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 42
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and neglects of former officers during previous years, back to the summer of 1863, were corrected and supplied, and all items entered on the descriptive books of companies, as well as of the regiment, and these made fully to agree with those of the quarterly, monthly, and field returns, and daily and morning reports. The books had full and correct special registers of alterations and casualties, to-wit: For commissioned officers, separate registers of resignations, deaths, muster-out, and promotions; for enlisted men, registers of dis- charges, transfers, muster-out, deaths, and desertions, so as to give a complete military history of each and all who were ever mem- bers of the regiment from its first organization to the last day of service.
With all the above mentioned work achieved, the 15th Iowa was only a few days behind other regiments, several of whom had no records to complete, by reason of having lost part or most of them during the campaign .
Headquarters Seventeenth Army Corps, Louisville, Ky. July 11, 1865 . To the officers and Soldiers of the Seventeenth Army Corps:
In taking leave of you I feel it my duty to express my sense of obligation, not only for the service you have rendered the Govern- ment, but also to acknowledge the debt which I owe you personally for the reputation, which your valor and good conduct have con- ferred upon me. In whatever position I may hereafter be placed I shall regard it as a duty to devote myself to your interests. I do not care in this place to recount your services and achievements- they are written in the history of our country, and will not be for- gotten by those who love our institutions, or honor the brave men who have preserved them. I choose rather to depart from a custom pleasing in itself, and one which would be especially pleas- ant in this instance to me, that of recalling your triumphs, and even at the risk of provoking criticism by a departure from the accustom-
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edformalities of a farewell address. I prefer to make some sug- gestions, which, I hope, may not only prove useful to you, but beneficial, also, to the cause of our country, which you have proved that you prized more highly than your own personal interests.
The order for your disbandment ( as you are well aware ) has al- ready been received, and nothing remains to be done to restore you to homes and families except the formal discharge from service. Your service demands a better recognition at the hands of the country you have aided to preserve than mere words of applause.
The Romans made their conquering soldiers freeholders in the lands they had conquered; and as upon your return to your homes you will find most of the occupations and employments filled by adepts from civil life; and as the Government has vast tracts of vacant lands, which will be increased by the war, the interests of the country and your own will concur in the apportionment of these lands to your use and occupancy, establishing a citizen soldiery to maintain internal peace and set foreign foes at defiance.
There is one other and most important consideration to which I will point you attention. Simultaneous with the breaking out of the rebellion against our government a war was made by one of the most potent of European states upon the Republic of Mexico, under circumstances and with indications of such an unmistak- able character as to leave no doubt that the rebellion and the invas- ion of Mexico were but parts of a conspiracy against republicanism on this continent. The rebellion has been crushed, after efforts and sacrifices that have no parallel in modern war; but the invasion of our sister republic of Mexico has, in a measure, been successful. Can it be said that we have triumphed and that our republic is re-established on a solid and immovable foundation so long as the Hapsburgs, supported by the bayonets of France, maintain them- selves in Mexico, where they have established, upon the ruins of the republic, a system inimical to our own-an asylum for all the
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disaffected in our country, from whence treason will be plotted and conspiracies hatched, to be put in operation when opportunity offers and to be aided by the same force, impelled by the same motives which led to the ruin of Mexico.
