USA > Iowa > Scott County > Davenport > Reunion of the Second Iowa Cavalry Veteran Association, 1882 > Part 5
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General Elliott arose to move that a similar tribute be paid to Major General John Pope. The mover and his motion were greeted with a round of applause, and General Pope is now an honorary member.
The matter of the reception of General Hatch, Iowa's grandest soldier, as one comrade put it, came up. J. L. Taylor, of Chicago, moved the selection of a Reception Committee of one from each com- pany to wait on General Hatch, and to escort him to the camp-fire on his arrival. Carried.
The committee was composed of the following from the companies in the order named : J. Lawrence, R. A. Carleton, Alfred Wilds, T. C. Lewis, Peter Munn, F. F. Winters, George Heppenstall, Captain B. Owens, W. A. Burnap, A. MeCray, J. L. Taylor, and R. F. MeMeans.
It was moved that the regiment's first colonel, General W. L. Elli- ott, take charge of this Reception Committee, but, as General Elliott is here as a guest, the " boys" wanted to see as much of him as possible at the camp-fire, and vetoed the idea of leaving the hall.
This was due to a speech from the irrepressible Kansas Jones, who said he had come up here from Kansas with a view of carrying both Generals Elliott and Hatch on his shoulders to the camp-fire, but owing to an oversight of his own, or the railroad, or the regiment, or some one else, he had missed connections. [Cheers.] It is all right to honor the generals, colonals, and corporals, but he believed General Hatch would be best pleased to be met by the "boys," and in this he expressed the views of the majority.
The meeting now adjourned to meet at 7:30 o'clock, at Olds' Opera House, for the camp-fire.
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THE CAMP-FIRE.
The camp-fire was lighted in Olds' Opera House, Wednesday even- ing. The scene, when the tongued flames and crimson sparks, music, speech, and song were fairly ascending, formed a brilliant contrast to the rough bivouac of march and field. The whole hall was radiant with decorations. The walls were dressed in tri-color festoons, rosetted with small flags. The gilded balustrade of the gallery shone with the variegated beauty of shields, flags, banners and festoons, and the col- umns were tastefully coiled in red, white, and blue. Stage and pros- cenium presented a scene to charm and inspire every Second Iowa Cav- alryman. There, against a background of stars and stripes, projected from either wing, veteran staffs hung with the guidons and battle-flags of the regiment, with the names of Nashville, Tupello, Oxford, Frank- lin, Iuka, Coffeeville, Holly Springs, Booneville, Farmington, Corinth, and Coldwater linked in golden letters with the old corps. Two tri- colored shields graced the sides of the stage with the inscriptions : "Second Iowa Cavalry," "Eye of the Army." Banners waived from above, with battle names of the regiment. From the sides of the pros- cenium looked down the portraits of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and Logan, while centrally by the footlights stood a stack of carbines. entwined with tri-colored ribbons and flags, the flags holding a soldier's cap filled with flowers, and from the center of the stack depended an old canteen. To the right and left of the arms stood stands and pedest- als bearing large vases of plants and flowers, and over the stage was pendant, in letters of miniature flags on a ground of evergreen, the greeting : "WELCOME."
At the hour of assembly, the house was crowded with both sexes, in parquette and gallery, seats for the Second Iowa being reserved in front of the stage. Colonel Henry Egbert presided, accompanied on the stage by Generals Elliot and Hatch, Colonel Horton, Colonel Beach of the Eleventh Iowa, General Lyman Banks, Commander of Shelby Norman Post, G. A. R., Lieutenant and Chaplain Diffenbacher, Com- rade John Lawrence, and Hon. John M. Gobble, Mayor of Muscatine.
Eichoff's Orchestra opened the festivities with the sparkling strains of "In the Residence-Polonnaise."
President Egbert then gave the three taps of the gavel for prayers, the assembly arose and Chaplain Diffenbacher invoked the divine blessing.
A glee club of eleven male voices, under General Banks, with Prof. Battey at the piano, sang, "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean," and song and singers were roundly applauded.
Colonel Egbert now presented Mayor Gobble. His Honor remarked that he had been invited to address a few old soldiers, and to be con- fronted with such an array of military, and citizens, and the fair sex. and more trying than all by his wife [laughter], whom he had never
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before faced as a speech-maker, was calculated to unnerve even a mayor. [laughter]. He proceeded with the following address of welcome :
MAYOR GOBBLE'S ADDRESS OF WELCOME.
