USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time biographical sketches; portraits of some of the early settlers, prominent men, etc. > Part 18
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termaster General's Department, resorted to his personal credit to facilitate all that was required to put his command in a condition for active service in the field.
In August, 1861, he left Council Bluffs with a portion of the regiment for Fort Leavenworth, and was followed, in a few days, by the rest of the command, and the active career of the Fourth Iowa was begun. He eventually reached Rolla, Mo., and was placed in command of that important post, on the frontier of Gen. Sterling Price's operations. When at Rolla, on November 4, 1861, he dispatched an expedition south, under Col. Nicholas Grensel, and issued to him a characteristic order by saying: " If the men who are away from home are in the rebel army, or if their families cannot give a good account of themselves, or their whereabouts, take their property, or that portion of it worth taking; also their slaves. Be sure they are aiding the enemy, and then take all they have got. They have aided and abetted Freeman in all ways, and most of them are now in the rebel army. You had not been gone long before the enemy was signaled from this vicinity by firing and beacon lights. They could only guess your destination, as no one knew it except yon and myself. Keep account of everything you take and who it is taken from. I think your idea is a good one about dividing your forces Let the infan- try, on returning, visit the Pineys, and look out for affairs there. Be careful. in taking contraband negroes, that the owners are aid- ing the enemy."
When the Army of the Southwest was or- ganized in that same quarter, under Gen. S. R. Curtis, already mentioned in these annals, Col. Dodge was assigned to the command of the Fourth Brigade, and led the advance in the capture of Springfield. Mo., when that army moved to the Southwest, and drove
Price across the border into Arkansas. As the spring opened in 1862, decisive work was on hand for those troops. Van Dorn left Corinth to join Price, on the west side of the Mississippi. Ben McCalloch, of Texas, and Albert Pike, had mustered a large force of Indians, from the Indian Territory, and the combined rebel army, composed of Texans, Arkansans, Missourians and Indians, was moving in the direction of the Boston Mount- ains, expecting to defeat Curtis and regain Southern and Southwestern Missouri. The result of this movement was one of the most memorable and decisive conflicts of the civil war, now passed into history as the battle of Pea Ridge. The fighting took place on the 6th, 7th and 8th of March, 1862. Gen. Sigel's division was in the direction of Ben- tonville when it was assailed by Van Dorn's force, greatly superior to the entire command of Gen. Curtis. Sigel made a matchless re- treat in order to re-unite with Curtis. and did so at Pea Ridge, where the Federal Commander-in Chief had taken a strong po- sition, and was fortifying, preparatory to a stubborn defense. A skillful flank movement on the part of Van Dorn during the night of the 6th compelled Curtis to face to the north, reversing his position, when his line was first menaced. In this new position, the fighting began, and the attack was furious and most gallantly and resolutely sustained. The bri- gade of Col. Dodge was in the right wing. where Pike's Indians and Ben McCulloch's brave Texans charged with almost savage ferocity in the hope of crushing in that flank. The Fourth Iowa bravely bore its part in this fierce and stubborn conflict. and in the end exhausted their ammunition and were com- pelled to go to the rear some distance in order to replenish. They began that neces- sary movement under Col. Dodge, and. to preserve the morale of the command under
