USA > Iowa > Cedar County > A topical history of Cedar County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 30
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"You all remember, or will know, of the momentous events with which be- gan the seventh decade of the last century. How the war-cloud gathered lowered and finally, in 1861, tempestuously broke upon our peace-loving people. You know how Governor Kirkwood's call for ten companies, to constitute Iowa's one regiment in Lincoln's first 75,000 levy, was instantly responded to by the proffer of more than fifty companies ; and how her quota of the much larger call
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soon made was more than filled before the summer passed. Men sprang to arms, and scarcely a boy of manly stature but burned to join them and feared the opportunity to be a hero would flit and leave him still a clod.
"But the momentous months were on, and those of us still at home saw our maimed friends and schoolmates return from Donelson, from Belmont and from Shiloh and began to understand that a uniform was not alone a cheap title to glory, nor the soldier's life an idle holiday. Nevertheless, when in the summer of 1862 and after reverses to the Union arms on the Peninsula and elsewhere other calls came, aggregating 'six hundred thousand more,' the response was, if possible, even more prompt, enthusiastic and universal; for within the State of Iowa alone twenty-one regiments-eighteen infantry and three cavalry-were recruited substantially within thirty days.
"Of course you understand that it was now and here that the Twenty-fourth Iowa sprang into existence. And right here I wish to correct a somewhat com- mon misapprehension. The following found in the archives of the Adjutant General of the State, is the very first authority for, or official recognition of, the title of 'Temperance Regiment,' as applied to the Twenty-fourth :
""'Executive Office, Iowa, August 6, 1862.
"'E. C. Byam:
"'Sir: The Secretary of War has authorized me to raise a regiment of infantry in this State for United States service to be known as the 'Temperance Regiment' to be commanded by you. This regiment is in addition to the five regiments heretofore called for. I therefore request and authorize you to pro- ceed immediately to the raising and organization of such regiment. The regi- ment will be the Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry and will rendezvous at Musca- tine. Recruiting commission will be issued to you by the Adjutant General for such persons as you may designate as recruiting officers and passes will be de- livered to you by him for such recruiting officers and for the recruits to the place of rendezvous. An acting quartermaster will be appointed by me to make the necessary arrangements at Muscatine for quartering and subsisting the men as they arrive. I shall expect the regiment to be in rendezvous by the 15th of September next. Very respectfully,
" 'Your obedient servant,
" 'SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD, Governor.'
"On August 6, 1862, when the foregoing was issued, every company after- wards serving in the Twenty-fourth with a single possible exception, was in process of being recruited, had its ranks already more than half filled and its organization was completed not later than the 15th of the month named-only nine days after the order to Col. Byam was penned by the Governor. This point is not made through any sensitiveness with regard to the name, 'Temperance Regiment'-better deserved, I honestly believe, by no regiment than by the Twenty-fourth Iowa-but simply in vindication of facts or history, which are that with one exception, the companies of the Twenty-fourth were raised precisely as were other companies in Iowa at the time, and then, upon applica- tion and by careful selection, were assigned to Col. Byam's regiment. In evi- dence, note the following letter, copied verbatim et literatim (because the spell-
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ing is rather too good to be lost, and therefore left unidentified), from the Adjutant General's records :
"'August the II, 1862.
" 'Governor S. Kirkwood :
"'Sir: I have got a full (a voice, "Capt. Williams") company and we are now organized and the officers are elected and it is the unanimous request of every man that we be transferred to the Twenty-fourth regiment. The Co. are all temperance men and Col. E. C. Byam has requested me to let you know the mind of Co. He is pleased with the report of the Co. His agent has seen the men in ranks ; if you can make the change you will confer a favor on 101 men.
" 'Signed ,
" 'Dear Governor: I most heartily endorse the above request.
"'E. C. BYAM, Col. 24th Iowa Infantry.'
"Upon the back of this letter, in the handwriting of Iowa's grand old war Governor, appears the following indorsement :
"'Adjutant General Baker will assign this Co. to Byam if he wills.'
