1 S 6 1 19 11 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE Fourth Iowa Veteran Infantry Dodge's Second Iowa Battery Dodge's Band AS GUESTS Society Army of The Tennessee COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA OCTOBER 10 AND 11, 1911 this 600^ has been digitized through the generosity of Robert O. Blissard Class of 1957 I University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign GRENVILLE M. DODGE First Colonel Fourth Iowa Infantry M. G. U. S. V. JAMES A. WILLIAMSON Second Colonel Fourth Iowa Infantry B. G. U. S. V. N. T. SPOOR First Captain Dodge's Second Iowa Battery Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/fiftiethanniversOOdodg JOSEPH R. REED Second Captain Dodge's Second Iowa Battery i86i 1911 FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY Fourth Iowa Veteran Infantry Dodge's Second Iowa Battery Dodge's Band AS GUESTS Society Army of the Tennessee Council Bluffs, Iowa OCTOBER 10 AND 11, 191 1 INTRODUCTORY The Society of the Army of the Tennessee invited the Iowa Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Fourth Iowa Veteran Infantry, Dodge's Second Iowa Battery and Dodge's Band to join with them in celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of their enlistment at their Forty-first Eeunion at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on October 10th and 11th, 1911, it also being the Fiftieth An- niversary of the enlistment of all these organizations in the Civil War. The State of Iowa, the City of Council Bluffs and the Com- mercial and Elks' Clubs also extended an invitation to all these or- ganizations. This booklet is compiled by Major General G-renville M. Dodge, giving the proceedings and addresses at the meeting of the Fourth Iowa Veteran Infantry, Dodge's Second Iowa Battery and Dodge's Band. o INVITATION The following invitation was given to the press and sent out to every known living member of the Fourth Iowa Veteran Infantry, Dodge's Second Iowa Battery and Dodge's Band: Council Bluffs, Iowa, April 22, 1911. To Our Comrades of the Fourth Iowa Infantry and Dodge's Battery. My Dear Comrade : — The Society of the Army of the Tennes- see and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of Iowa hold their next Eeunion jointly at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on October 10th and 11th, 1911. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee and the City of Council Bluffs have invited the survivors of th Fourth Iowa In- fantry and Dodge's Battery, known as the Second Iowa Battery, which was organized at Council Bluffs in June, 1861, and taken into the field by us, to meet with them in commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of our enlistment. We hope every living mem- ber of both organizations, with their families, will make an effort to attend. Arrangements have been made to take care of all the Fourth Iowa and Dodge's Battery members who attend, so their only expense will be the railroad fare. We enclose a postal on which please make known whether or not you can attend. Circulars giving full particulars will be sent you later. Also, please send us the name and address of any Comrade you know, of either organization. Truly, GrRENVILLE M. DODGE, Late Col. 4th Iowa Infantry. Joseph R. Seed, Late Capt. 2d Iowa Battery. Fiftieth Anniversary Fourth Iowa Veteran Infan- try, Dodge's Second Iowa Battery, and Dodge's Band The Fourth Iowa Veteran Infantry and Dodge's Band had their headquarters at the Neumayer Hotel — the Second Iowa Battery at the Kiel Hotel. At 1 :30 P. M. on October 10th, these two organizations assem- bled at the Neumayer Hotel, and escorted by the Dodge Light Guards, which are the successors of Company B, Fourth Iowa Vet- eran Infantry, and led by the Council Bluffs band, they marched to the Elks' Club for their Eeunion meeting. The hall was crowded. Major-General Grenville M. Dodge, the first Colonel of the Fourth Iowa, presided, and addressed the veterans as follows : ADDRESS OF MAJOR-GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE. Comrades of the Fourth Iowa Infantry, Dodge's Battery, Dodge's Second Artillery, and Dodge's Band: You have no conception of the pleasure and satisfaction it is to me to meet you on this Fiftieth Anniversary of our enlistment here at this place and going into the Civil War. If you look back to those years and then look forward and see what the growth of this country is, what its development is, and then know that it was your service and the service of all our Comrades that made this possible. When we go back to those years we think of nothing but war, we talk over our campaigns, our battles and our marches, and we never think of what the results of the war were. And that is what should be in the minds of all of you who have had the blessing of living these fifty years to see the development that has come in that time which under normal conditions without the war would have taken at least a hundred. That is the assertion of General Sherman. Now, my Comrades, I have written here a short statement of my service with you. I have condensed it because we have not very much time today. * It is a singular fact that the reports of your Regiment in the War Records do not give you justioo for what you have done. You will see that as I read my paper. There has been no history yet written of the Fourth Iowa, and the records in Des Moines are meager. I have written simply my own service with you and then given a short statement of your service from then on. I will read it to you. The Fourth Iowa Infantry was organized under the proclama- tion of the President dated May 3d, 1861. It rendezvoused at Coun- cil Bluffs and was recruited in the Counties of Mills, Pottawatta- mie, Cass, Fremont, Guthrie, Harrison, Monana, O'Brien, Adair, Shelby, Taylor, Polk, Decatur, Einggold, Warren, Madison, Dallas, Union, Adams and Wayne. The first Company to report was Com- pany A of Mills County. The second was Company B from Coun- cil Bluffs. This Company was organized in 1856 as the Council Bluffs Guards. Its first Captain was G. M. Dodge and it was the first Company to offer its services in the State of Iowa in the Civil War. This was on April 12, 1861. It was declined because it was a Company raised on the frontier for the ' purpose of protection against the Indians, and when the Civil War broke out the Governor thought it was necessary to retain it there on account of our being so near the Missouri state line. This Company maintained its or- ganization after the war and entered the Spanish war as Company L of the Fifty-first Iowa Infantry. On returning from the Spanish War it maintained its organization as the Dodge Light Guards as Compan L of the Fifty-fifth Begiment of the Iowa National Guard, which has the record for the longest organized military force in the State and having taken part in two wars. It honored us today by escorting us to this hall. The Companies began assembling at Camp Kirkwood, Council Bluffs, in June, but their organization and mustering in was de- layed on account of their being ordered in July to the Missouri state line to repel the threatened invasion of the rebel force of that state under Colonel Freeman. When they arrivd there, Freeman's forces disbanded or scattered, and so we returned to Council Bluffs. On August 8th, 1861, eight Companies moved by order of Gen- eral John C. Fremont to St. Louis and camped at Jefferson Bar- racks and on the same date were mustered in and immediately went to Bolla, Missouri. Companies I and K reached Bolla, Missouri, a short time afterwards, so the Regiemnt was all together. Its officers were : Colonel, G. M. Dodge ; Lieutenant Colonel, John Galligan ; Major, W. E. English; Adjutant, James A. Williamson; Quarter- master, Phineas A. Wheeler; Surgeon, M. W. Eobbins; Assistant Surgeon, W. S. Grimes. The Captains of the different Companies were as follows : Company A — Thomas H. Head. Company B — W. H. Kinsman. Company C — Thomas Seeley. Company D — George Burton. Company E — Henry H. Griffith. Company F — Henry J. B. Cummins. Company G — Samuel Eice. Company H — Elmer Y. Burgan. Company I — William E. Taylor. Company K — Joseph Cramer. The regiment at Eolla was only partially uniformed. It was armed with the old Prussian muskets, and when they were fired, thirteen of them bursted. It was with great difficulty that I obtained the clothing necessary to put the regiment in presentable order. I had to go to St. Louis myself to obtain the clothing, arms, equipment, etc. While we were lying at Eolla there were all kinds of reports sent to General Fremont of the enemy being in our front, and it kept me sending out detachments all the time to ascertain the truth. You will remember our march across the Gusconade, wading it on a cold, sleety day. I knew when the reports came to me that there was no truth in them, as I had scouts scattered over Southwest Missouri of Captain White's independent company to keep me posted. I used to answer these reports by stating that there was no enemy near us. Finally General Fremont ordered me to report to him at St. Louis. I went there and reported to his Adjutant- General. I stayed there two days without being able to see him, then came back to Eolla. I had hardly reached Eolla when I received a telegram from General Fremont asking me why I had not reported. I answered that I had been in St. Louis 'two days and could not see him, and had returned to my command. I made up my mind when I went to St. Louis this time T would nol reporl to the Adjutant-General or his staff officers, so I took a package of papers in my hand, and at the Thomas II. Bentop residence 1 walked up the steps, pushed by the guards who slopped me, and walked in and reported to General Fremont. My interview with him did not indicate really what he wanted of me. 1 explained to him fully that there was no enemy, as far as I knew, anywhere —9— within our reach, and also that we were very anxious to move when he moved upon the enemy, but as you know, when he marched to Springfield he left us at Rolla, taking only one regiment away from us. The regiment remained at Rolla until January 22, 1862, when it became a part of the Army of the Southwest, commanded by General Samuel R. Curtis. While there it built very commodious log barracks for each company and its officers, and while we were complimented very highly for building these barracks, it has always been a question in my mind whether we had not better have stayed in tents. Those of you who were there know that our hospitals were full of boys with every possible disease — measles, mumps, pneumonia, and in my experience during the war, I find that the boys were more healthy in tents than in barracks. You will all remember that when at Rolla, and whenever I had an opportunit}r, I drilled the regiment thoroughly. I took it out, exercising it in firing, in movements, and even taking it through the brush and timber so as to give them practice in any condition they might