Download Abraham Lincoln and Greensburg, Indiana

“A STRONG
ARDENT
AND
SENTIMENT
IN
FAVOR
OF
”
LIBERTY
Abraham Lincoln and Greensburg, Indiana
CALVIN D. DAVIS
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A
new Honda factory in Greensburg,
Indiana, the county seat of Decatur
County, has attracted wide attention in the
state and in the community. Whenever a
train loaded with new automobiles leaves
the Honda plant, local citizens regard the
event as a welcome relief from reports of
job cuts at area factories. The attention
harkens back to a time when the community buzzed with anticipation about
whistlestop visits by an up-and-coming
politician, Abraham Lincoln. A local Main
Street organization is planning a monument commemorating Lincoln’s visits on
September 19, 1859, and February 12,
1861. The monument brings to mind a
period during which citizens of Decatur
County and its county seat had important
roles in the politics that preceded the Civil
War and in the war itself.
When U.S. Senator Stephen A.
Douglas of Illinois, chairman of the Senate
Committee on Territories, on January 23,
1854, introduced a bill to organize the
territories of Kansas and Nebraska he set
in motion plans for a transcontinental
railroad. Unfortunately his proposal also
began a political storm that culminated
in the Civil War. Dissatisfaction about
the Compromise of 1850 and the KansasNebraska Act led to drastic changes in
the nation’s political parties. The Whig
Party began to fall apart during the 1852
presidential election, and the Democrats
had serious divisions after the KansasNebraska Act passed. A meeting of Whigs,
Democrats, and Free-Soilers in Ripon,
Wisconsin, on February 28, 1854, called
for a new party to demand exclusion of
slavery from the territories and urged that
the party be called Republican. A meeting
at Jackson, Michigan, on July 6, 1854,
adopted that name. Actually, the Republican Party was created by meetings in many
Above: A lithograph depicting Abraham Lincoln returning to his Springfield, Illinois, home
after winning the presidency in 1860. The return home is fictional, as Lincoln did not leave to
campaign for the White House. The same picture was used as a scene of Lincoln returning
home after his debates with U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas.
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LINCOLN AND GREENSBURG
communities in the North. One such
meeting was a convention of Washington
Township’s Democrats in Greensburg on
June 9, 1854. The convention passed a
resolution declaring: “That we as Democrats stand politically as we did in 1849,
in opposition to the further extension of
Slavery and do now believe as we did then,
that Congress should prohibit it in all the
territories and further, that we will vote for
no man for congress who will not endorse
this sentiment, and pledge himself by his
vote and influence to carry out the same
when elected.”
While some men at that meeting
remained Democrats, others began working with former Whigs to organize a new
party. Although an exact date cannot be
ascertained for when the Republican Party
came into existence in Decatur County,
a young lawyer who was present at the
Greensburg convention, Will Cumback,
was elected to Congress from the Fourth
District later that year as an anti-KansasNebraska Act candidate. In Congress
he attracted attention by his part in a
prolonged struggle that ended with the
election of an antislavery congressman
from Massachusetts, Nathaniel Banks, as
speaker of the House of Representatives.
Cumback became one of the vigorous opponents of slavery in the House. Unanimously renominated in 1856 he was,
nonetheless, defeated by Democrat James
B. Foley of Greensburg. In spite of his
defeat, Cumback remained an influential
Republican leader in Decatur County and
in the Fourth Congressional District.
Much happened in 1856 and 1857
to keep attention on the nation’s western
territories. In Kansas there was virtual
civil war. Speaking at his inauguration as
the nation’s fifteenth president on March
4, 1857, Democrat James Buchanan said
that the question of slavery in the territories was really one the Supreme Court
should decide. Buchanan’s views seemed in
accord with Douglas’s support of popular
sovereignty, but when the Supreme Court
two days later announced its decision in
Above: An 1856 cartoon places blame on Democrats for violence perpetrated against antislavery
settlers in Kansas in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Here a bearded “freesoiler” has been
bound to the “Democratic Platform” and is restrained by James Buchanan and Lewis Cass. Douglas and President Franklin Pierce, also shown as tiny figures, force a black man into the
giant’s gaping mouth. Opposite: A Harper’s Weekly drawing of Lincoln comparing his height
with another man on his way to assume the presidency in 1860.
