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VIO, I \), 21 INDIANA MILITARY HISTORY

JOURNAL

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aN ow that ya mention it_, Joe_, it does sound like th, patter of ra·in on a tin roof;'"

INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Volume 2 Number 1

JANUARY 1977

F521_146_VOL2_N01 Indiana Military History Journal is published by the Military History Section of the Indiana His­ torical Society, 315 West Ohio Street, Indianapolis, 46202. The editor is Dr. Richard M. Clull<'r, Indiana Central University.

Military History Section Committee

Thomas M. Joyce, Chairman P.O. Box 41435 Indianapolis 46241

Dr. Richard M. Clutter 1525 Windermire Indianapolis 46227

Patricia DeMore 1409 Windermire Indianapolis 46227

Thomas Krasean 2017 Washington Avenue Vincennes 4 7591

Helen B. Rhodes 4048 N. Brentwood Drive Indianapolis 46236

John W. Rowell R.R. 6, Carr Hill Road Columbus 4 7201

Col. William Scott P.O. Box 41375, Stout Field Indianapolis 46241

Lt. William J. Watt 1118 Westfield Court, West Indianapolis 46220

Indiana Military History Journal serves as the organ of the Military History Section and carries news of the Section as well as articles and documents, pictures, and reviews and notices of books and articles relating to Indiana's military past. It is hoped that the Journal will increase the know­ ledge and appreciation of the state's military heritage.

The Journal is sent to members of the Indiana Historical Society who participate in the Military History Section and to other members of the Society who may request it.

Correspondence concerning contributions to the Journal and responses to materials published therein should be addressed to the editor, Richard M. Clutter, Indiana Central University, 1400 E. Hanna Avenue, Indianapolis 46227.

The Cover picture is a World War II cartoon by the inimitable Bill Mauldin, creator of the lovable characters - Willie and Joe. It reflects the sardonic humor of the American soldiers that prevailed in the midst of the dangers and ugliness of war. A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

The Fifty-Eighth Annual Indiana History Conference was held on November 5 and 6, 1976, in Indianapolis. The conference included morning and afternoon sessions sponsored by the Military History Section of the Indiana Historical Society. It was the Section's special honor to host Brigadier General James L. Collins, Jr., Chief of Military History, from Washington, D.C. General Collins explained the varied historical activities of the Army, comparing them with those of the Red Army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He spoke of the operating divisions of the Center such as the Research Divi­ sion, which serves as depository for about 300,000 volumes and much archival ma­ terial. American historians enjoy greater access to such materials, he reported, than do their Soviet counterparts, who often find themselves barred from their coun­ try's military archives. The Medical History Division of the U.S. Army is responsi­ ble for the writing of "clinical histories," which are textbooks for doctors based upon the Army's medical experiments and breakthroughs. They are written by com­ mittees of medical experts, often highly specialized. The Historical Services Division manages a small general reference library in Washington. Presently the Army is completing the writing of the eighty-volume his­ tory of its actions in the Second World War as well as shorter accounts of the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. The Organizational History branch is the nerve center for the recording of the lineage and honors of all army groups. For Soviet units, there exist only decentralized historical programs within the units themselves. One important task of the Center of Military History is the overseeing of sixty­ eight museums scattered throughout the Regular Army. The Center owns some 16,000 pieces of art, which are loaned to the Pentagon and other military installa­ tions. Although not operated by the Red Army historical offices, Soviet military museums are many in number and very popular with the people. They are used to increase the morale and patriotism of the general populace and Soviet armed forces. The histories division is the heart of the Soviet operation. It is housed in a four­ story building containing from two hundred to four hundred historians and staff busily turning out books and reports. But, according to General Collins, Soviet mili­ tary history is an instrument of policy designed to prove the superiority of the So­ viet way of life. Presently the bulk of the Russians work is on the Second World War, for they are revising their monumental story of that conflagration. One result of such revision will be the minimizing of Joseph Stalin's greatness. This is in keep­ ing with the official anti-Stalinist thinking of the Kremlin regime of recent years. Those attending the conference sessions also heard Lieutenant Colonel Peter Jones speak on "War and the Novelist" and Dr. Charles Poinsatte talk on a little­ known figure of the American Revolution-a French colonel by the name of Augus­ tine Mottin de Ia Balme. An article by Dr. Jones appears in this issue. As editor of the Indiana Military History Journal, I extend a special invitation to any of its readers to submit articles for publication. Persons desirous of publish­ ing should first write me in care of Indiana Central University, indicating their pro­ posed topics and the dates by which their writings can be completed. Final drafts should be 1,000 to 2,000 words in length, carefully proofread for accuracy, typed double space, and documented. Footnotes should be typed double space on separate pages at the back of the manuscript. Newspaper citations should include page numbers.

