USA > Iowa > History of the Fifteenth Regiment, Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry, from October, 1861, to August, 1865, when disbanded at the end of the war > Part 2
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"There were just a thousand bayonets, And the swords were thirty-seven, As we took the oath of service, With our right hands raised to heaven."
Private Miles (' Reiley.
The other field and staff officers were Lieut. Col. William Dewey, of Sidney, Fremont county; Major William W. Belknap, of Keokuk; Surgeon Samuel B. Davis, of Atchison, Kansas; Ass't Surgeon William H. Gibbon, of Chariton, Lucas county; Chaplain William W. Estabrook, of Clinton, Adjutant George Pomutz, of New Buda, Decatur county, and Quartermaster Mortimer A. Higley, of Cedar Rapids.
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
HISTORY OF THE FIELD AND STAFF
OF THE
FIFTEENTH IOWA VOLUNTEERS, BY
WILLIAM W. BELKNAP, Brigadier General of Volunteers, Second Colonel of the Regiment. " FALL IN!"
FIELD AND STAFF.
Colonels .
Hugh T. Reid. William W. Belknap. John M. Hedrick.
Lieutenant Colonels .
William Dewey . William W. Belknap. Geo. Pomutz.
John M. Hedrick .
Majors. William T. Cunningham. George Pomutz.
William W. Belknap.
John M. Hedrick .
James S. Porter.
Surgeons.
Samnel B. Davis.
William H. Gibbon.
Assistant Surgeons.
William H. Gibbon. Hezekiah Fisk. William W. Nelson .
George Pomutz.
Adjutants.
Ensign H. King. William C. Stidger.
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History of the Fifteenth Regiment
Quartermasters.
Mortimer A. Higley . Elisha W. Elliott . Acting Quartermaster. Henry C. McArthur. Chaplains.
William W. Estabrooke. Ensign H. King.
NON-COMMISSIONED STAFF. Sergeant Majors.
Jesse B. Penniman. Alexander Brown. Amos D. Thatcher . William C. Stidger. James W. Henry .
Quartermaster's Sergeants.
Rufus H. Eldredge. Andrew Mitchell . James H. Flynt
Commissary Sergeant.
Robert W. Cross.
James G. Shipley .
Elisha W. Elliott. William R. Cowley
Hospital Stewards.
Henry T. Felgar.
Cornelius Inglefield .
Lucius Bondinot. Alexander McGilvery
Drum Majors.
Henry Metz.
Nathan A. Leonard .
-
Fife Majors.
Tilghman H. Cunningham. John S. Strain.
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
HUGH T. REID.
HUGH T. REID, of Keokuk, was the first Colonel of the 15th Iowa Volunteers. On October 14, 1861, he published a notice by hand-bill and otherwise, calling for Volunteers and stating that the Regiment was then being raised by authority of General Fremont, and Governor Kirkwood, of Iowa, and that it would rendezvous at Keokuk.
He was a man of energy, determination, strong will and indom- itable pluck, and a lawyer of great ability. The Regiment was raised and fought its first battle at Shiloh, under his command, where he was severely wounded on April 6, 1862. His appoint- ment as Colonel was dated November 1, 1861, and he was mus- tered in on February 22, 1862.
Brave, determined, of strong will, and great physical and moral courage, he was in the midst of action without fear. Thoroughly devoted to the interests of his men, he was tireless in promoting their welfare, and his successful efforts in procuring for them the best clothing, arms and rations was remarkable.
Stern and exacting at times, beneath all was an affection for his Regiment which showed itself whenever criticism came from others.
He was among the first to favor the enlistment of colored troops, and when some of his Regiment objected, in vigorous words he spoke to them and reminded them in language which went to the mark: " Remember that every colored soldier who stops a rebel bullet saves a white man's life."
Dangerously wounded at Shiloh in the presence of the writer of this, and stunned by the blow, he was apparently dead and was carried from the field, but recovering consciousness he remounted his horse, and with blood streaming from the wound rejoined the line. With great endurance he refused a sick leave and remained with the Regiment. But he never recovered from the effects of this wound, which finally was the cause of his death.
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History of the Fifteenth Regiment
While Colonel he frequently commanded the Brigade of which the Regiment was a part, and was appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers on March 13, 1863. He resigned this commission on April 4, 1864, and devoted himself to the interests of the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company, which owed its completion mainly to his efforts, the cars of that road being the first to enter Des Moines, the Capitol of Iowa.
