USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume I > Part 15
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Mattison, Elisha C., killed May 22, 1863. Eastburn, Charles, killed June 30, 1863.
Fuller, Oliver N., October 15, 1863. Long, Joel, December 22, 1863.
Cornwell, John L., Nevember 30, 1863. Beaman, Daniel, March 17, 1864. Long, George W., killed May 27, 1864.
Robinson, Henry, killed June 23, 1864.
Steward, William, July 5, 1864.
Robinson, Isaac R., of wounds, Aug- ust 28, 1864.
Weeks, Stephen M., October 15, 1864. Seeley, Norman, in prison at Ander- sonville, Georgia, April 20, 1864.
ENGAGEMENTS.
Sugar Creek, Arkansas, February 17, 1862.
Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7th and 8th, 1862.
Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, Decem- ber 29, 1862.
Arkansas Post, Arkansas, January II, 1863.
Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863. Vicksburg, Mississippi, May 19 to 22, 1863.
Siege of Vicksburg, May 11 to July 4, 1863.
Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, July 10, 1863.
Cherokee Station, Alabama, October 24, 1863.
Piney Creek, Alabama, October 27, 1863.
Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, Nov- ember 24, 1863.
Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, Nov- ember 25, 1863.
Ringold, Georgia, November 27, 1863.
Resaca, Georgia, May 13, 1864. Dallas, Georgia, May 27, 1864. New Hope Church, June 4, 1864. Big Shanty, Georgia, June 12, 1864. Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 23, 1864.
Nicko Jack Creek, Georgia, July 6, 1864.
Atlanta, Georgia, July 22 and 28, 1864. Jonesboro, Georgia, August 31, 1864. Lovejoy Station, Georgia, September 1, 1864.
Little River, Alabama, October 25, 1864.
Savannah, Georgia, December 19, 1864.
Wateree River, South Carolina, Feb- ruary 15, 1865.
Columbia, South Carolina, February 17, 1865.
Bentonville, North Carolina, March 21, 1865. Raleigh, North Carolina, April 14, 1865.
Organized in Jones county, Iowa, August, 1861. Mustered into United States service for three years, September 2, 1861 ; re-enlisted, January 1, 1864.
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HISTORY OF COMPANY H, THIRTY-FIRST REGIMENT VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
The following history of Company H, Thirty-first Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry was prepared for, and read at the occasion of the dedication of the soldier's monument in memory of Company H, at Monticello, Iowa, May 31, 1909, by Montgomery Marvin, of Manchester, Iowa, a member of the company. Company H, Thirty-first Iowa, had a number of Monticello people in its ranks. This data makes valuable history .- Editor.
Ladies, Gentlemen and Comrades: As you meet today to dedicate this mon- ument to Company H, Thirty-first Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, it is right and proper that the part which Company H took in the great struggle for liberty and union from 1861 to 1865, should be fully told. This is a Company H Day.
This beautiful monument is the gift of your fellow citizen and much hon- ored townsman, Major S. S. Farwell, who was in command of the company from its organization until its discharge.
As I was a member of the company, and orderly sergeant for the greater part of the service, and with the company until just before the last battle in which they were engaged, it is proper for me to pay tribute to the donor of this monument as we saw him as a soldier. He was ever beloved by the men of his command, for he was a soldier who never shirked duty or responsibility. He was always interested in the welfare and comfort of his men. If they were sick or wounded, he would visit them, and administer what aid or comfort was possible and in battle he never said "go boys" but it was always "come on boys." Where there was danger he was ready to lead in the charge. He went where duty called him. The discipline of his company was second to none in the regiment. He did his duty faithfully and well. He knew no retreat.
Company H was made up of young men who were your neighbors, school- mates, lovers. brothers and husbands.
They were mostly young men from Scotch Grove, Wayne, Castle Grove, Monticello and Bowen's Prairie. They were of the best and most promising of your citizens. Some of you, here today, were present on that autumn day in September, 1862, when they took the train and left for the battlefields. You remember well the sad parting of fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters and lovers with their dear ones who would never return to them again.
