USA > Indiana > Reunion of the 9th regiment Indiana vet. vol. infantry association, 1892-1904 > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
"But, as you know. the National Commission refused, steadily refused to allow our claim, and the State Commis- sion, standing by us grandly, refused to take another step toward completing our work until our claim was allowed. Pending the controversy most of the Indiana monuments were erected, and you must permit me to show you how We avoided the mortification of erecting diminutive monu- ments of granite. as we must have done had we used that expensive material. The rules required the use of granite or other durable material. Granite had been recognized as the only durable material up to that time.
19
"Gen. Hunter, then President of the commission, and myself were familiar with the qualities of Oolitic limestone, which is found in large quantities in Indiana, and of the best quality. Before our controversy was on we were able to secure the consent of the National Commission to use Indiana Oolitic stone for our monument, and pending the controversy they were nearly all erected, making quite as fine a show as the monuments of any other state, and having Indiana stone to represent Indiana. It was when these were nearly all erected that we reached a point where we decided that we would do no more work until the question as to where the monument of the Ninth should go had been de- cided, and then followed a struggle, which lasted for nearly two years. Our appropriation lapsed, and we had it re- newed. This continued until 1897, when we met at Hebron. There it was decided that the commission should be in- structed that if suitable inscriptions were allowed us for the marker for Snodgrass Hill and for the monument at Brotherton's we would consent that the monument should be erected at Brotherton's, the inscriptions to be prepared by us and to tell the truth historically. Empowered by the regiment and the Indiana Commission, I prepared and for- warded the inscriptions, and almost by next mail I was noti- fied that the proposition was accepted. I will read them to you.
Inscription for marker. (Snodgrass Hill) "INDIANA-NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY.
Was sent to this position at dusk of September 20th, from Snodgrass field ; lost some men by capture with the three regiments which were captured on the right; fired into the capturing force, and held this position until 8 p. m., when it withdrew.
Inscription for monument.
INDIANA'S TRIBUTE to her NINTH REGIMENT INFANTRY. Colonel Isaac C. B. Suman, Commanding. Second Brigade ( Hazen)
Second Division (Palmer) Twenty-first Corps (Crittenden)
September roth, this Regiment went into action near the Brock field, about 2 p. m., and lost heavily; near 3:30 p. m., retired and refilled boxes in the vicinity of the Poe house : moved to this point, there confronted an advancing column of the enemy in overwhelming numbers and com-
20
pelled it to pause; engaged it for 30 minutes and lost heavily (three officers killed).
September 20th, at daylight in line at southeast corner of Kelly field and hekl its line until 3:30 p. m. At Snodgrass field assisted in repulsing Longstreet's last assault. . Near dusk was sent to the right of Brannan's Division, and after the capture of the three regiments on the right, and some of its own men, fired upon the capturing force and held its po- sition until 8 p. m., when it withdrew."
"And from that moment we received nothing but the most courteous and generous treatment from Gen. Boynton and other officials connected with the Chickamauga Na- tional Park, and I desire to say here to you, my comrades of the Ninth Indiana who have heard me speak in not the friendliest terms of Gen. Boynton, that with the single ex- ception of the refusal to allow us to erect our monument on Snodgrass Hill he has always treated us with the utmost kindness and generosity and that since the controversy is settled, he has seemed to strive to do us justice as to the inci- dent on Snodgrass Hill, in the historical tablets which he has put up there. That you were there and did your duty is an undeniable fact of history, and the National Commission has said as much in awarding to us an inscription upon our marker which tells the truth.
