CLOSE OF WAR.
THE presidential campaign of 1864 was decidedly spirited all over Indiana, and into Perry County were sent many leading men of both political parties, speeches being delivered by Thomas Hendricks and William H. English among others. Owing to the absence of so many voters with the army the number of ballots cast was greater by only fifteen than that of four years previously, although there had been some increase in the actual population of both Cannelton and Tell City. The votes polled gave as a result: Lincoln and Johnson, 1,112; McClellan and Pendleton, 1,042; showing that popular sentiment was still with the administration, despite a certain degree of bitterness engendered by the conscription and skillfully nurtured for partisan ends.
Three full companies 293 men were the quota required from the county by the staggering draft of July 18, 1864, and conscription was seen to be inevitable, though strenuous efforts were made, under the leadership of Judge Charles H. Mason, toward raising a bounty fund in Troy Township, where 176 volunteers were called for. While the Springfield was stationed at Cannelton some seventeen men from the vicinity enlisted for gunboat service; and up to the autumn forty-five recruits had been sent to the Twenty-sixth Regiment; ten or twelve to the Thirty-fifth; about fifteen to the Forty-ninth; a dozen to the Fifty-third, and sundry small squads to other commands. But the draft could not be escaped, and late in September 185 men were conscripted, thus distributed among the townships: Troy, 123; Oil, 21; Clark, 19; Anderson, 11; Tobin, 11; Leopold and Union having furnished their proportion.
About this time it became evident and was later acknowledged that through failure in making proper reports to headquarters of all her recruits under the last few calls, Perry County had not received her full credit for men in service, so the omissions were corrected, and some few others similarly discovered were beneficially rectified. The men conscripted went to New Albany during October and were assigned to various regiments. The final call of the war for troops, December 19, 1864, met with but meager response, another draft being foreseen, though the liberal bounty offered 640- had its effect in sending some men to the old regiments, as it was felt that Sherman’s March to the Sea was the beginning of the end.
About thirty-five men enlisted in Company I, of the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Regiment, mustered in squads during February, 1865, William H. Kyler becoming second lieutenant when regimental organization was effected March 6, at Indianapolis. By the draft of this same month at Jeffersonville, 44 men were conscripted from Troy Township, 19 from Clark, 17 from Oil, 8 from Leopold, the remaining townships having fully cleared themselves. But few of these entered actual service, owing to the speedy close of the war, but they were accredited to Perry County, placing her upon the honour roll of fifteen among Indiana’s ninety-two counties which filled every call, besides her excellent record of no less than nineteen Home Guard companies in the Indiana Legion, of which they formed the Fifth Regiment.
Colonel Charles Fournier had maintained his entire command in camp along the river between Rono (Magnet) and Troy, during the autumn months of 1864, on constant guard and patrol duty, a precaution rendered necessary by the appearance on the Kentucky border of guerilla forces with the presumable purpose of crossing the river to aid malcontents in resisting the draft, a pIan of invasion which their own safety required them to abandon. A Confederate force under Major Walker Taylor took possession of Hawesville in December, notifying the Union commander that if left in undisturbed occupancy of that town they would refrain from molesting Cannelton of its citizens. Colonel Fournier met Major Taylor on board the ferry-boat Major Prescott in mid-river to discuss the proposition, but no terms were agreed upon and the interview ended all communication.
On December 23 a troop of marauders headed by William Davidson boarded with their horses the Louisville and Henderson packet Morning Star at the Lewisport landing, twelve miles below Cannelton, shooting four Union soldiers, drowning the negro steward, robbing the passengers of their money and valuables, after which the captain was compelled to take the guerillas to Hawesville, omitting all intermediate landings. Samuel K. Groves and wife (Eliza Huston Huckeby) of Rome, had ninety-five dollars taken from them, while another passenger, Paul Beisinger, suffered the loss of six hundred and ninety-five dollars, Davidson insolently writing out a receipt which he flung in the captains’ face.