USA > Iowa > Delaware County > Manchester > Reunion of the 12th Iowa V.[eteran] V.[olunteer] infantry 1st-8th, 1880-1903 > Part 9
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number lost in the 12th was about in proportion to the number en- gaged in the battle. The 7th Minnesota lost more, but our numbers were larger in the 7th than in the 12th. We were in the Indian outbreak of 1862. Our experience was considerable but we had not seen much fighting. Our regiment was a large one. While the 12th which was engaged at Shiloh, Nashville, Vicksburg. Spanish Fort, in the Red River campaign, and other places was much depleted, it probably never was engaged in any battle in which it bore a more honorable part or held a more important position, or suffered a greater loss in proportion to the men engaged, than in this. No battle is more worthily or honorably inscribed than the battle of Tupelo. In connection with this I may mention the little grey horse I rode at Spanish Fort and Tupelo, and from which I was wounded, -- that old horse is still living on my farm in Minnesota, and I would have been glad to have brought him here to-day. I apprehend there are few of the old horses living to-day. 1 express again veterans of the 12th my appreciation of the honor of being in- vited to this reunion. I hope you will have many more such happy reunions spared to you yet.
Applause testified the pleasure experienced from General Mar- shall's address.
Colonel Stibbs preliminary to reciting the roll call then said:
I am called on to recite a little poem which is designed especially for the benefit of the old soldiers. It may be old to many of you, but I am sure you will all agree that you never heard anything which served to bring more vividly before your minds, the recollections of a night in camp after a hard days' fight than does this little story of the "Roll Call."
In order that you may appreciate it fully, I want you to go back with me twenty years to one of the little valleys in the South, where we bivouacked for the night after a battle, and I can think of none more appropriate than Old Town Creek, where we camped on the evening of July 15th, 1864. What a beautiful place it was. Across on the further side was the creek, which we always expected to find near camp. This side of it in the meadow our trains were parked and here in the timber we spread our blankets for the night. None of you will ever forget the funeral we had that evening. One of Co. B's men, August Leue, was shot during the forenoon, and supposing his wound was not a dangerous one, we tried to bring him away with us, but the poor fellow died in the ambulance during the afternoon. On reaching camp, a grave was prepared at the foot of a great oak tree which stood at the road- side, and just as the last rays of the setting sun came glancing up the valley, word was sent along the line and we gathered promiscuously at the grave. There was but little form or ceremony about the affair. Only a few words and a short prayer from the chaplain and then the brave fellow was wrapped in his blanket and laid away. The grave was marked by a rough board taken from a cracker box and we left it as one more landmark to show the course of the Twelfth Iowa.
Imagine yourselves in that camp now. The busy orderly has had no time during the day to call his roll, and now as the shades of night are gathering about us, he takes advantage of the first opportunity offered to ascertain the fate of those who went with him into the morning's fight. All recognize and respond promptly to his call as it is heard down the line, "Attention ! Co. 'D),' fall in'for roll-call."
You all remember the greasy old roll book which was always carried in his breast pocket and in which each man's war history was recorded, and now to make the picture complete, we will suppose that a corporal stands by his side holding the stump of a tallow candle and he calls the roll :
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TWELFTHI IOWA V. V. INFANTRY.
"THE ROLL CALL."
BY N. G SHEPHERD.
"Corporal Green !" the Orderly cried ; "Here !" was the answer, lond and clear, From the lips of the soldier who stood near -- And "flere!" was the word the next replied.
"Cyrus Drew !"-then a silence fell- This time no answer followed the call; Only his rear man had seen him fall, Killed or wounded, he could not tell.
There they stood in the failing light, These men of battle, with grave, dark looks, As plain to be read as open books,
While slowly gathered the shades of night.
The fern on the hillside was splashed with blood, And down in the corn where the poppies grew Were redder stains than the poppies knew ; And crimson-dyed was the river's food.
For the foe had crossed from the other side That day, in the face of a murderons fire
That swept them down in its terrible ire ; And their life-blood went to color the tide.
"Herbert Kline !" At the call there came Two stalwart soldiers into the line, Bearing between them this Herbert Kline, Wounded and bleeding, to answer his name.