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the famous Dred Scott case, such a position became seriously limited—if not
made impossible. The Court ruled that the
Missouri Compromise had been unconstitutional. Thereafter it was not possible to
restore the compromise by legislation, and
very little room was left for letting inhabitants of a territory determine whether the
territory should be slave or free. Southern
leaders applauded; Douglas was appalled.
A split between northern and southern
Democrats began that finally divided their
party.
In 1858 Douglas campaigned for another term as an Illinois senator. While the
state legislature actually elected senators,
there was a popular advisory vote. Douglas
began speaking in many communities;
when the Republican candidate, Lincoln,
suggested a series of debates, Douglas
accepted. Beginning at Ottawa, Illinois,
on August 2, and concluding at Alton, Illinois, on October 15, Lincoln and Douglas
debated seven times. The most important
debate was at Freeport, Illinois, on August
27. Lincoln asked Douglas how, despite
the Dred Scott decision, he could continue
to urge that popular sovereignty determine
whether a territory would be slave or free.
Douglas replied that “police regulations”
were necessary if slavery was to exist. Only
a legislature could enact such regulations, but there was no power that could
compel it to do so. Douglas’s new doctrine
satisfied many northern Democrats, but
not their counterparts in the South. They
insisted that the Dred Scott decision had
opened the territories to slavery and that
no group acting under the principle of
popular sovereignty could keep it out.
Douglas won the senatorial election, but
Lincoln emerged from the debates as one
of the nation’s most influential Republican
spokesmen.
George W. Rhiver, editor of the
Decatur Republican, did his best to keep
citizens of Decatur County informed
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BLACK HISTORY NEWS AND NOTES
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An 1860 Currier and Ives drawing satirizing the antislavery orientation of the Republican Party’s platform. Abolitionist editor Horace Greeley
(left) grinds his New York Tribune organ as candidate Lincoln (center, riding on a wooden rail) prances to the music. In the background William
H. Seward holds a wailing black infant. At right stand two other New York editors friendly to the Republican cause, Henry J. Raymond of the New
York Times (the short, bearded man holding an ax) and James Watson Webb of the New York Courier and Enquirer.
about Lincoln and Douglas. One can
imagine his excitement when he learned
that both men, while on speaking tours
in September 1859, would pass through
his community. Neither man scheduled a
speech in Greensburg, but their supporters hoped they would make a few remarks
when their trains stopped at the depot on
South Monfort Street.
Douglas spoke in several Ohio cities
in early September, giving his last speech
of the tour on Friday, September 9, in
Cincinnati. Talking for nearly two hours,
Douglas declared that the Democratic
Party stood “firmly by the principle of
non-intervention by Congress with slavery
anywhere, and popular sovereignty in the
States and territories alike.” There was
warm applause, but observers were con-
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vinced he had lost more influence in the
South. On Saturday evening Douglas was
received by admirers at the Greensburg
depot, where a brass band played and “sky
rockets” exploded overhead. A drunken
man kept trying to grab Douglas’s hand
when he gestured during his remarks. The
Republican thought Douglas spoke “feelingly,” but there was little applause from
the crowd. The senator must have been
relieved as his train left Greensburg.
Immediately below its account of the
Douglas visit, the Republican published
a paragraph with the title, “Hon. Abe
Lincoln,” announcing that “the man who
so completely flayed out the Little Giant,
in Illinois last year, will speak in Cincinnati on next Saturday evening. He is
expected to pass through our city on his
way thither. Let our citizens give him a
reception worthy of so great an expounder
of Republican principles.” The newspaper
was wrong about Lincoln coming through
Greensburg on his way to Cincinnati, but
he did pass through on his way home to
Springfield, Illinois. He spoke in Columbus, Ohio, on September 16. The next day
he spoke briefly in Dayton and Hamilton
and made a long address in Cincinnati.
