Thanks to Daniel H. Brush, the founder of Carbondale, and his pioneer memoirs Growing Up With Southern Illinois, historians today have one of the most complete lists of early Southern sympathizers.
Brush listed 23 men who took part in a meeting in Carbondale to declare the city for the South if it came to war. The meeting date was after the surrender of Fort Sumter (Sat., April 13, 1861) and before Illinois troops passed through Carbondale on their way to garrison Cairo (Mon., April 22, 1861).
Brush said he learned of the meeting a few days after it happened. He was in midsentence describing his indignation when he put down his pen and the book ended.
Many of the men were from Marion or Williamson County. Most were still county residents, but some had moved to Carbondale in the mid 1850’s when Carbondale was platted as a stop on the new Illinois Central Railroad.
Jefferson J. Allen
Allen was probably the Marion attorney with the law office on the first floor of the Williamson County Courthouse.
William Joshua Allan
Son of Congressman Willis Allen, “Josh” was once Logan’s law partner in Marion. By 1861, Allen had served as U.S. Attorney under President Franklin Pierce and one session, in 1855, as state representative.
Allen took part in both the Marion and Carbondale secession meetings, and Erwin wrote that he also took part in the Unionist meeting in Marion that tried to rescind the secession resolution.
After Pulley was arrested in Carbondale, Allen reluctantly took part in the incident at Goodall’s Bridge.
A boyhood friend of Logan, Allen won the special election in 1862, to succeed Logan. He took his seat June 2, and was arrested back in the district Aug. 15th. Even though jailed in the Old Capital Prison with three other Southern lllinoisans, charged with disloyalty, Allen won re-election that November.
Two years later he lost, as Logan returned from the battlefield to campaign against him.
Thorndike Brooks
Described by Brush as “Dr.”, Brooks was one of the more militant secessionists involved in trying to intimidate Brush into getting into the telegraph office.
He was also a leader in the Big Muddy Bridge raid and the attempt to raise a regiment for the South. When those efforts failed he formed a company of men that left Marion May 25th, to join the 15th Tenn. Reg. of Volunteers. During the war he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel.
At the war’s close he moved to Baltimore where he became a successful merchant. Like many other Southern Illinois secessionists he came to Logan’s rescue after the war writing a letter claiming Logan as innocent of charges of disloyalty before the war.
County records show that right before he left to fight, Brooks turned over his property to R.M. Hundley to sell and pay off his creditors.
Corder was a teacher in Franklin County when the Black Hawk War started and he volunteered for the militia. He was elected a sergeant in Jeff Stephenson’s company of mounted volunteers. Unlike most local volunteers, Corder’s company may have gotten there quick enough to see some action.
After Marion was platted he moved to Marion to practice law. He was elected county clerk in 1843, and served until the Mexican War when he enlisted as a private. He was later promoted to captain and recognized for reckless bravery on the battlefield.
After the war Corder was elected state senator from 1853 to 1855. After his time in Springfield, Corder moved to Carbondale, where he chaired the secessionist meeting. One son served as a captain for the South. He was quoted that if younger he would have left to fight himself.
When James D. Pulley was arrested in Carbondale in June, 1861, Corder rode to Marion to warn that Logan and Allen were next, precipitating the incident at Goodall’s Bridge.
John M. Cunningham
Cunningham served as sheriff of Williamson County from 1842 to 1846. After which he served one term as state representative, and then the last registrar at the federal land office in Shawnee town.
Cunningham served in the Mexican War when he first met John A Logan. The two became friends and later relatives when Logan married Cunningham’s daughter, Mary.
Although a participant at both the Marion and Carbondale secession meetings he secretly pledge loyalty to Logan at the end of April 1861, in a deal that he would be named deputy in the county and circuit clerk’s office. Later, he became the clerk in 1861 and held the county position until 1865, and the circuit position until 1868.
After the war Cunningham, then a political opponent of Logan, certified that the general had not been aware about the efforts of local residents to raise a company for the Confederacy.
Eubanks
Brush mentions a man named Eubanks as a partner of Col. Brooks that attempted to get information from Brush on any Union dispatches coming into the Carbondale telegraph office.
James Hampton
Hampton helped raise a company during the Mexican War and served as captain in the company that included Lt. John. A. Logan.
After Carbondale was platted he moved from his home in Carterville Township to the new city where he served one term in the legislature.
In Carbondale, he served on the resolution committee to draft the secession ordinance. Sometime after that he moved to Missouri.