"Although there is in the records no affirmative evidence, it appears that Company 'G' may have been the exception indicated, as the original recruiting commission for this company was issued to Rev. F. W. Vinson under date of August 6, and the enlistments were all after that date, with none later than August 15-so that the company was actually raised in nine days. And the rapidity of enlistments in all the companies was only exceeded by the clean sweep of those eligible. They went by whole families; ten first cousins in Co. 'F'-four Brennaman brothers, three Kurtz brothers and the rest, I think, Hershe-and, strange to say, all three of those Kurtz boys are here present this day : in Co. 'B,' four Rigbys ; Co. 'O,' three Hakemans and two Hueys ; Co. 'D,' four Rosenbergers, and so on down the list. Oh, it was an uprising and out- pouring ; and by the middle of August each company was assembled at the con- venient local center trying to 'drill' (usually without the slightest knowledge on the part of anyone present), and before the end of the month had broken the home ties and 'Gone to War.'
"It was upon this spot (then a piece of bare prairie 420 feet square, including the surrounding streets) that Companies 'B' and 'C' assembled, August 27, 1862, very early in the morning, for that ever-to-be-remembered parting and starting. And it will not be invidious for me to recall as best I may the scenes of that day, for they were duplicated, somewhere, not only by each of the other companies of the Twenty-fourth, but by each of the 216 companies then being formed in our State. Older or younger, no one who was here present will have forgotten that day and that scene. At least one hundred vehicles, mostly farm wagons, which were to convey the 'boys' sixteen miles to the railroad, were here assembled; then the fathers and mothers, the wives, sisters, and sweethearts! It has been well said that three elements made the vital force that saved our country upon a thousand fields-the boy in the uniform, the mother that gave him and the girl he left behind him-a trinity, like all the best things, mostly woman! Ah, those mothers! Let me give you an incident of one, typical of all: Her only child, not yet 18, burned to go with the first com- pany from his locality ; the mother not only prevailed against that, but exacted
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a solemn promise that he would not enlist without her permission, which she in turn pledged herself to give, 'if necessary.' More than a year later came the loud calls for more men; this boy was away from home at the time, but hasten- ing back, his first words were, 'Mother, I've just got to go now!' With her arms about his neck and the tears streaming down her face that mother said, 'My son, I think you have!' You young mothers of today, with your boys at your knee, you are thinking you could not and would not do thus ; but under simi- lar circumstances you 'would' whether you 'could' or not! For two thousand years the Spartan woman has been the synonym for self-sacrificing patriotism, but the nimbus thrown about her by the romantic legends of the centuries pales before the halo which is placed upon the brow of the American woman by facts yet known to thousands of living witnesses! Hers was the farewell with smiles and tears, hers the agony of suspense-the waiting and the watching, often in face of privation and want ; hers the desolating sorrow when Hope was no more; but hers always the spirit of encouragement and the hand of help! God bless the American woman, the best of His best!
"But we are at this moment witnessing upon this ground, the farewells of 47 years ago. The two companies of young men (fifty of them just from the school house at my left and all averaging scant 22 years) are in the center formed in mass. The first good-byes are spoken more formally by preachers and teachers, in words trembling with emotion-for the elder who stay more than the younger who go, appreciate the gravity and the pathos of the moment. Then ranks are broken for the real farewells; with one hand on his boy's shoul- der and the other palm to palm, the father looks into his boy's eyes with but few words; the sister weeps upon his breast, the sweetheart presses her lips to his; but his mother-she gathers him in her arms as when a helpless babe, and, hold- ing hard her throbbing heart and welling tears, she bids him ever to fear God and-do his duty!
"Finally the last lingering words have been spoken and we are off. The ride of sixteen miles with part of every load composed of sisters and sweet- hearts (the mothers are mostly on their knees at home) was a picnic. Darkness found us in the rendezvous at Camp Strong, Muscatine, where the greatly needed military training filled the days. There were plenty of incidents that would bear recalling, including the visits of the friends from home; but we hasten to get a glimpse of the real life of the soldier, which began for the Twenty-fourth when we arrived, early in October, at Helena, Arkansas-a place whose name, we always thought, should have ended with its first syllable. Time forbids any detail of, or even reference to, consecutive events. We had, both then and later, hardships and privations, as well as amusements and pleasures. Perhaps it is as well that memory holds the latter best and clearest. But what I would like is to recall one or two typical incidents, or features, that may illumine for you the daily life of the soldier. It had much sameness-reveille and 'hard tack,' drill by squad, by company and by battalion; more hard tack, more drill and then more tack.
