James K. L. Duncan

Monmouth College Student Earns the Nation’s Highest Honor for Valor

Not much is known about Seaman James K. L. Duncan other than the specifics that of the action in which he earned the Medal of Honor.  He was born in Frankfort Mineral Springs in Pennsylvania on the 6^th of July of 1845.  He enrolled in Monmouth College and would have graduated with the Class of 1866 had he stayed in school.  Like so many young men though, he caught up in the patriotic fervor that swept the north, and enlisted in the Union Navy.  Monmouth College sent 232 young men to help put down the Rebellion during the Civil War.  James Duncan was assigned to serve on the USS Fort Hindman, a 286 ton “Tinclad” gunboat that was built in 1862 in Jeffersonville, Indiana, as a civilian steamer.  Purchased by the Navy in 1863, it was first commissioned as the USS James Thompson.  She went through two name changes, becoming next the USS Manitou in June of 1963, and later to the USS Fort Hindman in November of 1863.  In July of 1863, as the Manitou, it participated in an expedition that made its way up the Little Red River expedition and captured the Confederate steamer Louisville.

On the 29^th of February, 1864, a fleet of five gunboats and a monitor- the Osage-began patrols up the Red River, the Black River and the Washita River successively to break up some enemy camps that had formed near Harrisburg, Louisiana.  Arriving at the town of Trinity, at the junction of the Little and the Washita Rivers, a battery of 12-punder guns opened up on them, as well as a band of sharpshooters under the command of the Rebel General Polignac.  Responding with a barrage of fire of their own, the union flotilla drove the enemy from the town.

The following morning the fleet made its way up the Washita.  They proceeded in the following order: The Osage, Fort Hindman, Conestoga, Cricket, Washita and Lexington.  Within about two miles of Harrisburg, General Polignac set up his guns and sharpshooters and launched an attack against the advancing Union fleet, directing the heaviest fire against the Fort Hindman, the flagship of the Union flotilla.  The thin iron plating and the two inch planking that had been added to the steamer to make it battle worthy served as little defense against the Confederate fire.  Twenty-seven 12 pound shells slammed into the Fort Hindman within a half hour, one of them disabling her starboard engine.  With only her port engine left, the steamer was unable to maintain proper steerage, and thus swung back and forth in the current, exposing her to more enemy fire.   Seaman Hugh Malloy would earn a Medal of Honor earlier during this engagement for risking his life during the battle by leaping from the protection of the gunport to retrieve a sponge that had fallen, then cleaning the gun from the outside of the part, the whole time being exposed to a hail of enemy fire.

Next it was Seaman James K. L. Duncan’s turn to seize his opportunity to become a hero.  An enemy shell burst at the muzzle of one of the Hindman’s guns, setting fire to the tarred yarn of a cartridge, which had been put in the mouth of the gun prior to the next step, which would be to ram them home.  Seaman Duncan saw the yarn burning, and before the fire could eat its way through the covering of the cartridge and explode in the gun, Seaman Duncan quickly moved forward and grabbed the blazing cartridge with his bare hand, and wrenched it from the muzzle of the cannon.  Rushing to the port side of the ship with the blazing cartridge still in his hand, he threw it over the side of the vessel.  Barely had it left his hand when it exploded, still in the air. In Deeds of Valor, a two volume account of Medal of Honor heroism that was published in 1907, there is a riveting artist’s rendition of young Duncan being hurled back by the force of the cartridge explosion.  The force of the explosion knocked young Seaman Duncan unconscious and sent him reeling across the deck.  His shipmates caught him and carefully set the stunned sailor down.

 When Duncan came to he described his sensations.  It seemed to him at first as though all sounds of the battle had ceased.  “When I regained consciousness after the explosion of the cartridge I looked about me in surprise, but there were the men rushing about, loading and firing the guns, but all were inaudible to me.  Upon recovering from my amazement I became convinced that I was deaf.  This belief was confirmed by the surgeon, who pronounced the drum of my right ear completely destroyed, and the other temporarily impaired.”

As the action continued, the Hindman continued to be pounded with shot and shell.  The courage of its crew was exemplary though.  Not a man flinched from doing their duty, and yet another earned the Nation’s highest horror for valor.  Despite having his left hand shattered by a shell fragment, Seaman William P. Johnson bound the wound with a strip that he tore from his shirt, and took the place of a fallen comrade at one of the ship’s guns until the engagement was over.

     James K. L. Duncan never returned to Monmouth College to finish his education.  His trail grows dim after the war.  All that I could find for certain about him is that he eventually made his way to Wisconsin after the war, and lived until March 27^th, 1913, almost to the start of another Great War.  The brave Seaman is buried in Milwaukee’s Wood National Cemetery.  His GAR stone has been replaced with a more modern version, one that alludes to him being the recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Bibliography

Deeds of Valor, Volume 2    Perrien-Keydol Company, Detroit. 1907

James K. L. Duncan  Find a Grave Memorial

James K. L. Duncan     Wikipedia entry

USN Ships Fort Hindman    Naval Historical Center Internet Site

Medal of Honor Recipients 1863-1994  Vol. 1   Lang, Collins and White

Dr. Hugo Max Starkloff

German Surgeon in a Swedish Regiment goes on to become Renowned Physician

     Perhaps it was an independent streak that led young Hugo Max Starkloff to leave his family in Germany to come to America, or perhaps like so many intellectuals of the time he had become disillusioned with the failure of the uprising in 1848.  Certainly he’s asserted his independence before, turning his back on his family’s rich military tradition by leaving the infantry regiment that he’d been assigned as a cadet to in order to study to become a doctor instead.  His studies took him to universities at Tuebingen, Heidelburg and Prague before he finally received his degree in medicine as an 18 year old in 1852. 

     A few months later he arrived in New York City, planning to head out to the “wild west” that he’d read so much about to make his fortune.  He almost drowned before he left the Great Lakes.  He had signed on as a deckhand on the steamer Griffith, which caught fire while making its way across Lake Erie.  The craft burned to its waterline, but its passengers were fortuitously rescued by a passing ship, which set the hapless folk it had rescued ashore in Cleveland.  From there young Hugo made his way eventually to California, where he found employment as a surgeon with John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company.

     The difficulties of setting up a practice for a “greenhorn” doctor were best evidenced by his movements between 1853 and 1861.  After a stint in California he was next heard from attempting to establish practices in Palmyra and Hannibal, Missouri.  He found little success there, but did find a wife.  He married a beautiful widow, Hermine August Reinhart, and their first child, a son, Johan, was born in 1855.  He died in the spring of 1857, just a month before the birth of Emil Arthur.  Their third child, Maximillian Carl, was born near the end of 1858.

