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Military Biography ~ |
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Dubuque county Civil War Soldiers
of the
Twenty-first Regiment Iowa Volunteer
Infantry
Historical information, notes &
comments, in some cases correcting the record
Soldier biographies written by
Carl Ingwalson
Carl will do look-ups in his extensive
records of the 21st Iowa and he is always willing to share what he
has. |
| ENOS LANG |
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Enos (born Ignatz)
Lang
was the son of Henry and Catherine (Scheurich) Lang. He said he
was born on January 15, 1842, in southern Illinois although
different dates appear elsewhere and his age given periodically in
pension records often coincided with none of the dates. In 1846 or
1847, the family moved from Illinois to Iowa where Henry purchased
land in Dubuque County, engaged in farming and worked as a
shoemaker. Ten years later, Johann (John) & Katherina (Catherine)
Schirra Ziegler moved to Iowa from Pennsylvania where Johann, like
Henry Lang, purchased land. Johann worked as a farmer and as a
tailor.
In July, 1862, Civil War casualties
having escalated, President Lincoln called for 300,000 volunteers
with Iowa to furnish five regiments by August 15th. Jacob Swivel
was instrumental in raising a company in the Dubuque area and
before long Sam Osborne and Henry Hess advised the Governor that,
at an election on August 4th, “a motion was made and carried that
Jacob Swivel be elected Captain Saml F. Osborne 1st Lieutenant and
Andrew Y. McDonald 2nd Lieutenant.” On August 9th, with officers
elected but the ranks far from full, the Company was ordered into
quarters at Dubuque’s Camp Franklin while efforts continued to
secure more volunteers. Enos was one of sixteen who enlisted as
privates on August 16th and joined those already in camp. On the
Muster-in Roll he was listed as Enos Long and described as being a
twenty-two-year-old farmer, 5' 6" tall with dark hair and a dark
complexion. On August 22nd, he was one of 101 men mustered in as
Company E and, on September 9th, they and nine other companies
were mustered in as the state’s 21st Infantry with a total of 985
men, officers and enlisted.
Training was
very brief and a postwar author said “the rendezvous was so near
the men’s homes, that their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters,
wives, sweethearts, and friends, were too often present to allow
either drill or discipline to any great extent.” Jonathan Merry
would later recall that, in pouring rain on September 16th, they
marched from Camp Franklin to the foot of Jones street and
“packing ourselves like sardines in a box on every deck and on a
barge on each side of the Steamer Henry Clay, we headed for
Dixie.”
Their early service was in Missouri -
Rolla, Salem, Houston and Hartville. They were back in Houston
when word was received on January 9, 1863, that a Confederate
column was moving north from Arkansas to attack Springfield. A
relief force of 262 volunteers from the 21st and an equal number
from the 99th Illinois, together with supportive artillery, was
quickly assembled and left on the “double quick.” Enos was among
them as they rushed westward. On the night of the 10th they camped
along Wood’s Fork of the Gasconade River not realizing two
Confederate columns had united and were camped nearby. The next
morning, bugles alerted each to the other, pickets fired and,
after a brief skirmish, both sides rushed to nearby Hartville
where a daylong battle was fought. With ammunition running low,
the Union soldiers withdrew north to Lebanon while Marmaduke led
his men southward.
In "drenching
rain and freezing sleet," said Gilbert Cooley, most of the men in
Lebanon started a sixty mile return to Houston on the 13th. With
reports of a large force of guerrillas somewhere in the area, they
camped in sparse woods with few blankets and without "the
privilege of a fire." It was bitterly cold, it was impossible to
lie down and men shuffled about trying to keep weapons dry and
"mitigate the deathly chill" during a "night of horrors - one
never to pass out of memory." By the next morning many could no
longer walk. Wagons became ambulances and enabled some of the
wounded to reach Houston while most of the others continued to
struggle along a muddy road. Rain stopped by nightfall and fires
lit the sky. Tired men in wet clothes and wrapped in wet blankets
laid near blazing logs where, said one, a "warm steam finds every
pore of the skin, producing a delicious sense of comfort." They
woke to a clear sky and "a light blanket of snow" on the 15th, but
still had ten miles to go. With blistered feet they crossed
numerous icy streams, some men wading, some in wagons and others
on cavalry horses. That afternoon, during a brisk snow, they
reached "home again," wet, muddy and very tired. Almost thirty
years later Enos could still recall “wading creek 7 times in one
night caught a severe cold.”