It is possible that the failure of that part of the conspiracy, which aimed at the existence of our government, and which we all know to have been aided by the moral influence and material aid of the aristocratic governments of France and England, may, of itself, defeat the other part of the scheme against our sister re- public of Mexico and that Bonaparte may have the good sense to withdraw his troops from that country, knowing that if he does not withdraw them they will be driven out by that power which cannot submit to have its institutions threatened by the encroach- ments of inimical systems on this continent, and to which the in- vasion of Mexico was not only a threat but an insult, because we had publicly espoused the doctrine that no monarchial government should intrude upon this continent, thus taking under our protec- tion the feebler republics of this hemisphere. To attack Mexico, whilst under our avowed protection, so far as to shield her from the establisment of monarchy, was to attack an ally, and, indeed, to attack us. It was done at a time when a conspiracy, hatched into life and nurtured into strength by the same malign influence, required all our power for its suppression, and disabled us from making good the " Monroe Doctrine " which we had adopted, and which our interests and honor were engaged to maintain. The time has come when our power to maintain that principle coincides with our interests and our honor. It will be maintained. The whole conspiracy, in all its parts must be frustrated . It will be fortunate for us and the whole civilized world if our diplomacy, invigorated by our restored power, shall be able to re-establish the principle so necessary to our safety and security. If that object can be obtained by pacific means then soldiery is at an end, and your sole business hereafter will be to develop, enrich and improve
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our great country. To that end our soldiers should be provided with homesteads, and in no part of the country would they fare better or would they be more useful than in the South which they have redeemed . But if the folly and wickedness which first in- spired the attempt to overthrow our great republic and the repub- lican system in this continent should still prevail, and European despots continue to threaten us, by a flanking movement on Mex- ico, you will be called on to complete your work.
FRANK P. BLAIR, Major-General.
State of Iowa, Executive Department, 1 Des Moines, Iowa, July 12, 1865. 5
Soldiers of Iowa: The conspicuous and honorable part you have borne in the arduous 'struggle for the preservation of our national government, has excited the admiration of your countrymen and secured for yourselves an imperishable name. Your constancy and patience so often tried, your patriotism and valor universally acknowledged, have culminated in the triumph of national author- ity and the perpetuity of the Union which our fathers established. With your bayonets the name of "Iowa" has been carved upon the brightest pages of American history. From the banks of the Des Moines you fought your way to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic seaboard, stacking your arms at the close of the war on the banks of the Potomac in the shadow of the nation's capitol. Such marches, sieges, and battles the world has never witnessed before, either in ancient or modern times. Surpassing in concep- tion and boldness of execution the world-renowned campaigns of Cyrus or Alexander, Caesar or Napoleon, they will give historic grandeur to the age and render immortal the glory of our arms. In the name of the people of Iowa, whose country you have saved and whose state you have honored, I bid you a heartfelt welcome to your homes, and extend to you the assurance of their pride in your fame, and their lasting gratitude for your heroic achievements.
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Nobly have you maintained the honor of our state, in every cam- paign and battle, and faithfully redeemed the confidence reposed in your valor. Looking upon your now thinned ranks we are mourn- fully reminded of your many comrades slumbering in their lonely graves in the fields of glory where they died. Your banners torn by the storm and dimmed by the smoke of battle, we shall receive and deposit among the other valued memorials of your fame. The remembrance of your honorable scars and many victories will be reverently cherished and transmitted as a part of the common her- itage. Soldiers in war, you return as citizens to mingle with your friends and engage in the pursuits of peace.
Committing to the care of a generous people, the widows and orphans of those who are fallen, we invoke for the surviving heroes the continual guidance of Him who sheltered them amid the trials and dangers of war.
W. M. STONE, Governor.
Headquarters Army of the Tennessee, Louisville, Ky., Fuly 13th, 1865. 5
Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee:
The profound gratification I feel in being authorized to release you from the enormous obligations of the camp, and return you, laden with laurels, to homes where warm hearts welcome you, is somewhat embittered by the painful reflection that I am sundering the ties that trials have made true, time made tender, suffering made sacred, perils made proud, heroism made honorable, and fame made forever fearless of the future. It is no common occasion that demands the disbandment of a military organization, before the resistless power of which mountains bristling with bayonets have bowed, cities have surrendered, and millions of brave men been conquered.
Although I have been but for a short period your commander, we are no strangers; affections have sprung up between us during
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the long years of doubt, gloom and carnage, we have passed through together, nurtured by common perils, sufferings and sacrifices, and rivited by the memories of gallant comrades whose bones repose beneath the sod of a hundred battle-fields, nor time nor distance will weaken or efface. The many marches you have made, the dangers you have despised, the haughtiness you have humbled, the duties you have discharged, the glory you have gained, the destiny you have discovered for the country in whose cause you have con- quered, all recur at this moment in all the vividness that marked the scenes through which we have just passed .
