USA > Iowa > The Iowa official register, 1905 > Part 15
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The act makes the following provisions as to the construction of the machine approved :
"A voting machine approved by the State Brard of Voting Machine Com- missioners must be so constructed as to provide facilities for voting for the candidates of at least seven different parties or organizations, must permit a voter to vote for any person for any office, although not nominated as a candi- date by any party or organization, and must permit voting in absolute secrecy. It must also be so constructed as to prevent voting for more than one person for the same office, except where the voter is lawfully entitled to vote for more than one person for that office; and it must afford him an opportunity to vote for any or all persons for that office as he is by law entitled to vote for, and no more, at the same time preventing his voting for the same person twice. It may also be provided with one ballot in each party column or row containing only the words 'presidential electors' preceded by the party name, and a vote for such ballot shall operate as a vote for all candidates of such party for presi. dential electors. Such machine shall be so constructed as to accurately account for every vote cast upon it."
Five voting machines, made by as many different companies, have been examined and approved by the Commission. These are-The John Blocty, examined at Chicago, Ill., July 31, 1900; the Climax, examined at Cedar Rapids, September 15, 1900; the National, examined at Sioux City, December
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22, 1903; the Universal, examined at Bloomington, Ill., December 26, 1903, and the U. S Standard, examined at Des Moines, May 31. 1904. Each of these machines was found to comply with the provisions of the law. above mentioned, and was so reported by the Commission to the Secretary of State.
The Commission in making the examinations has not taken into account the manner in which results, required by law, are accomplished by the various machines, the examinations having been conducted only along the line of de- termining whether the machines would do or not do what the law requires. The matter of expensiveness of construction was not investigated, because the law does not require it ; this being a matter to be determined between the com- panies manufacturing the machines and the purchasers. The machines so far examined vary greatly in construction, some being quite complicated and intri- cate, and yet each will perform perfectly the requirements of the law in every respect. This difference in construction is so great that it would be impossible to describe each in detail in the short space allotted to this subject in the Official Register. Many of the machines are so expensive in construction as to put them practically out of the reach of purchasers, which accounts, in a great measure, for boards of supervisors and city councils, the purchasing powers, not adopting and installing them more readily.
There is no question as to the absolute accuracy of the count of a "legal" voting machine, nor as to the entire secrecy of ballots cast upon them. And another important point about them is that there is no such thing as a spoiled or mutilated ballot. Every voter who enters a booth is certain of casting a bal- lot for somebody and having that ballot counted. No election officers sit in judgment upon how he intended to vote, throwing out or counting his vote as they see proper. The voter, when he votes, decides that matter for himself, as of right he should. For these reasons alone the voting machine should be installed in every precinct in the State. Sooner or later the voting machine will be the recognized and universal manner of expressing the will of the voters at the polls. And accurate as are the machines so far examined, it is apparent to those who study them, that vast improvements will be made from time to time, and the cost of construction greatly lessened. It will be only a few years when this cost will be reduced to such a point that the taxpayers will conclude that they can no longer afford to do without them.
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State Executive Department.
IOWA LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN AND MISSIONARY RIDGE MONUMENT COMMISSION.
Appointed by the Governor. MEMBERS.
Name.
P. O. Address.
Regiment.
Thomas C. Alexander
Oakland
Fourth Iowa Infantry.
Elias B. Bascom.
Lansing .
Fifth Iowa Infantry.
Alexander J. Miller
Oxford
Sixth Iowa Infantry.
Alonzo Abernethy
Osage
Ninth Iowa Infantry.
Mahlon Head
Jefferson .
Tenth Iowa Infantry.
Fred P. Spencer
Randolph
Seventeenth Iowa Infantry.
John A. Young
Washington
Twenty-fifth Iowa Infantry.
Joseph D. Fegan
Clinton .
Twenty-sixth Iowa Infantry.
Samuel H. Watkins
Libertyville
Thirtieth Iowa Infantry.
Solomon B. Humbert.
Cedar Falls
Thirty-first Iowa Infantry.
Elliott Frazier.
Morning Sun
First Iowa Battery.
Chairman-JOHN A. YOUNG, Washington, Iowa.
Secretary-ALONZO ABERNETHY, Osage.
The Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge Monument Commission appointed by Governor Cummins, in compliance with chapter 197, laws of the Twenty-ninth General Assembly, for the erection of monuments on the battle- fields about Chattanooga, Tenn., let the contract early in 1903 for three State monuments, as provided by law.
Two of the monuments were completed early in 1904, and the material for the third and larger one was all in position a month later, except a half dozen blocks of granite, one of the number a thirty-foot shaft, weighing forty tons. Three successive accidents have occurred in attempts to place this shaft in posi- tion. Each time it received some injury. At last an entirely new shaft was ordered, and is now, January, 1905, being prepared at Barre, Vermont.
Our monument on Lookout Mountain stands near the center of the Gov- ernment Reservation, in a sightly place, in front of the famous Craven House, around which raged the fiercest conflict of the contending hosts for the reten- tion and the capture of this imposing stronghold, on that dismal afternoon of November 24, 1863, while gloomy clouds encircled the towering palisades and sunshine crowned the summit. This first victory of Chattanooga was named the same night, by Benj. F. Taylor, an eyewitness, as "The Battle Above the Clouds." The monument is fifty feet high upon a square fifteen foot base, and is in plain view from the city of Chattanooga.
The Sherman Heights monument is also fifty feet high, and stands on the Government reservation, near the summit of the north end of Missionary Ridge, on the spot captured by General Corse's Iowa brigade on the morning of Novem - ber 25th, and held till the close of the battle. Around this spot raged till nearly nightfall the fiercest fighting of the day that crowned Grant's final victory in the west for the year 1863.
The Rossville Gap monument still unfinished is to be seventy-two feet high. It stands on the national military park, Iowa reservation, and is erected here in memory of all the Iowa soldiers who took part in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, Ga.
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State Executive Department.
Each monument contains a number of historical, patriotic and memorial inscriptions. The principal inscriptions on each monument are placed on the four faces of a large square block of polished granite called the die, and one face of each die has its polished surface so margined as to represent the shape of the map of Iowa, with its river borders on the east and west. The name IOWA appears also conspicuously on nearly every face of each monument, so that when approached from any direction by friend or stranger, no one need to ask: "Whose monument is this?"
IOWA SHILOH BATTLEFIELD MONUMENT COMMISSION.
Appointed by the Governor. MEMBERS.
Name.
P. O. Address.
Regiment.
GeorgeL . Godfrey
Des Moines.
Second Iowa Infantry.
George W. Crosley.
Webster City
Third Iowa Infantry.
Alexander J. Miller.
Oxford
Sixth Iowa Infantry.
Bobert G. Reiniger
Charles City
Seventh Iowa Infantry.
William B. Bell
Washington
Eighth Iowa Infantry.
George O. Morgridge
Muscatine .
Eleventh Iowa Infantry.
Erastus B. Soper
Emmetsburg.
Twelfth Iowa Infantry.
Charles W. Kepler.
Mount Vernon.
Thirteenth Iowa Infantry.
* Daniel Matson.
Kossuth
Fourteenth Iowa Infantry.
James W. Carson
Woodburn
Fifteenth Iowa Infantry.
John Hayes.
Red Oak
Sixteenth Iowa Infantry.
* Appointed November 21, 1900, to succeed W. T. Shaw, resigned.
Chairman-E. B. SOPER, Emmetsburg.
Vice Chairman-WILLIAM B. BELL, Washington. Secretary-JOHN HAYES, Red Oak.
The Twenty-eighth General Assembly appropriated the sum of fifty thousand dollars for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of those who par - ticipated in the battle of Shiloh and designating by proper monuments and markers of granite the positions of the several commands of Iowa volunteers there engaged April 6 and 7, 1862.
The act, approved April 6, 1900, provided for the appointment by the Governor of a commission composed of men who were present and participated in the battle-one soldier from each of the eleven Iowa Regiments engaged.
The commission is making use of the funds at its disposal by erecting in the Shiloh National Military Park at Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., a State monu- ment at a cost approximating twenty-five thousand dollars and eleven regi- mental monuments at a cost approximating two thousand dollars each.
CONTROVERSY OVER THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH IOWA REGIMENTS.
There has arisen a controversy between the Iowa Shiloh Battlefield Monu- ment Commission and the Shiloh National Military Park Commission as to the time when the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Regiments participated in the memora-
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State Executive Department.
ble battle. The following is a statement of the facts of this controversy, pre. pared by John Hayes, Secretary of the Iowa Commission.