meet. The boys protested and complained a great deal. The other regiments got no such drilling, and the Fourth Iowa thought that there was no necessity for it. They wore out their clothes and shoes, and they had very little use for their Colonel at this time, but when they had an opportunity to see how much benefit this drilling was to them when they got into action they looked differently upon it. The Army of the Southwest was organized in January, in which the Fourth Iowa was a part of the First Brigade, commanded by Colonel G. M. Dodge of the Fourth Division, commanded by Colonel E. A. Carr of General Curtis' army. We moved to Spring- field, Missouri, and lined up in front of that city about 3 o'clock A. M., supposing that the enemy was in the city. General Seigle, who was on the extreme right, opened his canon. I put out a skirmish line, Company E of the Fourth Iowa, to find the enemy, and about one hour later I tried to find them, and not being able to do so, I was greatly alarmed, thinking perhaps they had fallen into the hands of the enemy, but Company E had skirmished into Springfield and captured it, and about daylight they came out mounted on a lot of crobates, mules, etc., which the enemy had left there, and with all kinds of toggery on them, to the great amuse- ment of the regiment. From there we followed General Price in his retreat; he halted — 10— at every stream and we lined up to fight him. The boys stripped off their knapsacks, threw away their provisions which they had foraged until about the third time that we lined up. When I called upon the boys to strip, several hollered out to me, "No you don't, Colonel ; we ain't going to lay down anything now. We have fed that Thirty-fifth Illinois long enough." The Thirty-fifth Illinois were following us, and, of course, gobbled up all tlje chickens, sweet potatoes, etc., which the Fourth Iowa had thrown down. On this campaign we had as our quartermaster Captain Phil Sheridan. When he first came to us at Eolla he came to me as Commander of the Post and asked me to issue an order stripping every regiment of its transportation, leaving, I think, two wagons to each regiment. I issued that order and it brought a protest from every command at Eolla; they not only protested to me but they telegraphed their Governors and members of Congress protest- ing against the outrage. I saw that I had a difficult problem on my hands. Captain Sheridan was watching to see how I would solve it — whether I would "lay down" or carry it through. I went out and stripped my own regiment first, turning over all the wagons except two or three. They made no protest. Then I called upon the others to do the same, sending a very sharp note to the com- manders of the regiments, and they followed suit. My action pleased Captain Sheridan very much. On our marches Captain Sheridan fed us by calling for details from each regiment in all the commands, but the Germans refused to make the details and General Curtis did not seem disposed to enforce it, so that Sheridan, who generally tented with me, would finally come to me and I would detail for him out of the Fourth Iowa to make up what he was lacking. Sheridan showed his great ability as a soldier in the way he fed us. He had details out at every mill. He foraged over the country for fifty miles, and it was sparsely settled. Even if you travel over it today you will wonder how 12,000 men could be supplied as they marched through. You know our army had to be fed mostly off the country. We had no railroad or water communi- cations and we marched four or five hundred miles into the enemy's country. Sheridan in his Memoirs pays a very high compliment to you. He says: Colonel G. M. Dodge so greatly sustained me with General Curtis by strong moral support and by Buch efficienl details from —ll— his regiment — the Fourth Iowa Volunteer Infantry — that I shall bear him and it great affection and lasting gratitude. You will remember the midnight march on March 5th, 1861, from the Cross Hollows back to Sugar Creek; that there was snow on the ground; that it was a cold, sleety night, and the boys set fire to the old deserted log houses to warm themselves by, and that- on the morning of March 6th we lined up behind Sugar Creek and commenced entrenching and slashing down the timber. About 4 o'clock that afternoon one of my scouts, belonging to Captain White's Independent Company, came to me and informed me that the enemy was moving north on the Bentonville and Cassville road; that there was a deep ravine which the road passed through which could be blockaded by felling timber in it. I went to General Curtis immediately to report these facts, and he ordered me to take part of my command and one company of the Third Iowa Cavalry and blockade the road. It was night when we started. I took the Fourth Iowa and these two companies of the Third Iowa Cavalry with me, and the scout guided us. Two companies under Captain Nichols got lost on the march and crossed the Cassville road. The rest of us followed the road to the ravine and felled the timber on each side of the road for a long distance until it was completely blocked. When we returned about midnight we could hear the enemy coming, and I was fearful they would cut off the two Fourth Iowa companies, but Captain Nichols found they had missed us and returned to camp before the enemy came up. General Sterling Price in his report said that the blockading of this road held him until after daylight, as they had no tools or axes to clear the road, which prevented him from attacking us as planned at daylight. I was so sure that the enemy was in our rear that when I went to the conference of officers at the little log schoolhouse, you will remember I took my brigade with me so that when General Curtis heard the firing near the Elkhorn Tavern between 8 and 9 o'clock that morning, he saw my command and asked whose it was, and when I answered he ordered me to proceed to the Elkhorn Tavern and see what this firing meant. I soon discovered that there was a large force of the enemy in our rear, and Colonel Carr, who was with us, sent for his whole division and this opened the battle of Pea Eidge. Wherever I put the regiment during those three days, there it stood. General Price, with three times its number, could not move it. He sent word to me by Hospital Steward Baker complimenting —12— the "black-coated fighters/' as he called them. Of course, we were all inexperienced and did not know when we should have gotten out. The enemy was around both of our flanks and in our rear, when Colonel Carr fell back from the Elkhorn Tavern with the Second Brigade; the regiment had no knowledge of it, and when I sent Adjutant Williamson back afterwards to the Elkhorn Hotel, where the other brigade had been fighting, he ran into the enemy and a whole regiment fired at him, but fortunately did not hit him. During the battle part of the Eighth Indiana and Third Illinois Cavalry were sent to our aid and fought gallantly. When we moved out, about dark, having expended all our ammunition, we passed right by one column of the enemy, they supposing we were a part of their force. You all know when we got back to the new line formed by the Second Brigade and Asbooth's command, which had been brought there, that General Curtis met you and ordered the charge. You charged back over the field you had fought over, the enemy having left it, as well as ourselves. At the Battle of Pea Eidge, in which this regiment fought three days and so greatly distinguished itself, its loss was greater in killed and wounded than that of any other regiment in that army, and there came in the benefit of all the discipline and drilling they had had, for during the battle, and after it, every man was accounted for. There were no stragglers. The Adjutant, Lieutenant J. A. Williamson, makes the following report of its action during those three days : "On the morning of the 7th of March it was known that the enemy were advancing and attacking our army in the rear, when the regiment, in pursuance of orders from Colonel Dodge, marched about two miles from camp and took position near the Elkhorn Tavern, on the right of the brigade, and to the right of the Spring- field road going north, near the southern outlet of the Ozark Pass. Two companies were deployed as skirmishers to the front, and soon became desperately engaged with the enemy, who poured shot, shell and minie balls into their ranks incessantly for two hours, but owing to the dense timber our loss at this poinl was not very great. The left wing of the division, and also the left of Colonel Dodge's Brigade, was now desperately engaged. Colonel Dodge ordered his lines to be closed, and waited the attack, in the meantime keeping his skirmishers and one section of the First Iowa Battery at work until about 2 o'clock, when the enemy ceased firing and drew back. Colonel Dodge changed front to the right, which left the regiment —13— on the extreme right of the brigade, as well as of the whole army. The line being formed and our skirmishers drawn in and in their places in line of battle, the regiment, in common with others, awaited the concentrated attack of the enemy, whom we saw pre- paring for it. We did not wait long. The attack was made with apparently ten times our number, accompanied with the most ter- rific cannonading with grape, canister, solid shot and shell. For fully 'three hours the regiment stood under this terrible fire, which dealt death to its ranks. The regiment being flanked on the right by a greatly superior force of the enemy, and their artillery being in a position to completely enfilade its fields, leaving the left exposed, which was also flanked, it was compelled to fall, hard pressed by the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, to the open fields, where it was met by General Curtis, who ordered it to fix bayonets and charge back upon the enemy, which it did gallantly, eliciting from the General in his official report this highest meed of praise, 'This regiment won immortal honors/ It being now dark, and the enemy having ceased firing, the regiment, after having lost in killed and wounded almost one-half of those actually engaged, marched back to camp, partook of a scanty repast, and immediately commenced preparations for the deadly conflict impending for the succeeding day, filling their cartridge boxes and cleaning their guns, which had become very foul. This being done, the regiment was marched back and bivouacked on the field until daylight, soon after which the fight was resumed by artillery. "The regiment took its place again to the extreme right, march- ing forward in line of battle, pursuing the enemy, who commenced retreating early. It pursued the enemy until it had orders to halt. Soon after this, orders were given to march back to the battle-ground of the previous day and go into camp. The mention of individual acts of bravery could not be made without being invidious. "General Dodge in his