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 29
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At a county convention held in the old court house on the 12th, after the selection of delegates, Attorney General Nourse made an eloquent speech on the duty of republicans in the then present crisis. The convention adjourned "with three cheers for the old flag."
On the 21st, John A. Kasson, then first assistant postmaster general, was
12 Presumably Dr. Alexander Shaw.
COL. W. H. KINSMAN
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nominated by the republicans of the Des Moines district for Congress. Of this new force in Iowa politics the Register remarked: "He is an able speaker and an uncompromising republican, and when the people of the several counties shall see and hear him they will be proud to accept him as their representative."
William S. Pritchard of Des Moines was commissioned by Adjutant General Baker to raise a company for the new regiment to be raised in the Fifth and Sixth congressional districts.
Des Moines was alive with delegates on the 23d of July, the republican state convention then held being "probably the largest representative assemblage ever held in the State." There was little room for oratory in the convention proper ; but in the evening there was "intense enthusiasm." Speeches were made by several orators, three of whom had just come over from the democratic, party. These were greeted with "tremendous cheering."
The relative strength of the two parties at this time may be estimated by the representation at the two State conventions held in July. The 640 delegates at the republican convention represented seventy-three counties ; while the 391 delegates to the democratic convention represented forty counties.
Captain Kinsman of Company B, Fourth Iowa, made a flying visit to Des Moines on the 27th, giving good reports from the front. In July, Major J. E. Jewett of Des Moines was appointed first major of the Fourth Cavalry in place of Swan, resigned; Lieutenant Timoney was promoted to adjutant of the Fif- teenth United States Infantry, and Lieutenant Ensign succeeded Major Mills as captain of Company D, Second Iowa.
Early in August, Candidates Kasson and Finch agreed on a series of eleven joint debates in the Fifth congressional district.
A subscription paper was started in August at the State Bank, Des Moines, pledging money as a bounty for the enlistment of volunteers. The list was headed by J. C. Jordan for $50. The veteran lawyer, W. W. Williamson, signed $50, H. M. Hoxie and F. W. Palmer each signed $25, and so on down to numer- ous five-dollar subscriptions.
On the 12th of August the quartermaster located "Camp Crocker," a short distance south of the Iowa Central College-now Des Moines College-in what was then the northwestern part of the city.
Lieutenant Robert Allen, a relative of B. F. Allen, died in hospital in New York, July 26. He enlisted from Des Moines, in Company D, Second Iowa, and was promoted to a lieutenancy under General McClellan. In the first day's battle before Richmond he was badly wounded in the thigh. The limb was ampu- tated on the field, and he was left two days in a hut in a swamp, with little or no . attention. He was taken by confederates to Richmond and placed in a crowded hospital. He was finally shipped to New York, but only to die. His father, Major Allen, and other relatives, were with him when he died.
The war spirit so took possession of the Capital city during the summer of '62 that, as we look back upon that heroic period in our history, it seems almost as if the entire community had succumbed to a midsummer madness. There was the Governor's call for more regiments, and in the shadow of the call was the dread alternative-the draft. All recognized, and literally felt, the imperative need of more men to fill the broken ranks of the Iowa regiments that had fought at Donelson, at Pea Ridge, at Iuka and at Corinth; the need of whole regiments to go to the support of those who had borne the brunt of battle and been worn by the ravages of disease. Never was the determination to put down the rebel- lion by force of arms so firmly fixed in men's minds. Never was so imperative the duty of the community to care for the wives and children, the widows and orphans, of those who had gone from their community life to the front of dan- ger. Then there was the innate abhorrence of the draft, and with it the feeling that, whatever other states and communities might accept as inevitable, the Capital city of Iowa must be spared the humiliating admission that her patriot- ism had fallen short of their War Governor's reasonable expectation.