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such trying circumstances as momentarily turning their backs to the enemy, he engaged their attention and preserved their allign- ment by causing them to go through the manual of arms, under a heavy fire of shot and shell. When going through this exer- cise, he was met by Gen. Curtis. just coming to that part of the field, who inquired the object of the movement, and ascertaining its cause. he directed the regiment to face to the front and use the bayonet, which order was promptly obeyed by officers and men, and with the most salutary effect. The Fourth Iowa distinguished itself in this battle for its courage and steadiness under the most trying circumstances. Col. Dodge had three horses killed under him, and was himself severely wounded in the side in this engagement. For gallant conduct on that occasion, he was recommended for promotion to the rank of Brigadier General, and the richly deserved promotion was made by the President. As soon as his wounds permitted. he was as- signed to the command of the post of Colum- bus, Ky. While discharging that responsi- bility, he captured Gen. Faulkner and his force, near Island No. 10, in the Mississippi. and conducted various important enterprises and expeditions in the territory surrounding his post. His energy and capacity as an officer soon attracted the favorable attention of Gen. Grant, and, in July, 1863, he was placed in command of the Second Division of the Army of the Tennessee, and subsequent- ly, at the head of the left wing of the Six - teenth Army Corps, with headquarters at Corinth. Miss. In this responsibility, Gen. Dodge displayed his high 'qualities as an ad- ministrator and as a fighter. He rebuilt the railroads, protected the bridges and exposed places by block-houses, and organized the freedmen into regiments and raised the First Alabama Cavalry, composed of refugees from
that State, and constituted it as fine a body of troops as ever drew saber. Its Colonel was George E. Spencer, afterward United States Senator from that State. He was constantly surrounded and menaced by a vigilant, hardy, enterprising enemy. Gens. Wheeler, Forrest and Chalmers were con - stantly on the watch, and to defeat their vigilance required the utmost efforts of their equally wily opponent, Gen. Dodge. He defeated the forces of Gen. Van Dorn, at Tuscumbia, in a brilliant fight; whipped Gen. Forrest at Town Creek, and made the celebrated and successful raid upon Grenada, Miss. Here he destroyed the railroad in possession of the confederates, and a large amount of rolling stock and other public property. His headquarters were removed to Pulaski, Tenn., in the fall of 1863, and from that point he energetically pushed his operations in all directions, and subsisted his command of 30,000 men, for four months, off the country. It was during this period that he surprised the confederate garrison at Decatur, Ala., and secured the whole force as prisoners.
While Gen. Sherman was preparing for the Atlanta campaign of 1864, from Chatta- nooga, Gen. Dodge was ordered to join the movement to participate in it. When the campaign began, he was at the head of the Sixteenth Corps in the Army of the Tennes- see, and was intrusted with the advance. and up to Atlanta participated in all the desperate battles that won back that rugged country by one of the most remarkable conquests ever conducted in modern times. At Dallas, his corps heroically repulsed a severe night at- tack, and won for itself the fame it ever after enjoyed. At Kenesaw Mountain, the men of his corps closed upon the rebel works, at the top of that rugged, steep mountain more effect- ually than any other troops engaged.
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The march from Chattanooga to Atlanta was a continuons battle and skirmish. In all these conflicts, Gen. Dodge did not spare himself. He truly estimated the value of accurate information, and to a great extent made his own reconnoissance, exposed to great hazard and personal danger. The long train- ing that he had received in a wild country, during his experience as a railroad engineer, his constant habit of observation, and his rapid methods of concentration. were of the highest value in a military sense, and fully appreciated by Gen. Sherman, who estimated his services in that respect moro important than those of all bis other corps commanders combined. It is no reflection upon the lat- ter to make such a comparison. for Gen. Dodge's opportunities and experience in that essential were such as had not come within the range of army officers, in a time of pro found peace, and especially as many of them had risen in a very short time, from mere subalterns to high rank. by merit and meri- torious services. In recognition of these services, he was recommended by Gen. Grant to a promotion to Major General, and his commission bears date June 4, 1864.