report of the brigade says : 'The list of. killed and wounded in the brigade shows that it fought against fear- ful odds and disputed the field with great stubbornness ; every field officer in the brigade was disabled and had to leave the field, and only two lieutenants were left in the battery/ "General Curtis in his official report says: 'The Fourth Iowa Regiment won immortal honors/ " I think you who were at Pea Ridge know on your left was the Thirty-fifth Illinois, and that the Indians attacked that left. I knew something about Indians and when the Lieutenant- — 14 — Colonel called by attention to them I told him to turn a gun on them. I knew one fired at them would dispose of them. After that we never had any trouble from the Indians, although they scalped, I believe, one of the Thirty-fifth. I remember a boy badly wounded. As he come off the field he wanted me to get off my horse. Then he says, "Colonel, don't give up; you stick to them; you will whip them yet." What that boy said to me gave me a great deal of courage, and I have never been in a battle yet in a tight place but I thought of what he said — "Stick to them" — and I have followed his advice. Colonel Carr sent an order to me during the first part of the battle by Lieutenant Shields, Company A, I think. He had been detailed on Carres staff, and he came to me, and as he handed me this order he rode up alongside of me and both of our horses stood almost level, and as he handed me the order both horses fell dead. It is very seldom you see a horse fall in battle that he doesn't rear. I was quick — you boys all know that — and I jumped free of my horse, but Shields' horse fell on him. I did not notice Shields. I was looking out for myself, and I walked away, when Shields said, "Colonel, you are not going to leave me in this fix, are you ?" I went back and got Shields out. I never saw those horses myself after that, but Colonel Williamson, who examined them, said that in all probability one bullet killed both of those horses. It cut right through the necks, so that the horses went right down. My own admiration for your fighting and action in this battle is in the War Eecords. I was the only field officer in my Brigade who remained on the field ; all others were killed or wounded. I think all of you have had my booklet which has in it my full account of the Pea Eidge campaign. If there are any who have not received this booklet, by giving me your address, you will receive a copy of the same. This was a remarkable campaign. The battle was so decisive, following the Battle of Wilson's Creek, in both of which the enemy far outnumbered our forces, that it virtually relieved Northern Arkansas and Missouri from any permanent occupation by Con- federate forces. The campaign was ably handled by General Samuel E. Curtis, and his victory was a complete one. I have never thought General Curtis received the proper credit for it. People seem dis- posed to divide the credit with General Seigle, who, in fact, had very little to do with it. After the enemy fled towards White River we followed them and were capturing portions of the enemy and —15— their transportation when we received orders from General Curtis to return to the battlefield to hold it. General Seigle's whole com- mand had started towards Cassville, and Seigle advised Curtis to fall back as the enemy might return. The battle was won through the fatal mistake of the enemy dividing its army, sending Price to our rear, while General Van Dorn fought us on our west flank. Their forces, divided by the great Pea Ridge, were not within sup- porting distance, and when McCulloch and Mcintosh fell in General Jeff C. Davis's fight, the Arkansas and regular confederate troops fled south, leaving only Price's command for us to fight on the third and last day. I was severely wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge and left you and saw you only occasionally during the war. It is a singular fact that the records carry the most meager report of all your marches and battles, more so than of any regiment in the War. The officers did not seem to have given it the attention they should have in their reports. Three or four years ago, when the Iowa Legislature ordered printed a roster of the Iowa soldiers in the Civil War, Colonel George W. Crossley, who had charge of it, appealed to me for a history of the Fourth Iowa. I could only give him that part which I had personal knowledge of, and he compiled the report as shown in those records. He sent it to me for correction, and I instructed him to send it to Colonel S. N. Nichols, but for some reason your colonel did not pay any attention to it. During all your campaigns I received letters from Colonel Williamson and other officers telling of your marches and battles, and I have gathered from them a short account of you from Pea Ridge to your muster out, which I will read: After the battle of Pea Ridge, the regiment remained in camp for several weeks. Colonel G. M. Dodge was promoted to Brigadier- General for services in the Battle of Pea Ridge. Adjutant James A. Williamson was made Colonel and Captain Burton succeeded Lieutenant- Colonel Galligan as Lieutenant-Colonel. The regiment moved slowly during the summer to Helana, Arkansas, where it spent a greater part of the summer and autumn of 1862. It subsequently joined General Sherman's army in a movement down the Mississippi River against Vicksburg, in which it bore a most conspicuous part. On December 28th and 29th it was in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. In this battle it made the memorable charge on the enemy's entrenchments at Chickasaw —16— Bayou, and though for want of adequate support it was repulsed, it accomplished deeds of bravery which enlisted the admiration of the entire army. In less than fifteen minutes Colonel Williamson and 111 soldiers were numbered among the killed and wounded. General Thayer, who commanded the brigade in this celebrated charge, in his official report of the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, says of the conduct of the Fourth Iowa Infantry, both officers and men, throughout this terrible ordeal, that "it is worthy of the highest praise. As they pressed steadily and bravely forward there was no flinching; they entered the enemy's works in splendid style, and Colonel Williamson, moving at the head of his column, by his coolness and courage, won my unqualified admiration. He was struck by three balls, but was not severely wounded, and remained on the field the balance of the day/' For its bravery at this battle, General Grant, in general orders, authorized it to insert on its banner, "First at Chickasaw Bayou." Comrade John C. Jamison, in a letter, gave this description of the fight : "The Fourth Iowa was ordered to take its place in line of battle in Sherman's charge in front of Vicksburg on the 29th day of December, 1862. We had advanced to the point when we were quietly awaiting the order to charge that long and impregnable line of defense from which came pouring into our ranks a constant and deadly fire of 100 beseiging guns, and it was in this trying hour that the lion-hearted Williamson came riding down the line in great haste, through this storm of shot and shell, and called me out of the ranks and ordered me to throw away my musket and knap- sack and hunt up a horse and act as Adjutant, as the office appeared vacant, that officer having gone to the rear at this critical hour. I found a horse running loose in the First Iowa Battery, but a saddle and bridle could not be found, but a good strong hitching strap answered the purpose of both, and I was soon at Colonel William- son's side. Bravely and well the noble little steed carried me safely through the fight. In that dreadful suspense, awaiting the order to charge, when my heart almost failed me for want of courage to meet such a hopeless task, my horse pawed up the ground and was eager for the fight, and this gave his rider courage to meet the foe, and, casting my eves down the line of that sturdy regiment of ours, as it moved forward with a firm step, and a steady purpose, following the flag of our Union into the very jaws of death and the gates of hell, like at Balaclava, ii was theirs to do or die. You know the dreadful repulse we met at the cannon mouth and the —17 — nature of the conflict, but we fell back in good order, but not all of us. My records show a loss of 112 men in twenty minutes for the Fourth Iowa. I got out without a scratch. "Lieutenant Miller was killed at the battle of Chickasaw Bayou under a shower of shot and shell. We attempted to rescue Lieu- tenant Miller, who had fallen on the hillside within the rebel line. We could hear his cries for help, but all our efforts to rescue him proved unavailing. Late in the evening, as we gathered around the campfire, we decided that he could not be saved. Our hearts sank in sadness at the thought of losing our brave and heroic Comrade. At this moment there stepped to the front a great, stal- wart, muscular negro, who had escaped from slavery, and had been hired as Lieutenant Miller's cook a few weeks previous. He asked if that was our final decision. Receiving an affirmative reply, he immediately threw aside his hat and coat and rushed into the very jaws of death and carried out on his back, single-handed and alone, that dying soldier to a place of safety. That brave act on the part of that devoted negro has always had a claim for my respect and demanded that something be done for his race. During three years' service in the front in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, I have never seen a disloyal man with a black skin/' After Chickasaw Bayou the regiment returned with General Sherman's command to Arkansas Post,' where it took part in that battle at which time several thousand rebel soldiers surrendered unconditionally to the Union Army. Comrade Jamison describes this in a letter thus : "Our regiment landed the 9th day of January, 1863, on the banks of the Arkansas river, below the rebel fort, out of range of their guns, and began a march late in the evening through swamps and brush ; the weather was cold and chilly and the entire night was occupied in surrounding the fort; when daylight appeared we had completely encircled their defenses, and without preparing a bite to eat, we were ordered at sunup to advance on their works. We soon found their position strongly defended in our front by two batteries of 10-pound parrot guns, and strong entrenchments from which a vigorous fire was poured in upon us all day; but, fortunately, we were in a thickly wooded section and suffered but slight loss, as by our method of fighting every man was expected to cover where an opportunity offered. By 4 o'clock in the afternoon of the 10th of January we had advanced so close to their works that our sharp- shooters finally silenced their guns by picking off every man who —18 — attempted to load or operate them. So when the order came to charge, 