But the wound received at Shiloh never ceased to trouble him and he died on August 21, 1874, at Keokuk, Iowa, leaving to his friends and comrades the memory of a gallant soldier and an able, upright man.
General Reid left a widow, formerly Miss Alexine LeRoy, IND. of Vincennes, Hewa, and three children-James Henry, who died in Nashville, Tennessee; Alan L., who is a banker in Newton, Kansas, and Hugh T., who is at Harvard University.
The Daily Gate City, of Keokuk, of Aug. 22d, 1874, contained this obituary notice :
DEATH OF GEN. HUGH T. REID.
Gen. Hugh T. Reid died at his residence, in this city, at 7:15 A. M. Friday, August 21st, 1874, of Brights Disease of the Kidneys, in the 63d year of his age.
General Reid was born in Union county, Indiana, on the 18th of October, ISII ; was of Scotch-Irish descent, his parents being natives of South Carolina. He graduated with high honors at Blooming- ton, ( Indiana) College. Soon after studied law in the office of Judge Perry, and was admitted to practice by Judge Bigger, after- wards Governor. In the spring of 1839 came to Lee county, Iowa, and settled at Fort Madison, and in the spring of 1840 formed a co-partnership with Judge Edward Johnstone, which lasted near ten years, when he removed to Keokuk, retiring from law business, except in cases in which he was personally interested.
He had been a citizen of Lee county over thirty-five years at his death. He was Prosecuting Attorney for the counties of Lee. Des Moines, Henry, Jefferson and Van Buren in 1840-2, then the most populous counties in the State, and was a terror to criminals, rarely failing to convict.
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
As a land lawyer he stood in the front rank of his profession, as one of the ablest lawyers in the West from adjoining States then coming here to practice in our Courts in suits growing out of the disputed title to the Half Breed Tract.
He was engaged as one of the builders of the Des Moines Valley Railroad to Fort Dodge, 250 miles, of which he was President four years. He was also President of our magnificent Railroad and Passenger Bridge over the Mississippi river, giving his services gratuitously until it was completed .
He entered the service as Colonel of the 15th Iowa Infantry in the war of 1861; had command of the Regiment in the battle of Shiloh, his Regiment losing nearly two hundred men in that battle in two hours and twenty minutes. Here he was severely wounded -shot through the neck and fell from his horse paralyzed, but in a few minutes recovered and remounted; continued in command, riding up and down the lines, covered with blood, exhorting the men to stand firm; being the last mounted field officer who remained on horseback to the close of the battle. He was engaged in many other important actions, and was made Brigadier-General in the spring of 1863, and commanded at the then important posts of ยท Lake Providence, and Cairo, Ill., until he resigned near the close of the war in 1864.
He was twice married, his first wife dying in 1842, leaving no children. By his second wife, Mary Alexine LeRoy, he has three children, all boys. Untiring and energetic, he was always in active business, and with an iron will and persistency of purpose, he pros- ecuted every enterprise in which he was engaged with sleepless vigilance, traveling much on railroad at night, till disease prostrated his physical energies and death closed his career forever.
He had little time for social intercourse and made few confidents, and amongst the few in whom he did confide the most was Judge 2
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History of the Fifteenth Regiment
Edward Johnstone, his old law partner, in whose integrity and devoted friendship he placed the most deserved and implicit con- fidence.
For nearly two years before his death he was a member of St. John's Episcopal Church of this city, in which he was confirmed by Bishop Lee.
When his name was sent for confirmation to the Senate by Pres- ident Lincoln as Brigadier-General, such was his high character for integrity and patriotism that he was at once unanimously confirmed without the usual reference to a Committee .
He was ever kind and generous without pretension. Those who understood him and knew him best, loved him most for his many sterling qualities of head and heart.
Ever indulgent toward his family, to them he was ever kind and affectionate; his goodness of heart being proverbial, for his heart was as tender and sympathetic as that of a child. In him they have lost their dearest friend and protector, and he has left them a name unsullied by the breath of scandal, and untarnished by the words of reproach. He knew that his recovery was beyond medical skill and he must die, and died in the full faith and hope of the Chris- ' tian's immortality, of which he was a firm believer, and the Crown of Glory is laid up for him in Heaven.
