Iowa History Project
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History of Iowa
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On the 22d of September, President Lincoln issued his famous
Proclamation of Emancipation of the slaves in States which should be in
rebellion against the United States on the 1st of January, 1863. On
the 24th, he issued another proclamation declaring martial law, and
suspending the writ of habeas corpus during the existing insurrection.
During
this time of general anxiety, Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, with others in
the east, issued a circular letter, addressed to the Governors of the loyal
States, inviting them to a conference at Altoona, Pennsylvania. On the 22d of
September, 1862, the following named Governors assembled for consultation: A.
G. Curtin of Pennsylvania; John A. Andrew, Massachusetts, Israel Washburn,
Maine, N. S. Berry, New Hampshire; Wm. Sprague, Rhode Island; F. H. Pierpont,
Vermont; David Tod, Ohio; O. P. Morton, Indiana; Richard Yates, Illinois;
Austin Blair, Michigan; Edward Salmon, Wisconsin; and S. J. Kirkwood, Iowa.
They
entered into a free discussion of the military situation and the Emancipation
Proclamation, which all approved, and appointed Governor Andrew to prepare an
address to the President expressing their views at length, and pledging their
earnest support in all measures necessary to subdue the Rebellion. They visited
the President in a body and Governor Andrew read him the address, to which Mr.
Lincoln responded. A majority of the Governors were firmly of the opinion that
the public interest required the removal of General McClellan from the command
of the Army of the Potomac, but, as all were not agreed upon this, it was not
mentioned in the address. Several of them, however, freely expressed their
opinions of the incapacity of McClellan, to the President, among whom was
Governor Kirkwood. He urged upon the President the consideration of the
following facts:
“The
Army of the Potomac had the first and best of everything, and our Western
armies had what was left. The Army of the Potomac was better armed, better
clothed and better equipped in every way than our Western armies. Its soldiers
fought as bravely as men ever fought and yet were continually whipped, and our
Western people did not think he was a good general who was always whipped.”
President Lincoln remained silent
for a moment, and then said slowly and with emphasis:
“Governor
Kirkwood, if I believed that our cause would be benefited by removing General
McClellan I would remove him to-morrow. I do not so believe to-day, but if the
time shall come when I so believe, I will remove him promptly, and not till
then.”
The Republican
State Convention, which assembled at Des Moines on the 23d of July, nominated
the following ticket: James Wright, Secretary of State; J. W. Cattell, Auditor;
W. H. Holmes, Treasurer; C. C. Nourse, Attorney-General; J. A. Harvey, Register
Land Office.
The
Democrats nominated R. H. Sylvester for Secretary of State; John Browne for
Auditor; S. H. Lorah, Treasurer, B. J. Hall, Attorney-General; Fred
Gottsechalk, Register Land Office.
The
election resulted in the choice of the Republican candidates by an average
majority of about 15,200.
The
census of 1860 showed the population of Iowa to be sufficient to entitle the
State to an increase of Representatives in Congress from two to six, and the
Ninth General Assembly therefore apportioned the State into six Congressional
Districts. The first election under this act was in October, 1862. The
Republican candidates were James F. Wilson in the First District; Hiram Price
in the Second; Wm. B. Allison in the Third; J. B. Grinnell in the Fourth; John
A. Kasson in the Fifth; and A. W. Hubbard in the Sixth. The Democratic
candidates were J. K. Hornish in the First; E. H. Thayer in the Second; D. A.
Mahoney in the Third; H. M. Martin in the Fourth; D. O. Finch in the Fifth; and
John F. Duncombe in the Sixth.
The
result of the election was the choice of all of the Republican candidates. Iowa
kept this able delegation in Congress until after the close of the war; with
Grimes and Harlan in the Senate, no State in the Union had a stronger
representation in the National Legislature during this critical period; and in
point of influence and high order of statesmanship, it has not since been
surpassed, if indeed it has been equaled.