20,000 men in a solid line came on with a yell, and the brave defenders of a bad cause ran up the white flag and sur- rendered their little army of 5,000. "We had lost all our baggage and most of our camp equipage in the repulse at Vicksburg, two weeks before, so I had not had a change of clothing for nearly a month, and I was literally covered with vermin. Seeing a camp kettle filled with boiling water, 1 took off my wool shirt and boiled the life out of every greyback, and then hung it up on a stick at the fire to dry and went in search of something to eat. When I came back nothing could be seen of the shirt except about six inches of the sleeve. It had fallen into the fire and was entirely consumed. Finding myself cold and shivering without a shirt, I started through the regiment on a hunt for one, but every Comrade reported only one on hand and that on their backs. Finally I heard of a man in one of the companies who had just returned from a furlough, and had the only knapsack in the regiment. Fortunately he had an extra shirt and very cheer- fully handed it to me when I told him of my misfortunes. "On our return to the boats the rain and sleet continued to pour down upon our unprotected heads as we trudged upon our way. The march continued until 10 o'clock that night, when we came to the landing, but our boat had not arrived, so we were ordered to bivouac for the night. Tired and hungry, we wrapped ourselves in our blankets and laid down to rest, but we were all so wet and cold we could not sleep — marching all the night before, through swamps and in battle all day, with nothing to eat but hard bread and a chance cup of coffee, and at last to lay clown in our wet clothing after a long, fatiguing march, that night seemed more than the human body could endure. "About midnight the rain changed to snow, and, strange to say, we soon fell asleep. The coming of snow seemed to shut ovit all the wind and cold. When that army rose in the morning that broad plantation was dotted over, as far as the eye could see, witli spots of bare ground where the soldier had laid under his covering of snow, like so many cattle that had laid out at night in a snow- storm. That morning the fence rails served a good purpose — and the fire built of them warmed that army into life. Soon the boats appeared and our regiment was ordered to take the deck of the John J. Roe. We soon steamed down the river — but the decks of the boat were covered with ice, which we could not remove, and —19— the motion of the boat added to our discomfort by increasing the force of the cold winter winds from which we had no protection. That night we reached the Mississippi, and it grew colder. Some wood was obtained which we burnt in small pieces in our camp kettles on deck of the boat to warm our hands and make coffee. An officer of the boat became alarmed for the safety of his craft, rushed up and began emptying the contents of the camp kettles overboard. We in turn seized him, and had he not desisted would soon have found himself in the muddy waters of the Mississippi. That night we laid down to rest and the heat of our bodies drove the frost from that icy deck in spots where every man had laid, but when wt reached Young's Point, opposite Yicksburg, of our 500 men 400 were reported on the sick list." Comrade Jamison gives the movements of the regiment until its final move to the rear of Vicksburg, as follows : "On the 1st of February, 1863, General Grant, commanding the army in front of Vicksburg, made his appearance among us and gave us confidence. The high water had broken the levee on the Mississippi side and overflowed the country for many miles and gave our boats an opportunity to go out for many miles inland. Gunboats accompanied our transports far into the interior, navigat- ing Steel Bayou, Black Bayou, Deer Creek and the Big Sunflower. These expeditions were sent out in the hope of reaching the Yazoo river above that impregnable position, Haynes' Bluff, so that Vicks- burg could be attacked in the rear, but every effort in that direction failed. No other man except Grant would have undertaken a movement of so much peril. In many places trees had to be cut off under water to make a channel through dense forests and many of our boats came back minus their smokestacks and otherwise damaged. Heavy details were then made to work on the canal across the Peninsula opposite Vicksburg. The river front at Vicks- burg was fortified for ten miles with guns of large caliber, and it was believed that by cutting this canal through the channel of the river would be diverted and our fleet could pass through it and avoid the rebel forts. The work went on all through February and March, but the rebels, discovering us at work, planted a large gun on the opposite side of the river from the lower end of the canal and soon obtained complete range. I happened to be standing near by watching the progress of the work on the canal the morning they opened fire, and the way those big shells came crashing through —2 0— the treetops over my head caused me to make a hasty retreat to a point of safety. "Our regiment was surprised one night when we were all asleep. The levee had broken and the floods came in upon us, and we had to wade out through the cold, muddy waters for half a mile to higher ground on the levees and stay there until daylight came to show us dry ground on which to pitch our tents. A slight raise in the ground near the steamboat landing offered a place for our camp, but the place turned out objectionable, as the hospital boat came there every morning and unloaded the dead to be buried in the levees. Sometimes the rough boxes containing bodies of our unfor- tunate comrades would be piled up eight feet high awaiting burial. The interment was made by a detail every day. Side by side they were buried in the levees. "One of the worst afflictions we suffered at that time was scurvy, a disease that comes from a lack of vegetable food. Many poor fellows lost their fingers and toes from this terrible disease. Hard bread, coffee and bacon was our daily food. We were so' far away from our base of supplies that nothing but the substantiate could reach us, until at last some noble-hearted man hearing how we were suffering from scurvy purchased with his own means in the Chicago market a whole trainload of potatoes, onions and cabbage and for- warded them to us. I shall never forget the relief and enjoyment that brought to us. "In passing through all these trials and privations of camp life, it was a noticeable fact that there was very little complaining. To illustrate the magnificent temper of the American soldier, I will give an instance to show how quickly they will turn a discomfort into a joke. One night, the 29th of March, 1863, our regiment was wrapped in slumber when a terrible hurricane struck our camp and hurled our tents into the air and poured in upon our unpro- tected heads a shower of cold rain. Some witty fellow started up a loud lamentation how he had left a good home, etc., etc., and this started the fun, turning our distresses into hilarity and good feeling — in the midst of the confusion. The Sergeant-Major of the regi- ment stepped up to me and remarked, 'That scene is wonderful. The American soldier is the only soldier in the world who will laugh at his own calamity/ "On the 2nd day of April General Steel's division, of which the Fourth Iowa Infantry was a part, embarked on the Fanny Ogden and took our course up the river, arriving at Greenville, — 21— Mississippi, on the 5th inst, where we disembarked and made a raid out into the country. At this point the rebel cavalry came in fre- quently and fired at our boats, and the information had come to General Grant that large quantities of corn and provisions were being drawn from this locality to Vicksburg to support the rebel army. On the night of the 5th we camped eighteen miles from Greenville on Deer Creek, in a canebreak. Next day we followed the banks of Deer Creek all day long — both shores were lined with stately trees, the branches bending to the water. The stream was deep and sluggish. The bright rays of a southern sun were bringing to life the green leaves. Birds of rich plumage sang their spring songs, and the fields were beginning to bear their coat of green and the broad fields in each passing plantation were being tilled and worked by the slaves of the master. As we followed the winding road so broad and beautfiul and level all day long, I looked with envy on the many comfortable homes, and then as I cast my eyes to the other bank of Deer Creek and saw the vast multitude of negroes who had escaped from their masters and were trying to get to us, I thought of Harriet Beecher Stowe and her ' Uncle Tom's Cabin/ " The movement of the regiment is now given in Comrade Jamison's diary as follows : "May 1st. Marched from Milliken's Bend, direction of Grand Gulf. Boats run the batteries last night. "May 2nd. Large bodies of troops moving. Grant's army reported to be 50,000 strong; great activity and excitement. "May 3rd. Marching all day through swamps and over cordu- roy bridges. "May 9th and 10th. Marched and countermarched; saw thou- sands and thousands of our troops; the road strewn with broken wagons, muskets and knapsacks of the retiring foe. Dead horses, cattle and hogs thrown into all the creeks, wells and springs to destroy the water. Very warm and dusty and suffered terribly for water; on one-quarter rations. "May 11th. Our arm^ received news of the capture of Freder- icksburg with 12,000 prisoners by Hooker. "May 12th. Heavy cannonading in front. Some men of New York regiment came in with their ears cut off by the rebels while foraging. "May 13th. Marched at sunup. No breakfast. Made a raid on a fine mansion, found Sherman in the house when I entered. —22— Ordered to the support of McPherson at Battle of Raymond. Enemy 5,000, but were quickly routed and driven in direction of Jackson. Fourth Iowa man found a brother on the field wounded. "May 14th. Heavy rains. Hungry and tired, we swooped down 20,000 strong on Jackson, drove out Johnston's army of 12,000. Grant rode at the head of the Fourth Iowa as we entered the city. "May 15th and 16th. Pillaged and destroyed the city and rail- road and rebel stores. Marched at noon of last day on hearing the cannons roar at Champion's Hill, twenty miles away ; reached the field at midnight, after Grant had overwhelmed and defeated Pemberton's army of 25,000, taking 2,000 prisoners and twenty pieces of artillery. Our loss about 2,500. "May 17th. Marched at sunup to Black River. Crossed over on pontoons. Enemy driven from their works at Black Bayou Ridge at the point of the bayonet, leaving eleven pieces of artillery and 3,000 prisoners in our hands. "May 18th. Marched at sunup, our regiment in advance, and our whole army enveloping Vicksburg, Sherman's Corps occupying the right flank. We drove the enemy into their works; they made a stubborn resistance; in the evening our