"Ezra Kerr !"-and a voice answered, "Here !" "Hiram Kerr !" -- but no man replied, They were brothers, these two; the sad winds sighed, And a shudder crept through the cornfield near.
"Ephriam Deane!"-then a soldier spoke : "Dean carried our regiment's colors," he said ; "Where our Ensign was shot, I left him dead, Just after the enemy wavered and broke.
"Close to the roadside his body fies ; I paused a moment and gave him drink ; lle murmured his mother's name, I think, . And death came with it and closed his eyes."
'Twas a victory ; yes, but it cost us dear- For that company's roll, when called at night, Of a hundred men who went into the fight, Numbered but twenty that answered, "Here !"
After a medley by the Eldora band, which stirred up the vete- rans greatly, Major Reed being called said:
Comrades:
You will remember many were desperately wounded, though living, and we were obliged to leave them on the field at Tupelo. Just before marching, the 12th received orders to make a detail of mien to remain with the wounded and be taken prisoners. I called upon Serg. II.R. Andrews, Co. B, to remain with the detail, Henry Winterstein of Co. 1, being among the number. They came
:
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begging to be excused, asking me to call for volunteers. They didn't want to be detailed to do an act of charity. To be detailed to remain and fall into Forrest's hands was asking a good deal of a soldier. They remained and en- tered upon the duty. I should like to have them tell us about it.
Comrade H. R. Andrews being introduced, said:
Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
This was a hard place to put a soldier. It was simply an act of charity, and the idea that my officers thought it necessary to command me to do an act of charity touched me to the quick. I asked the adjutant to call for volum- teers, if none offered then we would. The adjutant promised the record should show we volunteered. It was a hard trial, the men we had been fight- ing were the same that committed the massacre at Fort Pillow, and so shame- fully treated Sturgis' wounded, simply because they were fighting side by side with negro troops ; we had negro soldiers with us. Knowing the feeling of the rebels, it was like going to certain death to voluntarily fall into their hands, but there were our comrades, bleeding, dying with none to care for them, and although we might only cool their tongues with a little water and lose our lives in the attempt, we said we would stay.
To be prepared for any emergency, 1 went among the men of the regi- ment and asked contributions of confederate money. I soon had over $1,000. This was of great use to us. All our hospital supplies were stolen the first day, after this we had only what was bought with this money. I paid five dollars each for old sheets to make bandages, two dollars each for chickens to make broth, and other things in proportion. There were sixty three of our own, and about three hundred rebel wounded at the hospital, sixteen men had been left as nurses. I was elected ward master. About 5 P. m. of the 15th, the stragglers trom the rebel army came around us, abused us, threatened ns, and stole every thing they could find. Their army was going to Old Town Creek after this excitement was over. On looking about for my help Winter- stein and a man from the 35th lowa whose son was among the wounded was all I had left, the rest had gone north. All that night we then were alone with nearly 400 wounded men, some of whom were dying every hour. About y A. M. of the 16th, Forrest came to the hospital, and learning he had some prisoners in a building near, I asked him to let me have some of them to help. I got nine. We signed a parole not to try to escape from the hospital. A few days afterwards a rebel officer came around to send the prisoners south, and wanted us. I showed him my detail and made oath. I had had a similar de- tail for each of the others but the stragglers had stolen them the first day. This satisfied him and he left us.
We remained at Tupelo about three weeks, then moved the wounded to Mobile. The doctor in charge had neglected to get return transportation for us, when my detail again came in play to get us back into the department of northern Mississippi. At Meridian the officer in command would neither talk to us nor look at our papers, but hurried us on to Cahaba. There the rebel officer was more considerate. I told my story, showed my detail and again made oath that I had had the details of the other men, which were stolen from me at Tupelo, and we were soon released. Thus I succeeded in getting those nine regular prisoners released as nurses. I do not think that false oath is registered against me "up there," if it is, when I get there I shall scratch it out.
Colonel Stibbs introduced Rev. F. Ilumphrey, Chaplain of the . Twelfth Iowa, in these words:
No more pleasant duty could have been assigned me, than that of intro- ducing to-night our Chaplain. Owing to the fact that Army Chaplains are
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TWELFTH IOWA V. V. INFANTRY.
looked on as non-combatants and because during our war there were certain ones who thought more of their personal comfort than of the wellfare of their men, they as a class, did not receive I think, the full measure of credit that was their due, but I believe I am safe in saying that no man of the 12th lowa ever had cause to speak disparagingly of our Chaplains.
