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IDENTIFIED FIRST LIEUTENANT OF INFANTRY SMITH PATENT SHOULDER STRAPS: MARION COUNTY REGIMENT INDIANA LEGION AND 104th INDIANA “MINUTE MEN”

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These infantry 1^st Lieutenant shoulder straps are the Smith patent, using thin stamped gilt brass in imitation of bullion embroidery for the borders and the rank bars, which are attached to a light blue backing to form the branch of service color in the center field with dark blue wool underneath to match the officer’s coat color. The borders are stamped to imitate alternating rows of dead and bright bullion and have a lot of gilt finish still on them as do the rank bars, with some slightly subdued areas. The fields are muted light blue with some stains. Smith patent straps were a popular alternative to the actually embroidered versions, likely somewhat less expensive and not as likely to unravel or snag on things. Each of these straps has a great, period brown ink label on the reverse reading: “shoulder strap of Thos. J. McCollum / 1^st Lieut of Marion County Regiment / Loyal Legion During Civil War.”

The title of the larger organization was actually the “Indiana Legion.” The writer mistakenly used the designation for the postwar veteran officers’ organization, the “Loyal Legion” - an easy slip. The Legion was the short-lived, wartime designation of the state’s active militia, uniformed part-time volunteer companies organized into battalions, regiments, etc., that might vary in composition, including both cavalry and infantry, and were largely in communities along the state’s southern border on the Ohio River. The companies might be called up for various tasks- some guarded prisoners of war at Camp Morton, for instance, or to perform guard duty and patrol to discourage southern sympathizers, arrest deserters, maintain civil order, etc. Their main purpose, however, was to guard against Confederate raiding parties from Kentucky, on one occasion at least working with Federal troops in an expedition into Kentucky to break up a guerrilla camp. Marion county was populous enough to form two regiments, one in Indianapolis and one from the county at large.

Thomas Jackson McCollum had been born in Ohio in 1824. He is picked up in the 1860 census in Indiana as a sawyer, age 36 with wife and two children in Franklin, Marion County, with Acton as his post office. In 1870 he is listed as farmer with two more children, and as a farmer again in the 1880 census. He died in January 1898 and is buried at Acton. McCollum was in a company styling itself the “Acton Guards” and commissioned 2^nd Lieutenant on Jan. 12, 1863, which seems to be the date the company was formed, or at least when the other officers were also commissioned. (It is possible he had earlier, unrecorded service in the Legion as an enlistedman.) He was promoted to 1^st Lieutenant on May 16, 1863.

In July 1863 the company answered the Governor’s call for emergency troops when John Hunt Morgan led about 2,400 cavalry, with some artillery, across the Ohio River into Maukport, IN, on the night of July 8, and headed northeast, defeating a hastily assembled force of home guards near Corydon on July 9, and eventually crossing into Ohio from Harrison, Indiana, on July 13. The Acton Guards were one of four Legion companies to be combined with companies of more general volunteers to form the 104^th Indiana, one of thirteen regiments of “minute-men” numbered 102 to 114 in the state’s regimental line. The regiment organized at Greensburg with the Acton guards mustering in as Company I, and McCollum commissioned and mustered as 1^st Lieutenant on July 10 with the other officers. The regiment marched that day for Sunman’s Station, then to Lawrenceburg and for Harrison, but could not catch up with Morgan, who had crossed into Ohio, heading east toward the West Virginia border. The regiment then returned to Greensburg, where it mustered out July 18, and McCollum likewise, though he likely continued to serve as 1^st Lieutenant of the Acton Guards in the Legion for some time at least. The company is mentioned in state reports covering January 1864 to January 1865, but it is not clear if they were active at that point. Nevertheless, this is an interesting set of straps that is a good reminder of how widely and deeply the war affected everyone. [sr][ph:m/L]

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