hearts were gladdened by a sight of the Mississippi River north of Vicksburg. We planted the battery that broke their line extending from Vicksburg to Haynes' Bluff. Darkness settled over us; we laid on our arms that night. "May 19th. Advanced at sunup to find the enemy had fallen back inside their works at Vicksburg, leaving open our communica- tions with the Yazoo River on the north. Fighting all the day; the Fourth and Twenty-sixth Iowa were drawn on to a masked battery and driven back with a severe loss. "May 20th. The fleet opened fire from the front and hard fighting all day and nothing gained. "May 21st. Fighting all day ; heavy losses on both sides. Received supplies from the Yazoo River, first in twenty-one days. Sent 6,000 prisoners north. "May 22nd. Charged the enemy all along the line, but we were repulsed with a loss of 5,000 men. "June 23rd. The enemy tried to break out last night about 9 o'clock on the left and were driven back with a loss of 500 men. Joe Johnston reported on this side of Black River with 40,000 men to raise the siege and relieve Vicksburg; 20,000* troops have boon sent out to meet and drive him back. —23— "June 24th. The enemy appear uneasy and as if fixing some way to get out of their precarious situation. Quite a severe fire kept up on them all day ; they return our fire rapidly on the river bank to keep us from fortifying at that place. "June 25th. One of the enemy's forts was blown up by our troops in McPherson's Corps, who undermined it and put six barrels of powder under, which was ignited, tearing the fort to pieces, after which we opened a terrific fire from our artillery, which was followed by a charge of the infantry on the works, but were unsuccessful, there being a desperate fight on the left ; results unknown. "June 26th. Heavy fighting continued on the center of the demolished fort. Our forces fight by reliefs, two regiments on two hours and off about six. The rebels hold one side of the fort and the federals the other; the fighting desperate, yet the loss on our side is quite light. "June 27th. The enemy were driven away from their demolished fort about 9 o'clock last night; our troops occupied it, if reports are true. Our gunboats engage the batteries in front. In the evening the firing was very heavy for three hours. "June 28th. Very little firing today; the Sabbath appears to be strictly observed. Our chaplain preached at 3 :30 o'clock under the shade trees. "June 29th. The rebels opened a heavy artillery fire on our rifle pits held by the Ninth Iowa, killing one and wounding another man of that regiment at a point only twenty feet from the rebel stockades near their works at the top of the hill, but a shell or two from our batteries soon silenced the enemy's guns. "June 30th. The rebels came out with a flag of truce today for the object of passing out a British subject, a woman, but Grant refused to pass her out. The rebs say they are preparing to cele- brate the Fourth of July in Yicksburg. We will fire a salute for them. "July 1st. The, enemy's fire is very weak today, except their reply to' our batteries on the point opposite Yicksburg. "July 2nd. The enemy tried to drive our forces back in Logan's Division; were severely repulsed. "July 3d. A flag of truce came out of Yicksburg today. Yery little firing along the line except at the water batteries, which kept up a vigorous fire upon our mortars all day. "July 4th. All firing ordered to be stopped last night; the enemy propose terms of surrender. The enemy fired a salute of —24— thirteen guns at sunrise; we responded with thirty-four guns; both fired blank cartridges. Pemberton surrendered at 10 :30 o'clock. We took 32,000 prisoners, 150 pieces of artillery. This was a Glorious Fourth to Grant's Army. "After Vicksburg the regiment marched with Sherman to Jack- son, Mississippi, and took part in capturing that city, forcing the retreat of the enemy on July 16, 1863. After the fall of Jackson the regiment retraced its steps, went into camp on Black Eiver, fourteen miles in the rear of Vicksburg, where it remained until July 29, 1863." On September 22, 1863, the Eegiment was transported with the Fifteenth Corps under General Sherman from Vicksburg to Mem- phis, and from there marched across the country by way of Corinth, Mississippi, and Florence, Athens and Bridgeport to Chattanooga, and was in Osterhaus' Division in the celebrated attack under Gen- eral Hooker on Lookout Mountain. The Fourth Iowa showed great gallantry in this attack. It was the first to place its banner on the point of Lookout Mountain, and General Butterfield, who was General Hooker's chief of staff, stated to Generals Dodge and Williamson that he knew personally it was the first regiment to reach the top of Lookout. A COMEADE : I am the man that did that. GENEEAL DODGE : Then you will bear me out in the state- ment. THE COMEADE : Yes, sir ; I was color bearer of the regiment and planted the colors on Lookout. General Butterfield said that when the New York Monument, which was to be erected there, was erected, that it should have that statement upon it. General Butterfield and General William- son both died before this monument was erected, and I don't know whether that fact is stated on the monument or not, but I do know from the reports from the regiment and from the reports of other officers, that it was Williamson's Brigade of Osterhaus' Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps which was the first to reach and take the point of Lookout Mountain. From Lookout Mountain it marched to Eossville and took part in the attack on Bragg's left. From there it followed the rebel retreat to Einggold and in attack- ing Bragg's rear guard was forced into the gorge and loel \vith J. B. T. at Pinecrest ? Enclosed find Pinecrest Headquarters. May God bless every living member of the Fourth Iowa. Joseph B. Townsend. Knoxville, Iowa, October 9, 1911. General G. M. Dodge, Council Bluffs, Iowa. My Dear General: I have been looking forward to this week with the hope that I would be able to attend the Reunion of the Fourth Iowa Infantry and the meeting of the Army of the Tennes- see, but I find myself unable to do so and will have to forego the anticipated pleasure. My health is not such as to permit me to leave home. I have recently experienced two severe attacks of renal colic, and I am not sufficiently recovered from its effects to allow me —53 — to leave my home. Please convey to all of the old boys of the Fourth my sincere regards and best wishes. I am very glad that I was a member of the Fourth Iowa Infantry and take great pride in the record the Eegiment made during the war. For myself, I want to assure you that I have watched your course with pleasure and shall ever remember with pride that it was my lot to discharge the duty I owed to my country under you as my commanding Colonel. Hoping that you may all have a pleasant and enjoyable meeting, and with love and respect for all, I am, Truly and sincerely yours, James D. Gamble, Lt. Co. D., Fourth Iowa. ADDRESS BY GENERAL NOBLE. After reading the above letters, General Dodge then introduced Brigadier General John W. Noble, late Secretary of the Interior, and Colonel of the Third Iowa Cavalry. At the Battle of Pea Ridge, General Noble was a Lieutenant in the Third Cavalry, taking part in the fight at Leetown. General Noble made the following address : General Dodge, Fellow Members of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Companions of the Loyal Legion, Comrades of the Fourth Iov;a Infantry and Second Iowa Battery, and All Com- rades and Fellow Citizens: Among "fellow citizens" are to be included always our women who do their full share of the duties of these celebrations, in times of peace, as they also bore the trials and sufferings of those days of war half a century ago. It is a fine feature of these Reunions now being held, that so many of them are present and among the most interested and helpful. It is to me a personal pleasure to join with you in these two days of semi-centenial celebration, and bear whatever testimony ] may to the work and worth of those who went forth to its defense at our country's call. The record has been made up now for almost the entire life of everyone of us, and we are able to recognize that that successful service has culminated in a prosperity and power for our country, enobling all who upheld the Constitution and the Flag, whether upon the open field of battle or amid the anxiety and sacrifices at home. In the soberness of a great joy we may thank God, that amid states not only united, but largely increased in number, at peace with all the world, and enjoying liberty and strength in a high and —54— ever increasing degree we have been allowed to behold the Fiftieth Anniversary of the immediate rally and muster of the forces of the Nation for its defense, and to recall the days we aided to maintain the Government our fathers established. To me now in a few days, on my eightieth year, who was then your Comrade, a young soldier, a Lieutenant, this Eeunion gives unspeakable pleasure. Let fate do its worst, the memories of the past remain. Our meeting, in this hall, yesterday was given up largely to the history of the Battle of Pea Ridge, as it was fought March 7th and 8th, 1862, on the field at Elkhorn Tavern. The recitals made were most interesting; but only intensified our appreciation of the heroism, on that day and the next, of him whom a kind providence has granted should preside over us today. General Dodge, I, a Lieutenant then unknown to you, knew you at Pea Eidge before the battle, and in the battle ; and it has been my great good fortune to know you all the years since in your inestimable service in the Union Army, in the survey and construction of the Union Pacific railroad, in the walks of civic life; and to have had many of your friends for my friends, and I am glad to bring my tribute of laurel for your brow on this most propitious assembly of our Comrades, your old soldiers. As I am now to speak by the record and somewhat upon my per- sonal reminiscences, allow me to correct the program where I am named John C. Noble. That "C" belongs to our Comrade, John C. Black, whom, they say, I resemble so much in personal appearance that I am anxious he shall suffer no further damage by an identity in our given names. My name is John Willock Noble — born in Lancaster, Ohio, the same place so greatly honored as the birth place of General William Tecumseh Sherman. On the 7th of March there were two general engagements be- tween the two wings of Gentral Curtis' Army and the two wings of the Army of Generals Van Dom and Price ; that at Elkhorn on the 7th, was described yesterday; that at Leetown, some two and a half miles away, I will endeavor to outline, for, of course, no more can be attempted in the short time circumstances allow me here. As General Dodge has told you, on the 6th of March, he notified General Curtis that he had information the enemy was moving to