Lincoln did not leave Cincinnati until
Monday, September 19, although he had
an address scheduled for Indianapolis
that evening. He arrived in Greensburg
around 3 p.m. “He was received at the
depot by a large number of our citizens,”
the Republican reported. “Flags were fluttering in the breeze and music from brass
instruments resounded through the air. He
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LINCOLN AND GREENSBURG
made but a few remarks to the crowd as
the cars remained only for a short time.”
It is unfortunate the Republican did not
report what Lincoln said, but probably his
remarks were similar to what he later said
in Shelbyville. The Shelbyville Republican
Banner reported that he noted that as he
traveled through Indiana his thoughts
“were carried back” to the time his father
brought him from Kentucky to Indiana
when he was seven years old. Lincoln
recalled that he was “taught to cherish a
strong and ardent sentiment in favor of
liberty.” He reiterated what he had so often
said: the government could not “endure
permanently half slave and half free,” but
he would not interfere with slavery where
it existed under the Constitution.
As weeks passed and there were more
Lincoln speeches, many Republicans
called for his nomination as the party’s
presidential candidate. The Republican
later claimed that in December 1859 it
became the first Indiana newspaper to
call for Lincoln’s nomination. This claim
may have been true, but the issue that
announced it is missing from the files. The
Republican published everything it could
about Lincoln and his supporters. The
newspaper was especially impressed by a
two-hour speech delivered in Greensburg
by Benjamin Harrison of Indianapolis,
a candidate for reporter of the Indiana
Supreme Court. There were predictions
that the young man, like his grandfather,
William Henry Harrison, would someday
become president.
The most active Republican in Greensburg throughout 1860 was Cumback.
When the Washington Township Republicans met in convention to choose a
township ticket, it was he who acted as
chairman. At the Republican state convention on March 1, he was declared a
presidential elector at large. When the
Republican National Convention opened
in Chicago, he was present as an observer.
“It was my good fortune to be acquainted
with Lincoln personally before he was a
candidate for President,” Cumback wrote
in 1900. He visited Lincoln in Springfield
for a pleasant conversation before going to
Chicago for the convention, which opened
on May 16. Cumback stressed that “ours
was the only state, outside of Illinois, that
on the first ballot gave a solid vote for Lincoln.” Before leaving Chicago, Cumback
wrote Lincoln on May 27 to congratulate
him on his nomination. Lincoln, saying
“better late than never,” responded on June
15. “Mrs. L.,” he wrote, “remembers what
you said about her being Mrs. President,
and she pretends she did not believe a
word of it. She sends her respects to you.”
Closing, Lincoln asked, “How [do] the
signs appear to you?” Lincoln’s letter is
preserved in the Cumback collection in
the Lilly Library at Indiana University, but
the Cumback letter of May 27 and a reply
to Lincoln’s letter of June 15 have not been
found.
While Cumback received more attention than any other Decatur County political leader in 1860, former congressman
Foley and former sheriff Joseph V. Bemus-
daffer quietly took part in one of the great
political decisions of that year. They were
two of the thirteen Indiana delegates to
the Democratic National Convention that
convened in Charleston, South Carolina,
on April 23. Douglas was the strongest
candidate for the presidential nomination,
but southern delegates refused to vote
for him because of his opposition to the
Dred Scott decision and thus denied him
the two-thirds majority necessary for the
nomination. The convention again met
in Baltimore on June 18. Many southern
delegates did not appear and many who
did soon withdrew. The Indiana delegation
claimed that it had voted unanimously
for Douglas forty-eight times. Ten days
later the dissident Democrats nominated
Vice President John C. Breckinridge for
president.