Mr. President and Survivors of the Second Iowa Cavalry:
The citizens of Muscatine greet with sentiments of joy and pride the surviving veterans of a regiment that linked her name so lustrously with so many of the brightest achievements of the war for the Union, and whose heroic devotion to our flag is written in as brave deeds as ever illuminated the page of history. We want you to know and feel that this greeting is no idle compliment. It is tendered .under a weighty appreciation of what the country owes to the brave Union soldier, and no words of mine can express the debt of gratitude that is, and always will be, due you.
But for the bravery and patriotism of the Second Iowa Cavalry and their comrades from the east and west, the stars of our national ensign would have been blotted out, and its stripes would have remained only as a bloody emblem of a divided Union.
You, with other patriots, left your homes and loved ones, and because of your sacrifices, your endurance, your battles, your wounds, and your dead, this country still lives, its glorious flag waving over a nation of sixty millions of freemen, united as never before in its his- tory, and now in its full vigor of a career of prosperity and grandeur that challenge the admiration and wonder of the world. Only a trifle over twenty-two years have passed since you returned to us from the battle field with the priceless trophy of a restored Union, but even you could not have foreseen the train of splendid triumphs for our country which followed in the wake of your return.
Based upon the success of your arms, and the solidity of your vie- tories, this country in these few short years has grown in power and prosperity to rival countries that have the accumulated strength and wealth of centuries.
The great empire of the west has been developed, immense trains of pleasure and commerce are running over numerous lines of railway from ocean to ocean. Metropolitan cities have risen on our western prairies, and under the shadows of the Rocky Mountains the telegraph and cable connects us with the most remote points of civilization, the telephone makes audible the voice of our friends many miles away. The elegant palace and dining cars are in strong contrast with the lum- bering stage coach and wayside inn of your boyhood. The elevated and cable cars have succeeded the laggard omnibus in our cities, and the grand hotels rival the palace of the princes in luxury and splendor.
Small and unpretentious cities like our own are supplied with the modern comforts of life and civilization, and rival large cities in elec- trie lights, telephones, churches, schools and colleges, water-works, paved streets and substantial bridges, well organized fire departments, handsomely equipped armories, and celebrated military companies.
The inventions of the mechanic have lifted agriculture from a drudgery to one of pleasure and independence, and the home of the humblest American citizen may glow with evidence of comfort and refinement. Wonder follows wonder in the work-shop of invention. and all this marvelous growth, all this grand development of com- merce and manufacture, all the wealth and prosperity of this nation, is due to the bravery and patriotism of men who, like the Second Iowa Cavalry, were willing to sacrifice all for their country, and who made
بالس بس: تكب الحاد اج ٥ جا بي.
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their victory so broad and so deep as to insure the perpetuation of our institutions forever.
One of life's greatest pleasures is to be able to look back and see that we have done that which we ought to have done, and how grateful a vision must such a retrospect afford to every faithful Union soldier. You of the Second Iowa Cavalry, as you look back to twenty-six years ago, have not only the proud satisfaction of knowing that you did what was right in your service to the Union cause, but your gladness should receive its noblest crown on beholding your old-time, brave enemy rejoicing to-day over your conquest, that he fought so hard to avert and that cost him so dear. The rebel yell has changed to a ringing cheer for the old flag, and the South vies with the North in its loyalty and the development of a common country.
Your work was done and well done, and he who attempts to undo that work, North or South, East or West, by stirring up old animosi- ties or sectional strife, is as much an enemy of this country as any who plotted its destruction. The reunions of veteran regiments which have honored this city have been exultant with the memories of victorious campaigns. and it is natural, patriotic, and ennobling that at banquet and camp-fire you should recur to the scenes and incidents of your marches, your raids, the camp, and the momentous events of the field. These glad and solemn memories cannot be reviewed too often, and should be revived and retold at every reunion. They should be spoken of by our eloquent speakers at our national anniversaries, and engraved on the monuments erected to our Union dead. But I doubt not, veter- ans of the Second, if one of your old-time foes should enter this hall. dressed in his old ragged butternut suit, and ask you for a light for his pipe, or a drink from your canteen, that every one would rise and offer him fraternal welcome and a seat at your festive board. Nor do I doubt that he would drink as heartily as you to the honor of the stars and stripes, and to the confusion of its enemies. There is no stronger cement welding this sixty millions together as one nation, than the ties of mutual honor, respect, and confidence so universally felt between the former wearers of the blue and gray.