     Dr. Starkloff’s efforts to establish a practice took him to Quincy and then to Galesburg.  A biography of his daughter Irma, states that Dr. Satarkloff was in St Louis in 1861, and witnessed the Camp Jackson affair, which saw loyal Union militia surround and force the surrender of southern militia that had been bent upon seizing the weapons from the Federal Arsenal. An angry mob gathered and began to throw rocks at the Union troops, who were marching the captured rebels to prison.  As the crowd degenerated into a threat to their safety, the harassed militiamen fired into it, wounding many and killing fifteen of the stone-throwing attackers.  Despite the bloody aftermath of the confrontation at Camp Jackson, this success of the Unionists, many of whom were Germans who felt a loyalty toward their adopted country, may have spurred Dr. Starkloff’s intention to enlist.  He returned to Galesburg and became a surgeon, with the rank of Captain, of Company C of the 43^rd Illinois Infantry, a regiment which travelled to Camp Butler and was mustered in on October 12^th, 1862.  The regiment consisted of 100 Swedes and 3 Germans, one of whom was Dr. Starkloff, who assumed the role of the regimental surgeon.

     In February the 43^rd boarded the steamer USS Memphis, which was taking them to Tennessee to aid General Grant in vanquishing Forts Henry and Donelson.  They arrived too late to participate in those Union successes, but were soon billeted with the rest of Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee.

     As dawn arrived on the morning of April 6^th, 1862, it was accompanied by the yells of rebel troops and the staccato of musket fire.  The rebels had launched a surprise attack, hoping to drive the Union army up against the Tennessee River to force their surrender.  A shell came screeching overhead.  It slammed into the limb of a tree, which landed upon Louis Nelson of Galesburg, disabling him.  A Union officer later described the rebels as being “thicker than fleas on a dog’s back.”  The 49^th Illinois, which was to the left of the 43^rd, had already broke and fled, leaving the 43^rd in a vulnerable situation with its left flank exposed.  Company C was one of 5 companies ordered to move to the left to fill the gap left by the flight of the men of the 49^th.  The five companies held firm for about 10 minutes, then had to fall back.  They reformed about 1000 feet further back, then attempted to hold again.  They were able to hold the rebels back for a short time due to the superiority of their Belgian rifles, which had a range of about 200 feet farther than the firearms that the rebels carried.  Confederate numbers drove them back again though, eventually about a mile.  Grant personally inspected their lines and ordered up reinforcements to bolster the position.  At the end of the day the regimental officers took stock of their losses.  Out of 500 men the 43^rd had suffered 206 casualties in killed or wounded.  Company C lost 17 men.  Lars Bergloff, Claes Danielson and Charles Samuelson, all from Andover, died during the desperate conflict.  Daniel Chase, also of Andover, went missing.  Company C’s Captain Edvall died on May 7^th, succumbing to a wound received during the April 6^th battle.  Yes, the men of the 43^rd would have cause to remember that horrible day’s fighting, which took the name of a log church that occupied the bloody ground.  They would remember “Bloody” Shiloh.

     Dr. Hugo Starkloff would remember the battle as well.  As a child his daughter Irma listened to her father tell horror stories of the Union doctors running out of essential medical supplies in the aftermath of the conflict, which had proved more destructive of lives and limbs than any type of warfare that those responsible for laying in supplies had anticipated.

     Bloodied now, the regiment went on to participate in the Siege of Corinth, in battles with General Nathan Bedford Forrest, in Little Rock, and in the assault at Prairie D’Anne and Camden.  At Jenkin’s Ferry, Company C was part of 4000 Union troops that held off an assault launched by Confederate general Kirby Smith, whose attacking force of 20,000 men were beaten back with 2,000 casualties compared to 700 casualties on the Union side. 

     Dr. Hugo Starkloff’s competence as a surgeon led him from his assignment as the company’s surgeon to the eventual post of Medical Director of the 1^st Division of the 7^th Army Corps.  Yes, as had the troops of the 43^rd who had established their reputation for bravery in numerous engagements against the enemy, Hugo Starkloff had made his reputation as well, as a knowledgeable medical man, one worthy of promotion to more responsible positions.  He finished the war with the rank of “Major.”

     The end of the war saw Dr. Starkloff return to Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, to become a respected member of the German community there.  He had no ambition for political office himself, but as a German who had fought loyally for the Union, he felt a loyalty toward the party of Abraham Lincoln, so he became active In Republican politics.  He also joined the local Freethinkers’ Union and the “Schiller Union,” a club dedicated to the poet whose eloquent verse made him the spokesman for German liberty.  He also was a member of the German-American National Alliance and the Turnerbund.  He also took an interest in education, becoming a member of the St. Louis School Board.  Dr. Hugo Starkloff had an open mind for educational innovations;  he was a member of the school board that ushered in the first public school kindergarten in the United States, modelled upon its German Predecessor.

     Dr. Starkloff’s support of the Kindergarten initiative wrought change in his personal life as well.  His wife Hermione had died in 1875 of an “inflammation of the brain,” Arriving with kindergarten faculty from Germany was Emma Kuhlmann, a young woman who soon caught the eye of Dr. Starkloff.  They were married in 1876.  The doctor’s new wife was 18 years his junior, and soon became a valued business partner as well as his wife.  She managed his accounts, supervised the household staff, and managed the stream of patients that arrived at all hours with all sorts of ailments and emergencies that had to be dealt with immediately.  Emma had an independent streak as well; she had a gift of debunking irony that served as a foil to sometimes deflate the pomposity of her husband, and a mind open enough to be receptive to the wiles of the Women’s Movement.

     Dr. Starkloff’s medical practice continued to flourish.  By 1883 he took his son, Max Carl Starkloff as a partner in a practice located on Main Street in Carondelet.  To avoid a redundant repetition of the last name, I will refer to the father as “Hugo Max,” and the son as “Max Carl.”  This was a sign of rapprochement between father and son, as young Max Carl had earned his father’s wrath in 1879 by marrying a penniless Irish girl, a match that his father felt was beneath him.  In 1883 Dr. Hugo Max moved to larger home, a prestigious residence on a hilltop that overlooked the river at the corner of Lounghsborough and Michigan Avenues.  He also made certain that his office was connected to his residence by one of the new inventions of that era, a telephone. 

     With the election of Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1889, Dr. Hugo Max lobbied for a reward for his quarter century of service to the Grand Old Party.  He was rewarded with a consulship in Bremen, Germany.  The doctor’s family enjoyed the opportunity to travel about Europe, and the opportunity to meet many of their relatives from both parents sides who had chosen to remain in the old country. 

     In 1892 Dr. Hugo Max Starkloff’s mettle as a physician was tested when an outbreak of cholera spread from Russia to Hamburg and eventually to Bremen.  The city acted to quell the spreading epidemic.  Dr. Starkloff and the North German Lloyd’s shipping line, which controlled traffic from Bremen, undertook screening of the passengers bound for America.  The eminent bacteriologist, Robert Koch, the man whose research led to the discovery of the causes of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, met with the German doctor and together they suggested measures which included monitoring of the emigrant hotels and boardinghouses, two day detention of all arriving travelers, and strict examination and disinfection of all steerage passengers and their luggage before they were allowed to continue on their journey.  Within weeks the outbreak was completely contained without a single traveler carrying the disease out of Bremen to spread elsewhere.  Dr. Starkloff earned much renown for successfully preventing a multinational epidemic.