Company H took an active part in the great struggle for the preservation of this Union. We left our rendezvous at Davenport, November 1, 1862, on a steamboat and went to St. Louis, where we remained only a few days. From there we went by boat to Helena, Arkansas, where we were in camp a few weeks, when we left for Chickasaw Bayou up the Yazoo River. From there we went up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers to Arkansas Post, January 11, 1863. After that battle we went down the river again to Young's Point, Louisiana, and took part in General Grant's winter campaign against Vicksburg. Much of the time there we were working on Grant's canal. In April our brigade went up the river to Greenville, Mississippi, and made a raid through the Deer Creek valley destroying corn and mills that were supplying Vicksburg with cornmeal. We also destroyed large quantities of cotton and many cotton presses. We then
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went down the river again to Millikin's Bend to find we were the rear of the troops to go below Vicksburg on the Louisiana side to Grand Gulf. After cross- ing the river we were hurried to Jackson, Mississippi, and were just in time to enter the city May 14, 1863. On the 15th we helped form the right wing of the army and marched to the investment and seige of Vicksburg where we were under constant fire of the enemy for forty-eight days, or until July 4, 1863, when the rebel army surrendered. We took part in that memorable and fatal charge of May 22, 1863.
On July 5th in the early morning, we started after General Joe Johnson, who was on the east side of the Black River and occupied fortifications at Jack- son. After a few days fighting at Jackson our brigade made a flank movement to the north and were engaged with the enemy at Canon. The enemy retreated, when we returned to the west side of Black River, where we camped for about two months. Our ranks had become so depleted that there were scarcely enough able bodied men to do camp duty in the regiment. About the 20th of Septem- ber. we were again in motion. We took boats at Vicksburg for Memphis, then took transportation on the top of box-cars for Corinth, Mississippi, where we remained a few days and took part in the Iowa state election, in October. We then marched to Iuka, Cherokee Station and Tuscumbia, then returned to Chero- kee Station, and were the rear of the army to cross the Tennessee River at Eastport. We then marched by forced march to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to the relief of General Thomas. We reached there in time to be engaged in the "Bat- tle in the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain. November 24, 1863, and from there to Missionary Ridge and Ringgold. We then moved back to Bridgeport on the Tennessee River where we remained a few days when we marched west to Woodville, Alabama, for winter quarters, which place we reached on December 31. 1863. after a hard day's march in the rain on the railroad track. We were fortunate to camp in a cornfield where we could get rails enough to spread our blankets on to keep us out of the mud. In the morning of January 1, 1864, many of us awakened to find our blankets frozen to the ground and the field was frozen so hard that the mules could pass over it without breaking through. This was the memorable January Ist, which was the coldest and most disagreeable day ever experienced in the country.
We soon moved our camp to the south slope of a hill in the timber where we fixed up comfortable huts made of logs and split red cedar. Many of us built fireplaces in our little cabins where we enjoyed our first and only "winter quarters" for four months. On May 1, 1864. we left our little village of huts, and started on the Atlanta campaign, which lasted for four months. We marched to Chattanooga then south through Snake Creek Gap and to Resaca. where we were hotly engaged. We then advanced and were engaged in the battles of Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochee River, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Love- joy's Station. During much of this campaign, we were skirmishing and under fire of the enemy for many days at a time. We then returned to East Point, where we rested for about one month. On October 4th, we started north in pursuit of the enemy under General Hood who had swung around to our rear and cut our communications with the north. We marched north through Mari- etta to Altoona where General Coarse was entrenched, and defeated the rebel
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army. We continued north to Resaca, and Snake Creek Gap, then southwest after the enemy into Alabama. About the time General Hood's army was cross- ing the Tennessee River we went back towards Atlanta and reached the vicinity of the Chattahoochee River north of Atlanta on November 5th. On November 6th, eight recruits came to our company. These were Frank Hicks, John McConnon, John Matthews, William Galligan, Chauncey Perley, John McDonald, James Martin and John Clark.
On November 8th we voted at the presidential election for the second elec- tion of Abraham Lincoln. The votes of our regiment at that time may be of interest to many, so I will give it as it appears in my diary carried at that time. This result also shows about the number of men present in the regiment, ten companies, as all with us were voters regardless of age.
Abraham Lincoln 229
General McClellan 30
The vote on the state ticket was :
Union
220
Democratic
31
On Jones county ticket :
G. P. Dietz, for clerk
72
No opposition.
After tearing up the railroad and cutting all communication with the north, we started on "Sherman's march to the Sea," November 15, 1864.