3 4 INDIANA MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL

CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

One service of the Indiana Military History Journal will be the providing of news about happenings of various organizations concerned with Indiana military history. Mrs. Patricia DeMore, a member of the Military History Section, has agreed to be responsible for this calendar. Anyone wishing additional information about meetings or desiring publicity for events of their own organizations should write her at 1409 Windermire, Indianapolis, IN 46227

The Indianapolis Civil War Roundtable meets at 7:30 p.m. the second Mon­ day of each month at the Indiana World War Memorial Building. Visitors are wel­ come to attend the following six meetings. February 14, 1977 Tom Rumer, speaker-"Orville T. Chamberlain--con­ gressional Medal of Honor at Chickamauga" March 14 Tom Bookwalter, speaker-"Custer and Rosecrans" April 14 Thomas Krasean, speaker-"A Soldier Writes Home" May 9 Thomas Williams, speaker-"Will the Real Stonewall Jackson Please Stand Up?"

June 18 and 19 Field trip by the Indianapolis Civil War Roundtable to Springfield, Illinois

George Rogers Clark Day in Vincennes, Indiana. The city will feature a day-long memorial program honoring Clark's cap­ February 25, 1977 ture of Fort Sackville in 1779. The program will take place at the new George Rogers Clark Visitors' Center.

The new George Rogers Clark Trail which follows the Ohio River and the Buffalo Trace in southern Indiana now is plainly marked. Brochures and maps may be obtained from the Indiana State Department of Tourism. Also, John Selch of the Archives Division of the Indiana State Library recommends the following bul­ letins to members. They may be obtained free by writing the U.S. Military Acade­ my, West Point, New York, 10996. Ask for "Library Bulletin No. 14-Bibliography of Military History" and "Library Bulletin No. 11--Dfficial Records of the Ameri­ can Civil War: Researcher's Guide."

Possible topics are the history of military units and bases, veterans' organiza­ tions, reports of interviews with former servicemen, military activities of blacks and women, life on the home front in time of war, and military careers of individual Hoosiers. The overall thrust of articles should pertain in some way to Indiana's military past. Topics may range over the long spectrum of Indiana's relationship to Indian warfare, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. One need not be a pro­ fessional historian or writer to submit an article for publication in the Journal and the editor will be glad to work with those who have had no prior experience in publishing. VONNEGUT'S WAR WITH TECHNOLOGY 5

KURT VONNEGUT'S WAR WITH TECHNOLOGY by Peter G. Jones*

Though he had the initial reputation as a writer of science fiction, Kurt Vonne­ gut's first six novels deal largely with the inter-relationship of war and technology. His writing reflects a definite theory of history, pessimism about the human race, and the improbability of free will. He was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and attended Shortridge High School, where he began his writing career working on the school paper. Addressing the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1971, he reflected that both his father and grandfather, who were architects and painters, allegedly had their happiest moments in intimate association with machines. Just before World War I, his father drove his new Oldsmobile around the race track at Indianapolis. Earlier, his grandfather had spent part of his happiest day riding on the cowcatcher of a locomotive.1 These are quaint moments of bliss, man blending ecstatically with his creation. Kurt follow­ ed his father's advice and went to Cornell, studying chemistry. He served as a cor­ poral of Infantry in World War II, after which he followed his older brother into the work force of General Electric at Schenectady, New York. So far his life was well within the family pattern. But what he really thought of things appeared in his first novel, definitely not in the pattern. In a unique way architecture blends art with science. The enormous vitality of the surging Gothic cathedrals built in France during the late Middle Ages shows the possibilities for that reinforcement of spirit-science subordinated to belief­ expressed in soaring examples of art. So Kurt Vonnegut inherited some natural tendency toward optimism, the idea that technology would somehow produce the best of all possible worlds. But, shortly after Hiroshima, as he reflected on what he had seen of the destruction of Dresden, Germany, and heard of the German exter­ mination camps, he thought to himself, "Hey, Corporal Vonnegut ... maybe you were wrong to be an optimist. Maybe pessimism is the thing. "2 His novels reflect a deep distrust of the mutually supportive relationship between war and technology. His first novel, Player Piano (1952) sounds the theme central to all of his work: that in the last battle man will struggle against his own machines for survival and may lose whatever it is that makes people "human." The title is his reaction to the first punch-card and computer-controlled machines that he saw producing precision parts for General Electric: the idea of doing that, you know, made sense, perfect sense. To have a little clicking box make all the decisions wasn't a vicious thing to do. But it was too bad for the human beings who got their dignity from their jobs. 3 So the player piano featured in the book symbolizes that effect. A maverick Irish engineer tries stubbornly to improvise on the mechanical gadget and is frustrated, of course. Paul Proteus is the son of the man who had organized the entire country's resources in its national defense a few decades prior. Now head of the enterprise and a king-pin of the technological hierarchy, Paul has second thoughts about it. Rebel­ ling, he organizes resistance to the machines, aided by the Irishman and a priest named Lasher. In the latter days of the struggle, Paul's movement adopts the name of Ghost Shirts, after an American Indian organization that tried so desperately to stop the relentless advance of the white men in the late nineteenth century. His idea catches on, and there are abortive uprisings among the people in cities all over the country; however, the engineers and managers are soon back on top with their robot weapons in full control. 6 INDIANA MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL

Paul dares question whether it might be possible to do something bad in the name of progress, later suggesting the solution: "a step backward, after making a 4 wrong turn, is a step in the right direction. , One of the book's final scenes shows the defeated populace, moving through the wreckage of their plant, suddenly re­ animated and interested again, challenged by the idea of reassembling a machine to make it work. So they crowd around, and soon the device is repaired. It dispenses Orang e-O, for a mere fraction of a dollar. They cheer and are glad. Machines 1: People 0. Four of the novels constitute a cycle, of sorts. These are The Sirens of Titan (1959), Mother Night (1961), God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965), and Slaughter­ house-Five (1969). In these he continues the theme of Player Piano, blending in ironic use of his background. He was now regarded as a writer of science fiction, funny in a weird way, and popular with college students. The Sirens of Titan features a new explanation of creation as it is outlined in Genesis of the Old Testament. Earth, this solar system, and all we comprehend were created merely to provide a spare part for a passing space traveler from the planet Tralfamador, where, eons since, machines had replaced the weary vertebrates. The war in this book is between Mars and Earth. In reality, the Martians are Earth­ lings who have been kidnapped, lobotomized, and made part of a great plan to change things on Earth for the better through war. Naturally it does not work, though both the Moon and Mars are rendered uninhabitable practically forever by counter-strikes from Earth. God, or somebody, gives one man the ability to travel through time and space. He uses his power to try to change the future. His primary operative is Malachi Con­ stant, a man once the richest and most immoral in the world. With his brain suita­ bly altered, his identity changed, Constant kills his best friend and carries out a complex travel plan that culminates in his delivering to the planet Titan a little, irregular piece of meta: that is required to repair the Tralfamadorian space ship. Now an old man, he is returned to earth to die. He chooses Indianapolis, "the first place in the United States of America where a white man was hanged for the mur­ der of an Indian. ,5 Having been used by someone else for ulterior motives most of his adult life, Malachi longs for simple justice. The entire human race was merely part of an incidental side-show in a remote corner of the universe. Here are other Vonnegut themes: people being used and the matter of changing identities. Mother Night (1961) gives these two ideas special emphasis in a story ostensibly about some complications during and after World War II. The title for this book comes from Goethe's Faust, as Mephistopholes complains about creation, longing for the good old days when all was chaos and Mother Night ruled. Goethe opted for the happy ending, but Vonnegut is plainly not sure. The central character is Howard Campbell, whose country asks him to pose as a traitor during World War II, while he really acts as his nation's secret agent. At war's end, Campbell remains on the hook, because only two people knew what he was really up to. One of them, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, died unexpectedly, and the other, who hired him in the first place, refuses to help until too late. Camp­ bell is worshiped by American Neo-Nazis and hunted by the Israelis. The Israelis rate him with Adolph Eichmann, mass Jewish executioner, who is in the next cell during this recital. The Russians recruit his dead wife's sister to lure him, and he almost is undone by a nice man, a painter, who turns out to be another Russian agent. Adding everything up at the end, Campbell refuses the eleventh hour offer of help from his wartime boss and chooses to hang himself. Guilty of having sold himself, he is a VONNEGUT'S WAR WITH TECHNOLOGY 7

harsh judge. "The soul's condition in a man at war," Campbell reflects, is "like something drawn on the wall of a public lavatory; it recalled the stink, diseased twi­ light, humid resonance, and vile privacy of a stall in a public lavatory ...." 6 The final of the three prefatory novels is God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965). The protagonist is Eliot Rosewater, once an officer of infantry in World War II. Extravagantly wealthy, married to a gorgeous woman, he has problems. One day in the war he mistakenly killed several harmless German firemen, deceived by their uniforms. Now his conscience hurts. He is a drunk, fat and slovenly , and obsessed with two things: helping the kinds of useless people who are generally ignored by society, and being of all the assistance he can be to volunteer firefighters. He heads a gargantuan philanthropic organization which is fueled by the family fortune. Rosewater, Indiana, where the family began its rise to economic greatness, is now his home. Naturally his family considers him disgraceful, a lunatic. One day riding the bus through Nashville on his way to Indianapolis, Eliot goes crazy for real. He had read stories of enormous bombing raids in World War II, and on the bus he reads science fiction about a space pilot from Tralfamadoria whose ship accidental­ ly ignites the entire Milky Way. Suddenly he is overwhelmed by an image of Indi­ anapolis, consumed in a firestorm. 7 But he comes out of it unharmed, still in con­ trol of his philanthropy, doomed to continue helping the helpless and aiding volun­ teer firefighters. Slaughterhouse-Five came out first in hardback and established Vonnegut's public reputation. He is the first major American writer to gain a following writing original paperback editions. In Slaughterhouse-Five, elements from all of the three preceding books come together. Billy Pilgrim is a young man who participated brief­ ly in World War II. Like Kurt Vonnegut, he was captured and had a ringside seat to the bombing destruction of Dresden. His biggest problem is that he is "unstuck in time," sliding unpredictably from one point in his life to another, without warning. Eventually he marries, becomes the father of a Green Beret hero, and is killed by a crazy man whom his goodness offended during his short career in the Army. One of the more interesting parts of Billy's life is the kidnapping by Tralfama­ dorians. They take him aboard as a typical specimen of the dominant fauna of Earth. To them he tries to explain what human wars are like, and they lecture him care­ fully on the properties of time. People are like "bugs in amber." Life is set and things happen, just as they are supposed to do. Earth is the only place in Creation where the idea of free will is even talked about. The destruction of Dresden frames this book. The subtitle "The Children's Crusade," as Vonnegut's narrator explains in the first chapter of the book, is for em­ phasis: wars are fought by young men, who, like foolish virgins, go and kill each other on orders from older men. The refrain of the story is "So it goes." Nothing will change; nothing is meant to change. Things happen as they are supposed to hap­ pen. In 1963, Vonnegut brought out Gat's Cradle, which is more or less independent of his other works. It involves World War II and a minor action in Central America. The anonymous narrator searches for information about a Dr. Hoenikker, who made the bomb that brought "scientific truth" to Hiroshima. The narrator's object is to write a book. In his search the narrator finds out much about the Hoenikker family. The most important thing that he finds out is that before he died, Dr. Hoenik­ ker was working on a contract with the U. S. Marines, perfecting some way to hard­ en mud and swamps so that the Marines could fight better wherever they are called upon to fight. And he is successful. His fatal invention is Ice-Nine, stable at room 8 INDIANA MILITARY liiSTORY JOURNAL