outflank us and get to our rear ; and that General Curtis thereupon required Dodge, Colonel, as he then was, to take a detail to obstruct the road the enemy would have to travel. He was given such from —55— my Regiment, the Third Iowa Cavalry. The Captain, 0. H. P. Scott, had been a railroad builder, and rather liked a duty of supervising the cutting down of the great trees by his men. This, Company B did, with efficiency and dispatch. General Dodge mentions in a pa- per, on this battle, that the detail was out of the Third Illinois Cavalry. I think that was on our then left flank ; but the work on the night of the 6th, in rear of our right flank (as we were then facing south) was, as I have stated. Indeed, our Cavalry boys of Company B never quite forgave their Captain, although afterwards Major, for making them chop wood that night. But it proved of immense service; for in the night (after the trees were down) the troops of McCulloch and Mcintosh became so confused in this tangle of felled trees and in the darkness that instead of being in position on our rear at break of day, as was intended, they did not arrive until after our Generals saw their exact movements and precipitated a portion of our forces upon them, halted them and brought on the engagement at. Leetown. These impediments also delayed the column of other troops under Van Dorn, so that he also arrived much later than planned at the back door of our army, which he expected "to close and catch us alive," but there found General Carr with Colonel Dodge, with you men of the Fourth Iowa Infantry and the Second Iowa Battery, and Colonel Yandever with the Mnth Iowa Infantry and Colonel Phelps with his Regi- ment, with, as it were, your foot between the door and the jamb, so it could not be shut at all; and was more likely to catch the enemy than the Union soldiers. These two wings of Van Dorn's army were composed each of different kinds of troops in this : that those at Leetown under Mc- Culloch belonged to strictly the Army of the Confederacy, while those under Price belonged more to Missouri, which had not yet and never did go out of the Union. So that there was this separa- tion in the Southern Army itself at Pea Ridge. The very principle of "secession," and the right of each State to direct its own affairs to suit itself, was working its dire result to its supporters. "The engineer was hoist by his own petard." Mr. Sneed in his book styled, "The Fight for Missouri," states that General Price was the acknowledged leader and exponent of the Missouri troops in the Southern Army; and that he had endeavored in June, 1861, at St. Louis, to negotiate an agreement with General Lyon so Lyon would keep United States troops out of Missouri; and he, Price, and Governor Claiborne Jackson would preserve the peace in Mis- —56— souri; but which conference General Lyon had broken up and ended with these memorable words: Eather than concede to the State of Missouri the right to demand that my government shall not enlist troops within her limits, or bring troops into the State whenever it pleases, or move its own troops at its own will into, out of, or through the State * * * I would (rising as he said this and pointing in turn to everyone in the room) see you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and every man, woman and child in the State, dead and buried. Then turn- ing to the Governor, he said, "This means war. In an hour one of my officers will call for you and conduct you out of my lines/' And then, without another word, without an inclination of the head, without even a look, he turned upon his heel, and strode out of the room, rattling his spurs and clanking his sabre. General Price was well warned, and although Lyon fell at Wilson Creek, it was, at best for the South, a drawn battle. Price lost at Pea Ridge and finally and forever at Independence, Big Blue and Little Osage. The separation of the Southern troops at Pea Ridge was com- plete. The Secretary of War of the Confederacy had written General McCulloch, as Missouri was still in the Union, "to exercise much prudence and circumspection, and it should be only when ne- cessity and propriety unite that active and direct assistance should be afforded by crossing the boundary and entering the State." And Mr. Speed, a Southern officer, does not hesitate to say in the book already mentioned, that General McCulloch "had, in truth, no con- fidence in the Missouri troops and none in General Price, or in any of his officers, except Colonel Weightman." A mere glance at the list of troops, their states and general align- ment in the commands likewise shows this line of cleavage between Missouri volunteers and Confederate regulars. The forces under Major-General Van Dorn were composed of Missouri State Guard under General Sterling Price, and of these were the Con federate Volunteers; also General Martin E. Green's State troops; also Colonel John B. Clark's Division and that of Colonel Saunders, Major Lindsey's; Brigadier-General D. M. Frost's Divisions; Raines' Division, Bledsoe's Battery and Shelby's Cavalry. But the other wing; commanded by Brigadier-General Ben McCulloch (after- wards by Colonel E. Greer) was composed of five regiments of Arkansas troops; Hebert's Infantry and those of Louisana ; the com- mand of Brigadier-General James Mcintosh, which included two more Arkansas regiments, and four Texas regiments, and four —57— batteries ; and let it be noted here, never to be forgotten, Pike's com- mand, under Brigadier-General Albert Pike, composed of a Chero- kee regiment, Colonel Stand Waite; another Cherokee regiment, under Colonel D. N. Mcintosh, and Welsh's Cavalry. These last mentioned regiments (not the cavalry) were Indians. They were ve- neered, to a small extent, with civilization, but who in this Battle of Pea Eidge murdered and scalped the wounded and dead Soldiers they were able here and there to overcome, with all the fierceness and outrageous brutality of those "merciless savages" our American Declaration of Independence charges it as crime against King George to have endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of the American frontiers. Many of these Indians were slave owners in the Indian Territory, and for their violation of their treaties the United States afterwards not only freed their slaves but compelled them to share with their former slaves the bounties the Nation had bestowed in former years. Albert Pike, he who led these Indians, was a son of New Eng- land, born in Boston, Massachusetts ; a poet who published a volume of verse on sunsets and flowers, and woman's love, and wrote a book in defense of secession, styled "State or Province, Bond or Free"; and grew wealthy before the war on, fees for his services to these Indians, in their negotiations and "pow-wows" at Washington. And yet ! and yet ! he was here in command of this merciless horde. Let each man make his own comment. In this battle many men of my regiment were wounded or killed on the field at Leetown, which was afterwards recovered by us in the fight, and while the Indians were there they scalped eight or nine men of this regiment, whose names can be found in the records of the State of Iowa and in those of the United States,' where are the reports of the Battle of Pea Eidge. Eecurring to the statement that the two wings of the Confed- erate Army were composed of forces that were in fact not only separated on the field but were not acting in harmony, we find, on the other hand, the Union Army united in spirit, in purpose and under one commander, General Samuel E. Curtis. It was named "The Army of the Southwest." The troops were drawn from •Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. They were in four divisions; the First under Colonel Osterhaus; the Second under General Asboth, which two divisions were under immediate com- mand of General Franz Sigel; then came the Third Division, com- manded by Colonel Jefferson C. Davis, having an Indiana Brigade —58— and an Illinois Brigade, and the First Missouri Cavalry; while the Fourth Division was commanded by Colonel Eugene A. Carr, and was composed of Iowa and Illinois troops in one brigade under Colonel G. M. Dodge of the Fourth Iowa, and in the other were Iowa and Missouri troops, under Colonel Vandever of the Ninth Iowa. The Third Iowa Cavalry (five companies) having arrived but a day or two before, had not been assigned to any division, and in the battle was in a brigade formed on the emergency and put under Colonel Cyrus Bussey, to whom I was Adjutant. This bri- gade at Leetown operated under command of Colonel Osterhaus. Both wings of the Union Army, that at Elkhorn and that at Leetown, were under the absolute and single command of General Curtis; and the troops not only had confidence in him but he and all the officers under him had confidence in them and in each other. From the officers' reports it appears that there were at this battle in the Confederate Army 16,202 infantry, cavalry, artillery and Indians. There were eight batteries in Price's command and eighteen cannon in McCulloch's. The Indians and others in Pike's command amounted to about a thousand. The Union Army did not exceed 10,500 infantry and cavalry, with forty-nine pieces of artillery. When General Sigel retired from Bentonville on March 6th he succeeded, with some fighting, in reaching the Union line, which was then facing south at Sugar Creek, and where in line were Asboth on the right, Osterhaus next, Davis next, and Carr on the left. The Third Iowa Cavalry was encamped in rear of the main line. When the enemy was found, on the morning of the 7th, march- ing to our rear, as already mentioned, Colonel Osterhaus was sent by General Curtis to Leetown with instructions to strike the enemy and stop his progress, at all hazards. Osterhaus started immedi- ately, taking with him the cavalry brigade under Colonel Bussey and Ebert's Battery (two guns). The other troops of Osterhaus were to follow as rapidly as possible. The division of Colonel Davis was to advance in the same direction. Colonel Carr took his (the Fourth) division to the immediate rear towards the enemy, up the telegraph road to Elkhorn Tavern and beyond; and General Sigel remained for the while to protect the line of Sugar Creek. The cavalry of those days was but poorly armed, for the most part with pistols and sabres only; but they gallantly charged the —59— enemy's infantry, that had been thrown into line near Leetown to meet them, and lost heavily. Lieutenant-Colonel Trimble was wounded in the head and many men and horses of the Third Iowa Cavalry were killed or wounded. . The two guns with Osterhaus had Jired but few shots when the whole line of cavalry under Mc- intosh charged, led by Texas regiments and followed by the Chero- kee Indians under Stand Waite and John Drew, commanded by General Albert Pike. Our guns were captured, but not the caissons, and the Indians, it is said, fell into confusion in a riot of glee, disregarded