"But often, far too often, during the winter, routine was broken by the funeral call. From the hospital-a place where
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"'There was a lack of woman's nursing, There was a dearth of woman's tears,'
a place more dreaded by the soldier than was the chance of wounds or of death upon the field of battle-from the hospital you followed the casket-I forget, box or blanket-to the shallow grave prepared on hillside, levee or plain, for a comrade's mortal remains. To the slow muffled drum you marched, with arms reversed. The chaplain may or may not have been present, but there was no father, mother, sister or brother; the salute is fired; the handkerchief snatched from the snares of the drums, and with lively tune and quick step, camp and its routine is quickly resumed.
"Again, one of the early lessons of that winter was the demanding and com- manding potency of the 'long roll.' That fierce rattle of the drums, punctuated by great throbs of sound, like artillery amid a blare of musketry, we were told meant attack and immediate danger, which instantly must be met in hostile array. Thus it was that one night just before Christmas, 1862, when between one and two o'clock, the braves of the Twenty-fourth were suddenly awakened by that dreaded alarm, each individual hair arose upon its owner's head as he was struggling into clothing and equipments. The regiment was then in 'shacks' about 9x18, each holding 8 men, who slept in four 'bunks'-one above another on either side, with about thirty inches of floor between them. When eight husky men came at once into that space and at once began frantically to dress, there was some mix; and you will not be surprised that two of them, each having one trousers' leg occupied, after vainly stabbing the air in an effort to find the other one, found instead that both had hold of and partly occupied one and the same pair! And not a hostile 'Johnny' within forty miles !
"In the early spring of 1863, after a couple of short and minor expedi- tions, the Twenty-fourth joined Grant's great Vicksburg campaign. It was here, May 16, at Champion Hill, that with one company acting as provost guards at corps headquarters, the remaining nine overran and captured a Confederate battery, sustaining 189 casualties, 82 of which were 'killed or mortally wounded' -a fatality exceeded during the war by but very few regiments in a single en- gagement. Then came the siege and capture of Jackson, New Orleans and the Teche campaign, followed in the spring of 1864 by Banks' ill-starred Red River fiasco. Then to the far East, where the Twenty-fourth was the first Iowa regi- ment to march through the streets of Washington; then glorious Shenandoah Valley campaign with 'Little Phil,' then to Georgia and North Carolina, in Sher- man's rear ; and then-home !
"Victory at Appomattox was grand, the home-coming glorious, for those of us who came, but-996 men, including 'field an staff,' were mustered into the Twenty-fourth Iowa at Camp Strong; recruits were added to bring its total membership up to 1,207. Where were those comrades then? Where are they today? At the time of our muster out, death had already claimed 343; since then a much greater number. The monument before me (dedicated July 4th, 1866, and the first of its kind in Iowa) bears the names of 64-all of whom went from Cedar County and who died during the war. Four companies are repre- sented-21 from 'B,' 32 from 'C,' 10 from 'D,' and I from 'H.' To these our comrades and to all others who either during or since the war passed over the
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river and are 'waiting in the Shade,' this assembly is especially a memorial. We bring to them one and all our affectionate remembrances, ourselves linger- ing on the brink. We, ourselves, but
" 'Wait for the bugle; the night dews are cold, The limbs of the soldier feel jaded and old,
The field of our bivouacs is windy and bare,
There is lead in our joints, there is frost in our hair;
The future is veiled and its fortunes unknown
As we lie with hushed breath till the bugle is blown.
"'At the sound of that bugle each comrade shall spring Like an arrow released from the strain of the string, The courage, the impulse of youth shall come back To banish the chill of the drear bivouac,
And sorrows and losses and cares fade away, When that life-giving signal proclaims the new day.