Henry C. Hopper
Hopper was a participant at both the Carbondale and Marion secession meetings. He also must have taken part in the preliminary saloon meeting in Marion as Erwin described him as the author of Marion’s secession ordinance. At the Marion meeting he was appointed to the resolution committee.
Along with Brooks, he led the group that left Marion to go fight for the South.
Erwin wrote that Hundley came to the county in 1838 as a penniless boy. An early businessman in Marion he operated stores and was the contractor for the county’s new courthouse in 1858.
During August and September 1862, he and Pulley worked to organize the 128th Regiment. Later in Cairo, he vetoed Aiken’s plan to use the regiment to help capture the city for the Confederates. Nevertheless, Col. Hundley was discharged later in 1863.
Abe Morgan
Morgan took part in the Carbondale public meeting. This Morgan was also probably the A. H. Morgan that was part of the group that followed Brooks to join the Confederate Army. In 1866, he signed an affidavit saying Logan had not encouraged him to go South to fight
James D. Pulley
Pulley was one of the first businessmen in Marion opening “Our House“grocery store (saloon) on the west side of the square in 1840.
During the Mexican War he served as third lieutenant in Cunningham’s company.
In 1852, Pulley was named county drainage commissioner with the duty to sell county swamp lands. Later when he moved to Johnson County, he represented that county in the legislature for two terms.
Although Erwin doesn’t mention Pulley in connection to the Marion meeting it was likely he was there, as well as at the Carbondale one.
Pulley was at Paducah the day before Brooks’ company left Marion. Erwin says charges that he was on the “Old Kentucky” that ferried the Marion boys across the river, got circulated. Sometime probably during the second week of June, Pulley was heading to Springfield as a grand juror, when he was arrested in Carbondale. His arrest led to the incident at Goodall’s Bridge.
In 1862, he helped form the 128th Regiment and served as Lieutenant Colonel until relieved of duty along with the other officers in 1863.
Henry Sanders
Sanders was probably from Williamson County. In 1856, he purchased Brush’s sawmill and 160 acres of land in the new town of Carbondale.
In 1861, he took part in the Carbondale secession meeting.
Carbondale or unknown
The following men are believed to Carbondale residents during 1861, or residents of the immediate area.
Israel Blanchard
Blanchard was Brush’s brother-in-law who married his wife’s brother’s widow. Due to his “rascality” Brush ended up adopting his nephews and nieces and for thirty years was involved in a series of lawsuits against Blanchard to get the children’s inheritance from him.
Twice Blanchard was arrested for disloyalty. The second time he was part of the group taken to Washington D. C. and held until released on order of Lincoln himself.
According to the charges at his arrest, Blanchard was one of the leaders in the attempt to attack the Big Muddy Bridge. In 1863, he was elected to the state senate with a plurality of 3000 votes.
Horace Lewis Bowyer
Bowyer was son of former representative George Bowyer who had fought in the Black Hawk War.
Although supportive of secession, he later joined Logan’s regiment as first lieutenant in Company H. In May, 1862, he was promoted to captain. Just over a year later he died of wounds June 12, 1863, during the siege of Vicksburg.
Company rosters list him from Union County as a lieutenant, then, from Carbondale when he was captain, in addition to fighting in the Civil War.
Timothy Corder
Corder was Carbondale’s postmaster, and took part in the secession meeting in April.
William Goodwin
Goodwin served on the resolution committee at the Carbondale secession meeting.
Reuben M. Morgan
Morgan was arrested in Carbondale one day after Blanchard’s first arrest.
Lindorf Ozburn
Ozburn was Logan’s brother-in-law as well as Brush’s. He enlisted later that September as quartermaster in Logan’s 31st Regiment. When Logan was promoted to a general, Ozburn succeeded him as colonel. Logan forced his resignation in Feb. 1863, when he refused to support Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
Others
Also included in Brush’s list were Joseph Beasley, Jo Benoist, a man named Clarkson, Jonathan Gillett, James M. Goodwin, and Charles Rogerson.
ERWIN’S WILLIAMSON COUNTY HISTORY LIST
Milo Erwin’s 1876 History of Williamson County was the first history written after the Civil War to include information on Williamson County’s efforts to join the South.
However, close examination of Erwin’s dates and statements show that he was at best incorrect in his history, or at worst was covering up the extent secession fever gripped the county in order not to implicate local hero John A Logan, who was at the time head of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union war veterans organization, as well as U. S. Senator who was a friend of President U. S. Grant and had presidential aspirations of his own.
Erwin wrote about many of the men on Brush’s list. They are not repeated here. The following are additional names Erwin wrote about in regards to Confederate sympathies.