all orders (Pike's Eeport, p. 288) and, putting on horse-collars and trace-chains for ornament, had a short barbaric triumph, soon, however, silenced and followed by their flight from the field as our other troops came on. These advancing troops were those of Osterhaus and the division of Colonel Jefferson C. Davis. The conflict now involved the whole lines of both armies at Lee- town — of McCulloch and of Osterhaus and Davis. The roar and crash of arms was continuous and the loss on either side was great. Our comrade, Colonel Wells Blodgett, w r hom many of you know, has told me he was with the advance of Colonel Davis in the Thirty- seventh Illinois Infantry, and that a portion of his regiment was armed with revolving rifles ; that they mistook at first the enemy for some of our own troops until within short range ; but when the boys found out their mistake they turned on the steam and "let her go, Gallagher." These rifles, with the successive volleys of the other regiments, and the immense bass of the cannon, were the cause of the stupendous and incessant roar. It was cyclonic. It ended the Leetown part of the battle. An Indiana regiment, near the edge of the woods, displayed the "Stars and Stripes" on high, in the very open, and it was unassailed. The cheers of the Union troops now rang out clear and loud, and there was no reply. The enemy had fled. General McCulloch had been killed, as had also General Mcintosh; and the dead of the enemy strewed the field. Those of them left fled to take no part even in the Battle of Elkhorn, which had been in progress, as told so clearly and accurately by General Dodge and the other speakers yesterday. The distance between the two fields was about two miles, and so completely separated that Colonel Hebert (a Confederate), hav- ing become separated from his command at Leetown, was picked up and captured by a Union Cavalry detail comiDg over from Elkhorn. The next day, the 8th, I was with my regiment on the field at Elkhorn and saw that battle, while acting as a temporary aide to —60 — General Curtis, my regiment being near at hand guarding the right flank, but did not become engaged until, when the enemy retreated along the whole line, the cavalry were sent in pursuit. The gallant Fourth Iowa renewed its heroic work on the 8th. Colonel Dodge was wounded, and the brigade and division in those two days established forever its great renown. To rehearse those achievements is now unnecessary, for it has been far better done by General Dodge. The losses in the series of conflicts at Pea Ridge were, for the Confederates (estimated), at least 1,000 killed and wounded and 300 prisoners; for the Union Army, 203 killed, 980 wounded and 201 missing; total, 1,384. Before I close let me say one word more for our Commanding General at Pea Ridge, Samuel R. Curtis. We dwelt together at Keokuk, Iowa, before the war. He was then a dis- tinguished engineer, having greatly improved the harbor at St. Louis, Missouri, and done much work elsewhere in the West. He had been in the Mexican War. He was a member of Congress when the war broke out, and he voluntarily inarched with the first troops that reached Washington, down to the White House, to bring relief to the anxious heart of our President. His generalship at Pea Ridge displayed qualities of the highest order. He was self- poised amid the changes needed to meet the rapid and dangerous movements of the enemy. He was aggressive against a foe that had expected to put him solely on the defensive. His tactics and new deployments on the field foiled and defeated the long-studied and cunningly-planned strategy of General Van Dorn, and he fought on the 7th substantially two battles against superior numbers on either field. He came out triumphant and pursued the disorgan- ized forces of the whole Confederate Army on the 8th. "He was steadfast amid alarms." Let me narrate shortly an incident to show this, which occurred on the night of the 7th. The Leetown fight was won and I had reported by order to General Asboth for orders for the next day for the cavalry to which I belonged. Gen- eral Asboth rode with me to General Curtis near midnight, we seeking his headquarters in the darkness. When we found the General he was dressed, but lying on a straw bed, and when General Asboth told him, whatever it was he had to communicate, Genera 1 Curtis said : "I have ordered Sigel over from Leetown. He has to come around Little Mountain, and if the enemy sees or hears him they may attack. I would not be surprised to hear the guns at any moment. But he will get here, and in the morning I will —61 — attack at Elkhorn Tavern and will whip the rebels there ; and when I whip them there I whip them everywhere/' He then said to me to take my orders from General Asboth, and bade us good-night. General Curtis, with the undisturbed insight of a great com- mander, could see, as we say, "over the hill." Sigel got there. General Curtis attacked in the morning at Elkhorn. He whipped them there — and when he whipped them there "he whipped them everywhere." He was a Christian man of genial nature, but to the discharge of duty he brought great brain force, great sagacity, and he was fearless. In the 'last edition of the Encyclopaedia Brit- tanica, an authority, of course, of the highest order, he is said at the Battle of Pea Eidge to have evinced "a magnificent tenacity/' He was a man of very simple manners, almost as plain in his directness as our General Dodge, who has been taking care of us here for these two days. What a cheering fact it is that simple manners and kind disposition are allied to greatness. Let me tell you before I sit down, in the presence of General Frederick D. Grant, who has honored us by his presence and participation in our meet- ings, of an action of his father, General Ulysses S. Grant, displaying this feature of his great character. It happened that after the surrender of Yicksburg and we had driven off Johnson from Jack- son, a detachment of my regiment, which I commanded as Major, had made a raid with other troops to Memphis, and my little com- mand was returning by boat from Memphis to Vicksburg. Just as the boat was backing out from Helena it occurred to me that I had learned General Grant had said he would reunite the Third Iowa Cavalry, the companies of which were, then, some with him and some near Little Rock, Arkansas ; and although merely a Major, just off a raid of some weeks, and not yet back to camp, I sum- moned heart o ? grace to hurry to the General and ask him to put my command ashore so as to go over to Little Eock and accom- plish the reunion of the command. So I boldly went to the cabin parlor, where our great Commander was, surrounded by his staff and accompanied by other Generals (as he had been to Cairo after the fall of Vicksburg to communicate with the authorities at Washington), and, asking for General Grant, to my astonishment he came out in person, and upon my salute said, "Major, what can I do for you ?" He knew me only by my shoulder straps. I replied that I had heard he was willing to reunite the Third Iowa Cavalry, and if he would put us off here and send us to Little Eock, he could accomplish that. He asked if I was in command of the men —62— aboard, and upon an affirmative reply he instantly said, "I will do it, sir." Without calling .any aide or adjutant or orderly, he almost ran to the side of the boat, leaned far out and hailed the captain and told him to "land" the boat, which was then backing out into the stream. As soon as he saw this being done he said to me to come with him, and still, with no one else, took me to the shipping clerk's desk, which you all know is on the cabin deck, in front, where invoices are made and receipted, and there taking the clerk's pen and ink that were at hand, and a sheet of paper lying there, he wrote out in full, as complete and regular an order as any adjutant could have done it, for Major Noble to disembark with his command at Helena and report to General Steel at Little Eock. This he folded quietly and then said, "This is your order. Now I will write another for you to deliver to General Steel." This he did, and giving it to me, said I was to see it was delivered, and he then told me to move my command ashore. This I did. My regiment was reunited and became on re-enlistment one of the strongest in numbers, and allow me to say, in military force, in our Army. I submit that for the conqueror at Vicksburg, whose fame had already reached around the earth, to have thus done this simple act at the request of merely a Major, without a thought of reference to some one else, and to have inscribed the order in his own hand- writing, and treated this minor officer with so much kindly con- sideration, and to do instantly, when he could, what he had said he would do, exhibited in personal action that plain, simple nature we always find allied to such greatness of mind as all the world now knows General Grant possessed. I have the order yet; it is my best biography of Ulysses S. Grant, your father Comrade, General Grant, whose kindness of nature and simple manners you yourself have inherited and constantly displayed. In a letter addressed to me on January 22nd, 1889, General W. T. Sherman writing as to a paper on the Battle of Pea Kidge I had read before the Missouri Commandery of the Loyal Legion, said : "What, however, pleased me more was to see you come to the rescue of our mutual friend, General S. E. Curtis. Somehow, few men realized the full value of the victories of Pea Eidge, Donel- son and Shiloh. Though not conclusive, they gave the keynote to all subsequent events of the war. They encouraged us and dis- couraged our too sanguine opponents, thereby leading to all our Western successes which were conclusive of the final result. The —63— more you stud}' the Civil War, the more you will discover that the Northwestern States 'saved the Union/ This people was in earnest ; their volunteers meant 'fight/ " General Dodge, in a letter dated September 2 2nd, 1911, to my regiment, the Third Iowa Cavalry, in reunion at Centerville, Iowa, wrote : "While the Pea Ridge campaign was one of the first of the Civil War, where we were all inexperienced and had to learn as we went along, still, if you look at the records of the War Department 3'ou cannot find any campaign where we marched so far into the enemy's country without rail or water and lived off a country that even at the present time looks as though it would not support an army. Then, the Battle of Pea Ridge had just as hard fighting in it, compared to its numbers, as any of the battles of the Civil War, and the loss of Carres and Davis' Divisions were very heavy, and it virtually settled the enemy's occupation of Northern Arkansas and Missouri for the whole war. I have always thought and said that General Curtis never received the credit for the campaign that he was entitled to, but I think as time goes on and the records are read that people appreciate more fully