WILLIAM W. BELKNAP.
WILLIAM W. BELKNAP, of Keokuk, was the second Col- onel. Heredity asserts itself in the transmission of the chivalric spirit of the father to the son as well as in the perpetuity of those other traits, mental and moral, which the psychologist and the social philosopher love to trace with such minute care. The sol- dier is the sire of soldiers! Some men take up the sword as nat- urally as others do the pen or plow. It only requires the oppor- tunity to develop the penchant. In every lonely, wind-swept
Amy Belknap
BVT. MAJOR GEN'L. U. S. VOL'S.
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
country grave-yard there are the ashes of unknown Miltons. The epics that remained unsung upon their lips would have fired men to nobler accomplishments and purer purposes,-but the circum- stances that shaped their destinies cast in different moulds those who would have sung them; the philosophers and scientists who have never been developed are unnumbered; the teachers worthy to lead men and the statesmen who might have guided the ship of state in any storm and who yet died unknown, is beyond count. But that spirit, which animates the soldier-that martial valor- rises to the surface under different circumstances, more untoward conditions. When the shock of war breaks upon a nation, when a crisis in civil affairs arises which must needs be arbitrated by arms, then there comes the stern sense of duty, coupled with the grim pagentry and high glory of war which fans into flame the latent embers of chivalry that have slumbered in the breasts of men. Here heredity and intellect assert themselves. The men born to command, command; those born to obey fall into the ranks and fill a noble part not less glorious for being less conspicuous.
Admitting the truth of the premises we have established it is not surprising that William W. Belknap was one of the earliest to enter the service in the war for the Union. It is not surprising that he achieved distinction and left the service with a brilliant record as a soldier and a leader. He came of a line of soldiers. His father, William G. Belknap, was for years a distinguished officer of the regular army, entering the service in 1813, when but a boy. He was appointed a third Lieutenant by President Madison and served with marked gallantry in that last struggle with Great Britain. Later he served in the Florida and Mexican wars, participating in all the battles fought by General Taylor-serving for a time on the staff of that officer and being brevetted Brigadier-General for gallantry in the battle of Buena Vista. While still in the service in Texas in 1851 he died.
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History of the Fifteenth Regiment
In the town of Newburgh, New York, in 1829, the subject of this sketch was born, and there he spent his boyhood. When nineteen years of age (1848) he graduated from Princeton Col- lege; and at once entering upon the study of the law with Hugh Caperton, of Georgetown, D. C., he was admitted to the bar of the District by Judge Cranch in 1851. The young attorney, with a shrewdness of intuition which stood him in good stead later in life, saw the possibilities which yet lay before the Great West. Already the avenues to success at the East were blocked by the number of
worthy applicants. The West, with its untried possibilities and its wider scope for the development of talent he preferred to the East, and in July of the same year in which he was admitted to the bar we find our young attorney hanging out his shingle in Keokuk. The professional ability of young Belknap commanded the respect of the older practitioners at the bar, and shortly after his location he formed a partnership with Hon. R. P. Lowe, who became after- wards Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State and later Governor. It was not long before the talent of the young lawyer began to assert itself in the new community. While there was a . vigorous energy about the frontier communities which the later generations may have missed, still there was not the competition of talent which comes with older civilization and broader means of general culture. A strong, talented man must of necessity forge to the front and take precedence; so after his marriage in 1854 to Miss Cora Le Roy, of Vincennes, Indiana, (a sister-in-law of General Hugh T. Reid, who died in 180%), General Belknap began taking the local political leadership. As a result he was elected to the Legislature from Lee County at the first session held in Des Moines, in 1857-S. Then Belknap was an enthusiastic Douglas Democrat. It was the argument of war which changed his politics and made him a Republican .