When the
bimonthly muster roll was taken at Iron Mountain on February 28th,
Enos was reported sick in Rolla, but he was back by April 10th
when a special roll was taken at Milliken’s Bend where General
Grant was amassing a large army to capture the Confederate
stronghold at Vicksburg. During the ensuing campaign, the regiment
participated in the May 1st Battle of Port Gibson, with the 23rd
Iowa led an assault on Confederates entrenched along the Big Black
River (during which the 21st’s colonel, Sam Merrill, was severely
wounded), and participated in an assault at Vicksburg on May 22nd
and the siege that followed. Enos was marked “present” on the June
30th muster roll and presumably participated with his regiment in
its recent engagements and throughout the campaign.
During the May 16th Battle of
Champion’s Hill, they were held in reserve by General McClernand.
At the regiment’s 1889 reunion, William Crooke recalled that
“Those who stood there that day will surely never forget the bands
of humiliation and shame which bound them to the spot, while
listening to the awful crashes of musketry and thunders of cannon
close by.”
During
subsequent service, they spent more than six months on the Gulf
Coast of Texas (Matagorda Island and Indianola), guarded rail
lines in southwestern Louisiana, and served along the White River
of Arkansas where Enos was treated for Whitlow (a painful
infection of the hand). Their final campaign was to occupy the
city of Mobile in the spring of 1865. After advancing along the
east side of Mobile Bay and engaging in light skirmishing, they
entered the city on April 12th and camped at nearby Spring Hill
and the Jesuit College of St. Joseph. While there, Enos was
treated for a cold and diarrhea (a common ailment that led to the
deaths of at least sixty-five of his comrades).
On July 15,
1865, at Baton Rouge, they were mustered out of federal service,
turned in their tents and moved rations to the landing. The next
morning they boarded the Lady Gay and started upstream. They
reached Cairo on the 20th and then traveled by rail to Clinton.
There, on July 24th, they were discharged from the military,
received their final pay ($16.00 monthly accrued from February
28th for privates and the $75.00 balance of their enlistment
bounties less any stoppages for transportation, lost accouterments
or excess clothing draws) and started for their homes.
Church records
indicate that, on April 26, 1866, Enos married nineteen-year-old
Barbara Ziegler in Saints Peter and Paul Church in the town of
Sherrill. Their children included Peter who was born January 15,
1867, John who was born September 12, 1868, and Heinrich “Henry”
who was born on May 23, 1870, but died fifteen months later. He
was followed by Anna Maria who was born November 23, 1871, and
died the following April. Their fifth child was Henry (born June
9, 1873) who was followed by Louisa (born May 29, 1876), Michael
(born April 27, 1879), Mathilda “Tillie’ (born April 4, 1880) and
Edward (born March 18, 1883). Adam was born on Christmas Eve 1884,
but died the same day. A year later, on December 22, 1885, Barbara
(Ziegler) Lang gave birth to another girl but, at age thirty-nine,
died giving birth and was buried in the cemetery of the church
where she had been married. Their new daughter was given her
mother’s name of Barbara.
For many years
following the end of the war, pensions were granted to soldiers
who could demonstrate they had received honorable discharges after
service of at least ninety days and who were suffering from an
injury or illness incurred in the war. Enos’ illnesses had been
minor and he did not apply but, in 1890, the law was changed.
Soldiers still had to demonstrate a ratable medical problem, but
it no longer had to be service-related. One month after the law
was enacted, Enos applied, gave his address as Sherrill and said
he was suffering from asthma that he attributed to a “severe cold”
while he was in Missouri. A board of pension surgeons in Dubuque
said Enos had asthma, hay fever and rhinitis, but the Pension
Office found it was not sufficiently serious to be “ratable.” Enos
applied again in 1892, 1895 and 1897, but each time, even though
the doctors found medical issues, the Pension Office said they
were not ratable. In 1899, giving his address as Balltown, he
applied again. The doctors said he had asthma, catarrh and
rheumatism and this time the Pension Office approved a pension of
$6.00 monthly, payable quarterly through the Des Moines Pension
Agency. Giving his address as Spechts Ferry, Enos applied two
years later and his pension was increased to $8.00.
Eventually, Congress approved the award
of pensions based solely on age and, in 1907, Enos was approved
for $12.00, an amount he was still receiving when he died on
October 26, 1910. Enos is buried as Ignatz Lang in Saints Peter
and Paul Cemetery with Barbara and at least five of their eleven
children. |
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