The splitting of the Democratic Party
virtually determined the outcome of the
election, but both parties waged a lively
campaign in Decatur County. The Democrats had a considerable following in the
county’s southern townships, but the Republicans had drawn into their organization most of the former Whig Party, long
The Greensburg Railroad Depot as it appeared many years after the Civil War. This building is
beleived to be the depot at which the trains with Lincoln on board stopped at South Monfort
Street in 1859 and 1861, and which was moved to South Franklin Street in 1865.
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Rival 1860 presidential nominees Lincoln and Douglas are matched in a footrace, in which Lincoln’s long stride is a clear advantage. Both sprint
down a path toward the U.S. Capitol, which appears in the background right. They are separated from it by a rail fence, a reference to Lincoln’s
popular image as a rail splitter.
the county’s strongest political organization. A few Democrats supported Breckinridge. A still smaller group supported
the Constitutional Union candidate, John
Bell. Young men in Greensburg, Milford,
and other towns formed “Wide-Awakes.”
They wore uniforms, carried torches, exploded fireworks, sang songs, and shouted
slogans urging Lincoln’s election. In Decatur County Lincoln received 2,028 votes;
Douglas 1,946; Breckinridge 93; and Bell
20. When Indiana electors of the Electoral
College met in Indianapolis on Wednesday, December 5, 1860, Cumback cast the
first vote for Lincoln.
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When it became clear that Lincoln had
won the election, his followers everywhere
were exhilarated, but enthusiasm was soon
dampened by worry. Secession began with
South Carolina on December 20, Mississippi followed on January 9, Florida on
January 10, Alabama on January 11, and
Texas on February 1. A convention representing these states met in Montgomery,
Alabama, on February 4. Four days later
the convention organized a provisional
government. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi
was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States on February 9, 1861.
On Saturday, January 19, Decatur
County Republicans and Democrats came
together in a mass meeting. John DeArmond, former editor of the Greensburg
Democrat, wanted condemnation of both
southern secession and northern personal
liberty laws that impeded “execution of
the Fugitive Slave Law.” This the meeting refused to do. Instead, it endorsed a
resolution that Fourth District Democratic
congressman William S. Holman had
introduced in the House of Representatives. Holman denied the right of secession
and called for “employment of the army
and navy as the exigencies of the case may
require.” Cumback gave his strong support
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LINCOLN AND GREENSBURG
for Holman, often his principal rival in
the politics of the Fourth District, thereby
winning high praise. The Republican noted
that “Mr. Cumback is not a Constitutiontinkerer; but in the words of the resolutions adopted holds the provisions of the
Constitution ample for the preservation of
the Union, and that it needs to be obeyed
rather than amended.”
While people throughout the country
tried to make sense of the crisis, Lincoln
left Springfield at 8 a.m. on February 11,
1861. The president-elect spoke movingly
to a large group of friends as he boarded
the train. There were brief remarks at Tolono and Danville in Illinois and at the Indiana state line. At Lafayette, Thorntown,
and Lebanon, Lincoln also spoke briefly,
as well as speaking for a few minutes in
Zionsville. Arriving in Indianapolis he
offered remarks in response to the welcome of Governor Oliver P. Morton. That
evening Lincoln spoke from the balcony of
the Bates House, where he noted that the
words coercion and invasion “were in great
use about these days.” He thought that
marching an army into South Carolina
certainly would be an invasion, but asked
if the government insisted on holding its
forts or retaking them, enforcing U.S. laws
and collecting tariffs, or withdrawing mails
where mails had been violated, could that
be called coercion or invasion? He thought
that lovers of the Union who so interpreted the government’s actions were “of a very
thin or airy character.” Lincoln had made
his decision to confront the secession
crisis, and to that decision he consistently
adhered during the next four years.
