WARREN COUNTY IN THE WAR.
IX.
EARLY DAYS AT HARVEYSBURG – ENLISTMENT OF EX-AUDITOR RANDALL AND HISTORY OF RECRUITING EXPEDITION OF CAPTAIN PARSHALL.
Situated in the midst of a beautiful farming country, with many natural advantages, lies Harveysburg, Massie Township’s only village. Long before the war, the little place became noted. Many of its inhabitants were Quakers, who opposed slavery on principle and it became one of the most important stations on the Underground Railway. Many of the fugitive slaves remained here and their descendants form a considerable proportion of the Harveysburg of to-day.
Harveysburg is five miles from a railroad and the newspapers go across the country from Corwin. But they probably never went faster than the morning when they contained the news of the attack on Fort Sumpter. The story of the reception of the news there is just the same as that of every loyal town and city in the country. It was burning indignation mingles with the deepest sorrow. But it was not confined to expressions of feeling. A number of men hurried to Lebanon and enlisted in Company F. The first two men from Harveysburg to put their names on the paper were James Smith and John Scroggy. The former remained in Company F but the quota of the company being full, Scroggy was transferred to D. Both are living now and Smith has just applied for a pension.
Very shortly after they enlisted, Jabez Turner, a plasterer by trade, came to Lebanon and enrolled little thinking as he did so that he would be the first man from Warren County to fall in the great war. In the first engagement of the 12th at Scarey Creek, he was shot, while advancing in the skirmish line, and instantly killed.
After these men joined the regiment, only a few more volunteered until the raising of the company at Lebanon, whose organization has been so carefully described in the series of papers from an “old soldier,” Company A of the 35th. Several men from Harveysburg joined this company. The papers above referred to have also told how Sergeant Parshall at the request of this superiors and friends, returned to Lebanon and began the organization of another company for the 35th.
A drummer and fifer were procured, and Sergeant Parshall himself began the recruiting work. In one of their trips around the county they went to Harveysburg. The drum and the fife brought in the farmers for two or three miles around, and the whole town turned out to see what the occasion of it all.
At that time, near to Harveysburg, there was a farmer’s boy. He was a tough, hearty, sunburned chap, and the drum was too much for his patriotism. He was plowing wheat, but he stopped, put the horses in the barn, went to town and enlisted. He has been heard from since – several times. His name is Charles Wesley Randall, at present assistant auditor of Warren County, and to him is the Gazette indebted for the following facts.
The date of this recruiting expedition was September 5th and it was the last one made. On that day sixteen men put their names to the paper. The enrollment list is a roll of honor and here it is: Those marked with an asterisk (*) as still living: *C. W. Randall, *John G. Bennett, *Samuel M. Denny, *John T. Fisher, *Andrew J. Griffin, *John Harris, *James Hartman, James Howland, Robert Holt, *Socrates (“Sock”) Harlan, *James Whetsel, Thomas W. Rose, John G. Koerner, Nathan Schaeffer, Fletcher Sweeny and Thomas Harlan.
The latter was elected second lieutenant and was promoted to be first. At the battle of Chickamaugua, Captain Parshall was on Colonel Vanderveer’s staff and Harlan commanded the company. Captain Parshall was shot on the first day of the fight and Lieutenant Harlan on the second.
On the 6th of September, the farmers around Harveysburg came to the town in spring wagons and carriages and proudly took the newly enlisted men to Lebanon. The night was spent in the old Belmire House, now the University Lyceum. On the following day the men who had enlisted for the company all met at Lebanon, and, in charge of Captain J. P. Gilchrist, took up their march for Hamilton. They stopped at Monroe for dinner and were here addressed by “Royal Alf” Thomas. There is not a survivor of the company who does not recollect this speech.
Arriving at Hamilton, they were at once mustered in by Captain P. H. Breslin, on September 9. The Harveysburg boys were found to be all “O. K.,” and they formed a good and honorable portion of Company F, 35th O. V. I.
Harveysburg did not end its work here. The 79th roll was well besprinkled by men who hailed from Massie Township. This plucky little section of the county was not at all in the rear when it came to furnishing her share of the glorious record of Warren County in the War.
Source:
The Lebanon (Ohio) Gazette, Saturday, January 2, 1866
Arne H Trelvik
27 November 2011