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CHAPTER XIX. VERhIILION COUNTY DURING THE CIVIL WAR. PUBLIC ~ENT~MENTIN 1860-VOLUNTEERSTO THE SERVICE-REGIMENT FORMED FROM VERMILIOP; COUNTY MEN WHOLLY OR IN PART-WHAT THE WOMEN DID---NEWCOMERS FROM 1860 TO 1864-RIOTS IN DANVILLE DURING THIS TIME. To a reader of history who studies causes and effects, Vermilion County, at the beginning of the Civil war, presents interesting conditions. The entire country was in an unsettled state, none the less was this section. Nearly a hundred years had passed since the founding of the new government in Amer- ica, and the people subscribing to the constitution by which it should be en- forced had yet the same disagreement in the interpretation of this organ which met it at first and they were not satisfied. The country n-as extensive and con- ditions of living differed in different sections. One part of the country was rich in naturai products and another facilities for manufacturing. Little means of transporting the raw product froin the southern part of the country, or of inter- course, each section with the other; ideals of all sorts diverse and strong, and con- stantly growing more intense ;all these things tended to separate the states on the geographic lines. Such were the collditions \vhich naturally lecl the United States toward sectionalism. Eelow the Mason and Dixon line there was but one ex- pressed opinion. The institution which their neighbors to the north hated, seemed to them of absolute importance to their life. Anyone who did not like the sys- tem sf slavery must leave that section; and people with these sentiments de- veloped iln rising generations, did leave, coming often to the nearest free state, which was either Indiana or Illinois. That a state had a right to do anything it desired, was accepted doctrine in the South. Above this imaginary line of division a man held more independent ideas. Generally speaking, the majority agreed that the government of the United States was for each and every citizen equally; that slavery was unconstitutional, as well as subject to a higher stand- ard of judgment, and protested against its extension. The wealth of the South came as the result of another's labor, while that of the North came as the reward of each man's efforts. Sectionalisn~increased constantly, the Sogthern states carrying the matter of state rights so far as to the right to dissolve the union of all states at the will of any one. This the people of the North would not admit, even to the length of taking up arms in defense of the existing government. In the Eastern states the people were, by descent as well as other conditions. liberty-loving and independent of thought, and the views of the South were appalling to the majority of them. In the Western states, Public Domain Book - Found at COAN.NET / VermilionCounty.INFO 198 HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY or rather, those which at the time were the Western states (particularly In- diana and Illinois), the people had such a recent inheritance of these same views, that the position of the South to them was different. Southern Illinois was settled from the Southern states. This was true of the central part of the state. Vermilion County, it has been seen, was settled largely from Kentucky, Vir- ginia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. While some of these people calne to get away from the institution of slavery, more of them came with prejudice in favor of the Southern ideas and institutions. During the fifties immigra- tion came from the East, and northern Illinois was dolllinated by the ideas of that section. A close observer of settlements in Vermilion County will see this new force coming in, like the entrance of a different stream into a flowing river, and' like the onrush of a second mighty stream. where the meeting took place, there were turbulent waters. The land of central and southern Indiana and Illinois was a perpetual battlefield. Public sentiment in Vermilion County was not all given to either side \$thout conditions. This warfare was not without its advantage, however; such opposition always makes the indiviclual opinions the stronger. When the struggle actually came on, when the flag of the country was fired upon and the President of the United States called for volunteers, the men and boys of Vermilion County responded in a goodly number, ready and willing to defend the honoi- of their land, even with their lives. Business ill- terests were laid aside, family obligations were suspended, and there was no waiting to be forced into the service of their country on the part of the men of Vermilion County. The many belonging to the Society of Friends who had largely come into this county from Tennessee to get away from the institution of slavery were, of course, kept froill taking up arms by reason of their faith, yet many enlisted and of those who, remained at home their help was freely given to their neighbor who could go to the battlefield, and his family was sure of friends while he was gone. The first call for inen was to service for three months. To this call many made response, and when the time passed ant1 their term of service was over they reenlisted. There were several regiments in which many of the volunteers were men from Vermilion County. A history of Vermilion county was published in 1879, while yet many of the returned soldiers were living who could tell the story of those years of Civil war, and lengthy reports of the various regiments were available from the pen of participants. This llistory was written by Mr. Beckwith, and ha(; now been out of print several years. Because it is out of reach of so many. it is deemed best to quote these reports directly from its pages with additions or changes where the writers are yet living. The regiments under consideration were the 25th, the 37th, the 73d and the 125th Illinois Volunteers. Of the writers of these reports, Capt. Achilles Martin and Col. William Mann are dead. The others are living. TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS. [Contributed by Captain Achilles Martin.] The 25th Ill. Vol. Inf., three companies of which (A, B and D) were from Vermilion County, das organized in Vermilion County, June I, 1861, and Public Domain Book - Found at COAN.NET / VermilionCounty.INFO HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY 199 mustered into service at St. Louis, Missouri, August 4, 1861, and from there transported by rail to Jefferson City, Missouri, and thence to Sedalia, Llis- souri, and marched to Springfield, Missouri, under General Fremont, in pur- suit of General Price's army, and from thence to Rolla, Missouri, where, with a portion of Fremont's army, it spent the early part of the winter of 1861 and 1862, but returned to Springfield, Missouri, in February, 1862, under command of General Siegel, and pursued General Price's army to Een- tonville, Arkansas, where, on the 6tl1, 7th and 8th of March. 1862, the memorable battle of "Pea Ridge" was fought. The 25th Reg., having been held in support until early morn of the third day, took the front under the immediate command of General Siegel, in support of the artillery, \~hicll opened the engagement. After a fierce contest with grape, canister and shell at short range, the enemy's batteries were silenced, and the nleinorable order. "Up, 25th, Minutes! Col. LIinutes!" was given by General Siegel in person. and the next moment the regiment, under the most terrific fire of musketrj-, with other troops, charged the enemy in a thick wood, where, after a fierce and deadly contest, the enen~y'slines gave way, and the whole army was soon in full retreat, and thus was victory brought out of what but a few hours be- fore was considered, by the general commanding, a defeat. The regiment \\-as highly complimented for its gallantry in this (its first) engagement. Then, in connection with the army, it took up the line eastwlard, where, after a long and tedious march, it arrived at Batesville, in Arkansas, and was there cle- tached from the army, and, with nine other regiments under command of Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, marched eastwlard to Cape Girardeau, 31issouri, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles in nine days, having made an average of about twenty-eight miles per day. The regiment then, by river transportation, joined Gen. Halleck's army in the siege of Grinth, Mississippi, which place bras soon evacuated by the enemy; and after a short stay in Mississippi marched east- ward under command of Gen. Buell by way of Nashville, Tennessee, to Louis- ville, Kentucky, a distance of nearly five hundred miles in the month of Xu- gust, in the most extreme heat and drouth. Here a few1 days were spent in reorganizing the army, when it was ordered in pursuit of Gen. Bragg's arm);. then invading Kentucky. Later, the battle of Perryville, or Chaplain Hills. was fought between a portion of the two armies, wherein the 25th Reg., and more than sixty thousand other well-equipped soldiers were compelled to act as spectators in the slaughter of a portion of our army under commantl of Gen. McCook, because the general comrllanding said that h1cCook hacl brought on the engagement without his orders. After this battle the regitnent re- turned to NashviIle, Tennessee, and Gen. Rosecrans was put in command of the army, then known as the Army of the Cumberland. which remained at Sash- ville until the last of December. 1862, when it was advanced to k1urfreesboro.

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