USA > Iowa > Delaware County > Manchester > Reunion of the 12th Iowa V.[eteran] V.[olunteer] infantry 1st-8th, 1880-1903 > Part 3
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TWELFTH IOWA V. T. INFANTRY.
begged that I let him go, but I told him no, that he was not able. But When we get within sight of Ft. Donelson, who should we see coming up in the rear of his company but Charley Larson. Seeing he was bound to go, the boys took his luggage and he marched on, sick as he was, up to the breastworks of Donelson. He was not able to stand up. the Surgeon truthfully said, and yet he marched after that flag until it was carried through the abatis and planted on the inner works of Donelson. He was so weak that the trembled like a leaf shaken by the wind, and yet he fought by your sides, and sent an- erring bullets to rebel hearts at Donelson.
After the carnage of Shiloh we missed Charley. Wesupposed that he too was a prisoner. But not so. Four days after the battle we heard of a wounded man, with a ligure twelve on his cap. being in the camp of the 3d lowa. It was Charley. The poor follow had been struck at the terrible moment when the leth found itself surrounded on every side by rebels and death. We carried him to his tent in our regiment, where Dr. Finley and myself worked over him for several hours trying to find the place where the ballet lodged. We at last found it in his spinal column. I watched over him, in his tent, for several nights, praying that his life might be spared us ; but when he spoke. his only words were, "It's all right, it'sall right." I rubbed his cold hands and bugged him to tell me if he suffered. He would look steadily into my eyes and slowly repeat his only answer, "It's - all-right." Just that and nothing more. He saw I was mourning over his death : be wanted me to kaow and testify that he was satished "it wasall night." Dr. Finley often came with me, and tried to save him, but it was of no avail. There cione a moment when the eyes did not see me; they were looking up and away beyond all comrades bere. The hips moved but uttered no sound for me, but angels heard the words, "it's all right, it's all- right. "
And such were the men who composed the rank and file of the 120 lowa. I can't say all I would wish to of the 9st men who went in the 12th Iowa.
I want to say a few words about our original field officers. Our Colo- nel. who sits here among us to-night. came From his far-off home on the borders of the Indian Territory, for the especial purpose of visiting with his old comrades. Col. Woods, the brave and trained soldier, was a graduate of West Point, a man, calm, kind and true, his bosom andis- turbed by an unworthy ambition ; the bomblest, simplest soldier meyer feared to address him, and always met a kind look and gentle answer, and that, too, even if the soblier forgot the formal salute. When other regimental commanders could only see stars, our Colonel's heart was full of love for his men, and he saw only stars on the flag of our glori. ous Union, and which he felt must be kept there. Comrade of his men, as well as commander. Such a man was Col. J. J. Woods.
Our Lt. Colonel is not able to meet with us to-night. Within the past 12 months, he has been mastered out. but if he were on earth, nothing would have kept him from this reunion. He could not handle a regiment and was in no sense a lighter, but in every sense a patriot. and lacking in no qualities that made a true man. Where Lt. Colonel Coulter is buried lies a loved comrade, a model citizen and a noble man.
Oni Major- God bless the little Dutch Major- - from top to toe a soldier; from heart to hand a soldier; a natural drill mas- ter. How well we all remember his " Voll in levt ving." I never had inneh regard for military theties, and used to watch the Major and learn from him. instead of the books. The Major noticed this, and said to me one day: " Lieutenant, have you ever yet learned how to get the counter- sign from the piekets and take their gon away from them?" and I replied, "No." He said, "Come with me on the picket line to-night. and I will show you how to do it." I shall never forget that time. I have a scar on my right leg to-day, which will bear witness to the point where the Major ends and army regulations begin. [Laughter. 1
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Yes, we were a well-officered regiment. Our chaplain had some good streaks. Even Hart Spears would sometimes take off his hat to Chap- Min Eberhart. Hast liked him because he laughed so when a conceited Lieutenant got euchered on a lone hand. And the boys would say that our Chaplain would bet higher and "stay" long er with a "bob-tail flush," than any chaplain in the Western Army. | Laughter. ]
I regret to see, from your general laughter, that so many of you know the meaning of those apt army words.
I would like to say a few words about our Company officers, but there is too long a list to name them all,and none should be omitted. We had thing the officersas free of offence as any sent from any other State. Duty, not promotion, was their ambition. They were free from petty bekerings and unseemly jealousies. As a regiment, your only quarrels we're with the enemy in front of you and under arms.