Veterans, many of you sacrificed not only your family ties, but also your health and your fortunes in defense of an imperiled country. The large and increasing pension roll is proof that the government is not ungrateful to her disabled soldiers. "There may, however, be grievous exceptions to this liberality in isolated cases, and Muscatine can appre- ciate the wrong suffered in such instances; for she is on the rejected list herself, having sent more of her sons to the front than any other county in the State of Iowa, and having the patriotism to enlist the first com- pany of Iowa volunteers, and to furnish the one that was first from this State to offer up his life on the altar of his country. Still Musca- tine has nothing but glory to show for her patriotism and her sacrifices.
We believe, had justice been done to the question of true loyalty and public liberality, we would at this reunion be able to show you a national soldiers' home, with its manifold items of interest to the old soldier; or if Washington was too far away to remember us, it would seem as if Iowa might have given her banner county the proud dis- tinction of being the seat of the State Soldiers' Home-but this, too, was denied us. But if government and State are ungrateful, or forget- ful, we hope, with natural advantage and a bountiful supply of vigorous young manhood, on the occasion of your next reunion that you may hold in our city, to show you that we will prosper without this aid, and we will show you on this occasion that the heart of Muscatine still beats as responsive to the love of her country and gratitude to the
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Union soldier, as it did when Companies A and G were enrolled and left with their gallant officers to join their fortunes with the glorious Second Iowa Cavalry.
Welcome, then, to Muscatine, veterans and your illustrious officers, whose brave deeds on the field of battle won for you national renown, and made you the pride of Iowa and Muscatine.
The address was long and loudly applauded.
President Egbert responded: He said it had been expected that Colonel Hepburn would be present to respond to the address, but though unprepared, the speaker was not like his friend, the Mayor, afraid of his wife, for if she were present, he would have no misgiv- ings. [Laughter and applause.]
PRESIDENT EGBERT'S RESPONSE.
Mr. Mayor, Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen:
When at our reunion at Marshalltown, two years ago, it was decided to come to Muscatine this year, I was glad. And when I say to your worthy Mayor, who has extended to us such a cordial welcome, that our reception here has been such as to impress us with no doubts of your gladness to have us in your midst, I speak for the whole regiment. [Cheers.] It has seemed to me that this city, above all other places, was the most fitting for our coming together. [Cheers.] Companies "A" and "G " were part of us, and you know how important a part in our history they filled, and how faithfully they did their duty. [Cheers.]
Muscatine county stands high on the roll of honor for her patriot- ism. Her mothers gave their sons, her wives gave their husbands, her sweethearts their lovers, and her dead are strewn along the line from Wilson's Creek to Appomattox. And yet with all the sacrifices she has made, there has not been a murmur; and to-day her patriotism burns as brightly as it did when the first gun fired at Sumpter went re- echoing through the land announcing that treason had struck at the heart of the Nation, [cheers, ] and as we gather here to-night on this joyful occasion, we feel that you are rejoicing with us. [Prolonged ap- plause.]
Comrades: I shall not attempt to recall your privations and hard- ships, your battles fought or your victories won. All this you know better than I can tell you. Your service to your country is part of your life experience ; it is woven into your very existence. You go back to it with pride. You love to recall it and dream over it, and the part of it that lies down deep in your hearts can never be portrayed. Who among you can describe the tie that binds you together? The threads of this cord were spun on the battle-field-its fiber was bathed in blood, and until the last soldier of this grand old regiment shall sleep his last sleep, it will never be broken. [Cheers.] As we meet around this camp-fire to-night to recall the scenes of the past, we are reminded that we are still marching on, and as we pitch our tents at night-fall, we are one day's march nearer home.
Mr. Mayor: I thank you again, and through you, the citizens of this beautiful city, for your cordial welcome and kind reception.
The address concluded amid hearty cheers, and was followed by "The Soldier's Farewell," from the glee club.
