OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - And Then They Went West (published 1897) [Part 9] *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 April 24, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Book compiled by Hermon Alfred Kelley 1897 And Then They Went West by D. Kelley 1998 (Part 9) *********************************************** Military ( con't ) Lincoln and Dean returned to Kelley's Hall about midnight and reported that they found no trace of fires, or foot tracks in the snow near Middle Island, and that there was no danger to be apprehended from that quarter. On the following day, Mr.Stancel and D. K. Huntington were sent to Put-in-Bay to obtain information, with instructions to proceed as far as Point au Pele' Island, if found necessary. One of them returned that evening and reported having met Mr. Price of " Pelee" Island who had told them that there was no army on the island, nor had there been any. Mr. Price evidently was considered a reliable authority. On receipt of this report, the guards were called in, and the company dismissed. It had been under arms from January 15th to 22nd inclusive. This was not their first experience in camp for they had spent a week in drill at Toledo encampment in Sept.,1863. Soon after this, at the request of Colonel Smith, in command of the United States army post in Detroit, Captain Webb detailed Hamilton Hays and Morris Lincoln to follow a gang of thirty rebels who had crossed the ice at Detroit. During the absence of Hays and Lincoln, Captain Webb went to Sandusky. During his absence from the island, another message arrived from Colonel Smith stating that a rumor had reached him that the rebels had concealed a cannon on the Canadian shore and that he had already sent three different men who had been unsuccessful in their search for it. However, he wanted a further search to be made by some one from the island. On the return of Hays and Lincoln, Hays was set across the ice to Canada and Lincoln returned to Detroit. Hamilton Hays must have been a man of exceptional qualificaions for the work, for he was successful in locating the cannon. His report was forwarded to the United States authorities in Washington who took up the matter with the Canadian government with the result that the gun was seized and dismounted. It seems that Hays found the gun mounted on board a small sailing vessel, the schooner Montreal of Kingston. She had a crew of sixteen men, who professed to be wood choppers awaiting the opening of navigation to go up the lakes. A tale that was manifestly absurd. Hays was offered a job but refused, and returned as fast as possible to the island with his report, which was sent by Captain Webb to General Terry by whom it was sent to General Hinzelman in command of the department of Ohio, who sent it to the United States Secretary of War at Washington and within ten days, the vessel was taken possession of and the men arrested by the Canadian authorities. On April 24,1864, Fredrick Kelley died. He was a member of Company E and on Monday, April 25th, he was buried, the company attending the funeral in uniform. The first sad ceremony for the company. On this same day, orders came for the company to join the United States army for one hundred days' service. Great excitement ensued on the island, for there was some unwillingness on a part of a number of the company to leave the island unprotected in case of a rebel raid from Canada. Orders came on May1,1864, for the company to report at Sandusky on the following day at 10:00 A.M. On May 2nd, about sixty members of Company " E" went to Sandusky and were quartered temporarily in the mayor's office and commercial rooms in nearby buildings. No better idea can be given of the events of the succeeding days than to quote from the diaries of Jerry Dean and George Bristol. Mr Dean, May 3rd Tuesday; "Great excitement in the company about substitutes and the duce to pay all around. No rations furished yet. Plenty of grumblers about." Dean , May 4th Wenesday; " No orders received for the Battalion to do anything yet. Wife came over to town. I went home on the Gazzelle after Queen left. --Bristol, May 4th " In Sandusky all day, first drill. When Queen went back I bid good bye to wife." Dean, May 5th--" I went back to Sandusky on Queen in morning," Bristol, May 6th "Received orders this P.M. for Battalion to go to Camp Chase Columbus next Monday. Leave for home in morning." Dean,May 7th; " The company went home on steamer Parsons this A.M. Met the Queen near Marblehead and took off ten men returning from furlough. Two days' rations ordered for Monday morning." Bristol--May 7th; " Came home on the steamer Parsons, at home all day. Order came to detach the company from13 Battalion." May 8th --"At home all day" The company remained on Kelley's Island until the 20th. On this date the company was sent to Johnson's Island and was mustered in for 100 days or less, pitching their tents on the west end. The island was utilized as a site for a prison for officers of the Southern Army. Every effort was made to fill the company, a bounty fund had been raised and bounties were paid to outside men to fill the vacancy of 100 men. In the meantime it was represented to Mr. Bristol that as Webb was a much older man and had