      The solid reputation he had earned for his efforts led the Democratic President Grover Cleveland to retain him in Bremen in 1892 when the Portly President returned to the White House.  Age and health issues were catching up with the doctor though, and in 1894 he asked to be relieved of his duties as consul in order to return to the United States.   Recovering his health after his return to St. Louis, he lived on until 1914, enhancing his well-deserved reputation as a surgeon and filling the Chair of Orthopedic Surgery in the Marion Sims College of Medicine and Surgery.  He was one of the highest ranked medical educators in the country.  He continued his interest in education as well, serving as a public school director for St. Louis Schools for fifteen years.  He rests in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis along with his wife Emma, who lived until 1931.

     That’s not the end of the story.  It is said that “the evil that men do lives after them.”  So does the good.  Dr. Starkloff’s commitment to education served as an example to his son Dr. Max Carl Starkloff, who became a hero in St. Louis after a tornado ripped through the city in 1898.  Despite suffering a broken arm, he put aside his own pain and worked tirelessly to tend to many of the thousand people who were injured when the twister passed through.  Those efforts paled in comparison though to his efforts during the 1918 influenza epidemic.  By this time he was in his fifteenth year of what would be a thirty year tenure as City Health Commissioner.  He acted quickly, urging the mayor of St. Louis to order the closing of all public places, in order to isolate the public from each other in order to contain the spread of the deadly flu.  Thanks to his efforts the death rate in St. Louis was kept down to 2.8 per 1000 residents, compared to 8.0 in Pittsburgh, 7.6 in San Francisco and 7.1 in Kansas City.  In recognition of Dr. Max Carl Starkloff’s efforts, St. Louis’s City Hospital was renamed in his memory.  Dr. Hugo Max and his wife Emma’s daughter went on to make her mark in life as well.  Irma Louise Starkloff Rombauer went on to write the widely renowned cookbook, “The Joy of Cooking,” a book that was brought to life during the Depression, and that is still in print.  Like the “Betty Crocker Cookbook,” it has evolved and seen numerous changes since Irma’s first edition of it.

     The Starkloff family: another case of newcomers to America who returned their opportunity to begin a life in a new land with labors that impacted the lives of so many of their adopted countrymen for the better.

                                  Bibliography

Hugo Max Starkloff          Find a Grave Memorial

Muench Medical and Cookbook Heroes         Meunch Family Association

Stand facing the Stove       Anne Mendelson, 1981

The Swedes of Knox County   Internet site

The Swedish Element in Illinois   Ernst Wilhelm Olson 1917

Galesburg Company at Battle of Shiloh     Q C Online   article by Marilyn Gantt

    

    

    

 

Brigadier General William Hanna

Beloved Commander of the “Blind Half-Hundred Regiment”

     The manuscript that I’m holding in my hands was written by Colonel William Hanna of the 8^th Illinois National Guard in 1880.  It is a short note written to Civil War veteran, Samuel B. Sherer, who rose to the rank of Captain during the Civil War, and after the war became a General in the Illinois National Guard and an active participant in Grand Army of the Republic activities.  General Hanna is writing to send his regrets that he cannot attend a reunion that was to be held in Galesburg.  The letter is written in ink on an ornately designed letter head that lists the names and ranks of the officers, along with their home towns.  They are: Colonel William Hanna-Keokuk Junction, Major C. Y. Long-Carthage, Major R. H. McMahon-Quincy, Surgeon S. H. McClung-Mt Sterling, Chaplain Edward J. Rice-Clayton, Adjutant H.E.Selby-Quincy and Quartermaster O. M. Smeigh-Quincy.

     As with any signed Civil War document of local interest that I’m fortunate enough to acquire, I wanted to learn more about the man who penned the note.  Finding nothing in local collections, I searched on-line, and discovered the existence of William Hanna’s military diary.  It was in the possession of Southern Adventist University’s Mckee Library, in Tennessee.  When I contacted the curator and asked if I could pay to have it copied and sent my way, in one of the many acts of kindness that you’ll run into while researching, the librarian was kind enough to scan and send me copies of the material.  The diary and other material were compiled by Dr. R. C. Slater of LaSalle, Illinois in 1960.  As much as I looked forward to reading the diary and using it to flesh out the character of General Hanna, I was disappointed.  The diary is rather terse.  It offers information about where the regiment was on a particular day, and often about what the weather was like, but rarely does William Hanna indulge in any character sketches or descriptive prose that graces other diaries that I have encountered.  He was evidently a man who dealt in facts, not conjecture, and not a man given to recording his feelings or reactions to events.

     William Hanna was born in Lexington, Indiana on June 23^rd, 1833 to parents of Scotch-Irish descent.  The childhood that most of us hold so dear was sadly brief for him, as he was left an orphan at the age of ten.  Chagrined, but not undaunted by the death of his parents, he found neighbors for whom he could work in exchange for room and board, and money enough for clothes and to pay for an education at the district school.  Early in his life he resolved to study for the ministry, but ill-health put an end to that ambition.  He went into business instead, and soon made a lot of friends and a success of his ventures.  The advent of war saw him a successful merchant.

     Soon after war was declared he assisted in raising Company E. of the 50^th Illinois regiment from Camp Point, Illinois, and in appreciation for his efforts was named Captain of the regiment.  The regiment was mustered into service on December 12^th, 1861 and made its way first to Hannibal, where they encountered their first foe, an epidemic of measles, and then down to Cairo.  In February they were shipped to Tennessee in time to participate in the capture of Fort Henry and then the siege of Fort Donelson.  The 50^th Illinois had earned the nickname the “Blind Half-Hundred,” because a good number of the men who enlisted in the regiment were either cross-eyed or blind in one eye.  The nickname was cemented to them the day shortly before Fort Donelson fell.  Their “blind obedience” to orders led them to embark on a charge that helped capture the last entrenchments of the fort, a factor that led its Rebel commanders to surrender the fort shortly afterwards. 

     The men who thought that they’d experienced war at Fort Donelson discovered that it was nothing compared to the ferocity of the battle of Shiloh in early April.  Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston launched a surprise attack at dawn, vowing to drive the Union army into the Tennessee river.  The 50^th was situated on the left of the Union line, at the top of a steep ravine.  Despite the formidable terrain the Rebs moved forward.  The enemy’s initial assault killed three of the 50ths officers.  Despite the determination of the assault and the superior numbers that they faced, as well as having the element of surprise work against them,, the 50^th Illinois fought a commendable defensive withdrawal, delaying the enemy advance the best they could until they finally halted and found refuge and formed a final line of defense in front of a mass of artillery that had been set up to halt the Rebel advance.  The men of the “Half-Blind Hundred” hurled themselves to the ground in front of the guns, firing from a prone position into the vanguard of the enemy advance until the tired and discouraged Confederates finally fell back.  The next day saw the arrival of Union reinforcements under the command of General Don Carlos Buell, and the reinvigorated and reinforced Yankees, including the 50^th Illinois, moved forward to retake the field that had been wrest from them at so bloody a cost the day before.