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The President invited General Banks to roll a log on the fire for Shelby Norman Post, and the General was received with great applause. He said :
GREETING FROM THE G. A. R.
Mr. President, and Soldiers of the Second Iowa Cavalry :
Who can sympathize like those who have suffered, or rejoice like those who have won victories? Or who can appreciate daring, as do those who have done. or aimed to do, brave and gallant deeds? This tie of comradeship exists between you and the Grand Army of the Republic, and, having the pleasure of representing Shelby Norman Post, I extend their welcome to the Second Cavalry. [Cheers. ]
For other regiments the name of their State is necessary to desig- nate them; but though there were as many "Second" regiments of cavalry as there were loyal States, from the far East to the farther West, the "Second Cavalry" means to us that famous regiment of Iowa men whose troops, diminished to squads, assemble here to-night. [Cheers.] Second in numbering only, first in all else, the niere men- tion of their name recalls their vigor and dash as they wrote brilliant history with their sabres, and punctuated it with their carbines. [Applause. ] Too impetuous to wait for bridges, they swam rivers, rode through and around superior numbers, and, whether on picket, march, or in battle, alert and felt everywhere. [Cheers.] What veteran does not remember on the march, when a battle was imminent, its depres- sion felt but not spoken of, when any moment we might meet a volley of musketry, or the howling shell ; what a relief it was, at such a time, to see to our right and left rail-fences still standing, but with many gaps made by panels swung round, that told us a deployed line of cav- alry was ahead, and that the enemy was moving the other way. [Cheers.] They were ahead, too, in foraging; and what the infantry- men got was that which the cavalrymen could not take-but we forgive them. [Shouts of laughter. ] The combination of brain of man with equine strength and fleetness, both fearless, is the ideal soldier ; of such horses and bold riders, officers and men, was this ideal cavalry regi- ment. [Cheers.] What wonder that they were so nearly irresistible -that at Booneville 800 were attacked by 5,000; and while 700 held these odds at bay, the other hundred made a detour and fearless attack, and, between them, routed the enemy and gave to gallant Sheridan his first star of a general [ringing applause], now grown to a constellation: or their many other notable achievements giving stars to Elliott and Hatch, and all so worthily won and worn. [Enthusiastic cheering.] Volumes could be filled recounting their deeds, many of personal daring, but time would not permit, and we are not here to glorify you only as it can be done by a soldier's welcome and by imitation-the sincerest flattery-for in the next war we are all going mounted. [Laughter and long applause. ]
President Egbert again took the floor, and, with a peculiar gleam in his eye, "Comrades," he said, "I now present you one whom you will not thank me to introduce-you all know him-your old commander, General Elliott."
General Elliott arose, and was greeted with an ovation. The regi- ment sprang to its feet with waving hats, and cheer upon cheer broke forth from the whole house. The old commander, the regiment's first
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colonel, stepped to the front, and, in his erect, martial bearing and face illumined with the genial glow of the hour, betrayed little of the pass- ing of a quarter of a century since parting with his boys. He was dressed in black, with a close-buttoned Prince Albert, and wearing a velvet skull cap. The long applause subsiding, he read the following address:
GENERAL ELLIOTT'S ADDRESS.
My Fellow Soldiers and Friends of the Second Iowa Cavalry, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thanks to a Divine Providence, we have been spared to assemble on this occasion, and first let us remember the gallant members of our reg- iment who gave their lives to their country in the war for the preserva- tion of the Union. Not gifted as an orator, yet knowing that some remarks would be expected, and that my heart would be too full for utterance, let me recall some incidents of our association together as soldiers. Perhaps but few of you know the circumstances under which we were brought together twenty-six years ago.
In August, 1861, then a captain of regular cavalry in active service in Missouri, and just after the death of the gallant Lyon, under whose command I had been serving. I was ordered by General Fremont to report to him in person at St. Louis. With that promptness with which I had been taught to obey orders, and which no doubt many of you remember I exacted from others [great merriment], I reported, and was informed by him that your noble war governor, S. J. Kirk- wood, had at Davenport, Iowa, a regiment of cavalry ready for service, and all it wanted was a colonel. This appointment was tendered me. I had previously been asked by the Governor of Pennsylvania, of which State I am a native, to take command of a regiment from that State. To this the Adjutant General of the Army would not consent. General Fremont said: "Go to Davenport, inspect the regiment, make the necessary requisitions for its equipment; in the meantime, I will communicate with the Governor of Pennsylvania, and, if not assigned to duty with troops from that State, you can return to Davenport and take the Second Iowa Cavalry." On making my report to General Fremont, I was ordered to return to Davenport; and on my arrival found the governor, through the lamented Adjutant General N. B. Baker. had issued my commission as colonel to date September 1st, 1861.