This strained condition of society at the Capital is evidenced by the extent Vol. I-14
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to which "the war" pushed into the background, or crowded out altogether, the ordinary run of local news. Take a single illustration. In the weekly Register of August 20, '62, besides the war news by telegraph, and several first-page let- ters from the front, and editorial matter on war themes, it will be found that "the war" has well-nigh taken possession of the local columns. Note the trend of the local news :
The promotion of Robert Cross of Des Moines to the post of quartermaster of the Twenty-third Iowa, the promotion of Captain J. A. T. Hull to acting adjutant of the "Western Regiment," the arrival of several hundred Enfield rifles for that regiment, the arrival of Captain Dyson's company from Guthrie county, of Senator Dungan's company from Lucas -- the company having marched from Chariton, fifty miles in twenty-four hours; the splendid appearance of Captain Gregg's company, with Lieutenant Hull in line, as they marched past the Register office ; the valuable services rendered by Dr. J. O. Skinner, of Des Moines, in recruiting the several companies officered by Captains Houston, Lieminger, Gregg, Dykeman and Clark; the arrival of Captain Goolman and Lieutenant G. W. Clark, to secure the acceptance of two companies in Warren county; the presentation of a beautiful flag to Captain Gregg's company, in front of Grif- fiths' block, East side, -- the presentation speech made by Captain Samuel Adams, the response by Captain Gregg; the organization of two companies in Dallas and one company in Boone for the Western Regiment; the vacation of the site first selected for the barracks in favor of a site on the East side; the arrival of lumber, the detaching of thirty soldiers to assist in the carpentry, and the pros- pect of an early completion and occupancy of the barracks; the selection of Camp Burnside as the name of the Des Moines camp, and the local insistence that it should be called Camp Crocker ; the enlistment of four printers of the Register force,-Russell, Gaylor, Farrington and Holbrook; the illness of Major J. E. Jewett at his home in Des Moines; the continued ill-health of General Tuttle, compelling him to take the less laborious command of the post at Cairo, and the transfer of the Division commanded by him to Colonel Crocker ; the election of officers, at the American House, of the Pottawattamie company, with W. E. Houston, "a Des Moines soldier, true and tried," as second lieutenant ; the arrival of the company formed in Camp township, officered by J. P. Roach, R. L. McCray and W. H. Brenton, "a fine body of men," and the consolidation of twenty men from Dallas and Guthrie with this company, through the agency of C. C. Van, recruiting officer ; the designation of Captain Dykeman's company as "the Wilson Company," as a tribute to W. Duane Wilson who was largely instrumental in its organization; the formal appointment of William Dewey as colonel of the Western Regiment, and the colonel's presence in the city.
Nor is the war news of this issue yet exhausted! From it we learn that com- panies, from the Des Moines district alone, about thirty-one, had already reported for service under the new call for troops, and fifteen of these were then in Des Moines, or within a short march of the city.
It is also noted that the bounty list recently started in the city has taken on several hundred names, "backed up in every instance by the cash."
Adjutant (now colonel) G. L. Godfrey has a long letter in this issue, written from Corinth to Judge Cole, of Des Moines, in which he refers to the fact that at the outset he was "one of the most conservative men in the company," but has changed his mind. "We have done too much guarding," he says ; if he had his way the army would make a clean sweep, taking every vestige of property which would serve us and weaken them-the enemy.
"Owing to the engrossment of the public mind in the subject of enlistment," the well-advertised Kasson-Finch joint debate in Des Moines was postponed two weeks.
On the 22d day of August, Governor Kirkwood issued a proclamation calling an extra session of the General Assembly to be held in Des Moines on the 3d day of September, the Governor believing that "questions vitally affecting the
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general welfare demanded immediate attention." The Governor urged the aban- donment of further attempts to fill incomplete companies and the enlistment of the new recruits with old regiments.
Among other war items of local interest in August, '62, are these :
Dr. J. O. Skinner of Des Moines was appointed assistant surgeon of the Tenth Iowa.
Companies from Warren, Page and Lucas counties arrived in Des Moines late in the month.
"Brack" Thomas called an impromptu meeting in Des Moines and organized an Irish company, starting with thirty-four names. An Irish regiment was urged, with a colonelcy for Judge Byron Rice.
The United States Pension Agency was removed from Ottumwa to Des Moines, with Peter Myers the pension agent.
Tragedy and comedy are not as distinctly classified in history as in drama. The reassembling of the legislature for serious business was not without its comedy-or farce. A dog-tax law, innocently passed at the regular session, had raised a howl from one end of the State to the other, and nowhere louder than in the Capital city. Scarcely had the House organized in special session before a dozen members sprang to their feet, each with a bill for the repeal of the dog- tax law. A measure of repeal quickly passed both houses and was speedily signed by the Governor. Mr. Aldrich13 who recalls this circumstance, intimates that the unpopularity of the dog-tax had much to do with the popularity of the extra session. He says: "It really looked ridiculous and absurd to see the legis- lature, called together in one of the gravest public emergencies, un- willing to enter upon the great business of that extraordinary session until steps had been taken for the repeal of a law for the registration and taxation of dogs."