temperature. Through a series of little accidents the end of the world occurs. The moral is plain. Science provides two ways to end the world-with the fire of the atomic bomb, or the miracle of Ice-Nine. Ice really is more suitable because it re­ flects the cold impassionate disinterest that science historically has displayed con­ cerning the impact on the world of its inventions. Vonnegut claims to have got the idea of Ice-Nine from his contacts while at General Electric. H. G. Wells was coming to visit, and Dr. Irving Langmuir, the resi­ dent Nobel laureate in physics, made up the little idea of Ice-Nine, hoping that Wells would write about it. Instead, Vonnegut did, trying to show that science must get involved with humanity, assume responsibility for what it does and what people do with the things that it produces. 8 In all these books art fails utterly to influence events or people. Technology rules the roost entirely, and free will or choice seems inoperative in human affairs. Vonnegu t refers to artists as a species of canary, birds formerly used in coal mines to detect gas. Sensitive, they keel over long before the gas becomes fatal for humans.9 Artists (poets) have been called teachers of men, the unacknowledged legislators of the world, antennae of the race, among other things. Historically, they have perceiv­ ed impending events long before the rest of us. Like canaries, often they give the alarm of impending trouble. What Vonnegut has been trying to do in these books, at least one of the things, is to point out that technology may be taking us some­ place we should not go. Vonnegut was known for a while as one who wrote very funny science fiction. The novels are not science fiction, but humor is part of each. His humor is black hu­ mor, the wry expression of the pessimist who can face up to things in no other way than through humor. It's the soul of G. I. humor, and World War II was the baseline experience for him and his generation. He is literate, ingenious, and very funny. But most serious when funny. Irreverent, and somewhat obscene, maybe, but dedi­ cated to sounding the ala�m.

*Dr. Peter G. Jones is a career Army officer with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is chief of the evaluation and research division, U. S. Army Enlisted Evaluation Center, Fort Harrison, Indiana. He has just published his first book, War and the Novel: Appraising the American War Novel (Co­ lumbia, Missouri, 1976).

I Kurt Vonnegut, "Address to the National Institute of Arts and Letters," Wampeters, Foma, and Gran{alloons (New York: Dell Publishing Company Edition, 1974), pp. 174-5. 2 Kurt Vonnegut, "Address to Graduating Class at Bennington College,"1970, Ibid.,pp. 161-?. 3 Kurt Vonnegut, "Playboy Interview, " Ibid., pp. 260-1. 4 Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano (New York: Avon Books Edition, 1972), pp. 130, 295. 5 Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan (New York: Dell Publishing Company Edition, 1971), pp. 314-15. 6 Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night (New York: Avon Books Edition, 1971), p. 117. 7 Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (New York: Dell Publishing Company Edition, 1970), pp. 172-6. 8 Kurt Vonncgut, "Address to the American Physical Society," Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons p. 96-9. 9 Ibid., p. 92. AMIDST THE BLOODY STRIFE: EARLHAM COLLEGE DURING THE CIVIL WAR ERA by Steven Valentine*

In mid-summer 1863 the war which the Earlham College community in east­ ern Indiana had watched from afar threatened to come to the doorstep of the cam­ pus. Confederate General John H. Morgan was leading a guerilla raid through the southeastern part of the state. Earlham student Caroline Carpenter recorded some of the drama in her diary:

The excitement is very great today on account of the Morgan raid. No daily papers. Ohio boys all have to report tomorrow at headquarters or else be doomed to six months imprisonment .... The trains are running with no regularity . . . . During these few days that it has been so dark and gloomy and cold Morgan has been ranging through the states of Ohio and Indiana plundering and stealing, laying waste ackers [sic}

of country . . . . 1

Fortunately for Earlham and for nearby Richmond, the area's "Home Guards" soon put Morgan on the run. The most imminent physical danger to the college during the Civil War was over. But Morgan's raid was not the only way in which the Civil War affected Earlham College. As a Quaker college with strong anti-slavery and pacifist traditions, Earlham's relationship to the War Between the States was unique among midwestern colleges and universities. Quaker men were faced with a very difficult moral quandary when they had to choose whether or not to play a combatant role in the war. As Earlham historian Opal Thornburg exclaimed, "How a young Friend of that day agonized over his proper role in the Civil War!" "He was caught," she proclaimed, "in the hard dilemma for which Abraham Lincoln expressed sympath�-'opposed to both war and oppression they can only oppose oppression by war.' " Indeed, some Earlham men did choose to fight the oppression of slavery by joining the Union war effort. While many chose not to bear arms, a number of students, reported Thornburg, "despite Friendly advice and opposition," left Earl­ ham to serve in the Union military ranks. 3 It is difficult, however, to determine pre­ cisely how many Earlham men enlisted. If the enrollment figures of the Civil War era are any indication, not many did so. Overall, Earlham enjoyed steady and substantial gains in enrollment between 1861 and 1865. Enrollment increased from twenty-five to seventy-four, a gain of sixty-six percent. During the same Civil War period, the percentage of men at the college rose from forty-two to sixty-two.4 It is puzzling that the Civil War had no negative effect on either Earlham's total enrollment or on the percentage of men on campus during the period. By con­ trast, during World War II total enrollment at Earlham dropped significantly. More­ over, there were only sixty-four men among nearly 500 students during the peak of those later war years. 5 But there is at least one speculative explanation of this phe­ nomenon. Earlham had only been a full-fledged college since 1859. The only Quaker college in the Indiana-Eastern Ohio region, it was beginning to become more wide­ ly known. It is certainly reasonable to suggest that despite the hardships presented by the war, more parents were sending their children to Earlham because of these factors. The college probably would have grown even if there had been no war, but there is some indication that during the Civil War many Quaker parents believed

9 10 INDIANA MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL

that by sending a son off to college they could help him avoid the temptations and dangers of military service. One father, in fact, wrote to Earlham's superintendent asking that the college assist him in keeping his son from joining the "Bloody Strife" afflicting the nation.6 Beyond Earlham men's struggles of conscience over the military service ques­ tion, there were other factors which made it impossible for Earlham to be a utopian oasis in the morass of war. There were constant reminders of the "bloody strife" which was fragmenting the nation, though most were not quite as alarming as the perilously close Morgan raid. Earlham students, many of whom were away from home for the first time, lived in fear for the loved ones that they had left behind. This fear was augmented by the war news which they received from home and in the newspapers. In an 1861 letter to his sister, Earlham student John Harvey described the situation at Earlham during that early war year:

... the girls here are pretty badly scared. I hear they get in groups (as the boys do over the newspaper) and talk and cry about it, some of them I hear are going home ... soldiers left here [Richmond] a few days ago hundreds of them passing from the West ....Some of the boys talk of going home they say they cant [sic] study I am not qite [sic] that badly excited yet.

Another of Harvey's letters described the sights and sounds of the war near the Earlham campus. There were, he wrote,"six or seven hundred soldiers stationed in the fairgrounds in sight of here beeting [sic] their drums and firing their cannons almost every day."8 What he witnessed made Harvey both angry and sad. "I expect there will be enough money spent in this war," he protested in a letter to his mother, "to school and clothe all the children in the United States. While reading about wars of other nations," he lamented, "I never dreamed of our happy land seeing its horrors. ,g , By mid-1865 America's long and bloody Civil War was over. Though some of Earlham's fighting men had died in battle and some from the effects of disease, the Earlham community rejoiced along with the rest of the victorious North as the bulk of its men in arms returned home. Although most Quakers maintained their oppo­ sition to bearing arms throughout the war years, soldiers returning to Earlham were not ostracized for having taken part in the Union effort. "On the whole," observed Thornburg, "the attitude of Earlham at this time ...was one of sympathetic under­ standing both for the young man who bore arms for conscience' sake, or who refused to bear arms for the same reason. "10 Writing to a British friend regarding the returning veterans, noted Earlham biologist Joseph Moore remarked, "Some who have returned look with sorrow on their past course, and others are striving to justi­ fy themselves. One ... whom I have known from a babe," he continued, "seems not at all disposed to satisfy Friends of his monthly meeting which is now dealing with him for bearing arms. "11 Perhaps the best example of the tone of Earlham's post-Civil War reflections was an 1867 campus confrontation between a visiting Quaker lecturer from Chicago and an Earlham veteran, James Bain. "Mr. H," as the visitor is identified in accounts of the episode, delivered a scathing attack on the recently concluded Union war effort. Asserting that the "war never did accomplish any good," that "99% of all officers were degraded villains," and that the soldiers were " 'poor fools' " who never would have enlisted had it not been for the "show and pomp and glory of soldiering," "Mr. H" launched his oratorical barrage. Adding insult to injury, he AMIDST THE BLOODY STRIFE 11

