USA > Indiana > Reunion of the 9th regiment Indiana vet. vol. infantry association, 1892-1904 > Part 37
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Veterans of the Union, as the survivors of that gigantie struggle, which meant so much, not only to your own country, but to civilization, you should be model men. And as such men we, citizens of Elkhart, feel at this time we only honor ourselves when we honor you, as we seek to do on this occasion, and we, therefore, extend to each one of you and yours, our heartiest welcome.
Soldiers, and even officers, often saw but little of a battle in which they were active participants; but comrades of the Ninth it was once my pleasure to witness a battle in which your regiment took a very creditable part. I refer to the battle on Lookout Mountain, the veritable "battle above the clouds." As a cavalryman stationed with my regiment on Moccasin Point just across the Tennessee River from Lookout, we were in fine position to watch the battle. We saw the Union line under Hooker climb the sheer heights of rugged old Lookout and pass into the clouds that hung several hundred feet below the mountain top. Both the charging line of blue and the opposing line of gray were for some little time hidden from sight by the clouds. We could tell, however, by the noise of battle that our men were climbing higher and higher, and at last we could see the men in gray slowly and stubbornly falling back above the clouds and the men in blue, crowding the men in gray closer and closer to the mountain top, also came into view above the cloud line. It was, my comrades, an inspiring sight to watch in the fading light of the evening the Ninth Indiana, and the other troops of Hooker's com- mand, gradually pressing on toward the Confederate works at the top, while over our men fluttered the stars and stripes. Darkness soon settled over the wonderful
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warlike scene and shut it out from our view. It was a sight one could never forget, weird and sublime. And the sight of Old Glory floating proudly from the moun- tain's crest the next morning was the inspiration that sent Thomas' army up the sides of Missionary Ridge that afternoon sweeping Bragg's army from its strong position in front of and surrounding Grant's army at Chattanooga.
In conclusion, I wish, my comrades of the Ninth Indiana, to fully impress upon your minds the fact that our people have a very warm regard for you, and you are, therefore, heartily welcome to Elkhart upon this occasion of your third meeting in this city.
The President announced that Hon. N. V. Brower, who was one of the faithful and always reliable soldiers of the Ninth, had consented, on short notice, to take the place of Capt. McConnell in responding to the welcome addresses. Comrade Brower said : Mayor GREEN, Col. DODGE, Ladies and Gentlemen :
On behalf of my comrades, and of General Suman, the President of the Ninth Indiana Veteran Associa- tion, I desire to express profoundest thanks for the double welcome we have received through the honored Mayor of this beautiful city and Col. Dodge, for the ex- soldiers of Elkhart. Your welcome, gentlemen, has been couched in eloquent words and we, of the Ninth, have occasion to know, from previous experience, how generously you will be supported by the good people, whose sentiments you have so nobly voiced. We also appreciate most highly your complimentary al- lusions to the old command whose services commenced with the opening gun of the Civil War and did not end until long after the last armed foe had surrendered.
It is, indeed, an inspiration to me to look into the faces of so many of the survivors of the old command as I see before me. Memory is busy with me. I see the long column as we filed out of Camp Colfax in '61 to go to the front. We were in the first flush of youth. The uniforms were new and unsoiled, the guns were
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bright and our flag and banners fresh and beautiful. The step of the men steady, firm and elastic; the align- ment of the platoons perfect, and on the faces of all you could read a full appreciation of what was before them, and the high resolve that carried the survivors through more than four years of mighty trial and abided with the dead we left on the battle field, or in the hospital, to the end. I look into their faces and see the loved comrades again with the battle-light there. I recall their heroism on many a field. I read the story of Cheat Mountain, Shiloh, Stone River, Chicka- maugua, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, the battles of the Atlanta Campaign, and many of the stirring incidents and hardships of the prolonged strife. You good citizens, are showing the appreciation of an in- telligent, patriotic and grateful people in the splendid reception that has been accorded us during the day, and in the exercises of this evening. It is worth much to us that in our younger days we did what we could that the people of to-day might have a united country and be able to enjoy the peace and prosperity which is our common heritage.
