OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 699 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <02e901bf0af3$73946920$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio Ohio in war of 1812 --pt 12 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 4:36 PM Subject: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio Ohio in war of 1812 --pt 12 *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Know your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Ohio in war of 1812-- Letter from OSL Genl Simon Perkins to Gov R.J. Meigs Headquarters Portage River 15 miles from Miami January 28, 1813-- Dear Sir; I am now at the place of date to which the army marched on Saturday last from Miami. You will no doubt previous to the time when this will reach you, have heard of the defeat of Genl Winchester at Frenchtown [ River Raisin ]. It will therefore be necessary for me to give you the few particulars which are known here regard to it. I will however, say as I know to be correct that Genl Winchesters movement to FrenchTown was without the advice of Genl Harrison and although it will have a great effect upon the Campaign & to defeat the great objects [illeg] to have been provided by it, yet I think that the men now left and which came & will be easily assembled, will be sufficient to give such an account of themselves as will not be disgraceful to themselves or the Nation. It would be difficult to conceive of a better arrangement of the troops than was made and making by Genl Harrison at the time of the unfortunate movement of Genl Winchester and ad he not gone forward contrary to the wishes of Genl Harrison everything that had been expected of the army of the N.W. would have been realized. I can not account for the conduct of Genl Winchester to any other principals than that he and some of his principal officers thought that taking such an advanced post would be a popular thing in the eves of the nation and that it would be an easy victory and [illeg] although it might be without orders, yet that ought not be sufficient to restrain them when the victory was so easy and the [illeg] to be acquired so great, this would perhaps all have been proper had they taken the necessary precautions, and known the strength of the enemy to have been inferior to their own, but I fancy they were too much impressed with the opinion that Kentucky bravery, could not fall before so inconsiderable a force as Indians & Canadians, & in that way, have done more injury than the same nunmber of men can possibly repair. You may be surprised at my animadverting in this manner in the movement of a detachment of which I have no command, & with whom I had no concern; I have made the statements from motives of duty [& which however I assure you I deem correct] knowing that another call of the militia is soon to be made, & thinking it not improper that the true causes of the misfortune of that detachment should be known to you who as the Chief of the Militia of the State of Ohio are probably now about to order another detachment into the field. I have never been personally acqauinted with Genl Winchester or any of his officers, but they are spoken of in the Army as men of the first respectability of character and honour. The Brigade which I have the honour to Command, I fancy, do themselves no dishonour, and enjoy for this season of the year a good state of health -- I am sir, Respectfully, Your Most Humble Servant, Simon Perkins *********************************************** General And Field -- Officers war 1812-1813. Major General Elijah Wadsworth-- 4Th Division. Ohio Militia Maj. Genl Elijah Wadsworth Q. M. Genl Nehemiah King Ass't Q.M. Genl John Austin Maj Benjamin Fappeno Maj Elisha Whittlesey Maj & Insp. G. Pease Brig Elijah Coleman Chaplain Jonothan Leslie A.A.G. Josiah M. Brown P.F.M. Eliphalet Austin P.W.M. James Hillman Ass't W.M. Fred K. Wadswort Assn't F.M. James Kingsbury Assn't W.M. Israel Robinson Assn't P.F.M. Robert Harper Assn't Q.M. Genl Lewis Hoyt Assn't Dep. W.M. Jas. Quigley Assn't F.M. Wm Ingesol F.M. Eliphalet Austin, Jr Hosp.