In a severe fight at Ruff's Mills, on July 4, 1864. Gen. Dodge's corps repulsed and pushed back Hood's entire army, and took possession of the north bank of the Chatta- hoochie River at Roswell, Ga. Here, with no other bridge material than that attainable from the debris of some ruined cotton fac- tories, in two days, under a broiling South- ern sun, his men built a substantial double- track railroad bridge, 700 feet long, from plans he prepared, and the entire Army of the Tennessee, with his artillery and its vast supplies, safely crossed over. Sherman's goal, Atlanta, was eventnally in sight, and, as his great army closed around the city, by the necessary contraction of the lines, Dodge's
Sixteenth Corps, was displaced and obliged to take a position in the rear, in reserve, by the 22d of July, on the left. Gen. Hood conceived a bold and masterly policy of at- tack. The night before, he withdrew his troops from the city, and, secretly moving by a circuitous and well-covered route, hoped to break into the rear and left of Sherman's line toward Decatur and crush that wing. As Hood's force advanced and was about to de- velop on that flank in execution of the rebel plan, Gen. Dodge observed the movement, and. divining its purpose, promptly formed his corps and met their first onset and checked it. Disappointed by this sudden and vigor- ons reception, the confederate column of at- tack hesitated, and Gen. Dodge, getting his corps well in hand, made a vigorous charge and drove the enemy from the field with ter- rible slaughter. It was only this opportune position and prompt decision of Gen. Dodge that on that day saved Gen. Sherman's army from serious loss, and, perhaps, great and irreparable disaster. Gen. McPherson, on that morning, rode into the advancing rebel lines and lost his life, and it was after recov ering the ground by Gen. Dodge's corps that the body of the well-beloved and talented officer was obtained. The confederate cavalry also made a desperate attempt that day to capture and destroy the vast supply trains of the Army of the Tennessee, but were thwart- ed by the prompt action, also, of Gen. Dodge. Later in the day, one of his brigades gallant- ly repulsed a desperate charge made upon the lines of the Fifteenth Corps. The confeder- ate loss in Gen. Dodge's front alone was fourteen hundred, and many prisoners and eight battle-flags.
Sherman's army proceeded with the invest- ment of Atlanta, and, as Gen. Dodge was personally observing the position of the con- federates from the rifle-pits of his skirmish
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line, preparatory to the making of an advance and an attack, he was picked out by a rebel sharpshooter and severely wounded in the head. He was compelled at once to relin- quish his command, and, as soon as it was possible, was removed North. As soon as his wound would permit travel, he visited Gen. Grant, at City Point, Va., and, in the meantime, the Sixteenth Army Corps was broken up by Gen. Sherman, and its divis- ions in front of Atlanta distributed among the other corps. Other divisions of the same corps that had been with Gen. A. J. Smith in the Red River expedition of Gen. Banks, and in Missouri in the final expulsion of Gen. Price under the direction of Gen. Rose- crans, were sent to Gen. Thomas at Nashville, and assisted in the final defeat of Hood. During the period of Gen. Dodge's trip to Grant's headquarters at City Point, he visited Boston, and his native town in Massachusetts, and in both cities was received with flatter- ing demonstrations, among which was an elo- quent complimentary address by the venera- ble Edward Everett.
Returning to duty in the Army of the Ten- nessee, he was met by an order from Gen. Sherman assigning him to the command of a column intended to operate against Mobile from Vicksburg, but was halted at Cairo, Ill., by a dispatch directing him to proceed to St. Louis and there assume control of the Department of Missouri, and relieve Gen. Rosecrans. This change was made by Gen. Sherman, at the instance of Gen. Grant, who had confidence that Dodge was the man for that important post. In this new field of duty. " the grave of Generals," he proceeded to work with renewed energy. He promptly suppressed disloyal sentiment wherever found, dominating, as it did, the entire State; he encouraged and protected the Union people everywhere, and effectnally exterminated all
guerrilla and bushwhacking enterprises and practices. In a word, he thoroughly restored order and safety to life and property through- out the borders of Missouri. At the call of Gen. Thomas, at Nashville, he sent all the organized forces he could spare from his do- partment, and thus assisted him in winning that " famous victory." He also made a cam- paign against Jeff Thompson on White River, Arkansas, and compelled the dispersion and surrender of about ten thousand men, and the breaking-up of all organized opposition in that quarter.
Just before the collapse of the rebellion, Kansas and the Western plains country were consolidated in Dodge's command, and his headquarters removed to Fort Leavenworth. The Indians from the Red River to the Brit- ish Possessions were in open and active hos tility, and were holding all the trails and routes, blockading frontier forts and massa- creing settlers, and destroying settlements. Gen. Dodge at once entered upon the ex- tremely difficult task of subduing these hos- tile tribes, opening up communications across the plains and restoring peace to the settle- ments. Troops for this service could not well be spared from the armies operating against armed rebellion in the South. and. to supply a force sufficient to undertake the task. he enlisted several regiments from Con- federate prisoners of war, confined in North- ern prison camps, under the title of " United States Volunteers," and, with these as an auxiliary, inaugurated a winter campaign against the tribes, and, coming upon them unwarily, and when they supposed white men could not and would not wage war against them. thoroughly and effectively defeated them. obliging them to sue for peace. and thus re-opening the overland route closed by savage hostility.
