USA > Iowa > Delaware County > Manchester > Reunion of the 12th Iowa V.[eteran] V.[olunteer] infantry 1st-8th, 1880-1903 > Part 13
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After the exercises were concluded there was a general hand shaking with about one hundred citizens of the vicinity and a number from Corinth, after which there was a hurried inspection of the cemetery and, then a rush of the veterans for the old camp.
The whole battle field was soon a scene of active tracing out of old camps and positions in battle, and as representatives of nearly every regiment in the fight are on the ground, there was little difficulty in tracing out the positions
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held, lost and won in the terrible struggle of twenty-two years ago. The most of the heavy timber on the field in 1862 has been cut off, but many of the battle- scarred trees are still standing, and with the help of these and the numerous ridges and gulleys we were enabled to fully and finally settle many long dis- puted points. Representatives of the Iowa Brigade composed of the Second, Seventh, Twelfth and Fourteenth lowa, headed by Col. Shaw of the Fourteenth lowa, mounted, Gen. Tuttle and the rest of us on foot, easily found our first line of battle, followed the line of retreat to the last desperate struggle of the Eight, Twelfth and Fourteenth Iowa, and part of Gen. Prentiss' division, where less than 4,000 men fought the three rebel divisions, of Polk, Hardee and Breckenridge, for half an hour, when our ammunition was exhausted and we made the last effort to escape in a deadly, pell mell rush across "Hell's Hol- low" and were finally forced to surrender in the Third lowa's tents just at sun - set, the last heavy fighting in the first day's contest. This little band by their stubbornness in being the last to give way on the entire line, had saved the balance of the army from capture, but had sacrificed themselves. Ilow well they fought the thousands of "unknown" graves in the National Cemetery on the bluff sadly and strongly tell. Their line of retreat, the crossing of "Hell's Hollow" and the point of capture were more thickly strewn with dead bodies than any other place in the fearful struggle. Not one-half of the number of any of the three lowa regiments named, who so grandly marched forth to battle on that beautiful Sabbath morning, Were ever reported for duty again. Their bodies rest in this beautiful cemetery and in the accursed soil around the rebel prison pens in nearly every Southern State east of the Mississippi river, and in home cemeteries, where they were laid by loving hands, from disease contracted in the rebel prison bells. But enough of sadness before remem- brance drives the pencil to bitterness.
The day has been well spent by the veterans in hunting mementoes of the battle and they have generally secured a goodly number, consisting of bullets picked up from the ground or chopped out of trees, broken gun bar- rels, bayonets, cannon balls, shells, grape and cannister shot, etc. The whole field has been thoroughly searched and it is safe to say that thousands of pounds of relics will be carried away as highly prized treasures, to be handed down to future generations as mementoes of the hardest fought battle in the West and one of the most stubbornly contested great battles of the war.
SECOND DAY.
This had been a busy day with the excursionists in huting for relics and in exploring every portion of the old camp and battle ground. The search for relics has been highly successful, and everybody is well laden with shot and shell, bullets of all kinds, canes, bayonets, rusty gun barrels, gun caps, etc. The trees in the deadliest portion of the battle field were literally filled with bullets, and the most of the trees that were here during the battle are dead. many of them standing monuments of the deadly fray, but about an equal number have fallen to the ground and are jotting away. The excursionists have chopped into the old trees on every side, and successfully angled for the old bullets, the point of entrance into the trees being still plainly marked by a scar on the bark. In the live trees the bullets were generally found about four inches from the bark, and the rings of the growth of these trees show plainly the twenty-two years' growth since the battle. Axes and hatchets were in demand to cut the bullets out of the trees, and there are many blistered hands aboard the two boats tonight The bullets in the dead trees were more easily secured, being readily picked out with knives or punched ont with canes or sticks. The natives report that nearly all the larger trees that stood on the ground during the battle were killed by the infantry balls shot into them. and nearly every tree struck squarely by cannon shot or shells near the ground died in a few years after the battle. Many of these now cumber the ground but the larger number have been worked up into rails or utilized for firewood. The old stumps were good land marks-for nearly every soldier present had stood behind a long to be remembered tree when the bullets were flying thick and fast during some portion of the day, and those trees and stumps have been of great service in tracing out the different positions held during the day. The
