Ohio History Journal

44 Ohio Arch

44 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

SOME "INTERESTING PARTICULARS"

BY THE OHIO STATE JOURNAL REPORTER

In a communication of considerable length entitled,

"The Holmes County Rebellion--Interesting Particu-

lars," a correspondent of the Ohio State Journal re-

ported to that paper a news story which it published un-

der the date of June 22, 1863. It contains the names

of a number of participants in the uprising and reads

in part as follows:

CAMP NEAR WOLF CREEK,

WALLACE EXPEDITION, June 18, 1863.

Editor Journal: I have at length arrived at the "seat of war,"

among the Wolf Creek hills of Holmes County--a most misera-

ble country--and although the God of nature most evidently

designed it as a habitation for wild beasts, yet with a few hon-

orable exceptions, it is inhabited by men more "wild and fierce

than they." They are ignorant and superstitious, and are led

by an unprincipled set of politicians, who reside in this and ad-

joining counties. They freely confess that they are secessionists

--that they belong to a secret oath-bound association, and are

pledged to carry out certain objects, prominent among which is

resistance to the Government, even to death.

The origin of the present difficulty was inaugurated on the

5th of the present month. The enrolling officer, Mr. E. W.

Robison, of Loudonville was proceeding in the line of his duty in

Richland Township, when he was attacked by a company of

Copperheads, stoned, and his life threatened if he ever came

back for that purpose. He immediately reported to Captain

J. L. Drake, provost marshal of the 14th District, who promptly

arrested four of the ringleaders. The alarm was given to the

inhabitants, and when on the road, near Napoleon in this county,

he was attacked by sixty or seventy Copperheads armed with

rifles and revolvers. They demanded the immediate release of

the prisoners, and being overpowered he let them go. Not content

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with this, they branded him of being the worst secessionist in the

country and swore they would shoot him if he did not get down

on his knees and take the oath of allegiance; and further, that

he never would come back into their township in his official ca-

pacity. Several guns were cocked and pointed at him, but he

informed them that they had the power to murder him, but they

could not intimidate him, or force him to swerve from his duty

as an officer. After endeavoring in vain to force him to swear,

they desisted, and after warning him, on the peril of his life,

never to come back again they suffered him to proceed.

Captain Drake at once reported the facts to Colonel Parrott,

provost marshal general, who ordered Colonel Wallace, of the

15th Regiment, O. V. I., to proceed to the disaffected district with

force sufficient to quell the disturbance and enforce obedience to

the laws. His force consisted of portions of different regiments

at Camp Chase, the greater number being the 3rd Ohio, the

Governor's Guards, commanded by Capt. Bunker of the 88th

Ohio, a company of Sharp Shooters from Camp Dennison, a

squad of 20 Squirrel Hunters from Wooster, and a section of

Capt. Neil's Battery, numbering in all 420 men.

Early on the morning of the 17th they landed at Lake Sta-

tion, on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad,

twelve miles from Napoleon (now Glenmont) where the rebels

were said to be encamped. They proceeded to Nashville, thence

to Napoleon, and when about three miles southeast of that place

they encountered the rebel pickets, drove them in, and threw out

skirmishers. A number of rebels were stationed behind a rude

stone blockade, who delivered their fire and then skedaddled to

the woods. The boys made a charge but could not reach the

main body of the enemy. Two or three persons were taken and

two of the enemy wounded. . . . Squads of soldiers, pi-

loted by good Union men, scouted through the hills, and when

the evening of the 17th came they had secured six persons.

On the same day one of the rescued prisoners by the name

of William Greiner, visited Williamsburg for reinforcements, but

he found those who had counselled them to resistance badly

scared. They told him to go back to the rest and tell them to

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46 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

give themselves up to the authorities, and save the county from

disgrace and ruin. Greiner became exasperated, threatened to

lay the town in ashes, and upbraided them with hollow-hearted

duplicity--stating that they had been the means of getting them

into trouble, and now to save their own necks they were going

to abandon them to their fate. In the evening several influential

men of Williamsburg agreed to appoint a committee of both par-

ties to proceed to the seat of war and make an attempt to adjust

the difficulty. This committee made their appearance in our

camp on the morning of the 18th, and had an interview with

Colonel Wallace. He frankly informed them that it was a very

unpleasant duty for him to bring armed men into their country,

but that the laws must and should be enforced, and he was bound

to make them yield. They appeared to rgret the occurrence and

finally the Colonel informed them that if they would visit the

insurgents and induce them to give up the persons rescued and

the ringleaders who rescued them, and hereafter obey the laws,

he would withdraw the military from their county and leave

them in peace. They agreed to this. . . . I omitted to

state that the Union part of the committee did not go in com-

pany with the others to visit the rebels, but merely acted as a

safeguard to the balance of the committee in visiting the Union

camp.

