David Burns / C-T photoThe head stones of Mr. and Mrs. Simon Powell (left) rests next their son Orlistus (right) in the southeast corner of South Mound Cemetery. Simon Powell found the body of his son Orlistus in a mass grave at the Chickamauga battlefield and brought his remains back to New Castle to be buried in the family plot.

By DARREL RADFORD

Historically Speaking

A few months ago, The New York Times published an article by Binghamton University historian David Hacker raising the number of deaths in the Civil War from 620,000 to 750,000. Even before it was increased, the death toll topped all other American wars and conflicts combined.

Despite the fact it was in a state where few Civil War bullets flew, Henry County soldiers contributed to the valor, sending more than 2,000 into battle. The late Tim Morris wrote that New Castle and Knightstown soldiers carried their rifles and bedrolls six times across Tennessee and three times across Kentucky.

Five hundred of them never made it home.

This is the true story of one who gave the ultimate sacrifice – and how his remains did make it home because of the India ink he had on an arm and the determination of his grieving father.

The story begins on July 11, 1861, when Henry Powell, son of local teacher, banker and politician Simon T. Powell, was injured in the battle of Rich Mountain. He had received a severe wound to his right ankle, breaking the bone and disabling him for life. Early Henry County historian George Hazzard said Powell was the first citizen of New Castle to suffer an injury in a Civil War battle.

Powell had dropped everything to serve his country and even after the debilitating injury, joined his father in encouraging enlistments, soliciting and forwarding supplies and caring for women and children of soldiers.

The Powells were so dedicated to serving the cause, according to Hazzard, that after Henry’s injury, his younger brother Orlistes volunteered to serve in what became Company C of the 36th Indiana Infantry. He was a dedicated soldier, rising in rank to Commissary Sergeant and then Sergeant Major.

But on Sept. 20, 1863, Orlistus Powell was killed in the bloody battle of Chickamauga, Ga., a battle that produced the second-highest number of casualties, trailing only Gettysburg.

Hazzard’s History of Henry County said that Powell’s remains fell into the hands of Confederate troops and he was buried on the battlefield.

“Nearly four months afterwards, his remains, identified under as curious a circumstance as ever came to the attention of the author, were recovered, brought home and re-interred Feb. 3, 1864, in South Mound Cemetery, New Castle,” Hazzard wrote. “It seems that sometime before the battle, Orlistus had had his name, ‘O.W. Powell'” worked on his arm in India ink.

“He was buried in a trench containing more than a dozen other bodies, thrown in promiscuously, as was the custom in both armies when burying the enemy’s dead on the battlefield. When young Powell was thrown in, his arm, on which his name was worked, became extended horizontally at full length. The upper part of the next body, thrown in carelessly, fell immediately over the name.

“After the battle of Missionary Ridge, when the Federal army again occupied the old battlefield at Chickamauga, Simon T. Powell appeared on the scene to recover the body of his son, Orlistus, and in the first trench opened, in taking out the bodies, mangled and decomposed beyond recognition, it was found that the body resting on the arm of Orlistus had preserved, as clear and distinct as in life, the name ‘O.W. Powell,’ thus the identification was complete and his mortal remains restored to the care of the family whose sacrifice he had been to the cause.”

Orlistus Powell’s father was quite an influential man. He was an earnest and enthusiastic friend of Gov. Oliver P. Morton, who frequently consulted Powell on important matters. After the war, he was a delegate to the Republican national convention in Chicago. In 1871 he was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant as supervisor of internal revenue. In 1872, he was a delegate at the national convention in Philadelphia, lobbying for Grant’s re-election. In 1875, he was again a delegate, this time favoring the nomination of Indiana’s Morton for president.

He may have played a role in keeping order here during the Civil War. When the state of Indiana found itself honeycombed with Rebel sympathizers anxious to overthrow civil authority, Gov. Morton called upon Powell to advise him on how to keep the peace.

And he did it all in spite of being stricken with palsy at age 14, which crippled him for life.

Paintings of both Simon T. Powell and his son, Orlistus, hang in the Henry County Historical Society museum today. In fact, the elder Powell’s painting was one of the first given to the museum. More information on the Powells, Henry County’s role in the Civil War and local history in general is available at the museum. It’s open Wednesday through Saturday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Appointments for special tours can be made by calling 529-4028.

(Darrel Radford is a staff writer for The Courier-Times and a board member for The Henry County Historical Society.)