USA > Indiana > Reunion of the 9th regiment Indiana vet. vol. infantry association, 1892-1904 > Part 31
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in this report, in the list of those present, responded in the usual form, and quite a number made brief remarks. Inasmuch as the Secretary was engaged in calling the roll no minute was kept of these short speeches and hence are not reported. At the conclusion of the call of the roll motion was made and carried that the association take a recess until 7:30 P. M. sharp, that being the hour fixed for the Evening Campfire exercises.
All new arrivals were promptly assigned quarters at the homes of citizens, escorted to their places of assign- ment and made acquainted with their entertainers.
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Camp=Fire.
At the designated time the Century theater was crowded to its full capacity with citizens of Mishawaka, and visitors from South Bend, with the veterans of the Ninth massed in the front and center seats. A more orderly and attentive audience never greeted the old Ninth than upon this occasion. The local committee, as well as the regimental association, were not a little disappointed at the nonarrival of General Suman, and quite a number of the audience were also disappointed in not seeing the old leader of the regiment during the last half of the war. Subsequently it was learned that the cause of his absence was by reason of the wounds received at Stone River in his left shoulder and chest, causing him such suffering that it was not safe for him to venture out into the raw air prevailing during the reunion.
As arranged by the Local Committee and concurred in by the Executive Committee of the association, J. A. Roper. a well known business man and a veteran of the war, was selected to act as chairman and take charge of the camp- fire. After listening to stirring war time music by Eber- hart's Martial Band, Chairman Roper, in a few well chosen words, expressed his pleasure in taking part in a welcome to the surviving veterans present of the Ninth Indiana, and that as a business man and an ex-soldier he was gratified to have these old comrades of the war hold their meeting in his home city. But as another had been desig- nated to present, on behalf of the city, a formal welcome to the regiment, he would now proceed to inaugurate the Camp-fire, in the absence of the Chaplain of the Ninth. by calling upon Rey. Chesteen Smith, Pastor of the M. E.
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Church, to invoke the divine blessing. Rev. Smith, in a fervid and earnest appeal, besought the Supreme Com- mander to especially bless "this fragment of a once splen- did regiment of gallant defenders of the union and the flag, in their declining years, and to make those last years peaceful and happy years, in this fair land they had helped to save." A male quartette, composed of Messrs. Clinton Saltsgaber, C. A. Gatwood, G. A. Maurer, and H. G. Eg- gleston, were next called upon and sang "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground," in a manner very creditable to them and for which they received the applause of the audience.
Address of Hon. E. Volney Bingham.
Comrade Roper introduced Hon. E. Volney Bingham of Mishawaka and a veteran of the Forty-eighth Regiment, Indiana Infantry, who, in well chosen and eloquent words, on behalf of the citizens and ex-soldiers of Mishawaka, welcomed the Ninth as loved and honored guests, npon the occasion of their present regimental reunion. We can only reproduce the eloquent welcome of Comrade Bingham in part, as follows:
Comrades and Fellow Citizens:
The eloquence of the song to which we have just lis- tened brings with it memories that melt the heart of the soldier, and almost rob him of the power to speak .. Look- ing backward over the summit, that you and I, my com- rades, have long since passed in the pathway of life, I see looming up against the horizon of life's bright morning one of the grandest armies that has ever come into exist- ence on the face of the earth. Springing into existence from all of the various walks of life, coming from the hamlet and the village, from the field and forest, the plain and mountain side, the workshop and the office, differing from all the great armies of earth that have preceded, or succeeded, it, in the fact that it came into existence, not at the behest of any despot, not in obedience to the command of any monarch, actuated by no love of conquest, prompted by no greed for gain, but responding to the patriotic im- pulse of a Nation, rallying to the support of a common
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country, and to the maintenance of a common flag. From the earliest times in which mankind have waged war in the defense of organized society, in opposition to tyranny, or the enforcement of principle, justice and right, it has been the custom of those who were the beneficiaries of the ser- vice rendered to indulge in manifestations of their appre- . ciation of the patriotism and self-sacrifice of those who offered their lives if needed to maintain their institutions and guarantee the preservation of their homes. It is in emulation of this spirit, and for the purpose of expressing the patriotism and gratitude that wells up in the hearts of the good people of Mishawaka, that we welcome you as representatives of that great army to our community and our homes. There is a warm place in the hearts of our people for every boy that wore the blue, and the fact that time has furrowed your checks and whitened your locks, that years have robbed you of the sprightly step with which you followed the stars and stripes in Sixty-one, yet our debt of gratitude has not been obliterated, and we love to think of you in the pride and buoyancy of young