Comrades, what was it that called us together in !561? Was it gain? Was it the Sta per month? No. You had many a line officer who, when elected by his company, did not know the difference in rank of pay between a sergeant and line officer. What was it. then. that called us together? To save the republic. To save a land that was at once the cradle and throne of liberty. That you might be in the hand of God, the thunder- bolt to destroy that dark creation of hell. human slavery. ' That the shundful stain might be forever removed from the bright dag of free- dom. 'That the mother -- black or white -- might hold her infant on her bosom without dread of separation. To make the Declaration of Inde- pendence a casket of jewels, instead of an aggregation of infamous lies. You sprang to arms to secure a strong and free government ? To ensure fire schools and plenty of them. To ensure equality to all and bondage for none. Yon found that Washington and the fathers had but half done their work, when they shook from our limbs the shackles of Britain and left untouched those that bound the slave. You found that the eurs ed system they left to yan was destroying your country. It was every- where with its slime, its cruelty. its corruption and its unending de- mands and relentless tryranny. It had gugg d and throttled the great high tribunal of justice, the Supreme Court of the United States. It had planted treason in every room. bureau and department of the Executive odice, while Congress, the great law-making power, wasa boiling seeth- ing se y of rebellion. You saw it was high time for blood and death. and so you went.
Comrades, how I would like to retrace the path we trod. I remem- ber how well we left Dunleith The night was cold and bitter. The Mississippi ran cold with floating ice. We were piled deep into the bare cars and while tears were flowing on the other side, we sang the Star Spangled Banner, and sent its glorious sounds floating to the hills of lowa. I can hear it yet. Brave and strong were your hearts That was the start you made.
From there we went to St. Louis. Wbo of us has forgotten it? Here we were first baptized with death. Here our brave boys fell like grain before the sickle. Almost one in every ten of our number never got farther than St. Louis, and never returned to lowa. In a few short Weeks, 76 of our number were dead. Measles, pneumonia, strillpox - relentless allies of the South-out through our lines, and filled a grave- yard with the fallen of the 12th Iowa. We went there a young, we left there an old regiment. Then came the marching orders, and we went -- many of us the rounds of the hospitals, to take our last farewell of our siek comrades. Many of you remember this. And you remember, (00, the Sisters of Mercy. How they watched over and nursed our brave boys. How they fulfilled their last requests. How they promised to send to their far-off homes, the last letters, the photographs, the little keep sakes that should soften the grief of those who monrued their death, and how faithfully those promises were kept. Amid sobs, and groans, and cries. these sisters walked their rounds watching over the suffering as though they had been their brothers indeed. I wish I had the tongue
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of an angel and long ages in which to speak all their praise. They were our sisters, and well we remember how gentle, kind and true they were.
At last we left St. Lonis, and thence passed amid seenes that were dramas-nay.tragedies rather -- of death, of danger,and of victory. To long marches, to trenches, hard taek and field hospitals. How rapidly act followed act. scene succeeded scene. To-day in the mud of Smithland, to-morrow our camp fires lighted up the beauties of 'Tennessee, and tens of thousands of white fonts,spreading far and wide, present a picture that gives promise of peace and rest, and makes no hint of danger or of death. The next day 15,000 rebels laid down their arms, at the imperative con - mand of "uneonditional surrender. " Men of the 12th lowa you were there !
[Here the Col. told some very amusing stories, portraying the raids of the boys on the hogs, poultry, etc., which were highly relished by the boys present, they being cognizant of the facts. He continued :|
At the storming of Ft. Donelson, the 12th lost its first man in battle, Buckner, of Company A,- shot in the eye by a rebel sharp-shooter. This was before we charged, Do you remember how we gathered about the strong but quivering Buckner as he lay there our first bloody offer- ing to freedom ? No sounds escaped your lips, but oh ! there were ouths registered then and there, in ma ly hearts, baths that only found utter- ance from the musket's month, and amid the roar and carnage of battle. You remember the sharp-shooters of the enemy, the grape and canister that mowed on ranks, the brave mien falling by the wayside. But this old flag was planted on the breastworks by the brave Grannis. and though men fell on every hand, the 12th would not yield an inch and that llag would not go down.