     The 50^th accompanied General Halleck on his inexcusably slow advance on Corinth.  They remained there, and were present when Confederate General Earl Van Dorn launched an assault to attempt to retake Corinth on June 5^th.  The resolute Union defenders beat the attackers back.  The “Blind Half-Hundred” regiment performed creditably, capturing a stand of colors, and 151 prisoners, including 2 officers.  Van Dorn launched frontal assaults upon a well defended position, having some success on the first day of the battle, driving the Federal army from the rifle pits that they’d been using as their first line of defense, and exploiting a gap in the Union lines, driving the defenders back into their inner line of fortifications.  The second day saw the Confederates repulsed after they attempted to storm Battery Powell and Battery Robinett.  After some ferocious hand to hand fighting, the Rebs attack on the second day was repulsed.  The results were a disaster for the Confederates.  They suffered 473 Killed compared to 355 for the Union troops, and the horrendous total of 3750 wounded and missing compared to 2200 for the defenders.  As noted above, the 50^th Illinois had done their share to account for this disparity in numbers.  Despite the victory that he won, General Rosecrans was criticized by both President Lincoln and General Grant for not pursuing and perhaps losing a chance to annihilate the retreating and demoralized Confederates.

      For a time, when he held a Captain’s rank, William Hanna served as an Acting ADC on the staff of General Grenville M. Dodge, who would go on to earn great renown as the Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific who was instrumental in the construction of the first Transcontinental railroad, the      Union Pacific.   Captain Hanna gained valuable experience working as a subordinate officer for the very competent Union commander, experience that served him well when he shouldered more command responsibility.  Hanna’s wartime diary begins late in the war, on January, 1864.  It’s disappointing in its terseness.  By this time he had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.  For example, His entry for the 5^th of October, a momentous day in the “Blind Half-Hundred’s” history, consists of a lackluster five sentences.  He mentions that the fighting was heavy, that he was wounded (in the left thigh) and the casualties inflicted on the regiment.  Seven thousand rebel troops attacked the 2900 Union defenders of Allatoona Pass in Georgia.  The determined enemy inflicted casualties of 962 men upon the Union defenders, but suffered close to 2200 casualties before they were beaten back, saw 400 of their men captured prisoner, and lost 3 flags and close to 800 weapons. 

     It was a costly defeat and cemented the 50ths reputation as a fighting regiment.  A bit of local interest:  The commander of the Union defenders was General John Corse, a Burlington, Iowa native, made his reputation in this battle.  General Corse was slightly wounded during the battle, but he magnified the importance of his wounds in a dramatic message that he sent to General Sherman.  It read: “I am short a cheekbone and one ear, but am able to whip all hell yet.”  You will find an equestrian statue of him in Burlington’s Crapo Park, inscribed with the words “Hold the Fort.”  These words are the refrain of a popular hymn that used the heroic defense of Allatoona Pass as inspiration.    The hymn, by Chicago evangelist Phillip P. Bliss featured the chorus: “Hold the fort; for we are coming; Union men be strong.”  You can find General Corse’s gravesite in a little chapel named for him that is situated in Burlington’s Aspen Grove Cemetery.  Aspen Grove can boast of a number of prominent Civil War burials in it.  Next to the Corse Chapel is the gravesite of General Karl Matthies and within short walking distance are the graves of Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Nicholas Bouquet and Major General Jacob Laumann.  Couple a visit here with a visit to Crapo Park and the Des Moines County Historical Society and one can spend a day exploring links to the Civil War in that historic Iowa City.   The repulse at Allatoona Pass was disheartening for the Confederates, as they had hoped to seize the one million rations that were stored there, or at least to burn them to deprive Sherman’s army of their use.

     After the fight at Allatoona Pass the 50^th and William Hanna continued with General Sherman as he took Atlanta, then set out to make Georgia howl as he cut a swath of devastation across the state as they made their way to Savannah.  Then the 50^th accompanied Sherman’s army into North Carolina, fought with Joe Johnston and the Rebels in Bentonville, North Carolina, and was present at the surrender of Johnston’s army.  At the war’s end the “Blind Half-Hundred” participated in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington DC, and then travelled by train to Louisville where the regiment was mustered out.

     Before the mustering out the 50^th earned more laurels, winning a Divisional competition in Louisville as the best-trained regiment.  At his time Colonel William Hanna was presented with an inscribed sword and cartridge box in recognition for his leadership and as a token of the high esteem his men held him in.  He had also been honored by his government by being awarded the brevet rank of Brigadier General on March, 13^th, 1865 for his gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Allatoona, Georgia.

     General Hanna ran a country store after the war in Golden, Illinois.  He died there on August 4^th, 1907 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, in Camp Point, Illinois.  His large red granite monument is easy to find.  On it he is given the tribute “Of such as he was, there are few on earth.”  His stone also lists his rank as Brevet Brigadier General, and ten important battles and sieges that he participated in: Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, the Battle of Corinth, Resaca, Lay’s Ferry, Allatoona, Savannah and Bentonville.  William Hanna was a merchant, with no military training, but his determination and willingness to learn and adapt to military life made an integral cog in forging the 50^th Illinois into a fighting machine to be reckoned with.  How respected was the regiment?  Perhaps the best tribute paid to it is that before his death Ulysses S. Grant chose a number of battle flags to be displayed in the tomb that was being planned for him in New York City.  Doomed by the ravages of cancer, the former General and President reflected during his illness on the regiments whose efforts he respected, and whose battle flags he would deem worthy enough to be displayed in the monument that would be his final resting place.  One of the flags that the dying warrior chose was the faded, battle-scarred standard made glorious by the efforts of the “Blind Half-Hundred.”

                   Bibliography:

Wartime Diary of William Hanna, 1864   Dr. R.C. Slater 1960

Battle of Shiloh                                           Wikipedia

Battle of Allatoona Pass                              Wikipedia

Battle of Corinth                                          Wikipedia

50^th Illinois Infantry Regiment                       Wikipedia

50^th Illinois Infantry Regiment History          Civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org  

    

    

He Was Used as a Human Shield

Dr. John Hood and the Legacy he left in Galesburg    

     It’s funny sometimes how leads to articles drop in one’s lap.  My interest in Dr. John Hood was piqued thanks to a recent article in the Galesburg Register-Mail about the gorgeous home that is located on 545 North Prairie Street.  Tom Wilson mentioned in the article that Dr. Hood was a veteran of the Civil War, had been incarcerated in Libby Prison, and jumped off a train in an attempt to reach the Union lines.  This roused my curiosity.  I wanted to learn more about Dr. Hood and his Civil War experiences.

     John Hood was born in Washington County, Illinois on November 17^th, 1838.  His father was Archibald Hood, a native of South, Carolina, one of the many of Scotch Irish descent who settled in the upper Carolina region.  These were independent folk, not the type to be trifled with as Patrick Ferguson and the Tories he led found to their dismay at their disastrous defeat at King’s Mountain during the American Revolution.  John’s father travelled to Illinois at about the age of 30, lured as were so many others by the stories of the cheap and fertile farmland available there, eventually settling in Sparta, Illinois.

       From his boyhood young John was earmarked by his father for the ministry, but the young man balked at his father’s plans for his life.  He went to the University of Indiana with the goal of pursuing a career in law and politics instead.  He graduated in 1862 and immediately enlisted in the Union army as a Lieutenant in Company F of the 80^th Illinois Infantry, being mustered in at Centralia, Illinois. He participated in the bloody battle of Perryville, in Kentucky, where both the division and brigade commanders were killed, as well as a number of line officers.   On the death of Capt. Jones, John Hood was promoted to that rank to take his place, effective April 30^th, 1863. 

