Many of the citizens of Indianapolis are not aware of the large number of citizens from other states, especially from the South, who have left their homes since the war commenced and “sought refuge and employment” in the Hoosier capital. Day and night the “buzz of machinery may be heard” from the city’s factories, foundries and mills as relays of workers strain to fill orders. Additional enterprises are needed to supply the demand but are lagging for want of first class mechanics. Improved machinery, however, is beginning to do the work more rapidly and with the need of less hands. Workingmen met at Simpson’s Hall late in the month, and following several speeches defending the claims of mechanics, formed a committee to consult with other workingmen in the city about forming a “trades union.” The Freedmen’s Aid Commission of Indiana, “to aid the Government in carrying out its emancipation policy,” was organized at a meeting held at Roberts Chapel. Calvin Fletcher, Sr., was elected president of the society. Citizen’s meetings were held on a proposed system of street railroads “to locate the routes most advantageous to the public.” A public stock subscription campaign to raise $100,000 (2012: $1,838,500.33) for the Indianapolis Street Railway Co began.
Col. DeWitt Clinton Rugg of the City regiment announced that the regimental uniform will be “neat, but not gaudy” — light blue pants, dark blue jackets with buff colored front and sky blue trimmings. The device to be worn on the new regulation cap is yet to be determined. The uniform’s cost will not exceed $12 (2012: $220.62) of which the government will pay $8 (2012: $147.08). The present commandant of Camp Carrington, Col. John R. Mahan, has greatly improved the camp with nearly fifty new barracks, and repairs to the old ones. Officers’ quarters, quartermaster buildings, and a headquarters building have been added along with a “good substantial fence” now enclosing the over twenty-acre campground. The $3,000 (2012: $55,155.01) improvements were done at no expense to the government. Col. Mahan “made a call for the workmen, and they were forthcoming.” Presently the three full regiments in the camp — the 115th, 117th, and 118th — are receiving new Enfield rifles. An Invalid Corps regiment arrived in the city from St. Louis and paraded through the streets to Camp Baker in Blake’s Woods, lying between the Michigan road and the canal. As the wounded and disabled soldiers of this “corps of honor” passed “some had only one arm or hand and some were pale and feeble, but all appeared cheerful and determined.” Gov. Morton confirmed that there will be no draft in Indiana because the state exceeded its quota of three years’ men in earlier calls by 28,501 or 1,669 over the present draft quota of 26,832.
Early in the month, Arlington & Donnicker’s Minstrels entertained a large crowd at Masonic Hall with singing, jokes and burlesques. Later, a lecture by Rev. P. B. O’Connor, of Terre Haute, to benefit the Irish Relief fund was well attended at the Hall by mostly Irish citizens. About seven hundred tickets were sold at 50¢ (2012: $9.19) each. At mid-month the public schools in the several wards opened for the fall term, Northwestern Christian University’s session began with 125 students, and at a redecorated and freshly painted Metropolitan Hall the theater season opened with the popular Holman Opera Troupe performing The Daughter of the Regiment to a “densely packed” house. Lake & Co.’s Great Western Circus brought its “Star Troupe of 1863” to Indianapolis the last weekend of the month. “The Beautiful and Fascinating Equestrian Little Alice,” “The daring Bare-back and Hurdle Rider Master Thomas Perry,” “The African Flying Trick Mule,” and “The Performing Horse Don Juan” along with numerous other acts thrilled spectators.
Letters from various Indiana regiments published in the Journal kept Hoosiers informed of the well-being of loved ones. From the banks of the Rappahannock, Chaplain W. R. Jewell of the “Old Seventh” wrote, “The health of the regiment is most excellent….during the past year, but three have died from sickness; but they have lost much in battle….The boys are in the best of spirits….Their old flag is torn with shells, perforated with bullets, stained with loyal blood, and about worn out….” State Librarian Rev. David Stevenson is preparing one of the library rooms for a flag and trophy room to display the numerous articles that have already been received. Many more items are constantly arriving. Gov. Morton received authority from the Secretary of War to raise four additional regiments of volunteer cavalry and seven regiments of volunteer infantry as accounts of the great battles in Georgia filled newspaper columns along with the list of the Hoosier dead and wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga. At month’s end, the Masonic Hall exhibited Solomon Bros & Keating’s “Great Panorama of the War,” an immense canvas of over 5,000 feet with scenes from the bombardment of Ft. Sumter to the capture of Vicksburg, “all abounding with the most startling mechanical effects” produced by local scenic artists Samuel W. Gulick and Thomas Balthazar Glessing.
Jewish citizens of Indianapolis closed their shops in observance of Rosh Hashanah — the New Year — and gathered for services at the synagogue in Judah’s Block opposite the Court House. Days later, they returned to the synagogue in observance of the Day of Atonement.