As good soldiers we must concede that Gen. Boyn- ton was a brave and capable soldier and that his regiment, the 35th Ohio, was a splendid regiment and fought most magnificently in the Kelley held in driving back the enemy which had forced our men back to the Lafayette road. Many of you saw that fight. The struggle was getting away around behind us on our left when a brigade went in and the battle became a tornado. We could see a general officer with his escort, who seemed to be directing the battle. Soon the enemy began to yield. fell back a short distance, the storm was renewed, the line went back, back and back, until it seemed restored. That was Vanderveer's brigade, and the 35th Ohio was in it. Our 87th Indiana was there, and in that struggle lost nearly all of the men it lost in that battle, and it lost in the battle of Chickamauga more men than any other Indiana regiment lost in a single battle dur- ing the war. The 35th Ohio had been through this fight at Kelley field and the later desperate fighting on Snodgrass Hill before we were sent up there. Yet they were not whipped. Many of you can testify, as I can, that when we reached there they were still full of fight. They told us they
21
had but two rounds of ammunition. You saw the bayonets on their guns. They told us that the enemy was just down there before us, and that they had threatened them with their bayonets. By the way, Gen. Boynton tells me that we did not relieve his regiment, and it may be that we did not ; but this we know, some troops were there with whom we talked. They told us they were the 35th Ohio. You will remember that they seemed to have been drawn back from the little log breastwork to which we went. They seemed loath to give up the position. expressed some fear that we would not hold it. I remember that some of the boys grunted, but you did not talk; you saw and heard enough to know that they were brave fellows. They did not know you. They did not know that this was the regiment which on the morning of the second day at Shiloh opened the battle and fought until in the afternoon. Their division commander came to them and with pride in voice, which found an echo in their hearts, said: 'Ninth Indiana, you have done enough; Colonel, lead back your regiment. They did not know that this was the regiment which at Stone River held the one point on the battle line near Cowen house, on the railroad, which was not driven back all that day, although repeatedly and desperately charged again and again, the desperate charging columns of the enemy reach- ing at times within thirty feet of their line. They did not know that this was the regiment which had fought the enemy at the Brock field the day before, only retiring when relieved by another Indiana regiment, the 29th, because their boxes were empty. They did not know that this was the regiment which had gone in alone, south of the Brother- ton house, after they refilled boxes, and for thirty minutes faced the enemy in ten times their number and made him panse in wonder if nothing else, then under orders fell back without breaking, to the fence north of the Brotherton house and there stood until the charging columns of the enemy actually reached the fence on the other side, and then only fell back north of the glade and reformed. They did not Know that this was the regiment which that very day had held the extreme right of the Kelley field line from carly morn until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, only to give up the position to another regiment, that it might go to a position of greater peril.
"They did not know that you were there, but from your share in that grand fight in Snodgrass field where under the eve of that 'noblest Roman of them all' Gen. Thomas,
22
you did yeoman work in the repulse of that last desperate charge of Gen. Longstreet, where in close line behind the 125th Ohio you alternated firing with it, it firing first and lying down, you rising, marching over it to the front, firing by volley, then marching back and lying down to reload. They did not know that for two days you had been in the midst of the awful whirlwind of that great battle. Your steady, unbroken ranks indicated to them that you were troops who had not yet been in it. You knew them for good soldiers. Their anxiety iest you should not hold that peril- ous point seemed to indicate that if they could be sure that you would not they would hold it themselves. You were not talking much. You thought you could hold it. Those fellows did not go back far, although I thought we relieved them and they left the field. We found them again in a few minutes, when Gen. Suman here after the capture of the troops in our right front, and after his capture and escape, sought to lead us back out of what seemed to be the grasp of the enemy. We came in contact with these same fellows. They had not changed their position more than a hundred feet. You remember when the mounted officer contradicted Col. Suman and said: Those are not the enemy ; these are Steadman's men.' They began to jeer us, saying : 'We told you you would not hold that ground.' Then you got mad and began to clamor to be led back, and went back again, and when the mounted officer came out and demanded your surrender you killed him and fired on the enemy, they fired on you, and the troops behind us fired over us at the enemy. Are these scenes still present in your minds? Aye! I know they are. After a time all was still, and there grew upon you a conviction that you were left there to be captured. With that you found no fault. That was a military duty which soldiers are sometimes called to perform. You did not know that somewhere near you were other Indiana soldiers waiting to guard the rear until their comrades should be in safety. We now know that the 68th and forst Indiana regiments were near there to guard the withdrawal of the troops, but you did not know it then. You believed yourselves alone, and with calm, soldierly bearing, which was accorded you by all who knew you, you awaited the moment when it should be proper for you to withdraw.
"It is a proud record, my comrades, and I am proud and happy that that which you did there is now a part of the history of the battle of Chickamanga.
