USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 28
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"The Fourteenth Iowa being on the right of the brigade, was the last to attack. Shaw led it and advanced upon the enemy's works to the right of the other regiments, Gen. Smith riding part of the way with him. Being separated by fallen timber, the latter rejoined Shaw inside the enemy's works. Here it was that Gen. Smith took his canteen, swung it over his head, cheered, and offered the Colonel a drink. At Shaw's right, the Twelfth Iowa, of Cook's brigade, advanced a little later, but was in the works in time to be severely engaged, and to help prevent the re-enforced enemy from driving our own troops out. Col. Woods led the regiment. It had at first made a feint of attack further to the right, but now moved to the left to Tuttle's support, and charging through the fallen timber, received a galling fire of grape and canister. On reaching the breastworks, the regiment poured a hot fire of musketry into the enemy, who not only met it in front, but opened on it with artillery at the right. Under this cross-fire, the Twelfth fought the enemy for two hours, helping to drive him from and beyond the deep ravine back of the breastworks. The Seventh Iowa, led by Col. Parrott, had promptly advanced, and fought with extreme bravery, adding to the splendid reputation it had won at Belmont. All the Iowa regi- ments, especially the Second, had won the admiration of the army and the country.
"The assault of the Second Iowa, supported by the three other Iowa regi- ments and the Twenty-fifth Indiana, won the battle of Donelson. It was an Iowa victory. 'There was nothing,' says Shaw, 'in the history of the whole war, that excels that charge of the Second Iowa.'"
During the winter, notwithstanding war's alarms, the churches of Des Moines did not neglect their pastors. Liberal donations were made, not only to the pioneer preachers, Messrs. Nash and Bird, but also to Revs. Chamberlain, Flem- ing. Turner, and Peet.
The Register of March II, prints a letter from Hoyt Sherman to his wife in Des Moines, vividly describing the appearance of Columbus, Ky., after the evacuation ; also a letter from Captain Mills, from Fort Donelson, in which the valiant captain wants the world to know that it was the Second Iowa Infantry that assaulted and carried the works of the enemy at Fort Donelson, which re- sulted in its possession by the United States troops-a contention which the brave men of other regiments are, after all these years, too generous to question.
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He encloses Brig .- Gen. C. F. Smith's General Order No. 8, in which are com- mended all the participants in the battle, with especial mention of Birge's sharp- shooters, Major Cavender's three batteries "and the Second Iowa Regiment, more particularly, for its successful assault on the enemy's breastworks on the afternoon of the 15th inst."
Captain Mills also notes the circumstance that his regiment led the triumphal column on its entrance into the enemy's works, and that "other regiments cheered us as we passed."
He also notes, with satisfaction, the fact that for the first time since the war began, there is a brigade composed almost exclusively of Iowa troops, to wit : the 2nd, 7th, 12th and 14th, with two companies of Illinois Cavalry, making the First Brigade.
Scarcely had the rumblings of the battle at Fort Donelson died away when the sounds of conflict at Sugar Creek and Pea Ridge, Arkansas, began to break upon the ears of the deeply interested ones at home. In a letter written March II, Lucien E. Doughty, a private in Company E, Fourth Iowa Infantry, formerly a printer in the Register office, wrote his sister in Des Moines a letter from Sugar Creek battle ground. Doughty said his regiment was in the hottest part of the fight. Its loss was about 30 killed and 150 wounded. His company had three killed and eight wounded. Sergeant Barnum was struck with a six-pound ball in his left breast and was killed instantly. "Poor Ed !" exclaims the writer, "He was one of my best friends. We had been messmates from the time we left Des Moines. His death is a hard blow to his wife and chil- dren. He will be mourned by many old and valued friends in Des Moines.'
Bell enlisted as a private with Doughty, but at the time of his death was acting Adjutant, and would soon have received his appointment. He was wounded on the field and died next day. "We buried him today with military honors. He was followed to his grave by our highest officers, including Adjutant Wil- liamson, Lieut .- Col. and acting Major H. H. Griffiths. They all seemed deeply affected."
Colonel Dodge in his report on his regiment's part in the battle of Pea Ridge, speaks in the highest praise of the gallant conduct of Adjutant James A. Wil- liamson, of Des Moines-who at the close of the war retired a full brigadier- general.