manhood, and to associate you in memory with those who went with you to the struggle, and who, alas, have never returned, and never will return. To us most of those that remain of your grand okl regiment are strangers, but your his- tory as an organization of fighting patriots is familiar, and of all that grand army to which I have referred no regi- ment occupies a prouder place than yours, and your history is a legacy of patriotic pride to every community that con- tributed to its formation. Of the young lives offered as willing sacrifices by your regiment, I regret that I cannot speak. Their deeds are such as cannot be to often referred to, their example one that is worthy the emulation of every citizen of a free country. The names of those that. prior to their enlistment, were members of this community are indelibly stamped upon our history as a village, town, and city. The school-boy of to-day, whose heart thrills at the sound of martial music, and whose bosom swells with a patriotism that he hardly yet comprehends: the school- girl who hums the war songs, sung by your sisters, wives and sweethearts of forty years ago, know alike the names of Captain Houghton and Lieutenant Parks, Jesse Miller and Captain Pettit, Lieutenant Criswell and Lonis Holli- das. and others whose young lives ebbed out on Southern fields, and who sleep in unknown graves upon sonte moun- tain side, or 'neath the murmuring pine. Their names and
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memory are here enshrined, though committed largely to the sacred keeping of a generation unborn, when your country called, and you responded. The fathers and moth- ers who, with bitter tears, bade you farewell when you went forth, and who welcomed you with tears of joy ou your return, are here no more. Many of the comrades who were by your sides on the happy home coming are seen no more at your reunions. Year by year your lines are shortening here. Year by year your columns are lengthening on the other shore. But when the time shall come, as come it will, when none are left this side the great beyond, the history of the Ninth Indiana Volunteers will not be lost. It was your good fortune to form a con- spicuous part of that great patriot army, whose deeds are recorded in letters of living light. 1 thank God that you were volunteers. I thank God that you were citizen sol- diers and not warriors by profession. 1 thank God that we live in a country that can rely upon the patriotism and intelligence of its citizens, to perpetuate its institutions and maintain its honor against home or foreign foes. From colonial days until the present hour there is a wealth of precious memories clustering about the history of the vol- unteer soldier that is a pride and a priceless heritage to every patriot and true lover of his country. Comrades, forty years have come and gone since first you mustered as a regiment. What changes have been wrought, what history has been written within that time. The youngest of your comrades are now far advanced on the shady side of life. You that have so long been spared to reap the reward of your patriotic toil and are permitted to assemble here in fraternal reunion. I congratulate and welcome. May you be spared to enjoy many, many similar happy occasions. Of those of your comrades who have passed over, we would call none back. "Relying upon the triumph of eternal right, appreciating the valor of their deeds, the righteousness of the cause for which they fought, we con- fidently hope and believe that they are in the full enjoy- ment of a brighter reunion, and a better welcome, than we here extend-the welcome that awaits "the loyal, true and brave.".
On fame's eternal camping ground Their silent tents are spread, And glory guards, with solemn round, The bivouac of the dead.
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Response of Hon. Norman V. Brower.
Hon. Norman V. Brower. now of Madison, Ohio, late State Senator of lowa and Sergeant of Company I, of the Ninth, responded on behalf of the regiment, in part as follows:
Thronging memories come to me as I stand in this presence. Here, a pilgrim gray, I return to this, the home of my childhood and youth and early manhood, and before me now, in this magnificent opera house, is a large gath- ering of people who have decorated it with flags and bunt- ing and adorned it with the richest tribute of flower and trailing vine. What is the occasion? From all parts of the country, in response to an invitation from the people of this beautiful city, there are assembled with us here the renmant of a gallant old Indiana regiment, which won rare distinction in the Civil War. This is the occasion and this the beautiful tribute of the grateful, generous and patriotic people of this place. I look into the faces of the multitude before me and there are but few of the old-time days; but the sons and daughters of those days are here in large number and have brought with them the same feeling of interest and of patriotism which upheld the hands of president and congress and soldier in the stormy days of the Civil War. And before me, too, are gathered these, the comrades true and dear, of more than four years of active service in the great struggle. What an hour for memory! My friends, my emotions nearly overcome me as I attempt to make the response my comrades have delegated me to make to the noble address of welcome Judge Bingham has just delivered in the name of the people of Mishawaka. In the name of my comrades, and for myself, I now thank you, good citizens, for this cordial welcome, for the elaborate preparations you have made for our entertainment, and for the open doors that await us on every hand. It is all in keeping with the proud record Mishawaka has ever enjoyed for public spirit and hos- pitality.