-Oristes, K. Hawley *********************************************** Brig Genl Robert Lucas --Second Brigade-- Ohio Militia Brig. Genl Robert Lucas Brig. Q.M. Ezra Osbourne Brig. Insp. Wm Rutledge Judge Ad William K. Bond Maj P. D. Butter Capt Jason B. Curtis *********************************************** Field Officers, Staffs Not Given Col A. Butler Col Campbell Col John T. Edwards Col Samuel Finley Col James Mc Pherson Col A. Root Maj Andrew Byerly Maj William Ward Maj Womeldorf *********************************************** General And Field Officers --Staffs not Given-- Genl Wm H.Harrison Brig Genl Edmund Munger Brig Genl Simon Perkins Brig Genl John Wingate Brig Genl Robert Lucas Col Alexander Ewing Col John Fergeson, First Regiment Col Samuel Findlay. First Regiment Col Gano. First Regiment Col William Key, First Regiment Col James Mills, First Regiment Col James Miller, First Regiment Col James McDonald, First Regiment Col Jacob Noel, First Regiment Lieut Col John Riddle, First Regiment Lieut Col Feron Holt,First Regiment Lieut Col Robert Bay, First Calvary Maj Paul F. Butler Maj Wiliam Beatty Maj James Colwell Maj Jerome Holt Maj Thomas Moore Maj George Adams. First Regiment Maj George Edwards, First Regiment Maj Jacob Myers, First Regiment Maj Samuel Connell, First Cavalry Maj Isreal Dawson, First Cavalry *********************************************** Continued in More Letters--- ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:27:32 -0400 From: "Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <02f001bf0af3$bbabea80$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio Stories of Lincoln -- S.J. Kelly Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Sunday, September 26, 1999 2:01 PM Subject: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio Stories of Lincoln -- S.J. Kelly Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley Sept 26,1999 *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley Newpaper Article by S. J. Kelly - Plain Dealer *********************************************** The Tiny Soldier Who Assisted At The Public Levee. On one occasion a little drummer boy, securing leave of absence, accompanied a Sergeant to a public levee that " Old Abe " was holding at the White House. They went early, and when President Lincoln appeared and the handshaking begun, they were not long in reaching him. The tall man, almost a giant in physical proportions, looked down with an amused smile at the tiny drummer boy, who appeared hardly 10 years of age. Grasping the little fellow's right hand, the President suddenly reached out his left, swung the boy off his feet and set him down on a small table beside him. " Aha, my little soldier," he said laughing, " You shall help ' Uncle Abe' review this line today, and if your superior officer objects, why, I'll prolong your leave of absence!" Lincoln asked the boy his age, place of residence, regiment and where he was on duty. Then, as some of the more important officers of the army or navy, members of congress or of the executive departments chanced to pass in the line, the President would gravely introduce his young assistant, with whom they were required to shake hands as well as with himself. When the reception was over, President Lincoln took the boy into his private apartments and introduced him to Mrs. Lincoln. After entertaining him at luncheon, he dismissed him with a brief note to the commanding officerof the hospital where he was then stationed, telling why the boy's leave of absence had been extended. *********************************************** Another Story-- Lincoln' s geniality and williness at all times to hear or to tell a good story were conspicious traits, not always agreeable to some of his able but worried and irritable advisors. One one occasion a sergeant had a squad of men at work unloading supplies from an Ohio river steamboat that in some mysterious manner had made its way from the interior to the coast waters of Virginia. It was a flat bottomed boat, drawing not more then three feet of water when loaded and hardly dampening its plank bottom when light. It was propelled by a horizontal stern wheel, driven by a small upright engine. Boats of that type were common on the Ohio, which runs dry at some seasons. They were known as " Pittsburgers " and were fabled to navigate freely in a heavy dew. The sergeant's men were hard at work carrying rations ashore from this craft when suddenly they stopped and sent up a lusty cheer. A little tuglike steamer had pulled up alongside, and from it stepped a tall, awkward man dressed in rusty black and wearing a napless silk hat. The sergeant recognized the President and saluted. " Your boat is well named, sergeant, " said the later gravely. The soldier was puzzled. He did not know that the steamer had a name and said so. The President took him by the arm and led him back on the tug. There the stern of the " Pittsburger " loomed above them, and on its dirty white