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James
Richards Carnahan, Past Department Commander of Indiana, Grand
Army of the Republic and Major General of the Uniform Rank,
Knights of Pythias of the World was born in Dayton, Tippecanoe,
Indiana November 18 1841.
He
was of Scottish, Irish decent and came from soldier stock,
a great grandfather and two great uncles having served in
the Revolutionary War. The father of General Carnahan, the
Reverend James Aikman Carnahan was a native of Kentucky and
graduated from The Auburn Theological Seminary, which was
established by the Presbyterian Synod of Genesee in 1819,
and who went as a missionary to Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Indiana
in 1827 and was pastor of one Presbyterian church for some
fifty years. His mother Martha A. (Dawson) Carnahan married
the Reverend James Aikman Carnahan in Clinton County Indiana
on 12 February 1839.
He
was of Scottish, Irish decent and came from soldier stock,
a great grandfather and two great uncles having served in
the Revolutionary War. The father of General Carnahan, the
Reverend James Aikman Carnahan was a native of Kentucky and
graduated from The Auburn Theological Seminary, which was
established by the Presbyterian Synod of Genesee in 1819,
and who went as a missionary to Lafayette, Tippecanoe, Indiana
in 1827 and was pastor of one Presbyterian church for some
fifty years. His mother Martha A. (Dawson) Carnahan married
the Reverend James Aikman Carnahan in Clinton County Indiana
on 12 February 1839.
Muster
In 22 April 1861, from Montgomery County, in Company I of
the Eleventh Indiana Zouave Regiment and Muster out 04 August
1861 upon the expiration of term. Also in the 11th was the
future first Department Commander of the Grand Army of the
Republic, Captain Robert S. Foster of Company A, later to
be Major General.
He
then muster in 22 December 1862 as Second Lieutenant, Commission
dated 30 November 1861 in Company L, 86th Indiana Volunteer
Infantry, Home City Dayton, Tippecanoe, Indiana. Mustered
in 04 September 1863 as Captain, Commission dated 01 August
1863 Company K in the 86th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Mustered
Out 06 June 1865 at Nashville, Davidson, Tennessee. He filled
various official positions in his company and regiment and
in the last year of the war was a staff officer. At the close
of the war he was offered a commission in the Regular Army,
but owing to opposition of family and friends he did not accept.
His
most important service during the campaign prior to and including
the battle of Nashville Tennessee. He was aide-de-camp on
the staff of General T.J. Wood, commanding the Fourth Army
Corps, and received high compliments from his commanding general
and Major-General George H. Thomas, commanding the Army of
the Cumberland, for faithful and efficient service. Following
the battle of Nashville he participated in a campaign in East
Tennessee and on the termination of hostilities returned to
Nashville and took part in the finial grand review of the
troops of the Army of the Cumberland. During his army service
he participated in thirty-three general engagements.
In
the autumn of 1865 he re-entered Wabash Collage at which he
graduated in June 1866. He entered the law office of Ray,
Gordon and Company at Indianapolis, in the autumn of 1866
and was graduated by the Indianapolis Law School.
He
was admitted to practice in the Superior Court of the State
in 1867. He then established himself at Lafayette in October
1867, was elected county prosecutor of Tippecanoe County Indiana,
a position he filled until 1873. He married Susan Elizabeth
Patterson on 07 November 1867.
In
October 1874, he was elected judge of Tippecanoe Criminal
Court. Commissioned Judge of the Tippecanoe County Criminal
Court on 22 October 1874 with a term to begin on 27 October
1875 for four year but the position was abolished by the Indiana
State Legislature before he could take the bench.
Captain
Carnahan, who had from the beginning in 1866, been active
as aide-de-camp in organizing the G.AR. in Tippecanoe County,
and elsewhere. Under the Department Order of November 1 1866,
he was substituted for Captain Stein, who was prevented from
serving as District Commander. As commander he became the
mascot of the soldier. He quickened the energies of the "boys"
and roused in them the enthusiasm for the organization. Eight
strong posts were established in Tippecanoe County, chiefly
the result of his work. He was sent as a delegate to the first
National Encampment, 1866 and there his methods and practical
knowledge found ready support in the work of the encampment.
His career in the Grand Army in those days was the primer
work for his later life. His genius and magnetic touch with
the "boys" carried him beyond the limits of Indiana, from
a department aide to that in later years Inspector General,
and the two terms as Judge Advocate-General on the National
Staff under the first reorganization. He later held the position
of Department Commander, to which position he was elected
two times, 1882 - 1883, by unanimous vote of the Encampment.
In his first year as Department Commander, he increased membership
from 2,050 to over 8,000, and at the close of his second term
membership had increased to over 16,000. He was also made
the Provisional Department Commander of Tennessee and Kentucky
upon the reorganization of the order.
He
has also honored himself, as well as the Order, as the author
of a National Digest of the opinions and rulings of the Judge
Advocate-General of the G.A.R. This digest was not only approved
and adopted by the National Encampment, but it became the
foundation stone upon, which Past Commander-in-Chief Beath
built his "Blue Book" or what is or was called the "History
of the Grand Army of the Republic."
