HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                          49

    “We were yesterday surprised to receive a paper from Clay county,
Indiana. We did not presume that the people read the papers in that
swampy, sloppy, soggy, sticky, stinking, stifling, stubborn, starving, sub-
sidiary, slavoring, slavish, swinish, sheepish, sorrowfully dark, desolate,
direful, devilish, dim, doleful, downcast, dirty, despairing, deluded, de-
generate, dismal, dreary, drivelling, demoniac, dilapidated locality, where
public works are destroyed, and the officers, whose duty it is to defend
the laws, with blackened faces, trample them under feet. On first open-
ing this paper, we felt hopeful, thinking there would be light shining in
the midst of darkness, but we discovered that the Clay County Citizen
only makes darkness visible, as it is the organ of the ‘canal cutters.'"
    In compliance with the urgent appeal of the trustees, Governor
Wright ordered two companies of militia to repair to the scene of
trouble, under command of John W. Dodd, of Indianapolis, for the sup-
pression of violence to, and the protection of, the property of the com-
pany. Dodd was at the time a member of the Governor’s staff, and for
many years afterward a prominent business man of the capital city.
This miniature army, preparatory to the march to the seat of war, was
organized and equipped at Evansville, where the companies were re-
cruited. At a public meeting held at the court house, at that place, in
pursuance of the governor s proclamation, a number of young and single
men enlisted in conformity to prevailing public sentiment, to fill up the
ranks. When in readiness to move the army was transported by canal
boats to the scene of duty and prospective engagement. Arriving at the
Junction, the point at which the Side-Cut diverged from the main canal,
the forces debarked and were detailed for service. It is traditionally cur-
rent that Governor Wright dispatched Hon. John B. Nees, of Cass town-
ship, as a representative civilian, to the scene, to confer with Colonel
Dodd on the imminency of the situation and that, in their conference,
when Dodd asked Nees if he thought there was really any danger of the
troops being attacked or challenged to an engagement, Nees replied, by
innuendo, that he had observed along the way from Poland down to the
reservoir about every man along the roadside was engaged in cleaning
out his rifle, all of whom, when asked what they were going to do, uni-
formly answered by saying that they were going hunting, that squirrels
were reported plentiful down about Birch creek reservoir.
    Hon. Charles Denhy, deceased, for many years a very prominent
lawyer of Evansville, minister to China under President Cleveland’s first
term and retained under Harrison’s administration, was a private in the
“rank and file” of this army, a letter from whom indited twenty-six years
ago in reply to inquiries made by the writer, is hereto appended:

EVANSVILLE, IND., June 2, 1882.
    Dear Sir :—I shall answer your questions as nearly as I can very willingly.
My recollection is that the exact date of the encampment at the reservoir was
the day that the Maine liquor law, so called, of 1855, went into effect, which
was in June of that year, I think; but you can get the date accurate from the
records of the secretary of state. I am satisfied, however, that it was on that
day, because the command started with a jug of whiskey, which was ordered
broken by the captain while we were marching on the tow path. Then there
was not a drop to be had by any of the command for ten days.
    My recollection is that the number in this company was sixty. I do not
rememher that any other soldiers than those from Evansville were there. The
young lawyers enlisted freely. They had nothing to do at home, and $1
a day with board was a real godsend to them.
    The whole forces were under the command of General John W. Dodd.

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