To-night we are met under most favorable auspices. Mishawaka is confessedly on every hand one of the bright- est and best cities in the state; noted for its manufactures which find markets in every part of the globe; famed for the beauty of its location: the elegance of many of its
homes and the public spirit and enterprise of its citizens. I have to-day passed through miles of your streets to wit- ness only signs of prosperity; to look upon many pictur- esque and beautiful homes with evidences of contentment and plenty everywhere. I have looked to-day upon a brighter scene than came to my dreams of my old home as a soldier boy, or the fancy pictures of the future Misha- waka with which I whiled away the weary hours of the lonely picket, in forest shade or secluded glen. What a glorious transformation scene! The Mishawaka of olden time and to-day! How it all comes to me as I think of the anniversary we are celebrating. How different the situa- tion to-night, comrades, and that of just forty years ago to-night. Let us turn for a moment from our present brilliant surroundings to the darkness, save for the little fires by which we made some coffee on the rocky mountain slope, almost within gunshot of the enemy's fortifications, at Green Briar, West Virginia. The day's fitful struggle was over. Night brought a truce. We had not won against the fortifications, but all day long we had been under fire. We had received our first baptism of blood. Our dead and wounded had been removed from the field and by wagon and by ambulance were being transported back to Cheat Mountain. It was a wild, weird scene. Out in the valley there were dismantled cannon, broken guns, dead horses, and the general debris of a battle. The faces of the men were powder-stained. We were all worn out with the long march of the night before: the day's wild excitement and struggle, and knew a long march awaited us after the brief rest, to reach the camp we had left thirty- six hours before. But you read in the face of each com- rade determination and high resolve. It was not a beaten or routed army, but we had been repulsed. Can I describe the fatigue? Can I fitly pay tribute to the gallant sur- vivors before me of that day's call upon their fortitude and soldierly devotion? It is beyond the power of the brightest imagery or most eloquent tongue. That was the begin- ning of actual fighting on the part of the Ninth as a three- years regiment. Just let your imagination go again from the scenes before us to the scene just forty years ago to-night 1 have briefly and imperfectly tried to describe. That was the beginning. I have said, of actual fighting. The end came four years later. Four years! It is not for me at this time to go over the history of those years. Others will tell you of it. We are proud of it. It is written on
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the battle flags we brought home. It is written on tablets of stone on the field of every important battle of the army of the Cumberland, from Shiloh to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Nashville and Franklin. The Indianian who makes pilgrimage in these days to the old battlefields will find the "markers" of the Ninth Indiana in the fore-front of every important battle. "Honorable mention" came often to the regiment in official reports. In brief. my friends, this is the story. When these men came marching home at the end of the prolonged strife they brought to their state a record unstained, they had given their part to the noble contribution Indiana made of men and money to sustain the Republic. These few are the survivors of that grand old command. May these, the closing years of their part in this life, be as peaceful and happy as their more than four years of service were glorious.
Again, my friends of Mishawaka, and Judge Bingham Comrade Bingham -- for he was a gallant soldier of an- other Indiana regiment-1 thank you for your reception of my comrades and the honor you have done us.
Miss Mabel Williams next favored the audience with a piano solo. Miss Williams is an accomplished performer on the piano, and her fine rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" was most heartily applauded. A solo by Mrs. House, entitled "The Bugle Call at Gettysburg," in the singing of which the lady gave a vocal imitation of several bugle calls, won the keen appreciation of the old soldiers and secured for her an encore.
