The life that led Orville Powell to a series of Civil War adventures began in New York in 1837. His father, John Powell, had been a soldier during the War of 1812. In 1851 John Powell took his family to Illinois, where he settled about a half mile north of the village of Oneida. The Powell brothers, including young Orville, soon chafed at the boring routine of farm life, and in 1857 caught the lust for gold and headed out to California to make their fortune. His brothers soon discovered that riches weren’t so easy to come by as they had been imagining. Disillusion fostered homesickness and they soon returned to Illinois. Orville’s spirit of adventure wasn’t so easily doused. He remained in Colorado and took a job as a teamster. His work took him through Colorado and New Mexico. Later in his life one of the stories that he liked to relate from this adventurous time occurred near Bento, Old fort Buffalo, where his wagon train had to remain idle in camp for an entire day to allow a huge buffalo herd that extended for many miles to pass. Powell, in his later years, noted with sadness that in 50 years that these noble beasts that he had seen in such abundance had been driven nearly to extinction.
The animosity that had been simmering for decades between the North and the South boiled over into Civil War with the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor in April, 1861. Young Orville Powell had returned to Illinois by this time, and swept up in the patriotic fervor, he enlisted in Company C. of the 42nd Illinois Infantry. Powell’s regiment was first sent to St. Louis, then to Springfield, then the following spring down to Island Number 10 on the Mississippi. From there, their orders took them to Fort Pillow, then to Hamburg Landing shortly after the Battle of Shiloh. Then his unit took part in General Halleck’s ponderously slow siege of Corinth. From there they moved into Alabama, then to Nashville, Tennessee, then to Stone’s River where he survived unscathed the terrible battle that took place there from December 31st to January 2nd, 1863. Orville Powell proved his bravery by accepting the role of the Regiment’s color bearer. Brandishing the flag made him an inviting target for the enemy to train their sights on. His bravery in this engagement earned him a promotion to lieutenant. After Stone’s River he was part of General Rosecrans’s masterful Tullahoma expedition and survived many skirmishes with the enemy. Then came the fateful two day battle of Chickamauga, a crushing defeat that cost General Rosecrans his command and Orville Powell his freedom.
During the second day of the battle he was wounded in the left foot by a rifle ball. His Colonel, seeing that he was unable to walk, put him on his horse and started him for the rear. He sought refuge in a home nearby. When Confederate General Longstreet’s Corps broke through the Union line and put the army to rout, Orville Powell was trapped within the Rebel lines. Realizing that he was likely to be captured, he managed to hide his sword and belt behind a log before the Rebels took hold of him.
Mr. Powell was taken prisoner and sent to the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia. He occupied an east corner room in the old tobacco warehouse. Unable to walk, he had to remain behind when some of his fellow inmates engineered a daring plan to tunnel out of the prison. The risks of attempting to escape were compounded by the brutality of the guards. Captain Powell (during his captivity the paperwork had come through conferring on him yet another promotion) talked of one instance when a prisoner sitting near a window to read a newspaper in the daylight that it let into the gloomy surroundings was observed by a guard out on the road and shot in the head for sport.
In the Spring of 1864 he and several carloads of other prisoners were sent into North Carolina, then down to Macon City, Georgia, where they were placed in a stockade. During the journey south two men managed to escape during their transfer. Captain Powell though was unable to make an attempt as he was still obliged to use a crutch to keep the weight off his wounded foot. Powell later said that the suffering and hardships endured by the prisoners during their transfer and time incarcerated in Macon City defy description. He and his fellow prisoners were grateful when they were transferred to Savannah. There they were treated better than any time during their imprisonment. Escape is the duty of every good soldier though, and despite the better treatment it was still constantly plotted. Some of the prisoners began to dig a tunnel out of their Savannah compound, but after several weeks of back-breaking work broke through on the other side of the fence. Regrettably the first prisoners who exited the tunnel looked up at the face of an armed guard who was awaiting their breakout attempt. This earned the prisoners exile to Charleston, South Carolina where they were housed for about a month in the old jail.
After about a month they were again transferred. This time to Columbus, South Carolina where the prisoners were turned out into a field. A new stockade was to be constructed. By this time Captain Powell’s foot had healed, and he and some of the other prisoners set about devising a means of escape. It was soon noted that the guards would temporarily parole prisoners if they would volunteer to gather wood. Powell and three other prisoners, including a man named Gordon, took advantage of this opportunity to make an escape. They risked a bullet in the back if they were pursued and caught, but by this time even death seemed a better alternative than their continued wretched existence as Rebel prisoners. At about noon Powell made his move. He wrapped a blanket around himself as though he was sickly yet still willing to help to go out and gather wood, then slipped into the woods and was met by the three other men. Their destination was Knoxville, Tennessee, some 400 miles away. The Rebels pursued them, and one of the escapees was captured. The others hid in the thick underbrush and managed to elude their pursuers. The suffering that they underwent during their slow trek back toward the Union lines was terrible. During a four day stint as they crossed a mountain range, they went hungry. Another time they were stopped by recruiters who thought they were local slackers and strongly urged to join the Rebel army.