The
elections in the Northern States under the general depression felt over the
disastrous defeats of the Army of the Potomac, the call for 600,000 more men to
reinforce the armies, the opposition to a draft, the desire for peace, and
opposition to the emancipation of the slaves, resulted in the defeat of the
Administration tickets in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. This left the Administration a bare
majority of two in the House of Representatives. The majority in the Senate had
also been lowered. There was little in the political or military situation at
the close of the year 1862 to justify the hope of a speedy overthrow of the
Rebellion. The Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, had checked Lee’s invasion
of Maryland by the battles of South Mountain and Antietam, but at the fearful
loss to the Union army of 25,620 men, made up as follows: 1,568 at South Mountain,
11,538 surrendered at Harper’s Ferry, and 12,469 at Antietam; while Lee lost
but 13,533 in the campaign. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in December
by the Army of the Potomac, under General Burnside, our losses were more than
15,000, one of the most disastrous defeats of the war, while the Confederate’s
army lost less than 6,000. This swelled the losses of the Union army, from
September 9th to December 15th, to 30,620; while the
losses of Lee’s army were about 19,500. In the West, during this period, the
invasion of Kentucky by a confederate army under General Bragg, had ended with
his defeat at Perryville by General Buell, and his expulsion. General Rosecrans
had won brilliant victories at Iuka and Corinth in Mississippi, in which many
Iowa regiments participated. The Union armies had been reinforced by 300,000
men furnished under the President’s last call. Up to the close of the year 1862
Iowa had raised and sent into the service, forty regiments of infantry, five
regiments of cavalry, three batteries of artillery, comprising a total of
48,814 men. During the year twenty-six regiments of infantry and one of cavalry
had entered the service from Iowa. The result of the conflict up to the
beginning of the year 1863, had, on the whole, been such as to encourage the
leaders of the Rebellion to anticipate final success for the Southern
Confederacy. The Army of Virginia held its defiant position on the banks of the
Rappahannock River, its ranks replenished by a rigid enforcement of the
conscription acts of the Confederacy. The long series of victories, under the
able command of General Robert E. Lee, had inspired a belief in the ranks that
it was invulnerable. Our Government learned from confidential reports, through
our ambassadors in Europe, that there was danger of foreign intervention on the
part of several of the great powers, by a recognition of the Southern
Confederacy. Promptly, on the 1st of January, President Lincoln
issued his proclamation declaring all slaves in the rebellious States FREE, and
that the Executive, the naval and the military authorities of the United States
would recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons. He also declared that
such persons of suitable condition, would be received into the military service
of the United States. Far-seeing statesmen had long believed that the
emancipation of the slaves and their employment in our armies would be the
death blow to the Rebellion, and so it proved. From this time on the slave
became our allies, rendering invaluable service to the Union armies in every
department.
From
the beginning of the Civil War, there were people in the Northern States, who
sympathized with their Southern brethren engaged in the Rebellion. They were
opposed to coercion of States which had seceded from the Union. C. L.
Vallandigham, of Ohio, was the ablest leader in Congress of this element. At
the extra session of that body, called to meet on the Fourth of July, 1861, to
provide means to subdue the Rebellion, Mr. Vallandigham, in an elaborate speech
in opposition to the bill authorizing a loan of $250,000,000 for the support of
the Government in the prosecution of the war, took the radical position that
the Government had no right to coerce a State in rebellion, and, with Wood, of
New York, voted against the bill. When the army appropriation bill was before
the House, Mr. Vallandigham moved to add the following proviso:
“Provided,
however, that no part of the money hereby appropriated shall be employed in
subjugation, or holding as a conquered province, any sovereign State now or
lately one of the United States; nor in abolishing or interfering with African
slavery in any of the States.”
The
Democratic State Convention of Iowa, on the 24th of July, adopted
the following resolution:
“Resolved,
That our Union was formed in peace and can never be perpetuated by force of
arms, and that a republican government held together by the sword becomes a
military despotism.”
As the Rebellion grew in magnitude
and the Union army met with repeated defeats, those in the North opposed to the
suppression of the insurrection by force, became more outspoken and bitter in
denunciation of the National Administration and its energetic prosecution of
the war. Through newspapers and speeches they sought to cast odium upon the President
and his supporters, to discourage enlistments in the Union army and to injure
the credit of the Government by vicious attacks upon the constitutionality of
its most important financial legislation. They also denounced the war as an
“Abolition Crusade” and missed no occasion to endeavor to create sympathy for
the leaders of the Southern Confederacy. These people, were called
“copperheads,” and were for the most part of that class in the North who were
not opposed to slavery. Henry Clay Dean was the most prominent leader of this
faction in Iowa, and a few extracts from his speeches and writing will give the
reader a clear understanding of the views and teaching of the “Copperheads”
during the War of the Rebellion.
