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The Newburg Home Guard I

          The composition, condition, and readiness of the Newburg Home Guard is of keen interest in relation to the events of the Newburg Raid. Had even one member of the Newburg Home Guard been posted on the riverfront at mid-day on July 18, 1862, it is quite likely that events would have unfolded differently.
          As part of my research into the events of the raid, I have learned much about the Newburg Home Guard. Without any previous publication available on this unit, and with little of detail published about the Indiana Home Guard, most of my findings are new to the public and put down here for the first time.
          In the rapidly changing landscape of the early war months, there was much confusion about how to organize and run Indiana defenses. Most Indiana home guard efforts were focused on the southern counties bordering the Ohio River region. There was great activity in both Warrick and Vanderburgh Counties.
          There are three existing rosters for the Newburgh Home Guard in the year 1861- one roster for May, one for September, and another for December. As more and more men went off to fight with the regular army, and as enthusiasm for the war effort increased through the summer and fall of 1861, the composition of the Newburg Home Guard was in constant flux. The first roster is dated May 28, 1861. This was about six weeks after the surrender of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. This first roster also includes the constitution articles of the Newburgh Home Guard.

NOTE: The wording below is exactly as written in the original document. The wording is sometimes ornate, confusing, and unintelligible. These are the words in the constituting document:

          We the undersigned members of a military company, known as the Newburgh Home Guard, whose constitution accompanies this, desire to volunteer as a company in the Indiana Legion under the new militia law of the state passed at the present session of the legislature, and we do adopt the said constitution of the Home Guards for our government insofar as it is not inconsistent with the laws of the state.

Newburg May 28th 1861.

1. Union Bethell (Captain)
2. James G. Root
3. J. C. Huber
4. W. J. P. Haynie
5. William P. Norwood
6. Robert Brodie
7. A. A. McGennis
8. Thomas Norwood
9. T. D. Brown
10. A. Martel
11. H. C. West
12. John Hinomons
13. J. R. Tilman
14. I. H. Dishler
15. John. B. Handy
16. V. T. Chipman
17. C. W. Brown
18. John Cabauses
19. E. B. Burns
20. Silas Bell
21. Jacob Nelson
22. William McCormick
23. David H. Huxford
24. Fred Myers
25. William D. Downey
26. R. C. Phelps
27. Isaac Bell
28. Robert Lemasters
29. William Anderson
30. D. Fellows
31. John Weed
32. James Robertson
33. A. J. McCormack
34. A. L. Downey
35. William L. Haynie
36. B. F. Adkins
37. William N. McGill
38. H. C. Noel
39. Samuel Alexander
40. D. W. Merritt
41. J. B. Weldon
42. J. T. Fickas
43. William Butterworth
44. Albert Cox
45. Alvin Beach
46. James Campbell
47. Williiam Carlin
48. William W. Slaughter
49. Henry W. Canouse
50. J. H. Darby
51. G. W. Fuquay

          We the undersigned are bound to the state of Indiana in the penal sum of seven hundred fifty dollars, for the payment of which we jointly and severally bind ourselves. The condition is as follows: Whereas 52 persons, members of a certain military company known as the Newburgh Home Guards have volunteered as a company in the Indiana Legion. Now, if the said volunteers shall uniform themselves as is required by the Constitution of said volunteers, filed with the auditor of Warrick County, then this obligation to be void, else in full force.

Newburgh May 28th 1861.

W. L. Haynie [Seal]
R. C. Slaughter [Seal]
T. R. Weed [Seal]
Phillip Siegel [Seal]
Union Bethell [Seal]
J. R. Tillman [Seal]

Approved May 30th 1861 C. W. Armstrong, County Auditor



Constitution of the Newburgh Home Guard


Article 1:
This company shall be known as the Newburgh Home Guard

Article 2:
The officers of this company shall consist of a captain, two lieutenants, one orderly sergeant, four sergeants, four corporals,  and a company clerk.

Article 3:
The officers shall be elected by the company by ballot and no election shall be valid unless two-thirds of all the vote and candidates must receive a majority of all the votes cast to be elected.

Article 4:
The term of office shall be one year.

Article 5:
The uniforms for the privates shall consist of a roundabout of gray wool cloth faced with red and embellished with the regular military buttons, the pantaloons to be of gray tweed with a red stripe down each of the outer seams, and a blue cloth cap.

The officers uniform shall correspond with the uniform of officers of similar grade in the United States service.

Article 6:
The members of this company shall comply with Article 5 of this constitution within 30 days from the date of his membership.

Article 7:
The meetings of this company (except the regular or stated meetings), shall be upon the call of the captain or commanding officer.

Article 8:
This constitution shall not be altered or amended except by consent of two-thirds of the company, nor shall any byelaw be made or adopted except by a majority of the company.

Article 9:
Persons may become members of this company by subscribing their names to this constitution and taking the oath to support the Constitution of the State of Indiana, the Constitution of the United States and to resist all attempts to subvert the government.

State of Indiana, Warrick County

C. W. Armstrong, auditor in and for said county, do hereby certify that the above and foregoing is a true, perfect, and full copy of the undertaking, bond, and constitution of the Newburgh Home Guards filed in my office.

Witness my hand and official seal
This 30th day of May 1861
C. W. Armstrong
County Auditor

Filed June 10, 1861.



          This is an extremely interesting document and provides a window into the context of the times. It is noteworthy that no discussion is made of weapons. Weapons were in extremely short supply in Indiana (and elsewhere) during the initial months of the war. In fact, this first incarnation of the Newburgh Home Guard did not possess state supplied weapons until some time later. They likely drilled with broomsticks or rudely carved tree limbs. A letter from Union Bethell to Indiana Governor Oliver Morton dated July 8, 1861, pleads for weapons for his men. In the letter, he makes mention of threats made by "secessionists in our town and those bordering in Kentucky," urging the governor to take immediate action in supplying his men. Morton did not have weapons to send at this time. It must have been frustrating to have perceived a gathering threat, to have had willing volunteers, but not to have had means by which to perform their intended duty.
          As was usual for the time, officers were voted to their position. This was the same arrangement as prevailed in the volunteer army for both sides during the war. The rank of only one officer is noted in this document- the captain is Union Bethell. Since later rosters do include the ranks of various men, it is possible that elections had not yet been held for the officers at this time.
          Guard members were given 30 days to outfit themselves. It is not certain how they were to do this. Obviously, the uniforms would not be provided by the state of Indiana, as each county had different uniform specifications for their own units, and the state already had its hands full outfitting regular army recruits. Tailors in Newburgh could have made the uniforms for sale according to order (to fit certain sizes), or the families of the volunteers could have been allowed to interpret the uniform descriptions in making home-made outfits. It is interesting to note that the uniforms were mostly gray. This was common for Indiana Home Guard units in the early war months. At this point in the war the Rebel uniform was not clearly set.
          Article 7 seems routine, logical, and innocuous, but it may have been the linchpin for the Newburg Raid. Only one person had the authority to gather the guard into emergency action- the captain. When Captain Bethell fell captive to the raiders on the afternoon of July 18, 1862, the Newburgh Home Guard was immediately neutralized.

          Note that many of the prominent players in the Newburg Raid are charter members of the home guard. Union Bethell, J. R. Tilman, John H. Darby, and William N. McGill are just a few of the names mentioned in Thunder From a Clear Sky.