Yes. you were a fighting regiment. Yon proved it at Ft. Henry, at Donelson, at Shiloh, and at Corinth. at Jackson. Vicksburg, Brandon, Tupelo, White River, Nashville, Brentwood Hills, Spanish Fort, and twelve minor battles. You were in 23 engagements, 112 days under fire, marched 2,670 miles, always advancing, and traveled in all 18.809 miles. You lost 95 men killed in battle, had 204 officers and men wounded. and 217 died of disease. Of the 951 men who went to the field, sot sustained some injury by battle or disease. You had 332 men captured at Shiloh, who went to rot and die in the prison hells of the south. Yet, in the face of these disasters, when your term of service had nearly expired, when your wives and children, your parents, brothers sisters and friends were longing for your return, at the appeal of Abraham Lincoln, Who said, "Boys don't leave me yet," you re-enlisted, on the 5th of January, 1861, to see your country through the storm.
Fellow citizens of Delaware county, Yon who are here, let me ask, do you owe these men anything ? Do you know what and who these men are ? They went through fire and smoke, through death : nd he 1 for you. They stood,- after three years of privation and danger and suffering- at the very doors of home, with loving wives, their old par- ents, and dimpled faced babes, holding out their arms and crying for joy at their near return. Yet, even then, at your call and that of their country, they turned their backs on all the delights of home, and plunged once more into danger and death .-- for you. Do you know these men ? Their hands are rough and hard. perhaps, but oh. how steady and true they were, when treason raised the standard of rebellion and you and your liberties were in danger. Do you know that those men were a part of that immortal Brigade at Shiloh, which with the brave sth lowa, held back the very centre of the rebel attack ? Do you know that they mowed down regiment after regiment, and drove back colman after colum, not for four hours as the reports have it, but for eight deadly hours, thus giving our army night. night giving us Buell, and Buell giving us victory ? They were taken prisoners, but the army was saved and victory won! Captured they were but holding their posts! Cap- tured they were, but with their flag flying, their guns in their hands and their bullets in rebel h arts! Then followed the rebel prisons : selma,
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Taladega, Atlanta, Libby and Macon. For six months these men, honorable prisoners of war, were kept rotting and dyng in rebel pris- ons. The guests of Southern chivalry, but rotting and dying, rotting and dying !
Ah ! friends, I see before me heads of snow, that would be like the raven's wing but for sufferings that we can never know. Fellow citi- zens you see before you all that is left of an lowa regiment that served for four and one-half years and never lost a single battle. It was in twenty-three engagements and was never beaten. It was under deadly fire one hundred and twelve days and its dag ever advancing. That flag is like our country torn, but HERE, like its regiment, there are but fragments left of it. But what man, what section, what king of coun- try dare insult a shred of that torn and tattered dag ! There it bangs comrades, still onr dag. It is silent and torn but what glorious memo- ries it awakens ! Look at it comrades, it tells us all the past ; look at it treason, it warns you for all the future !
My comrades, I could scarcely begin talking to yon, and it seems as though I can not stop. I can not do you and your brave deeds justice. But let me ask you to do one thing. Do not forget your dead comrades. Their bodies lie here and there, on bill-top and in valley, but let them not be forgotten. When you would make of your boys men on whom the Republic may safely rest, tell them of your comrades dead -- AND WHY THEY DIED.
When you take a ballot in your hand, and politicians ask you to manifest a spirit of compromise and conciliation, think of your dead comra les- AND WHY THEY DIED.
When an attack is made on human rights, and the exercise of that freedom which belongs to an American citizen, white or black; think of your dead comrades AND WHY THEY DIED.
They are still with us. The thought of them remains to keep us steadfast to our country, and maintain it pure and free. One of them I will name. who was with us in every battle, on every march, by every camp fire, who sat by every sick bed, who lay in every prison and sut- fored from every wound. the grandest man and truest commade of us all-ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Be his memory embalmed in our hearts forever.
And now comrades. good bye, We may not all be here at the next Rennion. A few more gatherings, and the last member of the 12th low. Regiment will be mustered out. But, until then, boys, Forward guide centre, March ! And when the last muffled drum is sounding may some loved voice repeat over our ashes :
"Omn fame's eternal c imping ground Their silent tents are spread."
The proceedings of the first day were then closed with music by the Band.
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WEDNESDAY MORNING.