23
"I regret that many of you, old comrades of the Ninth, were unable to attend the dedication of the Indiana monu- ments at Chickamauga a few days ago, for I know that it would have been an enjoyable occasion to you, as it was to me.
"One thing you must notice as you pass over the battle- field and observe the almost numberless. monuments and markers; that is, that Indiana was constantly in the midst of the whirlwind of battle during that awful two days. Her monuments and markers-the largest in the park, and of Indiana stone, of a peculiar color and appearance, giving notice as far as they can be seen that they represent Indi- ana -- in eloquent silence are in evidence in every part of that wide, extended field, to testify to the heroism of Indiana soldiers.
"Our state has a proud record for Chickamauga. Gen. Boynton in his speech at the dedication paid Indiana the high compliment of saying that her volleys rang out in the opening of the battle from the guns of the toth and 74th Indiana regiments, and with the last firing at the close of the battle from the guns of the Ninth Indiana on Snodgrass Hill. Each monument and marker bears a bronze tablet, each of which has been scientifically tested and we know it to be of the best material.
"These tablets bear the inscriptions which are appro- priate to cach. Our tablets are monuments in themselves. Our monuments are of Indiana stone, weighing about 6,000 pounds cach, on stone foundations, standing 4 ft. 8 in. high by 3 x 3 ft.
"Our bronze work was superintended by Major Thompson, a regular officer on the staff of Gen. Merritt, at Chicago, a son of Lient. Col. Thompson, who was Gen. Gordon Granger's chief of staff at Chickamauga. He in- spected each piece, caused analytical tests to be made of the composition of the bronze, and in the end would not allow us to pay him anything. not even street car fare.
"Comrades, I am glad to see so many of you here. I know that you feel as I do that these good people of Plvm- enth have given us a royal welcome, and we are just now having one of the most pleasant reunions in the experience of this Association. I would be glad if you could have a hundred more just such reunions. There is no tie which binds men together like that which binds together com rades of a great war. When we meet, clasp hands, and look into each other's eves, we may not each truthfully say This
24
man offered up his life for me,' but we can each truthfully say 'I would trust my life in this man's hands ; I know and have proved him in the roaring battle, and I know that he would not fail me while he had life.' May you live long and live happy."
Gen. Suman said: "Comrades of the Ninth, I know you feel about this matter of obtaining a just credit to the regiment for what it did at . Chickamauga that it was for- tunate Capt. McConnell was an officer in the Ninth and knew all about the Ninth at Snodgrass Hill and the other different positions, and it is doubly fortunate that we had him on the commission to see that the Ninth received just credit in the placing of its monument and markers at Chick- amauga. I know we all feel deeply indebted to him and are pleased with his report.
"The List Ohio, which was in the 19th brigade with us, it seems also is holding their reunion and send ns their greeting, and Secretary Whitehall will now read a dispatch just received from the 41st Ohio."
The Secretary read the following:
"Cleveland, O .. Oct. 14, 1899.
"To Ninth Indiana Regimental Association, care Wash Kelly, Plymouth, Ind. :
"Forty-first Ohio sends greeting to the Ninth Indiana. Statue of Gen. Hazen favorably acted on. Push the matter along. We throw on a top rail for you at campfire tonight.
"E. A. FORD, Pres."
The Glee Club sang "On, On the Boys Came March- ing," and after applauding the singers and stirring old song had ceased, the President called upon ex-Congressman H. G. Thayer, of Plymouth, who said :
"I know there are a host of good talkers in the old Ninth, and our people want to hear them rather than me, and I want to hear them myself, but I will take occasion now that I am on my feet to say that I have a very warm place in my heart for the soldiers of this splendid old regi- ment. I knew personally the officers and men of the com- pany that went from this county into the old Ninth, and knowing them I felt sure they were going into a good regi- ment and would give a good account of themselves, and I know that they did ; and we love and respect these neighbors of ours who marched and fought and suffered with you under the colors of the old Ninth; and we know and are as loyal Indianians proud of the history of your regiment, and so, gentlemen, whenever I see one of the quiet, unas-
25
suming men now mingling with the rest of us in peaceful pursuits I instantly feel there goes a man entitled to unusual credit for courage shown and privations endured in a time of trial and peril.