surface in tarnished gilt letters a yard long appeared the single word, Mist. " Yes," said Lincoln, " It's very well named indeed, sergeant. All those boats need is a mist, and they'll run anywhere. " Years ago," he continued, " I was attending court in Cairo, Illinois, when the Ohio was so low that all the water there was between its banks was what had spilled over from the Mississippi. Those "Pittsburgers" wre passing and repassing all the time. One night, there came up a little shower that raised the level maybe a half inch. One of 'em got out of the channel, slid ashore and grounded in the mud right beside the courthouse. " It was there the next morning, and I remarked to a brother attorney that the boat was aground to stay. He was from "Egypt" and knew more about "Pittsburgers" than I did. He smiled and said,' You, wait and see.' " There came another shower that afternoon. I heard an engine puffing and looked out the courthouse window. Maybe you'll think I am exaggerating, but there was that boat steaming down the road toward the river, and in two minutes she was back in the Ohio, just as the shower was over. " I expressed my surprise to the judge, but he said that was nothing. If the shower hadn't come up in time, the captain would simply have hired a boy with a sprinkling pot to go ahead. They're great boats, sergeant. Likely as not this one got here by coming across country." President Lincoln repeated this extravageant story without the ghost of a smile. During its recital Secretary Stanton and Generals Halleck and Sherman-- the last named having run up the day before his march through the Carolinas-- who were with the party, had approached the President. General Sherman smilled broadly, but Stanton looked annoyed. The President caught his glance and, with a wink at the others, said, " But maybe you've heard this before, Stanton." " Very likely I have," the secretary grimly responded, " but I would suggest, Mr. President, that General Grant is awaiting us." The gleam of amusement left the Kindly mans eyes. He gravely turned and shook hands with the sergeant and then strode after his companions as they made their way ashore, looking back, he saluted! *********************************************** ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #3 Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:33:02 -0400 From: "Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <02f701bf0af4$80226920$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio The Sinking of the Sultana pt 1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Monday, September 27, 1999 6:35 PM Subject: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio The Sinking of the Sultana pt 1 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley Sept 27,1999 *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Newspaper Article by S.J. Kelly --Plain Dealer Know your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** The Sinking of the Steamship Sultana On April 27, 1865, the Steamship Sultana exploded, burned and sank on the Mississippi River about seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. The 260-foot wooden ship was a civilian steamship carrying mostly military passengers on a contract basis of $ 5.00 per person. More than 1,800 men, women, and children died in the tragedy. Most of the men were Union soldiers on their way home from Confederate prision camps. About 2,400 passengers were on board--six times the ship's legal limit. Ohio lost 791 men that dreadful night, the most of any state. Tennessee was next with 514, while Indiana lost 459 men. Michigan lost 310 and Kentucky 194. Token numbers of men were lost from Virginia, Illinois, Iowa and Pennsylvania. *********************************************** Part 1-- The most terrible steamboat disaster in history was probably the loss of the Sultana in 1865. Some 1,700 returning veterans died --- yet the tradedy got very few headlines. Late in April of 1865, the Mississippi stood at flood stage. Four years of war had ruined many levees and dikes, and in the lower valley the high water was only an incident, and the dominant feeling was one of relief, for the civil war at last was ended. There would be no more fighting, no more destruction. War-time bitterness and sadness might linger, but at least there was peace. The war weary Union soldiers in the South had but one thought. They wanted to go home. Vicksburg had been turned into a repatriation center, and there were gathered thousands of gaunt, worn-out men in faded blue