From the pens of the ablest historians of the land are daily drift- ing out upon the current of time, page upon page, volume upon volume of your heoric deeds, and floating down to future genera- tions, will inspire the student of history with admiration, the patri- otic American with veneration for his ancestors, and to the lover of republican liberty, with gratitude for those who, in a fresh baptism of blood; reconstructed the powers and energies of the Re- public to the cause of constitutional freedom. Long may it be the happy fortune of each and every one of you to live in the full frui- tion of the boundless blessing you have secured to the human race. Only he whose heart has been thrilled with admiration for your impetuous and unyielding valor in the thickest of the fight can ap- preciate with what pride I recount the brilliant achievements which immortalize you and enrich the pages of our national history .
Passing by the earlier, but not less signal triumphs of the war, in which most of you participated, and inscribed upon your banners such victories as Donelson and Shiloh, I recur to campaigns, sieges and victories which challenge the admiration of the world, and elicit the unwilling applause of all Europe.
Turning your backs upon the blood-bathed heights of Vicks- burg, you launched into a region swarming with enemies, fighting your way, and marching without adequate supplies, to answer the
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cry for succor that comes to you from the noble but beleagured army at Chattanooga.
Your steel next flashed among the mountains of Tennessee, and your weary limbs found rest before the embattled heights of Mis- sion Ridge, and there with dauntless courage you breasted again the enemy's destructive fire, and shared with your comrades of the Army of the Cumberland the glories of a victory, than which no soldiery can boast a prouder.
In that unexampled campaign of vigilant and vigorous warfare from Chattanooga to Atlanta, you freshened your laurels at Resaca, with grappling with the enemy behind his works, hurling him back dismayed and broken. Pursuing him thence, marking your path by graves of fallen comrades, you again triumphed over superior numbers at Dallas, fighting your way from there to Kenesaw Mountain, and under the murderous artillery that frowned from its rugged heights, with a tenacity and constancy that finds few parellels, you labored, fought and suffered through the boiling rays of a Southern mid- summer sun, until at last you planted your colors upon its topmost heights.
Again, on the 22d of July, 1864, rendered memorable through all the time for the terrible struggle you so heroically maintained under disasters, and that saddest of all reflections, the loss of that exemplary soldier and popular leader, the lamented McPherson, your matchless courage turned defeat into glorious victory .
Ezra Chapel and Jonesboro added new lustre to a radiant record, the latter unbarring to you the proud Gait City of the South.
The daring of a desperate foe in thrusting his legions northward, exposed the country in your front, and though rivers, swamps and enemies opposed, you boldly surmounted every obstacle, beat down all opposition, and marched forward to the sea. Without any act to dim the brightness of your historic page, the world rang plaudits when your labors and struggles culminated at Savannah, and the
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old "Starry Banners," waved once more over the walls of one of the proudest cities of the seaboard.
Scarcely a breathing spell had passed when your colors faded from the coast, and your columns plunged into the swamps of the Carolinas. The suffering you endured, the labors you performed and the successes you achieved in those morasses, deemed impos- sible, forms a creditable episode in the history of the war. Poco- taligo, Salkahatchie, Edisto, Branchville, Orangeburg, Columbia, Bentonville, Charleston and Raleigh are names that will ever be suggestive of the resistless sweep of your column through the ter- ritory that cradled and nurtured, and from whence was sent forth on its mission of crime, the disturbing and disorganizing spirit of secession and rebellion .
The work for which you pledged your brave hearts and brawny arms to the Government of your fathers you have nobly perform- ed. You are seen in the past gathering through the gloom that enveloped the land, rallying as the guardians of man's honest herit- age, forgetting the thread unwoven upon the loom, quitting the anvil and abandoning the workshops, to vindicate the supremacy of the laws and the authority of the consitution. Four years having struggled in the bloodiest and most destructive war that ever drenched the earth with human gore; step by step you have borne our standard, until to-day, over every fortress and aresnal that re- bellion wrenched from us, and over city, town and hamlet, from the Lakes to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean, proudly float the "starry emblem" of our national unity and strength.