George Aiken
Aiken was by far the most notorious of the Southern sympathizers. His actions developed past the political and delved into the criminal by the end of the war.
In 1848, Aiken opened a store in Blairsville. Six years later he became postmaster. While neither Erwin or Brush mentions him in the various actions in 1861, it is likely he was part of the mob at Carbondale.
In 1862, Aiken joined the ill-fated 128th Regiment as quartermaster. While at Cairo, he traveled twice over to Missouri to meet Confederate Gen. Jeff Thompson to arrange the transfer of the 128th from the Union to the Confederate side.
The plan was to help Thompson take the Union headquarters of Cairo with the 128th’s help.
After working out the details, Aiken returned to Cairo and told Dr. Clemison the plot. Clemison told Col. Hundley who Erwin said quickly vetoed it.
Nevertheless, all of the officers of the 128th were discharged in April, 1863.
After failing to turn the 128th to the South, Aiken returned with two men from Missouri and along with his son, John, they formed the dreaded Aiken Gang.
Erwin reported that they was responsible for several murders and robbed over 50 citizens.
During the 1863 August term of the county grand jury, Aiken, who was the foreman swore that the Union commander in Marion came out to his house and with his soldiers tied up and whipped Aiken.
The grand jury gave an indictment against the captain and the sheriff arrested him. The Union soldiers then threatened the sheriff and town if the captain wasn’t released. When the captain was released the soldiers turned around and arrested Aiken and took him to Springfield. While riding out of Marion, Aiken cried out, “Now see where your liberty has gone to.”
In 1876, Erwin wrote that he doubted Aiken’s story about the beating.
Allen was part of the Marion Militia at the battle of Goodall’s Bridge. He was selected as a courier to bring in the pickets due to his acuteness in hearing. The trouble was his eyesight. He saw the pickets coming toward him and thought they were the troop sent from Carbondale. His mad dash back to the bridge caused the so-called battle to commence.
G.C. Campbell
During the Spring of 1861, Campbell either knew or encouraged the effort to raise troop for the Confederacy.
After the war, Campbell was one of several Marion businessmen and politicians who backed up Logan’s story that he somehow did know of efforts to raise troops for the Confederacy in Marion during the Spring of 1861.
Campbell was another son-in-law of John C. Cunningham and thus brother-in-law to John A. Logan. Along with James D. Pulley, he was in Paducah the day before Brooks took his company south to join the Confederacy. It was later rumored that Campbell and Pulley were on the “Old Kentucky” that ferried that Marion boys across the Ohio River.
Dr. John M. Clemison
Clemison was the county prosecuting (or people’s) attorney from 1861 to 1863. He was part of the Marion Militia during the so-called Battle of Goodall’s Bridge.
He was part of the group arrested on or about Aug. 14, 1862, and taken to Cairo first, then Washington, and imprisoned without trial. He was charged with making rebel speeches, belonging to the Knights of the Golden Circle, and stirring up sedition and treason.
Immediately after his release from prison he joined the 128th Regiment that had been formed in Marion. While at Cairo, George Aiken told him of his plan for the regiment to switch sides. Clemison then told Col. Hundley who nixed the idea.
William Cook
Erwin wrote that Cook either know or aided the Confederate recruiting efforts in the spring of 1861. After the war Cook, then a political opponent of Logan certified that the general had not been, aware about the efforts of local residents to raise a company for the Confederacy.
William Crain
Crain was a private during the Black Hawk War in 1832, although he never took part in any fighting.
Later in April, 1861, after the failed raid on the Big Muddy Bridge, Crain came back from Carbondale swearing he could have taken his boys and cleaned out the soldiers.
In 1876, Erwin wrote that “William and some of his boys would often get into rough-and-tumble fights; but never used weapons.” One his boys was convicted and hung that year due to his role in the Bloody Vendetta.
Hibart B. Cunningham
This Cunningham was the son of John Cunningham and brother-in-law to Logan. Two months before he left with Brooks to join the Confederate Army he sold his 80 acre farm to Logan.
Cunningham was probably unique in the armies of the Civil War. Although he was a captain in Brook’s Confederate company, midway through the war he arrived at Logan’s command tent. Rather than being arrested as a prisoner of war, Logan made him one of his personal aides and gave him the rank of captain. Logan later mentioned his bravery during battles in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign when Logan actually put him in command of a Union company.
After the war, Cunningham was one of the former Marion Confederates that certified that Logan had nothing to do, nor knew, or their decision to go fight for the South. It was a statement, that even Logan’s sister disagreed with.
