USA > Iowa > Floyd County > History of Floyd County, Iowa : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 42
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"I shall not attempt to describe the feeling of utter depression and sorrow which fell like a black pall upon the corpses of our dead hopes and seemed to shroud every object around us in the emblems of mourning and woe! A friend, in speaking to me of it the night after the intelligence reached us, described this feeling as ' Horrou
Milo Gilbert
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
of a great darkness.' Perhaps no words in our language could better express what we all felt oppressing our hearts and shroud- ing our souls in deepest night, than these.
" In the first moments, while we were bowed down and unnerved and quite overwhelmed by this great consternation, perhaps the chief thought that oppressed us was, that such a horrible deed should have been committed in a land upon which civilization and Christianity have shed their light. In our dismay we asked our- selves whether indeed the whole hellish brood of barbarous pas- sions that stalked through the world in its dark ages, had not re- turned to plague us! Whether the fiendish passions had in fact obtained a new lease of power and were again to run riot for a time, withering human hopes, bearing down good and establish- ing evil, and setting up the reign of hell upon earth! * *
" Another lesson which this mournful event is suited to teach us is, the utterly detestable character of that conspiracy which has been for four years assailing with satanic energy the nation's life. Slavery, which was to be the corner-stone of the Southern Con- federacy, the institution for the perpetuation of which this war was inaugurated, was long ago pronounced by a great and good man, the 'sum of all villanies.' The words are the most apt and significant that could possibly have been chosen; and yet how few there were among us who, before the war, had a just appreciation of its monstrous and altogether fiendish character!
"It does indeed seem strange and unaccountable now after the revelations of the past four years, that any man North or South, with a particle of truth, honor and justice in his bosom, should ever have been able to look for a moment upon this monstrous system of wrong, with any other feelings than those of unutterable ab- horrence and fiery indignation! Strange that men not utterly des- titute of all the noble attributes of humanity could have looked, with any kind of complacency, upon a system of barbarism which thrusting itself forward with shameless effrontery into the midst of the civilization and Christianity of the nineteenth century, scourged four millions of men, women and children to unpaid tasks, reduced them to the condition of chattels, abolished marriage among them, abrogated the paternal relation, shut the gates of knowledge against them lest they should rise to something better than brutes, reared men and women for the auction block, took gold from the hand of lust as the price of beauty, extolled the money
28
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value of honesty, fidelity and even religion, and took the price at which they were approved, branded men who sought for freedom with red hot iron, as if they had been guilty of crime; pursued them with bloodhounds, shot them with pistols, stabbed them with knives, scourged them till from head to foot they were one mass of gore; perpetrated upon them all the crimes which belong to the catalogue of the worst tyrants in the dark ages of the world !- did all this, not in defiance of law, but under the shadow of slavery's own diabolical code.
" But all this was not enough, strange as it seems now, to arouse and concentrate the indignation of the people against this accursed system. It was not enough that freedom of speech and of the press was denied wherever the foul blot extended, that intelligent men and women from the North were driven from the slave States, treated with every indignity, or cast into filthy prisons, not for the perpetration of crime, but for the utterance of words dictated by every sentiment of humanity. It was not enough that the slave masters of the South claimed a right to extend this shame and curse all over the land; that by violence and fraud they sought to force it upon a Territory against the well-known wishes of the people; trampling under foot the sanctity of the ballot box, and forcing upon a free people a tyranny more detestable than words can express. It was not enough that the demon of slavery stalked through the halls of Congress, armed with bludgeon and bowie-knife and revolver, brandishing these weapons over the heads of good and true men, and almost assassinating one of our purest statesmen and eloquent defenders of the rights of men in his seat in the Sen- ate Chamber. It was not enough that the perpetrators of these crimes claimed for the system which inspired them the protection of the Constitution; that they wonted this bloody and horrible relic of the dark ages as the highest and best form of civilization, enno- bling to the master and elevating to the slave. No! all this was not enough! There were men in the North who were fully awake to the enormities of slavery. But to a great extent the consciences of men seemed drugged to a strange insensibility. Northern men were not ashamed to echo the words of Southern slave masters in defense of their abominations. Northern Representatives and Sen- ators acted in harmony with slave masters in the halls of Congress, in their efforts to extend and perpetuate the evil. Northern men sat in the presidential chair and used their official influence and power in the interests of slavery. Northern mobs sought to re-
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press free speech even here, when uttered in behalf of liberty, and even Northern pulpits sometimes spoke mildly of the monster crime or wrested the teachings of the Bible to defend it.
