Ohio History Journal

30       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

 

HOLMES COUNTY REBELLION--FORT FIZZLE

 

J. R. VANCE

I was born in a log cabin situated in Knox Town-

ship, Holmes County, Ohio, almost three-quarters of a

century ago and have lived here on the farm ever since.

My information in regard to the events I am about to

narrate comes from various sources. I heard my father

and mother discuss events as they had happened. As I

grew older I began to ponder on these discussions and

to ask questions. Many times I had them live over

again those stirring times, and breathlessly I listened

and wondered.

My recollections of those troublous times began

early in '63. The wives of soldiers at the front used to

come to our cabin to sit by the old fireplace and seek

sympathy from my mother. I have seen them crying

as if their hearts would break, and heard them say, "We

will never see our husbands again." I had other sources

of information besides that of my parents. I had the

story of Isaac Tipton, deputy-provost marshal, when he

and Provost Marshal Colonel James L. Drake were dis-

armed at Napoleon (now called Glenmont) and given

so many minutes to leave. Other people have told me

what they saw and heard.

But I have not depended solely on the testimony of

others. I was at "Fort Fizzle" after its capture. The

soldiers were still there. I will tell more about that later

in my account. I have the story of two eye-witnesses,

two boys who followed the troops, carried the guns of

two foot-sore boys in blue, and kept in sight during the

fight with the rebels.

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Fort Fizzle                31

The story of the Holmes County Rebellion became

nation-wide. I have traveled in many states of the

Union and many, many times when I was introduced as

a resident of Holmes County, I have been asked, "What

do you know about Fort Fizzle?" Recently I was travel-

ing in Kansas. The train had stopped at Hutchinson

for breakfast, An old soldier came into the car and sat

beside me. After we had exchanged commonplaces, he

asked me where I was from. I told him I was from

Nashville, Holmes County, Ohio, and he put the ques-

tion to me. He was a veteran of the 11th Michigan.

I saw the cannon that the rebels thought they could

work wonders with. It was called the "Baby Waker."

My sources of information are authentic. Some people

have argued that there wasn't any Holmes County Re-

bellion; that there wasn't any organization of the

"Knights of the Golden Circle." But facts are stubborn

things and cannot be set aside. Howe's Historical Col-

lections of Ohio, copyrighted in 1888, has this to say:

"It was a time of intense excitement, just at the open-

ing of the Vallandigham campaign. The air was full

of rumors and it was nearly impossible even at that time

to obtain correct details. What we possess is so con-

tradictory that any further investigation would yield no

satisfaction." Those who had taken part in the rebel-

lion were trying to banish into oblivion all the tragic

events they had passed through. They were ashamed

to be called "Knights." They wanted to forget it;

hence they would not give any information that would

line them up with the organization. Several foreigners

belonged. Their leader was a Frenchman. After the

rebels were routed, he left the country. Several people

from Holmes County belonged.   Some were coerced

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32      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

into joining; others joined to resist the draft. But most

of the people of the County were loyal to the Union;

and according to the population Holmes sent more men

to the war than any other county in the state. Other

counties were to join with Holmes in putting over the

program of the "Knights of the Golden Circle." Joshua

Crawford in his history of Nashville and western

Holmes County, which was published in 1904, has this

to say: "It is my opinion that had certain agitators

from Millersburg, and others from Wayne, Coshocton

and Knox Counties been kept away, the west end of

Holmes County would not have to bear the stigma of

the so-called Holmes County Rebellion.   If these

cowardly counsellors had been as wise before it occurred

as they were afterwards, much trouble would have been

avoided."

This question has been asked many times: What was

the origin of the "Knights of the Golden Circle" and

what were they seeking to accomplish? Lossing's His-

tory of the United States has this to say: "The Golden

Circle had a radius of sixteen degrees of latitude and

longitude, with its center at Havana, Cuba. That circle

included the Slave-Labor states of our Republic. It

reached north into Pennsylvania and Ohio, and south-

ward to the Isthmus of Darien. It embraced the West

India Islands and those of the Caribbean Sea, with a

greater part of Mexico and Central America." The

plan of Messrs. Buchanan, Mason and Soule was the

purchase of Cuba if possible. If not, the acquisition of

it by force. These men were ambassadors at London,

Paris and Madrid. They were the authors of the

famous "Ostend Circular." Some there were who felt

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Fort Fizzle                33

that they must have Cuba and the other islands of that

tropical region, with Mexico and Central America, and

then sever the Slave-Labor and Free-Labor states of the

Republic, making the former a part of a great empire,

whose corner-stone was to be human slavery. A secret

association known as the "Order of the Lone Star," and

another subsequently organized as its successor, whose

members were called "Knights of the Golden Circle,"

were formed for the purpose of corrupting the people

and carrying out the iniquitous design of the Order. The

latter played a conspicuous part in the Civil War which

broke out in 1861, as the secret friends and efficient al-

lies of the conspirators, who were making open war on

the Republic.

