Genealogy Trails
Madison County Military History

The history of the heroes of Madison county, as well as of the State and Nation, who participated in the Mexican war and in the greater war of the rebellion, has been written time and again and will endure as long as time shall last. Nothing that the authors of this work could say would add to the luster of their names or achievements. Both have been preserved in the archives of the Republic and will be perpetuated forever by the American people, in song and story, in stone and bronze. It is not the purpose, therefore, of the authors to give a detailed history of the services of Madison county's soldiery, but a general account, together with such local matters relating to the subject as are considered of sufficient importance to remember in a work of this character.

Previous to 1847, the county had no military history, but upon the breaking out of the Mexican war a number of patriotic citizens who had heard the thrilling story of Crockett and the Alamo, availed themselves of the first opportunity to offer their services to the government. This opportunity occurred early in May. 1847, after the second call for volunteers had been made by President James K. Polk. Captain John M. Wallace, of Marion, Grant county, organized a company at that place, which was composed of residents of both Grant and Madison counties. There may have been, and probably were, volunteers from this county under the first call of the President, but there is no means at this time of ascertaining either their names or number.

The company organized by Captain Wallace marched from Marion to Anderson and thence to Indianapolis. From there the company went by rail (at that time the only railroad in the State) to Madison, where it embarked on a steamer for Jeffersonviile, at which place it went into camp, and on the 31st of May, was mustered into the service of the United States as Company A, and assigned to the Fourth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel Willis A. Jorman.

The regiment left Jeffersonville for New Orleans by steamer the following month and went from there to Brazos Santiago, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. After marching to a point 160 miles up that river and remaining^several weeks, it returned to Brazos, and on the 19th of September, sailed with the brigade to which it was attached, for Vera Cruz. The Fourth belonged to General Lane's brigade and participated in some of the severest skirmishes of the war. In December, 1847, it joined the main army under General Scott, in the city of Mexico, where it remained until peace was declared, leaving there for Vera Cm/, on the 1st of June, 1848, and arriving at Madison, Indiana, on the 20th of July, where it was mustered out of the service. Of the men who volunteered from Madison county in this war, the following list is given :

Nineveh Berry, commissary; Joseph Hunt, corporal; Reuben Stephenson, Levi Brewer, Jacob Booser, William Collis, John Hicks, Solomon Harpold, Alexander Greenlee, James Moore, Samuel Moore, Isaac Rheubart, David Vanasdell, Benjamin Moore, Jacob Spucher, Thomas Dillon and John Dedsman, the last two dying in Mexico of disease. Levi Brever, who is still living, is mentioned elsewhere in these pages.


THE CIVIL WAR, OR WAR OF THE REBELLION.

Fort Sumter was fired on by the Confederates on the 12th day of April, 1861, and on the 16th of the' same month Governor O. P. Morton issued a call to the people of Indiana for volunteers to fill the quota of the State under the call of the President for 75,000 troops. The call of the governor was received with patriotic outbursts of enthusiasm throughout the state and the day following a public meeting was held in the court house at Anderson for the purpose of enlisting volunteers for the war. Patriotic speeches were made by Dr. Townsend Ryan, who was afterwards appointed to a colonelcy in the army, T. N. Stilwell, who also received a commission as colonel of a regiment afterwards, Ralph N. Clark and others. The war spirit was rampant and a company of 100 stalwart men was soon organized. The men were all young and a large majority of them above the average size. The idea prevailed at the time that only men of large muscular development could endure the privations and hardships incident to war. This idea was soon dispelled, however, as it was discovered that small men or men of medium size made equally as good, if not better soldiers, than the men of larger mold. It is recalled by the writer that a company from Logansport passed through Anderson in April, 1861,not one of whom was less than six feet in height, and large in proportion.

The evening after the public meeting the volunteers assembled at the Methodist church and organized by electing Hiram T. Vandevender, captain, and a full complement of officers. The company left immediately for-Indianapolis, and went into camp at a place east of the city, called Camp McClellan. On the 22nd of April it was mustered into the three months service, and assigned to the Eighth Indiana Volunteer infantry, as Company "G." The regiment remained in camp until June, when it was ordered to Clarksburg, Va. From there the regiment went to Buckhannon, Va., and on the 11th of July participated in the battle of Rich Mountain. Company G lost but one man, Joseph Beck, of Chesterfield. This was the only engagement the Company participated in during its three months service. After remaining in camp at Beverly until the 24th of July, the regiment was ordered back to Indianapolis, where it was mustered out of the service August 6th, 1801, and the men returned to their homes.

The regiment was reorganized, and many of the men who composed it during the three months service, re-enlisted for " three years, or during the war." This much of the history of Company G is given for the reason that it was the first company to leave Madison county. The muster rolls in the war department at Washington show that 189 officers and men from Madison county belonged to the Eighth Indiana.