One of the acts of the special session was the appointment of commissioners to take the vote of soldiers in the field. Among the commissioners appointed for this purpose seven were residents of Des Moines :
Second Regiment Infantry, Lewis Jones, Des Moines,
Eighth Regiment Infantry, Giles H. Turner, Des Moines,
Tenth Regiment Infantry, F. M. Mills, Des Moines,
Sixteenth Regiment Infantry, Stewart Goodrell, Des Moines,
Twenty-third Regiment Infantry, S. C. Brownell, Des Moines,
Thirty-ninth Regiment Infantry, J. P. Foster, Des Moines,
Sixth Regiment Cavalry, Isaac W. Griffith, Des Moines.
The special session lasted only eight days. During those busy days, the Gen- eral Assembly sent to the War Governor a number of measures furthering a vigorous prosecution of the war,-besides repealing the dox-tax law.
The long-talked-of joint debate between Des Moines' distinguished orators, John A. Kasson and Dan O. Finch, rival candidates for congress, occurred in the city September 13. There was a large audience and frequent and thunderous applause. There was a lively scoring for position, in which both debaters were experts. Kasson attempted to fasten upon his opponent the stigma of his party's non-support of war measures; while Finch, denying the charge that his party was arrayed against the war, vigorously condemned the party in power for bringing on the war. Kasson closed with an eloquent tribute to the republican party- its record and its mission-sending his supporters home in high spirits.
Colonel Crocker, in command of the Iowa Brigade at Bolivar, wrote that his health was better than usual, and that his troops were "in good health and spirits and spoiling for a fight."
Early in September, the streets of Des Moines were enlivened every evening (except Sunday), at six o'clock, by a parade of Colonel Dewey's Twenty-third Regiment, then composed of about 500 men. "They presented a magnificent ap- pearance in their new uniforms."
13 Annals of Iowa, v. I, p. 228.
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S. R. Ingham left the Capital September 2, with authority to proceed to the defense of the northern counties of Iowa from incursions of the Indians. Three hundred muskets were shipped to him at Fort Dodge.
The weeding out of the exempts was in process early in September, with Dr. Davis in charge of the process.
Among the appointments and promotions in the fall of '62 were the follow- ing, of local interest : Dr. Alexander Shaw was lured from home duties and avoca- tions by the call for help at the front. Appointed assistant surgeon of the Fourth Iowa, he started at once for Helena. John Mitchell-recalled as Judge Mitchell-was commissioned to raise a battery of light artillery. Charles Ald- rich, of Webster City, a clerk of the House, and almost a resident of Des Moines, was appointed adjutant of the 32d Iowa, and Maj. N. W. Mills was made lieu- tenant colonel. Dr. E. P. Davis, son of Brigade Surgeon Davis was made as- sistant surgeon of the Thirty-ninth Iowa.
As fast as the camp in Des Moines was vacated by detachments of the Twenty-third Iowa, new companies of the Thirty-ninth were ready to take the vacant places.
On the 20th of September the companies of the Twenty-third began to move overland toward Keokuk. On the 25th the last company was gone, followed by Colonel Dewey and other regimental officers. By the first of October, the number of 23d regiment patients in the Des Moines hospital was reduced from 25 to 9.
On the first day of October there were four recruiting stations in Des Moines, Capt. John Mitchell, for his battery; Lieutenant Reed, for old regiments ; Messrs. Pease and Sypher for Colonel Wilson's cavalry and Captain McTighe for the Irish company.
Jule Bausman, writing from camp after the battle of Iuka, reported that all the Des Moines boys were safe, except Mat. Laird, who was wounded in the side. Later, it was learned that Charles P. Smith, of Captain Hoxie's company, was wounded in the leg. Surgeon McGorrisk, also of the 17th, was reported in the thickest of the fight at Iuka, but uninjured.
A dispatch from General Tuttle to the Register dated Cairo, October 6, re- ported the repulse of General Price with forty thousand men, but at a heavy loss to the Union army. Thirteen Iowa regiments were in the Corinth fight. Lieu- tenant-Colonel Mills was wounded in the leg and his father-in-law, Gen. Hackle- man, was killed. Several casualties occurred in the ranks of the Second Iowa.