The first real evidence of military spirit which the young lawyer showed was when he entered the "City Rifles," a crack military
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
company which he afterwards commanded, and which furnished many officers of ability and high rank to the Volunteer forces. In its ranks, or as its Captain, he attained a proficiency in arms which profited him in the most trying times. There was little to indicate that the service seen in the streets and parks of Keokuk was ever to be useful in more earnest frays; but in fact it was the basis of that broader military education finished in the field and which eventually made of the Captain of militia one of the most brilliant commanders of his day. The "City Rifles" were famous for their proficiency in drill and their perfect discipline, so that when Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood commissioned Wm. W. Belknap as Major of the 15th Iowa Infantry in November, 1861, he placed over the raw recruits a man, who, though coming from the ranks of professional civilian life, was in point of ability and courage competent to lead his men forth to battle. He became Lieutenant Colonel on the resignation of Lieutenant-Colonel Dewey, August 1, 1862. On the promotion of Col. Reid to a brigadier generalcy, he became Colonel on April 22, 1863, vacating the latter position when promoted by President Lincoln July 30, 1864.
The first battle in which the 15th engaged was Shiloh. It was a bloody baptism for the new Iowa Regiment and yet it was a glorious one. It was at that fight, too, that Major Belknap was wounded and had his horse shot under him. He also on that field came under the personal observation of the great leader -- General Grant, and from that time dates the intimacy which was afterwards to so closely associate these two men. At Shiloh the discipline and drill of the men came into full play and that of none in the whole vast army were better. Major Belknap had himself drilled the officers in a hall in Keokuk previous to taking the field and as a result there was a degree of perfection which would have been highly creditable to regular soldiers. The intrepidity of the com- mander also inspired his men .
22
History of the" Fifteenth Regiment
In the report made by Colonel Hugh T. Reid of the part taken by the Regiment in the battle of Shiloh, he writes as follows:
" Major Belknap was always in the right place at the right time directing and encouraging officers and men as coolly as a veteran; he was wounded, but not disabled, and had his horse shot under him, but remained on the field performing his duty on foot."
Colonel M. M. Crocker, commanding the 3d Brigade, Sixth Division, in the battle of Corinth on October 3, 1862, says:
" This engagement lasted three-quarters of an hour; the firing was incessant, and the Regiments, especially the 15th, suffered severely. I deem it my especial duty to particularly mention Lieutenant-Colonel Belknap who commanded the 15th Iowa. This Regiment was under the hottest fire, and Colonel Belknap was everywhere along the line, mounted, with sword in hand, en- couraging, by voice and gesture, his men to stand their ground."
Colonel William Hall, commanding the 3d brigade, Fourth Division Seventeenth Corps, in the battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, in which engagement General McPherson, the able and beloved commander of the Army of the Tennessee, was killed, speaks as follows:
" Where all officers and men did their duty I can make special mention of but few . Colonel Belknap, commanding the 15th Iowa, displayed at all times the highest qualities of the soldier, cheering his men by his voice, and encouraging them by his personal disregard of danger."
General Giles A. Smith, commanding the Fourth Division, Sev- enteenth Corps in the same action, says:
" Many individual acts of heroism have occurred. Colonel Belknap, of the 15th Iowa Volunteers, took prisoner Col- onel Lampley, of the 45th Alabama, by pulling him over the works by his coat-collar, being several times fired at by men at his side.
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
Colonel W. W. Belknap, 15th Iowa, displayed all the qualities of an accomplished soldier."
On July 29, 1864, General Morgan L. Smith, commanding the Second Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, addressed General Giles A. Smith, commander of the Fourth Division, Seventeenth Corps, as follows:
" The General commanding thanks you for the assistance ren- dered him yesterday by sending to his support the 15th Iowa and 32d Ohio Regiments under the command of Colonel William W . Belknap. The General also thanks Colonel Belknap and his brave men for the efficient manner in which they performed their duty." This was the battle of Ezra Church, near Atlanta.
He not only had a minute and personal knowledge of all the details of company organization, but he knew every man by name and was more familiar with their needs than many of the company officers. As a result his men were devoted to him. A fact which strengthened the regard in which he was held, and which gave his men the utmost confidence in him, was the utter absence of per- sonal fear on his part, and his willingness to share whatever dangers or hardships befel those he commanded. This characteristic was illustrated by a little incident which occurred while the Regiment was lying at Benton Barracks in St. Louis. A gentleman came in one day who was selling steel vests-delicately wrought shirts of mail which were bullet-proof. Major Belknap examined them approvingly, but firmly said, " I think they are good things but I could not buy one because I would not ask my men to go into a fight under any less advantageous conditions than I would. If the Government will furnish them to the soldiers I will gladly buy one."