We passed through Atlanta, and on to Macon, where our second division was engaged. We then turned to the east and marched near the Savannah and Macon railroad, tearing it up and completely destroying it. On this march we fared well, as the country through which we passed and for miles around had more sweet potatoes. bacon. chickens, honey, horses, and so forth, before our visit than after. We arrived in the vicinity of Savannah, Georgia, December 10, where the enemy was well fortified, and they held us in check for ten days. Here we were very short on rations and were obliged to go into the rice fields and get rice from the straw and pound off the hulls as best we could, then cook rice and hulls, and make the best of it. We had but little else to eat for several days. Occasionally we could secure a little corn or cornmeal brought in by our for- agers, and some times a little fresh meat.
On December 21st the enemy having skedaddled during the night we marched within the line of the fortifications where we camped several days, and were re- viewed by Generals Logan and Sherman.
We left Savannah about January 13, 1865, and went by steamer to Beau- fort, South Carolina, where we camped a few days when we started on our trip through the Carolinas. We marched northwest and north, through im- mense resin and turpentine forests and reached the vicinity of Columbia, on the 15th of February, 1865. On the evening of the 16th, we were ordered to the front, and spent the night crossing Broad River on a rope ferry built during the night by the pontoon train within sight of the rebel picket fires. At daylight only about three regiments had crossed, when all were deployed as skirmishers, and advanced through the timber. The rebel pickets and reserves were taken in. The regiments soon after reformed in the open fields on the hills when they
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saw a carriage coming from the city carrying a white flag. Colonel Stone of the Twenty-fifth Iowa then in command of the brigade rode out to meet it, when he received the surrender of the city by the mayor, while the rear of the rebel troops could be seen in the distance.
Colonel Stone then took the flag of the Thirty-first Regiment, our regiment being in advance, and rode into the city and placed "Old Glory" on the state capitol of South Carolina. The Thirty-first Regiment was the first regiment of Union troops to enter that stronghold of secession, on the morning of Feb- ruary 17, 1865, and we were eye witnesses of the great conflagration in the evening.
From there we marched northeast through Camden and Cheraw to Fayette- ville, North Carolina, where I was ordered by the division surgeon from the ranks, while doing full duty, to report to the ambulance train to go down the river to Wilmington on a river boat which made communication with us there.
Company H continued on the march, and soon after fought its last battle at Bentonville, North Carolina. It then continued its march to Raleigh and thence to Washington to the grand review. From there it was sent to Louis- ville, Kentucky, where its members were mustered out June 27, 1865.
Company H was enlisted and organized in August, 1862, and was mustered into the United States service, October 13, 1862 at Davenport. The company then numbered ninety-four enlisted men and three commissioned officers. Dur- ing the year 1864, we received twenty-two recruits, making a total membership during the service of one hundred and twenty-two men. Of this number, forty-seven died in the service, fourteen were discharged on account of wounds and disability, two were transferred and one was captured.
Company H was in twenty-five battles and in many of them we were under fire for several days at a time, as will be seen on another page.
During the year 1864, we were under fire of the enemy eighty-two days, or nearly one quarter of the time, and we marched during that year one thousand, and eight miles. These items are taken from a diary carried by me during 1864. From the time Company H left the state until it fought its last battle at Bentonville, North Carolina, it had been under fire of the enemy nearly one- fifth of the time. Not always on the fighting line, but either there or on the reserve which was usually as dangerous. The record for Company H is also a record for the Thirty-first Regiment so far as it relates to service.
I might have given a more detailed record of our many battles, privations, scarcity of rations and incidents of marches and campaigns, but time and your patience forbid.
Such was our service for the cause of liberty and union. We did our part well in the great struggle for the preservation of the Union which cost the north three hundred thousand lives and billions of dollars in money, besides a million of disabled soldiers and.dependent families. It is now costing this nation mil- lions of dollars yearly to pay pensions to the disabled veterans and the families of veterans of that war. All this is what disloyalty has cost and is costing this nation, and still we have disloyalty in our midst. All violations of law are evi- dences of disloyalty. I appeal to all citizens, men, women, teachers, yes, every- body to make it their duty to teach loyalty, obedience to the law, then will we
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truly have a powerful and united nation with no danger of a repetition of the terrible war of 1861 to 1865.
MEMBERS COMPANY H, WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE.