The cool October days were hard on the boys in camp in Des Moines, many of whom came without blankets and other necessaries. There were over forty in camp hospital at the time.
Another of war's many tragedies was brought home to Des Moines after the battle of Corinth. Two Second Iowa boys were killed, one of them, J. M. Moles, from the Capital city, left a young and beautiful wife a widow. Her only brother had but recently returned from camp to die, his system shattered by disease.
In October, Major J. E. Jewett, of the Fourth Cavalry, returned from Helena to recuperate. He reported that the heroes of Pea Ridge were restive in en- forced idleness and waiting another opportunity to show their bravery.
Colonel Hooker announced free stage fare to doctors and nurses on their way to assist the sick and wounded at Corinth.
Des Moines was deeply grieved, October 12, on receipt of a telegram from General Tuttle announcing the death of Lieutenant Colonel Mills from the effects of wounds received in the recent battle of Corinth,-the sad and untimely culmination of a brilliant career. Colonel Mills, though a veteran of several hard- fought battles, was at the time of his death, only thirty years of age. General Tuttle followed his telegram with a letter in which he said: "Colonel Mills' death is a great calamity. He was truly a hero in every sense of the word. I think he
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was a little nearer just right than any other man I ever knew -. high-minded, honorable, brave as a lion."
The remains of Colonel Mills reached Des Moines October 21, attended by the colonel's brother, Frank M. Mills. The funeral solemnities at Ingham Hall were extremely impressive. The hall was heavily draped and festooned. The coffin, wreathed with flowers and evergreens, was not opened. Upon the coffin were placed the sword, pistols, holsters and other equipments of the dead soldier. The services moved the large assemblage to tears. Rev. Mr. Nash set forth the rare qualities of the Christian soldier. Mr. Kasson delivered an eloquent eulogy. Six companies of the Thirty-ninth Iowa acted as escort, with Colonel Cummings and other officers as bearers. To the solemn beat of the muffled drum, the long procession of soldiers and friends marched to the cemetery. Business was sus- pended in the city during the funeral hour and the members of the city council and board of supervisors and of other organizations attended the funeral in a body.
Major, (afterwards General) J. B. Weaver, in his official report of the battle of Corinth, speaks of Colonel Mills as "fighting with the most conspicuous cour- age and coolness," and as "loth to leave the field." He refers to Adjutant G. L. Godfrey, (Colonel Godfrey) as one of the most valuable young officers he has found, and pictures him as "charging along the line upon his horse shouting to the men to be cool and steady." Captain Ensign and others from Des Moines receive their share of commendation.
Sergeant Jule Bausman of Company K, Tenth Iowa, was in October made first lieutenant.
Typhoid fever robbed Mr. and Mrs. Martin Winters, of Des Moines, of their son, David P. Winters, of Company B, 15th Iowa. He had recovered from a wound received at Corinth, only to succumb to the dread disease. He died in an Illinois hospital, among strangers. Captain Studer gave his parents the sad consolation that their David was one of the best soldiers in the company- always at his post of duty.
The marriage of R. T. Wellslager and Anna Beekman on the 26th of Oc- tober, for the time turned the thoughts of social Des Moines from the great na- tional tragedy in which so many husbands, brothers and sons were performing their respective parts.
Adjutant Godfrey, in a letter to his friend Judge Cole, speaking of Major J. B. Weaver, said that after the death of Colonel Mills the command fell upon the Major, "and nobly did he do his duty," adding : "We have elected him Colonel of the Regiment, and hope the Governor will not fail to commission him."
The first death in the camp hospital in Des Moines occurred early in Novem- ber, the result of a relapse from measles.
H. H. Helton, a former constable of Des Moines township, and a member of Company D, Second Iowa, died in September in Jackson, Tenn. But the report did not reach his home until November.
Early in November, the hospital on the East side was permanently closed. The few remaining sick soldiers were sent home on furloughs.
Private W. H. Goodrell of the First Iowa, wounded at Wilson's Creek, was in November promoted to a First Lieutenancy in Company F., Fifteenth Iowa, to the gratification of his Des Moines friends.
The sad news of the death of Colonel Dewey, of the Twenty-third Iowa, was communicated to Mrs. Dewey, November 30. Mrs. Dewey was at the time residing with the family of A. M. Lyon, East Des Moines.