A notable event in the history of Des Moines was the public funeral, March II, in honor of Nathan W. Doty and Theodore G. Weeks, who fell at Fort Donelson. It was attended by thousands. Both houses of the General Assembly adjourned in honor of the occasion. Its members convened in the House at II a. m., and, accompanied by Governor Kirkwood and staff, the other state officers and government officials, proceeded under escort of the marshal and his aids to Ingham Hall. The procession was joined by members of Des Moines Lodge of Good Templars, Des Moines Lodge of Odd Fellows, Pioneer Lodge of Masons and many citizens, in carriages and on foot. A military escort com- manded by Lieutenant Timoney received the procession at the door, and escorted the representative citizens to seats reserved for them. The public filled every remaining space in the hall.
The exercises arranged by the Mayor and City Council were as follows :
Prayer by Rev. Thompson Bird.
Reading of the 15th Chapter of Ist Corinthians, by Rev. Dr. Peet.
Funeral oration by Hon. D. O. Finch.
Prayer by Rev. J. M. Chamberlain.
The singing, the prayers, the scripture reading and the oration combined to make a most impressive ceremony. The scene itself was one never to be for- gotten. The hall was draped with flags and emblems of mourning. The draped coffins containing the dead heroes rested side by side on the platform in front of the speaker's desk. Seated about the coffins sat members of the Second Iowa,
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acting as a body-guard. From the hall the procession moved to the cemetery. After the benediction had been pronounced over the graves, a volley of musketry was fired, and the throng dispersed.
On the day of these solemn obsequies came the first reports of the Union victory at Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, in which several Iowa regiments participated. It was feared that Captain Griffiths' company, from Des Moines, might have supplied a considerable part of the "thousand killed and wounded on our side." The Register endeavors to prepare its readers for the worst by remarking that "desperate battles are the order of the day, and Des Moines, in common with other communities, must bear her part in the burdens and the fatalities of war. The Rebellion must be crushed out if it takes the last man in the loyal North to do it !"
The phenomenal recovery of Joseph S. Hayden of Des Moines, Company D, was chronicled on the 15th. Hayden was shot in the head, the ball passing through the skull near the ear and running obliquely forward into the mouth almost dividing the tongue.
Voltaire P. Twombley of Keosauqua, then young in his "teens," afterwards Treasurer of State, and since his retirement a prominent business man of Des Moines, was highly praised in the press as the man who planted the colors of the Second Iowa on the entrenchments at Donelson.
The promotion of Dr. C. H. Rawson, of Des Moines, to the position of Brigade Surgeon was on the 15th communicated by Representative Kasson to the Doctor's brother, A. Y. Rawson.
The Register of March 20, expresses pride in the fact that R. P. Clarkson, better known as "Dick" Clarkson, formerly a compositor in its office, was in at the storming of Donelson.
Doughty, of Company E, Fourth Regiment, in a letter confirms a report that Springfield was taken by Captain Griffiths' Des Moines company. "The boys were detached, as a sort of vanguard. They pushed into the town with drums beating and colors flying, and were highly amused at the scared appearance of divers secesh chaps who were making a sharp exodus in the direction of Price's retreating army."
A festival at the Good Templars and Masonic halls for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers at the front was given by the Soldiers' Aid Society on the 25th.
A letter from a soldier in Company E, Fourth Iowa, written from Keits- ville, Mo., March 22, says that Adjutant Williamson, of General Dodge's Brigade "has about recovered from the wound which he received at Pea Ridge." He also states that "Charlie Greene is pretty much recovered from his slight wound. Lieutenant Simmons is at present quite unwell with a fever."
Late in March came a belated letter from Captain Griffiths, now acting Major Griffiths. After a general description of the battle of Pea Ridge, the captain turns to his regiment's part. He writes : 8
"On the first day the Fourth Regiment was in a perfect 'hell on earth,' as twenty-four pieces of cannon were playing on us, and at that, 10,000 rebels on our front and left flank, pouring it into us. But here the brave boys stood and. drove them back again and again, until, no help coming, and they exhausted with the fierce labors of the battle, we fell back, firing in retreat, and holding the swarming mass of the enemy at bay, until two batteries and two regiments came to our relief, holding the ground on both sides of us a moment and we formed again and drove them back until we had gained our former position where we began the battle next morning."