Captain McConnell's "Impromptu" Speech.
Judge McConnell, the pro tempore President of the Ninth Veteran Association, was next called upon by Chairman Roper under the item on the programme of short impromptu speeches.
Captain McConnell came forward and after acknowledg- ing the obligation to make a "short impromptu speech" with some difficulty (apparently), at last took from his coat pocket an immense roll of manuscript and remarked: "1 have an impromptu speech' right here with me, Mr. Chair-
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man." He then displayed the manuscript to the audience already becoming somewhat restless, with the remark that the document was a sketch of the battle of Stone River, prepared by him some twenty years or more ago, but he thought it would be quite new to the audience, at least to the most of them, and he could not do better perhaps than to read it then and there. He said the audience seemed to be quite good natured and patient. It might take three hours to read this impromptu speech but he hoped the people would do him the favor to "grin and bear it," but lest some of the weary ones might make a break for the door before he had finished, it might be as well to lock the door, and as he said this with apparent serious- ness a good part of the audience began to cast longing glances at the doors, as if contemplating an attempt at escape before it was too late. After keeping the audience in suspense for a few seconds the Captain began to roll up the formidable roll of paper, then returned it to his pocket. At this the audience began to breathe naturally again, and even to smile at the joke, and after saying he had made up his mind after all that the hour was just a little late for "impromptu speeches" he had decided not to inflict that one on them at that time. He then proceeded to say a few words upon the subject of the behavior of the Ninth Indiana at the battle of Shiloh. Inasmuch as General Nicar, a member of the Shiloh Park Commission, was present. at the request and upon an invitation of the regi- mental association of the Ninth, he desired, on behalf of his comrades, to fairly present to General Nicar, as one of the Commissioners from Indiana, the claims of the Ninth Indiana for recognition upon that battlefield. And he then entered upon a somewhat brief and hurried sketch of what the regiment did at Shiloh.
At Captain McConnell's request we omit from this re- port our abridgment of what he said, inasmuch as he is preparing a sketch of the services of the regiment in that battle, which will be much more accurate than what he said in that "impromptu speech" and which he agrees to
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furnish the association to be used in fairly presenting the claims of the Ninth to a just recognition of its services upon that field.
The quartette followed Judge McConnell's "im- promptu" effort with "My Old Kentucky Home," and their excellent rendition of this always popular melody evoked the heartiest applause.
The Corresponding Secretary was then called upon by the Chairman, and this is what Ed. A. Jernegan, editor of the Mishawaka Enterprise, had to say about our "impromptu" effort: "Secretary Alex. I. Whitehall of Chicago was called upon and responded with an eloquent and stirring little speech." We are quite content, Com- rade Jernegan, to have it so recorded.
Comrade Park's Remarks.
Horace Parks, an old-time Mishawaka boy and a vet- eran of Co. I, as well as a brother of the gallant Lieutenant . Seth Parks who fell at the Brotherton House in the first day's fighting at Chickamauga, was called upon, but as the hour was growing late and the audience quite restive, and some leaving the hall, we were unable to correctly catch all the remarks of Comrade Parks, who, among other things, said:
Why did you. my old comrades, fight so gallantly at Shiloh and upon other battlefields of the Union, and why did you and our brave, dead boys make the sacrifice re- quired of our Ninth Indiana and of every other good regi- ment in the army of the Union-sacrifices the most unsel- fish ever made by any army in the world's history? It was because you loved liberty, and the good old government established by our fathers. Because the homes of our boy hood were menaced by war, grim, destructive war, war the like of which the world had never known, and probably never, while time shall last, will the fearful con -. fict be paralleled in any age or in any part of the globe. Other wars of the century past dwindle almost to skir- mishes in comparison with the great Civil War in which we had a part.
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The comrade referred to the incident of the playing, by a confederate band, of Dixie, one night, as the two great armies lay upon their arms, facing each other, and to which the Union band responded with Yankee Doodle, to the inspiring strains of which the grandfathers of both the soldiers of the North and the South had rallied on the battlefields of the Revolution. Then a great hush fell upon both armies until a lone fifer broke the stillness of the night with the sweet strains of Home, Sweet Home, and the great heart of both armies responding to the wel- come strains caused federal and confederate bands both to join in one united refrain, and the sweet old song rang out in soulful melody from thousands of lusty throats on both sides of the line, and the soldiers in the blue and the gray at last lay down to dream of Home, Sweet Home.