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writer sat upon the stump of a tree today, behind which "Long Ace Wickham." of Co. A, 12th lowa, stood sideways and loaded and fired his musket in the last desperate stand made by the 12th lowa before their wild, but deadly rush across "Hell's Hollow," near the close of the first day's battle. While stand- ing behind this tree Mr. Wickham was wounded and one ball made four holes in him and forty-seven holes in his clothing, but he continued to load and fire as long as the rest of us. We secured a piece of the old stump and if his eyes happen to see this letter, and he will send his present address to the lowa State Register, Des Moines, lowa, a splinter of the stump will be sent to him. The plowed fields yielded a vast number of musket balls and cannister shot, and all of them were quite thoroughly searched. Some of the large sixty-four pound gunboat shells, thrown by the gunboats during the night after the first day's battle were picked up near the line of battle first held by the division of Gen. Prentiss, nearly two miles from the river, and pieces of these shells were picked up on nearly all portions of the battle field occupied by the left wing of the Union army. Tonight the excursionists are well laden with relics, and it is estimated that they have picked up during the past two days 5,000 to 10, ooo pounds of bullets, balls, shells, muskets, &c., and now have them on the boats. They are valuable relics, and will be handed down carefully to the children of coming generations as mementoes of the terrible battle of Shiloh.
MONDAY
Morning there was a general agreement for an Iowa reunion at the 'Hor - nets' Nest," the name given by the rebels to the deadly position held all day by Tuttle's brigade, and a portion of Prentiss' division. During the fore- noon about one hundred men and some of the ladies visited this noted point, the majority of the men present having been in the brigade of Gen. Tuttle and the division of Gen. Prentiss. The position held by Tuttle's brigade was fully traced out, nearly every man present being able to find nearly the exact spot where he stood in ranks or laid upon the ground during the long hours of the first day's fight, previous to the retreat late in the day. The Hornet's Nest and Hell's Hollow received more attention, and were more enquired for than any other points on the battle field, and the trees at and between these two points were chopped into all over to secure bullets. A majority of the crowd lingered about these points nearly all day, securing the necessary information to enable them to help straighten up some of the fallacies of this famous but poorly reported battle. Gen. Tuttle and Col. Shaw were thorough and search- ing in their examination of the field, and they hope to secure a re-survey of the battle-field by the government in order that history may be corrected, and full justice done the brave men who fought all over this portion of the battle- field, and made it famous with the best blood in their commands. There was general regret that Gen. Prentiss was not present in order that the line in front of his position could have been more fully traced out, but the different loca- tions of Tuttle's brigade have been fully and positively identified, and coming time cannot erase them from the memory of those present to-day who were in the fight twenty-two years ago.
Shiloh church and spring were also two prominent places visited. The old church was burned down some years ago, but the water flows from the spring over a littlepebbly bottomed channel in the same volume that it did du- ring the war, and the appearance of its surroundings has not materially changed. A new church has been built on the site of the old church by the so-called "Southern Methodists," while a quarter of a mile nearer the landing a new church has been built by the so-called "Northern Methodists." This is not a well posted theological pencil, therefore it cannot tell why these church- es are designated as above, but we are informed that they were so designated during and before the war.
The rebels present, during the two days have been few in number. The programme had been arranged for the citizens to give us a basket dinner at the Shiloh spring Sunday and they had agreed to do so, but the old prejudices overcame their good intentions and so they abandoned the basket dinner be- fore we arrived. A majority of the people we saw on the battle-field were those who were Unionists during the war, many of them in the Union service,
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and northern people from Corinth who have moved to that place since the war. Among the latter was Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Slater, old-time friends of Hon. J. G. Brown, of Marshall county, Jowa, and Mr. Will Evans, formerly of Fairfield and Burlington, Jowa, who is now one of the editors of The Subsoil, a paper published at Corinth, Miss. Mr. Slater was a member of the 103d lili- nois during the war, and Mr. Evans worked on the Fairfield Ledger and The Burlington Hawkeye some years ago. These friends and the Unionist natives were very kind to us, but the rebels were generally cold and crabbed. Some of them stated that it had been reported that 500 U. S. regulars were to anive with the excursionists, fully armed and equipped, and that "We 'uns came prepared to fight in case there was any trouble." All of them were armed with revolvers and pistols; many of them were drunk, and nearly all of them were ragged, dirty, ignorant and lazy.