This morning a committee of tive was appointed to prepare and present a plan of permanent regimental organization ; also a regimental historian. Several letters from absent members were read, all bearing the deep regret of the writers for their inability to be present. Among them were letters from Maj. Brodtbeck. now of Stuttgart, Germany, Gov. Gear, Col. J. H. Stibbs, now of Tenn. Adj Burch of Kansas, Maj. E. M. Van Duzee of St. Paul, J. L. Thompson of Hardin county, and J. D. Baker of Min.
A permanent organization of the Regimental Society was effected. 110 members being present. Col. Samuel (. Knee was elected President; Capt. E. B. Soper. Vice President ; Abner Dunham, Secretary and Treasurer. It was decided to holt Remions every four years.
D. W. Reed was appointed Historian of the Regiment, to be assist- ed by R. P. Clarkson and Lientenant Cole.
R. P. Clarkson, Colonel W. C. Earl, Lyman M. Ayers, H. C. Cur- tiss and Colonel S. R. Edgington were selected as the Executive Com- mittce
Comrades Simpson and Comstock made motions for the publication of the proceedings of this Reunion, with a view to sending a covy to all members of the Regiment not present at the Reunion. These motions were amended by Colonel D. B. Henderson with a motion nominating G. E. Comstock, of Dubuque, a committee to superintend the publica- tion of the proceedings, with instructions to mail copies to all members desiring them.
After numerons speeches by members, it was finally decided that Reunions be held every four years.
At this point the treasurer of the city of Manchester, presented in the name of the City Council, the sum of $50 towards defraying the expenses of the Reunion.
Here the old drum and life Majors of the regiment appeared on the stand and played the same old times under which the regiment march- ed in the days of its full glory and pride, and the boys were again wild with enthusiasm.
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WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.
The tables for the Dinner were placed in the room formerly occu- pied by the Reform Club, over the store of L. A. Loomis. The ladies of Manchester -- who never do anything by halves -- had there spread a banquet that might tempt the appetite of an anchorite. The tables were decorated with evergreens and flowers, and the universal verdict was that Manchester had fairly surpassed herself in the preparation of so magnificent an entertainment. It is needless to say that, after grace by the venerable Rev. alvah Day, the members of the glorious 12th did ample justice to the repast.
On returning to the assembly hall the beautiful poem written by J. W. Shannon, Esq., of Elkader, was read by Col. S. R. Edgington, of Eldora, who recited it with appropriate spirit and feeling. It was lis- tened to with profound attention and challenged "cheers"and "tears" from the delighted audience. Here it is :
CHEERS FOR THE LIVING, TEARS FOR THE DEAD.
To the Twelfth lowa Boys, at Manchester. BY J. W. SHANNON.
Loud cheers for boys who wore the blue ! While all our hearty welcomes brightly burn; Loud Cheers, for girls, so sweet and true, That thro' sad years awaited their return.
God bless the hero's hearth and home ! Where happy children coo on crippled knees, And Fond embrace must ever come Thro' rugged vet'ran's awkward empty sleeve !
God bless the cause for which ye bled, Whilst dearest, bravest comrades nobly died, And keep its standards far ahead Thro' all the teeming future's battle-tides.
The cause of slave -- the cause of Man !-- True cause of God, that breaks each shackting chain, Whereby a king, or priest, or clan May manaele a hand or heart or brain.
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O, hash the voice that dares proclaim
Y'e merely "Greek 'gainst Greek" in gory feast ! --- That Donck-on's and Shiloh's Name
But shone on battle of the angry beast !
Eternal honor to your names,
In record, wreath, and cheers, and lofty song !
Not that ye stayed for soldier fame -
Yo stood for endless Right 'gainst monstrous wrong.
Ye stood on hield whose mighty sweep Was never matched 'neath light of rolling sun;
God help Att nations' hearts to keep,
And prize, and guard the victory woll.
And bless our greetings once again, 'To all for whom this grateful feast is spread,
Midst thand'ring cheers for living men And holy tears for all the glorious dead.
Now began the Toasts: and a rare season it was. The first Toast was :
"THE STATE AND THE NATION -Mutually Dependent and Independent." Responded to by 11. C. Curtis, of Lemars.
