Final Year of the War with the 140th Indiana Infantry

Lewis F. Stratton was born on February 6, 1841, to Timothy and Mary Stratton on the Stratton family farm in Jefferson Twp., Jay Co., Indiana. He was the fifth of eight children and came of age with all the trials and tribulations of life in the Indiana frontier, being educated in the local public schools. He became a farmer and helped run the family farm until the Civil War broke out in April 1861. 

    His older brother Isaac N. Stratton immediately answered the call for volunteers and joined Co. C, 39^th Indiana Infantry in August 1861 and went on to a distinguished career as a soldier, mustering out as Captain of Co. I, 8^th Indiana Veteran Cavalry. The following August, Lewis’ oldest brother Stephen  joined the 89^th Indiana Infantry as a Corporal but died at Fort Pickering in Memphis, Tennessee from disease in the summer of 1863. At the time he enlisted in October 1864, Lewis was living in Deer Creek Twp., Cass Co., Indiana working as a farm laborer. 

Private Lewis F. Stratton, Co. F, 140th Indiana Volunteer Infantry in a pre-war CDV taken in Portland, Indiana. 

          Lewis took a train to Indianapolis, Indiana and on October 15, 1864, enlisted as a Private of Co. F, 141^st Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, being enlisted by Lieutenant John B. Routh. The company descriptive book gives this notation for Lewis: “Age 23 years, height 5’ 9 1/2”, complexion dark, eyes hazel, hair black, occupation farmer.” Interestingly, the muster and descriptive roll that was forwarded has his physical description as thus: “age 23, height 5’ 9”, complexion fair, eyes blue, hair auburn, occupation farmer.”  The latter description of Lewis is likely correct as it matches the description of him on his enlistment papers. It is also similar to the one used to describe his brother Isaac. Private Stratton was mustered into the 141^st Indiana Infantry by mustering officer Captain Thomas Drury, 12^th U.S. Infantry. Company F, commanded by Captain John Smuck, was originally to become a part of the 141^st Indiana Infantry, but the companies assigned to that regiment were consolidated into the 140^th Indiana in mid-October 1864 and the 141^st never mustered.

          The 140^th Indiana mustered into United States service on October 24, 1864, at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, Indiana under the command of Colonel Thomas J. Brady for one year’s service. Colonel Brady was a soldier of extensive experience, enlisting as a Captain of Co. A, 8^th Indiana Infantry on April 16, 1861, being promoted to Major on May 10, 1862, and was commissioned Colonel of the 117^th Indiana on September 19, 1863. After that regiment’s term of enlistment ended in February 1864, he returned home until commissioned Colonel of the 140^th. The regiment immediately commenced drilling, receiving weapons and equipment in early November.  While in camp, Private Stratton met Corporal James D. Brown and became fast friends, the two men becoming bunkmates for the remainder of the war.

General Horatio P. Van Cleve

An impending invasion of Tennessee by the Confederate army under Lieutenant General John Bell Hood cut the regiment’s drilling time short, and they were rushed off to the seat of war on November 15, 1864. The regiment was moved by rail from Indianapolis to Nashville, Tennessee, arriving on November 16^th.  Major General George H. Thomas, commanding the Army of the Cumberland, was gathering his forces in Nashville and preparing the city to ward off Hood’s invasion, which had begun a few days prior. Union forces in south central Tennessee slowly retreated against Hood’s army of 40,000 veterans, a quarter of which were cavalry under the  General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Upon its arrival in Nashville, the 140^th Indiana was attached to the First Brigade (Brigadier General Horatio P. Van Cleve), Defenses of Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad (Major General Robert H. Milroy), 23^rd Army Corps (Major General John M. Schofield), Department of the Cumberland (Major General George H. Thomas) on November 16, 1864. Soldiers were quartered all over town working on improving the defenses, an unexciting but necessary duty of which the 140^th took full part.

General Van Cleve commanded Fortress Rosecrans at Murfreesboro, and the 140^th marched to that point, arriving on November 23^rd. When it arrived, the regiment swelled the number of defenders to over 2,000. Pursuant to orders from General Thomas, the 140^th camped inside Fortress Rosecrans as a defense in case of sudden Confederate attack. 200,000 rations were shipped to the fort and the men were supplied with at least 200 rounds of ammunition per man. Hood’s forces were moving closer to Nashville and fought a horrendous battle at Franklin on November 30, in which Hood lost 7,300 men. The Union forces at that place severely bloodied the Rebel forces, but after doing so, retreated north again towards Nashville.

