Elijah H. C. Cavins

Few States have been as greatly honored in the character and career of their public men as Indiana. In every county are to be found individuals born to leadership in the various vocations and professions, men who dominate because of natural intelligence, superior endowment and the force of character that overcomes opposition to success in every laudable sphere of endeavor. It is always profitable to study such lives, to weigh their motives and hold up their achievements as incentives to greater activity and higher excellence on the part of those whose careers are yet in the future. These reflections are suggested by the career of one of Indiana’s distinguished sons who has forged his way to the front ranks of the favored few, and who, by strong inherent force and superior professional ability, directed by well-balanced judgment and intelligence of a high order, stands today among the representative men of his country and state. It is doubtful if any citizen of southern Indiana has achieved more honorable distinction or occupied a more conspicuous place in the profession which he represents than Col. E. H. .C. Cavins, he prominent lawyer, gallant soldier and public-spirited man of affairs, to an epitome of whose life the reader’s attention is herewith respectively invited.

Colonel Cavins is descended from good old colonial stock, and points with pardonable pride tot he fact that both branches of his family were represented in the struggle for independence, and later his grandfather served in the Indian war under General Wayne, and his father in the War of 1812. In this connection the following incident is worthy of note. Some years ago in Bloomfield, his grandfather met the grandmother of Mrs. Cavins, who had also been a Revolutionary soldier as well as a hero in the last struggle with Great Britain. In the course of their conversation these old soldiers were pleased to learn that at one time both had served in the same command in the latter war, and were near each other in a number of engagements, notable among which was the battle of the River Basin, and the battle of Fallen Timbers under "Mad" Anthony Wayne.

Elijah H. C. Cavins is one of Greene county’s native sons and dates his birth from April 16^th , of the year 1832. His boyhood days were passed in such manner as to acquire the vigor of bodily powers, clearness of mind and firmness of character, which contributed in so large degree to his subsequent success, and in the public schools of Bloomfield was laid the foundation of a mental training which, supplemented by the higher courses of study in Asbury University, made him, in due time, a well educated and broadly cultured man. Early deciding to make the legal profession his life work, young Cavins employed his leisure hours to a preliminary study of the same, and later entered the law department of the State University, from which he was graduated in 1853, before attaining his majority, being one of the youngest men to finish his course in that institution. With thorough mental discipline and a critical professional training, Mr. Cavins at once engaged in the practice of law at Bloomfield, and, in due time, won recognition as a capable, painstaking attorney, who made every other interest subordinate to his calling and spared no efforts in looking after the interests of his clients. From the beginning his rise in the profession and success in securing a representative clientele was pronounced and certain, his thorough knowledge of law, with the ability to apply it in the practice causing his services to be in great demand, so much so, indeed, that for many years his name was connected with the majority of important cases tried in the Greene county court, in addition to which he frequently appeared as counsel in cases of more than ordinary import in other parts of the state. With the exception of three years in the army, Colonel Cavins practiced his profession with success an financial profit until retiring from active life in 1906, rising in the meantime to high standing among the leading lawyers of the state and acquiring a fame which easily placed him at the head of the bar, where his greatest success has been achieved. Since the above year he has been living in honorable retirement at his beautiful home in Bloomfield, though still keeping in touch with court and other legal business, and continuing, as heretofore, to exercise his influence as a leader in public matters, and in no small degrees as a moulder of opinion among his fellow men

