The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-12

Ohio, before that state went into
the business of producing presidents
and presidential candidates, and Sc
cured a monopoly on the industry,
was content with a humber duty.
Many an Ohioan will insist that Lin
coin, tho he was not an Ohioan, should
have been.
1t was probably on that theory that
the governor of the state, in August,
1868, near the close of the Civil war.
wrote to the adjutant general of the
Union army, and offered to raise
troop of cavalry from the young men
of Ohio, which troop should act as
private bodyguard and cavalry escort
to President Lincoln.
Troop Was Formed.
The offered was accepted and the
troop was formed, one or two men
being chosen from each of the coun-
ties of the state. RI was known as
Captain Bennet's Independent Com
pany, Union Light Guard, Ohio Cav
airy" 1t was also known as the Sew
enth Ohio Cavalry, Independent"
and from the date of its organization
till the death of Lincoln, it was his
particular bodyguard, and accom-
panied him wherever he went. to
! Washington, in the field, in visits of
| inspection, and elsewhere
The bodyguard was stationed at
ease outside Ford'S theater in Wash
ingten on the night when the bullet
| of the assassin ended the career or
| the Great Emancipator. It's mem
! bers guarded the house across the
street from the theater, to which Lin
| coin was taken after he had been shot,
and where he died. They escorted
| his body to the White House after his
death, and a number of them were
White House as part of the retinue
| of ANDY johnson, who as vice presi-
dent, succeeded Lincoln.
There are now living but twenty-one
| of the men who formed the body
guard Eight of them are still living
! in Ohio; two are in Indiana, two in
California. and one each in Iowa, Ne
braska,y Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois
West Virginia, Arkansas, North Da-
kota and Kansas.
Topekan Was Member.
John Holmes, ST., of Topeka, is the
Kansas resident who was a member OF
the bodyguard of the war president
Holmes Served with the bodyguard
from the time of its organization until
late in 1865. He came to Kansas, set
Ting in Jewell county. in 1876, and
came to Topeka in 1907.
| From intimate association with Lin
coin at the capitol and in the field
Holmes has retained many memories
of him. It is refreshing to hear from
one man who knew the president
nothing about the yarns which his
other biographerS never tire Of having
him relate. Most of the stories, good
bad and Indifferent, which are told
today, have been blamed upon Lin
coin at one time or another. 1t is only
the Ford jokes for which he does no
have to answer.
"No, I can't say that remember
ever hearing him swapping yarns tina
way. He was mighty nice and sociabl'
with us, tho, and when he met yot
Ihe'd stop and talk to you as If he wer'
one of you," Mr.. Holmes says of Lin
coin.
| The duties of the bodyguard wer'
: not all ornamental, by any means.
No Heavy Fighting.
1--WE never did any heavy fighting
but we had a little skirmishing to dc,
Mr.. Holmes said. And there was I
good deal of carrying of dispatche
(which fell to the lot of the "Uniol
} Light Guard"
And theirs was not what the sol
diers of the later war would refer t