he was in the field. In Congress General Garfield came to the front rank. Placed on the Committee on Military Affairs, he advocated the confiscation of property belonging to rebels, opposed bounties to raw recruits, and made an exhaustive speech in support of the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. He was reelected to Congress and was placed on the Ways and Means Committee, where he took a leading part in favor of the resumption of specie payment. He was returned by successive reelec- 774 - HISTORY OF OHIO tions. In the 40th Congress he was chairman f the Committee on Military Affairs ; chairman of the newly made Committee on Banking and Currency in the 41st Congress ; chairman of the Committee on Appropriations in the 42nd and 43rd Congresses and, in the 44th, 45th and 46th Congresses, under democratic control, was placed on the Ways and Means Committee. He opposed the electoral commission of 1877. but in company with others at the request f President Grant had gone to New Orleans to witness the counting of the Louisiana vote for presi- dent, and he discussed the Florida and Louisiana election returns before the commission. In the same year he became the republican leader in the House. In January, 1880, General Garfield was elected to. succeed Allen G. Thurman in the United States Senate. In June, in the Republican National Convention in Chicago, he was nominated for president on the 36th ballot after an exciting contest in which John Sherman, James G. Blaine and General Grant were candidates. He took the stump in his own behalf in Ohio, New York and elsewhere, largely adding to his popularity, notwithstanding changes of venality in the Credit Mobilier case, which charges were not substantiated. At the election he carried every northern state except New Jersey, Nevada and California over General Hancock, democrat ; James B. Weaver, greenbacker, and Neal Dow, prohibitionist. He was inaugurated March 4, 1881, and formed his cabinet with James G. Blaine at its head as secretary f state. He was soon confronted with difficulties. Certain of his appointments in New York were obnoxious to Senators Conkling and Platt, who resigned their seats in May, whereupon the Senate confirmed the disputed appointments. The blind partisanship of a disappointed office seeker who imagined that through the removal of the President, his successor, Chester A. Arthur, would prefer him, led Charles Jules Guiteau to shoot the President in the Washington railway station as he was on his way to attend the commencement exercises at Williams College. In the White T louse and later at Elberon, New jersey, the President lingered, the subject of earnest solicitation of a nation forgetful of party strife, from the day of the attack, July 2, 1881, until September 19, when he died. His body lay in state in the National Capitol two days and was then