As Hood marched towards Nashville, he detached a division of infantry under Brigadier General William B. Bate on December 2, 1864, to cut Union communication lines along the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad at Murfreesboro, also aiming to take the depot located in the town. Reinforcements from General Nathan Bedford Forrest increased the size of the Rebel force to about 6,000 men. In the meantime, General Thomas had reinforced Murfreesboro with several brigades of infantry, the garrison numbering about 8,000 men under Major General Lovell H. Rousseau when the Confederates approached on December 5^th. General Forrest, having field command of the Rebel forces surveyed the Union fortification at Fortress Rosecrans and determined that it was too strong to be taken by frontal assault. As a result, he pulled his forces back and attempted to draw Rousseau’s men out of the fort and defeat them in detail. His men demonstrated against the fort for several days, peppering its defenders with small arms fire to little effect.

However, on December 7, 1864, Brigadier General Robert Milroy led seven regiments of infantry and a battery of artillery, numbering 3,500 men, out of the fort in a reconnaissance mission to uncover Forrest’s position. He contacted the enemy and in a sharp engagement proceeded to rout Bates’ Florida division near the Wilkinson Pike, followed by the brigade of Brigadier General Joseph B. Palmer. Union losses were limited to a total of 208 (22 killed, 186 wounded). In his official report, General Milroy states that he captured “1197 prisoners,” including 21 commissioned officers in addition to the 214 Confederate casualties.

The layout of Fortress Rosecrans featured numerous redoubts and lunettes that would have required an enormous force to hold in its entirety. Only a few portions of the works remain in existence today including Redoubt Brannan adjacent to Stones River near the railroad bridge. 

Bates’ Division and most of the attached infantry were sent up to Nashville after their defeat here and took part in the Battle of Nashville on December 15-16^th. General Forrest lingered around Murfreesboro destroying railroad track and interfering with Union supply lines until December 14, 1864 when he was ordered back to Hood’s army at Nashville. In the December 7^th engagement, which was the regiment’s first, the 140^th Indiana remained inside Fortress Rosecrans and skirmished with Forrest’s cavalry, sustaining a loss of one man wounded. The regiment also took part in another skirmish with Forrest’s cavalry on December 13-14^th outside Fortress Rosecrans but suffered no loss in that action.

General Hood’s Army of Tennessee was defeated outside of Nashville, a defeat which caused the collapse of that army after three hard fought years of conflict. Union forces pursued Hood all the way to the Tennessee River and picked up more than 6,000 prisoners along the way. The crushing of organized resistance in Tennessee and impending operations along the eastern coast caused the 140^th Indiana to be moved from Murfreesboro to Columbia, Tennessee on December 24, 1864, arriving in Columbia on the 28^th. While encamped at Columbia, the 140^th Indiana was removed from the Defenses of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad command and was transferred to the Third Brigade (Colonel Israel N. Stiles), Third Division (Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox), 23^rd Army Corps, Army of the Ohio, preparatory to being moved to the North Carolina coast for operations in that region. The 140^th was stationed in Columbia until January 2, 1865, when it marched to Clifton, Tennessee on the Tennessee River, arriving in that place on January 8^th.

It was on this march to Clifton, Tennessee that Private Stratton contracted sickness that would plague him the rest of his life. “While on march from Columbia, Tennessee to the Tennessee River we waded a crooked stream a number of times during the day and just before night.  The stream was deep enough to thoroughly wet my clothing and I slept in that condition that night. I took cold which caused first a cough and hoarseness and for some days had some fever. The result of the cold was a disease of the lungs." (Pension File) The regimental hospital record shows that he entered the hospital on January 4^th with diarrhea and was returned to duty on January 12, 1865.

General John Schofield had led the 23rd Army Corps throughout 1864 and would seen lead it to the eastern coast of North Carolina, tasked with closing the port of Wilmington. 