"Thinking of these shameful acts to-day-facts which no one can deny, for they are matters of personal recollections with every one who has been at all conversant with the history of the past four years-who can fail to see and feel the justness and fitness of those terrible judgments with which God has visited this nation during the last four years, and by which he has overcome this terrible insen- sibility and pricked through the triple steel that encased the na- tional conscience, until we are at last awake to the enormity of slavery! If nothing else could arouse us from our moral lethargy; if nothing else could adequately reveal the fiend-like spirit of this giant wrong ; if nothing else could awaken and concentrate the burning, blasting indignation of this great people, till they should rise in their might to drive the demon from the earth, shall we not say, it is all well? Well that the sons and brothers and husbands whom we loved have laid down their lives by hundreds of thou- sands upon the battle field! Well that the bones of our slaughtered heroes should be dug up and carved into ornaments for the women in whose breasts slavery had changed the milk of human kindness into gall and bitterness! Well that our troops have been merci- lessly shot and stabbed and murdered in cold blood after they had surrendered! Well that thousands of our brave and true men have pined and starved in loathsome prisons of the South! Well that a crowd of miscreants should have been seen to prowl through the streets of our great cities to bring murder and conflagration to our homes! And shall I not add, well that, in the words of another, ' staggering to death under the stroke of God's angry hand, the demon oppression should display in the truthfulness of dying hours its hell-bred spirit,' by the act of assassinating him in whom lodged the hopes of just now disenthralled millions! Aye! it may be that all these terrible lessons were needed to teach us to abhor, as we ought, this sum of all villainies, this hellish brood of all abominations! Perhaps they were all needed to make us feel, as we ought, the guilt of our former complicity with a crime which has no parallel in all history.
" I hope and believe that now at last the nation has learned this lesson. I do not think that we shall ever again be found palliat- ing, excusing, defending, the crime of slavery. I do not think we shall now be inclined to act with a lenity that mocks at justice
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toward those who are chiefly responsible for these awful crimes. Let them expiate their guilt upon the gallows if taken, and if not let them be forever exiled from the land which their deeds have so polluted.
"Such briefly are some of the lessons which in the midst of our tears and our sorrow God is teaching us to-day. Let us humble ourselves under his mighty hand; let us beseech him that this great national affliction may be sanctioned to us and work out for us the good which it was meant to bring; and while our tears pour forth afresh for the loss of that great and good man who has fallen at his post in the midst of his triumphs and the rich harvest of his faithful labors; while we embalm the memory of Abraham Lincoln in the thoughts and affections of our hearts forever, let us lay ourselves anew upon the altar of that noble cause in which he labored and for which he died."
The choir then sang the following dirge: Music-Pleyel. 7s.
" Solemn strikes the fun'ral chime, Notes of our departing time ; As we journey here below, Through a pilgrimage of woe.
[Mortals now indulge a tear,
For mortality is here ; See how wide her trophies wave,
O'er the slumbers of the grave.]
Here another guest we bring;
Seraph of celestial wing,
To our funeral altar come ; Waft the patriot statesman home.
[There, enlarged, his soul shall see
What was veiled in mystery ;
Heavenly glories of the place
Show his Maker face to face.]
Lord of all below, above,
Fill our souls with truth and love ;
As dissolves our earthly tie, Take us to thy home on high."
