Eben Perry Sturges
We reprint from the recently published volume containing the proceedings of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, at its' fourteenth reunion, held in September, 1882, at Milwaukee, Wis., the following memoir of our late citizen, Major Eben P. Sturges, deceased, contributed at the request of the Committee on Memoirs of that Society, and prepared by the Rev. Dr. S.A. Bronson, of this city. STURGES -- Born in Mansfield, Richland County, Ohio, August 19, 1840, and died in Cincinnati, Ohio, May 22, 1882. Thus he was taken away in the very prime of manhood. His native place having been his home during all his life of forty-two years, can not be expected to furnish many incidents to fill up a memoir, without going into details of little general interest. His life may be divided into: 1. His childhood at home; 2. The youth at school; 3. The soldier on the field; 4. The man of business after the war; 5. His illness. His Childhood at Home -- Major Sturges was the second son of Edward Sturges, Esq., a leading and very successful business man. Though born to wealth, his parents had the good judgment and persevering energy to train up their children "in the way they should go", that is, in habits of morality, industry and economy. While they were subject to all proper restraint it was the unwearied effort of a watchful mother to see that home should furnish amusements at least as attractive as the streets. Eben, it would seem, scarcely needed discipline; for among a family of nine children, who have not failed to honor their parents in their subsequent lives, he was called one of his mother's good boys. Instead of running in the streets as some do, he was under careful culture at home. It does appear that he had any wild oats to sow nor any bad habits to correct. As a Youth at School -- Mr. Sturges showed the good effects of his careful and judicious home training. Though there is no direct testimony at hand from fellow-students to show the degree of attainment and manner in which he sustained himself while a student of Kenyon College, yet there is the satisfactory testimonial that nothing appears against him. He came home with a clean record, and his correspondence afterward with fellow students shows a very high regard for him. This memorial, ere it closes, will show that his intellect was of a high order and his mental culture such as to do honor to his own industry and to the institution of which he was a member. As we have no speeches nor essays from which to form an estimate of his intellectual capacity, and none of his letters are at hand, there is but a slender opportunity to form an estimate. It was his habit only to speak or write when the occasion required, and when he did so every word was to the point. As a Soldier -- Mr. Sturges received his commission as Second Lieutenant of Battery B, First Regiment of Ohio Light Artillery, in October, 1861, and that of First Lieutenant of Battery M in March, 1863. He served gallantly in the battle of Mi'l Spring in Kentucky, the battles of Shiloh, of Murfreesboro, of Perrysville, Tuliahoma, Chattanooga and Mission Ridge. From there, in the hundred days' fight all the way to Atlanta, he was on General Brannon's staff. From Atlanta he was assigned to General Thomas' command and returned by way of Franklin and Nashville, in which terrible conflicts he participated and won the highest regard of his fellow officers and the esteem of all. Lieutenant Eben P. Sturges remained in the service till the close of the war, and received the well deserved tribute of his brevet rank of Major. During his four years in the Army, he kept a daily record of events that occurred with which he was more or less connected. Parts of his diary are still preserved. An extract from it may be of some general interest as with the history of the great battle, and of special interest to his friends, as a more vivid picture of Major Sturges than this pen is able to draw. Extract from His Diary -- Diary -- December 29, 1862. To-day rose early and prepared to march. Our progress was slow, as our advance had to clear the road occasionally of the enemy's rear-guard. Every once in a while the latter would send a round shot spinning along the road. At night we encamped in an open field, two and a half miles from Murfreesboro. The other troops encamped on either side along the road and in the heavy cedar groves all around us. Commenced to sleep in the open air; but it having begun to rain, put up a tent and slept more comfortably. Diary -- December 30, 1862. About daylight we took the battery through a grove of cedars, on and along a road, and came into battery to the right. The ground on which we posted the guns was very rocky and covered with cedars. Our skirmishers were advanced a few hundred yards in front of us, and kept up a brisk fire with those of the enemy. A ball from the latter would at times whistle by us. Our artillery on our left about a quarter of a mile, opened on the enemy in front about 9 o'clock and were replied to. Artillery opened on our right and kept up all day. Our brigade was on an angle formed by the junction of our right