Having pacified the Indians and restored
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quiet to the Western frontier, he tendered his resignation in June, 1866. He was urged to remain in the service, and to that end was appointed a Major General in the regular army, for which rank he was eminently fitted; but, having been selected as Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad, an employment more congenial to his tastes and habits in time of peace, he insisted on his resignation, and entered upon his new duties.
During his absence from home, in July, 1866, the Republicans of the Fifth Congres- sional District, unsought by him, and in rec. ognition of his distinguished public services, nominated him as their candidate for Con- gress. He accepted the honor thus tendered him with great reluctance, and without mak- ing any canvass of the district, which extend- ed from the Des Moines River to the Missouri, and included nearly one-third of the area of the State of Iowa, he was elected by an over- whelming majority, it being 4.500-2,000 more than had ever been given any other candidate in the district. He took his seat in the Fortieth Congress. He was never noted as an orator. In conversation, he has always been incisive in speech, and pointed and direct. He was an active, intelligent, working member, leaving to others more fluent and willing the task of debate on the floor. His influence was felt in a high de- gree in the passage of the bill for the re-or- ganization of the army. He paid particular attention to the wants of his own State, and was instrumental in procuring the act reim- bursing Iowa for the expenses incurred by her in the raising and equipment of troops, and in defending her border against raids: A monument of his energy and usefulness exists in the fine United States building which adorns the city of Des Moines, his aid in procuring the requisite appropriation be- ing of the most effective character. Though
urged to accept, he most positively declined to accept a re-nomination and a re-election at the close of his first term, and was sue- ceeded by F. W. Palmer, then a citizen of the district, but now the Postmaster of the city of Chicago.
Gen. Dodge preferred to devote all his en- ergies, to the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, an enterprise that had always lain nearest his heart from the day he entered upon its preliminary survey, years before. Nothing could induce him to change this res- olution. The task was extremely difficult in many respects. He had at the same time to survey and locate the line, carry on and push the work of construction, and to operate the constructed road. All these details were of the most complex and perplexing character. It was a long and difficult line, through an unsettled, and, in many instances, a discour- agingly waste country. All the material had to be carried hundreds of miles before it could be put into the track. That character of railroad building was a mere experiment, and there were not a few experienced engi- neers in this country and in Europe, while they marveled at the progress, withheld their approval as a success. He inspired the man- agement of the new road and the contractors with his own energy, zeal and earnestness, and stimulated them to efforts that were truly wonderful. Track-laying, under such an in- spiration as this, soon progressed at the rate of from two to three miles a day, and railroad building was revolutionized everywhere. Since then, his example has been easy to fol- low. In one year, 568 miles of road were built and equipped-a feat that had never before been excelled in the history of such enterprises, and still stands out as a marvel. A single base of operations, on the Missouri River, served for all this gigantic movement, as no other was possible. A moving city
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kept pace to the end of the track as each day's progress advanced it miles west- ward; and an army of workmen and their camp-followers constituted its inhabitants. Towns sprang magically into existence. and disappeared as suddenly, but many of the flourishing cities and towns that now dot the plains along the route are due to the ephem- eral railway camp. During this exciting pe- riod, Gen. Dodge, who was the life and soul of the enterprise. virtually lived in his work. One day he was in his office; the next. hun- dreds of miles out at the end of the track. and, perhaps, in a day or two, a hundred or more miles still beyond, in the wilderness, establishing the route. At last the great ambition of his life was achieved, and he saw with pleasure the uniting of the Union Pa- eific with the Central Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah, a thousand miles from the start- ing-point on the Missouri River, on that memorable day in May. 1869.