Three members of the 12th lowa are in the excursion, Harvey Smith of Co. E, P. R. Ketchum of Co. C, and R. P. Clarkson of Co. A. These gentle- men hunted up the 12th's old camp and had but little difficulty in finding and positively locating it, and in finding the exact location of their company's tents. On the right of the regimental camp we found where Col. D. B Henderson, then of Co. C, and other members of the regiment left in camp the day of the battle, had buried some of our dead comrades after the battle was over, but the bodies had been dug up and removed to the cemetery. One of those buried at the regimental camp was a brother of Col. Henderson's, but we were unable to find his grave in the cemetery. Near the foot of the bluff of the ridge, on which the regiment camped, we found the names of several soldiers cut in the bark of a beech tree, among them C. W. Jackson. Co. A, 12th lowa, N. G. Price, Co. D. 12th lowa, the initials "C. A. K." and several other initials and names we could not decipher. These names and initials were ent in the beech more than twenty-two years ago, before the battle of Shiloh. Co. A's tent ground was easily located by the little ridge opposite our location where George Buffum was kept in his isolated tent while he had the small pox. Comrades Ketchum and Clarkson engraved their names on the beech tree above referred to, and we cut canes, took up violet roots and picked up other little mementoes of the old regimental camp ground. The upper part of this camp ground is now a brush pasture but the greater portion of it has grown up into small timber. The three comrades above named and Mrs. Clarkson were perhaps the only persons that visited this portion of the camp ground. As it was on the extreme right of the Union camp it was not of sufficient in- terest for others to crawl through the underbrush and briars to visit it, but it was one of the main points of interest to the persons named.
The last part of the day was spent in the cemetery, in looking up the graves of dead comrades, in picking flowers and other mementoes from their graves, and gathering all information possible in regard to their last resting place. Sadly we left this be antiful camp of our dead comrades. It is holy ground to us all and all of us hope to return again some time-the indefinite always giv- en by the hopeful wish. Shiloh cemetery is beautifully situated on the west bank of the Tennessee river, just below the landing and on a bluff immediate- ly overlooking the river and the country on the opposite side. It contains ten acres of ground, and is enclosed by a rough limestone wall of a most substan- tial character. A neat brick building has been erected at the entrance, where the superintendent of the cemetery resides. The stars and stripes are kept constantly floating from a flag staff on the bluff overlooking the river. The grounds are laid off into sections and groups by avenues and walks, neatly graded and graveled.
The number of interments in the cemetery is 3,590, of which 2,361 or nearly two-thirds of the entire number are still unknown. They represent 203 regiments from thirteen different states, besides colored troops and em- ployes. The graves are designated by head stones, but are not numbered to correspond with the printed Roll of Honor. These remains have been col- lected with great care from their scattered graves on the line of the Tennes- see river from Fort Henry to the foot of the shoals near Florence, and from no less than 565 separate localities.
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Entering the cemetery on the crest of the hill the graveled driveway pass- es by the superintendent's house and through the cemetery gate. Passing in- side, the first and most prominent grave in the cemetery is that of the drum- mer boy of Shiloh, whose name and fame are known in every intelligent house- hold in America. His grave is marked, "3589, Hemy Burke." The decora- tions on the grave, consist of shells and balls picked up on the battlefield, two bunches of rose bushes entwined together, thus forming an arch over the grave, a beautiful box tree and mussel shells. The cannon shells and balls, and the mussel shells form a very pretty border around the grave, and rows of mussel shells divide it into smaller triangles. Every visitor tarries at this sa- cred spot. His name is enshrined in the hearts of the American people. His fame will endure forever.