Your rewards, my comrades, are the welcoming plaudits of a grateful people, the consciousness that in saving the Republic you have won for your country renewed respect and power at home and abroad; that in the unexampled era of growth and prosperity that dawns with peace, there attached mightier wealth of pride and glory than ever before to that loved boast, "I am an American citizen ."
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In relinquishing the implements of war for those of peace, let your conduct ever be that of warriors in time of war, and peaceful citizens in time of peace. Let not the lustre of that bright name that you have won as soldiers be dimmed by any improper act as citizens, but as time rolls on let your record grow brighter and brighter still .
JOHN A. LOGAN, Major-General.
In presenting itself for inspection, preparatory to its muster out, Lieutenant Colonel George Pomutz (by General Order No. 14) thanked the officers and men of the Regiment for the promptness with which they had always executed and carried out his orders since he took command of the Regiment before Atlanta, August 1st 1864.
GENERAL ORDERS NO. 14.
FAREWELL ORDER OF LIEUTENANT GEORGE POMUTZ.
Headquarters 15th Iowa Infantry Vet. Vols., 1
Near Louisville, Ky., July 23, 1865. 5
The commanding officer of the Regiment takes pleasure in an- nouncing that the command is now ready to pass a minute in- spection, preparatory to its being mustered out of service and return home. It took a few days longer than was anticipated to finish the work, as it was deemed all important to have the neglect and deficiencies of former years, back to the summer of 1863, corrected and supplied; to have the papers, records and books of the command completed, so as to save the interests of the government, and at the same time to do full justice to each and all who have ever been connected with the regiment. As the records stand now the commanding officer trusts that they may prove a real benefit in future to all of the members of the Regi- ment from its first organization to this present time. The day and hour drawing near when the command will disband to re-
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turn to their individual pursuits in civil life, the commanding officer embraces this occasion to acknowledge the promptness with which all of his orders were carried out by the officers and men since he took command of the regiment a year ago, before Atlanta, even under circumstances during the last year's arduous campaign, that have called for the best settled habits of discipline, and have taxed to the utmost the energy and well tried endurance of the officers and men. He cannot forbear now to acknowledge that under the most trying circumstances he could not notice any slackening on the part of the men in doing their full duty; that he never heard of one single instance of murmuring when duty had to be per- formed; that, on the contrary, he had often been witness to the readiness, promptness and vigor of execution, and to the gallantry with which officers and men have met and bravely surmounted the difficulties arising before them; that as often they had caused him to feel proud of their conduct, so they had also elicited, on sev- eral occasions, the applause and congratulations of several superior headquarters. He returns his last thanks to all officers and men for it now.
While he is well aware of having strictly enforced on all occa- sions the orders and prescribed rules of discipline, with a view to secure and enhance the efficiency of the command, at the same time he is not conscious of ever having, in one single instance, either delayed or omitted to see personally that everything due to the men was given them, whenever it was in his power to procure it for them. Any neglect or carelessness, no matter from what quarter, was remedied at once, even if this had to be attained at the cost of an unpleasant situation resulting personally to himself.
He would call the attention of the command to one object of importance before the process of disbanding will be gone through with.
The soldiers of the Federal army who have fought the hundreds of battles against the rebellion just closed, and have endured the
GEORGE POMUTZ. LT. COL.I5 THIOWA VOLS. BREVET. BRIG. GEN'L U.S. VOLS.
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hardships and despised the dangers that will ever tax the credulity of those who were not present, have shown an example of exalted patriotism, of paramount love of our country, of its government and of its laws.