“The
war between the States of the Union was not a riot. It was deliberate,
systematic and orderly, upon the part of the Southern States. It was not an
insurrection or rebellion; everything was done in subordination to the law and
sovereign power of the States in which it transpired, with no more violence
than is common to warfare. It was not a revolution. It changed none of the
organic laws of the States; the people armed themselves according to law to
repel a threatened invasion of their country, overthrow of their Government and
violation of their political, legal and social rights.
“The pretext for war was the
preservation of the Union—an organized Union fighting against organized States.
“It was a war of States, with all of
its attendant evils, in which the Government was guilty of usurpation. Lincoln
tore up the constitution and set up his arbitrary will instead. Lincoln
selected the weakest, worst and most corrupt men in the country, who served him
cheerfully as instruments of usurpation. Lincoln dissolved the Government and
left the country in anarchy. Lincoln corrupted one part of the church to engage
in warfare with the other part, and burned 1,200 houses of worship; he
mutilated graveyards, and left whole cities and churches in ashes; dragged
ministers from their knees in the very act of worship; tied them up by their
thumbs; had their daughters stripped naked by negro soldiers under command of
white officers.”
Again, in speaking of the bonds
issued by the Government to meet the expenses of the war, Dean says:
“This
debt was incurred to carry on a war conceived in the foulest passions of
depraved human nature, carried on for the mercenary purposes of personal gain
by systematized corruption, cruelty and crime. In all this wicked, cruel war,
there has been but these unchangeable objects in view: to glut the avarice of
the rich, to satiate the vengeance of the spiteful, minister to the most
groveling appetites of the vicious; to make the people the slaves of money, and
their armies the tools of tyrants. The people are not bound in justice to pay
this debt. Every consistent friend of peace must oppose the payment of this
debt.”
In their efforts to discourage
volunteering in the Union Army the “Copperheads” resorted to misrepresentation
and slander. The following is the language used by Henry Clay Dean:
“The
popular mind was wrought up to an artificial frenzy. At a given signal the
mercenary ecclesiastical politicians broke loose in their Sabbath day harangues
to inflame the passions and prepare the public mind for war. They made their
absurd charges against the Southern people. They appealed to the people to fly
to arms in defense of their homes—to fight for liberty. The manufacturers
closed up their mills and sold their operatives to the recruiting sergeant;
merchants refused credit to the poor to drive them into the army; every manner
of argument was used, and every kind of bait held out as an inducement to the
poor to rush to the army to fight the battles of plunder for the rich.”
“Early in the second year of the
war,” says Dean, “it assumed a purely mercenary character, stimulated by the
hope of plunder. The public was undermined; licentiousness reigned to an extent
without parallel or precedent among us. Thousands of enlisted soldiers, having
first entered the army without bounty, became excited over the bounty mania,
and engaged in bounty-jumping. They would leave the ranks at every available
opportunity, re-enlist several times, take bounties and share the spoils
liberally with their delinquent commanders. This mercenary spirit spread
throughout every part of the army like a contagion. The soldiers caught the
infection until the army became a reckless, mercenary mob of unfortunate
conscripts driven to the slaughter. The degradation of society was consummate.
Parent might be seen selling their children in the conscript market and walking
complacently away with the price of their own blood in their pocket.”
The above are but examples of the
falsehoods industriously circulated, both in public speeches and in the
newspapers under control of the “Copperheads.” A secret organization known as
the “Knights of the Golden Circle” was beginning to invade the Northern States.