An "Old Folks" Concert, in November, for the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society of Des Moines, netted $94.
Lieutenant Whicher of the Fourth Infantry, compelled to resign because of continued ill-health, was in November highly commended by Colonel Williamson and other officers.
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Scott, son of Lieutenant Samuel Noel of Des Moines, in November was accidentally killed by a comrade in a Kansas regiment.
The advancing railroad had in November reached Brooklyn, Poweshiek county.
The month of December was not without its quota of minor incidents. Colonel Cummings, of the 39th, was presented with a sword and hat by his brother officers, Governor Kirkwood making the presentation speech. It was learned that M. D. Needham, of Des Moines, a member of the Second Iowa Cavalry, was severely wounded in the fight near Coffeeville, Miss. William Pritchard, Company E, Fourth Iowa Infantry, brother of Mrs. Burgett of Des Moines, died in hospital at Helena, Ark.
The funeral of Colonel Dewey at Ingham Hall was impressive. Rev. Mr. Frazee delivered an eloquent discourse. The entire arrangement of the services was in the hands of the Masons. Another brave defender of the Union found his last resting place in Woodland cemetery.
"Hebe" Remington, a former compositor in the Register office was reported as "the boss printer at General Grant's headquarters."
Capt. W. H. Hoxie of the Seventeenth Iowa, was compelled to resign his commission because of continued ill-health.
Company D, the Des Moines company of the Second Iowa Infantry, at the close of the year had only 41 efficient men.
The business depression in Des Moines following the outbreak of the rebel- lion gave way in the fall of '62 to an unusual degree of prosperity. The farmers of Polk county when they drove to town to trade, were reported as having "great rolls of bills," which they distributed freely. Business blocks and resi- dences were going up everywhere. "Without a single railroad advantage, and away off in the interior of the state where hazel-ruffs and Indians grew spon- taneously, a few years since, Des Moines had enlarged from the nucleus of a few block-houses to a city containing 5,000 inhabitants !"
The fateful year, 1862, neared its close. The somber holiday season, at home and in camp, came bringing in its train a throng of precious memories. The year went out, as it came in, leaving our community life enveloped in gloom. Many who, after Donelson, Pea Ridge and Shiloh, were sure they must soon see the dawn of peace now saw little, if any, promise of the dawn.
There are those living in Des Moines who still feel the fearful strain of that tragic year. Large as are the present boundaries of our Capital city, they extended farther a half-century ago, for then they included every camp and battlefield in far-away Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi, wherever loved ones slept, or marched, or fought.
CHAPTER III.
THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR-1863.
The year 1863 opened in gloom because of the uncertainty which still en- shrouded the destiny of the Union army in the field. The victories of 1862 had not been followed up as many at home and in the field had fondly anticipated, and there was grave question as to the return of peace with victory. The reverses of our army in Virginia had added to the general depression. And yet there was no thought of yielding the right of the Union to fight for its life. The guerrillas of Tennessee and Mississippi had cut off communication between Grant's army and the North, and for nearly a month no letters had come to Des Moines from Corinth, Holly Springs and other points in which her citizens were specially interested.
Col. J. A. Williamson, commanding a brigade of five Iowa regiments, was reported as having left Helena and joined the expedition against Vicksburg. The announcement was hailed with joy in camp and at home.
A ratification meeting was held in Sherman Hall, January 5, at which the immortal Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln was enthusiastically sustained. The President had issued the proclamation at "the psychological moment," for it put new courage into desponding hearts. Hon. C. C. Nourse, too weak from illness to leave his room, wrote a stirring letter to Judge Gray, its presiding officer, which was read at the meeting.
At last came news from the Thirty-ninth Iowa. That regiment celebrated New Year's Day in battle at Parker's Cross-roads, near Lexington. It was reported as one of the glorious victories of the war. Colonel Cummings reported three killed and a long list of wounded.
January 17, a dispatch from Marshalltown reported the Iron Horse only 55 miles away, with a prospect of a daily stage line from Marshalltown.
The list of wounded Iowans before Vicksburg published in St. Louis about the middle of January, shows that the prayers of the new recruits for active service had been grimly answered. Colonel Williamson received two slight wounds. while storming the enemy's works and his clothing was riddled with balls.
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