At 11 a.m. on February 12—his birthday—Lincoln, with his family, secretaries,
and other associates, boarded a special
train. The Indianapolis and Cincinnati
Railroad had assigned a locomotive called
the Samuel Wiggins, named in honor of a
Cincinnati banker who was a director of
the railroad and a strong supporter of the
Union, to Lincoln’s train. Flags, bunting,
and pictures of the first fifteen presidents
of the United States and the presidentelect adorned the train. The railing of the
last car was similarly decorated, and a
gilded American eagle was at the center. In
addition to the Lincoln party, many Cincinnati people were on the train. Cumback
was aboard and doubtless had persuaded
Lincoln to stop in Greensburg. Progress
was about the usual rate—thirty miles an
hour. Every half mile a man appeared with
“the American flag as a signal of all right.”
There was a stop at Shelbyville and then
a stop at Greensburg, probably between
noon and 12:30 p.m.
At Greensburg “the surroundings were
profusely decorated with flags;” Lincoln
was greeted by “an immense and very
enthusiastic gathering.” Artillery “roared”
and a brass band played. As the presidentelect appeared, “a stentorian but by no
means unmusical chorus sang ‘The Flag of
our Union,’” the Cincinnati Commercial
reported. The Chicago Tribune noted that
Cumback introduced the president-elect.
Lincoln told the crowd he had no time to
make a speech. People surrounded the car;
among them were children who had been
dismissed from school. Lincoln shook
Top: In addition to his political career, Will Cumback earned
recognition for his writing ability.
In his 1900 history of Indiana
poetry, Benjamin Parker noted:
“During all these years of public
service Mr. Cumback kept his literary tastes and capabilities alive
and active, delivering lectures and
writing for the press. He has not
written largely in poetry, but his
few poems are of such a hopeful
nature that they leave the reader
happier for having read them.”
Left: At the outbreak of the Civil
War, Douglas spoke out against
secession by the South from the
Union. “There are only two sides to
this question,” said Douglas before
his death from typhoid fever on
June 3, 1861. “Every man must
be for the United States or against
it. There can be no neutrals in this
war; only patriots and traitors.”
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LINCOLN AND GREENSBURG
hands with many of them. Assisted by
friends, the eighty-five year old Reverend
James Blair got close enough to extend his
hand, and Lincoln shook it warmly. Tears
streaming down his face, Blair invoked
the blessing of Heaven on the presidentelect. John Dokes of Marion Township,
who had been a Wide-Awake despite his
age, gave Lincoln “a very nice apple.” The
band played “Hail Columbia” and the
train pulled away. Cumback later told
that Lincoln went to his car, sat down,
and ate Dokes’s apple with relish. The
Republican noted that after the train left
a large crowd appeared at Pemberton and
Hanna’s grocery store, which had reduced
prices for the occasion. The newspaper
noted that most people had been surprised
that Lincoln was better looking than they
expected. “He is not a beauty, but he is
about as good looking as Presidents generally are,” the Republican concluded.
Decatur Countians had witnessed, for
a few minutes, an early stage of one of
the longest and most important journeys
to Washington of a president-elect in the
nation’s history. Lincoln took full advantage of the many opportunities the trip
afforded to speak to the American people.
He spoke briefly in Lawrenceburg about
two hours after leaving Greensburg. As
the train entered Ohio at North Bend a
few minutes later, it passed the tomb of
William Henry Harrison, first governor
of the Indiana Territory. Members of the
Harrison family had gathered at the tomb
to wave greetings to the president-elect.
Lincoln, standing at the rear of the train,
bowed in response. That evening he made
two speeches in Cincinnati. He continued
on his trip for ten more days, addressing the legislatures of Ohio, New York,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He spoke
in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, New York, and
Philadelphia, and he made brief talks from
the train’s rear platform at many depots.
Lincoln strengthened his popular support
wherever he stopped. Always he upheld
This Kimmel and Forster lithograph from New York is a grand allegory of the Civil War in America, harshly critical of the James Buchanan administration, Jefferson Davis, and the Confederacy. In the center stands Liberty, wearing a Phrygian cap and a laurel wreath. She is flanked by the
figures of Justice (unblindfolded, holding a sword and scales) and Lincoln.