called Union war hero General William T. Sherman "a low immoral vagabond" and asserted that he believed decent citizens were in "real danger from the violence of returning soldiers ... "12 Bain, a four-year veteran of the thirty-third regiment of Indiana volunteers, stood up to rebut the Quaker speaker_l3 Responding to the visitor's assertion that "the war never did ... any good," Bain asked rhetorically, " ... What would have been the condition of our country today if we had meekly submitted to the outrages of the Southern soldiers[?]" Refuting "Mr. H's" claim that soldiers joined the Army for the "pomp and glory of soldiering," Bain posed another question. "Does he [the visitor] think," he asked, "the excitement and thirteen dollars a month would com­ pensate the soldier boy for all the suffering and privation and danger, to say nothing of the absence from friends and family[?]" Quite the contrary was the case, Bain boldly proclaimed. The soldiers had had a guiding principle. They saw," he said, "the flag insulted and trampled on." Bain finished his fiery rebuttal with a flair by defending the name of General Sherman. "I have followed him four long years," explained Bain, "and I know him to be a high-souled gentleman." Then Bain sat down, "amidst show of applause."14 Bain did not stand alone in his contempt for the views of the Chicago gentle­ man. "All the time 'Mr. H' was speaking we could hear low subdued hisses that threatened to break out sometimes," wrote one student, "but the grave face of [Barnabas Hobbs, the first Earlham president] restrained them, although he could barely keep his own seat."15 "Members of the faculty were not displeasted at the merited rebuke," student Robert Johnson observed, "and one of them even added a less impassioned protest against the false logic of the over-zealous Friend. "16 This episode indicates that Earlham was no haven for lingering anti-war senti­ ment. There is no evidence, moreover, that Earlham ever was a center for draft re­ sistance, so-called "Copperhead" agitation, or anti-war activity. On the contrary, at least after the Civil War, the people of Earlham were fairly unanimous in their view that the war, though an ugly experience, was necessary and just. Notes on "Amidst the Bloody Strife"

*Steven Valentine IS an undergraduate History major at Occidental College in California. He spent two years studying at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. His great grandfather, Wil· liam Henry Valentine, attended Earlham during the Civil War.

1. Caroline Carpenter Diary, July 13, 1863, Earlham College Archives; also cited by Opal Thornburg, Earlham: The Story of the College, 1847-1962 (Richmond, Indiana, 1963), p. 108 . 2. Thornburg, Earlham, p. 105. A facsimile of President Lincoln's letter to Elizabeth Gurney, dated September 5, 1864, is on file at the Earlham Archives. 3. Ibid. 4. "Catalogues of Earlham College, 1860·1881," 18 61-18 65 editions, Earlham Archives. 5. Thornburg, Earlham, p. 352. 6. Dean King to Walter J. Carpenter, July 8, 1862, Earlham Archives. 7. John Harvey to Hannah Harvey, April 21, 1861, Earlham Archives. 8. John Harvey to Eli Harvey, May 12, 1861, Earlham Archives. 9. John Harvey to "Mother," July 11, 1861, Earlham Archives. 10. Thornburg, Earlham, p.106. 11. Joseph Moore to John Hodgkin, June 3, 1862, Earlham Archives; as quoted in Thorn­ burg, Earlham, p. 106. 12. From an 18 67 student letter in possession of the writer's family; name withheld on re- quest; as quoted in Thornburg, Earlham, pp. 106·07. 13. See James Baih to Walter Carpenter, August 21, 1865, Earlham Archives. 14. Unidentified student letter cited above. 15. Ibid. 16. Robert Underwood Johnson, Remembered Yesterdays, p. 67; as quoted in Thornburg, ' Earlham, p. 108 . CONFEDERATES IN OUR MIDST by Patricia DeMore*

How many people realize there are over 1600 Confederate soldiers interred at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis? The story of how such a situation came about is a fascinating aspect of the Civil War. Camp Morton, located at Nineteenth and Alabama Streets in Indianapolis, was opened as a prisoner of war camp in February 1862, when Confederate captives started arriving after the battle of Fort Donelson. From 3,000 to 5,000 prisoners were kept there at one time totaling 15,000 during the war years. Of this number, 1616 men died while imprisoned and were buried in Greenlawn Cemetery in south­ western Indianapolis or in the wooded area around the camp itself. In 1866 a notice appeared in The Republican, a newspaper of St. Louis, Mis­ souri, and in other southern papers. The notice contained the names of Confederate prisoners who had died at Camp Morton, Indiana, during the war. "We have pro­ cured of Mr. Charles Williams, Undertaker at Camp Morton in Indianapolis, a lengthy list of Confederate prisoners of war who died at that place during the late civil conflict with the names of the companies and regiments to which they belonged and the date of their deaths. Friends desirious to procure the remains of the de­ ceased or to obtain information regarding them can do so on application to Mr. Williams, Government Undertaker, Box 433, Indianapolis, Indiana. ,1 The regiments of dead men had come from every Confederate state.