The Second and Third Divisions of the 23^rd Corps remained at Clifton until the night of January 16^th when they boarded steamers for the trip to Cincinnati. It took five days to reach Cincinnati at which point the men boarded railroad cars bound for Alexandria, Virginia, opposite Washington D.C., arriving there on January 25, 1865, and being quartered at the Soldier’s Rest camp. Major General Schofield wrote in his official report that “the movement was effected without delay, accident, or suffering on the part of the troops” despite “weather unusually severe even for that season.” 

The entire command arrived on the Potomac by January 31^st and was encamped in Alexandria until February 4^th. Meanwhile, after meeting with Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant at Fortress Monroe, Major General Schofield was given command of the new Department of North Carolina with his 23^rd Corps to be the main force in that department, along with units in the 10^th Corps under Major General Alfred H. Terry.

The frozen Potomac River prohibited movement for several days but the 140^th boarded the steamship Atlantic on February 4, 1865, bound for Fort Fisher outside of Wilmington, North Carolina, arriving on the night of February 7^th, being one of the first units of the corps to arrive. On the voyage to Fort Fisher, Colonel Stiles was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General, being given command of the 1^st Division of the 23^rd Corps, and Brevet Brigadier General Thomas Jefferson Henderson of the 112^th Illinois was given command of the 3^rd Brigade, which consisted of the 112^th Illinois, 63^rd Indiana, and the 140^th Indiana Infantry regiments. Additional troops of the 23^rd Corps continued to arrive on the 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th of February.

General Terry with about 8,000 men had held Ft. Fisher and the surrounding area for the previous month and with the 23^rd Corps now arriving in force, plans were made for the closing of the Cape Fear River by the capture of Fort Anderson of the western shore of the entrance to that river.  The closing of this river would cut off Wilmington, which had become the Confederacy’s most important blockade-running port. As such, it provided an immense amount of military supplies to the Confederacy’s forces, particularly Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Fort Anderson itself “was impregnable to direct attack, and could be turned only by crossing Masonborough Sound above his left, or passing around the swamp which covered his right (Schofield).” The fort was also garrisoned by about 6,600 Confederates under Major General Robert F. Hoke.

General Jacob D. Cox of Ohio led a division of the 23rd Corps for much of the last years of the war. He built upon his battlefield successes by becoming governor of Ohio in 1866. 

The first movement in the campaign against Ft. Anderson occurred on February 11^th as Terry’s Division, with Cox’s in support, moved north along the eastern shore of the Cape Fear River. General Terry then entrenched his division, while Cox moved back to the old lines that Terry’s troops had held near Ft. Fisher, about 1 ½ miles south of the new line.  Cox’s division remained in camp until dusk on the 12^th when it sallied forth past Terry’s entrenchments to a point about four miles north where the sound was sufficiently narrow to permit the laying of a pontoon bridge upon which the troops could cross under the cover of darkness. “Soon after sunset the division moved out marching as low upon the beach as possible, upon sand left bare by the tide, so as to be as little exposed to view as might be from the opposite side of Masonborough Sound, where the enemy’s campfires were in full view (Cox).” A gale force wind from the northeast drowned out the sound of the march but also made for difficult and slow marching. When the lead elements reached the appointed spot, the orders were countermanded due to the impossibility of bringing up the pontoon boats in the high seas, and the division marched back to its encampment near Ft. Fisher.

The weather on the 13^th continued to be exceedingly poor and movement was delayed until the night of February 14^th when the 140^th Indiana and the rest of Cox’s division attempted again the operation of February 12^th.  Cox moved his division forward to Terry’s lines and waited for the pontoon train to arrive from Federal Point. However, the weight of the pontoons caused the wagons to sink into the sand and slowed their progress measurably, the train arriving at Cox’s line about midnight. His men then marched about three miles north, parallel with the train, and halted again. “About 2 o’clock, it becoming evident that no sufficient number of the pontoons could be got up to warrant the attempt to cross before day, the movement was abandoned by command of Major General Schofield, who accompanied the march in person.”

Schofield seeing that his attempts to turn the Rebel left defeated by sand and winds decided to try and turn his right. On February 16^th, he sent Cox’s and Ames’ divisions by steamer across the sound to Smithville, south of the Confederate defenses around Ft. Anderson, “where I would not have to contend with the difficulties of land and sea.”  Cox’s division in the van along with Ames’ and Moore’s brigades of Couch’s division marched north on the morning of February 17^th along the Wilmington road towards Ft. Anderson. 