One evening they were following a road and approached a plantation. Seeing two riders approaching they dived for cover, but weren’t quick enough and were noticed by the men on horseback who asked them who they were and why they were so anxious not to be seen. One of the escapees replied that they were resting. At this point Captain Powell decided to risk the truth, and admitted that they were escaped prisoners from Columbus, Georgia and that they were very hungry.
The owner of the plantation invited them up to the house to take supper, remarking that “the old woman will be very anxious to see some live Yankees.” They readily accompanied the planter, as they were almost starving and willing to take almost any risk in order to fill their stomachs.
The host and his companion soon left the house. The old woman was so deeply interested in talking to the Yankees that she insisted upon remaining in the room where they were. She seemed to be in little hurry to prepare a meal for them. The escapees suspicions were aroused, and they soon surmised that the planter and his companion had gone to round up some of his neighbors to help recapture them. They wisely resolved not to wait for the promised meal. Distracting the old woman with spirited conversation, one of the escapees managed to steal a couple of loaves of bread. Then they bid her adieu and slipped into the darkness.
They were soon flagged down by an old negro who warned them that his master had indeed gone for help in apprehending them. He offered to pilot them the quickest way possible to the river which was nine miles away. They gladly accepted his services, although the old negro walked with a bad limp, and they feared that he wouldn’t move quickly enough to aid them to escape. So anxious though was this old man to aid the Union cause that he fairly bounded along in his irregular, limping gait, rendering it difficult for the soldiers to keep up with him. Soon the soldiers heard the baying of bloodhounds which their pursuers had set on their trail. The soldiers put their faith in the wisdom of their lame yet resolute guide, following him through timber and underbrush, over fences and across creeks and swamps. The baying of the hounds kept sounding louder and louder though, sending a shudder through Captain Powell and his companions each time that they heard them. As the hounds closed in, the escapees resolved to attempt to hide themselves, fearing that it would be futile to attempt to continue to try to outrun the barking pack. The old negro remonstrated with them, saying that he was familiar with the ways of the hounds and would get the soldiers safely away from them. Being familiar with the country, he led the escapees through a cow-yard, figuring that the scent of the manure would distract the hounds and throw them off the trail. Sure enough, the smell of the cows clung to the men, as it did to the fenced in pasture, and this massive assault on the dog’s olfactories made them oblivious to all other scents, including those of the escaped men, who were hiding in the nearby timber, trembling with fear after being pursued like wild beasts.
It took twenty-eight days of semi-starvation occasionally alleviated by the generosity of loyal negroes, who would risk punishment to aid soldiers who were fighting for their freedom, hard walking in a state of almost constant trepidation; hiding by day and making what progress they could in the cover of night before they finally neared the Union lines.
Their travails weren’t over yet though. They came upon their regiment as it was engaged in a spirited battle near Spring Hill, Tennessee. The escapees had to hide all day behind the rear of the Rebel army, then skirt around it at night before they could finally rejoin their comrades. The tale of their escape was widely heralded and their regiment rejoiced greatly at their sudden and totally unexpected re-appearance.
Captain Powell accompanied his regiment to Texas, where it remained along with other U.S. troops in the event that they would be needed to persuade the French to leave Mexico. After the Mexicans deposed and executed the Emperor that the French had foisted upon them, the troops were withdrawn and Orville Powell was able to return home to Oneida.
The Powell family did their fair share during war to quash the rebellion. Captain Powell had four brothers who served in the Union army as well, one of whom, J. Brainerd, was killed while leading his company at the Battle of Resaca in the Atlanta Campaign. Orville went on to marry Adella l. Moore in 1867, and spent the remainder of his life engaged in farming and handling stock. He was elected to serve as a Constable in Oneida in 1878. He was a member of the Republican Party, a Free Mason, and a proud member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He died in June of 1907. The Oneida News paid tribute to him upon his passing.
“of his life as a citizen, no word of praise need be said. Captain Powell was a man of strong convictions of right and was characterized by a rugged honesty and an unwavering sense of justice. He has played an important part in the life of his community and left an impress for good upon those with he came in contact. The same patriotic zeal which led him into the hardships of war abided with him as an everyday citizen and made his career one of the highest type of Christian citizenship. He will be sincerely mourned by a great number of people.”
Captain Powell is another Civil War notable who is buried in the cemetery at Oneida, Illinois.
Bibliography
Sketch of Captain Orville Powell, The Daily Republican Register, June 15th, 1907.
Roots Web World Connect Project: Pat Thomas gedcom
Roots Web World Connect Project: US GenWeb, Knox County, Illinois.
Find A Grave, Captain Orville Powell Memorial
Chapman’s 1878 History of Knox County
Knox County Biographical Album: Soldiers and Patriots
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