Rumors were plenty in Ohio. There were many

southern sympathizers all about us. The "Copperheads"

began to loom on the horizon. They were to organize

and strike silently, deadly, swiftly. They hated the

"Black Abolitionists" with a bitter hatred. Then came

the organization of the "Castle of the Knights of the

Golden Circle" in Holmes County. Times were very

uncertain. The South was looking towards Washing-

ton.  Southern troops were planning to invade the

North. They were jubilant. Their cause seemed to be

on the ascendency.  Gettysburg hadn't been fought.

Vicksburg had not surrendered. April 13, 1863, Gen.

Burnside had issued his famous Order No. 38 forbid-

ding seditionary speeches. Vallandigham had made his

inflammatory speech at Mt. Vernon, O., June 10th. The

Draft had been called. All these added more fuel to

the flame which burned more brightly every day.

Vol. XL--3.

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34      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Such were the conditions in the spring of '63. My

father was a Democrat, but not a "Copperhead." He

was past forty-five, so was not eligible to enlistment.

One evening a neighbor came and called him out and

said to him (this was told me afterwards): "Vance,

have you heard of the 'Knights of the Golden Circle'?"

"I have heard vague rumors," said my father, "but did

not give them much thought. What about it?" "We

feel that the South is going to win, and it is our duty to

help them in every possible way. This is our plan. We

have organized here in Holmes County and are going

to receive help from Wayne, Knox and Coshocton

counties, and at a preconcerted signal to interfere with

supplies for the Union army, encourage soldiers to

desert, spread distrust of the Government, refuse to re-

ceive greenbacks as legal tender for debts, and incite

resistance to such draft as the President may be com-

pelled to lay. And lastly at a given signal, arise in our

might and burn the buildings of every 'Black Abolition-

ist' and hang him to the nearest tree. We want you to

join and help us, because if you don't you will be one of

the first to dangle from a tree."

My father was "slow to anger and plenteous in

mercy," but that night he rose in his wrath and told his

neighbor(?) to go to the place where the devil and his

angels hold forth, and if he ever approached him again

and mentioned that subject, he would shoot him so full

of holes that he wouldn't make a good pepper-box. And

to be able to carry out the threat he purchased a pepper-

box revolver. (We find that kind of a revolver in the

curio shops now.) He was a "Black Abolitionist" after

that.

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Fort Fizzle                35 The Rebels established headquarters about a mile and a half south of Napoleon, (now called Glenmont) in Richland township, in the southwestern corner of Holmes County. Knox township joins it on the north. They had an old stone house (see picture taken in 1928) for their headquarters, for which this old stone house

was admirably adapted. There was a spring of spar- kling water in the cellar and an underground passage leading out into the orchard, also one leading to the barn. Just south of the house was the old stone fence, capped with rails, and now partly torn down. Between the house and fence are large rocks, mak- ing fine hiding-places. Solomon Tipton and a neighbor of his crept up to an old stone school-house one night and looked through a crack in the wall and saw and heard several would-be knights sworn in. They heard

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36      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

them take the oath to stand by the Confederacy and to

carry out in full all orders coming from headquarters

and if they failed to do so, they were to be quartered and

scattered to the four points of the compass.

Later Dave Tipton crept under the same school-

house and through a hole in the floor heard the con-

spirators plotting and planning to carry out the purpose

for which they were organized, and particularly that

part of the diabolical plan to burn out the "Black

Abolitionists" and hang them to the nearest trees. This

was to be done as soon as there were enough Knights to

carry it out. Tipton crept away with his heart burning

with revenge, for his father was one of the doomed

men. He lost no time in hunting up his brother, Isaac

Tipton, deputy provost-marshal and telling him all he

had heard.

Isaac Tipton immediately notified Colonel James L.

Drake, provost-marshal of this district, and then things

began to happen. My uncle, Judson L. Hughes, was en-

rolling officer for Holmes County. The Knights caught

him, took his enrolling papers and destroyed them and

treated him roughly. The two marshals, Drake and

Tipton, went to Napoleon to arrest some deserters and

stirred up a hornet's nest. Napoleon is not like Rome

sitting on her "Seven Hills" but lies in a valley with the

hills surrounding it. At the top of the highest hill, to

the south, was where the rebels had headquarters. Let

me say at this point that Glenmont is the name of the

village now, and it lies in a beautiful and romantic spot.