About three miles north of Smithville, the Federal force ran into Rebel cavalry videttes and pushed them rapidly back up the road. The area surrounding the road was almost entirely swamp and made the march slow and tedious. The road forked at Governor’s Creek, where a battalion of Rebel cavalry held off the advance until Cox’s main column came into sight, when they again retreated. At this point, Cox selected the Third Brigade to take the right fork of the road and march to a point about two miles south of Ft. Anderson near the river. Here communication was opened with the Federal navy, and Admiral David D. Porter came ashore to confer with General Cox. Pickets from the 140^th Indiana were then sent out across the swamp to make contact with the troops on the left fork and establish communications in that direction.

Fort Anderson, North Carolina in 1865. 

On the morning of February 18^th, the 140^th Indiana moved out at the right of Henderson’s brigade north “by the right of companies where practicable” to a point about 600 yards south of Ft. Anderson. The 140^th continued north along the river until it was about 300 yards from the fort but pulled back after being caught in the crossfire between the fort and Federal gunboats in the Cape Fear River. Several members of the 140^th were wounded in the short time that they were exposed. General Cox ordered Henderson’s brigade to dig in while he took two brigades on a long march to get to the rear of the fort and prevent any escape of its garrison. “We immediately constructed strong works and advanced the skirmish line as far as it could be with safety" (Henderson). However, Rebel cavalry detected Cox’s flanking movement and alerted Hoke, who pulled out the garrison to the north and east during the early morning hours of February 19^th.

“If any credit attaches for the occupation of Fort Anderson, after its evacuation, it is perhaps due to those under my command to say that the skirmishers of my brigade were among the first, if not the first, to enter the fort and that the garrison flag, which was a very fine one, and had been left by the enemy in their hasty retreat was captured by one of the soldiers of the 140^th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was sent by Colonel Brady, commanding the regiment, to Governor Morton of that state," General Henderson noted. His report goes on to state his complete satisfaction with the men of his brigade who are “entitled to great credit for patient endurance of the hardships and exposures to which they were subject, and for the energetic, faithful manner in which they discharged their respective duties during the campaign.”

The flag was captured by a man in Co. A and was duly sent along with a delegation from the 140^th to Governor Morton, who invited President Lincoln along to witness the presentation ceremony. The delegation marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the National Hotel and presented the flag to the governor on March 17, 1865. He made a few appropriate remarks and then President Lincoln rose and gave one of the final public speeches of his life. The press picked up on the story and a number of myths grew about how the flag was captured, one story claiming that General Henderson grabbed the flag from the dying hands of the fort commander but one witness wrote years after the war that “the flag wasn’t captured, it was picked up off the ground.”

The Fort Anderson garrison flag was captured/retrieved by a soldier in Co. A of the 140th Indiana and survives today as part of a display at the Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson site in Winnabow, North Carolina. 

After the abandonment of Ft. Anderson, the 140^th Indiana moved in the pursuit of the Rebel forces down the Town Creek road but halted about three miles out by General Schofield’s orders to allow the remainder of the command to come up. At 2 p.m., Henderson’s brigade moved forward cautiously down Town Creek road, meeting little opposition until it nearly reached Town Creek Bridge, where a strong Rebel picket had been established. Henderson threw forward his skirmishers who put the Rebels into flight to their works on the opposite bank of the creek, taking up the planks of the bridge in their retreat and beginning an artillery barrage. 

Henderson’s brigade formed into battle line along the crest of a ridge paralleling the creek and commenced fortifying his position. Rebel works on the western bank of the creek consisted of three artillery pieces (one Whitworth rifle, two brass 12-pounders) which covered all the approaches to the bridge along with a dense network of abatis and entrenchments. Brigadier General Johnson Hagood’s brigade (11^th, 21^st, 25^th, 27^th, South Carolina Regts. and the 7^th South Carolina Battalion) of Hoke’s division manned the works, assisted by the 50^th North Carolina Infantry, 600-1,000 men in total. Town Creek, while not wide, was deep and unfordable anywhere in the immediate front of the brigade.