When the battle of Shiloh opened, April 6, 1862, the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa Regiments were at Pittsburg Landing, having just arrived from the North. While in line on the bluff overlooking the Landing, between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, they were ordered by General Grant to the sup- port of McClernand's Division, and a staff officer was directed to show them the way.
But they never reached General McClernand. While marching in columns of fours, about a mile and three-quarters from the Landing, they met the artillery and musketry fire of the enemy from the timber adjacent to a field they were crossing, now called Jones Field, on the border of which were the Eleventh and Thirteenth Iowa camps. They immediately formed in battle line and, disconnected from other troops, withstood the enemy's advance which was being made through a gap now known to have existed between the right of McClernand's Division and the left of Sherman's. There, apart from other commands, the fight of these two regiments was maintained for two hours, at great loss, and there their dead were buried.
The official reports of the regimental commanders, Col. Hugh T. Reid commanding the fifteenth, and Col. Alexander Chambers commanding the sixteenth, made a few days after the battle, fix the time when first engaged at ten and ten-thirty A.M. respectively. These reports are embraced in the report of the Adjutant-General of Iowa, 1865, and are incorporated in the War of the Rebellion Official Records, Series 1, Volume 10. The absolute truthfulness of them is burned into the very being of every one of the survivors of the awful conflict.
More than thirty years after the battle the Shiloh National Military Park was established by Act of Congress. Its purpose was "that the armies of the . southwest may have the history of one of their memorable battles preserved on the ground where they fought." To carry out the provisions of this Act the Shiloh National Military Park Commission was appointed, subject to the con- trol and direction of the Secretary of War. The Act provided :
"That it shall be lawful for any State that had troops engaged in the battle of Shiloh to enter upon the lands of the Shiloh National Military Park for the purpose of ascertaining and marking the lines of battle of its troops engaged therein. "
How deeply Iowa was interested in this may be judged from the fact that of her fifteen regiments in the field in the spring of 1862, eleven participated in the battle of Shiloh.
Accordingly, preliminary to such future action as might be deemed advis- able, Governor Frank D. Jackson, in June 1895, appointed a Commission com- posed of one soldier from each of the eleven regiments there engaged to locate and mark the respective positions held by the Iowa troops upon the Shiloh Field. In November, 1895, this Commission, by appointment, met the Shiloh National Military Park Commission (Gen. Don Carlos Buell was then Chairman) at Pittsburg Landing and did so fix and mark all the Iowa positions, making report thereof to the Governor of Iowa.
In 1900 the Legislature of Iowa appropriated $50,000 "for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of those who participated in, and designating by pro- per monuments and markers of granite the positions of the several commands of the Iowa Volunteers engaged in, the battle of Shiloh, " and made it the duty of the Governor to appoint a Commission composed of one soldier from
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State Executive Department.
each of the eleven regiments engaged to make contracts for construction, etc.
At that time Governor Leslie M. Shaw appointed the present Commission. This new Iowa Commission, when organized, received from the National Commission a copy of the Regulations Governing The Erection of Monuments in the Shiloh National Military Park, wherein was set forth that "inscriptions must be purely historical" and that "they must also be based upon and con- form to the official reports of the battle and must be submitted to the Secretary of War through the Park Commission for his approval before being inscribed on monuments."
The Iowa Commission was advised that the practice would be general of inscribing upon monuments the time of engagement and the eleven Iowa Com- missioners prepared and submitted inscriptions accordingly. All were approved except those for the fifteenth and sixteenth monuments.
Notwithstanding they were purely historical and based on the only official reports of the part these regiments took in the battle, the inscriptions were re- jected for the reason, as stated by the National Commission, that no troops were engaged in the locality where the fifteenth and sixteenth fought until after noon. And when the official reports of Col. Reid and Col. Chambers fix- ing time of the respective engagements were cited the statements of time in such reports were declared to be untrue. From the start the idea of the National Commission seemed to be to sweep away all obstacles and maintain certain theories as to the progress of the battle at whatever cost. The matter of dis- crediting the fifteenth and sixteenth survivors who fought on the spot or the blasting of the official reports of the venerated dead which had stood unchal- lenged for forty years seemed unworthy of their consideration.
