"There has been a serious disturbance at Charleston..."

Military Images, Jul/Aug 1999 by Tibbals, Richard K

The 54.th Illinois vs. the Copperheads

A total of nine were laid out dead. Twelve had been wounded.

The enemy had beaten a hasty retreat. But the men of the 54th Illinois had clearly gotten the worst in the quick, bloody engagement of March 28, 1864. Normally, such a fight would hardly be noted. But this was no ordinary skirmish. In this conflict the battleground was the Union soldiers' hometown, Charleston, Illinois.

The enemy was not Confederate troops. Their attackers were their own neighbors, an armed mob of local Democrats opposed to the Republican war policy--and its soldiers. They called themselves Peace Democrats, but most Northerners called them Copperheads. The soldiers called them Butternuts.

Nicknames aside, this mob had another, more famous name associated with it. This gang of armed attackers included several distant relatives of Abraham Lincoln.

The next day, Major General Samuel Heintzelman, commander of the Northern Department, began his report to Chief of Staff Henry Halleck, "Sir: There has been a serious disturbance at Charleston, Coles County, Ill...." To those who were there, this was a serious understatement.

Two months earlier, in January, 1864, three-fourths of the 54th Illinois re-enlisted. In return, Uncle Sam granted them the customary reward for re-enlisting, a month furlough back home. It was the best possible inducement for young men separated from home and loved ones for two years. They left Little Rock, Arkansas for Mattoon, Illinois in March. But all was not well back home.

East central Illinois, especially Coles County, was a place of mixed political sentiment. Many citizens were solid Unionists. Many others were not. In the 1860 election the presidential vote was almost perfectly split. Lincoln carried the county by a margin of just twenty-eight votes. By 1864, the political pot was about to boil over.

Charleston, the Coles County seat, was a town which Lincoln visited regularly when he rode the circuit as a young attorney. Later, in 1856, it was the site of one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Such close associations elicited much local Republican sentiment. Throughout the war, Union volunteers were plentiful. In fact, Coles County had no problem meeting and surpassing its federal draft quota. Yet an equally strong anti-Republican sentiment was present. A good portion of the local citizenry originally hailed from Kentucky and points south. Within this segment of the community grew a unique political philosophy. They were not necessarily in avor of slavery or outright secession, but were vehemently opposed to the Emancipation Proclamation, the draft, and the war.

Among the transplanted Southerners who settled in Coles County were Abraham Lincoln's father and stepmother, Thomas and Sarah Lincoln. Abraham himself eventually settled there in 1831. Sarah still lived a few miles outside of Charleston when war broke out. Her in-laws from a previous marriage, the Johnstons, dotted the county. Also well represented was the Hanks family, kinfolk of the President's deceased mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln, .

As the war grew more bitter, so did local political passions. The county's Democrats, including some relatives, were less than shy about their sentiments against Lincoln and his soldiers. By 1864, the more militant local Peace Democrats spoke outright of sympathies for the Southern cause. Some, it was said, actually met for clandestine armed drills.

Local Unionists were equally brazen. In January, 1864, at nearby Mattoon, Illinois, soldiers on leave grabbed Judge Constable and forced him to take the oath of allegiance. A day later, also in Mattoon, a soldier of the 17th Illinois Cavalry shot and killed a Copperhead who said he would rather fight on the rebel side than the Union.

The tension continued to build. In nearby Paris, Illinois on February 16th, a fight broke out between a Copperhead roughneck named Cooper and a soldier of the 66th Illinois. Cooper struck the first blow. The young private retaliated by shooting his assailant in the hip. That soldier was the son of Major Shubal York, surgeon of the 54th Illinois Infantry. Six days later, Paris saw more bloodshed. Two soldiers were wounded and a Copperhead was killed in a fight over arms collected by Southern sympathizers.

Amidst this turmoil the men of the 54th returned home for their veteran furlough in February of 1864. Unionist hearts were bright. But Copperhead blood was running hot. Debate over the upcoming election was stirring sympathies and emotions.

Soldiers with time on their hands and chips on their shoulders roamed the streets Charleston, often re-enforced by John Barleycorn. When confronting a citizen said to be a Peace Democrat, they took great joy in dragging the "Butternut" before the local Justice of the Peace to take the oath of allegiance.

The "invasion" of their hometown by cocky bluecoats was like salt in a wound for local Peace Democrats. To avoid trouble, many chose to stay out of town during these days. They included no less than Coles County Sheriff John H. O'Hair. O'Hair was distantly related to Abraham Lincoln by marriage. But when it came to politics, his sentiments were clear. The sheriff was the leader of the Coles County Copperheads.