H. O. Pratt, Esq., was introduced and delivered a eulogy upon the character of the departed President, from which we make the following extracts:
"During the progress of this fearful struggle of our nation for liberty and for life, which for four years has shed a fadeless luster upon the valor, the prowess, and the Christian fortitude of a free people, it has frequently been our sad duty to mourn the loss of a
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great and good man. The brave men who upon many a bloody battle-field have given their lives a sacrifice to their country, have shared a nation's sorrow, and earned a nation's gratitude. The Republic is not unmindful of her fallen heroes, and has written their names upon her scroll of honor with grateful tears. But it is seldom that in the course of human events, any nation is called to mourn as we mourn to-day. It is seldom that the people of any country are penetrated with a grief so deep, and an anguish so keen, as that which now swells the hearts and heaves the bosom of the American people. While the pealing notes of rejoicing and triumph over the signal success of the national arms at Richmond were still echoing and re-echoing through the land, from the rocky shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific slope, suddenly the hearts of the people are struck dumb with horror and anguish, as the sad intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln is flashed over the country. The song of triumph dies amid the universal gloom of this great bereavement, and the nation's head is bowed with an overwhelming grief that fills the heart but seeks in vain for utter- ance.
"By a crime that finds no parallel in the history of the world, and that shall forever stamp its authors as the enemies of all man- kind, this nation is called to mourn the untimely death of that beloved and illustrious man whom we have been proud to honor and trust though these stormy days of the Republic, and who, by his kindness of heart, his purity of life, his spotless integrity, his stainless character and his inestimable public services, has endeared his name to the hearts of his countrymen, and to every friend of humanity throughout the world."
After briefly alluding to the earlier life of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt spoke of his election to the presidency in 1860, describing the state of the country at that time, the unparalleled difficulties that surrounded the President when be assumed the duties of his office. In speaking of the commencement of the war, he said:
"Treason drew its sword, and soon the thunders of Sumter's artillery told the world that the great combat, in which freedom or slavery should find a grave, had commenced. The eager gaze of the civilized world was turned upon President Lincoln. On him were centered the hopes of the millions whose liberties were assailed by the hand of treason, and in him were centered the hopes of those other millions who toiled in the darkness of slav- ery's night, waiting for the dawn of freedom! It was a fearful
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trust, but it was not in vain. President Lincoln carried with him in his heart of hearts the anxious hopes of these millions, as he devoted himself with a tireless energy to the task to which his country called him. Patiently, faithfully, he toiled on in his ap- pointed work, asking only the prayers and support of the people. His countrymen gathered about him with an almost filial love and confidence, and laid at his feet the treasure and strength of the nation. * ** But as the crimson tide of war rolled on, it bore upon its fiery bosom the fate of liberty and the destinies of countless millions. Slavery, that had assailed with a bloody hand the rights of man, was destined to perish in the conflict, or to rear its throne upon the ruins of freedom.
"President Lincoln, rising to the lofty height of the sublime occasion, invoking the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God, and amid the applauding shouts of his countrymen, decreed that slavery, that foul blot upon the escutcheon of our country's glory and the guilty mother of treason and rebellion, should pay the penalty of its crime with its life, and with one blow of his mighty arm he struck its chains from the limbs of four millions of slaves !
"It is not often that any man has an opportunity to write his name with the golden light of liberty upon the throbbing hearts of four millions of his fellow-beings, but nobly, grandly, did Presi- dent Lincoln perform this great duty that patriotism and humanity required at his hands, a duty that has forever sealed his devotion to the cause of human rights, and his fidelity to the trust of the American people."
