Chapter 17 |
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 The attack of the Rebels
upon Fort Sumter - inaugurating the most gigantic contest the world has ever
seen - and President Lincoln's proclamation of April 14th 1861, calling for
seventy-five thousand volunteers to put down the rebellion, was received
by the people of Jay County with one mind. Traitors had appealed from the
peaceful court of the ballot box, to the bloody arbitrament of the sword
and bullet, and were ruthlessly waging war upon our nation. The people saw
no way to preserve the honor of the institutions of the country but to crush
the rebellion by force of arms. The contest soon assumed proportions so vast
as to astonish the world. Yet they did not swerve from their loyalty, and
gave to the authorities a hearty support. This unanimity of sentiment was
illustrated at the fall election in 1861. Political parties hushed their
bickerings on former disputed questions, and patriotically divided candidates
and all voted one ticket. Since the first year of the war this bright example
had not been followed. Parties, and their accompanying strifes, mar the unity
of the people in support of the holy struggle, which has called forth to
the battlefield nearly one thousand of her patriotic sons.
Being distant from railroads and daily papers, the people of the county did not so early awaken to the realities of the war as those centers that more quickly felt the heart throbbing of the wounded and bleeding country. For this reason no fully company was raised for the three months service; but many went and entered companies forming in other counties. The first citizen of Jay County to volunteer was Charles E. Bennett. He was a young man, and student at Liber College. When he read the call for troops he told President Tucker that he was going. He went to Winchester, joined a company there, but was rejected. But, determined to serve his country, he went to Indianapolis, joined Company C, 8th Indiana Regiment, and by hiding his glasses for his near-sightedness, was accepted. He served his time out, and was discharged. In 1862, when the rallying cry was,
He again enlisted in Company F, 57th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and this time gave his life for his country. He died of disease while the company was at Castillian Springs, Tennessee, about the 1st of December 1862. He was a kind-hearted, honest young man, and had been raised a Quaker. |
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