The home of my boyhood was not far from Elkhart. At intervals of some years apart, I have wisited this place. I have kept some trace of its rapid growth from the village of forty years ago, but the rapid strides of the last few years have been marvelous and the trans- formation scene wherein the city of to-day takes the place of the village the boys of Co. C left to fight for, is wonderful.
Comrades, we can now realize as our heads are whitening with the frost of many years, that the volunteer soldier who sprang to the defense of an imperiled country is receiving fair credit for the ser- vice he rendered, for the sacrifices he made and the terrible risks he took when manhood and patriotism was tried in the red-hot fires of the war of the Rebellion.
We shall soon follow our dead comrades and pass off the stage of action, but what we did and dared for our flag and country and humanity will remain an in- spiration to the young manhood of this Republic to an undying loyalty to our flag and country.
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When these dear little children, who look upon the old comrades of the Civil War as they gather at these enjoyable campfires with a glow of conscious pride upon their faces, have reached our age they will be telling their grandchildren of the great war for the Union, and that they saw and knew men who served in that war and heard them speak in reunion and sing their old war songs.
Over our crumbling forms in the flower-bestrewn cemeteries of a peaceful land these children will tell their little ones: "I knew some of these soldiers and heard them tell how their brave dead comrades fought for four long years to save our Republic from im- pending dissolution and to hand down to us and generations to come the beloved institutions of this grandest and best government ever instituted among men."
Looking back upon the historic pages wherein are recorded the achievements of the boys of '61 to '65 the younger men of this nation, in years to come, will be inspired to defend the Union of the States preserved to posterity by the soldiers of one of the most san- guinary wars ever fought since the dawn of time.
The Ninth Indiana claims no greater credit than is due other gallant commands from this state. Our regiment was in the fight from start to finish and it is but natural that we should speak first of our own regiment as we speak first of our own family. Our own tattered flag seems dearer to us because we fol- lowed in its lead when it was riddled by shot and shell, and it speaks mutely to us of what we passed through in the mighty contest of the Civil War.
Indiana has reason to be proud of all her soldiers and no more eloquent story can be told of the devotion of the Indiana soldier to his flag and country than to go to our State House and study the history of service told by their war-tattered banners.
I notice in this reunion the presence of more of the officers of the command than has been usual for a long time. I am glad of it. No regiment was more fortunate than the Ninth in its commanders and in the
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officers of the line. They won their spurs by the test of many a battle-field and worthily they wore them ever after. Not one of them but has the scars of battle, and no one of them but is remembered by us of the rank and file with highest regard for soldierly qualities which stood the test of camp and march and battle-field.
Again, Mr. Mayor and Col. Dodge, I thank you for my comrades and myself. My pleasant task is done.
A solo, "Guard the Flag," was very well rendered by Miss Bonita Slear, who sang so sweetly and handled a small silk flag so gracefully that she won very hearty applause from the old soldiers.
GEN. SUMAN said : Our friends, upon these occasions like to hear from the men who did the real fighting-the rank and file of our army. So I will announce as the next subject "the man behind the gun," and call upon Private Byron A. Dunn, of Company C, to respond.
COMRADE DUNN said: I knew Elkhart fifty years ago, and the Elkhart of to-day is so much greater and grander than the nice little village as I first saw it with my boyish eyes, that I can hardly persuade myself it is the same place. My family lived across the state line over in Michigan, but we came quite often to Elk- hart to do our trading. When I was quite a young man I taught a term of school in Elkhart, in the school house on Johnson street, and I have been wondering if any of my pupils are yet living in Elk- hart-at this point, a middle-aged gentleman arose in the audience and said: "I was one of your scholars." Later the one-time teacher and pupil had a chat of the old school days.