Soldiers of the 15th Iowa! Your record was and is a noble one! For three and a half years you have borne the banner of the Stars and Stripes, the emblem of the power and unity of our govern- ment; at the same time as the exponent of your own determination to assist in upholding that government and its laws, you have carried and defended that banner through a distance marched and traveled of seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight miles since March, 1862. Out of the aggregate number of 1,763 men who have been members of the Regiment since its organization, 1,051 are out, a fearful proportion of whom comprises those killed, the de- ceased, and the crippled and the disabled for life. Proof enough of the devotion of the members of the regiment to our govern- ment and to its laws.
Then let our actions and deeds show, when we return to our firesides, that we are the foremost in obeying the laws of the country we have been fighting to uphold; that in the proud con- sciousness of having done our duty full and well, we are deter- mined to keep and enhance the good name we have fairly won; that we are determined to let our future conduct ever be that of peaceful citizens in time of peace, as it has been that of true war- riors in time of war. GEORGE POMUTZ,
Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding 15th Iowa.
July 24th, the Regiment was mustered out of the service.
" Of the thousand stalwart bayonets,
Two hundred marched to-day ;
Hundreds lie in Southern soil,
And hundreds in Northern clay ;
And other hundreds, less happy, drag
Their shattered limbs around,
And envy the deep, long, blessed sleep Of the Battle-field's holy ground." -Miles O' Reilly .
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Of the 1,113 original members of the Regiment, as near as can be learned, there were only three (of the original ) officers, and 207 men at muster out. Of the 354 veterans, in eighteen months ser- vice, there was 218 casualties. The regimental records were de, livered to Robert M. Woods, Lieutenant 64th Illinois, and assistant commissary of Musters, of the 4th Division, 17th Corps, under whose direction they were forwarded to the chief mustering officer at Davenport, Iowa.
That night in camp the boys will always remember, from dark until midnight; those camped on the hill rolled barrels, kegs and hard tack boxes down upon their comrades near the foot of the hill, who piled them up and soon there was a dozen bonfires burn- ing, amid great cheering from all on the crest of the hill, whenever a well aimed barrel or box knocked over a shebang; after tattoo, Companies A, F, C, H and G have bonfires and rows of lighted candles in inverted bayonets, in the ground along the front of their companies illuminating the camp, and guns were being fired throughout the regiment in honor of the close of the Regiment's service. After midnight we turned in for the last time in the field. July 25th, Revielle at 3 A. M. and raining hard; at 5 A. M. we start from our last camp, marching past brigade and division headquarters, and halt and front before those of the Army of the Tennessee, when General John A. Logan walks out in the drench- ing rain and delivers an eloquent address to the 15th, after which the march is resumed to the levee. We cross the Ohio river to New Albany, Ind .. and take cars at noon; arrive via. Michigan City at Chicago; late in afternoon of 27th, march to the Soldier's Rest, where companies of Chicago's pretty girls attend us at sup- per and gave us coffee (not such as your mother-in-law made, but similar to that you had brewed for years, which had to float forty rounds before being drank, ) and quantities of other good things; the night passed seeing the city and in barracks; at 3 p. M. on 28th we board cars, and via Joliet and Rock Island arrive at Davenport,
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Iowa, in the forenoon of 29th, where Judge Dillon delivered an address of welcome; then march out to Camp Kinsman, and soon a majority of the Regiment are boarding at various places in the city. Men of the 13th and 16th Iowa say that when we desire to be paid off we will have to send to town and escort a paymaster out. August 2d, no signs of being paid, therefore a detachment of 50 or 60 boys go down and call on the paymaster, who promises to come out next day sure. August 3d, at noon, the paymaster ar- rives, and at once active operations commence, but at 5 p. M. he announces he has not sufficient funds to pay the entire regiment; fertile in resources as ever, some of the boys suggest that he nego- tiate a loan of the unexpended funds another paymaster may have, who, (haviag paid off the 4th Iowa,) is approaching and is promptly halted, to enable our paymaster to comply with the above suggestion, after which the payment is continued, and also on the 4th and fifth of August, when the last of the 15th Iowa Veteran Infantry was discharged.
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