and left lines. Late in the afternoon our battery was ordered to the vortex of this angle. Here we came into action, and, with the batteries on our right, poured a concentrated fire into the enemy's skirmishers and into his camp, as was supposed. Their sharpshooters endeavored to pick us off. One fired a shot, evidently for me, into the breast of a wheel-horse of my left piece. The jugular vein being cut, he bled to death very soon. A few shells sent right into their pits, sent these sharpshooters skedaddling. Darkness coming on we ceased firing, having sent them about thirty rounds per piece. Occupied our old camping ground. Diary -- December 31, 1862. In the morning first went to the position which we had yesterday morning. Soon changed to the spot whence we had fired last evening. Heard heavy fighting on our right. Opened our guns to shell the woods in front of us. We were on the edge of a cedar grove, the trees of which would once in a while be shattered by the enemy's artillery. They seemed to be driving us on the right. I was ordered by Lieutenant Wright, of Cruft's staff, to take my section around to the left of the angle upon which we were fighting. Found hot fighting going on there. Unlimbered and ran my pieces down, almost to the line of infantry, by hand. The enemy were about three hundred yards distant on a ridge, under cover of corn-fields and bushes. Gave them for about three-quarters of an hour shrapnel and Schenck shell. By that time the action was very hot, and I advanced the pieces a few rods and changed shrapnel for canister. By this time also their batteries had answered, and rattled the projectiles of all kinds through the cedars around us. Sam. Earl, my rifled piece's gunner, put his shells right into their battery. The canister I could not see the effects of, for the smoke and cover. Our right seemed to be being driven. We saw the enemy being reinforced by solid columns of infantry, proudly bearing the stars and bars. I directed my fire at the latter, and they went down. The ammunition for my rifled piece was all gone, and I sent it to the rear. My smooth-bore I had previously ordered into a new position, in order to get them out of a shower of canister that was cutting them. They themselves had fired twenty rounds of canister. All this time the right of our line had been driven, and we were in a short of horseshoe; and as our reserves had gone to help the right, we had to retire before the largely superior forces of the rebels. I found my smooth-bore with but man by it. The rest, however, were near. I rallied them and helped them to limber up and sent them out. A careless driver (a new man) ran the pole up against a tree and broke it. We ran the piece back by hand and started it again. I followed upon foot. Early in the engagement I gave my horse to a spy whom I knew with Negley, who was sitting by a tree holding another horse. During the heat of the action he was lost. I lingered some to look back. Our infantry were beginning to rally, and at length retired from the woods in good order. Old Rosey was here on the ground, and I heard him say something to encourage the men and add: "We're Meeting Them." I saw him several times afterward on the field, giving directions and encouragement. Our line fell back in the center about half a mile. I found the battery on a hill about a quarter of a mile from the advance line. We were ordered to form in battery here. While doing it Sergeant Thompson was badly wounded by a spent over shot -- James sold shot. It grazed his spine. After once changing front, S.B. Ruple, of my smooth-bore detachment, was badly wounded in the neck by a ball, I think, from spherical case. He has since died. We remained here till night, when we encamped in a hollow a few rods distant. The loss to-day foots up as follows: Detachment No. 3 -- Seargeant Wolf killed by his own piece; John Elliott wounded and missing afterward found dead. No. 4 -- Jack McLaughlin wounded and missing; Sawtell grazed by a musket ball on the head. No. 5 -- (my rifled piece) -- Hayes graced by a canister on the head. No. 6 -- (my smooth-bore) -- Brough wounded in the leg by canister; Ben. Searles wounded in leg by canister; French wounded in arm by canister, the doctor says by musket ball; Ruple wounded in neck by shrapnel. I lost in my section two horses. After we had had a little coffee, I went to the hospital. Found Thompson asleep; Brough, French, Ruple, Shankland, the latter was wounded in No. 2, were as well as could be under the circumstances. About 10 o'clock took the caissons to the ammunition train to fill the chests. About 12 went to bed without my blankets, wagon having taken them off somewhere. This, it must be remembered, was written when he was little past 23 years of age, but a boy as it were, just out of college, and only a little over a year in the service; yet here is evidence of the coolness and courage of a veteran, and of the clearness of thought, precision of language, freedom from verbiage and liveliness of description, that distinguished Lieutenant Sturges as possessed of unusual abilities. Then, the thought and care bestowed upon his men, the