     In March of 1863, Union General William S. Rosecrans came up with a plan for a mounted brigade of men to make a raid across northern Alabama into northwest Georgia.  The object of the raid would be to strike the Western & Atlantic Railroad, an important Confederate supply artery.  The 80^th Illinois, John Hood’s regiment, was among the 1700 troops chosen to be part of this expedition that was to be under the command of Colonel Abel Streight.    Remember this number, 1700, and contrast it with the number of men that Nathan Bedford Forrest would later bring against them.

     Lacking enough adequate horses for the planned foray into Alabama, some lackwit quartermaster came up with the idea to use mules for transportation.  Sure, they could be readily procured from rural yet shrewd Tennessee farmers, but a mule is a temperamental creature, and to make things worse, many of those bought or appropriated for the mission were unbroken, old, or incapable of bearing the burden of a rider for great distances.  The lack of adequate mounts had a negative effect on Union morale, as no doubt did the ridicule of the southern farmers that the men had to endure, or the insults of their opponents, who referred to Streight’s men as “the Jackass Brigade.”

     Once underway, the expedition encountered more problems.  The night that the expedition embarked, a stampede scattered 400 of the brigade’s mules into the surrounding countryside, causing a delay as Streight had to halt his command to wait for replacement mules.  Once underway, a heavy thunderstorm made the muddy Alabama roads virtually impassible, forcing another delay.  During this halt Colonel Streight met with General Grenville Dodge, who assured Streight that he  had driven Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command to the north, opening up a way for Streight’s “Jackass Brigade” to continue their raid unmolested.

     General Dodge was mistaken.  Forrest was well aware of the whereabouts of Streight’s men and easily maneuvering his men past General Dodge’s force, he relentlessly drove his command to intercept them.  Sniping at their flanks and rear, Forrest’s expert use of his command dogged Streight to the point where he dared not stop to rest his weary men and mules.  Giving Forrest the slip was impossible.  The “Wizard of the Saddle’s” scouts later boasted that they could hear the constant braying of Streight’s mules from 2 miles away.

     Streight had to deal with unfriendly locals as well.  At one crucial point during his raid, a 16 year old girl, Emma Sansom,  guided Forrest and his men to a ford which allowed them to gain a march on the beleaguered Federals.  At another point the residents of Rome, Georgia repelled the raiders attempt to capture a bridge crucial to their escape hopes, after ferryman John Wisdom, enraged at the wanton destruction of his ferry, the source of his livelihood, by the Union raiders, raced 67 miles to warn the Georgia residents of the approaching Union troops.  His warning gave them time to gather and initiate the defense that held the bridge.  By the time they reached Cedar Bluff many of Streight’s men were on foot, their exhausted mules having given out.  To make matters worse, much of their ammunition had gotten wet and was useless.  Forrest and his 500 men (yes, only 500) took up positions surrounding Streight’s men, and ordered the Union commander to surrender.  During negotiations Forrest used every trick he could come up with to convince the Union commander that he was outnumbered.  Ruses included having his artillery hauled round the Union position in circles, using a ridge and hills in order to mask their movement to delude Streight into believing that they were many different units.  The Union commander finally agreed to surrender, convinced by the visual ruse that Forrest had orchestrated that he faced a numerically superior foe.

     When Forrest’s small division came out after the surrender was negotiated, Streight was incensed at the trick that had been played upon him.  He angrily demanded that his men be allowed to renege on the agreement so that they could prove their mettle in a fair fight.  Needless to say, Forrest refused the request.  Already becoming almost a mythic figure as a commander, the man who would eventually have 30 horses shot out from under him, and who would kill the same number of men in one to one combat; his outwitting of Colonel Streight only added to his rapidly growing legend.

     Defeat proved especially bitter for the soldiers of the 1^st Alabama, men who had risked their families and homes; everything they held dear basically, because they elected to defend the Union despite their State’s decision to secede.  Forrest soon paroled the privates and the non-commissioned officers, not having the resources to feed them or the men to guard them, but the officers, well-trained leaders, one hundred and three in number, which included Captain John Hood, were reasoned to be too valuable to the Union cause to parole.  They were to be held as prisoners until such a time when the Confederate leaders hoped that they could be exchanged for badly needed prisoners to rebuild the thinning rebel ranks.  Young John Hood’s prison experiences and his postwar life will encompass the other two thirds of this article.

     After being captured with Abel Streight’s command, John Hood and the 102 officers that the rebels opted not to parole were taken to the infamous Libby Prison, an old tobacco barn that had been converted to a holding pen for captured Union officers.  He spent nearly a year there.  This structure was three stories high, with the second and third stories designated as inmate holding areas.  The basement once boasted a kitchen at its eastern end which at one time early in the prison’s history was used by the inmates, but an infestation of rats and the tendency of the basement to be subject to flooding led to the abandonment of that section of the warehouse/prison.  The abandoned area became known as “rat hell.”  With time to reflect upon his life, his situation and the religious upbringing that he had, he found himself pondering his spiritual welfare.  Later in his life Hood said that while enduring his miserable existence in Libby Prison he first received the call to enter the ministry.

    A group of Union officers discovered that by removing a stove and chipping their way into an adjoining chimney, that they could access “rat hell,” the floor of which was covered with two feet of straw.  This straw was a godsend for both covering earth that had been dug out as the men began to laboriously tunnel toward freedom.  It also covered the mouth of the tunnel.  The hundreds of rats that made this area their home were a constant nuisance, finding their way into the tunnel, crawling over the men digging in the tunnels and basically displaying no fear of the men who had invaded their sanctuary.  The only advantage to the soldiers was that the presence of the horde of filthy rodents that had taken residence there discouraged searches through that area.  The guards tended to shun it.  After 17 days of digging by three different shifts of men, they finally succeeded in tunneling through to a 50 foot vacant lot near the prison, emerging beneath a tobacco shed.

     109 Men used that tunnel to make an escape from Libby Prison.  John Hood was not one of them.  The escape of the Yankee prisoners though impacted his situation in that moves were made to address the overcrowding of the prison and to make it more secure.  Captain Hood was one of the officers who was removed and sent further south.

     Macon, Georgia became his next place of confinement, but events in Charleston, South Carolina were stirring that would impact Captain Hood’s life.  Confederate Major General Samuel Jones had been assigned to command of the city.  Despite Mexican War experience, service at the Rebel victory at First Manassas, and the responsibility of commanding a brigade in both Florida and Virginia, Jones had earned a reputation for being difficult to work with.  He questioned his superiors, at times disregarding their order, and was loathe to relinquish troops that he had command of when ordered to send them to areas where they were desperately needed.  After arguing with General Robert E. Lee about such issues, he was relieved of his Virginia command and sent to Charleston.

     By the time General Jones arrived at his new command, the city had suffered eight months of intermittent bombardment.  The streets were pockmarked with shell craters and many of the buildings had sustained serious damage.  Jones wanted the shelling to cease, and finally decided to take a drastic measure to do so.  On June 1^st, 1864, he requested permission from General Braxton Bragg, Jefferson Davis’ military advisor by this time, to have 50 Federal prisoners sent to him to be “confined in parts of the city still occupied by civilians, but under the enemy’s fire.”  General Jones’ request was approved, and orders were issued to pull that number of prisoners from Camp Oglethorpe in Macon, to bring them to Charleston.  They arrived on June 12^th.