uniforms---Union Prisoners of War-- just released from the horrors of prison compounds like Andersonville, waiting in Vicksburg for transportation to their homes. More than any other soldiers, these were the impatient to get started. Prison Camps in that war were hard places. In North and South alike. Many men died in them of camp diseases, of bad housing, of simple malnutrition. Most of the survivors were little better than semi-invalids. Now their minds had no room for anything but a feverish desire to get North to their mid-western homes, where they could see their families, get out of uniform, and have the rest, care and good food they needed so badly. Most of them would go by river, and as April came to an end, a huge contingent was slated to travel on the Sultana. The Sultana was a typical side-wheeler built at Cincinnati in 1863 for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. She was registered at 1,719 tons and carried a crew of 85, and for two years she had been on a regular run between New Orleans and St. Louis. From war department records it is known that she frequently carried Army personennel up and down the river. One disspatch of March 20, 1864, for instance, shows her carrying a contingent of the Second Missouri colored troops. The Sultana left New Orleans on April 21,1865, on what looked like a regular run. She had from 75 to 100 cabin passengers, and a cargo which included a hundred hogsheads of sugar and a hundred head of assorted livestock. By law, she could carry 375 persons including her crew. She was commanded by Captain J.C. Mason of St. Louis, who had the reputation as a good, careful riverman. On the evening of April 24, the Sultana made her regular stop at Vicksburg to take on passengers and cargo. After she tied up, an engineer made a disturbing discovery: the boilers were leaking rather badly. It was determined to lay up briefly, draw fires, and repair boilers and machinery before going up river to the scheduled stops at Memphis, Cairo, Evansville, Louisville an Cincinnati. The repair gang got to work and the job was done more quickly than had been anticipated. Meanwhile, the Sultana was taking on passengers-- a regular stampede of passengers. A large number of repatriated Union prisoners of war were to go North on this steamer, and the other men were so desperately eager to start that the authorities decided not to make out the muster rolls in advance, as usual. Instead the rolls would be made out on board, after the vessel had left Vicksburg. Boarding the vessel for the voyage home seemed to put new life into the ex-prisoners. Weak as most of them were. they were shouting, singing, and jesting as they came aboard, as lighthearted a crowd as ever came up a gangplank. They came in almost unmanageable numbers, far beyond the Sultana's rated capacity. Army reports do not give the exact number, but apparently it was somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000. In addition, two companies of soldiers under arms came on board. Altogether, there were probably some 2,300 persons on the steamer when the lines were cast off. Naturally, the boat was almost unbelievably crowded. The soldiers were marching onto the hurricane deck, until all available space was filled. They packed the steamer from top to bottom hull, cabins, Texas deck, even the pilothouse. Almost literally, the steamer could not have carried another human being. *********************************************** To be continued in part 2-- ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #4 Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 23:35:39 -0400 From: "Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <02fe01bf0af4$ddf54540$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio War of 1812 Part 19 C Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Saturday, September 25, 1999 2:46 PM Subject: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio War of 1812 Part 19 C Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley Sept 25, 1999 ********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio Know Your Ohio by Darlene E. Kelley ********************************************** War of 1812 -- Continuation Of Ohio Veterens of lake Erie -- Part C Under Commodore --Oliver H. Perry William Webster -- Corporal. Alexander M'Cord -- Private. John Hall -- Private. Har. C. Harrington -- Private. Lewis Vanway -- Private.. John Martin -- Private. Joseph Pomeroy -- Private. John Batis -- Private. Geo. W. Drake -- Private. Jesse D. Elliot -- Mas. Com'dt. John