The bravery of Colonel Bussey's Third Iowa Cavalry at Pea Ridge was the subject of favorable comment at the time. A Pea Ridge correspondent of the Missouri Democrat related that the Des Moines boys, Sergeant Barnum and
8 State Register, March 28, 1862.
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Private Cornish, "stood side by side as skirmishers near a tree. A ball killed Barnum and at the same instant his comrade was also killed by a grape- shot. Both fell dead at the same instant, with their feet together."
The fall of New Orleans and the opening of the Mississippi river was the good news received on the 23d of April.
Word came in May to the patriotic ladies of Des Moines that the flag made by them and presented to Company E, afterwards made the regimental flag of the Fourth Iowa, had been riddled with rebel bullets at the battle of Pea Ridge. This historic flag was to be sent back as a precious keepsake to the ladies who. made it.
Colonel Hare in his official report of the recent battle, gratified many at home in that he called especial attention to Colonel M. M. Crocker of the 13th Iowa. "The coolness and bravery displayed by him on the field of battle during the entire action of the 6th, the skill with which he maneuvred his men and the exam- ple of daring and disregard of danger by which he inspired others to do their duty and stand by their colors, show him to be possessed of the highest qualities of a commander and entitle him to speedy promotion."
The confirmation of Brigadier General Tuttle was announced by Senator Grimes on the 7th, and a visit the general purposed to pay to his father in Des Moines was keenly anticipated.
Emigration to Pike's Peak and California, coupled with enlistments, made many vacancies in the community life of Iowa. And yet the population of Des Moines and of Polk county was steadily increasing !
Adjutant Joel Tuttle, who had bravely fought side by side with his elder brother, Colonel Tuttle, in the battle of Fort Donelson, soon afterward suc- cumbed to disease and died. His body was brought to the grief-stricken home in Des Moines, and on the 19th of May, occurred the funeral. All the ministers of the city were present. Judge George G. Wright delivered a deeply impressive address. The remains were conveyed to the cemetery under the direction of the military officers quartered in the city at the time. The occasion brought home to the people of Des Moines with solemn force the awful tragedy of war.
Theodore Cree, nephew of Dr. Shaw, of Des Moines, and a member of Cap- tain Mills' company, returned home to recuperate. He had been wounded three times at Donelson ; but, kneeling behind a stump in the enemy's entrenchments, he continued to blaze away. Taken to a hospital in Cincinnati, a lady of that city. Mrs. Thomas Morgan, conveyed him to her residence and for six weeks took care of him. He believed she saved his life, for erysipelas and fever hav- ing supervened, his hold on life was slender. This is the young man from Saylor who, early in the war, had been mistakingly proclaimed a deserter !
Captain Graves writing home to his wife from camp near Farmington, in May, modestly referred to the gallant charge of the Second Iowa Cavalry near Corinth which commanded the admiration of the New York Tribune corre- spondent. He says :
"We had a desperate battle yesterday. The rebels drove us into a corner, and were firing at us with twenty-four cannon. Our whole division was in danger of being cut off. In this emergency, General Paine ordered us to charge on the rebel battery. We did so successfully. The rebels were driven back. Our regiment lost many men. My company escaped unharmed. Ten horses were shot under us I was in front of the company in the charge, and the cannon balls were dashing all around me. A piece of shell struck my horse, but did not injure him severely. Lieutenant Washburne was taken prisoner . I made a charge with the rest of my company, cutting him loose.
"In a previous affair where sixteen of our company were engaged with two rebel companies, Harry Douthett was shot between the eyes. I think he will get well. Jimmy Slaughter was shot in the arm and leg, but he will recover.
"In charge we were obliged to pass over ground covered with dead men and horses.
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Somehow the news reached camp before I got back that I was killed ; and when I returned it would have been a cheering sight to you to see the boys congratulating me on my almost miraculous escape. I have no fear to go into a fire, but afterwards when you go into the hospital and see the limbs of the poor fellows amputated you would take it for a slaughter house."
Early in June the sick and wounded soldiers from Corinth were duly arriv- ing at the Capital, and many were the measures of relief adopted in aid of those who were not blessed with homes.
Leonard B. Houston of Company D, Second Iowa, writing friends in Des Moines, said he "thought the battle of Donelson was awful, but it was a slight skirmish compared with the conflict at Pittsburg Landing." Picturing the awful horrors of the scene, after the battle, he adds: "I don't know how our regiment escaped. We were at one time surrounded, and had to cut our way through, with the loss of eighty-five killed, wounded and missing."