     The Charleston Mercury took a great deal of pleasure in reporting the plight of the unlucky 50 high ranking Yankees, besides Captain Hood, a collection of officers that included 5 brigadier generals.  “These prisoners, we understand, will be furnished with comfortable quarters in that portion of the city most exposed to enemy fire.  The commanding officer on Morris Island will be duly notified of the fact of their presence in the shelled district, and if his batteries still continue at their wanton and barbarous work, it will be at the peril of the captive officers.”

      General Jones officially notified General Foster, the commander of the Union force that was besieging the city, of his actions.  Foster replied angrily that Charleston was a legitimate target given that it had munitions factories and wharves to unload supplies that could make it into the harbor past the Union blockade.  General Foster said that ‘to destroy these means of continuing the war is therefore our object and duty.  You seek to defeat this effort, not by honorable means, but by placing unarmed and helpless men under our fire.”

     This war of words escalated with Jones responding that “I cannot but regard the desultory firing on this city, which you dignify by the name ‘Bombardment’, from its commencement to this hour, as anti-Christian, inhuman, and utterly indefensible by any law, human or divine.”  Clearly Jones had his dander up, and he wasn’t about to back down or show any sympathy to the Union officers that he was callously exposing to danger.

     General Foster responded by bringing 50 Rebel prisoners to a place of incarceration on Morris Island, just in front of the Federal batteries, placing an equal number of the enemy in harm’s way.  Federal officials were made aware of the stalemate, and an understanding had just about been reached to exchange both sets of prisoners to eliminate the impasse, when Sherman’s thrust in Georgia threatened the Infamous prison camp at Andersonville and authorities there sent hundreds of prisoners to Charleston for safekeeping.  This despite General Samuel Jones’ objection that it was both "inconvenient and unsafe.”

     The Union commander became upset and angry when he heard of the new influx of prisoners into the city, believing that they were sent there to serve as more human shields.  A stockade was built in front of Battery Wagner, and 600 Confederate officers were shipped in from Fort Delaware.  In this high stakes game using human lives as chips, now each side had put 600 officers in the line of fire.

     As the number of inmates grew, conditions in the camp that held the Union prisoners deteriorated.  Soon 600 officers were sharing space with 300 enlisted men, both black and white, as well as local criminals and deserters from both sides.  Most of them were jammed into A-frame tents set up in the courtyard.  An inmate described the yard as “a dirty little place unfit for human beings to live in.”  Another Federal officer, Louis Fortescue, wrote home to describe the “intolerable heat” that the prisoners had to endure in a courtyard that did not have a single shade tree in it.  Life here was every bit as debilitating as the conditions that the men had to endure in Libby Prison, and to add to the stifling heat and humidity of summer, yellow fever introduced itself into the camp and soon began to take a frightening toll of the weak and malnourished prisoners.

     General Jones, the Confederate commander, reacted to the outbreak of the disease by issuing orders to his Provost Marshall to remove as many of the sick and wounded prisoners as possible who were able to travel and have them shipped back to other prison camps.   One of these gentleman was Captain Hood, who was being sent to Columbia, South Carolina.  While being shipped via train to their destination, Hood and Lieutenant Goode, an Indiana native, jumped from the moving train, using the darkness of night to cloak their departure.  The plunge left them badly bruised and hurt, but despite their suffering, they had to immediately get up and hobble toward the shelter of the woods.  Like the escaped slaves who would hide during the day and travel at night in their trek north toward freedom, Hood and Goode entered into the same routine; they learned to follow the North Star as well, the beacon of freedom.  They had an arduous journey of over 400 miles ahead of them if they were going to reach the Union lines in East Tennessee and freedom.

     In his “Lecture on Prison Life,” a 174 page manuscript which is in the possession of Duke University in their Rubenstein Library Collection, Dr. Hood speaks with gratitude of the kindnesses shown to him by blacks along their route, one of whom risked his own life in order to provide the two escapees with gray uniforms to replace their Union blue.  He also talks of the cruelties that their Rebel captors inflicted upon them during their time in prison, as well as the meager rations and the filth of the surroundings that they were forced to exist in.  Goode and Hood persevered, travelling through South Carolina and Georgia in the hope of reaching the Union line in East Tennessee.  Within 20 miles of the Atlanta and Chattanooga railroad, which was in Union hands, they were accosted by bushwackers and eventually identified as escaped prisoners.  It had to be frustrating and terribly disheartening to have gotten so close to freedom only to be recaptured and sent back into captivity.

     Captain John Hood was sent first to a camp near Athens, Georgia.  Later he was moved again.  He remained a prisoner until being paroled as part of a prisoner exchange that took him out of confinement in Goldsboro, North Carolina.  He returned to Company F of the 80^th Illinois infantry on October 20^th, 1864.  He remained with them until the end of the war, receiving an honorable discharge on May 15^th, 1865.  In November of the same year he entered a Reformed Presbyterian theological seminary in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania.  The following year he became Superintendent of Public Schools of Sparta, Illinois.  He received his license to preach in 1869 and completed his theological studies in 1870.  By this time, a Doctor of Divinity, “Doctor” Hood married Miss Mary Gault of Randolph County, Illinois.  Their union eventually brought them a daughter.  From 1870 to 1878 he served as the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Sparta, leaving there on June 30^th, 1878 to become the spiritual leader of the Second Presbyterian Church of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  He remained there until 1889 when he assumed the leadership of the Presbyterian Church of Galesburg, Illinois. 

     Dr. John Hood, during his time in Galesburg, was instrumental in erecting two imposing edifices that still remain to testify to his importance to the community.  The first, the home he had built on 545 North Prairie Street, is a multi-story home, a remarkable example of the Queen Anne style of architecture, boasting a series of arches and curves.  The structure is especially noted for the curved front porch that protrudes to the south.  It was designed by the local architects Charles Gottschalk and J. Grant Beedle.  According to an article about the home written by Tom Wilson, the leaded windows of the home are among the prettiest in the city.   Dr. Hood lived here until he retired from the ministry in 1897.

     During Dr. Hood’s eight year tenure as the spiritual leader of the Presbyterian Church in Galesburg, he was responsible for raising the funding and enthusiasm for building a new sanctuary of worship.  At the cost of $70,000, an imposing stone edifice, still one of the most striking and visually attractive buildings in Galesburg, was erected on the corner of North Prairie and East Ferris Streets.  Yes, Dr. Hood has left a legacy in the city that does credit to his memory.

      Dr. Hood was in demand as a lecturer and patriotic speaker as well.  More on this will be addressed in the last paragraph of this article.  His learning and experiences generally earned him flattering reviews, although one commentator notes that “Hood’s voice was a high-pitched, irritating disappointment, lacking resonance.”  This Civil War officer, prisoner of war, respected lecturer and spiritual advisor to Presbyterian communities of worship died while in Austin, Texas on January 29^th, 1905.  His body was returned to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to be interred next to his wife, Mary, who had died and was buried there in 1886.  A white obelisk marks their burial site, next to which is a simple Grand Army of the Republic stone that commemorates his Civil War service, referring to him as “Lieutenant” John Hood.