"f am glad I was a soldier with you in the Ninth Indiana, and glad to be with you once more. Glad, too. that I am a citizen of the great state of Kansas. Kansas came into this sisterhood of states arrayed in the white robe of liberty. Kansas, my comrades, is a vast grammary, able to feed not only this Nation but several others thrown in. In spite of a devastating drouth, Kansas will make a most creditable showing, even this year, in the extent and value of her agricultural products. Kansas, my comrades, is all right: yes, and the little, sawed-off Fred Funston is all right, too. He does things. I wish you boys could join us in one of our big reunions of the great soldier state. Yon would hear the mention of the Ninth Indiana received with cheers which would satisfy you that our regiment is known, and has plenty of friends in Kansas."
The speaker referred to Mishawaka's proud record for loyalty during the war, referred to acts of individual hero. ism exhibited on the field by gallant young men reared in and around Mishawaka, and spoke very tenderly of many of his boyhood friends sleeping the sleep of the true and the brave in Southern graves.
At the conclusion of Comrade Parks' remarks, though it was expected and hoped that Colonel E. S. Nicar and others would be called for, it was deemed best to adjourn owing to the lateness of the honr.
At Chairman Roper's request the quartette sang, with vim. Marching Through Georgia, in which the audience joined. Thus ended one of the pleasantest and most suc- cessful camp-fires ever participated in by the Ninth Indiana.
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SECOND DAY.
The meeting was called to order at 9:30 .A. M., by Presi- dent McConnell, and the following business transacted:
The Corresponding Secretary called the roll of the sur- vivors of the regiment. as far as known, and urged that comrades present assist him with information as to correct addresses, removals and deaths, of members of the regi- ment, since the date of the last meeting. All officers and members of the veteran association, and particularly the Vice-President for each company, was urged to make in- quiry among friends and relatives of comrades supposed to be living, and, if possible ascertain their whereabouts, and promptly report to the Corresponding Secretary, and like- wise to keep him promptly advised of the removal or death of any members of the regiment. Inasmuch as many com- rades are living away from other comrades of the Ninth, the Secretary urged each comrade to request his relatives to promptly advise the Secretary, or other officer of the association, of his passing away. so that, as one by one the ranks are thinned, the surviving comrades may know those of the old Ninth who in each year have passed to the Life Eternal.
Lieutenant Helmick moved that a committee of three on resolutions be appointed by the chair. The motion pre- vailed, and the chair appointed as such committee Com- rades .A. S. McCormick, N. V. Brower and B. A. Dunn. Comrade Whitehall moved that inasmuch as the Business Men's association of Mishawaka had generously presented the regimental association portraits of three of our regi- mental commanders, Milroy, Blake and Suman, together with the elegant frames, that the chair appoint a commit- tre with power to have constructed. at the expense of the
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regimental association, a suitable box, or chest, in which to preserve these decorations, and other property of the asso- ciation, in the way of relies of the war, and in which to transport to and from future reunions, these regimental belongings. The motion was unanimously carried. and Comrades Alex L. Whitehall and H. O. Kremer were ap- pointed such committee, and authorized to procure such chest and defray the expense out of funds in the treasury of the association.
Comrade W. F. Avery of Co. I. exhibited several pic- tures of camps, etc., of the regiment, which, he said, he was pleased to donate to the regimental association. Later Mrs. Jernegan donated a couple of pen and ink sketches of Ninth Indiana camps which her father, Dr. Sherman, had preserved. It was moved and carried that each comrade of the regiment now living be requested to furnish the cor- responding Secretary, at his earliest convenience, a photo- graph of himself, taken either while in the service, or since, and, where possible, one taken of him as a soldier, and one taken in later years as a citizen. And also that comrades and friends and relatives having in their possession photo- graphs or other pictures of deceased soldiers of the Ninth, be invited to donate the same, or copies, to the association, and that such pictures be arranged by the Secretary in an album, or in some other suitable manner, for preservation and for the inspection of comrades and relatives, at future reunions of the regiment.
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