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LINCOLN AND GREENSBURG
In artist Louis Maurer’s lithograph Lincoln and running mate Hannibal Hamlin are shown about to destroy a Democratic Party paralyzed by internal dissension. The Republicans ride a locomotive named “Equal Rights” toward a crossing where the wagon “Democratic Platform,” hitched to two
opposing teams, is stalled on the track. Horses with the heads of Douglas and bearded vice presidential nominee Hershel V. Johnson pull toward the
left. A team with the heads of southern Democrats John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane strain toward the right.
Republican policies but tried to refrain
from comments that might exacerbate
tensions. Unfortunately those tensions
grew worse as days passed, focusing more
and more on Confederate demands for
surrender of Fort Sumter in the harbor of
Charleston, South Carolina.
Excitement grew in Greensburg as
news came from Charleston. Tip Kemper, who had been present when Lincoln
appeared in Greensburg on February 12,
wrote on April 10 that an attack on the
fort was expected hourly and that the
Stars and Stripes was “floating from each
tower of the Court House here,” and that
everyone was talking about the “War
Question.” The next day two young men,
James White and Polk Armington, raised
a “Secession flag” from the west tower of
the courthouse. They intended their action
to be a joke, but the flag came down at
once, and “Armington was kicked for his
impudence.” War began at 4:30 in the
morning of April 12 when Confederate
forces commanded by General Pierre G.
T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter.
On April 14 the Union commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered. News
from Charleston reached Greensburg by
telegraph daily. People gathered in groups
on the “Square” to discuss the crisis. They
wondered what the president would do.
On April 15 Lincoln proclaimed the existence of a rebellion and called “forth the
militias of the several States of the Union,
to the aggregate of 75,000” to suppress
the rebellion. The War Department asked
for six thousand troops from Indiana for
three-month service. Everywhere in the
state there was enthusiastic response.
Decatur County men, most of them
from Greensburg and Washington Township, hastened to enlist. They included
men who would ultimately be recognized
as some of the greatest Decatur Countians
of the nineteenth century. Among them
was Cumback. Orville Thomson, historian and journalist, was another. Kemper
was also among them; he would have a
distinguished career as a physician. Twelve
members of the Brass Band, so conspicuous during Lincoln’s stop on February 12,
were the first to go. They left on Saturday
morning, April 20, and a large crowd
gathered to bid them farewell. A larger
group of volunteers left on Monday, April
22. “Their departure was witnessed by the
largest crowd ever convened in Greensburg. Almost every man, woman, and
child was affected to tears,” noted the Republican. The men from Decatur County
were mustered in on April 25, 1861, as
companies B and F of the Seventh Indiana
Volunteer Infantry.
Immediately after Lincoln called for
volunteers, other states seceded—Virginia
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on April 17, Arkansas on May 6, Tennessee on May 7, North Carolina on May
20. Virginia’s secession meant a terrible
danger to the Ohio Valley. What if the
Confederacy should establish control
over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, so
essential to all inhabitants of the valley?
Fortunately, many people of northwestern Virginia opposed secession and were
concerned about access to the Ohio River.
Their attitudes meant an opportunity for
the Union, and the commanding general of the U.S. Army, General Winfield
Scott, was quick to exploit it. He ordered
the commander of the Ohio militia and
other midwestern forces, General George
B. McClellan, to send troops into western Virginia. McClellan sent the Sixth,
Seventh, and Ninth Indiana Regiments
and the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Ohio
Regiments. In Virginia they were joined
by a Virginia regiment that was loyal to
the Union. Later, it became the First West
Virginia Regiment.
The Seventh led an attack on Confederate troops in Philippi. Much of the
fighting centered on a covered bridge that
still stands. The battle began on June 2
and was over by early the next morning.
This battle, the first land battle of the Civil
War, could have been accurately described
as a skirmish, but it was more decisive
than many larger encounters. For a time
the battle determined that the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad remained in Union
hands. Before its three-month term ended,
the Seventh took part in several successful operations. The Seventh and the other
regiments in the campaign did more than
keep a vital railroad under Union control.
