The month began with committees being established for next month’s Indiana Sanitary Bazaar to provide for the “welfare and comfort of our sick and wounded soldiers.” The Ladies’ Visiting Committee canvassed the city soliciting contributions for the bazaar. Two well attended political meetings met in the city the first Saturday evening. At Circle Park, a Union Meeting of “four or five thousand ladies and gentlemen” were treated with rousing speeches, music by the Veteran Reserve Corps band, and songs by the Union Glee Club; while at Masonic Hall, Democratic supporters of presidential nominee Gen. George B. McClellan and vice presidential nominee George H. Pendleton were entertained with band music, speeches, and fireworks. Later in the month the semi-circular Union Tabernacle, erected on Circle Park, was dedicated with speeches and music before a crowd of people crammed inside and out “with a grand profusion of red, white and blue” to “the cause of Liberty and the Union.”
Indianapolis was a crowded city. Although 1,800 tenements have been built this season, it is almost impossible for a man with a wife and children to “secure a roof to sleep under.” With visitors coming to the city for the State Sanitary Bazaar and State Agricultural Fair ample arrangements will be made to accommodate all, but the single gentleman will find the boarding houses full and may only have “a narrow bed with a liveryman.” The hotels are barely able to “accommodate the transient customer.” Because of the high price of stone and iron, many of the building improvements in the city are using terra cotta as a construction material for windows, door caps, water pipe, and chimney tops. The clay comes from Clay County and is fabricated by Stewart & Glover near the Terre Haute depot. John Stillwell’s terrier “Dick” has killed 213 Norway rats in the past month, most at one of the city’s hotels.
“GLORIOUS WAR NEWS. GEN. SHERMAN OCCUPIES ATLANTA.” At University Square a salute of one hundred guns roared “in glorification of the cheering aspect of military affairs,” and a detachment of Company G, 17th Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps fired one hundred guns at the United States Arsenal in honor of the victories at Mobile Harbor. Veterans of the 10th Indiana arrived in the city direct from Atlanta and a “glorious reception” was given. One thousand seventy nine men were mustered in September 1861, and after three years of service 425 men formed up on the east side of the State House to hear Gov. Morton express his “gratification” at their safe return after “the perils and hardships” of the long campaign. The soldiers’ vote began to be reported —
8th Indiana, President: Lincoln 215; “Little Mac” 26.
Governor: Morton 239; McDonald 4.
11th Indiana, President: Lincoln 320; McClellan 16; Fremont 1.
Governor: Morton 333; McDonald 5.
17th Indiana, President: Lincoln 234; McClellan 23; Fremont 6.
Governor: Morton 234; McDonald 21.
In Marion County and throughout Indiana preparations were made for the draft. At the Provost Marshal’s office, the initial names of men in Marion County drawn from the “wheel of fortune” appeared in the Journal following the first day of the draft, Monday, September 19. Franklin Township’s quota of 93 men will come from the 186 men drafted. Draft meetings were held and committees were formed to solicit funds to provide bounties to fill the quota, before mustering, with “volunteers and avoid the disgrace of [conscription].” Those on the draft lists were called upon for donations as “the fates of war have called upon [them] to give liberally or shoulder a musket.” The Provost Guard raided a number of saloons, known to be selling liquor to soldiers, and destroyed their contents – smashing bottles and staving-in the heads of barrels and casks.
Gregory’s High School for Boys opened on the third floor of the Sentinel Building on South Meridian St, and Superintendent Abram C. Shortridge announced that the public high school would resume for the first time since 1857. Applicants for admission will be examined in “Spelling, Reading, Writing, Geography, Mental Arithmetic, Practical Arithmetic to Proportion, and in English Grammar to Syntax.” The Indianapolis Street Railway Co began laying track on Illinois St up to Washington St. The track will continue west on Washington St to West St and then north to the Fair Ground. Indianapolis is a “city of large squares and magnificent distances,” and the citizens will hail the first car “with delight.” A large audience braved the heavy rain to see Bulwer’s comedy Money at the Metropolitan Theater. Mr. Riley “fully sustained his reputation as a clever actor” in the role of Alfred Evelyn. Later in the month, “the celebrated Artistic and Shakespearian comedian” James Henry Hackett appeared as Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
While the conspiracy trial, before a military commission, of Harrison H. Dodd, grand commander of the Order of American Knights, dominated local news during the last week of September, the month ended with the “Greatest Horseman in the World,” James Robinson, demonstrating his “brilliant acts of Bare-back Horsemanship” on the square north of the State House.