In
his closing speech to the 1883 Department Encampment he proposed
building a war memorial in Governors Circle in Indianapolis,
this being the first mention of that memorial. He was appointed,
in 1895, to be president of the board of trustees which oversaw
the construction of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial built
in Indianapolis. In this capacity he was largely instrumental
in securing the appropriation of $200,000 to build the Indiana
Soldiers and Sailors Monument. He was, after moving to Indianapolis,
a member of Robert Anderson Post No. 369, Grand Army of the
Republic. He was also a member of the Association of the Survivors
of the Battle of Stone River and the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion of the United States with Badge No. 3004, Indiana
Comandery. He was nominated to be Commander-in-Chief of the
Grand Army of the Republic in 1905, but his name was withdrawn
when he became ill.
His
history in the Knights of Pythias began on October 15 1874,
at which time he became a member of Lafayette Lodge No. 51,
in which he retained membership until his death. He entered
the grand lodge of Indiana after passing through the chairs
of Lafayette Lodge and was elected grand chancellor of Indiana
in January 1880.
In
the order he was looked upon as the founder of the Uniform
Rank, the distinctive military rank of the order. In the winter
of 1876-1877 he organized what was then known as the Lafayette
K. of P. drill corps which later was to be called Lafayette
Company No. 1 Uniform Rank. He would be its first Captain.
In
January of 1881, Governor Porter appointed him Adjutant General
of Indiana, and until January 22 1885 he devoted his entire
time and energies to the betterment of the States Military
recourses. When he assumed charge the affairs of the Adjutant
Generals office were in a bad order and the military spirit
if the State at a low ebb. Out of the confusion and an overwhelming
lack of interest he constructed enthusiasm and order.
In
1884, under his direction, separate regimental encampments
of the Indiana militia were held at Richmond and Peru. Without
any aid from the State by way of appropriations, he obtained
for Indiana a thorough and available body of organized militia,
put the troops into camp three years in succession for a week
at a time, and sustained them by private contributions induced
by the military spirit he had aroused in the people of the
State.
After
he retired from the Adjutant Generals Office, due the changing
political climate, he was commissioned Brigadier General of
the then Indiana Militia, which later became the Indiana National
Guard.
At the session of the Supreme Lodge K .of P., of 1882 he was
placed on the committee on Uniform Rank and drafted the additions
to the general by-laws where the regimental organizations
of the order were made in grand jurisdictions having a certain
number of subordinate divisions. This committee was made a
standing committee and this labor resulted in completely reorganizing
the Uniform Rank as it then existed. A book of tactics was
prepared by him and Lieutenant W.R. Hamilton, of the United
State Army, General Carnahan writing most of the tacticts
and superintending the publication of the book. This work
was given to the Supreme Lodge. The first edition of “Tactics
and Manual for Uniform Rank Knights of Pythias”, was published
in Cincinnati, Ohio in July 1883.
He
also authored the “Pythias Knighthood: Its History and Literature”,
published at Cincinnati, OH 1888; Camp Morton: A Reply to
Dr. John A. Wyeth, published Indianapolis, Indiana 1892; “The
Eighty-Sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, A narrative of its
services in the Civil War 1861 – 1865,” Authored With James
Barnes and T.H.B. McCain, Crawfordsville, Indiana 1895.
At
the session of the Supreme Lodge of May 01,1884 he was elected
and commissioned as the first Major General and placed in
command of the Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias of the world,
a position he held continuously until his death.
In
1904 he was appointed by President “Teddy” Roosevelt to be
on the visiting committee to West Point Military Academy,
and delivered an address before the graduates of that school
of the class of 1904.
He
was one of the men that originated the plan for establishing
the State Soldiers home in Lafayette, and was a member of
the board and its president until his successor was appointed
by Governor Durbin. He was, at the time of his death, one
of the trustees of the Indianapolis Technical Institute. His
work as a member, of the Chickamauga battlefield commission,
of which he was secretary and compiled the report, was recognized
as a labor of the most painstaking care. He was appointed
to the board by Governor Claude Matthews (January 9, 1893-January
11, 1897)
General
Carnahan was member of Second Presbyterian Church, a member
of Mystic Tie Lodge F. & A.M. and a 32nd Degree member of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
He
was recognized as a most zealous, faithful and efficient in
everything he undertook, being master of detail, with a clear
head and always working with a definite purpose in view. He
was esteemed in every relation in life, and in the Pythian
brotherhood was doubtless its best known and most influential
member.
General
Carnahan died at Indianapolis, Indiana 03 August 1905 at 6:35
AM at his home at No. 8 West Drive, Woodruff Place. His health
began to fail about the middle of January 1905 and he was
not able to conduct business after May 26 1905. For four weeks
prior to his death he was confined to his room. The members
of the family who were at the general’s bedside and who showed
every attention were his daughters, his brother Doctor Joseph
L Carnahan of Kansas City, Kansas, Mrs. Ralph H. Hess of Fort
Collins, Colorado, Mrs. Michael Steele Bright of Superior
Wisconsin and Mrs. Herbert Ashbrook of Cleveland Ohio and
his sitter, Mrs. J. C. Tebbets of Chicago, Illinois. His son-in-law
Herbert Ashbrook and Michael Steele Bright are also with him
and Mrs. Carnahan who was constantly at her husband’s side.
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