      Dr. Hood’s papers are in the possession of Duke University, who purchased them in an on-line auction hosted by Dorothy Sloan Books. Looking at the contents of the lot, it is to be greatly regretted that these papers couldn’t have been acquired by a Knox County library or college.  The documents had at some point endured some smoke and fire damage, but the contents are still readable and hopefully someday will be on-line for everyone to access.  Meanwhile, an aspiring scholar looking for a graduate treatise could do much worse than writing a dissertation about Dr. Hood’s life and Civil War experiences.  The centerpiece of the collection is his 174 page “Lecture on Prison Life,” but it also contains a two and a half page autobiography, correspondence and military papers including pension applications, correspondence from the Galesburg Presbyterian church and the Sparta Church calling upon him to become their minister, newspaper clippings about the lecture on prison life that he had delivered at Greene’s Opera House in Rapid City, Iowa, memorial addresses that he had delivered at Moscow, Illinois, Aledo, Illinois and a speech that he delivered in honor of John A. Logan.  Sloan Books touts Hood’s lecture on prison life as “a major, unpublished Civil War POW narrative.” 

    Dr. John Hood was one of the lucky ones, a man who survived the debilitating conditions of being incarcerated in Rebel prisons.  He went on, like so many veterans did after this and future wars, to set an educational goal, pursue it, and use his learning to benefit the communities that he served in.  Perhaps you’ll think of him next time you stroll or drive past the beautiful church structure that he helped make possible. 

                                        Bibliography

Immortal 600;  Prisoners under Fire at Charleston Harbor During the American Civil War  “America’s Civil War Magazine” June,2006

Guide to the John Hood Papers         Collection Guides/ Rubenstein Library      Duke University

“Reverend John Hood (1838-1905)”  Find a Grave Memorial

History of the Presbyterian Church of the State of Illinois       1879

Church History         History of Galesburg Presbyterian    On-line article

Galesburg Oldest notable Homes:  Former home of Dr. John Hood    “Galesburg Register-Mail” 6/08/14

Dorothy Sloan Rare Books  Auction 22 Listing.  John Hood Lot

“Libby Prison Escape”    Wikipedia article

“Encyclopedia of Alabama:  Streight’s Raid    On-line article

 

To Vanquish the Prince of Rebels

                              Adam Clarke Higgins, Chaplain of the 83rd Illinois

     As with so many of the men who became leaders in Western Illinois, Adam Clarke Higgins emigrated here in his early years, having been born in Middlebourne, in Tyler County, West Virginia, in 1834.  He entered the ministry of the Methodist Church at 18 years of age, and at age 21 he joined the Central Illinois Conference.  After the hostilities between the north and the south broke out, he labored to and was instrumental in raising a number of companies in Knox County.  Realizing that his strengths lay in his religious instruction rather than military tactics or the wielding of discipline, he resigned the Captaincy that he had been elected to and instead accompanied the 893^rd Illinois as its Chaplain.  For two years he was the post Chaplain at Clarkesville, Tennessee.  In the book that Phil Reyburn has recently transcribed and put together of letters home from soldiers serving at the front, Chaplain Higgins sends some interesting observations home in which he equates the rebels against their country to the rebellion of Satan and his minions.  I can’t help feeling that it would be tough to listen to a heavy dose of rhetoric such as this on a Sunday morning.

    “I entered upon my labor as Chaplain of the regiment deeply impressed me with the responsibility of my position, and resolving faithfully to discharge every known duty in the fear of God.  I have in every instance met a warm reception, and have been kindly treated by both officers and privates.  My time has been occupied principally in conducting religious services, visiting the hospitals, and companies, reading scriptures for, and conversing, and praying with the sick, writing letters for those unable to write; answering correspondents, inquiring about sick friends, attending the funerals of the deceased members of our regiment, and distributing tracts, books, papers and magazines among those having the leisure and ability to read. …with regard to the morals of the members of our regiment the standard is not as high as it should be, but in this respect I think our regiment would compare favorably with the same number of men taken promiscuously in any community….

     “Send us moral and religious reading matter—tracts, books, papers, magazines, etc.  The appealing to the God of Battles for the rectitude of our cause, we will sacrifice our lives.  Upon our country’s altar, or live to see the day when treason and rebellion shall be swept from our land, complete victory perch upon our banner, and country enjoy peace again upon the God-given principle of Right.  And in the still greater conflict, we pledge ourselves either to die in the contest or to vanquish the prince of rebels, the arch-secessionist, destroy his confederacy, build up the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and wave the flag of salvation over a world redeemed from the thralldom of sin.”

     In February of 1864, Chaplain Higgins sent a letter back to the Galesburg Free Democrat, excerpts of which the editor shared with his readership.  Among the topics discussed in the letter are his impressions of Clarksville and the Tennessee people, Colonel Arthur A. Smith and the health of the regiment and his personal accomplishments.

     “Clarksville is situated on the Cumberland River, about thirty-five miles above Ft. Donelson.  This was a place that formerly numbered about 6000 inhabitants… It was a place of great wealth.  There was more tobacco shipped at this place than any other point North or South.  The citizens have built many fine residences, some that might properly be denominated mansions, and had the grounds surrounding them beautifully adorned with statuary, tropical trees and flowers.  Having grown rich from uncompensated toil and their damnable tariffs in flesh and blood, as might be expected, this class of society is arrogant, imperious, domineering and overbearing.  A great portion of the masses of society are stupid ignoramuses….This city has done much for the nefarious cause of the South.  She has contributed largely of her means to support of that arch traitor, Jeff Davis, and his plans for the overthrow of our God-given form of government.  She has declaimed boisterously for “Southern Rights.”   In part she has received her rights.  The neglected filthy and ruined condition of her public and many of her private buildings, the paralyzed condition of her public and many of her citizens (who once rode upon the waves of luxury and wealth) to dependence and want, with many other signs, bear unmistakable evidence that much of her former glory has departed.  In this place of six thousand inhabitants, there were but three or four citizens who stood by the honor of our government, or had a word to say for the Union in its hour of trial.  Such a hotbed of treason- I wonder that the city has not been burned or bombarded long before this time.  But perhaps it is best that such has not been done, but ‘I can’t see it’.”

     “Col. A. A. Smith of Galesburg is in command here.   Our excellent Colonel has won an enviable fame among the officers and soldiers of the 83^rd (also other officers and soldiers with whom we have been associated since entering the service) for his good sense, good morals, and of all the elements that are involved in the constitution of a gentleman, a patriot, a faithful officer and a hero.  I have found in him a true friend and a safe counselor.”

     Chaplain Higgins wrote in the same letter of the deaths that had occurred in the regiment up to that point (82), and noted that roughly the same number of men had been discharged.  Judging from the task list that he recounts to the editor in the following segment from his letter, Chaplain Higgins evidently was diligent about keeping a very accurate accounting of his accomplishments.