Graveled walks divide at the "Drummer Boy's" grave, passing all the way around the edge of the cemetery above the stone wall fence andthrough the cen- ter. Four sixty-four 1b. gums stand on end on stone basestnear each corner of the cemetery and a boat howitzer commands the landing, but it was hushed into perpetual silence by a spike before it reached its present peaceful position. Several other cannon are on the ground, and cannon shells and balls form pretty but suggestive groups all over the cemetery. Forest trees, evergreens, roses and many kinds of shrubs and flowers have been planted in every avail- able spot and make plenty of shade and fragrance for visitors during the hot summer months. Some of the old forest trees still standing in the cemetery show the grim marks of war in scarred trunks and dismantled tops, but they are still living and efforts are being made to preserve them as long as possi- ble.
The cemetery is divided into sections and regimental groups and lettered with letters cut into tall stone . posts. The regimental groups extend nearly around the outer edge, many of them being arranged in semi-circles, others in squares, triangles and other shapes, thus adding greater beanty to the gen- eral arrangement. The sections are generally square. Some of them contain hundreds of graves, and many of them have known and named graves from every state engaged in the battle. The cemetery ground slopes on the north, south and east from the center, and stone and cemented gutters conduct the water to the ravines and river. Every grave is marked with a neat marble stone, and when the name is known, the number of the grave, name and state are out thereon; but no company or regiment is given. The unknown graves are marked with marble stones about six inches square and six inches above ground. Only the number of the grave appears on the im- known graves.
"This is fame," said Gen. Tuttle, pointing to the 2,361 unknown graves, as he was trying to hunt up the graves of the immortal 2d lowa. "Yes," said the beardless boy who fought in his brigade the first day at Shiloh, "This is fame with a vengeance, when over half the rebel brigadiers who fought us on this very field are now in congress, and proudly boast their treasonable record." Looking over this marble dotted cemetery, with its 3,500 graves and calling the roll in congress today, every soldier present freely admits that our strug- gles were in vain, and that the country has proved itself unworthy of the sac- rifice of so much of its best blood.
The regimental groups, of which there are twenty nine, are composed of those who were originally buried bere, at the regimental camps or upon the battle field by their comrades, who marked their graves with name, company and regiment in such a manner that the names could be read five years after the war closed, when this cemetery was begun, and great care has been taken to correctly remove their bodies and inscriptions to the cemetery, and in erect- ing the proper stones at the known graves; but nearly every regiment on the field is represented in the 2,361 unknown graves, the annual fires having de- stroyed most of the head-boards, and thousands of the brave boys killed on this consecrated field were unknown to the hands that dug the trenches and filled them with their bodies. Nearly all the "unknown" were killed in the battle of Shiloh, and many of these "unknown" graves contain the bones of
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ten, fifteen, and as high as twenty Union soldiers, and are so described in the Roll of Honor in the superintendent's office The states having regimental groups are lowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, but soldiers from all these states and in all the regiments having groups are also scattered all over the cemetery in named and unnamed graves. lowa bas three regimental groups, the Third, Twelfth and Thirteenth lowa, each hav- inga group in semi circular form, the three semi circles joining each other, with the name of the regiment cut into a tall stone in the center of its semi- circle. The group of the 12th regiment is as follows;
12th Towa: Nos. on the 21 graves, 455 to 475. Names, Lieut. J. D. Fergu- son, WV. 1 .. Paulley, T. II. Wilson, A. D. Campbell, Daniel Luther, J. P. Ayers, Ino. Bradfield, R. E. King Thirteen unnamed graves. Eight more of the known graves of the 12th are buried in section M., and others in other sections
All sections of three of the regiments above have named graves scattered through the different Sections in addition to the above groups. This indicates bad management on the part of the superintendent in charge at the time the bod- ies were removed; but he is dead now, his body is buried in the cemetery and this pencil never fights a dead man. It would have been nich more convenient and satisfactory if each State's dead had been in one section and the section divided off so far as possible into regimental groups.
The following is a complete list of the "known" dead of the 12th Iowa regiment interred at Shiloh cemetery, with company, date of death and place of original burial, so far as shown by the superintendent's books:
Ayers, J. P .- D. 12th lowa, Pittsburg Landing, Tenn.
Blanchard, John D .-- K. 12th lowa, March 31, 1862, Savannah, Tenn. Bradfield, John -- E. 12th fowa, Shiloh.
Campbell, A. D .- F. 12th lowa, Shiloh.