what that campaign accom- plished/' In conclusion let me say it has rejoiced me also to have attended with you the unveiling of the Memorial Shaft to Lincoln. It is an imposing testimonial. It speaks in its strength and simplicity of our great leader in the thought, logic and force of the Civil War. It witnesses that when Curtis, afterwards our General, was advocating in Congress the construction of a railroad to the Pacific, and Dodge, now our beloved Comrade and presiding General, was engaged in preparation to be the great engineer and constructor of that band and bond for the Union, Lincoln was here at Council Bluffs looking off across the broad valley of the Missouri toward the golden gates of California, with his own prophetic vision as to what was yet to be. There is no doubt that vision never left him, and as Judge Usher of his Cabinet has declared, "There never was an hour during the whole war for the Union that Lincoln ever for a moment lost hope of ultimate and complete success." Yes, his was the all-embracing spirit of our country's cause. He cared for the soldier, the sailor, the mother and wife — he brooded over the whole people and loved them all. There was no appeal to his charity that had not response ; there was no incitement to malice he did not cast aside; he was with the people at their homes, he went with the men to the battle-fields, and he stood watch at every bed —64— of the wounded and the sick. We had our Generals whom we admired and followed ; we had our Comrades whose love and dangers we daily shared; but there was one toward whom our faces ever turned and to sustain whom we ever prayed to God, on whom our hope was founded, for we in our hearts well knew lie was the "Soldier's Friend" — Abraham Lincoln. ADDRESS BY GENERAL BLACK. GENERAL DODGE: We have with us another officer who fought at Pea Ridge under General Davis, on the west of us, where they performed such valuable service and drove the Arkansas troops home. It is not necessary to introduce him to you; you all know him as a soldier and statesman, General John C. Black. He fell in the fight there, but, thank God, recovering from several serious wounds, is with us today. General Black spoke as follows : Commander, Comrades of the Fourth Iowa and of Reed's Battery, Ladies and Gentlemen : I have listened with charmed attention to what General Noble has been saying to us of the silent Commander, and before proceed- ing with the main address which is in my mind, I want to reminisce a little on an incident that, so far as I know, has never had publication, about General Grant. I had in my regiment an old man, of Company E, whose name was Smith. He was well up towards sixty years of age at the time of enlistment, but you know that now and then the fever got into even old veins, and this was one of the old men of the service when he entered. He tramped with us through nearly two years. He had with him when he entered the service a youngster of thirteen or fourteen, Ed Smith, who enlisted as a musician. The old man carried a fife and the boy carried a drum in what I used to think was one of the best martial bands in the Southwest. After Vicksburg had fallen I received a letter one day from the headquarters there of the United States forces. It was written on the paper that you all remember, I expect, of about the size (indicating) folded up in the regulation fashion and three pages of it were filled with a report and request to the commanding officer, from old Sol Smith. He recited his love for his country; he recited the services that he had rendered; he told how he had brought his boy witli him, and how through nearly two years now they had marched side by side in the same ranks, and he said. "] —65— feel that I am too old longer to serve the country ; I can be of good somewhere else; I leave my boy in the service, but I want to go home." His letter covered three pages. It was then turned over and folded, leaving the blank sides. It bore some official endorse- ments. It had not gone up to the headquarters through the. regular channels, but had evidently been delivered directly to the head- quarters. There were official notations of the contents of the letter, and then, after that penned in his own hand, these words: "The commanding officer of the Thirty-seventh Illinois will cause the honorable discharge of the writer of this letter. U. S. Grant." That gave me a knowledge of the man's marvelous detailed information and application and of his willingness to deal with the humblest man in his command as a man, a citizen and a soldier; and from the time that I saw that inscription upon that letter I had a feeling of regard not alone for the great achievements of G-eneral Grant but for the affectionate disposition and manly character displa3 r ed by him. But attention ! I have looked at you as you have sat before me, and I do not believe under the disguises that you have assumed that I would be able to say that I had ever met one of you before, yet we are old acquaintances. In that spring of 1862 you remember where the armies of the Union gathered. They were at Eolla, at Sedalia, in the neighborhood of Jefferson City, or wherever a camp could be made in Missouri in which they could be fed, drilled and disciplined. And then we marched on the various roads gathering together towards this battle-field of Pea Eidge. When and where the battle would be fought we could not tell, but the objective of Curtis and the Army of the Frontier was the enemy. We were not marching towards any capital or any strategic point, but we were marching towards the enemy. And so at last we made our junction in the far Southwest and our camps were made after the little skirmish at Sugar Creek, which some of you cavalr}Tnen may remember, along the banks of which were the camps of the main body. Some of us were lying far to the south in the prairies, and suddenly on the 6th of March there came couriers to the advanced posts, of which we were part, telling us to retire to the line of Sugar Creek, and to fortify there against the approach of the enemy. All day long over that prairie, which was as sunny as this city is today, there could be heard nearer and nearer the sound of the cannon of the pursuers and the pursued. Sieger's men were falling back and fighting in retreat. Some of you perhaps recall —66— the sound of those cannon as I speak of them. And all day long the commands that had been left in camp and those that had been rushed to the rear were throwing up fortifications along the bluff of this Sugar Creek and on the northern side, until when night came and we laid down pick and shovel and laid aside the axe, we had constructed a very formidable series of breastworks. And I remember the satisfaction with which the fellows who had been working on them looked at the works as they picked up their guns and said, "Well, let the Johnnies come on ; we are pretty well fixed for them here." This was the advanced position on the farthest western flank of the Union armies and all of the Union armies. There was but a single line of communication open between us and the headquarters of the great Department of Missouri, side roads being blockaded and useless, leaving one long line that ran through Eolla, Springfield, Cassville, on down to Cross Timbers ; and we laid in wait: our line of fortifications, stretching from east to west, lay completely across that line. We knew if the Johnnies came at us from the south we could handle them, and so did they; and the impolite fellows wouldn't come to our prepared front door, which we had so thoughtfully decorated for them, and so it happened that instead of advancing directly upon us they deflected their great columns outnumbering us two and a half to one, for they brought 30,000 men on that field of battle and we had but 12,500. And in the morning of the 7th, when Siegel's retreat had ceased and his forces were united with ours in battle-line, we were facing to the south and the enemy were stretched between us and St. Louis on the north. Our fortifications were to the south. Their polite ad- vance was to be from the south. There was never a greater right about face in the world than was executed by the Union Army that morning, but no retirement. We simply went up onto the plateaus that lay at the foot of the Ridge and the top of the valleys, and then the battle took place that has been described to you. I did not have the great pleasure of meeting you yesterday, but as General Noble was telling this morning about the fighting at Leetown and the dreadful destruction that had been wrought there in the armies of Price and McCulloch by the advance under Jeff C. Davis, I was proud! for my regiment had those five shooters and we hold that center against all odds and checked that awful advance oi' the Indians and the Arkansans. It was the Thirty-seventh Illinois that held the center of the line. We were the men that had the live shooters: we were the men that blazed away and in the track of our —67— fire these men lay dead, McCulloch and Mcintosh. The greatest loss of this battle was borne by the Fourth Iowa; the third greatest loss and not much less fell on the Thirty-seventh Illinois. Each regiment that day made a Brigadier ! The greatest European history, Mr. President, that has ever been written by a representative soldier and scholar of the Civil War was written by the Compte de Paris. Enjoying the high advantages of writing from the standpoint of a trained soldier and diplomat, he turns from a hundred stricken and bloody fields and marks the Battle of Pea Eidge as one of the great, if not the greatest, in strategic importance of all that were delivered between the Union and the Confederate forces. And well can that be, for on that battle-field not alone had the rebels of Missouri — I do not say rebel- lious Missouri — but not alone had the rebels of Missouri who were rebels not alone against the Union but against their own State, gathered their forces, but Arkansas had gathered her forces and Texas had sent her contingent and the Indians were there with their painted horrors. And the Tigers of Louisiana were there, and every man that could be gathered in all the Confederacy west of the Mississippi was there, endeavoring to turn the right of the Union Army, to march through Missouri, to drive the Union forces out of St. Louis and to re-establish Claiborne Jackson as the Governor of a Confederate State. And then and there we held them, and then and there we destroyed them ; and from that time on until the end of the war they never sought but upon a single occasion to retain the great territory that lay west of the Mississippi ; and when Grant cut their lines far down the Mississippi and isolated the South- western country the war beyond the Mississippi was substantially at an end. I am not going to follow you through all the great glory and the great achievements of that battle-field. It has been fought before you time and again. You men of the Fourth T