After speaking of the healthful influence of emancipation upon the national cause, and of Mr. Lincoln's labors to bring his coun- try through her fiery trials, purified and free, and the brightening prospects of the country, the scattering clouds and the coming light, he said:
" But alas! our noble President, whom with trusting steps we have followed in the path of victory till we stood with him behold- ing the dawn of peace, is suddenly stricken down in death. In the very hour of his triumph and while stretching out his mighty arm to pour the oil of healing into the wounds of his bleeding country, the hand of the assassin did its work, and the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, the people's friend, his country's deliverer, the martyred hero of liberty, passed from the toils and conflicts of earth to the peaceful repose of heaven! ****** He has fallen a
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
martyr to the cause he loved and for which he labored-the cause of his country's liberty. He has died in the midst of his labors to redeem his native land from the stain of treason and the curse of human bondage. His devotion to freedom has cost him his life. Slavery, foiled in its desperate and bloody attempts to destroy our free Government and to rear upon its ruins a despotism whose chief corner-stone should be the blood, the tears, the broken hearts, and the blighted hopes of millions of human beings, has attempted to avenge its defeat by striking down the head of the nation in the very hour of its triumph, and while counseling forbearance to a fallen foe. By this dark, fearful crime, slavery has filled to overflowing its cup of abominations, and earned anew the death which before it so richly deserved. And it shall die! The unani- mous verdict of a sorrowing but indignant people is, that this mother of crimes, this blighting, withering curse, shall perish in the very conflict in which it hoped to overwhelm and vanquish the hosts of freedom! The dagger which it aimed at the heart of our free Government shall be red with its own life-blood, and the grave which it dug for freedom shall be filled with the putrefying carcass of the hideous monster that dug it. * * * * But the cause of liberty, with his right hand upheld, has not fallen with him.
"It cannot die! for it lives in the hearts and affections of the people. And although it will pause to drop a tear upon the grave of its martyred hero, yet it shall move on again to victory, scat- tering the dark clouds of war, dispelling the gloom of bondage, shining with pure radiance upon a land once dark with oppression's night, and shouting the songs of gladness where once was heard only the dismal clanking of the chains of slavery. "
In speaking of the administration, he- said: "It was the best illustration that American history affords of the truth that the Re- public can only rely for its strength and safety upon the patriotism, virtue and intelligence of the people. It is a worthy example of the power of the united and educated public sentiment of a free and Christian people. Mr. Lincoln's administration was just what the people made it, for the President regarded it as his duty to do the people's will; he allowed no private ambition to thwart the wishes of those who so implicitly trusted him. He saw in the hearts of the masses of the loyal North a native impulse that ar- rays society, when left to itself, instinctively upon the side of freedom, justice and truth, and he knew that native principle in the hearts of the people, developed and educated by American
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
growth and culture, would become the vitalizing power of our civilization, and the sheet anchor of our safety. This was his hope for the safety and success of his country. He put his trust in the Christian hearts of twenty millions of American freemen, and that trust was not in vain. It has saved the Republic and while that strength remains we may not fear for the future. The beating, throbbing, gushing hearts of the people will not let the Republic die; but from the turmoil and confusion of this fearful strife they will reform it, with justice for its foundation, and liber- ty for its top-stone, and they will throw over it the protecting mantle of truth which shall imbue it with its own unending life. No, the Republic cannot die! tried and torn it may be-it is-but from every trial it shall receive only strength and purification, and it shall yot arise from this crimson baptism free from the burden that now oppresses and encumbers it, washed from the foul stain of national dishonor and speed along a pathway of liberty and light, freighted with the lives, the liberties, the hopes and the destinies of countless millions-and all those millions free ! Our noble Ship of State, so long tempest-tossed upon a sea of blood, shall not now furl its sails nor lower that banner which has been borne aloft in victory through these heroic days of the Republic.
" 'Sail on, sail on, oh ship of State! Sail on, oh Union strong and great! Humanity, with all its fears, With all its hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate.