The speaker said : While I was a member of Company C, and proud of the fact, I did not enlist in 1861, when the company was organized for the three year service, but, after having twice enlisted in Michigan and sent home on account of my youth, I came over to Elkhart in the early days of April, 1862, and was recruited for the Ninth by Capt. Risley, and that time I was sworn
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in, and hurried off to the front as fast as locomotive and steamboat could carry me down South to the regiment, and joined it on the bloody field of Shiloh. just as it was going into action, and there I saw my regiment cover itself with imperishable renown, and thenceforth I was with the Ninth and participated in all its marches and battles until I was severely wounded in the first day's battle at Nashville, in December 1864. I was desperately wounded and suffered much and for a long time, but I have always been very proud that I was a young soldier in the ranks of the old 9th Indiana. Company C was made up of splendid young fellows, always ready for a soldier's duty. Gen. O. H. Howard once said to an army officer in my presence : "I never had under my command men who carried out my orders with so little grumbling as the Ninth In- diana." The Ninth had good officers, and the men were bright, brave, patriotic young men, and made ideal volunteer soldiers. Boys, we were good looking young chaps and did our whole duty in the war, and those of us who lived came home with a good record and clear consciences, and though the gray shows in our hair some, we are a pretty good looking lot of old boys now.
Comrade BROWER interrupting, said: "Dunn is now talking like a widower."
Whereat Dunn replied: Well I am. Just the other day I was reading of one of our American young women that paid two million and a quarter dollars for an English Duke-and I must say I think she could have picked up a much better, specimen of manhood among her own countrymen, for instance, among the good looking old fellows of the Ninth Indiana. I may just as well say to my comrade Brower that if any of my good looking country women want me I will throw off the matter of a quarter of a million dollars and she can take me for an even two million.
But joking aside, comrades, we are holding our own as to the matter of showing our age, and we don't want to grow old.
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While I was in some of the hardest battles of the war, in which my regiment took a part, it was never my privilege, but once, in all my soldiering, to stand off and see a battle fought. November 30, 1864, I had been detailed to help guard our wagon train, and standing on the walls of Fort Granger across the Har- peth River I saw fought the fiercest and bloodiest battle of the war. The battle of Franklin, Tennessee, a battle in which the loss of Confederate Generals was greater than any other battle not excepting Gettysburg.
I shall never forget the sight of that fierce clashing of arms, in that terrific assault of over thirty thousand of the bravest troops in the confederate armies, madly hurled against scarcely a third as many Union soldiers. The speaker described at some length the movements and the fighting that occurred while daylight lasted. I visited the battlefield of Franklin since the war and in speaking of the battle to a confederate officer, who was in the fight, he said to me, don't call it the "Battle of Franklin," it was not a battle, it was simply "a slaughter."
The PRESIDENT said: I am privileged by the com- mittee to now call upon the men I see before me. The 48th Indiana, to my personal knowledge, was a good regiment, and the 48th were as a regiment a fine looking body of men, and the regiment, I may say, had no finer looking soldier than our comrade Captain Del Cramp- ton, whom it is my pleasure to now call upon for a few remarks.
Comrade Crampton is considerably over six foot tall and has an erect military bearing, and his easy manner and ready wit makes him a favorite with any audience, We regret we cannot give his remarks in full -but he said, among other things, that at soldier reunions there was often really too much good speaking, and
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far too often, entirely too much poor speaking, and he often felt the audience were put to torture and kept on the rack unnecessarily long. He felt on this occasion as he was not a member of the Ninth he ought not "to break in." Inasmuch as my brother was a soldier in Company C my old friend and schoolmate, Major Jim Braden, to-day insisted on enrolling me as a "temporary recruit to the old Ninth."
Elkhart and I knew each other when we were both young. But Elkhart has grown clear away from me, and I feel all lost and all "broke up" when I try to hunt up old familiar faces, and places, that I knew so well forty or more years ago. I am in a sense a Rip Van Winkle waked up to find myself a stranger in the dear old place I once knew so well. After listening to these speeches to-night I suppose these little folks have got the idea in their tired little heads by this time, that Adam was the first man, Eve the first woman, and then came Noah and the flood and away a long time after the war of the rebellion broke out, and along came the Ninth Indiana and put down the rebellion. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I must tell you there were some other good regiments from In- diana. History will not fail to record the fact that the Indiana soldiers did not run in the Civil War. The Confederates said, in the beginning before they got personally acquainted with the Indiana soldiers, that Indiana could be "counted out of the fight," as her soldiers would be sure to run. When, however, the fighting came on, our brothers in gray found the In- diana soldier could, and would, fight, never fell back till he was ordered to.