been the companies Captain for a long time, it would be the proper thing for him to him to resign his position in favor of Mr. Webb, which he did accordingly on May 25th Captain Webb enlisted as first Lieutenant of the company. Everybody hoped that the company would be flled to its quota, in which event, the officers were to be the same as they had been on the island with a few minor exceptions. In the meantime, Mr. Bristol and Mr. Lang remained on the island awaiting developments. On May 28th they returned to Johnson's Island. Ninteen more men joined the company that day but still it was short its full number. On May 29th the company was filled and Bristol and Lang joined the company taking their old rank of 1st and 2nd Lieutenants, while Webb assumed the Captaincy, as before. The company remained on Johnson's Island awaiting orders until Monday June 6th when they started for Washington and the front, as Company K--130th Regiment O. N. I. Before they left, the steamer Gazelle arrived with many relatives and friends to bid the men farewell. It is not my purpose to follow the fortunes of the company at the front. Suffice it to say that they were under fire a greater part of the time near Petersburg at the seige of Richmond and when their time was up, the regiment the company was in, was sent to Toledo to be mustered out. They arrived there September 12th. The company was kept in camp awaiting the arrival of the mustering officer and paymaster. On Saturday September 17th the Regiment was furloughed till the following Monday and about 30 of the Island men started for home. They left on the 4:40 P.M. train and arrived in Sundusky at 8:00 P.M. and left in a sailboat for the Island, where they arrived about midnight. Sunday was spent very happily and the men were ready to start to Toledo on Monday. When the Queen arrived,she brought a telegram stating that the Company would be mustered out on Tuesday. At six P.M. Monday September 19th, the men boarded the Island Queen bound for Toledo---arriving at Middle Bass, she landed at the Wherle dock along side the Steamer Parsons. No sooner was the Queen made fast than she was boarded by a company of about thirty-five men, whose leader demanded immediate surrender. Taken completely by surprise and having no weapons of defense, there was nothing to do but to submit quietly. After being held aboard the Queen for an hour or two, the men were allowed to go ashore and soon after, the two boats departed. The Parsons had been captured by this same company, most of whom, boarded her at Amherstburg on the Detroit River, where the Parsons had stopped for passengers. The boats disappeared in the darkness. The Queen was scuttled and sank in shoal waters not far from the Bass Islands, on Chick-a-no-lee-reef. The Parsons proceeded to Sandusky Bay, where the rebels hoped to capture the U.S. gunboat Michigan which lay anchor near the Rebel prison on Johnson's Island. A plot had been made to drug the Michigan's crew,so as to render them helpless to defend themselves. But this was discovered in time and the Michigan's Commander warned, so that when the Parsons arrived off the mouth of Sandusky Bay about midnight, the signals that the rebels had agreed upon were not made. Becoming suspicious that their plans had gone amiss, the raiders turned the Parsons toward Detroit and crowed her at full speed, probably expecting pursuit by the Michigan. The Parsons was abandoned in the Detroit River and the Rebels escaped into Canada. Burleigh was captured later, being extradited from Canada and taken to Cleveland for trial, but for some reason, was sent to Detroit for imprisionment, where he escaped into Canada and eventually to England, he lived until 1914. His second in command, Captain Beall was captured later, while attempting to blow up a railroad bridge near Buffalo. He was hung. Beall has been generally regarded to have been the leader of the party. But let us return to the men at Middle Bass. On Tuesday morning, September 20th, at day break they went across the bay from Middle Bass to Put-in Bay and after dinner, sailed for Kelley's Island on the sloop Gazelle, with a large number of men and women. On Wednesday September 21st at 4:00 P.M. the men again started for Toledo , going to Sandusky on the tug General Burnside and by train to Toledo where they arrived at 9:00 P.M. On September 22nd the company was mustered out and most of them left for the Island on the sloop Coral. Lieutenant Lang remained in Toledo to draw the pay for the company. In the meantime the Island Queen and had been raised and taken to Sandusky for repairs. The fate of the Parsons was not known for several days and she was daily expected at the islands to make a raid upon them. The excitement ran high and valuables were secreted again. Every steamboat that approached the island, filled them with fear until her peaceful character became certain. It was thought at the time, that the Parsons would make other captures and possibly a fleet of rebel commanded ships would raid the shores of Lake Erie. Imagine their relief, when authentic news of the Parsons arrived. Dean's diary says:"on Sunday afternoon September 25th,1864, the Queen came from Sandusky for the first time since repairing the rebel damages. Captain Webb and Lt. Lang arrived home.