This was entirely impromptu, as it had been assigned to Major Van Duzee, who could not attend. He said :
It always affords me pleasure to meet my old comrades. It was a question, eighteen years ago, if we had a nation- whether we had a country. Th it question we debated on the battle hold. Eighteen years ago we were marching as prisoners through the streets of Corinth. But the question has been settled. It is no longer a question in dispute. We are a nation, thank God. But let us not forget the cost of this na- tion, the price we paid for the liberty we enjoy. "As we look at our ban- ner, its tattered and torn shreds, how memory goes back over the past. What we suffered, what we endured in defending that old flag, let ns never regret.
"THE ARMY AND NAVY The Safeguards of all Nations, Response by Hon. R. W. Tirrill, Manchester.
Ever since the creation of the world, the weaker have been forced to bow in hmable submission to the mandates of the stronger; the nn- civilized to the civilized ; the minority to the majority. This seems to be a fundamental law of our very nature :-- and acting upon that grand and noble principle. "The greatest good to the greatest number," we are necessarily forced to admit the correctness of this natural law when applied to national affairs.
For the protection of our natural and individual rights, govern- ments and nations have been formed, and the great underlying princi- ple of all nations and governments is Law, and the absolite enforce- ment of that law is the only safeguard guaranteed to the people who have entered into the soleum compact of National Unity. For this safe- guard, Armies and Navies have been organized, and from the early days of the Trojan war, down through the succeeding ages, the Army and the Navy have been the great power behind the throne to compel obe- dience to that law. without which nations fall and fade away. and with them go those individual rights, so sacredly guarded by the constitu- tional law of all civilized nations. Deprive us of these natural, inher- ent, inalienable, God given rights, which by a sense of our own intui-
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tions wells up in the secret bosoms of brave men and true women, and to be a citizen is but to be a prisoner-bound and fettered by the hon grasp of another's will! The nobility of our birth, which makes us proud of our American citizenship, induces a spirit of patriotismo which causes us, as it did our fathers, to pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor, in defense of those liberties dearer to us than life itself.
This noble spirit we inherit from our Spartan ancestry, and while it is, in every sense, commendable to the foreign or American soldier and citizen, it should not be cultivated beyond its proper sphere of use- I'niness -- ito hanghtiness and pride, as exemplibed in the ambition of Xerxes, Alexander, Napoleon, Cortes and others, whose individual ap- probation has been sought at the expense of the public good.
The Army and the Navy. the Safeguards of all Nations! Foreign- ers throughout all the world, and Americans alike, proclaim it, and it would be ile in me. in the space of ten minutes, to attempt to narrare from the historie page, in the old and new world, thousands of instan- ces where the mere presence of a well disciplined Army and Navy have had even the moral foreq - the physical being known to dispel the dark cloud of tyramy and despotism which bas hung over an oppressed people, and enabled them to see through the misty haze into the beau- tiful sunlight of freedom and liberty.
That old flag, tom in fragments by rebel bullets, thrown to the breeze by those who saw it safely thronghim triumph from Donelson to Nashville, and carefully deposited as a momento among the archives of our noble State, would quell a second or third insurrection in South Carolina. Yet the Amoy and Navy are recognized as our Safeguard. But in our exalted pride For our Army and Navy, we should not forget that they are to be maintained and held only in receive, subject to that higher power of civilization, "National Arbitration." from the lessons of which we have almost learned (although not quite) that our swords may be turned into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.
"THE CHILDREN OF THE TWELFTH IOWA God Bless them ! and may they live long to enjoy the Freedom That their Fathers, Living and Dead, fought lo secure."
Florence L. Dunham, who was to respond to this toast, was a little Miss of seareely six years old. She faced the immense audience brave- ly at first, but the sea of faees shook her courage, she hesitated, and finally burst into tears. But the audience cheered her to the reho, and not a heart but beat withsympathy for her. The verses she was to have spoken, were written for the occasion by her mother, Mrs. Abner Dun- ham, and are given herewith :
I love the brave old soldier, With coat and pants so blue, With buttons bright and jaunty cap. And heart so bold and true; Who'd give his tite for freedom. And think not of renown; Thigh, high in ar he'd bear our flag Traitors would trumple down.
Beneath this old and tallered Hug, It's colors once so gay, Now torn, and dim, and stained With blood of many a fray. Beneath its glorious stripes and stars My papa fought with you; O'er him it waived in danger's hour, And comrades tried and true.
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