Captain Vandevender was mortally wounded in front of Vicksburg. and died May 28, 1808. He was a chivalrous soldier, and was greatly respected by his men. His remains now repose beneath a marble tablet in the Anderson cemetery.

From the day the first company left Anderson to take part in the defense of the government there was almost a continuous stream of volunteers flowing out of Madison county into the army. Every vocation in life represented within her borders contributed men to the ranks of the grand army that was fighting for the preservation of the Union. They marched away to the inspiring music of the fife and drum from field and forge, hamlet and town, many of them to die upon the field, in the hospital and in prison without hope or desire of a greater reward than the high renown of the patriot who gives up his life in defense of his country. Many of them had not reached their majority, more were of middle age, while not a few had passed the meridian of life. But all were patriots ; their county and State were proud of them, and generations yet unborn will commemorate their deeds and honor their memory.

As nearly as can be ascertained Madison county furnished 1,500 volunteers during the war, for which she received credit. A few citizens of the county enlisted in companies organized in other counties and states, and they are credited to the localities where they enlisted. The county was represented in the following regimental organizations : The Eighth (one company), Ninth, Eleventh, Twelfth (one company), Sixteenth (one company), Seventeenth (this regiment bore on its muster rolls the names of 140 citizens of Madison county). Nineteenth (one company), Twentieth, Thirty-fourth (two companies), Thirty-ninth, or Eighth Cavalry, Forty-seventh (one company), Fifty-second, Fifty-eighth, Fifty-ninth, Sixty-ninth, Seventy-fifth (one company), Eighty-fourth, Eighty- ninth (one company), Ninetieth, or Fifth Calvary, Ninety- ninth, and One Hundred and First (one company), One Hundred and Thirtieth (one company) Indiana regiments. These organizations all belonged to the three-years service. The county was also represented in the following organizations : One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Indiana (100-days service), One Hundred and Thirty-sixth (100-days service), One Hundred and Fortieth (one-year service), One Hundred and Forty- second (one-year service), One Hundred and Forty-seventh (one-year service) , One Hundred and Forty-ninth (one-year service), One Hundred and Fifty-third (one-year service), One Hundred and Fifty-fourth (one-year service), One Hundred and Fifty-fifth (one-year service), Twenty-eighth regiment (United States colored troops). The muster rolls of the Second Indiana Battery — Light Artillery — and Eighteenth Battery — Light Artillery — show that Madison county was largely represented in those organizations.

MINUTE MEN.

The raid of Gen. John H. Morgan, of the Confederate army, into Indiana, in July, 1868, with a small force, was the occasion of a cull for troops by Go v. Morton, and within forty- eight hours after the call was made, 65,000 men tendered their services to the governor. Madison county promptly responded along with her sister counties in the State, and four companies were raised to assist in repelling the invaders. One of these companies was assigned to the One Hundred and Fourth regiment and the other three to the One Hundred and Tenth regiment. As Morgan did not remain in the State any longer than his force could ride from the point where they entered to the Ohio line, the services of the minute men from this county were not needed and they were accordingly mustered out, the three companies belonging to the One Hundred and Tenth regiment, at Indianapolis, on the 15th of July, or three days after they had been mustered into service, and the company belonging to the One Hundred and Fourth regiment, at Greensburg, on the 18th of July.

At the time of this raid great excitement prevailed throughout Indiana, and especially in the central portion of of the State, as it was feared that the State capital was the objective point of the incursion. The excitement at Indianapolis for several days was intense and all kinds of war-like rumors could be heard on every hand. The streets were thronged with excited and fear-stricken people for two days and nights, and it was freely asserted by a few old soldiers, who happened to be in the city at the time, on furlough, that Morgan could have easily captured the city with fifty of his men, so great was the demoralization of the raw troops and people generally.

To write a history of the campaigns of the various organizations with which the volunteers of Madison county were identified, would not only be a labor of supererogation, but would exceed the limits designed by the authors for this work. The story has been told better than we are able to tell it. It is our province to state, however, that the soldiers of Madison county participated in nearly every great battle of the war. They were at the Wilderness, Antietum, Cold Harbor, Chickamauga, Look Out Mountain, Ressacca, Vicksburg, Gettysburg and with Sherman on his " march to the sea." Many of them never returned and are sleeping in unknown graves. Of this number is Major Isaac M. May, of the Nineteenth Indiana, who was killed at Gainesville, Va., on the 25th of August , 1862. Every effort was made by his widow and friends to recover his remains, but in vain. He fell early in the engagement, and was buried by Seth Peden of his home company, and a soldier belonging to a Wisconsin regiment. Both these men were killed soon after, and with them died all knowledge as to the spot where I he Major's remains were buried.

This gallant officer had all the instincts of a great soldier. He was a strict disciplinarian and gave much time to the study of military tactics, a thorough knowledge of which he regarded as absolutely essential to the proper discharge of his duties as an officer. He had great respect for his men and and they in return loved and honored him, not only as a brave and faithful officer, but as a friend. His untimely death was sincerely mourned wherever he was known, and particularly at Anderson, where he had always been held in the highest respect as a citizen. When the Grand Army Post was organized at Anderson there was but one expression with reference to a name for the organization and that was Major May. This Post is one of the largest and most important in the State, and is appropriately mentioned elsewhere in this history.