minute attention given to the manner in which they were wounded, and the severity of their wounds, and accounting no less minutely for his horses, shows the exactness, the kindness and the diligence, with which he performed all his duties. The writer of this memoir can neither find nor hear of anything during his four years' service that is not fully up to this standard of military duty. Major Sturges as a Citizen -- After the close of the war Mr. Sturges engaged in business in the purchase of cotton at the South. This not proving successful, he engaged with his father in the wholesale grocery business, in Mansfield. In this business he continued until the death of his father, in the fall of 1878, in the settlement of whose estate his whole time and attention were then absorbed as long as his failing health permitted. A leading characteristic of his life was industry, not from any thing like an avaricious disposition, but because he loved to be usefully employed. It was his habit. So closely indeed did he confine himself to business that it probably shortened his life. Strict frugality and economy were habits of life with him equally with industry. Without bordering on penuriousness, he never encouraged useless expenditures of money or time, but was generous and liberal toward every good word and work. Having been his pastor for more than ten years, the writer had a good opportunity to know much of his inner life. He never left a kindness unrequited, nor a petition for a worthy object unanswered. He was so severely conscientious that he did not dare become a communicant of the church, although his whole life would have done honor to such a profession. But he was no less diligent and attentive to the worship of God, and no less ready to do his part than if he had been a member. The conscience of no little child was ever more tender, and yet no one was ever more fearless to rebuke an insult. Though modest and retiring, there was no lack of genuine and courtly hospitality. It was remarked, by those who knew him well, that he was very deliberate in making up his mind, but, when made up, he was unalterably fixed. This reveals the grounds of his moral stamina. He could say no, though he was more accustomed to act it than to say it. His sense of justice was exceedingly acute, and it mattered not whether it was for or against himself, it must prevail. The native strength of a man's character is most clearly evidenced by the force and variety of the temptations to which he is exposed. When it is considered how many of Major Sturges' early associates were ruined by the vices which he escaped; also the besetments that must have assailed him during four years of terrible war; that when he enlisted he was but a boy, just past his majority; and that, under these circumstances, he sustained an unblemished character; he is at once exalted, in our estimation, to the eminence of a moral hero. On the 6th. of June, 1871, Major Sturges united in marriage with Miss Kate R. McKenzie, a lady with whom he had long been acquainted, and who was in every respect admirably suited to him. Her bright, genial face, and cheerful voice, were well adapted to rouse up the spirits of one worn down with the cares of business. Their well appointed and well kept home lingers in the writer's memory as a miniature paradise. Three little ones, two sons and daughter, were the life and joy of that delightful household. We come, now, to the Closing Period of His Life -- While faithfully attending to his duties as the elder of the administrators of his father's estate, caring for his household, and for the moral and religious culture of his children, first his wife's health failed. Benefit was expected from a sojourn in Florida. It soon after appeared that a Southern clime was as needful for him, and arrangements were made for the whole family to remove; but, on the day which had been set for their departure, his noble, genial and patient wife breathed her last. She was buried in the Mansfield Cemetery, February 24, 1881. Thus, after ten years of wedded life, Mr. Sturges was now left, in feeble health, with three little children. After making, for their care, all possible arrangements, he went to Florida and there remained for some months. In the summer of 1881, he returned to Mansfield, with some hopes that by spending the winters South his health might be regained. With this in view, he moved to Florida with his family the next Fall. During the winter his health gradually failed until his decease May 22, 1882. He was buried in the Mansfield Cemetery just fifteen months later than his wife. Sad as their great loss is, it is some mitigation to know that the orphan children are tenderly cared for by loving friends. These few notes will show that our deceased comrade was a dutiful child, an unsullied and studious youth, had a clear and discriminating mind, was an honest and honorable business man, an industrious and public-spirited citizen, a well-tried soldier of distinguished bravery, a kind husband and a tender parent. He leaves behind a cherished memory and an untarnished name.
From The Mansfield Herald, November 8, 1883