We had first Brother Eberhart, who was famous for his war speeches, and we all loved him as a father. I had expected to meet him here to-day, but learned from his son Ben who is here, that he had been dead three years or more, though Ben says his spirit is certainly with us, and 1 verily believe that somewhere, from out the great world beyond the river the dear old face is looking down on us to-night, and enjoying with us the pleasures of this meet- ing.
After Chaplain Eberhart had been compelled to resign owing to ill health, there came to us the Rev Frederick Humphrey, who proved no unworthy successor of the one who had preceded him. He accepted as his first duty, the spiritual care of our men. Yet from the outset he recognized the fact that long prayers would not stop the flow of blood from a freshly severed artery, nor carry a canteen to the lips of a dying soldier, therefore when the long roll was beaten, he reported himself on the color line ready for work. When the bugles sounded the charge on the evening of the first day's fight at Nashville, I saw him sitting on his horse by the side of Col. Hill and I know that throughout that battle he was constantly with us, and we certainly could find no one more competent than he to tell "What I saw at Nashville."
1 -
Rev. Humphrey spoke as follows:
Mr. President, and Soldiers of the Twelfth lowa Infantry;
I thank Col. Stibbs for his cordial introduction and flattering mention of my services in the army ; and I thank you fellow soldiers, for your cheers and greeting on this occasion.
In response to "What I saw at Nashville," I saw thrilling deeds, splendid battle lines, heroic charges and a great national victory; but the best and noblest of all I saw men, brave men, men who for the fight had hearts of iron, arms of steel and wills to strike, who struck for country and humanity, struck Treason's army of 40,000 and made that marshalled phalanx stagger and reel under the blows of the deadly onslaught and who sent its legions broken, shattered and flying back to their "own place." Twenty years have passed, and in this reunion of the 12th lowa Infantry here to-night, I see again the faces of many of those patriot warriors dear to my heart, whom I then saw in the smoke and flame of battle, their locks now steel-mixed by hardship then endured, and some whitened by the frosts of twenty northern winters. Here is Color-Bearer Grannis who with Clark amidst hissing iron hail planted the stars and stripes in triumph on the enemy's forefront work the 15th, and on the last wall of his line the 16th of December, 186.4. Here are the familiar features of Sergeant Major Burch and Major Reed, then Adjutant, and Col. Knee then acting Major, these officers ever in the thickest of the conflict in front ; and here is Brevet Brigadier General John IL. Stibbs, then Colonel of the 12th Iowa, Colonel and Regiment the "bravest of the brave," handling his regiment as the engineer handles his steam engine and charging the hostile lines like a thunderbolt ; and here too is our last brigade commander Ex-Gov- enor Marshall of the gallant 7th Minnesota who led the brigade to victory after the fall of the lamented Hill. Time fails to recount the names and deeds of all the heroes who fought at Nashville and on other fields of glory, many of whom are here to-night rejoicing in the joy of this happy reunion, their hearts aglow with patriotism in memory of common sufferings for the right, their manhood ennobled by self sacrifice for their country. God accepted that bloody sacrificial offering and now you are citizens of a reunited republic the
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freest and happiest of all history-a republic which your valor aided in rescuing from tyranny's bottomless abyss and in re-establishing on Civil Liberty's gran- ite rock of eternal right.