BRONZE TABLETS ON CONFEDERATE MONUMENT, CONFEDERATE MONUMENT CROWN HILL CEMETERY, GARFIELD PARK, INDIANAPOLIS INDIANAPOLIS

12 CONFEDERATES IN OUR MIDST 13

The remaining bodies were moved from Camp Morton and buried a second time. They joined their comrades in Greenlawn in an area on the north line of the cemetery. This small section in Greenlawn then was purchased by the Vandalia Rail­ road, the bodies removed again to yet another region in Greenlawn, and the original ground added to the site of the company's shops and round house. An article in the Indianapolis Journal on May 11, 1870, described the disinterring of the Confede­ rate dead. "A posse of 10 or 15 men, in charge of Mr. James Hedges, commenced unburying the Rebel dead yesterday. The flesh of those they are digging is all de­ cayed as well as the clothing. The blackened bones alone remain. It is a ghastly sight to see the grinning corpses as the rotten coffin lids are raised and they are exposed to view. But the workmen who are employed in the disagreeable task are as jocular and merry as though they were in the most commonplace employment. Some of their jokes are called forth by the memories of the war in which the poor fellows who are buried there lost their lives. One man said that he had no doubt that what some of the men had shot at him as he had been fighting them for four years. In this way he excused himself for disturbing their rest. The bones will be placed in boxes and numbered as before so that if friends should ever send for them, they can be found and forwarded. The work will not be finished for several weeks. "2 For some of the Confederate soldiers this was the third time they were buried. On November 20, 1906, Colonel William Elliott of the War Department came to Indianapolis to find the burying place of those Confederate soldiers who died as prisoners of war. The Foraker Bill, under which the War Department was acting, provided that a headstone be placed on each Confederate grave. Colonel Elliott met with many difficulties because official records conflicted. He expected to find the Rebels in Crown Hill Cemetery, but authorities there told him that the Confeder­ ates were not there. Records of Crown Hill Cemetery were intact since that grave­ yard was begun in 1863, but there was no history of the southerners having been interred there. Colonel Elliott then checked with the Indiana State Library where he found a history of Indianapolis written by Colonel W .R. Hollaway which stated that the bodies were moved from Greenlawn to Crown Hill. He also found a state­ ment by Berry Sulgrave, a noted Indianapolis editor and historian, which said of Greenlawn Cemetery, "The dead were buried, in plain wooden coffins, in a lot on the northern limit of Greenlawn Cemetery, near the Vandalia Railroad, whence they were removed. some to their homes by relatives or friends, many to Crown Hill, in a few years. ..0 This had been asserted in 1884. Crown Hill historians were confused but adament; no Confederates were buried there. After a two-week search, Colonel Elliott, with the aid of elderly citizens of Indianapolis, found the graves in Greenlawn. He also discovered that he could not carry out his original purpose of placing individual stones on the graves, for the Rebel soldiers had been buried together in a trench. The solution was to erect one large monument and place on it all the names of the men on bronze tablets. Erection of the memorial, made by the Van Amringe Granite Company of Boston, began in 1909. The monument was placed over the center of the trench in which the Confed­ erates were interred. Assembled in sections, it is a shaft of Vermont granite twenty­ five feet high from its base to the top of the ball which surmounts it. The base is twenty-six feet long with places for the bronze memorial tablets. The shaft, under crossed sabers and the word "Pax" bears this inscription: "Erected by the United States to mark the burying place of 1616 soldiers and sailors who died here as pri­ soners of war and whose bodies cannot now be identified." Between 1923 and 1928, the Confederates were the subject of much contro­ versy. Greenlawn Cemetery had become abandoned as a burying place, was over­ grown with weeds, and was about to be sold by the city to industry. The question of the proper disposal of the Confederate monument and bodies was much debated and a number of suggestions were advanced. One group of persons wished to move 14 INDIANA MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL

the bodies and monument to Crown Hill Cemetery. Another faction thought the monument should go to Garfield Park and the bodies be left where they were. A third opinion was the the monument should go to Garfield and the bodies to Crown Hill. Malcolm Tarver of Dalton, Georgia, then a member of the United States Con­ gress, was asked by a group representing the Daughters of the Confederacy to assist in the passage of a bill appropriating $25,000 to pay for the removal of the monu­ ment from one location to another in Indianapolis. President Calvin Coolidge signed the bill, and although the original expectation had been that the memorial would be moved to Crown Hill, it was instead raised in Garfield Park. In 1931 the bodies were transported to a mass grave in Crown Hill. The government erected a small granite shaft over that grave with this notation: "Remains of 1616 unknown Confederate soldiers who died at Indianapolis while prisoners of war." As late as 1975 those same Confederate soldiers were again causing some con­ cern. One Confederate re-enactment group was considering the erection of a new monument complete with names over the mass grave in Crown Hill Cemetery. Over one hundred years after their deaths, the Confederates in our capitol city are still restless.

* Patricia DeMore is a member of the Military History Section and an employee at Indiana Central University's library.

1 st. Louis Republican, February 15, 1866.

