Except for the railroads and businesses associated with them, the National Day of Fasting and Prayer was observed more strictly in Indianapolis than Sundays usually are. Dense groups of people were about the church doors and soon from within music and murmurs of prayer and praise filled the Circle. The City Hospital ended its second year as a military hospital having treated 5,265 Union soldiers and 847 war prisoners. Deaths among the Union soldiers was 5.2% – 277 individuals. The Union Depot issued an order that all corpses arriving on trains are not allowed to remain at the depot for more than an hour after their arrival. The Union Railroad Co. offered to lease ground south of the depot to the express companies so that a brick building could be erected to use as a “dead house” for bodies to be stored while awaiting shipment.
The Democratic Party withdrew its candidates from the city election on Saturday prior to the contest claiming it had been deprived of “fair representation on the election boards” and that its voters were subject to mob violence at last month’s township election. At an election eve meeting at Masonic Hall, William Wallace called upon “all men to unite, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Union men, in sustaining the Government in its efforts to crush out treason.” Despite the lack of opposition, voters turned out to support the Union ticket in numbers usually seen at a fall vote. John Caven was elected mayor with 2,889 votes and took office the following Monday, May 11.
Gov. Morton authorized the recruitment of the Reserve Guard of Indianapolis, and a call was issued to the “young business men…of all trades and professions” to enroll in order to relieve the trained troops stationed in the city for service elsewhere. The organization would be similar to the Minute Men of the Revolution. A crowd of two to three hundred “American citizens of African descent” gathered at the depot to see the full company of men enlisted into one of the Massachusetts African regiments depart on the train for Boston.
“The great battle has been fought….There had been, without cessation or lull, terrible rattle of musketry and roar of artillery, and bursting of shell and screaming of shot, mixed with the charging yells of the contending forces for seven long hours….Our forces must leave the field of Chancellorsville,” wrote Captain Charles A. Bell of the Indiana 20th. In an adjacent column of the Journal, began the list of Hoosier fathers, sons, and brothers killed and wounded in the Virginia campaign.
Mid-month entertainment for city residents included Uncle Tom’s Cabin at Metropolitan Hall, the Campbell Minstrels at Masonic Hall, and on a lot north of the Terre Haute depot an exceedingly large crowd saw a collection of animals provided by Van Amburgh & Co’s Mammoth Menagerie & Great Moral Exhibition, “the best ever shown in this city.” A military review drew a large attendance of ladies and gentlemen, and the procession following the review of troops headed by Generals Milo S. Hascall and August Wallich up Washington St to the Circle attracted such large crowds that the sidewalks and street crossings were impassable.
A large mass meeting of 10,000 persons — “Butternuts” — convened in the State House grove on Wednesday, May 20th. General Hascall ordered all soldiers to use “…the utmost caution and moderation, and…avoid provoking any disturbance….” Although Mayor Caven requested the sale of liquor be suspended during the day, only one saloon complied. Most of the scheduled chief orators did not show. Indiana Congressman Daniel W. Voorhees and Senator Thomas Hendricks were joined by Illinois Congressman John R. Eden and Chicago attorney Richard T. Merrick “to fill the breach.” Resolutions adopted decried arbitrary arrests and denounced the recent arrest of Clement Vallandigham. While most attending were orderly, some were well armed and about forty persons were arrested for carrying concealed weapons. About one thousand pistols were confiscated by police and military authorities from persons discharging their weapons as they left the city on trains.
The American War; Its Cause, and How it Should be Met by Col. Abel D. Streight had just been published and was available at the Journal office at quantity prices. The pamphlet contained the “celebrated Proclamation of Andrew Jackson to the South Carolina Nullifiers, Webster’s Answer to Haynes on the subject of Nullification, and several extracts of Letters written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton, pending the adoption of the Constitution.”