As the men dug in, General Henderson was informed by scouts that a flat boat had been discovered at a nearby warehouse, and seeing the obvious solution to his problem of crossing the creek sent off a corporal’s guard of men to secure the boat. General Cox kept his supporting brigades out of sight behind the crest of the ridge which Henderson’s men were fortifying. When Cox learned of the boat, he made plans to move out his First and Second Brigades to about a mile and a half south of the Rebel position and attempt a crossing there for the purpose of gaining the Confederate rear and compelling his retreat. On the morning of February 20^th, two companies of the 140^th advanced as skirmishers under the constant and heavy fire of the Rebels behind their works. The purpose of the movement was to pin down the enemy in his front and occupy his attention while Cox moved to strike his rear. The ground offered little in the way of protection but the men forced their way to with 150 yards of the bridge to cover it and prevent the Confederates from setting it afire. In moving forward, the men advanced by digging small rifle pits at each successive advance, and thus were able to get within close musket range. 

Battery D, 1^st Ohio Artillery along with the skirmishers kept up a constant fire on the Confederates, disabling the Whitworth rifle, until Cox’s brigades charged the Rebel works from the rear and sent the Rebels into utter rout. When the Confederates started to falter, Lt. Col. Daniel Morris of the 63^rd Indiana, in command of the skirmish party, and two companies of the 140^th crossed over the bridge at 5 p.m. and entered the works, taking 31 prisoners and hastening along the Confederate retreat. Cox collected 375 prisoners along with the two brass 12-pounders. Union loss was confined to a total of about 30. “The labor and courage of the troops were expended rather in overcoming the great physical obstacles in the nature of the country rather than in hard fighting," General Cox said.

Sgt. John W. Grishaw
Co. G, 140th Indiana

The bridge over Town Creek was reassembled on the night of February 20^th to permit the passage of Henderson’s brigade and the divisional artillery; the 140^th Indiana spending the night in the former Confederate works. General Cox moved forward again on the 21^st in the direction of Wilmington on orders from General Schofield to ascertain the condition of the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad and to capture a crossing over the Brunswick River just south of Wilmington. Henderson’s brigade was placed at the tail end of the division. The division marched six miles to Mill Creek and reconstructed the bridge there, creating a delay of about two hours and then moved forward to Brunswick Ferry. Here it was found that the Confederates in their retreat had dismantled the pontoon bridge over the Brunswick River. In their haste, the Rebels had simply cut the ropes and let the boats drift downriver where details began to collect them to reconstruct the bridge. Cox’s division then entrenched itself, facing south over the road they had just marched along. That evening, in the mistaken belief that Terry’s corps needed additional troops to dislodge the Confederates in his front on the eastern shore of the Cape Fear River, Henderson’s brigade was pulled out of camp and sent to the mouth of Town Creek under General Schofield’s orders, arriving shortly after daylight on February 22, 1865. Once it arrived there, subsequent dispatches from Terry confirmed that the Confederates had pulled out of his front and reinforcement was no longer necessary.

Lieutenant General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederate forces in Wilmington, decided on February 21^st that further resistance was futile and directed that the accumulated naval stores and commissary goods be set to the torch. Once this was accomplished, he pulled his troops out of Wilmington in the early morning hours of the 22^nd, allowing Federal troops under General Terry to enter the city that morning. It was followed shortly by Cox’s division, minus the Third Brigade which was maintaining its position at the mouth of Town Creek. The Third Brigade under Henderson camped that night along the river and received orders to march into Wilmington on the 23^rd, arriving there about 3 p.m. During the course of the march, the 112^th Illinois was detached to guard the pontoon bridge that had been reconstructed at Brunswick Ferry.

The 140^th Indiana went into camp after arriving in Wilmington and remained there doing garrison duty until March 6, 1865. The campaign to capture Wilmington had been skillfully conducted at very small loss to the Union forces in the region. General Schofield noted in his official report that the spoils from the campaign included “51 pieces of heavy ordnance, 15 light pieces, a large amount of ammunition, and not less than 1,000 killed, wounded, and prisoners.” Not only that, but the Confederacy’s last major port had been closed and with that the Rebels armies were cut off from any outside supply.  

