The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-17
AFTER TWENTY YEARS.
A "Reminiscences in the Life Of One of
the Indiana Leaders.
Horace Heffren's Connection with the Sons
of Liberty-How He Turned States
Evidence i'll 1864.
General Reub. Williams in Warsaw Times.

General Reub. Williams in Warsaw Times.
Those who have taken sufficient interest
in the proceedings OF the Indiana Legislature
cannot have failed to noticed the prominence
of the name of Horace Hef1ren, representa-
tive from Washington county. Yet how
few of the members who, seeing his name in
the details of the lower house, stop to think
that this man Heffren is the identical in
dividual who ''peached" on the knights of
the Golden Circle" or Sons of Liberty" as
that reasonable organization was called, and
who was one of the Detail of Ten" to take
/ the life ofGovernor .. p, Morton; yet such is
the fact Horace Heffren was
in the Legislature when the war broke out,
disloyal utterances made in that body by the
leaders of the Democratic party will have no
difficulty in fixing Hetfren in their minds,
because it was he who declared at that per-
ilous hour, that the Democracy of Indiana
would form solid phalanx along the line OF
the Ohio, and see that no abolition horde
should invade the sacred soil of Kentucky
without first marching over their dead
bodies" Not having the exact words before
us, we only give their import The senti-
ment is there, however, only Heffren's Ian
guage was much stronger than that
given i'll the quotation. Time passed
on; the Indiana Legislature took a
decided stand in favor of the Union, de-
spite the opposition presented by the
Democrats i'll that body and of whom Heff-
rem was one of the recognized leaders. A
million of dollars was voted by the State to
equip and arm its troops, six regiments be-
ing called for by President Lincoln as Indi-
ana's quota of the 10, 600, embraced IN the
first call. More than 10000 men offered their
services for these six regiments while only
about 5000 could be accepted owing to the
fact that as our army was then formed sew
enty-seven men and officers constituted a
tull company, and ten companies composed
"a regiment. This would give, as will be per-
ceived, III men and officers exclusive of the
field and staff, as the full force of a regiment,
instead of 1,O56, that was adopted as the
maximum OF such an organization under
the call for three years or during the
war" that was soon afterward made by
President Lincoln. Governor Morton, as
stated, had more than 10000 men in camp,
every man of them fearing that the war
would be over without his being able 10 give
or receive a single blow In this predica-
ment the Legislature came to his aid, and by
law authorized the Governor to organize six
regiments to be known as State troops and
which were to serve for one year. These six
regiments it was designed should be ofhcered,
armed, equipped and drilled so as to censti-
tute reserve force from which future calls
could be filled, and were the first troops in
the United States to enter the service during
the war of the rebellion for longer period
than three months. Out of the
mainder of the volunteers in
camp, after these regiments were
filled, the first regiments to enter the
service for three years were drawn-the 18th,
14th, 10th and 17th being among the num-
ber We mention these facts to show how
Hetfren stood twenty-three years ago, Who
IL,
missing opposition to the war-an opposition
that was not eXcelled by the most violent
rebel in the Confederate Congress, then in
session at Montgomery, Ala.-that Horace
Heffren would, in SO short time, cease his
opposition to the war and would accept a
commission as leuteuant-colonel of the
Thirteenth Indiana regiment? Such was the
fact, however, even if he may not have been
sincere in his professions of loyalty to the
government as was afterward so plainly
demonstrated by his arrest and imprison-
ment in the Soldiers Home,
as one of the Indiana conspirators,
along with Milligan, Bowles, Hum
phreys, Horsey, Dodd and Walker
The disloyalty that was naturally in l1efiren,
however, soon broke forth again. He re-
signed his position in the army, returned to
his home in Indiana and became one of the
most loud-mouthed, rampant, bitter, bois-
ferrous, violent, veuomous poisonous copper
IieduS JIldl COulu DC lOuIlu ON the lace OF IDe
footstool He was not simply passive cop
perhead, like some in the North were; he
was an active, sleepleSS worker in the cause
of the rebels, and for several years never lost
an opportunity to aid them, or to do an in
jury to the Federal cause. 1t was in 1864
that we became acquainted with Horace
Heffren Along with the Indiana treason
conspirators he had been arrested by General
Alvin =. Hovey. then in command Of the
District of Indiana; was brought to
Indiana polls and lodged in the prison de-
partment of the Soldiers Home at Indiana
polls. We had come home on leave of
absence after the fall of Atlanta, and when
in indianapolis on our return to our com
mand. we received detail from the Secre-
tary of War placing us on the military COM
mission that was then about to proceed with
the trial. The case proceeded very slowly
as is usual in trials of the kind, when every
word uttered is taken down in shorthand
At first the prisoners took their arragnment
goodnaturedly, but as the cause proceeded
it was very evident that they were surprised
al the amount OF evidence the government
had procured against them.
This was especially visible in the counten-
ance of Horace Heffren, whose confinement
and his trial for life were plainly telling on
him. Perhaps the most surprised set of men
in the country were the members of the mil
itary commission one morning after the trial
had been going on something over two
months, though from the appearance of the
courtroom it was evident that Governor
Morton, General A. Hovey, Colonel CARING
tonic whom more than any other individ
ual is credit due for so skiliully working up
and exposing the reasonable organization
whose members were then on tral-and
many other leading men in the State great
numbers of whom attended the trial every
day exhibiting the most intense interest in
it, as the treason of the parties was DEVELOPED
on the trial had an inkling of the denouement
that was to take place that morning on the
opening of court which, however, as a mat
ter of course was unknown to the members
of the commission, they being charged, as
juries generally are in civil cases, to permit
no one to speak to them on the subject of
the trial and TO sneak to no one as we'll 1t