On the morning of the 19th, Hon. D. P. Leadbetter and

Colonel D. French made their appearance with the four rescued

prisoners and delivered them to Colonel Wallace, together with

one or two of the ringleaders. The names of the rescued prison-

ers are William Greiner, Jacob Stuber, Simeon Snow, Esq., and

Peter Stuber. The names of the rescuers who are now in pos-

session of the authorities, are Lorenzo Blanchard, Peter Kauf-

man, James Still, William H. Dyal, Emanuel Bach, Godfrey

Steiner, and ----- Henderson. Mr. Leadbetter and French

pledged their honor as gentlemen that the balance of the ring-

leaders should be delivered to the authorities, whereupon a de-

tachment of soldiers took the prisoners to Cleveland, and Colonel

Wallace, with the balance of the force, started for Columbus,

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via Warsaw and Coshocton--peace was declared and thus ended

this great demonstration in opposition to law and order.

It must be admitted that this was a formidable outbreak,

and but for the timely assistance rendered by the Government,

and the mild, but firm and judicious course pursued by Colonel

Wallace, it would have led to serious consequences. From the

most reliable information I can obtain, there were between twelve

and thirteen hundred insurgents in the rebel camp on last Sun-

day, where they had two or three speeches and a preacher by the

name of Hastings preached a rebel sermon. They had plenty

of provisions stored in the neighborhood. We found at the

Widow Workman's over one hundred loaves of bread, fourteen

boiled hams, a large quantity of regular army bread and several

crocks of butter, an equal, if not greater amount, at the home of

L. Blanchard, and at several other locations. They had in their

possession four small howitzers, about eighteen inches long,

placed on different hills, which they used for signal guns on the

approach of danger.

It has been rumored that the enrolling officer, Mr. Robison,

had insulted a woman, which caused the excitement. There was

not one word of truth in this statement. In all the negotiations

for peace between Mr. Leadbetter and Colonel Wallace, there

was no allusion made to this as a charge against the officer. Mr.

Robison is an excellent, upright man and a judicious officer, and

one of the wealthiest farmers in that section of the country. He

would scorn to stoop to such an act. This charge originated in

the fertile brain of some ranting Copperhead, to shield them

from the odium which always attaches to acts of outrage such as

have been perpetrated by those connected with this disgraceful

affair.

I am informed by Colonel French (and I have no doubt as

to the correctness of his knowledge), that those in attendance,

armed and ready for resistance, amounted to over nine hundred

men--they were residents of Knox, Coshocton, and Holmes

Counties, also a company of seventy-two men under the com-

mand of a physician near Dresden, Muskingum County. The

men composing this mob, or at least the great majority of them,

although possessing property, are degraded and ignorant, and a

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wily politician can mould them to his will as a potter does the

clay of the earth. They lived in an isolated, wild, and hilly

country, cut off as it were from civilization and a knowledge of

the world, with prejudices strong and passions untamed; it is

no wonder they are almost ungovernable. I wish here to state,

that however culpable the Honorable D. P. Leadbetter and other

leaders of the dominant party of that county may have been in

inflaming the minds of those ignorant people to resistance of the

law, yet I give them credit for their exertions in quelling the

disturbance, and in persuading the ringleaders to give themselves

up to the authorities. I heard the prisoners frequently remark

that it was their party leaders that brought them into this diffi-

culty, and that if they were out of this scrape they would never

go to another political meeting. I predict there will be no more

resistance to the enrolling officer in that county.

A great many rumors gained credence in the country of

the many outrages committed by the soldiers, such as hanging

men on trees, shooting them down in the woods, etc., having not

the least foundation in fact. The soldiers did, in one or two in-

stances, destroy some property, but it was the fault of some of

the residents of that locality. Colonel Wallace paid twenty-five

dollars out of his own pocket for property wantonly destroyed.

It must be expected that more or less damage will be done to

property where there is a necessity to call soldiers. Let the cit-

izens of Holmes and every other county yield obedience to law

and their property and their persons will suffer no injury. The

Union ladies far and near sent wagon-loads of provisions to the

soldiers, consisting of bread, cakes, pies, boiled ham, cheese, but-

ter, eggs, etc., and by their acts of kindness expressed the pleasure

they experienced in having the laws vindicated and justice meted

out to the guilty.

I cannot close this communication without stating that no

better man could have been selected for the command of such an

expedition than Colonel Wallace. He is courteous, mild, and

gentlemanly, but firm and unyielding as the rock of Gibraltar.

He went outside of his lines this morning to meet a large delega-

tion of "Butternuts" who were afraid to come into the lines.