1. Fred H Blodgett 17. Ed. D. Covert 33. Samuel N. McBride
2. David W. Perrine .
18. Palmer Cunningham 34. Oscar J. Morehouse
3. William S. Johnson
4. John W. Cook 20. Jacob Dreiblebis
5. Samuel Williamson
21. Benjamin F. Going
22. Wallace Goodwin
7. Newton Bently
23. Perry A. Himebaugh
39. Matthew D. Nelson 40. John Redman
8. Benjamin Batchelder 24. Cyprian Hunter
9. William S. Campbell
25. Harvey Johnson
41. John P. Rearick
42. Matthew H. Rankin
43. Francis M. Rynerson 44. Samuel Richardson
12. John Albertson 28. James W. Lightfoot 13. Wallace Beckos 29. William Merriman
14. John Breen
30. Francis Morse
46. Jeremiah Spencer
15. Johnson Canfield
31. James Martin
47. Jacob Smith
MEMBERS COMPANY H DISCHARGED FOR DISABILITY.
I. Lieutenant Franklin Amos
5. Oliver Ackerman
6. William Barnhill
12. William Nelson
2. Lieutenant James G. Dawson 8. William Dawson
3. George A. Jones
9. George C. Foster
4. William F. Sutherland 10. William P. Gardner Transferred: Samuel J. Covert, John B. Gerrett. Captured, John Clark.
BATTLES IN WHICH COMPANY H WAS ENGAGED.
I. Chickasaw Bayou
2. Arkansas Post
15. Missionary Ridge
3. Thomas Plantation
16. Ringgold
4. Black Bayou
17. Resaca
5. Fourteen-mile Creek
18. Dallas
6. Jackson, Mississippi
7. Rear and Siege of Vicksburg
8. Jackson (second time)
9. Canton
22. Lovejoys Station.
23. Columbia
^4. Savannah
~5. Bentonville
13. Cherokee Station (second time)
19. Kenesaw Mountain
20. Atlanta
21. Jonesboro
10. Cherokee Station
II. Pine Knob
12. Tuscumbia
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II. Chauncey C. Pearly
7. Leroy H. Burnight
13. Matthias Watson
14. William Whittemore
16. Miles H. Corbett
32 William R. Marvin
19. William W. Darling
35. Samuel Nelson
36. Samuel J. Nelson 37. Robert D. Nelson 38. Mervin Nelson
6. Edgar G. Himes
10. Charles Whitney 26. Isaac S. Lawrence
II. Samuel G. Glenn 27. Harvey Lamb
45. Abner Stofer
14. Lookout Mountain
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DAYS UNDER FIRE DURING 1864.
May, 11; June, 22; July, 8 August, 26; September, 6; December, 9. Total, eighty-two days.
Marched during 1864, one thousand and eight miles.
R. M. MARVIN,
Late Orderly Sergeant, Company H. Thirty-first Regiment, Iowa.
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH IOWA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
The following short sketch of the history of the gallant regiment of the Twenty-fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry was prepared by Major Henry O'Conner in the Grand Army record and guardsmen, on the occasion of the reunion of the regiment at Marion a few years ago. Company K, which was made up largely of Wyoming boys, belonged to this regiment and was the only Jones county company in the regiment. The other companies in this regiment were : Company A from Jackson and Clinton counties; B and C from Cedar county; D from Washington, Johnson and Cedar; E from Tama; F. G and H from Linn; I from Jackson; and K from Jones. The regiment being mustered out at Savannah, Georgia, July 17, 1865.
The Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry went into the war with a history. It was christened by the Thirty-fifth boys at Camp Strong, on Muscatine Island, "Kirk- wood's Temperance Regiment." It came out with a volume added to that history illuminated on every page by deeds of heroism and dauntless valor that threw away back in the shade the most daring deeds of Marengo, Waterloo and Inkerman. A picture of this regiment in a fight would be fame and fortune to the scenic artist who reproduced Gettysburg, Atlanta and Nashville, but I must content myself with a feeble attempt to tell the simple story in the plainest prose.
The regiment was mustered into the service of the United States at Camp Strong, on Muscatine Island, in September, 1862. The field officers had already been appointed and commissioned by Governor Kirkwood. The Rev. Eben C. Byam, of Linn county, a distinguished minister of the Methodist church, was commissioned colonel; John Q. Wilds, one of the grandest of men among the Twenty-fourth, exceptionally brave, lieutenant colonel, and Ed. Wright, of "Old Cedar," major. Charley Byam, then a boy, was adjutant, and his brother Will, a grand old man, with the frosts of twelve winters on his head, commis- sioned himself as "drummer boy," and made his little snare drum talk to the tunes of "John Brown's Body," and Moore's "Come, Ye Disconsolate." Three of its captains, I know, four, I believe-were Methodist preachers-Dimmitt, Vinson, Carbee and Casebeer.