Its citizens are as fine a class of people as you will find

anywhere, -- none better. The neighbors are the same.

Glenmont means glens and mountains, and the village

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Fort Fizzle                37 sits like a sparkling gem surrounded by the everlasting hills. Looking at it from the hilltop one could hardly realize that grim tragedy stalked abroad and that men were ready to fly at each other with the hangman's noose and with fire. A few days before the provost-marshal and his as- sistant went to Napoleon to arrest deserters, Major R.

W. Liggett went down one evening to where the rebels were holding forth and tried to get them not to resist the draft, to give up their deserters, disband and go home.  The Major estimated the number of men gathered there were about three hundred. They re- fused his request. Then Drake and Tipton appeared on the scene and arrested five deserters, hustled them into a wagon and got ready to start on the journey to

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38      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

Wooster. But they didn't start. Just then from the

hillsides and ravines a lot of men came rushing towards

them, surrounded them, cocked their guns, pointed them

at the officers and demanded the release of the prisoners.

Drake refused and told them they were disloyal to the

Union and would suffer the penalty, and demanded that

they let them go with their prisoners. "Never!" they

shouted. "We'll see you in hell first. Drop your guns,

unload your prisoners and get out of here. We will give

you just two minutes to get going and if you come again

you are dead men."

They dropped their guns, lashed their horses into a

run and vowed that when they did come back they would

be the winners. The troops were called and the word

was secretly passed around to the "Abolitionists" and

all loyal to the Union to stand firm and not be afraid

for the rebellion would be quelled. This account of the

arrest of the deserters was given to me by Isaac Tipton

who has long since gone to his eternal reward. In a day

or two the word went round that the troops were com-

ing. My father started to go to Mt. Holly (now called

Brink Haven) to mill and had to pass near the rebels'

rendezvous. A friend of his, who had been unwillingly

persuaded to join the "Castle" stopped him and wanted

to know where he was going. My father told him and

he said, "Vance, you and I have been friends a long time

and I hate to see you punished for your loyalty to the

government. They thought you would join with them,

but I knew better. I would advise you to turn around

and go home and stay there and keep quiet, for you are

a marked man and you will be one of the first to swing.

Men from Wayne, Coshocton, and Knox counties are

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Fort Fizzle                39

coming to help with this hellish work." My father's

reply to this neighbor was this: " 'Tis true that we are

friends and as such I am going to give you this advice.

Keep out of this. Let it alone, for a handful of men,

even if they number two thousand or more cannot defy

the Union and get away with it. In a few days the

troops will be here and great will be your defeat." My

father went on to mill and was not molested.

The troops came in a few days. (See official ac-

count.) My father hauled a wagon-load of them from

Lake Station to Nashville. T. G. Beatty, a citizen who

knew the country, having been raised in the neighbor-

hood, was called on to pilot them to the Fort. Two

boys, Joseph Harris, and Delno Remington, both living,

were sitting on the fence at the old Cross school-house

which is about half way between Nashville and Glen-

mont, and as the troops passed they called to these boys

and asked them to go with them and carry a gun apiece.

They fell in with the soldiers, shouldered a gun apiece

and marched valiantly along in the rear. When they

neared the place where the rebels were supposed to be,

they were relieved of the guns and were ordered to stay

back out of range; but boylike, they got close enough to

see the fight. When the troops opened fire on the in-

surgents, they ran like a lot of ants, or seemed to fly

like a flock of quail when flushed. Harris and Reming-

ton camped with the soldiers that night in the grove by

the old Workman house (see picture) and helped eat

the hardtack and bacon.

Daniel J. Ryan in his History of Ohio, Century,

1912, in Vol. 4, page 226, has this to say:

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40        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

Open and organized violence toward the Government draft,

and the protection of deserters from the Union Army, again oc-

curred in Ohio in June, 1863, in Holmes County. In this in-

stance the resistance was far more serious and formidable than

in Noble County. It took the form of a fortified camp, occupied

by nearly a thousand armed men with four small howitzers. Gov.