Thanks to Lient. Dunham and others for this reunion in beautiful Man- chester. How striking the contrast between the blue skies, green fields, bright suns and happy homes of Manchester in these verdal May days of 1884, and the Nashville clouds, fogs, rain, sleet, snow, ice, mud and desolation of those December days of 1864. That was the agony of war, this is the bliss of peace. The contrast turns our eyes back to those dark days and battle fields of 1864. Canby is assaulting the outworks of Mobile, waiting for A. J. Smith and the 16th corps to come and help him capture the city. With 70,000 invaders in those same December days, Sherman's eagles are feeding on the vitals of the confederacy, and swooping down on Savannah in distant Georgia. With 130,- ooo fighters Grant's artillery is sounding the knell of the rebellion at Peters- burg and Richmond in Virginia. While these great armies of the republic are fighting on those separate and remote felds, Gen. John B. Hood with 55,000 veterans crosses the Tennessee river near Florence, marches north to kindle anew the fires of treason in that state, and if possible to advance and capture the rich towns and cities and to invade the free states north of the Ohio. To meet this invasion Thomas assembles troops from every available source. Wood's 4th corps, two divisions of Schofield's 23rd corps, 5,000 of Sherman's troops under Steedman, Wilson's cavalry corps and the 16th corps of 12,000, under A. J. Smith having aided in the route of Price, is ordered from the bor- ders of Kansas to oppose Hood's threatened invasion. On the morning of the first of December as the ambulances were bringing into the city the wounded from the bloody field of Franklin, the 16th corps landed at Nash- ville. The same day Hood with 40,000 men pitched his camp on the outer heights of Nashville. And here I must say that it would afford me the highest pleasure to give an account of the movements and of the heroism of the different corps, divisions, brigades and regiments of both armies for they are full of valor and thrilling mcidents, but this time and place limit me to a general ac- count with some details of our own regiment and brigade.
Hood might attempt to enter Nashville on any one of nine turnpikes and three railways which radiated from the city between high bluffs out into the country. Across these roads, valleys and over the bluffs Thomas with 60,000 men threw up earthworks extending from the Cumberland river above Nash- ville around the city to the river below the turn. On the outer circle of heights beyond the lines of Thomas, Hood entrenched in choice military po- sitions admirably located to mow down assaulting columns. His position was formidable. The northern states were alarmed. The Washington authorities were anxious. They telegraphed Thomas to fight at once. Even Grant left his Virginia battle grounds and came to Washington with the purpose of going himself to Nashville. From the 8th to the 14th rain, sleet, snow and ice paralyzed military movements. Truly the country had cause for anxiety. For Hood had 40,000 fighting men and fourteen days in which to fortify and to make his army impregnable to any force that could be hurled against him. The victory that soon followed has caused the country to overlook the magni- tude of the peril at that time. Look at Hood's splendid position. With such commanding military heights, with those hills and natural bastions for the de- fence, support and protection of an army's lines and wings, I believe that there are men of the 12th lowa here who could take 40,000 men, and those heights and so fortify them in fourteen days that they could hold them against the assault of three times 40,000. Hence the uncertainty of the issue of the then pending battle. Country and government had cause for alarm. But the generalship of Thomas the Von Moltke of the American armies, and the valor of the troops dispelled doubts and alarm by the victory of the 15th and 16th of December.
On the 14th the temperature moderated and the ice melted. The morn- ing of the 15th dense fog fills the Cumberland valley, the air is electric with the approach and opening of a great battle. Near 9 o'clock the fog lifts,
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drifts away and reveals the hurrying and fierce preparations for battle. Steed- man opens the light on our left by a vigorous demonstration with artillery and musketry agamst Hood's right. A. J. Smith with the 16th corps, its right sup- ported and covered by Wilson's cavalry, makes the main attack on Hood.s right and steadily bends it back to the east of Charlotte and Hardin Pikes. Wood's corps torm an unbroken line from Smith's left to Steedman's right. Schofield's corps forms in reserve in rear of Smith. To the east of Hardin Pike, McMillen's and Hubbard's brigades of McArthur's division with Hatch's cavalry assault and carry in heroic charges two strong forts and turn their guns on their morning friends. The third brigade of the same division, emu- lating its companions, prepares to storm the forts on Hillsbro Pike a half mile in advance.