While acting as Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific, he urged upon the Chicago & North-Western, the first of any of the other railways to make actual connection with the Union Pacific, to establish their western ter- minus at Council Bluffs, and was rewarded with witnessing that achievement Witness- ing the completion of the Union Pacific from the river to its junetion with the Central Pa- cific, a thousand miles away, was the realiza- tion of only a part of his great plan. The treacherous, fiekle and subtle Missouri River must be spanned by a railway bridge before it could be said that the absolute wants of civilization could be satisfied in the matter of the Union Pacific Railroad. None unae- quainted with that task can comprehend its magnitude, but, with a genius equal to the emergency, he entered upon a project which an experience and test of nine years have amply justified. After having made the plans
for the great bridge. and pointed out its con- struction in the most minute detail, he re- signed the position of Chief Engineer in 1870. but. since 1868, has served almost un- interruptedly as one of the Directors of the road.
On severing his connection with the Union Pacific as engineer. he immediately took part in another great inter-continental enterprise --- the Texas & Pacific, and, as Chief Engi- neer, took charge of its construction. and completed its location from Shreveport, La., to San Diego, Cal .. a distance of 2,000 miles, and 400 miles of it were built by him before the distressing panic of 1873, which caused a suspension of the work. His connection with that road has been uninterrupted since the date of his first connection with the en- terprise, and his tenacity of purpose in all manner of vicissitudes has never for a mo- ment flagged or yielded.
Gen. Dodge's private business, unconnected with railway enterprises, has, in the mean- time, expanded into huge proportions. He was President of the Pacific National Bank of Council Bluffs, and held that position until its merge with the Council Bluffs Savings Bank. He has also had connection with numerous other successful enterprises of in- ternal improvement than those already named. In 1875-76, he visited Europe, and remained abroad quite a long time, making a thorough and a careful examination of the railway sys- tems of those countries, and acquiring val- uable information as to their progress, man- agement and methods.
In 1879, he was made President of the Pa- cific Railway Improvement Company, and re- sumed operations in the construction of the Texas & Pacitic, and in 1SS0 finished that road from its then terminus, Fort Worth, Texas, to El Paso, in the same State. At the same time, he also undertook and completed
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the building of the New Orleans Pacific road, from New Orleans to Shreveport, and also the work of an extension of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway from Denison, Texas, to the Rio Grande River at Laredo. Between 1880 and 1882, he has built more than two thousand five hundred miles of railway, all of which is now in successful operation. He also succeeded in obtaining from the Repub- lic of Mexico a concession for a railway from Loredo, on the Rio Grande, to the City of Mexico, called the Mexican Oriental, and upon which work is now rapidly progress- ing.
As already stated, Gen. Dodge married early in life, and his family now consists of his wife and three daughters, one of whom is married to Robert E. Montgomery, who grew to manhood in Council Bluffs; the other, to F. S. Pusey, a son of Hon. W. H. M. Pusey; and a third, who is still unmar- ried. In all the changes of location de- manded of him by his greatly diversified bus-
iness enterprises, Gen. Dodge has never for one moment ceased to be identified with Council Bluffs. Here it is that his beautiful home is. Here he comes to rest, when rest he takes. Here are associations that he finds no place else, and that are essential even to his busy nature. Absorbed in some of the most gigantic industrial enterprises that ever engaged the attention of man, his affection for his parents is as tender and unostentatious as that of the youth who has not yet entered upon the great work of the world. As a hus- band, father and brother, he is singularly affectionate; and to acquaintances, of the most cordial disposition. A criticism would be out of place here. The writer has only endeavored to incorporate in this book, as a means of instruction and example, the true chronicle of the achievements of an illustri- ons citizen of Council Bluffs, who, as a self- made man, has illustrated the workings of our great free system of government in a Re- public whose greatness is yet in its infancy.
CHAPTER XXIII.4
COUNCIL BLUFFS-W. H. M. PUSEY-BANKER AND POLITICIAN-BIRTHPLACE AND EDUCATION- STATE SENATOR - DELEGATE TO CHARLESTON CONVENTION OF 1860-ELECTED TO CONGRES, 1882.
D URING 1855, the population of Council Bluffs increased to some extent, and the city had many visitors in search of new lands, who were on their way, overland, to the Pa- cific coast. There was little abatement of this class of enterprise during all these years. Among those who came about this date was Hon. W. H. M. Pusey, a native of Pennsyl- vania, and who, in a long and useful career as a business man and a banker, has left his impress npon the city. Mr. Pusey is still in
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