Major Samuel Henry was another gallant soldier of Madison county, whose untimely death was the cause of much sincere regret and sorrow. He had risen to the rank of Major from that of First Lieutenant of Company B, Eighty ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and the possibilities of the future appeared bright to him and his friends, when he, along with two other officers of the regiment, was shot to death by guerrillas on the 1st of November, 1864, near a small village called Grunton in the State of Missouri. The men had become separated from their command, which was marching to Lexington, Mo., and had just left a house where they had been supplied with dinner, when they w-ere confronted by three men dressed in the Federal uniform, and ordered to hold up their hands. The officers were unarmed excepting Major Henry, who perhaps had on his sword and one pistol. After searching the men for fire arms, they were ordered to mount their horses. They were then taken back a short distance into a woods where they were murdered and robbed. Their remains were found by people living in the vicinity and taken to Lexington where they were identified by officers of the army. Colonel Wolf, commanding the Third brigade, ordered the bodies decently interred in metallic caskets, knowing that friends would want them removed. The remains of Major Henry were soon after taken up and brought back to his native village, Pendleton, and laid to rest in the cemetery at that place. Major Henry was a brother of Hon. Charles L. Henry, of Anderson, who at this time represents the capital district of the State in Congress. The G. A. R. Post at Pendleton was named in honor of Major Henry.

ANDERSON AS A RENDEZVOUS FOR TROOPS.

While a great majority of the volunteers of Indiana were organized into regiments at Indianapolis, a number of regiments were organized at other points in the State. It was considered advisable, for various reasons, to establish a camp at Anderson, and in the summer of 1861 certain companies, raised in the northern part of the State, were ordered hither. A camp was established on the hill northeast of the bridge which now spans White river where north Madison avenue terminates, and the Thirty-fourth Indiana regiment was organized there on the Kith of September. The camp was called "Camp Stilwell " in honor of Thomas N. Stilwell, who was Quartermaster of the regiment until March, 1862, when he resigned.

A majority of the companies of this regiment had a full quota of men and when it left camp on the 16th of October, 1861, for the front it was as large a regiment as ever left the State. Madison county furnished two companies for this regiment and 280 men in all during its time of service. The late Colonel Ryan, of Anderson, commanded the regiment at one time. The Thirty-fourth participated in the last battle of the war, which was fought at Palmetto Ranche, Texas, on the 18th of May, 1865, and was one of the last regiments mustered out of the service.

PATRIOTIC EFFORTS OF MADISON COUNTY CITIZENS.

While the soldiers of Madison county were at the front fighting for the preservation of the government the people at home did not forget them. Sanitary and other supplies .were sent to the camp and hospital without stint. Whenever the people at home were appealed to for assistance for the soldiers they always responded promptly.

Of the official action taken by the county through its Board of Commissioners dining the war, the following is a summary :

The first official action taken by the county officials was in connection with Camp Stilwell. At the September term, 1851, of the Board of Commissioners it was " Ordered that $200 be appropriated for the purchase of lumber to fit up a camp for the accommodation of a regiment being organized at Anderson." And at the same term $800 was appropriated for the assistance of soldiers wives and children, the Trustee of each township being instructed to render assistance wherever needed. At the August term, 1862, it was ordered that an allowance of $1 each week be made to each soldier's wife or widowed mother and 50 cents to each child under ten years of age, the Trustees being directed to make the disbursements.

At the following September term a tax levy of 10 cents on each $100 valuation of the taxable property in the county was made in order to provide a fund for the relief of soldiers' families. These orders continued in force until the close of the war.

The Board held a special session in November, 1863, at which it was ordered " that each volunteer credited to Madison county be paid $50 bounty when he produces the certificate of the mustering officer to the county Auditor, and $50 at the expiration of his term of service." A tax levy of 25 cents on each $100 valuation of property was made to raise the money necessary to carry out the order.

The record of the Commissioners' court for the June term, 1864, shows that the county treasurer had received $10,812.97 taxes for military purposes and had paid out for the same, $10,700.

The call of the President for 800,000 men in 1864 rendered it necessary, in order to fill the quota of Madison county, to issue bonds to the amount of $200,000. The Commissioners ordered a bounty of $400 to be paid to each volunteer or drafted man and the county's quota under the call was soon filled.

The amount of money paid by the county for bounties to soldiers was $844,898 and for aid to the families of soldiers, $10,042, making a total of $354,940. The amount of money contributed by individual citizens of the county for sanitary supplies and other necessaries cannot, of course, be ascertained, but would doubtless bring the grand total up to an amount as large again as that paid out of the county treasury.

Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, Indiana By John La Rue Forkner, Byron H. Dyson