Col. Hugh T. Reid and Col. Alexander Chambers were men of the highest honor and integrity. They became brigadier-generals and successively com- manded Crocker's Iowa Brigade. The fifteenth and sixteenth Commissioners as well asall the survivers of the regiments named with one voice resented the action of the National Commission in impeaching the characters of their dead commanders and appeal was made to the Secretary of War to approve the in- scriptions. At the same time other inscriptions, conforming to the wishes of the National Commission were submitted and the whole matter was referred to an officer of the War Department for investigation. The report of this officer sustained the contention of the National Commission.
Thereupon the Iowa Commission gave full consideration to the questions at issue, unanimously upheld the position of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Commis- sioners and requested Governor Cummins to investigate the facts involved and present the matter to the Secretery of War to the end that the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Regiments might have inscriptions placed upon the monuments to these regiments in harmony with their official reports.
Complying with this request Governor Cummins gave much time and study to a thorough investigation of the subject, and upon his advice the Commis- sioners for the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Regiments procured upwards of sixty affidavits from comrades who belonged to these regiments and who participated in the battle, all of which affidavits substantiated the official reports. The Gov- ernor then prepared and had printed a review of the case in which official records were cited, affidavits were published and argument made. This he sub- mitted in person to Secretary of War Root in January, 1904, supplementing it with an oral presentation of the matter. A rehearing was ordered, the date was fixed for May 20, 1904 and the place the headquarters of the National
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State Executive Department.
Commission, Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. On that occasion there were in attendance besides the National Commission, Governor Albert B. Cummins, his stenographer and eight members of the Iowa Commission. Before proceed- ing to the hearing Governor Cummins, accompanied by the National Commis- sion and by the Iowa Commission, was conducted, at his request, over the route . marched by the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Regiments to the Jones Field and the circumstances with which he had become familiar were more fully explained on the ground where the regiments fought. At the meeting of the National Commission which followed, the chairman announced the order of procedure, namely: that the stenographer's record of the proceedings when submitted in typewritten form, would be considered at a future meeting of the Commission and the finding would be promulgated through the Secretary of War.
Governor Cummins then presented the case in all its details, produced a mass of evidence to substantiate the fact that the Regiments were engaged in the forenoon, demonstrated by the official reports of Generals McClernand and Sherman that a huge gap existed between the lines of their Divisions during the forenoon at the place where the Fifteenth and Sixteenth fought, and by forceful argument commanded the attention of the National Commission for a period of six hours. The hearing ended, the Iowa Commission met and expressed their gratitude to Governor Cummins by appropriate resolutions.
The finding of the National Commission having reached the Secretary of War, Governor Cummins was advised that an exhaustive report had been made by the Shiloh National Military Park Commission adverse to the conten - tion that the regiments were engaged in the forenoon. The Secretary ex- pressed a willingness to defer action should the Governor desire to make a further presentation of the case, whereupon the Secretary was informed that Governor Cummins would again appear before the War Department at such time as might be agreed upon, and this was subsequently fixed for November 22, 1904, when he made a lengthy argument before the Acting Secretary of War.
At this date, January 14, 1905, the matter remains undetermined.
The foregoing is an outline of the trouble which has come to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth regiments. The attitude of the survivors is:
They are endeavoring to preserve the history of their part of the battle ac- cording to the purpose for which the Shiloh National Military Park was estab- lished.
They wish to fix the time of their engagement, not only as a part of their history but because throughout the Park this is uniformly done upon monu- ments to other commands.
More especially do they now insist upon it because their records have been unjustly assailed and the truthfulness of their official reports denied.
They are supported by the Governor of Iowa and by the Iowa Commission for the Erection of Monuments on the Battlefield of Shiloh.
The monuments erected by the State of Iowa on the battlefield of Shiloh are completed except those of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth regiments and they lack only the attaching of the bronze tablets reciting the history of their service in that great battle.
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State Executive Department.
IOWA VICKSBURG PARK MONUMENT COMMISSION.
Appointed by the Governor.
MEMBERS.
Name.
P. O. Address.
Regiment.
John F. Merry
Dubuque
Twenty-first Iowa Infantry.
Lucien C. Blanchard
Oskaloosa
Twenty-eighth Iowa Inf'y. Third Iowa Infantry.
E. J. C. Bealer
Cedar Rapids.