As a soldier from this state, I am pleased and proud to say, no regiment from this state is entitled to any more credit than the Ninth Indiana. But the record of all our regiments is good.
Capt. Crampton spoke of his love for Elkhart, and read a poem which he had dashed off as an expression
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of his disappointment at not being able to attend a function like this held here some years ago. .
I've been to the Sunny South Land, And o'er battle fields galore, I've meandered through her cities As in the days of yore .; Have crossed her fields and rivers, In fact, most every point
Where as a soldier boy I wandered, When the South was out of joint;
But the place I always yearn for . Where'er I chance to roam, In all this wide, wide world, it seems To me the most like home, The place above all others I like the best to go, Is the dear old town of Elkhart, On the banks of the Old St. Joc.
I've splashed in both our oceans And our lakes both North and South ;
I've traversed all our rivers From their source unto their mouth;
I've climbed our highest mountains, And crossed our greatest plain ;
Been in all our great cities Time and time again;
But the place that holds my fancy Notwithstanding what I've seen,
The dearest, sweetest spot on earth In memory ever green,
Is where I spent my childhood With friends of long ago, The dear old town of Elkhart, On the banks of the Old St. Joe.
I've mingled with all classes In the busy marts of life; Hobnobbed with saints and sinners In their unseemly strife; I've conversed with famous statesman And great captains of our time; Worshiped with priests and prelates Of every creed and clime; But of all the genial souls That I have ever met,
With loving ways and open hearts I never can forget, Are the good old chums of boyhood, The ones I used to know In the dear old town of Elkhart, On the banks of the Old St.'Joc.
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I've read about a Paradise With its famous golden streets, And the Patriarchs of old If we go there we'll meet; I've read about that Eden Where Adam met his fate; I've read of good St. Peter Standing at the pearly gate;
I've read about those harps . That have a thousand strings
I've read of crowns and scepters And other lovely things; Yet if it's all the same to Him When I am called to go,
Leave me with old friends in Elkhart, On the banks of the Old St. Joc.
CAPTAIN TOM MADDEN was next called and responded with one of his brief, witty talks, saying it was too bad Crampton of the 48th Indiana should come in at a late hour and "bushwhack" the poetic laurels, when the fellows from the other wing of the Ninth, not born and bred on the "Old St. Joe," on just a very brief notice would have been able to salute the cars of the audience in appropriate verse showing that she "Old St. Joe" was not in it with "the Banks of the Wabash." Dunn is mistaken when he says it is the men that are good looking, I tell you it is the women that are good looking folks my dear brother ; you must be dreaming. Ladies of Elkhart are not to be excelled anywhere for being good looking. The older I grow the handsomer and more charming our women in this country seem to me. You young men can't love your wives too much, and the longer you live the more surely you will come to realize this.
Dunn has no patent right on being a widower, for I am right along with him in the same rank, and I may just as well say I am in the market the same as he is, and if there is a two million dollar widow in this hall that is willing to be a grandmother to nineteeen grand- children, I want her to stand up, for I am her Valentine. The Ninth had not only good looking men but plenty of as brave men as ever faced danger and death on a battlefield. Colonel Suman and Major Braden were both brave officers. And Captain McConnell was the
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coolest man in the battle I think I ever saw. I saw him at Chickamauga, making a speech to his boys of Company K when the bullets were whizzing by, he was telling them, "this is the time and place to end this war, stand your ground like men, and this day's work will end the Confederacy and you can go back to your old homes and loved ones up North." Why the cool- ness and earnestness of McConnell in making that speech was not only an inspiration to Company K but to all of us. The officers and men of the Ninth always seemed to meet fully the call upon them on every serious occasions.