Cooley, Archibald S .- 12th lowa, April, 1862, Shiloh.
Ferguson, Jason D., Lt .- D. 12th fowa, Shiloh.
Garrison, A .- F. 12th lowa, Savannah, Tenn.
House, Nathan-C. 12th Iowa, April 6, 1862, Savannah, Tenn.
King, Reuben D .- Co. A., April 6, 1862, Shiloh.
Luther, Daniel,-Co. D., Shiloh.
Moore, Solomon W .- Co. E .. March, 1862, Savannah, Tenn. Paulley, Wm. L .- - E. 12th lowa, Shiloh.
Ricker, Jacob,-G. 12th lowa, April 23 1862, Savannah, Tenn. Shinkle, Marion,-1. 12th lowa, March 31, 1862, Savannah, Tenn. Wigton, Thos. J .- F. 12th lowa, April 4, 1862, Savannah, Tenn. Wilson, Thos. H - 1. 12th lowa, Shiloh.
Herring, L. G .--- G. 12th Jowa, Savannah, Tenn. .
In addition to the above, lowa is known to be largely represented in the 2,361 "unknown" graves. One-eighth of the known graves are those of brave lowa soldiers and it is undoubtedly true that 300 to 500 more of the best and bravest men that lowa sent to the war sleep in unknown graves in Shiloh cem- etery. This will be a sad letter to many lowa homes when read over to find a trace of a father, brother, son or friend known to be killed at Shiloh. Know- ing the anxiety with which the list will be read over, great care was taken in copying from the records to get it correct, and the list above given contains the name of every 12th lowa soldier in "known" graves in Shiloh cemetery.
The cemetery was begun in 1870, five years after the war was over. The first superintendent was Maj. Peter Jako, who died in 1870 and is buried in the cemetery. Each year thereafter until 1876, there was a new superintendent but no record was kept of their names. In September, 1876, Capt. L. S. Doo- little, of 96th Illinois, was appointed. He is still the superintendent and a hrst class man for the position. Hle receives a salary of $goo per annum and is for - nished one employe at $30 per month. The government furnishes house, tools, fuel, stock, etc., everything except food and clothing for himself and family. He and his lady, formerly Miss Anna White, of Milburn, Illinois,
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were very kind to us and did all in their power to aid all in search of the graves of friends or information. No registry of visitors was kept for some time after the cemetery was opened. The first name registered was Nov. 14, 1870, and only 18r names were registered up to May 9. 1876. The total number of vis- itors registered up to evening of April 7, 1881, saw 2,617.
The saddest feature about the cemetery is the fact that nearly the entire number of dead comrades of the regiments that were captured, except those who were killed early in the day in the first day's fight, "sleep their last sleep" in "unknown" graves. The 8th, 12th and 14th lowa regiments, all of which were captured at the close of the first day's fight, are but slightly represented by known graves in the cemetery, and this is also true as to other captured regiments. The dead of these regiments were scattered on the line of battle, along the line of retreat, where they made the last desperate stand in their efforts to break the enemy's line after we had been surrounded, and piled in continuous heaps across "Hell's Hollow." Owing to the scattered condition of the dead, their comrades left in regimental camps could not find their bodies after the battle was over, and so they were buried in the long and shallow trenches, hundreds in a trench, by soldiers detailed to bury the dead.
Another important feature is brought out by this fact. In case of the cap- tured regiments there was no one to report the casualties for these regiments after the battle was over, and so the number of killed in those regiments is given in all the printed reports only for the known dead found on the field. In case of the 12th lowa the official report gives the number of killed in this regiment as "10," when it is positively known by those of the regiment who were captured that the number of killed and mortally wounded in this regi- ment was nearly one hundred. Company A alone had seven killed and two mortally wounded, who died the next day, and very few of this company es- caped death or wounds. Company A. lost more men than any company in the regiment, but the loss to the other companies was very heavy. This is true his- tory, but it was too late to correct the official reports after the captured were released from the rebel prison hells, and the official records still perpetuate the false reports as first made, thus belittling the brave men, who were the only troops that held their original line of battle all day, and whose stubborn re- sistance was all that saved the entire army from destruction.
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