He drew this striking picture of the scene: "At this moment of horror when our regiment was lying close to the ground to avoid the storm of balls, the little birds were singing in the green trees over our heads! What a contrast between the happiness and innocence of those birds and the war of turbulent passions raging on that battlefield !"
Colonel Crocker arrived in Des Moines on Sunday, June 8. The arduous cares and labors of the campaign had evidently impaired his health. He had com- manded a brigade at the retreat of the confederates.
Captain Griffiths, after the battle of Pea Ridge, was appointed captain of First Battery Iowa Light Artillery, in place of Captain Jones, resigned. Ser- geant J. E. Sells was promoted to the captaincy in Company E, Fourth Iowa. The friends of Lieutenant Simmons were disappointed in that Sells was pro- moted over him, but none questioned Jack's fitness.
The Eighteenth Iowa was rapidly organizing, with two recruiting offices in Des Moines.
General and Mrs. W. D. Wilson gave a supper, Saturday, June 14, to the returned volunteers then in Des Moines. State officials joined in greeting the war-worn veterans. Colonel Crocker's arrival at the Wilson home was greeted by the unfurling of a new and beautiful flag from a staff fifty feet high. The flag was made by General Wilson's son."
A Flower Episode in a Year of Tumult.
On the 17th of June the Des Moines City Horticultural Society turned from the tumult of war to hold an exhibition at Ingham's Hall.9
A committee of five public-spirited members of the society10 had previously visited the homes of citizens especially interested in trees and flowers, and reported conditions as they found them.
It often happens that an apparently ephemeral report, perhaps scarcely read at the time, takes on in after years a historical value not suspected at the time. Where, for example, could one find in print or in the memory of the traditional oldest inhabitant, another such picture of "the City of Homes" as it appeared in 1862?
The committee devoted most of three days to their mission. They were im- pressed with the pleasing fact that Des Moines as it was in '62, was not the Des Moines of a few years before when Postmaster Casady carried its post-office in his hat! Its members, all early settlers, naturally, contrasted in mind the row of log cabins, occupied by the soldiers in '45, with the comfortable, well-shaped and flower-surrounded homes of '62. Even nine years before there was not a shade tree in Des Moines !
9 Among the lady exhibitors were: Mesdames Dickinson, Hooker, Tuttle, Griffith, Brooks, Carpenter, Teesdale. Cooper, Nash, Allen, Savery, Luse and West.
10 Alex. Shaw, Wesley Redhead, J. M. Griffith, P. M. Casady and Peter Myers.
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The beautiful soft maples in front of the homes of Mr. Scribner and Dr. Woodruff were reported as the pioneer shade trees of the city.
These pioneers could also recall the time-only a few years before-when Des Moines could not boast a single rare fruit tree, or ornamental shrub, exotic, perennial plant or pot-flower-and that as late as 1853!
The committee first called at the Wesley Redhead home, one of the several historic homes of Des Moines. They found in cultivation two lots with a pro- fusion of trees, ornamental shrubs, perennial and annual plants, and among these a variety of roses, grapes, fruit trees, berry bushes, etc., and a good kitchen garden.
On T. W. Carpenter's homestead, grapes were a specialty,-with a frame- work of ornamental shrubbery and climbing vines.
David Norris cultivated an acre well garnished with ornamental trees, with a variety of grapes, berries and roses. Uncle David had a good kitchen garden and was credited with "a fine article of native grape wine."
Peter Myers soon convinced his visitors that "the polishing hand of industry had been at work." Bearing apple trees of standard varieties, berries, grapes and native plums met the eye everywhere on his premises. Climbing roses had been trained beside his door "whose cheerful blushes gave a welcome to his visitors."
L. P. Sherman was successfully cultivating standard apples.
Forest Home School was "appropriately named." A beautiful grove of young trees met the visitors' eyes, its beauty intensified by a grass plot. A long list of small fruits in the adjoining nursery attested the persistent efforts of its owners.
John Browne's beautiful lawn was made more beautiful by ornamental trees and shrubs.
On entering the premises of the late Dr. Grimmel,11 the committee missed the genial handshake and smiling face of its former owner; but were gratified on noting the monuments which the doctor had erected around him, "an evidence that he lived for the happiness of others." The flowers planted by his own hands had photographed on the minds of his visitors "the smiles of his cheerful counte- nance." There was also the well garnished kitchen garden "characteristic of all well-ordered German families."