"Gentlemen, what you did as the soldiers of this Union will live in history, and you that yet live have a right to the very best treatment we can give you as a remnant of our country's brave defenders. You men made more history from '61 to '65 than had been made in the half century pre- ceding the Civil War. The soldiers of Indiana did their whole duty, and we should not be slow in giving full credit to them.
"We are living today in the most important era of the world's history. Great events are transpiring almost daily. Only a few days ago thousands upon thousands of Ameri- can citizens looked upon a pageant that eclipsed in grandeur the historical pageants accorded to the conquering heroes of the great European wars. Admiral Dewey deserved this splendid reception at the hands of the republic whose naval prestige he and his brave comrades had so grandly glorified on that morning in May in Manila Bay. This nation loves to honor its gallant defenders, and no living man was ever accorded such a magnificent reception as Dewey.
"The soldiers and sailors of to-day drew their inspira- tion from the brave deeds of the soldiers and sailors of '61 to '65.
"The example of your patriotism and self-sacrifice will for all time, I believe, inspire our sons and their descendants with an undying patriotism.
"Men of the Ninth, come again and welcome to Plym- outh. We will not tire in showing you that Plymouth loves you and the comrades of other good regiments who were staunch defenders of the Union."
The President said: "I now take great pleasure in pre- senting a distinguished citizen of Atlantic, Ia., Judge Wil- lard, but better known to you, comrades, as Lieut. Ezra Willard, of Co. C."
Lieut. Willard said :
"Col. Suman, Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen: I came 500 miles to be with my old comrades tonight, and I am heartily glad to see you. Comrades, it is over 36 years since I last looked into your faces, more than the average human life has passed since we parted down in Dixie. ] can scarcely realize that the Civil War is so far removed from us, and yet it is true I confess I would not have
26
known you, and doubt if you would have known me, for time has wrought his changes. We were mostly boys and young men then. But I see I am not the only one who has grown gray.
"When I came back from thefront I found I had to take up a new life, and go to work to make a home and living for my wife and children, and in the struggle for existence I have often thought of my comrades, and heard that you were having these reunions and felt I would love to meet some of you that are yet among the living, but it has al- ways so happened in the busy round of life. that I could not be with you until this reunion, and I am truly glad to see so many of you yet on earth. We used to know one an- other almost as members of the same family. but now these 'boys' with gray hair and bald heads have to be introduced to each other, and it takes some effort and recollection to identify you as the 'boys' of the old regiment from '61 to '65.
"In our busy life of breadwinning we don't seem to know or realize that we have a love for our country till a great emergency calls it out.
"My memory goes back to those eventful days of '61 when we were active young men and boys, busy in our sev- eral vocations, not thinking we should ever be soldiers fight- ing for the life of our nation. We could not bring ourselves to think that war would come.
"When you heard the flag had been fired upon your hearts were thrilled, and your indignation keenly aroused, and you felt that the indignity should be wiped out in blood, and yet you hardly thought you would soon put on the uniform of the Union and rally beneath the starry flag to help wipe out the insult to our banner, and preserve the Federal Union. Hardly had the ink dried on President Lincoln's proclamation for 75,000 volunteers, before you boys of the old Ninth and thousands of other boys like you were signing mister rolls that made you the soldiers of the imperiled Republic.
"Though your dear mother and sisters clung to you when the summons came to go. and cried as if their heart- strings would break, none scarcely could find it in their hearts to say, 'Stay at home, my boy.' The same pa- triotic impulse that led the young man to sign his country's roll and go forth to do his duty in defense of home, flag and country, for the time being, held in painful subjection the mother love, and caused our noble women to suffer in anguish for tidings from the loved one gone to the front.
27
So, for over four years, comrades, you shared the common dangers and hard and good times that fell to our lot as sol- diers of our country, and were thus welded together into a bond of true comradeship that is only intensified. by the lapse of time. This tie seems almost as strong as the tic of blood relationship, if not quite. This tie, forged in the heat of battle, will, it seems to me. not be broken by death even, for I feel after this life we shall meet and have with our lines dressed an unbroken, a grand reunion on high."