William Davis
Erwin recorded this Davis’ middle initial was “M”, however other histories after Erwin talks about a William T. Davis. None of the histories have overlapping information on Davis, but the age is the same for both, so they were probably one and the same.
If this was the case, Erwin’s Davis was the one whose’ father was a general during the Black Hawk War and one of the first county commissioners. Also, his grandfather was a childhood neighbor and second cousin to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
Erwin’s Davis was a soldier in Brook’s company and was seriously wounded during the Battle of Shiloh. After the war, he lived in Equality, where he signed an affidavit in 1866, swearing he joined the Confederate Array with Logan’s encouragement.
Ten years later while serving as Marion’s city marshal, Davis explained to Erwin, that he never said Logan told him to enlist, but rather he just thought Logan supported the Confederate cause at the time.
It’s believed that this Davis was the one who later served as Mayor of Marion and one term as state representative.
Judge A. D. Duff
Duff was a judge from Franklin County who was part of the group arrested during August, 1862, and was held in Cairo and Washington without trial for nearly four months.
In 1856, Goddard, a lawyer, was elected Circuit Clerk in the county. He held that office when he took part in the April 15th secession meeting and was appointed to the committee to draft the secession resolution. He later did not take part in the Big Muddy Bridge raid.
Erwin wrote that Goddard did take part in a secret meeting in the Courthouse near the end of April along with Logan, the elder Cunningham, and County Clerk John H. White. At the meeting the four pledged to Support the Union, and that Logan would back to Washington and upon his return would raise a regiment for the Union. Goddard would be captain.
Goddard took part in the action leading up to the Battle of Goodall Bridge in late June, 1861. When word arrived from Carbondale that soldiers were coming, Logan gave Capt. Goddard his pistol and told him to stand guard at the mile tree on the Marion-Carbondale Road. About 2 a.m. Goddard and the picket line arrested two couriers from Carbondale who had traveled to tell Marion that all was fine and that no soldiers were coming.
After Logan’s speech Goddard signed up and became a first lieutenant in Co. F, which was a different company than the one most Marion men joined. He resigned the following April.
However, two months later in June Goddard was sworn in as captain of Company C which had been raised in Marion. He resigned again in 1864.
After the war he was elected Mayor of Marion.
Isaiah Harris
When the group organized in Carbondale, April 22, 1861, to go burn the Big Muddy Bridge, Harris was sent up the tracts to reconnoiter the area. He returned with information that a company of soldiers with cannon was guarding the place. He told that crowd that they could not whip the soldiers.
Harvey Hays (Hayes)
Hayes, or Hays, worked with Brooks to organize the group to attack the Big Muddy Bridge. Failing in that effort he worked with Brooks to form the group that left to join the Tennessee Volunteers in May of 61.
Charley Goodall
After Brook’s company had left for the Confederate Army, Goodall held a barbecue at his place around the first of June, 1861. During the festivities, Goodall raised the Confederate Stars and Bars for the first, and only recorded time, over Williamson County.
Erwin describes Goodall’s place as four miles east of Marion. County land records show that Goodall owned property north of Spillertown and in Jeffersonville, as well as a third interest in the old Goodall and Spiller Mill. The deed doesn’t tell where the mill actually is located, but it possibly was the Goodall Mill built by Charley’s uncle, Joab, on the original family farm at Goodall’s Bridge (Old Creal Springs Road and Crab Orchard Creek).
The incident earlier at Goodall’s Bridge indicates that the Goodalls there were pro-South.
Peter Keifer
Keifer was the first man to publicly speak out on joining the Confederacy if war broke out. Erwin wrote that Keifer made a speech on the steps of the courthouse in Marion during the second week of March.
Robert Kelly
Kelly was one of the residents who joined the company leaving to fight for the Confederacy. While walking to Paducah, during the afternoon of May 26, 1861, Kelly went ahead to arrange for food and transportation across the Ohio River. Erwin wasn’t clear if Kelly was one of the six men that were later captured by local Home Guards and then saved by the rest of the company.
B.F. Lowe
Both Lowes were prominent in Marion in 1861. One, or both, operated a saloon and 1863 that sold liquor to Union soldiers while the soldiers were garrisoning Marion. After the war Lowe, then a political opponent of Logan certified that the general had not been aware about the efforts of local residents to raise a company for the Confederacy.
George W. Lowe
Erwin wrote that Lowe was a prominent man in Marion in 1861, and either knew or encouraged the company of soldiers that left to fight for the South. After the war Lowe, then a political opponent of Logan certified that the general had not been aware about the efforts of local residents to raise a company for the Confederacy.