The biggest question facing Schofield was what to do next as he had no rolling stock for the railroad at Wilmington and nearly no wagons as they had been left behind when the corps left Tennessee. He moved about 5,000 troops in the department to the Union stronghold at New Bern, North Carolina and by March 6^th had gathered enough of a wagon transport to move out towards Kinston.

General Cox had been sent to lead the force at New Berne and Brigadier General James William Reilly, formerly of the 104^th Ohio Infantry, assumed temporary command of the Third Division on February 25, 1865.  Cox led his provisional division north from New Bern and fought a pitched battle at Wise’s Fork March 8-10, defeating the Confederates and capturing Kinston. Major General Darius N. Couch took command of the Wilmington-based expedition and moved with the Second and Third Divisions of the 23^rd Corps on the land march to Kinston via Onslow and Richlands. The overland march was a hard one through endless miles of swamps but was made with little resistance from Rebels in the area, many of whom had become demoralized but the impending collapse of the rebellion on all fronts. The 140^th Indiana marched 86 miles in the first five days of the expedition before slowing the pace somewhat, arriving about three miles from Kinston on March 14,1865 and going into camp. 

The reunion with Sherman's "bummers" in late March 1865 was a joyous occasion for both armies. 

General Schofield, having concentrated his forces, moved out from Kinston on March 20^th and occupied Goldsboro with slight resistance on the night of the 21^st, the 23^rd Corps bivouacking south and west of the city.  Henderson’s brigade was promptly set to work building works on March 23^rd until relieved of that duty on March 30^th. Schofield then had his detached forces at Wilmington transported by boat to Goldsboro to achieve the total concentration of the 23^rd Corps. 

Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army was moving north to meet Schofield’s force and had fought sharp engagements at both Averysboro and Bentonville prior to arriving in Kinston on March 24, 1865. It was a happy reunion for all involved as many regiments that were part of the 23^rd Corps had been a part of Sherman’s Atlanta campaign in the summer of 1864. The men of the corps “lined the road as spectators, cheered uproariously and laughed till the tears ran down their faces whenever the panorama of raggedness became unusually ludicrous,” one of Sherman’s veterans remembered. The reunion must have been particularly joyous for Lewis Stratton, as he may have had a chance to see his older brother Capt. Isaac Stratton of the 8^th Indiana Veteran Cavalry, which was part of Sherman’s army. In the middle of all this, Private Stratton contracted fever and was in the regimental hospital from March 23-26, 1865.

The brigade was sent out on a reconnaissance mission on March 31, 1865. It marched about six miles out of Goldsboro to Gulley’s Station and became involved in a brisk but indecisive skirmish at that place. It proved to be the last time that the 140^th Indiana would be under fire. After returning to Goldsboro, the 140^th went into camp until the morning of April 2^nd when it was detached from Henderson’s brigade to be sent on commissary train guard duty between Goldsboro and Morehead City on the coast. The 17^th Massachusetts Infantry replaced the regiment in the brigade. The long march was made to Morehead City and back without incident and the men rejoined the brigade on April 10^th. The brigade at that point had been preparing to move on Raleigh for the occupation of that place.

With his now 90,000-man army resupplied and rested, Sherman began an advance which he believed would bring on the final battle of the war. The 23^rd Corps moved out at 1:00 p.m. on April 10^th, marching along the Neuse River road to Smithfield in the rear of the 14^th Corps. The first day’s march was described as stop-and-go most of the way and covered only eight miles. This was caused by the unexpectedly strong resistance of Rebel cavalry that the 14^th Corps was forced to push along the road. The next day, the 23^rd Corps crossed the Neuse River on a pontoon bridge at Smithfield after the Confederate burned the original wooden structure while retreating the evening of April 10^th. Better progress on made on the 11^th and the corps arrived in the vicinity of Raleigh on April 14, 1865.

Before Henderson’s brigade even began its final offensive towards Raleigh, General Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, ending the long and bloody conflict for Virginia. News of this event finally made it to Sherman’s army on the morning of April 12^th, and Henderson’s brigade responded to the news by singing such patriotic songs as “The Battle Cry of Freedom”, “Marching Through Georgia,” and “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” accompanied by several brass bands. The 1,500-voice choir closed its impromptu concert with “Old Hundred.” The joyous celebration of the soldiers was hushed several days later when rumors filtered into Union camps of President Lincoln’s assassination, rumors which were confirmed by General Sherman just before Johnston surrendered his army. While the men were encamped at Raleigh, General Sherman reviewed the 23^rd Corps on April 21, 1865.