We know what master laid thy keel ;
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel ;
Who made each mast, each sail, each rope ; What anwils rang, what hammers beat;
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'Tis of the wave and not the rock,
'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on-nor fear to breast the sea ;
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee! are all with thee !' ">
Then speaking of the private character of President Lincoln, the eloquent speaker closed as follows:
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
" But while we mourn the fall of our beloved President, it will give us joy in our sorrow to remember that though he rests in the silent tomb, yet his fame survives. Written on the brightest page of his country's history, it shall shine with a pure light for us, far above the gloom and sorrow of this bloody conflict, beckoning us on to victory and freedom. Time shall not dim it, malice and de- traction shall not mar it, for it is enshrined in the majesty of virtue. His memory lives embalmed in the hearts and affections of the people whom he loved and served, and there it shall live for- ever! A pure Government, a blood-redeemed country, a flag re- stored to victory, upon which he has written liberty, and the broken fetters of four millions of slaves, are emblems that will not let it die. Let us sacredly cherish this priceless inheritance, as we say to the great departed with proud tears, 'Well done, good and faith- ful servant.' "
The choir then sang the following hymn:
" God bless our native land ! Firm may she ever stand, Through storm and night. When the wild tempests rave, Ruler of winds and wave, Do thou our country save By thy great might.
" For her our prayers shall rise To God, above the skies ; On Him we wait; Thou who art ever nigh, Guarding with watchful eye, To thee aloud we cry, God save the State!"
Rev. Mr. Ball pronounced a benediction, and the meeting dis- solved.
A procession was formed by the marshal and they marched to the public square, where the people were dismissed.
The military under Capt. Teeling, who acted as an escort to the large procession, performed their part admirably. Dressed in their blue blouses and carrying their brightly burnished Austrian rifles they made a splendid appearance.
The Masonic fraternity, to the number of about fifty, occupied a place in the procession, and with their white aprons and badges of mourning, added much to the impressiveness of the occasion-
The Good Templars numbered some two hundred ladies and
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
gentlemen. With their beautiful banner and handsome regalia and various insignia of the order, ali draped in appropriate mourn- ing, they were "the observed of all observers," and helped much to give effect to the scene.
Much credit is due Mr. Huntley and the members of his im promptu choir for the excellent manner in which they performed their part.
The several clergymen, orator, officers and committees all ac- quitted themselves creditably and satisfactorily. Praise of the sermon and oration was upon many a lip. The weather was pro- pitious, and, take it all in all, no public demonstration ever wit- nessed in Floyd County can compare with the one of which the foregoing is but a faint description.
CHAPTER VIII.
MILITARY, CONTINUED.
REGIMENTAL HISTORIES.
A more detailed notice of the principal movements of the va- rious regiments and companies, and of the men concerned, will be of peculiar interest to the living veterans of the war, and of considerable general interest even to those who never enlisted, awakening unutterable feelings and reviving faded reminiscences re- garding the scenes of the war.
THIRD INFANTRY.
COMPANY I. Privates.
Powers, Lewis D.
Blinn, John
Thomas, Almon
Kellogg, Lyman
Darland, Benjamin F.
Townsend, Chester M.
Phelps, Homer
Foster, Samuel A.
Hawks, Wolsey
COMPANY K. Privates.
Rider, Ellis H.
Miller, Mark J.
Adams, Martin
Wm. B. Fairfield, special Aid-de-camp of the staff of the Com- mander-in-Chief.
The Third Infantry contained men from all portions of the State, and a few from other States, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri being represented in its ranks. It numbered 970, and was sworn into the service of the United States at Keokuk, the 8th and 10th of June, 1861. Nelson G. Williams receiving the major- ity of the votes of the regiment, was appointed Colonel by Governor Kirkwood. Proceeding by steamer to Hannibal, the regi- ment traveled by rail to the interior of Missouri, then infested by roving bands of irregulars called "guerrillas." Not until Aug. 4, however, were the men supplied with guns and ammunition. The regiment was actively engaged in marching, drilling and ma- neuvering until Sept. 17, when it was engaged for the first time in a real battle. This was fought at Blue Mills Landing, and both officers and men behaved most creditably throughout the engage- ment. The moral effect, too, of the fight upon the regiment was most salutary.
As the Floyd County volunteers were in the very thickest of this fight, the following extracts from the report of Lieut .- Col. Scott, in command during this battle, will be of interest:
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