New Harmony in the Civil War

Thirty-five stars after the addition of West Virginia 7/20/1863

Fretagoet Store 1860 shortly before their son left for the war

To young to serve.. Boys at corner of Church and Main 1862

One hundred seventy-three New Harmony soldiers fought in the Grand Army of the Republic. Nineteen died. Three were disabled.

Fifty-three GAR Vets are buried at Maple Hill Cemetery.

WMI Archive

They served in 20 Indiana Units:•Twenty-fifth Regiment Volunteers (11 New Harmony soldiers)

•Twenty-eighth Regiment First Cavalry (19 New Harmony soldiers)

•Sixtieth Regiment Volunteers (19 New Harmony soldiers)

•Ninety-first Regiment Volunteers (63 New Harmony soldiers)

•One-hundred twenty-fifth Regiment Volunteers (6 New Harmony soldiers)

•Fourteenth Regiment Infantry (1 New Harmony soldier)

•Fifteenth Regiment Volunteers (4 New Harmony soldiers)

•Twenty-fourth Regiment Volunteers (1 New Harmony soldier)

•Twenty-sixth Regiment Infantry (4 New Harmony soldiers)

•Thirty-first Regiment Volunteers (2 New Harmony soldiers)

•Thirty-eighth Regiment Volunteers (12 New Harmony soldiers)

•Forty-fourth Regiment Volunteers (1 New Harmony soldier)

•Forty-fifth Regiment Volunteers (1 New Harmony soldier)

•Forty-sixth Regiment Volunteers (1 New Harmony soldier)

•Sixty-fifth Regiment Volunteers (3 New Harmony soldiers)

•Seventy-first Regiment Volunteers 6th Cavalry (4 New Harmony soldiers)

•Eightieth Regiment Volunteers (2 New Harmony soldiers)

•One hundred thirty-sixth Regiment Infantry (11 New Harmony soldiers)

•One hundred forty-fourth Regiment Infantry (11 New Harmony soldiers)

•Twenty-eighth Regiment Colored Troops (1 New Harmony soldier)

•Units unknown (3 New Harmony soldiers)

Twenty-fifth Regiment Volunteers

•Missouri – 1861

•Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri – 1862-1863

•Fort Donolson – February 11-16, 1862

•Shiloh – April 6-7, 1862

•Siege of Atlanta and Sherman’s March to the Sea -- 1864

Ft. Donolson Lower Batteries over the Cumberland River

The fall of Ft. Henry on Feb 6, 1862 and the fall of Ft. Donolson on Feb. 16, 1862 were great losses to the Confederates. The loss of the forts opened up the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers to Union forces as invasion routes to the deep south.

From Ft. Donolson to Shiloh

Union troops recapturing artillery at Shiloh …

George Saltzman was killed at the head of his command, April 6,1862.

Shiloh battlefield today

Shiloh Church

“No soldier who took part in the two day engagement at Shiloh ever spoiled for a fight again.”

A Shiloh Veteran

Bloody Pond where both sides came to drink, bathe wounds and die staining the water red with their blood.

Peaceful and silent

After 2 days – 3500 dead, 16,000 wounded, 4,000 missing

Bloody Shiloh

Union soldiers waiting in front of Atlanta.

James Penn Bennett waited with them.

James Penn Bennett died in front of Atlanta waiting for a battle he did not live to see.

Eugene and Walter Thrall played in the 25th’s regimental band. Both returned home to New Harmony. Eugene became a druggist and grocer.

Twenty-eighth Regiment 1st Cavalry

•Saw action in Missouri 1861-1864

•Battle of Fredricktown, Oct. 21, 1861

•Battle of Pilot’s Knob, Sept. 1864

•Company C, with several New Harmony soldiers, was detached from the regiment and fought with Grant at Vicksburg

Serving in the 28th was George M. Barrett and his beloved horse “Old Fly.” They served from 1861 to 1865. Mr. Barrett died at 87 and is buried at Bethsadia Cemetery. Old Fly died at 37. Brave and faithful in life, in death she has become one of the WMI’s most popular artifacts.

Pilot’s Knob – the area where Alexander Fretageot spent his military career until his death from typhoid fever 9/7/1862.

The area where John K. Highman lost his life in the Battle of Fredericktown.

Siege of Vicksburg – the 28th regiment was there

Sixtieth Regiment Volunteers

•Camp Morton, Indiana, 1861-1862

•Company A captured at Mumfordsville, Kentucky

•After release joined the Army of the Mississippi

•Vicksburg, 1864

Who were they?

Col. Richard Owen

Eugene F. Owen

Horace P. Owen (K.D. Owen’s grandfather)

Alfred Dale Owen (Transferred to 80th)

Charles W. Slater, editor and publisher of the New Harmony Register

Camp Morton

“He rose higher than the passions and prejudices of the hour in which he lived and acted. He was impelled by the highest, greatest, noblest instincts of philanthropy in his treatment of others who had by misfortunes of war been placed in his charge. He was so patriotic that early during the war he offered his life to his country’s call and over and above this superb patriotism there was the gentle impulse for his fellow men in his great soul.”

Presentation Speech, Indianapolis, Indiana

June 9, 1913

Gen. Bennet H. Young, Commander-in-Chief United Confederate Veterans

Lieut. Col. Alfred Dale Owen

Commander of 80th Indiana Volunteers, 1864-1865

The privates and noncommissioned officers of the regiment presented Lieut. Col. Owen a fine sword which was received by him with thanks to us.

Pvt. John K. King

Co. A, Diary

Ninety-first Regiment

•Guarded Kentucky from guerrilla raids, 1862

•Moved into Tennessee to Cumberland Gap, 1863

•Siege of Atlanta, 1864

•Sherman’s march to the sea, 1864

•North and South Carolina, 1865

Dr. Robert Robson returned to practice medicine in New Harmony.

John Corbin became a prominent New Harmony citizen.

Morris Pote became New Harmony’s postmaster.

Eleven New Harmony soldiers from the 91st died in the war.

Cumberland Gap – a bird’s eye view

“If there is one thing more than another that makes my present position desirable to me, it is the increased power I possess to do good to those who honestly deserve it.”

Dr. Robert Robson, Cumberland Gap Army Hospital, 25 Feb. 1864 to his wife in New Harmony

One hundred twenty-fifth Regiment 10th Cavalry

•Fought throughout the state of Alabama

•Capt. Alexander Twigg of New Harmony and 36 other men from the 125th died on the ill-fated Sultana on April 27, 1865

Sultana set off with a poorly patched leaky boiler and 2,400 people crammed on a boat meant to carry 375 passengers and crew.

When 3 of her 4 boilers blew in the flood-swollen Mississippi, 1,800 people were killed including many recently released POWs. It remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history – 300 more than died on the Titanic.

Fourth of July 1864

New Harmony’s celebration included 34 toasts interspersed with band and vocal music

Among their toasts …

To our soldier boys who have honored themselves and their country

A requiem to the brave who have fallen fighting our country’s battles

The United States though treason and rebellion are stalking broadcast o’er the land, yet shall these states remain undivided.

The non-commissioned officers, privates and our regular army who when their officers had proved traitors, remained true to the country’s flag.

The Constitution as it will be when peace shall again dawn upon our country, when the foul blot of human slavery shall be erased from its pages, no more to bring the blush of shame to a citizen of the only free government among the nations of the earth

To the flag of the Union may it wave until the end of time