The Printer's Kiss: The Life and Letters of a Civil War Newspaperman and His Family

16. This Sea of Passion

186 ChAPTer sixTeen } “My son, hold up your head, and tell me who was the strongest man?” “Jonah.” “Why so?” “Cause the whale couldn’t hold him when he got him down!” —Hickory Sprout, October 3, 1844 This Sea of Passion Ohioans living across the river from Kentucky saw some of their worst fears realized at the beginning of september 1862 when John hunt Morgan and his hard­riding raiders joined forces with Gen. Kirby smith’s army of twelve thousand in Lexington. Their strategic objective: invade Ohio. Gen. Lewis Wallace quickly organized a defense for Cincinnati and its two sistertowns across the river, Covington and newport. Businesswas suspended to free up volunteers, and men from the city and surrounding farmlands thronged the streets with the weapons they had on hand, from picks and spades to old muskets and hunting rifles. A thousand African Americans, in what became known as Cincinnati’s Black Brigade, dug trenches and built fortifications south of newport and Covington. Can­ nons were mounted on hills, steamers were outfitted as gunboats, and a pontoon bridge was hastily constructed across the Ohio. Women baked meats and biscuits to feed thousands at the Fifth street Market. Churches, warehouses, and other large buildings provided temporary shelter for the motley crowd as they milled around waiting for orders.1 The homespun volunteers, known as squirrel hunters because they never had to shoot twice at the same target, were issued a certificate of this sea of passion } 187 discharge byGovernorTod in 1863. nearly thirteen hundred of the 15,766 volunteers were from Brown County, including fifteen­year­old Byers Tomlinson. it must have been an exciting time for him, even though he probably saw little action. Fanning out in the hills along the Kentucky side of the river, the volunteers stirred up more dust than Confederates. Drenching thunderstorms turned dusty trails into soggy bivouacs, and the threat from Kirby’s army never came to pass as the rebels retreated to Lexington. Ohio volunteers sang rousing choruses of “John Brown’s Body” as they headed back across the pontoon bridge. Then so many of them disappeared into the city’s taverns and establishments of ill repute that it took persistent prodding from local residents to dislodge them and send them on their way. Byers soon returned to ripley, but eliza had yet to hear from her husband.2 * * * * * in september 1862 when Confederate forces threatened Cincinnati, William Byers Tomlinson was among the squirrel hunters who crossed the Ohio river on a hastily constructed pontoon bridge. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division) 188 } the printer’s kiss eliza to Tomlinson ripley, Ohio, september 22, 1862 Dear husband, not having heard anything from you since i received yours of the 15th & 14th inst., i feel very uneasy about you! i had hoped that ere this the company to which you belonged would have been disbanded or at least you would have left for the pursuits of civil life. Your occupation as com­ positor would exempt you from any such service. i fear that the fatigue and exposure has been too much for you! You should not have under­ taken it. Our family are in their usual health. Brother newt is some little bet­ ter; our son Byers has complained of his spinal column hurting him ever since he drilled so much. school commenced again last week, but as Jolly’s company drill today out at Phil Jolley’s, there is no school in Byers’s room, giving the boys an opportunity to go. Byers went, notwith­ standing my opposition; he is too young to endure the hardship of severe drilling! This is a critical time of life with him, but he does not realize it. he grows so fast he is like a mushroom which springs up in a night and cannot endure the noontide heat. i received a letter from Mrs. Williamson from Des Moines a few days ago. she says that Mr. Williamson was then at home, being the first time he had visited his family for more than a year. she during that time had visited him once. he is colonel of the 4th iowa infantry; it is in Gen. Curtis’s command, stationed at helena, Ark. she says that the 23rd reg. was then in Des Moines. Milton Walker is 1rst lieutenant in Company B; Gus, and John Walker are privates in the same company; Albert hull is...