In making the inspection of the regiment, I soon saw there could not have been collected a finer body of men for a regiment of cavalry, in our or any other country, and yet very few had any experience as soldiers. At my request, a cavalry soldier of twelve years' experience was discharged from his regiment, nominated to the Governor, by him appointed a lieutenant, and by me appointed adjutant. You no doubt remember him-Charles F. Marden. To him I was much indebted for the assistance rendered in imparting instruction to the regiment. I was ably assisted by Lieut .- Colonel Edward Hatch [cheers], who snc- ceeded me as your commander, and who won by his and your gallantry the rank of brigadier general, and the appointment of cotonel and brevet major general in the regular army. [Cheers] To Majors Hepburn, Coon, and Love, the battalion commanders, I had only to issue an order, and it was promptly obeyed. I always found them alive to the welfare of their respective battalions.
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The location of Camp MeClellan, the general rendezvous, not being suitable, and desiring to have you around me as a military family, the fair grounds were selected; and notwithstanding the opposition to their being occupied by troops, it was a "war measure," and Nat. Baker was the nian to execute it. [Cheers.] Thus was established "Camp Joe Holt." I fancy I can now see you just as located in that camp. The guard house on the right of the entrance; your company quarters in parallel lines on the left side of the enclosure ; the specta- tors' stand enclosed as quarters for the field officers, and the judges' stand enclosed for adjutant's office, from which I could have a general supervision of the camp. Here, let me say, I had very few occasions to punish to enforce discipline, during the entire period of my service with you. A body of intelligent young men, leaving their homes from patriotic motives, required only to be told what to do and it was done. When I found many of you surrounded by wives, mothers, and sisters, I felt that a greater responsibility rested upon me as your commander.
The few months at Camp Joe Holt were of great advantage; our guard mounting, parades, reviews, and street parades with wooden sabres, prepared us for the reception of our arms as soon as they could be procured; and I can assure you no one marched at the head of a regiment, or felt more proud of it than did I in the cities of Davenport and St. Louis, at the head of the Second Iowa Cavalry.
Our service at Benton Barracks, near St. Louis, from the middle of December, 1861, to the middle of February, 1862, while to our advantage for the opportunity it afforded for instruction, yet had its discomfits by reason of the cold and very wet winter. While there. many of you who had escaped during your childhood the diseases of mumps and measels, became thus afflicted. But do you remember another epi- demic, "the gunboat fever?" [Laughter.] So impatient were many of you to get into active service, that you feared the war would close and you would see nothing of it. Probably as many as two hundred applications came to me for tranfers to the navy, for service on the gun- boats. Not wishing to withhold them, the facts were represented to General Halleck, and, acting upon a hint from him, the applications were pigeon-holed until the epidemic should subside, which it soon did.
So opposed was the adjutant general of the army to officers of the regular army leaving their regiments for service with volunteer regi- ments, that orders for me to join my regiment, the First United States Cavalry, to which I had been promoted as major, and consisting of two companies, were pigeon-holed by General Fremont, but reiterated. I went to Washington, called on Senator Grimes of your State, with whom I had been acquainted at Burlington, in 1847, then a lieutenant enlisting men for the Mexican War. Senator Grimes preceded me to the War Department, and when I reported, found an order had been issued for my return to you.
Our trip from Benton Barracks to Bird's Point, to reinforce General Grant, was without special incident other than discomfort from over- crowding. At that time, transports were scarce, as were also pilots. After a steamer had been assigned me for part of the regiment and pretty well filled, a battery of artillery was put on board to complete the load, as I thought; when, to my surprise, half of a regiment of infantry, the Fifth Iowa, I think, wasadded to fill, as it were, the inter- stices. We followed another steamer, our pilot being nothing more than a wheelman.
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