In doing so they helped make possible the
secession of the northwestern counties of
Virginia from that state and the creation,
in 1863, of the state of West Virginia.
Their achievements did much to enhance
the reputation of McClellan, who became
commander of the Army of the Potomac.
As the Seventh was en route to India-
A lantern slide from the McIntosh Stereopticon Company of Chicago depicting one of the famous Lincoln and Douglas debates in Illinois in 1858.
The debates occurred in Ottawa on August 21, Freeport on August 27, Jonesboro on September 15, Charleston on September 18, Galesburg on
October 7, Quincy on October 13, and Alton on October 15.
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LINCOLN AND GREENSBURG
large numbers to join regiments recruited
for a few days. Most of them came to
Greensburg, where there were supplies.
While some of the raiders appeared in the
southern part of the county and at New
Pennington near New Point, they left
without a battle. Lewis A. Harding in his
History of Decatur County published in
1915, wrote that the county raised twentysix infantry regiments, and one battery,
almost 2,500 men. Some men enlisted two
or three times; Harding believed that this
meant about two thousand had actually
served. The total casualty list had 251
names. Fifty-eight men died in battles,
six were frozen to death, twenty-two died
in prison, two drowned, and 141 died of
disease.
The Greensburg depot was moved in
Completed in 1860 at a cost of $120,000, the Gothic Romanesque-style Decatur County
1865 from South Monfort to a site on
Courthouse at Greensburg was built of limestone and replaced the original 1827 structure.
South Franklin Street now occupied by the
Greensburg Daily News and there is nothtriumphs and safe return home,” wrote
napolis for discharge, word came of the
ing on South Monfort today to remind
Thomson, who was on that train and in
Confederate victory at Bull Run on July
1904 published a history of the regiment. one of the depot, which is unfortunate.
21. The Seventh’s officers realized that
The Seventh served with great distinc- Some of the most memorable events in
this meant a long war and that regiments
would have to reorganize for longer terms. tion until it was disbanded in 1864. Other Decatur County’s history took place at the
As they reached the Ohio River they began regiments that had companies made up of depot.
Calvin D. Davis, professor emeritus of
planning a regiment that would serve three Decatur County men also gave splendid
history at Duke University, is best known for
accounts of themselves. There were few
years. On September 13 the reorganized
his work with the pre-1914 movement for a
major battles in any of the most imporregiment was again mustered into service
world organization and the codification of
tant theaters of the war in which soldiers
in Indianapolis and at once ordered back
from Decatur County did not participate. the international laws of war. His book, The
to western Virginia. At about 7 a.m. on
United States and the First Hague Peace
Still, the county also experienced within
Sunday, September 15, the train carryConference, won the 1962 Albert J. Bevits own borders harsh aspects of the war.
ing the regiment, three companies of
eridge Award, a prize given by the American
which were from Decatur County, passed Opponents of the war rioted in GreensHistorical Association. Throughout his career
through the Greensburg depot. There was burg on April 25, 1863, with less serious
he has maintained an interest in Indiana
incidents in several smaller communities.
“a large concourse of citizens—fathers,
history. Born at Westport in Decatur County,
mothers, sisters, brothers, sweethearts and When Confederate General John Hunt
Morgan and his raiders came near Decatur he now lives and writes in Greensburg, Indineighbors—who sped them on their way
ana. This is his first article for Traces.•
County in July 1863, men turned out in
with assurance of prayers for their future
FOR FURTHER READING
Basler, Roy P., ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. 8 vols. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953–55. | Will Cumback Collection, Lilly Library,
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. | Harding, Lewis A. History of Decatur County, Indiana: Its People, Industries, and Institutions. Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen,
1915. | Searcher, Victor. Lincoln’s Journey to Greatness: A Factual Account of the Twelve-Day Inaugural Trip. Philadelphia: Winston, 1960. | Thomson, Orville. Narrative of the Service of the Seventh Indiana Infantry in the War for the Union. Baltimore, MD: Butternut and Blue, 1993.
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