In giving details of our own men, I intend no disparagement of others equally brave. The third brigade forms in double lines of battle, the 12th lowa and 7th Minnesota in the front line, the 35th lowa and 33rd Missouri in the second line. "Forward" is the order by Col. Hill. Then the brigade moves in quick step for some distance, descends into a depression and rests, the men lying on their faces sheltered by a rising crest before them- shot and shell smiek and burst over them-up again and forward over the crest into another depression and rest again close to the bosom of mother earth ; mus- ketry and canister hiss and whistle their sharp notes close to their heads. Yonder on the crest of a hill sixty rods distant stands the fort. Col. Stibbs said to Adjutant Reed, "Tell the color-bearers to carry the colors straight to the centre of that fort." Then in the teeth of an iron tempest from musketry and artillery at close range the brigade swept like an avalanche across the inter- vening space and carried the fort by storm. In the moment of victory Col. Hill shot through the head, fell from his horse. The enemy hastily withdrawing his artillery to another fort across the Pike reopens on his lost fortress filling the air with clouds of shot, shell and fragments of stone. Col. Marshall and Adjotant Reed on the wings advancing to the assault soon captured the second fort with its guns, while Col. Stibbs, mounting a captured and har- nessed artillery horse reformed the brigade lines and sent notice of Col. Hill's death to Col. Marshall who as ranking officer then took command of the brigade and pressed forward after the retiring enemy till night put an end to the operations of the first day's fighting. Hood's whole line had been forced back-his right wing a distance of five miles. Thomas had handled his army with consummate skill, had kept his lines united and supported and had put nearly every man into the fight. On the 16th Steedman's and Wood's troops formed Thomas' left, the cavalry and Schofield his right and Smith his centre. Hood had now seen the error of his extended lines and from hard necessity be contracted them. He placed his wings in strong positions, his left on Overton's hill and his right on Shy's hill, fortified them and connected them by a strong line of entrenchments.
The movement of Smith's 16th corps on the 15th from Harding Pike had been five miles southeast. To face Ilood's centre lines the morning of the 16th, the 16th corps wheeled to the right. Adjutant Reed tells me that he afterwards learned from prisoners, that when the rebels saw the corps wheel- ing by brigades they said that it was the most beautiful military evolution on the battle field that they had seen during the war and that those were troops that they had not met before.
McArthur's division of the 16th corps advanced till within musket range of Hood's central line, threw up slight breastworks and continued the fight. From that time till four in the afternoon there was a sharp constant fire of musketry and artillery.
Steedman assaulted Ilood's right on Overton's hill and was driven back. Schofield pressed Ilood's left and' Wilson's cavalry was gaining the rear of Shy's hill. The artillery redoubled its fire and shattered the entrenchments on the heights that protected Hood's left. Its thunder erash and roll I can never forget. At q o'clock Thomas ordered a general charge along his whole line.
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Then for a half hour the sharp, short, quick reports of musketry increases in frequency and in volume-the volley swells louder and louder till it becomes one continuous, unbroken roar-the heavy, sublime roar of a mighty tempest. The brigades of McArthur's division advance en echelon. MeMillon's up Shy's hill, Hubbard's over the level plain and Marshall's in double lines of battle, the 12th lowa and 7th Minnesota in front down the descending ground in the face of a Louisiana battery of four twelve pound Napoleons, they carry the enemy's entire line and capture prisoners, artillery and small arms by thou- sands. The charge was magnificent, the victory was complete, the result was glorious. The invasion was ended. In its results at that time while our large armies were fighting in Virginia and Georgia, the battle of Nashville and the destruction of Blood's army of invasion were momentous and decisive events in termmating the war. The first invasion of the north was attempted by Lee in 1862 and defeated on slave soil at Antietam. A second attempt by Lee was made in 1863 and defeated on free soil at Gettysburg where near 200,000 men engaged in the deadly conflict. Again the invader was defeated and driven back south of the Potomac.
A third attempt under Hood to invade the north was made in 1864. The invading host hurled itself against a wall of fire at Franklin and Nashville and staggered and fell smitten and blasted and destroyed by the flaming swords of Liberty's patriot hosts and by the lightnings of insulted Heaven. The invasion of the free north could not succeed because in His moral government of the uni- verse, God had no further use in this igth century for an enlightened nation whose reason for existence is human slavery with its train of wickedness. Perjury and wrong may conquer for a time, but moral truth and right have their origin, support and defence in the being of God, and in His time they will surely and certainly triumph, for the mightiest power in the universe is moral power. The triumph of the confederacy would have been a reversal of the moral order of God. God fought with us, because we fought for right. Gladly do we turn from the trials of that day to the joys of this reunion. And from this reunion we look forward in faith, hope and charity to the grand reunion under our Iligh Captain in the Paradise of God where war shall be no more and peace and joy shall reign for ever.
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