Judge. E. VOLNEY BINGHAM, of Mishawaka, was called upon and said :
I am pleased to meet the citizens of Elkhart and the comrades of the Ninth Indiana on this very pleasant occasion. I am quite familiar with the history of the Ninth Regiment, and several of my best friends were members of the regiment. These comrades of the Ninth and comrades of other regiments here to welcome them to Elkhart, and these elderly men and women who are present can not forget the emergency that called into existence the army of the Union. We men who went later into the fight-my own regiment was an 1862 organization - were inspired by the courageous and soldierly example set by the seasoned veterans of 1861. The Ninth, by its hard fighting and splendid soldierly conduct in West Virginia and in the fiercely fought battle of Shiloh where it suffered so heavy a loss, had become famous as a fighting regiment, before the regiments recruited in 1862, joined it and the other troops of 1861 at the front. These men of the Ninth were the first to spring to arms as the patriotic and chilvarous defenders of the flag and the loved homes of their pioneer fathers and mothers, and when we recall the Elkhart of 1861, then but a city in embryo, and remember how our soldiers from this county fought to prevent the scourge of war from sweeping Northward to endanger Elkhart and the
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modest homes of our farming communities, and then contrast Elkhart as it now is, with what it was in war times and with the other beautiful cities and com- fortable homes in Northern Indiana, how much greater seems the incentive now to battle for our pleasant homes and happy surroundings than the pioneer towns and communities of the early sixties. After all it is because we are a nation of home lovers that we are so ready to and courageous in springing to the defense of home and loved ones, when a grave danger menaces our homes and our families. It is well my friends of Elkhart, to meet and by your presence and your praise and your good cheer, give these aging veterans to understand, that their manhood, their loyalty and their courage in the hour of national peril is not for- gotten and will not be forgotten by you or yours. This generous welcome you give to this fragment of one of the first and best regiments of your state is a promise, a pledge we may say to coming generations, that any defender of our nation's flag and her people in time of danger and of battle will always be welcomed with pride and gratitude, as these men are now being welcomed by you. Such occasions invariably enkindle in the hearts of the rising generation a higher and holier spirit of patriotism and implant in the heart of the youth of America a purer love of our country and our country's flag.
"Marching Through Georgia " was next sung with spirit. Mr. and Mrs. Milton Nash leading and the audience joining heartily in the chorus.
Major JAMES D. BRADEN, on being called to the front, said the people of Elkhart and his comrades of' the Ninth knew he was no speechmaker, and on this occasion he felt good speeches had been made by men more accustomed to speaking in public, and he would not tire the audience by trying to make them a speech. He however told a good story of Del Crampton coming to visit Company C while in camp near Chattanooga in 1863, and enjoying the hospitality of Braden and his
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messmates and lodging with them for the night. How well along in the night the tent caught fire and Braden woke up Crampton saying, "Here Del get up quick, our tent is burning up, Del, as he pulled himself to- gether and got out of the burning tent said: "Well I don't care if your derned old tent does burn up."
Capt. GEORGE K. MARSHALL, being called for, said: You will have to excuse me from attempting to make a speech. I will say, however, that we have been royally entertained here in Elkhart, and I know my old comrades all feel under obligations for the hospitality and the courtesy shown the Ninth Indiana on this occasion.
While I am on my feet I want to say, I had a little experience at luka. Mississippi, and I think it was a Company C man that bore me company on that occasion. I had heard the boys speaking of the wonder- ful springs just a little way out of camp, and I sauntered down to the springs and was looking at them, when up came a cavalry detail and ordered me and several other soldiers that were there to march up to General Nelson's headquarters, for being outside of the guard line without a pass. Altogether they had picked up about seventy-five of the boys and under the general's orders we were each given a rail to carry, and the guards paraded us up and down a path in a deep ravine close by the headquarters, and the sun was shining straight down into that ravine like a red hot ball of fire, and I got awfully hot, mentally and physically hot, and mighty tired of that job. I called a guard that was off duty and had him go up to headquarters and have Lieut. Frank Gross come and see me; the lieutenant was detailed at headquarters at the time. Well Gross came down and I told him I wanted him to get me out of that rail carriers parade, just as quick as he could, he first had to have some fun at my expense by telling me "I looked mighty well carrying a rail," but finally he went up to the general and got me excused, and none too soon to please me, I tell you. There were two of us from the Ninth carrying a rail, and, I think,
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