General Belknap served in the Army of the Tennessee to the end. At the battle of Corinth he commanded his Regiment and was commended for his skill and gallantry by General Crocker in his report as Brigadier-Commander. Then for a time he was on
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History of the Fifteenth Regiment
the staff of General McPherson, Corps Commander. He was conspicuous in the siege of Vicksburg and Atlanta, and in the latter campaign won his principal renown, being always at the front and enjoying full opportunities for all his tactical knowledge and nat- ural bravery.
At the battle of Pittsburg Landing, Major Belknap was shot in the shoulder. In company with an officer of the Regiment he went to the landing and he found it crowded with disorganized men. Turning to his companion he said, " Don't let us go down there," and reversing his steps he rallied over a hundred men and went into the fight again. After the battle, General Grant placed him in command of the 18th Wisconsin Regiment which had lost all its field and many of its line officers.
He commanded his own Regiment in the battles of Atlanta on July 21, 22 and 28, 1864, and in the bitterly contested battle of July 22 distinguished himself anew by the intrepidity of a single act. The fight had become a hand-to-hand one on the breast- works, the loss on both sides was terrible and every man fought as though the result depended upon his individual efforts. It was then that Colonel Belknap, catching the Confederate Colonel Lampley, of the 15th Alabama, dragged him over the breast-works and made him prisoner. Eight days after, Colonel Belknap was made Brigadier-General of Volunteers and placed in command of "Crocker's lowa Brigade," composed of the 11th, 13th, 15th and 16th lowa Regiments. General John M. Hedrick, of Ottumwa, lately deceased, succeeded to the colonelcy of the Regiment.
The march " to the sea" of that famous brigade under the com- mand of General Belknap was a part of one of the most glorious epochs in the military history of this country. Then came the siege of Savannah and the final battle of Bentonville, North Caro- lina, which preceded the surrender of General Johnston's army . That Grand Review in which General Belknap participated in
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Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
Washington, was a fitting climax to his brilliant military career, and there is but little to recall after that. He was assigned to the command of the Fourth Division, Seventeenth Corps, was the last commander of that famous Corps at the time of its muster out, and was brevetted Major-General early in 1865.
We said the war made General Belknap a Republican. It was at the election held in the field in 1864 that he cast his first vote with that party. That vote was for Abraham Lincoln.
At the close of the war General Belknap was offered a field officer's position in the regular army, but he declined it, preferring to remain in civil life, and in 1866 he was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the First District of Iowa. The collections for that District aggregated millions, its work was exacting and complicated, but when, three years later, he relinquished that office and the immense accounts were settled, it was found that there was a deficiency of just four cents, and not even an enemy had the hardihood to say he had embezzled that amount. It was regarded as remarkable that the difference should be so insignificant after years of duty and when the accounts were at once so large and so complicated .
The first really important public event-or at least the one which again brought him into conspicuous public notice-in the life of General Belknap after the close of the war, occurred in 1867 at the great reunion in Chicago. General Belknap delivered the address for the Army of the Tennessee in the evening and it was such a marvelous piece of fervid oratory, so beautiful in its rhetoric and lofty in its tone of patriotism and love, that the great audience, which embraced the most distinguished men of the Nation, was fairly carried away by it.
General Belknap was offered several high positions in the Rev- enue Service, by President Grant, which he declined, and was appointed Secretary of War by him in 1869, and served in that capacity until March, 1876, when he resigned. The records of
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History of the Fifteenth Regiment
his administration and the verdict of subsequent events show how well the duties of his office were performed. It was during the early years of his tenure of office that the measures for the recon- struction of the South were in process of formation and operation, and the number of delicate and vital questions arising were dealt with so skillfully that few of them ever needed readjustment. On the charge that he had used his office for personal profit he was impeached by the House of Representatives during a time of great excitement and the bitterest political enmities. The Senate tried the case and acquitted General Belknap. His friends of to-day are the ones who have known him best in his private and public life and neither the elamor of envious politicians nor the inuendoes of secret enemies have ever shaken their faith in his truth, his honesty or his patriotism.
General Belknap succeeded Governor Buren R. Sherman, of Iowa, as the President of Crocker's Brigade, a society of the old members being formed almost six years ago. It is a flourishing body composed of the men-now no longer lusty with the strength of young manhood, but veterans beginning to feel the weight of years-whom the General commanded.
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