Twenty-second Iowa Inf'y.
David A. Haggard
Algona.
Twenty-first Iowa Infantry.
W. O. Mitchell.
Corning
Thirteenth Iowa Infantry .
W. H. C. Jacques
Ottumwa.
Nineteenth Iowa Infantry.
Henry H. Rood.
Mt. Vernon
Thirteenth Iowa Infantry.
James H. Dean ...
Des Moines.
Twenty-third Iowa Infantry
Commission met and organized May 21, 1902, in Des Moines.
J. F. Merry was elected chairman.
Henry H. Rood was elected secretary.
In October, 1902, the Commission visited Washington, D. C., Gettysburg, Pa., and Richmond, Va., to study memorial designs and inform themselves for the wise discharge of their duties.
In July, 1903, a sub-committee visited New York and Boston for a further study of the question, and to select a sculptor.
In October, 1903, the full Commission visited Vicksburg and selected sites for the State, Brigade and Regimental Monuments.
Henry H. Kitson of Boston was selected as sculptor for the State monu- ment, and the sub-committees are carefully considering designs for monu- ments.
March 30, 1904, the full Commission met in Des Moines, and selected a de- sign for the Iowa State Monument prepared by H. H. Kitson of Boston, Mass., the sculptor selected by the Commission.
The design is a peristyle, semi-circular in form; its dimensions are as fol- lows:
feet. inches.
Total width
64
Depth from front of steps to back of monument 29
9
Height of monument from ground.
26
8
Height of center portion from ground. 29
10
Height from ground to base of columns
6
Height of columns
13
6
Height of entablature
4
6
Diameter of columns at base
1
10
Diameter of columns at neck.
1
8
Height of bas-reliefs 4
6 Width of bas-reliefs 5
6
Width of pediment
18
Length of pediment from platform 24
Width across front and pylons
7 Width of side pylons. 5
6
J. A. Fitchpatrick
Nevada
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State Executive Department.
feet. inches.
Distance of columns on centers
6
6
Depth of piers back of columns. 1
8
Distance of face of column in front of bas-relief. 2
6 Width of granite wall across rear at back of pediment 22
Width of tread of steps.
1
4
Length of court from base of column to base of column 50
The broad platform and generous steps give a setting for the monument as a whole, and will enable throngs to visit the Memorial, and be impressed with the bas-reliefs and other sculpture. The design lends itself to the placing of inscriptions in a very advantageous form in the frieze and on the pylons. The complete effect of the bronzes, the inscriptions and the architecture will be of great beauty, and at the same time of great strength.
The design is pure Greek, the columns are massive Doric, and between are open spaces for six bas-reliefs, 4 feet and 6 inches by 5 feet and 6 inches in size, on which will be portrayed in bronze, the following scenes:
Grand Gulf (Naval). Jackson. Black River Bridge.
Port Gibson, Champion Hill. Assault May 22, 1863.
The tablet in the central panel will contain a list of the regiments and bat- teries engaged in the campaign and siege, the number of troops and their losses.
On the front of the platform a bronze equestrian statue of heroic size will be placed, a soldier carrying the standard and entitled "The Standard Bearer."
This noble architectural structure, embellished with bas-reliefs, and the equestrian statue will stand on Union Avenue in front of the Rail Road Redoubt.
A curved drive-way will leave Union Avenue, pass in front of the mon- ument and return to Union Avenue, thus bringing visitors to the broad steps which lead up to the monument. The entire structure will be of light Barre granite, and it is believed will be approved by the State as strong, dignified and impressive.
The inscription will be:
Iowa's Memorial to her soldiers who served in the campaign and siege of Vicksburg, March 29-July 4, 1863.
March 28, 1904, the Commission entered into a contract with sculptor H. H. Kitson for the erection of the Iowa State Monument for the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). All to be completed in four years from date and sooner if possible.
On this date also a contract was entered into with Mr. Edmund H. Prior, of Postville, Iowa, to erect thirteen regimental, battery and brigade monu- ments for the sum of twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars ($28, 500). A subsequent supplemental contract was made to enlarge the only single regi- mental monument, the Third Iowa Infantry Volunteers, at an additional cost of five hundred dollars ($500).
The various organizations were grouped into brigades as far as possible, and all the monuments will stand on Union Avenue.
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