Colonel Cavins was one of the first of Greene county’s loyal son to respond to the call of duty when the national sky became darkened by the ominous cloud of rebellion. On the first call for volunteers in April, 1861, he raised a company and was elected captain. By reason of the quoto being filled, however, the governor did not accept the company until May following, when it became Company D, Fourteenth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, the first regiment mustered into the three years; service in the state. The regiment was ordered to West Virginia in July, 1861, just before the battle at Rich Mountain. After that engagement the regiment followed the enemy toward Staunton, to the summit of Cheat Mountain. , where it remained during that summer and fall, it being extreme outpost of that line. He was engaged with the regiment in numerous skirmishes and what was then called battles, the principal engagements in that locality being known in history as Cheat Mountain and Greenebrier. In the winter of 1861-62 the regiment was successively under Generals Kelly, Lander and Shields, and formed a part of Kimball’s brigade, and afterward the brigade of General Carroll. The winter campaign was along the line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, from Grafton to Martinsburg, and embraced marches and skirmishes in midwinter. In March, 1862, the campaign extended up the Shenandoah Valley, the principal engagement being near Winchester, on March 23, 1862. After numerous marches and counter marches up and down the valley, and to and from Fredericksburg, attended with many skirmishes, the brigade in June, 1862, was ordered to the Army of the Potomac and arrived there July 2d. of that year, and was assigned to the Second Corps. From that time the Fourteenth took park in all the campaigns and battles in which the corps was engaged, including the battles of Winchester, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and sixty-six other engagements, sustaining the remarkable loss of five hundred and ninety-two killed and wounded, there being more than twice as many killed in battles as died of disease. Captain Cavins was promoted to major August 11, 1862; lieutenant colonel, January 22, 1863, and commissioner colonel, May 13, 1864. He took part in all the campaigns in which his regiment was engaged until the battle of the Wilderness. At Antietam he had command of the regiment before the battle closed and was wounded in the hand. At Fredericksburg he had command of his regiment during the entire engagement and was slightly wounded and had ten holes shot in his clothing. At Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he also commanded his regiment, during the latter part of the engagements. At Morton’s Ford he had command of his regiment, with a leave of absence in his pocket, received the day before, and during the engagements. At Morton’s Ford he had command of the Fourteenth Indian and Seventh West Virginia regiments, having had his horse shot from under him in the engagement. A short time before the battle of the Wilderness General Hancock detailed Colonel Cavins to confer with Governor Morton in regard to filling up the regiment, it being greatly reduced in numbers. He failed in his enterprise, however, and on returning to Washington City the authorities refused to allow him to join his regiment, assigning him instead to the command of a provisional battalion, and soon after he was given the command of a provisional brigade, to guard the shipping on the Potomac and along the line of supplies for the Army of the Potomac. The last battler in which he was engaged was Cold Harbor, where he had commanded of a provisional brigade under General Burnside. His term of service expired on June 6, 1864, and on the following day he and his regiment retired from the advance line and returned to Indianapolis to be mustered out of service.

A few weeks after he was commissioned adjutant general and inspector general on the staff of Major General Hughes, for the Southern Division, of the State of Indiana, in which position he served until the close of the war. His duties as adjutant general did not take him out of the state, except on one occasion, when a post of the Indiana Legion volunteered to go over into Kentucky, near Henderson, to break up some rebel recruiting camps and bands of raiders operating in that vicinity.

With a record replete with duty ably and faithfully performed, and with a name high in the roster of Indiana’s brave and honorable sons, Colonel Cavins retired from the army, and, resuming his professional labors, soon achieved as distinctive prestige in civil affairs as he had attained in military life a pronounced Republican in politics and an influential leader of his party in Greene county, he was elected in 1858 to the lower house of the general assembly and took a prominent part in the deliberations of the same, introducing a number of important bills, which, becoming laws, have had a marked influence on the subsequent history of the state. He is still deeply interested in political affairs, contributes much to the success of his party by judicious advice in its counsels, and for over a half a century his influence and standing have not been called in question.

Colonel Cavins has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1854, and is an active worker in the Grand Army of the Republic Post at Bloomfield. For fifty-five years he has been identified with the Cumberland Presbyterian church, during which time his daily life had harmonized with his religious profession, and since 1854 he has held the office of ruling elder in the Bloomfield congregation to which he belongs.

Colonel Cavins was married September 23, 1855, to Ann M. Downing, daughter of Alexander and Lycenia (Anderson) Downing, the union terminating March 7, 1907, after a mutually happy wedded experience of fifty-three year’s duration. Colonel and Mrs Cavins had four children, the oldest of whom, SAMUEL R., was born in 1856, received a finished literary education in Hanover College, was trained professionally in the city of Philadelphia, were he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine and practiced medicine successfully until his untimely death in 1887. Mrs. CARRIE B. Schell, the second of the family, is the wife of Dr. Schell of Terre Haute; Mrs. IDA C. Marshall, the second daughter, lives at Franklin, Indiana, where her husband is pastor of the Presbyterian church; SUSIE C., the youngest of the number formerly the wife of Charles Drybread, of Franklin, is deceased. In addition to his children, who do all within their power to minister to his comfort in the evening of his long and useful life, Colonel Cavins has nine grandchildren, who are also interested in his welfare and delight to do him honor.

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Biographical Memoirs of Greene County, Ind. With Reminiscences of Pioneer Days, Illustrated (1908, B. F. Bowen & Co. Indianapolis, Indiana) Vol. 2 pg. 448-55;