General Joseph E. Johnston at left surrenders to his antagonist from the Atlanta campaign General William Tecumseh Sherman at right. 

Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet abandoned Richmond after the fall of Petersburg and were heading south attempting to rally the remaining Confederate forces in North Carolina before pushing on to the Trans-Mississippi theater. He met with Lieutenant General Joseph E. Johnston, who was in command of the forces in North Carolina and was unable to inspire him to do much of anything but confirm Johnston’s belief that the war was over and the honorable thing to do was surrender. He surrendered his command a few days later to General Sherman at Bennett’s House, North Carolina on April 26, 1865, which ended the war everywhere east of the Mississippi River except for some isolated units in Alabama. Organized resistance sputtered out by mid-May 1865 and the Civil War, which had claimed over 600,000 lives, finally came to a close.

The 140^th Indiana remained on garrison duty in Raleigh, North Carolina until May 1^st when it then marched from Raleigh to Greensboro, North Carolina, arriving on May 6, 1865. Greensboro in early May still had a large number of recently-paroled Confederates which could have made for an uneasy occupation. “All is quiet in camp, but not in town,” one veteran wrote. “Country women” were all laying all about and the streets were clogged with freed slaves, local citizens, ex-Rebels, and what not. But General Cox proved to be an able and popular administrator and he quickly set out to protect law and order in Greensboro much to the delight of the citizens who expected much less from “Yankee bummers.” Private Stratton was on detached service from June 8 through the beginning of July, although his military record is not clear what that duty was. The Third Brigade was finally dissolved in mid-June and the Indiana boys were attached to the Second Brigade, Third Division, of the 23^rd Corps.

The 140th Indiana was mustered out of United States service at Greensboro on July 11, 1865, with an appropriate speech by Colonel Brady; a moment of silence was given in the memory of the 114 men of the regiment who now quietly slept in fields so far from home. Transportation by rail north through North Carolina and Virginia was provided, and from Washington D.C. through Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, arriving in Indianapolis on July 21^st. The regiment arrived home in time to take part in the grand reception for returning regiments on the State Capitol grounds in Indianapolis on the 22^nd, the keynote speakers being Governor Morton and Major General William T. Sherman. The men rested and visited with soldiers in other regiments, swapping war stories, for several days waiting for the state government to get its paperwork in order to pay off and discharge the men from state service. This was quickly accomplished and the 140^th Indiana Infantry ceased to exist as of July 28, 1865.

The war had been a costly one for the Stratton family. Lewis lost his older brother Stephen, as well as three cousins. His brother Isaac came home so incapacitated by arthritis that he had to be carried from the railroad car by his comrades. Lewis himself came home with a chronic diarrhea that plagued so many of the veterans of that war, the long-term effects of which helped lead to his death at age 51. But he returned home from the war knowing that he had done his full duty, had done his share in preserving the Union, and had a once in a lifetime chance to see America. 

My great-great-great grandparents: Lewis and his wife Julia Ann (Starr) Stratton in an image dating from close to the time they were married in September 1865. 

After the war, Lewis inherited a portion of the family farm near Como and worked on it for several years until his health began to fail. He married Julia Ann Starr on September 17, 1865, in Jay Co., Indiana and they had a family of seven children, the second of which Mary Jane Stratton became my great-great grandmother. He began to operate a general store in Como in the 1880s and the business proved successful for a while but continuing health problems forced him to sell the business. His health continued to deteriorate and he died of cancer of the stomach on August 24, 1892, at his home. He was buried at Green Park Cemetery in Portland, Jay Co., Indiana with a Grand Army of the Republic stone denoting his Civil War service as well as a family stone which he shared with his wife Julia. His youngest daughter Lodema is also buried next to her parents.

Lewis and Julia Stratton with five of their children in a cabinet card dating from the mid-1880s. My great-great grandmother Mary Jane Stratton stands in the backrow on the right; she would marry Alvin Washington Masters in 1893.