The home of the doctor's son, Frank, Jr., adjoined the homestead, was a spot naturally beautiful, the beauty enhanced by artistic taste.
The home of P. M. Casady was surrounded by forest trees and a grass plot, and was rich in berries and small fruit.
At the home of John Teesdale was seen the best ornamental arrangement found anywhere in the city. The flower-garden was located upon a succession of benches neatly terraced, the grass ornamented by several designs, among them a large heart enclosing a fine variety of verbena, revealing the fact that a lover of flowers lived there. A long list of flowers and fruits reveals a side of Postmaster Teesdale's nature scarcely suspected by those who have thus far followed these pages.
The potted plants at the Newton home was reported as a pioneer collection. '
R. L. Tidrick had two acres enclosed, and a wealth of forest and fruit trees was reported.
The B. F. Allen home, then the most distinguished home in the city, had in cultivation about three town lots, studded with dwarf fruit trees, small fruits, ornamental shrubbery, and plants in profusion. "The commendable zeal of Mr. Allen has made this place an enviable spot. B. F. Allen's money, without B. F. Allen's personal care, labor and watchfulness, would have been a fruit- less investment."
Captain West's two town lots were found cultivated with standard and dwarf fruit trees, small fruits, grapes, ornamental shrubbery, etc.
11 Where the Victoria Hotel now stands.
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The grounds of James Smith & Sons, pioneer nurserymen, covering about sixty acres, included everything that would thrive in the climate. "How changed," says the writer of the report,12 "is James Smith & Sons, of June, 1862, and June, 1852! The reminiscences of that day find the Smiths living in a hole in the ground, but their persistent industry and love of their profession finds them the chief fruit growers of Central Iowa." This firm were reported as owning 3,000 of the 12,000 well-set standard apple trees in the township.
ยท The homes of L. Kinsey, Isaac Brandt, A. Garrison, Dr. Brooks, C. Stutsman, Colonel Hooker, C. P. Luse, and Messrs. Leyner, Bennett and Perrior, all tended to enlarge the committee's view as to the start made in Des Moines in the culti- vation of shade trees, fruits and flowers.
Long after the battles around Corinth, now grouped about the tragic name "Shiloh," it was "no uncommon thing, during the second summer of the war, to see soldiers passing along the streets "supporting their limbs with crutches," or carrying "their mutilated arms in slings," while others bore "on their sunken features the impression left by protracted sickness,"-some of them maimed for life, doomed to "carry to their graves the evidences of war's brutality."
'Early in July, Colonel Crocker was reported as on his way to Dixie to resume command of his brigade. His nomination as brigadier general had not yet been confirmed.
Late in June, Marshal H. M. Hoxie, accompanying his sick brother, Captain W. H. Hoxie of the Seventeenth Iowa, arrived in Des Moines by the stage from the south. Early in July the captain was rapidly improving in health and eager to return.
Lieutenant Colonel Sweitzer, formerly a clerk in Judge Rice's bank, Des Moines, was reported killed in one of the battles before Richmond.
Lieutenant A. G. Studer, of Des Moines, was in July appointed captain of Company B, Fifteenth Iowa, in place of Captain Smith resigned.
Early in July, Sells, of Company E, Fourth Iowa, resigned his commission as captain, giving place to First Lieutenant Simmons, who was in direct line of promotion. Sells accepted Simmons', vacant place, an arrangement creditable too him and satisfactory to all.
Governor Kirkwood offered a reward of $200 for the arrest of A. N. Marsh, late marshal of Des Moines, a fugitive from justice, charged with the murder of Michael King, June 28. Major Cavanagh offered an additional reward of $100. The Register said Marsh was "entitled to the friendly hospitality of the Knights of the Golden Circle," and would doubtless avail himself of it.
In July, Governor Kirkwood appointed Captain Mills major in the Second Iowa,-a reward well earned at Donelson and Pittsburg Landing.
"Another Des Moines soldier, away from home and friends, has fallen in defense of his country. The list of our dead is already becoming formidable, and the end is not yet." This was the pathetic, and at the same time prophetic, comment of the Register of July 16 on the death of William Stansberry, of Company B, Fifteenth Iowa, who had died of congestive fever at Corinth.
Five additional regiments was the demand of Governor Kirkwood on the reserves of Iowa loyalty, in a proclamation which appeared July 16. It devolved upon the fifth and sixth congressional districts to raise at least one of these regiments.
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