J. Edwards -- Lieutenant. Nelson Webster -- Ac. S. Mr. Robert R. Barton -- Surgeon. Humphrey Magrath -- Purser. Richard O'Neill --Pilot. John B. Montgomery -- Midshipman. John L. Cumings -- Midshipman. Charles Smith -- Midshipman. Sanuel W. Adams -- Midshipman. Robert S. Tatem -- Midshipman. Simeon Warn -- Midshipman. Edward Bridgeport -- Gunner. Peter Barry -- Boatswain. George Southwick -- Carpenter. Willian Woodman --Steward. John Coddington -- Armourer. John Murray -- Cockswain. Lamuel Palmer -- Car. Mate. John Donnelly -- Car. Mate. William Amot -- Bs. Mate. Edward Coffee -- Bs. Mate. George Adams -- Quartermaster. Charles Squires -- Quartermaster. John Gill -- Qr. Gunner. William Chapman -- Qr. Gunner. Hector Holcomb -- Seaman. Charles Dossen -- Seaman. Daniel Bennett -- Seaman. Owen Cathcart -- Seaman. Ebenezer Allen -- Seaman. Henry Davidson -- Seaman. George Platt -- Seaman. John Smith -- Seaman. John Lilley -- Seaman. Edward Martin -- Seaman. Summer Adams --Seaman. George Brown -- Seaman. Thomas Justice -- Seaman. David C. Bonnell -- Seaman. William D. Edwards -- Seaman. Gabriel Henburgh -- Seaman. Benjamin Fleming -- Seaman. James Timmons -- Seaman. James H. Lansford -- Seaman. George Berry -- Seaman. John H. Wingate -- Seaman. James Matthews -- Seaman. James Bowden -- Seaman. William White -- Seaman. Reuben Taylor --O. Seaman. Japhta Southland -- O. Seaman. John Deviney -- O. Seaman. John Anthoney -- O. Seaman. Richard Devaux -- O. Seaman. Ethan Baneker -- O. Seaman. William Robinson -- Landsman. Roswell Hall -- Landsman. Samuel Poole -- O. Seaman. John James -- O. Seaman. Moses Amose -- O. Seaman. Elijah Burdine -- Landsman. John Freeman -- O. Seaman. Edwin Johnson -- O. Seaman. Francis Bogie -- O. Seaman. Nathaniel Sanford -- O. Seaman. Stephen Stacey -- Seaman. Anthony Levery -- O. Seaman. Colin Cobbins -- O. Seaman. Isaac Johnson -- O. Seaman. John Bellamy -- O. Seaman. Bernard Crandle -- O. Seaman . Andrew Norton -- O. Seaman. Francis Cadens -- O. Seaman. Jonathan Ford -- O. Seaman. Peter Diest -- O. Seaman. John Roderick -- O. Seaman. John M. Strebeck -- O. Seaman. John Colston -- O. Seaman. William Kelley -- O. Seaman. John Frank -- O. Seaman. Zephta Wood -- O. Seaman. Dan Kelley -- O. Seaman. John Ewen -- O. Seaman. Franklin Drew -- O. Seaman. Elias Wiley -- O. Seaman. Asael Matthewson -- Landsman. John Bryan -- O. Seaman. John Manuel -- Boy. John F. Miller -- Landsman. William Snow -- Landsman. Israel Bailey -- Landsman. William Newton -- Boy. Jacob Webber -- Qr. Ms. Thomas Kelley -- Qr. Ms. Benjamin Myrick --Seaman. Henry White -- O. Seaman. David Birdsall -- Seaman. John Wharfe -- Seaman. John Haggerman -- Seaman. John Starr -- O. Seaman. Joseph E Smith -- Lieuenant. Jonathan Curtis -- Serg Marine. Henry B. Breevoort -- Capt. Infantry. William Murray -- Private. Freeman West -- Private. London Cochran -- Private. Daniel Maltzbocker -- Private. William Henry -- Private. Samuel Cochran -- Private. Samuel M'Kenney -- Private. Lyman Griswold -- Private. William Gray -- Private. William Blair -- Private. Sanford R. Mason -- Sergeant. Andrew D. Scott -- Corporal. Ezra Younglove -- 2nd Corporal. George Scoffield -- Private. Samuel Hadfield -- Private. Griffin Burnett -- Private. William Hockensmith -- Private. John B. Duncanson -- Private. John Reems -- Private. William Ellis -- Private. John Kelly -- Private. John M'Coy -- Private. Henry Tate -- Private. Roger Kellie -- Private. Bennet Kelcey -- Private. James Bailey -- Private Charles Lyman -- Private. Thomas Miller -- Private . John Osburn -- Private. William Hocker -- Private. Alexander Wright -- Private. Henry Webster -- Private. Charles Harten -- Private. Morris Clark -- Private. George M'Manomy -- Private. George C Titus -- Private. Joseph Morris -- Private. Fredrick Miller-- Private. Fredrick Vantruce -- Private. Aaron Coats -- Private. Joshua Trapnell -- Private. John Bromwell -- Private. John Denton -- Private. John H. George -- Private. David Flagg -- Private. John Felton -- Bs. Mate. Daniel Dobbins -- S. Master. James Fritz -- Boy. John W. Palmer --M. Mate. James Benner --Seaman. Abednego Hayes -- Seaman. George Stockton -- Army Capt. John Heddelson -- Lieutenant. William Ramsdale --Seaman . William Anderson -- Seaman. John Cherry --Qr Gunner. James Coburn -- Army Lieutenant. John Daniels -- Seaman. ******************************************* ******************************************* -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #699 *******************************************