" 'Though the bivouac of age may put ice in our veins, And no fibre of steel in our sinews remains;
Though the Comrades of yesterday's march are not here, And the sunlight seems pale and the branches are sear,
7
Though the sound of our cheering dies down to a moan, We shall find our lost youth when the bugle is blown.'
"Comrades for whom the bugle has already blown, the great majority of the old Twenty-fourth Iowa-'We who are about to die, salute you !' "251
When rumors of war came in 1898, the military company in Tipton and vicin- ity made preparations for any emergency. The Iowa National Guard, it was understood, would be the first to be called out for service. In preparation for these events the citizens of the county took great interest, and no one more than the one who offered to mount the commanding officer in case of need.
It was in March, 1898, that Alex Spear, one of the substantial farmers of the county, called at the office of Maj. John T. Moffit, and asked if he was furnished with the necessary horses in the event of being called upon for service.
Major Moffit admitted that he was not in possession of the horse he would need to lead his troops. Since Cedar county was then, as now, noted for its fine horses, Mr. Spear said he was anxious that the officers from this county should be as well mounted as any in the entire division. He determined to prevent any failure in this respect by offering to the Major the best mount his stables could produce. This was the description of the fine animal selected : a large bay mare, seven years old, coach and trotting bred, standing sixteen hands high, and weigh- ing eleven hundred pounds or more; one of a fine saddle gait. This was the splendid prospect for the officer in case a call should come for active service.
On Saturday, just a week before the orders were received to march, Mr. Frank Moffit sent Lieut. Sweinhart, as a present, a fine black horse, beautiful enough to make him the envied of all soldiers. Lieut. France was presented by other citizens with a horse said to be worthy a brigadier general-a Kentucky saddler.
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After the ultimatum had been issued by Pres. Mckinley, Company F awaited impatiently the order that all began to feel was inevitable. All was expectancy on the afternoon and evening of Monday, the 25th of April, 1898, and late into the night the order was awaited, until all had given it up and gone home to rest.
It is related that business was practically suspended during Monday while the order was awaited, and the streets were thronged while awaiting that first news. The arrangements were all made, everything was packed ready to respond at a moment's notice. A last drill at the armory followed by a dancing party occupied the members of the company, until the conclusion was reached that no orders would come until morning, and they separated, for a short time as it proved. Many had not yet gone to their homes for the night when the order came to as- semble at Camp Mckinley at Des Moines.
The message by wire came at 12:30 A. M., on Tuesday, the 26th of April, and one hour's notice given of the coming special train over the C. & N. W. to carry the company to Des Moines. Bells were rung, and buglers rode through the streets sounding the assembly call, while the fire whistle added to the alarm.
The suspense was over and the final summons was a relief to high strung nerves awaiting some definite decision. Knapsacks were hastily put on, and orders were given to "fall in."
At the depot scenes of the Civil War were repeated with this difference, that in 1861 the boys crossed the country to Wilton in lumber wagons instead of taking train at once. The sensations were not different, and, it is safe to say, the vet- erans of the Civil War recalled the old days when they were young and start- ing out to serve their country where home and friends and all the cherished things of life must be surrendered. While after events did not make the havoc in home life caused by the Civil War the remembrance of these things affected this de- parture. Mothers and fathers felt the same reluctance in giving up their sons for the conquering of a foreign despot as those of other days for the preservation of the nation.
In the darkness of midnight, with a few flickering lanterns, with hearts full of unsaid things, the train was loaded with its human freight and with the equip- ment including the gift mounts of the officers mentioned before. There was no noise, but the silent feeling of serious business, and a determination to find out the secrets of war.
On the Sunday following the assembling at Camp Mckinley, a multitude made an excursion there to see the soldiers in camp. Tipton sent a big delegation over the road now in the control of the Rock Island system, and they spent Sunday with Company F.
The 49th Regiment was ordered to Jacksonville June 9, 1898, and were on their way by the 11th. When next heard from Company F and those enlisted from this county were in camp at Jacksonville, Fla. They went over the Mil- waukee road, and a number of people from the county went to Marion to see them off. While the company's train halted there they were remembered by Capt. and Mrs. S. W. Rathbun, both formerly of this county ; the Captain's name being found in the official and military records of the county while Mrs. Rathbun was prominent in its educational history.