2 Indianapolis Journal, May 11, 1870.

3 B.R. Sulgrave, History of Indianapolis and Marion County,(Philadelphia, 1884), p. 314.

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT The Military History Section, as other Society sections, has as one of its goals the collecting of source materials upon which historians can base research and in­ terpretations. One of the most potentially productive areas of collecting is that of oral history-the record of Hoosier participants in various aspects of the military. Tom Krasean and Tom Rumer, to whom have been assigned responsibility for the Section's oral history project, agree on the following two suggestions: that members supply within the next few weeks the names of interviewees whose recol­ lections of their participation in military activities would be significant and volun­ teers to serve as interviewers. Members are requested to call Tom Rumer at the So­ ciety's Library (317-633-4976) to add names to either of the categories above. Mr. Rumer will compile a reading list of articles and short works on the tech­ niques and equipment involved in oral history. The list, and as much of the ac­ tual reading material as can be assembled, will be available in January 1977 for those who wish to know more or review the subject, as explained in one of the first Section meetings several months ago. When enough members have agreed to act as interviewers, a workshop will be arranged in which someone working actively in oral history will demonstrate tech­ niques and equipment, oversee practice, and answer questions from the prospec­ tive Section interviewers. BOOK REVIEWS

It is common for scholarly historical journals to contain sections devoted to reviews of books, and the Indiana Military History Journal is no exception. There will be some departure from tradition, however, in that critiques of old as well as new volumes will be included. Occasionally articles, documents, and manuscripts may also receive analysis.

Front Line General: The Commands o( William C. Chase. By Major General William C. Chase, USA Ret. (Houston: Pacesetter Press, 1975. Pp. 219. Index.)

On February 7, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur ordered Brigadier General William C. Chase to take command of the 38th Infantry Division, an outfit of Indiana and Kentucky Nation· al Guardsmen then struggling against fierce Japanese resistance on Bataan Peninsula. Chase, a brigade commander in the 1st Cavalry Division, had just completed a flying sweep into Manila which resulted in the liberation of hundreds of American and Filipino prisoners of war. His six· month tenure as commanding general of the 38th provides the principal interest for Hoosiers in this memoir, written twenty years after his retireill€nt. The 38th Division, initially involved in mop-up operations on Leyte, landed on Bataan on January 29 with the mission of recapturing the region which had been the scene of an historic last stand by United States troops in 1942. Key to regaining the peninsula was Zig Zag Pass, choked with jungle and dominated by rugged mountain terrain. The Guardsmen quickly became bogged down in bitter engagements with well-entrenched Japanese soldiers. Chase-familiar with National Guard units and sympathetic to them-considered the situa­ tion a "tactical mess," with units committed piecemeal and logistics problems abounding among combat elements. The situation was compounded by the fact that Zig Zag represented the first combat engagement for most of the division. Telling of how he quickly shuffled front-line units and made selected changes in senior commanders, Chase describes his efforts to instill a more intense fighting spirit. He became known as "kill-'em-and-count-'em-Chase" for his standing orders to inflict maximum casualties upon the enemy. The Guardsmen responded, clearing the pass within a few days and securing the peninsula. Action then shifted to islands in Manila Bay where the 38th-bolstered by specialized units from other divisions-was given the job of extricating the enemy from honeycombs of caves and fortifications. It was a particularly brutal affair, with the Guardsmen resorting to flooding the tunnels on Corregidor with diesel oil and then igniting it with grenades. On nearby Caballo Island, an almost inaccessible mountain, gasoline, fuel oil, and napalm were mixed; hauled up sheer cliffs; emptied into exposed shafts; and ignited by phosphorous grenades. Securing the island outposts, the 38th then moved on to jungle areas near Manila to sweep the mountains of Japanese resisters. Chase left the 38th late in July, taking command of the 1st Cavalry Division, which had been designated as an assault division for the invasion of Japan. Chase commanded it as part of the Army of Occupation, later was assigned as chief of staff for the 3d U.S. Army, and closed his military career as chief of the U.S. military mission to the Nationalist Chinese government on Formosa during the early 1950s. The general's memoir has several weaknesses. It was written years after the events occurred, blurring the definition of both incidents and personalities. Chase is unabashed in his hero worship of General MacArthur and in his enthusiasm for the Nationalist Chinese. His observations about international policies and military affairs tend to be superficial. An editor hostile to military cliches would have helped the style considerably. However, these deficiencies are balanced somewhat by the reality that Chase led large num­ bers of Indiana Guardsmen to victory in their major engagements of World War II. In Front Line General he describes these events from a personal standpoint. For that, the book has merit.

William J. Watt*

*William J. Watt is an administrative assistant to Governor Otis Bowen and a member of the steering committee of the Military History Section.

15 16 INDIANA MILITARY HISTORY JOURNAL

QUARTERLY MEETING

The Military History Committee will hold a quarterly meeting at 1:30 P.M. February 19, 1977, at the auditorium of the new addition to the State Library Building, 315 West Ohio. (around the corner from the North Senate entrance.) The featured speaker will be Professor Robert Brooker, Chairman of the Division of Science and Mathematics, Indiana Central University. Professor Brooker served in World War II and won the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and two Presidential Unit Citations. He is a consultant to Doe Chemical Company, has his name on eight patents, and last year was named the outstanding chemist in Indiana by the Ameri­ can Chemical Society. Professor Brooker, a most dynamic speaker, will enlighten us with his impressions of World War II.