Tod on the 16th issued a proclamation urging the resistants to

disperse and render the obedience that all good citizens owed to

the laws of their country, but this was unheeded, and it took a

detachment of the military, under Colonel Wallace of the Fif-

teenth Ohio, to suppress the miniature rebellion. After some

skirmishing and firing on both sides in which two of the resist-

ants were wounded, the band dispersed. On June 18th prominent

Peace Democrats visited the camp and urged a cessation of their

foolish resistance. The ringleaders were arrested but nothing

was done to them. They were all from the region in which Val-

landigham's famous speech was made, and it seemed folly to

punish severely the misguided followers of his eloquent advice.

But it only emphasizes the truth of President Lincoln's reason

for removing the "wily agitator" who encouraged such action.

Ryan says there were nearly a thousand armed men.

Liggett and Drake said about three hundred. The of-

ficial request for troops says the number was 700 to 900

collected together. A lot of them had got cold feet and

deserted when they found the troops were coming.

"Their leader, he got panic struck,

And said he'd been mistaken,

And told them, 'Run with all your might

And try to save your bacon'."

After the defeat, a number of scouting parties were

sent out and when they would capture a rebel, he was

made to get down on his knees, put his hand over his

heart and take the oath of allegiance to the state and na-

tional government, after which he was allowed to travel.

Early in the morning of the 18th of June, a neighbor

Knight came rushing into our cabin, all out of breath,

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Fort Fizzle                41

with face ghastly pale, and wanted my mother to hide

him. He had come thinking my father could help him

to evade arrest and punishment. He said the soldiers

were after him and he was in dire straits. My mother

put him behind a door that was near the corner of the

kitchen so that when pushed back, it struck the opposite

wall and left room for a man to squeeze in. She was

mixing bread and put the dough-tray in front of the

door and steadily kneaded away. I could hear his teeth

chatter like castanets. I went out to the front gate

where I could see up the road, and sure enough, there

came the soldiers, four of them, with knapsacks on their

backs, haversacks by their side and guns on their

shoulders. As they came by the gate where I stood, I

expected to see them turn in. But they paid no atten-

tion to me, the gate or the cabin, but swung on towards

Nashville. They hadn't seen the rebel, but he had seen

them. By and by he slunk off home. After the bread

was baked my father hitched to the spring wagon,

loaded up with provisions, and took me along to Fort

Fizzle. From henceforth that was to be its name. We

got there and found the soldiers camped on the Work-

man place. Col. Wallace had established headquarters

in the Workman house shown in the picture. It still

stands and is used for a storehouse now. It is but a

short distance from the "Old Stone House." We stayed

that day, picnicked with the "boys" and saw some

prisoners brought in.

My story is told. I have not exaggerated but have

written what I have heard and seen. Nothing was set

down in malice. I have not mentioned names of the

insurgents. "Let the dead past bury its dead" and the

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42       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications past with its mistakes be forgotten. The facts will al- ways remain. We know the sins of the fathers did not descend to their children, for their sons and daughters have made good. And Holmes County, named after Major Holmes, a gallant young officer of the war of 1812, who was killed at the battle of Mackinac, has re- deemed herself, and her people are loyal citizens of the greatest Republic on earth.

The following poem was written in 1897 by a dear old lady friend of mine who is too modest to allow her name to be used. They lived near Fort Fizzle and she told me one of the scouting soldiers took dinner with them. After dinner he said, "You have given me a fine dinner for which I am thankful. Now I am going to give you some grub I carry in my haversack," and he brought forth a handful of the much abused hardtack. Rumor said the soldiers abused the citizens. No loyal

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Fort Fizzle                     43

citizen was abused. Arresting a man for treason was

abuse.

FORT FIZZLE

From whence the name Fort Fizzle

I will tell you if you like,

Some poor men would not be drafted,

And determined on a strike,

And they struck, for sure they did;

Lincoln's soldiers came to see them

And Fort Fizzle ran and hid.

How they ran--the brave three hundred--

How they vanished from all sight--

Over stone walls--through the mill-dam--

Through the woods, with all their might,

Few were captured, such their fleetness,

Some to France returned in haste,

And their camp was all deserted,

And their rations went to waste.

(The cellar of the stone house had a plenty.)

When Lincoln's soldiers reached the stronghold,

Much rejoicing did ensue,

Amongst the people who were loyal

And who always had been true.

When they came with bulging baskets,

Filled with good things nice to eat

And thus besieged the soldiers,

Till they were driven to retreat.

Soon they all went to Columbus

To the camp from which they came,

And all was quiet on the "Black Creek"

Dear old Holmes had earned her name.

Art is long and time is fleeting

But "Fort Fizzle" ne'er will fade

From the maps, nor from our memories,

While remain sunshine and shade.

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