     “I have recently administered the ordinance of baptism to 18 persons.  During the year 1863, I preached one hundred and three discourses, attended ninety seven funerals, wrote five hundred and seventy three letters (many of them for the sick and to the friends of the sick) and tried to be faithful in my attention to the sick and well, in exhorting, conducting prayer meetings, domestic worship, etc.”

     On March 24^th, 1864, in another letter to the Galesburg Free Democrat, he talks of the Election Day in Tennessee. 

     “…from what I have learned there was a much larger vote pulled throughout West Tennessee than I expected.  There were but few of the citizens of this place that voted; most of them refused to take either President Lincoln’s oath of office or the oath prescribed by Governor Johnson… I think a place could not be found in all secessia where the people are more unanimously opposed to the federal government than are the despicable inhabitants of this treacherous place.  Civil law will be re-established, and sustained by the military, and unless these guilty rebels are speedily found at Lincoln’s altar, repenting of this most damnable of all sins, treason, I trust that they will be made to feel that traitors cannot persist in their opposition to the federal [--rm] with perfect impunity.”

     Chaplain Higgins wrote a letter to the Knox Republican in August of 1864.  It was a chatty letter, but dealt with more military matters than were usually evident in his letters, including an ambush by Confederate bushwhackers that was more like cold-blooded murder.  The Morrison that he lists as missing, later returned to camp after escaping during the ambush.  His grandson changed his name from Marion Morrison to a more masculine sounding “John Wayne” when he went to Hollywood.  Yes, “The Duke.”

     “Arose on Tuesday, 16^th, and accompanied by Lieut. Russell and Capt. Temple rode to the steamboat landing, learned that a little steamboat left for Donelson at 8 o’clock.  After breakfast visited the contraband camp, and the quarters of Capt. Temple’s company.  Met with Capt. Brunt, who has charge of the contraband camp.  Spent our time looking at the improvements, were highly delighted while inspecting one of the finest gardens in all the country.  A large, fine watermelon was plucked, cut and eaten, after which we hastened to the river, arriving just in time for the Lieut. To get aboard the boat bound for Donelson.” 

     “A report reached headquarters on Thursday the 16^th, that three hundred rebel soldiers were crossing, or had crossed the Cumberland at Palmyra between this and Donelson.  Some of the boys met with them, and shots were exchanged.  There are undoubtedly many rebel soldiers, guerillas and blood-guilty citizens in the country.  If the authorities expect us to do anything more than to garrison the post then they ought to furnish more men.  The number of mounted men here to scout, repair telegraph lines, and keep up courier lines, etc. etc., is shamefully and ruinously insufficient.”

     “Mounted infantry came in during Friday night.  They had been to Garnetsburg, and learned from a reliable source that the rebel guerilla Woodward had left in command of three hundred men, not an hour before our boys arrived.  A dispatch was received in Hopkinsville that Woodward had moved onto that place and made an attack early in the morning.  Woodward and several of his men were killed, and the rebel forces were completely routed.”

     “Dr. Cooper unwell.  Hope he will be better soon.  His labors have been very abundant.  A dispatch from Col. Brott today informs us that Captain Turnbull of Company B and seven of his men were murdered while out repairing telegraph lines.  Names of the men killed are: Capt. William Turnbull, Corporal Mitchell Thompson, W.W. Findly, Samuel A Foster, James Patterson, William Martin, John Hogue, and David Nichols.  Missing James Neely and M. Morrison.”

     In a September letter to the Knox Republican Chaplin Higgins talks some of the murders of the telegraph repair party, but spends more ink, seemingly with some delight, in celebrating the death of the guerrilla leader Woodward.  Excerpts from this letter follow…

     “In my last letter I gave you the names of the members of Company B., who were so cruelly murdered and barbarously mutilated by hellish guerilla fiends in human form, between Donelson and Smithland.  Ere this reaches you, you will no doubt have received a detailed report of the circumstances connected with the death of our ill-fated boys.  In their death we mourn high-minded gentlemen, patriotic soldiers and exemplary Christians.  I also spoke of the death of Woodward, the guerilla chief.  Friend Mercer, of the Nashville Times, gives this despicable rascal, who in now reaping the latter wages of his wretched life in the regions inhabited by the congenial spirits of fallen angels and accursed rebels, the following notice:

   “Woodward was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, went a short time to West Point to school, was expelled, and soon after fled to Kentucky in consequence of being engaged in a disgraceful brawl.  He eked out a miserable subsistence by teaching a little country school, in which he met with poor success, being a notorious vagabond, rowdy, liar and profligate drunkard. He often traveled twenty miles to get up rows at circuses in country towns, in one of which frolics he nearly lost his life by getting his head broken by a big clown.  A short time before the rebellion broke out he forged the name of one of his friends to a note for three hundred dollars, and attempted to raise money on it.  Altogether he was a worthless dog, a personal, social and moral nuisance.  He was one of the best representatives of the rebellion that we ever saw.”

     …”Woodward, he whom the miserable, hypocritical, and professedly loyal inhabitants of this place, have styled divine, and over whose death they are weeping and mourning and indulging in imprecations upon the heads of those who committed ‘the monstrous and enormous crime’ of sending him to the place prepared for rebel angels, and specified in the Living Book of the Living God, as the future abode of the living participants in, the aiders and abettors of, and the sympathyzers with, the most damnable rebellion waged against the glorious government of the United States.  Woodward was the God of this people.  Under him, though they now profess to be loyal, and say ‘they never spoke a word’ or ‘performed an act’ favoring secession, many of them shouldered their guns and participated in the capture of this place in August, 1862, and no doubt have frequently been with him in his guerrillaing, thieving and murdering through the country.  To Woodward the people of this place offer up their praying and supplications, and to him many of them expect to go when they die.”

     Adam Clarke Higgins made it through the war.  He was more fortunate than many of the men who enlisted to become part of the 83^rd and history.  At the close of the war he was mustered out with the rank of “major.”  After the war he re-entered the ministry, married Lydia F. Ramsey of Rushville, Illinois in 1865, and was the shepherd for congregations in Illinois, Wisconsin, New Jersey and New York City.   Eventually adding a law degree to his divinity degree, he moved to Chicago and practiced law there for 15 years.  Civil War pension records note that he applied for and received an invalid’s pension in August of 1890.    Adam C. Higgins was a past commander of the Winfield Scott Chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was also a member of the Improved Order of Red Men and the Union Veteran Association.  He had been making preparations to move to Lincoln, Illinois, to share a law office with his son, Charles. A. Higgins, when he died on March 25^th, 1896 of congestion of the stomach after a short illness.  His death occurred at the home of his nephew in Chicago, Lloyd Higgins.

      The former Chaplain of the 83^rd Illinois had arranged to have his body shipped to Rushville, Illinois to be buried in his wife’s family plot.   There he rests, next to his beloved Lydia, in the Rushville City Cemetery.

                                                                             Bibliography

“Soldiers’ Correspondence to Galesburg & Knoxville Newspapers, 1861-65”       Transcribed by Philip J. Reyburn, 2014.

“Find a Grave”    Adam Clarke Higgins Memorial.

Rushville Times, 1896       Adam Clarke Higgins obituary

Civil War pension records