After the old comrades had heartily applauded Lieut. Willard's speech, Gen. Sumon called upon little Earle Whitehall for a song, and the Plymouth Republican thus speaks of his effort :
At the conclusion of Judge Willard's speech little Master Whitehall, the grandson of the man who has been secretary of all the Ninth's regimental reunions, sang a solo, "When I'm Big I'll be a Soldier." This song was greeted with immense applause.
The Glee Club followed with "Just before the battle, mother," after which, at the call of the President, State Senator Hon. C. P. Drummond, of Plymouth, paid an elo- quent tribute to the American soldier in the following im passioned words :
"I am not a soldier, nor can I say that I came from a family of soldiers; nevertheless, I admire the man who has courageously set his face toward his enemy when the gleam of battle flashed before his eyes. I have looked at the his- tory of my state and nation, and I know the men of the Ninth Regiment showed manliness and courage at Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, and in other hotly contested fields, and for this Plymouth seeks to do them honor on this. occasion.
"In spite of the Tzar's proposition of universal disar- mament, the age is warlike. The forge is kept hot pound- ing out implements of death. The armies of the world are getting bigger and better equipped to kill. Whatever else civilization may have done for man. it has done little to abate in him his love of conflict. He began his march to power and pre-eminence with a war club. In his savage state he loved the smell of blood and the slogan of battle. By and by he invented gunpowder and keen blades, and killed his neighbor as a gentleman. He built houses, wore clothes, sent boats spinning through the deep, gave to the iron mass a heart of steam and the swiftness of the wind, took unto himself one wife and became her lord and pro
28
tector, wrote books and chiseled from the crude marble the form and grace of divine beauty. He touched his brush to the mellow hues of the sunset and reflected the forms and features of nature upon canvas ; he thrilled the world with music. He taught the blessed religion of Jesus Christ and then proclaimed that he had traveled the long hard way . from savagery to civilization, when in truth and in fact, waiving certain ancient atrocities, he had but traveled from the war club to the Gatling gun.
"We are Anglo-Saxons. We come from that sturdy ' band of heathens who dwelt in and about the northwestern coast of Europe, who worshiped Thor and Woden-'saw God in the storm and heard him in the wind'-and fought their neighbors and the forces of nature for a livelihood. The almost sunless sky, the swirling snow, the bleak crags of firths and fiords, keen and merciless winds-these were their enemies and chiefest friends. Each day was a strug- gle with the elements and in the earliest times each mouthful of food was the conquest of battle with the works of God. Is it strange that we should be fighting blood? The blood of the Northland, kindled and reddened by thousands of years of vicissitude, strife and turmoil, is the blood of a lion brood. It is that which makes the German fatherland. Eng- land's domination and the puissant glory of the American Republic. It was that blood which was spilled at Lexing- ton and up the slope of Bunker Hill; ushered in a summer southern morning with the boom of cannon on Sumpter; saluted the lips of mothers and wives and went to immortal honor. It was that blood that passed the sword of the Con- federacy to Grant at Appomattox, charged at San Juan, and 'into the jaws of death' at El Caney. It gave to the gunner the keen and unerring eye which made Dewey at Manila, and Schley at Santiago. And it is that same blood which is today following Lawton, the valiant, through the swamps and jungles of Luzon.
"Hero worship belongs to no particular country, time or age. It is of all times, all ages, and all countries. But, veterans of the Ninth Regiment. there has always seemed to me to be too much one-man worship and too little glory given to those hearts of oak who die in the trench. Who was it who made Napoleon. Grant and Lee? It was the peasant boy of France who left his sunny vinevard to die in ditch. and the boy in the blue and gray who left his mother's arms scarcely at the threshold of manhood to die in the death grapple of brother to brother.
29
"In the great world over, there are few stones laid one upon another to the memory of the common soldier and none to the memory of the mothers and wives who died a thousand deaths of privation, anxiety and despair at home. But it is with proudest emotions that I recall that it was left for our beloved state to build at the state capital one of the most majestic monuments in the world. On its shaft is not engraved the name of any hero general, but a simple inscription tells of the devoted memory of the living for the common soldier and sailor who died that his country might live."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.