Joshua Lowe
Lowe was probably the son of either B.F. or George W. Lowe. He was part of the group that followed Brooks to join the Confederate Army. In 1866, he signed an affidavit saying Logan had not encouraged him to go south to fight.
James D. Manier
Manier was elected president of the April 15th secession meeting in Marion, where the resolution calling for the secession of Southern Illinois was passed with only one dissenting vote.
After the war, Manier was one of Logan’s opponents who came to his rescue signing a letter stating that Logan knew nothing of the secession movement in Southern Illinois before the war.
Erwin spells the last name Nelson, but it probably was this Neilson who was born in 1810. Neilson was a Baltimore native raised in Virginia where his family had slaves and land. At age ten he left home for Tennessee and moved to Illinois at age 21.
It’s possible that Neilson may have been related to Hall and William Neilson which owned and operated the first coal mine in Jackson County, the Mount Carbon Mine in 1833. The owner, Hall Neilson, lived in Richmond, Virginia.
Neilson bought land in Southern Township in the 1840s. Neilson Junction and Crossing bear his name today.
After taking some part in the pro Confederacy actions in 1861, Neilson was arrested on or about Aug. 15, 1862 for making rebel speeches. He was taken to Cairo for three weeks, then to Washington to spend time imprisoned in the Old Capital Prison for three months. He was then released, having never appeared before a judge.
In 1875, he was elected to one term in the Illinois House of Representatives where he earned the title, “Egyptian Orator.”
D.L. Pulley
Pulley was one of the first businessmen in Marion. He opened one of the first grocery stores (saloons in those days) on the square. During the Mexican War, Pulley fought as third lieutenant in the elder Cunningham’s Company B or the Fifth Illinois Regiment.
Like most Marion businessmen, Pulley supported the South in 1861. After the war he was one the Logan’s opponents who nevertheless backed Logan’s assertions that he had not encouraged men to join the Confederate Army at the start of the war.
R.J. PuIIey
Pulley also took part the so-called Battle of Goodall’s Bridge southeast of Marion. After the war Pulley, then a political opponent of Logan certified that the general had not been aware about the efforts of local residents to raise a company for the Confederacy.
William R. Scurlock
Prior to the war Scurlock and his wife were teachers in the first frame school in Marion. The school site was probably where the first brick school was later built and then torn down a century later for the present courthouse. Scurlock served as County Superintendent from 1861-1865. In 1864, Scurlock defaulted to a sum of $750 while serving as superintendent. The county was eventually paid back by the bondsman.
W.R. Tinker
Tinker was part of the group that followed Brooks to join the Confederate Army. In 1866, he signed an affidavit saying Logan had not encouraged him to go south to fight
Washburn had moved to Marion in 1857, from his native state of Tennessee. At first he practiced law and was a partner with merchant Frank Sparks. He took part in the April 15th secession meeting was appointed to the committee to draft the secession resolution.
In 1862, voters in Jackson and Williamson Counties elected Washburn as state representative where he served for one term. Erwin recalls that Washburn was very bitter during the war. In 1869, he was elected to the state constitutional convention.
In 1870, he was elected to fill a two-year special term in the state senate. While in the senate, Washburn voted against Logan for U.S Senator. After his term ended he moved just west of the new town of Carterville where he operated a grist and saw mill.
In 1874, he, along with others, founded the Egyptian Press, in Marion as the county’s leading Democratic newspaper. In 1876, he was elected for another term in the State House of Representatives. Later he served as County Judge from 1882 to 1886.
Wheeler
Erwin didn’t record Wheeler’s first name, but mentioned him as one or the firebrands at the Big Muddy Bridge raid that called the people “cowards and slaves” for not attacking.
NANNIE GRAY PARKS’ MARGIN NOTES
Nannie Gray Parks was an early librarian at the Marion Carnegie Library who helped found the Williamson County Historical Society.
Today, the library still has her copy of Erwin’s history in its special collection. As late as 50 years ago, she was able to get access to at least part of Erwin’s original manuscript. Using the manuscript and her own research, Parks added her notes to the margin of Erwin’s book. One of her notes added Dr. Samuel Bundy to the list who was arrested in 1862.
Dr. Samuel H. Bundy
Bundy moved to the Gum Springs area in Stonefort Township in 1852, from his previous home in Tennessee.
He preached at the Gum Springs Church and practiced medicine. Besides being arrested with the party that included Allen and Duff in 1862, he later was one of three physicians who started the Williamson County Medical Association in May, 1875.
See Also, Goodall Bridge Fiasco and Secession Movement posts
(Written By Jon Musgrave for the 1995 History of Marion Progress Edition of the Marion Daily Republican)