On the 19th of October, 1862, the regiment left Camp Strong under march- ing orders for St. Louis, and on their arrival at the latter city were met with similar orders to proceed at once to Helena. Here they remained during the winter, drilling, and getting a "good ready," varying the monotony of camp life with occasional scoutings and short expeditions. Here the Twenty-fourth spent the "winter of its discontent," with rain, mud, drill, dress parade, preaching, singing, grumbling "for the field," and here, too, under the stern rules of military
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necessity, they lost their character and baptismal name of Kirkwood's temper- ance regiment.
Their longing for the field was soon gratified. Early in the spring the regi- ment was attached to the Thirteenth army corps, in Grant's grand army of Vicksburg, and from the middle of April, when the battle began at Millikin's Bend, to the 22d of May, under the walls of Southern Gibralter, it may be said without figure of speech, that the Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry saw nothing but fighting. They, like other regiments, had lost heavily by sickness during their stay at Helena. Fifty of their number slept in southern graves, around that terrible Arkansas camp. But the regiment was still ready and burning for the fray. They missed the river at Hard Times, and watched with soldierly impa- tience from the old transport boat on the river their comrades storming and tak- ing Port Gibson. They landed and at last reached the first real field of their glory, far famed Champion Hills. On the 16th of May, 1863, in this terrible bat- tle, the Twenty-fourth regiment was in the fore front. They painted the field red with their blood and covered themselves with imperishable glory. Major Ed. Wright, throwing away the last shred of his Cedar county Quaker garb, led the boys into the very jaws of death. At one moment the Twenty-fourth charged alone a rebel battery of five guns under a rain of grape and cannister. They rushed on with a wild shout, trampled down the gunners, and took the battery and went far beyond it, driving the brave confederate army before them in the wildest confusion. But how dearly was their glory purchased. Major Wright was severely wounded. Captains Johnson and Carbee and Lieutenant Lawrence were killed. I knew them all well. Forty-three officers and men fell dead on the field, forty more were borne from it with mortal wounds to early graves. Out of four hundred and seventeen that entered the fight, one hundred were killed, wounded and captured. Not a name was returned as missing. Such was the record of the Methodist regiment made on the glorious field of Champion Hills.
It took its full part in every battle around Vicksburg, after, up to, and includ- ing the 23d of May, under the walls. When Vicksburg fell, the regiment was sent to General Banks, and skeleton that it now was, it fought its way to the front all through the Red River campaign. At the disastrous battle of Sabine Cross Roads, a handful of the Twenty-fourth fought like tigers and shared the defeat, but not the disgrace of that badly managed field. At Alexandria, Lieutenant-Colonel Wilds rejoined the regiment with some recruits from Iowa, where he had been on recruiting service.
On the 22d of July it started by river, gulf and ocean for Alexandria, Va., and thence going to Harper's Ferry, became part of Sheridan's army of the Shen- andoah valley. At Winchester and Cedar Creek the Twenty-fourth, side by side with the Twenty-second Iowa, responded to Sheridan's call of "What's the mat- ter boys; face the other way and follow me," and again got in their work. Three lieutenants, Camp (adjutant) Captain Gould and Lieutenant Dillman were killed. It lost an officer and seven men, only three of whom were captured. At Fisher's hill on the 24th of July it was again at the front, and on that bloody field nearly one hundred of its officers and men were killed and wounded, and here one of the truest and bravest of soldiers, Colonel Wilds, was killed, leaving his life blood on the revolutionary soil of grand old Virginia. This was the
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last fight for the Twenty-fourth. It soon after joined Sherman's grand army on its return march through the Carolinas.
After literally fighting its way all round the United States the regiment came home to receive more kisses than the tears that were shed at its going away four years before. Every woman and girl in three counties that could get into line received it with a "present arms." If there was a bigger or braver regiment in the whole union arm of one million, five hundred thousand than the Twenty- fourth Iowa Infantry, I have yet to read its story. It illustrated and demon- strated two facts, namely : that in the great communion of the Methodist church a traitor could find no shelter, nor in its representative regiment could a coward find rest. Colonel Wright, with a well earned brigadier's star on his shoulder; Clark, whose modesty was only outdone by his dauntless bravery, as major commanding, are both still honored citizens in Iowa. Colonel Byam died two years ago near his old home in the state of New York, a brave soldier, born gentleman, and as true a friend as man ever had. Charlie, the first adjutant, is in California, and Will, the drummer boy, is among Sioux City's best citizens, loved and respected by every one that knows him, without regard to age, sex or previ- ous condition of servitude. .
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