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The regiment was fed in home fashion at Marion, and this reminds one of the Wilton people feeding the boys on their way to Muscatine in 1861, and the Tipton dinner to the Mechanicsville company a little later. History only repeats itself a little more rapidly in its movement, and the changes of time in prosecuting the war were correspondingly short.
The journey of the boys to the south was fully described in the interesting newspaper letters of one of their number, now a regular army officer, E. H. Yule.252
After trying experiences in camp life, in fighting disease and escaping by nar- row margins, the first death came to Company F of the 49th. Joe Wilson, who went out with the company on the night journey, never returned to his home until his mother brought him after the long hospital fight was ended. His burial oc- curred in his home town on September 30, 1898. All the business houses were closed, and the G. A. R. and W. R. C. attended in a body in honor of the young soldier. The public schools were closed and joined in the services for the former pupil. Col. J. T. Moffit, Adjt. J. C. France, and Capt. Rowell were all present from the Jacksonville camp.
Shortly after this another member of Company F was brought home by his friend and comrade Ed Wolf-Private Harry Staininger died in the Florida hospital and was buried in Tipton October 8, 1898. This was the second death in the company due to disease from a changed climate and the unhealthy condi- tions under which a large body of men were called upon to live during the sum- mer season.
It was in December that the 49th Iowa set sail for Havana. A telegram from Col. Dows conveyed this information to the friends at home.
While the regiment was in Cuba a paper of that island called "The Times," gave some account of its composition and activities. They were then in Camp Columbia, which was described as "being swept by the zephyrs from the Gulf of Mexico, and washed by the blue waters of the mighty ocean."
The colonel, Wm. G. Dows, had risen from the ranks, through every grade of militia service since the organization of the regiment in 1878. He and the captain of Company C were the oldest members in point of service in the regiment. At this time the regiment was said to be the only strictly volunteer one in the island, as there was no regular army officer in it.253
The regiment had the honor of furnishing a detail for guard at Morro Castle, and were the first soldiers of the army of the United States to set foot in that fortress. Company F of Tipton, Capt. L. J. Rowell, Ist Lieut. J. E. Bartley belonged to this regiment. Company H, of Marshalltown had for its captain Chas. S. Aldrich, a Cedar County boy.
When Company F left for the Des Moines camp in 1898, and later were ordered south, and finally into Cuba, there was much anxiety on the part of the families and friends concerned. When they returned, a great reception was given them by all the people.
They landed at the same station from which they set out that early morning, when the excitement was such that no one thought of sleep the whole night through, but the return was somewhat different from the departure.
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It was a day of general rejoicing, great crowds assembling to greet the return on Tuesday morning, May 16, 1899. A program had been carefully pre- pared for the occasion, and the whole day was to be given up to its fulfilment, but, owing to the great crowd at the station when the special train came in, and the spontaneous greetings from all the friends, formal exercises were forgot- ten ;- even the Grand Army escort of twenty-four grizzled veterans of the Civil War which had formed in line to meet the younger soldiers just back from Cuba.
Greetings and responses, toasts and banquets followed in due season, when the emotions of men were stirred by the kind appreciation of friends, and the tears were not forgotten for the ones who gave up their young lives in camp or hospital ward.
Company B, First Regiment, I. N. G., was organized in Tipton, in 1884 and that same year took part in the encampment at Waverly, Ia. Capt. Wm. Kelly, formerly Ist Lieut. of Co. B, Twenty-fourth Infantry during the Civil War, commanding. It remained in the First Regiment as Company B until 1892 when it became Company M, of the Second. In 1898 it was transferred back to the First as Company F. At the enlistment in the Spanish-American War it became Company F of the Forty-Ninth.
It was reorganized at the close of the war and in 1899 was still Company F of the Forty-ninth. Later in 1902 it was transferred to the Fifty-third Regi- ment and is now in that organization.
The original members of this company as recruited in 1884 follows :
Captain, William Kelly.
First Lieut., R. M. Carothers.
Second Lieut., H. L. Brotherlin.
Second Lieut., S. D. Casad.
First Lieut., S. D. Casad.
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