From Counties of White and Pulaski, Indiana: Historical and biographical By Weston Arthur Goodspeed, F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.
Three Months Men
Within two weeks after the fall of Sumter, about fifteen men left the county, going to Logansport, and joining the Ninth Regiment, destined for the three months’ service. A squad of about ten of these boys assembled at Winamac, to be taken to Logansport in wagons.
Photo: Civil War Soldiers are served a Thanksgiving meal in November 1861, photo from the Rapid City Journal.
Quite a crowd gathered on the street as the time for their departure drew near. Just before they left, Stephen Bruce addressed them in a short speech, praising them for their loyalty and bravery, adjuring them never to allow the flag to trail in the dust, and promising that they who left families behind need borrow no trouble, as no one would be permitted to starve as long as he continued operating his grist mill.
Away the boys went amid the cheers of their fellow citizens, and the tears and lingering farewells of loving friends. It was but a short time after this that other men began to leave the county for the three months’ service. It has thus been estimated that under the call for 75,000 volunteers, about thirty men entered the service from Pulaski County.
The First Company
As it was thought that the rebellion would be brought to a speedy close by the three months’ men, the further enlistment of volunteers in Pulaski County languished until fall, when Dr. F. B. Thomas was commissioned to raise a company for the three years’ service. The enlistment of men was begun and continued during the months of September and October, 1861.
Volunteers were secured under the stimulus of a big war meeting, where loyal and fiery speeches were made, patriotic airs were sung, and beautiful ladies with bewitching smiles passed round the fatal enlistment roll. The company was quickly raised, and the election of officers resulted as follows: F. B. Thomas, Captain; George Burson, First Lieutenant; James Brown, Second Lieutenant.
The company was mustered in on the 5th of November, and soon afterward was ordered with its regiment, the Forty-sixth, to the front. There was much excitement in the county while this company was being enlisted. Col. G. M. Fitch, of the Forty-sixth, came and spoke at Winamac and other places. Capt. Thomas held meetings at Winamac, Pulaski, Monterey, Francesville, Medaryville and other places, securing at each place a few volunteers for his company. Mr. Burson was also active in all these meetings.
At last, when the company was ready to depart, a splendid dinner was spread out for the boys in Lane’s Hall. Every provision which bountiful stores could supply, and every luxury and convenience which love could suggest, was placed upon the board, and the heavy tables groaned under the weight as if in protest. Ah, it was a feast the boys remembered long afterward, when “hard-tack” and “sowbelly” were ravenously devoured, or when the fare was little better than nothing in the gloomy prison hells which Southern cruelty had devised.
How they gorged themselves, as if a forecast of the future was shadowed before them! Whole turkeys disappeared as if by magic. Pies, cakes, jams, jellies, without limit or number, were speedily put where they would do the most good. At last, the feast was over, good-byes were spoken with pale lips and streaming eyes, but brave hearts, warm kisses and embraces were passionately exchanged for the last time, and all hearts were rent with unspeakable anguish. Slowly the long train pulled out with its human sacrifice. They were gone.
Quite a number of three years’ men, however, had left the county for the war before the departure of the company of Capt. Thomas. These men left the county to enlist, and were credited to where the companies to which they belonged were raised.
When the Ninth Regiment was re-organized in August, 1861, and mustered into the service for three years in September, about one-half of Company D was taken from Pulaski County. Besides these there were a few in other companies, notably G, of the same regiment; and there were in the whole regiment not less than about seventy men from the county.
There were also a few men from Pulaski in the Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth and Twentieth Regiments. There were but a few from Pulaski in the last-mentioned regiment when it first took the field; but during the progress of the war many others joined it as recruits. Owing to the fact that the county was comparatively small, and could not furnish many full companies, her men went in small detachments to various regiments, were often credited to other counties where such regiments were raised, and, as no proper record was kept, the facts cannot now be traced.
About one-third of Company A, of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, was from Pulaski. The men were mustered August 30, 1861. One-half of Company C, of the Twenty-ninth, was from Pulaski, the men being mustered in during the months of August, September and October. Besides the company of Capt. Thomas in the Forty-sixth, two other companies had a few men from the county.
During the winter of 1861-62, scarcely anything was done to raise men for the war. This was not due to a lack of proper interest in the struggle, but was because of the cold weather.
Early in the spring, volunteering was revived, and received a fresh impetus, from the fact that the citizens had begun to realize the stupendous character of the war, and were fully determined to do their share in ending it. Men began to leave the county, entering the Forty-eighth, Sixty-third and other regiments. Several recruiting officers from other counties appeared, and steadily drained Pulaski of her best men.
In July and August, 1862, war meetings began to be held in all parts of the county. Schoolhouses, churches and other public buildings were thus used. It was announced that unless the county’s quota was full by the middle of September, a draft would surely take place. This was sufficient to rouse the citizens to their best efforts.
Dr. James W. Selders was authorized to raise a company, and was commissioned Captain. Meetings were held all over the county, and soon his company was full. About twenty-five men joined Company E, organized in Fulton County, and commanded by Capt. Troutman. There were also a few Pulaski men in Company A, and others. All these men entered the Eighty-seventh Regiment.