THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 24, Number 24 Thursday, June 19, 2008 One Small Town, Two Revered Heroes by William F. Keefe A caption under a newspaper photo of Annie Louise The story of “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” appears next to the boy’s grave in the Keller honors the heroic schoolteacher as a Old Cemetery across from Lion’s Park in White Hall. “Heroine Extraordinaire”. By whatever historic alchemy, one small town in “Edward L. Hager was one of the severely wound- west-central Illinois celebrates the hallowed memo- ed,” reported an offi cer who was present. The youth ries of two young people who by unanimous agree- died at home seven weeks later, becoming known ment wear the crowns of heroes. One is buried in a forever as “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh.” town park while a marble memorial pays perpetual An Irresistible Attraction tribute to the other. Both Annie Keller and Edward Hager spent their In White Hall today, more than 80 years after An- early years in White Hall and the farm country nie Louise Keller died, mention of the 25-year-old in which the town lies. Both have become legends school-teacher can evoke expressions of communal whose names have echoed down the years. pride and reverence. For many, the tornado that Young Hager was on hand that day in the fall of ended Annie’s life still ranks as “the worst storm 1861 when formations of newly uniformed Union ever experienced in this part of the state.” soldiers marched through White Hall. Nearly ev- The young man who preceded Ms. Keller into the ery resident who could walk lined the parade route. Illinois Pantheon of Heroes emerges from the his- Young and old, they wanted to see the men who tory books and news records as a Civil War casualty were on their way to help put down the rebellion. of an unusual type. There was clapping and cheering. As the last of the Edward L. Hager was 14, a drummer boy, when marchers passed, few noticed that a young man fell the vagaries of war catapulted him onto the bitterly in behind the formations. contested fi eld at Shiloh in April, 1862. In the smoke “Hager followed the soldiers nine miles north…to and thunder of the battle, young Hager dropped his Camp Carrollton,” writes Cathy Gilbert in the drum and picked up a “fallen musket.” Heroes Continued on Page 2 THE Page 2 June 19, 2008 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.thebeacher.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also Subscription Rates delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. 1 year $38 6 months $21 3 months $13 1 month $6.50 Heroes Continued from Page 1 Union forces had to regroup. While the 61st was Greene (County) Prairie Press. There, “He refused heavily engaged, the drummer boy remained in the to leave even though ranking offi cials would not al- thick of the action. low him to enlist for battle due to his age.” “Hager joined many other courageous musicians The boy would not be denied. “Hager followed in the regiments by throwing down his instrument the regiment to Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Mo.,” and picking up one of the many fallen muskets continues Ms. Gilbert. Having displayed his deter- of the dead,” adds Ms. Gilbert. In a letter written mination to make a contribution to the war, Hager years later to the White Hall Historical Society, then gained the stature he sought. Capt. Green P. Hanks, Hager’s commanding offi cer, “The commanding offi cer of the regiment enlisted wrote of the drummer boy: the boy in the regimental band fi fe and drum corps, “Ed was in the thickest of the fi ght. All day long stating his age as 16 years.” we would charge and fall back. It was hard to keep this lad in line. He was ready to charge, but hard to make fall back. The line was retreating at one time and he was ordered back. “He said, ‘Just a minute, there is a fellow over there on a grey horse in that thicket and if he should show his head again I would give him a scare.’ At that instant a commanding offi cer of the grey threw up his hands and a riderless horse came out of the thicket.” In full uniform, his left hand Shot in the arm later, Hager was one of the se- on his drum, Edward L. Hager verely wounded. As Captain Hanks notes, “He, with poses for a photo in front of an artillery piece. many others, was placed on transport boats, sent back north, and I never saw him again.” A headline over Ms. Gilbert’s article reads, “When…Edward L. Hager died…, little did he know that he would be a legend 138 years later.” The ar- ticle that follows brings Drummer Hager’s story up to the year 2,000. Hager, she writes, “died from his wounds at home on May 30, 1862, at the age of 14 years, nine months, and 26 days. “Hager is buried in the Old Cemetery across from Hager became a member of Company A, 61st Il- the Lion’s Park… A monument was recently erected linois Infantry. The date of his assignment was No- in his honor.” vember 13, 1861. Not long after he joined the fi fe In Another April and drum corps, “Orders soon came for the regi- In another April, this one bearing the date April ment to go South for action.” As the fortunes of war 19,1927, the wind burst over the school. would dictate, the regiment’s fi rst engagement was “First came the rain,” reports Elizabeth Betten- the Battle of Shiloh, joined on April 6 and 7, 1862. dorf in an article published in the Prairie Press. It “The Battle of Shiloh was fought in a small area was a rain that witnesses would never forget: “Huge surrounding Shiloh Church at Pittsburg Landing glassy walls of water fl apping across the corn fi elds on the Tennessee River,” writes Ms. Gilbert. “Many like sheets hung to dry in a hot wind.” historic accounts of the battle refer to the irony of The cyclone that followed roared out of a sky that one of the most costly and tragic battles of the Civil had grown darker and darker while the air became War being fought at a place called Shiloh, meaning “heavy and still.” “Virginia Cordes, one of the 16 ‘place of peace’ in the Hebrew language. students in the Centerville School, recalled later “Hager was among approximately 75,000 soldiers what happened next. who fought in this…battle.” Surprised initially, the “The coal shed outside the west window of the THE June 19, 2008 Page 3 schoolhouse went lifting into fl ight like a hulking ville when the storm of 1927 struck. bird, swooping in the current and riding the gusts Annie’s fi ancé, Howard Hobson, was the fi rst per- into a mean-looking black cloud. son to reach the Centerville School after the storm, “Jamima Farrington was reaching for her lunch according to the records of the day. “The funeral was bucket when she saw the cyclone circling counter- held on April 24,” notes Francis P. Anderson in a clockwise and wailing like a factory whistle. ‘It got monograph on the heroic schoolteacher, “but since real dark like it was midnight and it was raining the roads were impassable after the heavy rains…, pretty good. Some of the kids were all worked up the casket was placed in the Judd vault in the White and crying and begging to get under their desks.’ Hall Cemetery. “Their young teacher, a husky farm girl with “Then on May 21 it was taken to the Keller family brown eyes and a steely chin, calmly instructed lot in the Russell Cemetery north of Eldred. Even the…students to lie fl at on the fl oor. How could she at this late date the roads were so bad that it was have known that the storm barreling east from Cal- necessary to detour past the wrecked school where houn County already had whisked away houses and Miss Keller lost her life.” barns, plucked feathers from the backs of chickens The plot in which Annie Keller is buried enjoys the and reportedly sucked hundreds of gallons of water shade of a gnarled red cedar tree. The nineteenth- from the Illinois River? century cemetery “with its Victorian headstones “With circling winds estimated at more than 300 and clusters of wild geraniums, jack-in-the-pulpit, miles per hour, the twister scooped up and slammed and jewel weed, is reached by a winding wooded down the little school so quickly that Cordes still path leading to Annie’s moss-stained headstone,” as cannot recall the precise moment the building col- Bettendorf writes. lapsed.” “Inscribed with a quote from John 15:13, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for a friend,’ the headstone remains a relic of Keller’s funeral attended by 1,000 people.” Taken with a box camera shortly after the great storm of April 19, 1927, a photo taken by one of the students shows what the wind left after passing toward the northeast.