The Civil War — 150th Anniversary April 1863

General Henry B. Carrington and his staff had barely completed the move of the offices of the General Military Headquarters into Andrew Wallace’s new building at the corner of Maryland and Delaware Streets when an immense crowd of deserters and straggling soldiers descended on the headquarters. Meeting the President’s deadline of leniency, the men awaited transportation orders. In response to “a great need of bandages and rags” at the military hospitals, a plea was made to the “ladies of the city” to bring old sheets, shirts, and other suitable articles for the dressing of wounds and sores to the Meridian St. Congregational Church. The 529 rebel prisoners at Camp Morton were ordered to be exchanged and after marching to the Depot; they left the city on the Central Railway.
The federal grand jury called to investigate recent acts of resistance to the military draft and the concealment of deserters in Indiana received its charge from Judge Caleb B. Smith who wrote, “Opposition to the Government can assume no form more dangerous than that of secret organizations formed to obstruct the execution of the laws.” Reports of over 200 Copperheads assembling for military drill in Tippecanoe County and a riot between a company of Knights of the Golden Circle and law-abiding citizens in Danville which prompted Gen. Carrington to dispatch 50 cavalrymen and 100 infantry soldiers to prevent any further civil disturbance, added to anxiety among Unionists. However, temperate thought led to a pardon for Private John O. Brown, 3rd Indiana Cavalry, who was under sentence of death for being a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle and inducing soldiers to desert. Gen. Carrington and Gov. Morton, believing the young soldier to have been duped into his actions, asked for a suspension of the sentence.
On the eastern edge of Marion County, Dr. James N. Ray of Cumberland was attacked by five men as he walked to his home from the town’s train depot. He “hallooed ‘murder’” which brought a couple of men from neighboring houses to his rescue. It is believed the assault was aimed at driving Dr. Ray away from Cumberland because of his strong Union views. An excellent school teacher had been driven out a while before “because he and his lady sung Union songs and played American airs in the school exercises.”
On the first Monday of the month, township elections were held. The loyal white men of Marion County were encouraged to vote early and “stay at the polls and watch them.” The Journal warned that the Knights of the Golden Circle “bear watching” and the Copperhead faction of the Democratic Party is “desperately bent on carrying the township election . . . by any means.” There was “positive proof” of forty men coming into Indianapolis from Terre Haute to illegally vote. The Union ticket won handily, although there were numerous quarrels and fights around the Court House sparked by uncalled for epithets and insulting remarks coming from Butternuts and directed at soldiers and others standing about the yard.
At Metropolitan Hall “an immense audience” attended the performance of Love Chase and said farewell to those renowned actors Frederick B. Conway and his wife, Sarah Crocker Conway. At the Masonic Hall the Continental Old Folks Concert was well attended. The costuming of the singers and the performance of the music that was in vogue in earlier times was pleasing and harmonious. The State Librarian David Stevenson planted 250 trees, mostly silver maple and elm, on the State House Square
All compositors and pressmen at the city’s four main printers quit work on Saturday, April 11th in a dispute over wages. The Typographical Union had sought an increase in wages because of the rise in the cost of living. In response, the Journal advertised for “permanent places at good wages” claiming that “any competent workman can easily make from $15 (2012 $275.78) to $18 (2012 $330.93) a week.” The Union called off the strike after a few days. Any member could “go to work at the old prices if he wanted to, or if the proprietors would take him.” On Monday, April 20th, the railroads announced the change of time on their arrival and departure schedules
The war’s shadow continued to cross Hoosier homes with almost daily reports of deaths at military hospitals. The report of the killed, wounded, and missing of the 33rd Indiana at the Battle of Spring Hill, Tennessee was painfully felt in cities and towns and villages and farms across the state. On the last day of the month, business was suspended as Hoosiers joined their fellow Americans in observing President Lincoln’s call for “a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer.”