Its members were bound to secrecy by solemn oaths, and under the protection of
midnight gatherings in places unknown to the public, felt a measure of security
in their plots against the Government. When more than a million patriotic men
had gone from their homes to swell the ranks of the Union armies, the disloyal
element at home, through its votes and
unceasing assaults upon the Administration, became a serious menace to the
country. The persistent assaults of the character set forth in Henry Clay
Dean’s speeches and writings were having their effect upon thousands of people
who believed them to be founded in truth. This was apparent from the result of
the elections in the autumn of 1862, and the falling off of voluntary
enlistments in the following months. When Congress found it necessary to
provide for reinforcing our armies by draft, the most violent denunciations of the
Government were poured forth by the disloyal leaders. Secret organizations in
many places conspired to resist the draft. Absorbed in the mighty work that
devolved upon them, President Lincoln, his Cabinet, and the loyal members of
Congress, for a time gave little heed to these malicious enemies of the
Government. But the patriotic people of the North, whose sons, brothers, or
husbands, filled the ranks of the Union armies, were incensed beyond measure by
slanders of as noble men as ever periled their lives for a sacred cause. The
time came when the public safety required the strong arm of the Government to
reach out and repress these treasonable practices. A few of the most prominent
and influential of the “Copperheads” were arrested by officers of the Government
and imprisoned for a short time; some were tried on charges preferred, while
others were released without trial, after a period of imprisonment.
The
most notable arrest of a citizen of Iowa, was that of Ex-Senator George W.
Jones, who was the American Minister to Bogota, when the Rebellion began. As a
delegate in Congress from Wisconsin, he had secured the establishment of the
Territory of Iowa and was one of the first United States Senators chosen from
the State of Iowa after its admission into the Union, serving until 1859. He
was always faithful and untiring in his work for the interests of our State and
was as widely known to its citizens as any man within its limits. When the news
came of his arrest for treasonable utterances, in December, 1861, upon his
return from Bogota to New York, and his incarceration in the military prison of
Fort Lafayette, it produced great excitement in Iowa, and profound regret among
his thousands of personal and political friends. It was in time learned that
the cause of his arrest was found in an intercepted letter written by him to
his long-time personal friend and colleague in the Senate, Jefferson Davis,
lately chosen President of the Southern Confederacy. In that letter were found
the following expressions:
“May
God Almighty avert Civil War, but if unhappily it shall come, you may, and I
think doubtless would count on my and mine, and hosts of other friends standing
shoulder to shoulder in the ranks with you and our other Southern friends and
relatives, whose rights, like my own, have been disregarded by the
Abolitionists…The dissolution of the Union will probably be the cause of my own
ruin, as well as that of my country, and may cause me and mine to go South.”
General
Jones was imprisoned several months but was never brought to trial, or even
indicted for crime, and was finally released and returned to his home at
Dubuque. His indiscretion in this affair was attributed to his warm personal
friendship and long years of intimate association in the Senate with men who
afterwards became leaders of the Rebellion. His great public services in behalf
of our State, from the earliest period of its existence as a political
organization, were gratefully remembered and appreciated by the people he had
faithfully represented and their descendants. His mistakes were forgotten or
forgiven long before he died.
D.
A. Mahoney, of Dubuque, an editor of marked ability, and formerly a prominent
member of the Iowa Legislature, was arrested at his home on the night of August
14, 1862, by H. M. Hoxie, United States Marshal for Iowa. He was taken to
Washington and confined for nearly three months in the Old Capitol prison. He
was never brought to trial, which he repeatedly demanded, and it is not known
what the charges were upon which he was arrested. He had been very bitter in
denunciation of the Administration through his paper, the Dubuque Herald,
charging it with gross violations of the Constitution, charging civil and
military officers with infamous crimes. He was utterly fearless in his
publications, which greatly exasperated the soldiers, who at times were with
great difficulty restrained from acts of violence against him and his
establishment. He was released on the 11th of November.
Gideon
S. Bailey, of Van Buren County, who had served many years in both Territorial
and State Legislatures, was at one time arrested, charged with disloyalty and
after a short imprisonment was released without trial. About the time of the
arrest of Dr. Bailey, Henry Clay Dean was arrested in Keokuk, while on his way
to Keosauqua to make one of his speeches in denunciation of the Government and
the war. He was held in confinement for several weeks, and then released.
Many
of his speeches were published and widely circulated through the lodges of the
“Knights of the Golden Circle,” for the purpose of discouraging enlistments in
the army. They were sent to soldiers in the service to encourage desertion. In
times of peace, these malicious assaults would have been harmless and passed
unnoticed, but in the midst of rebellion, imperiling the very existence of our
republic, the authorities felt justified in resorting to unusual and arbitrary
measures to repress the disloyal from thus “giving aid and comfort to the
enemy.”
The
influence of this class of speakers and writers was serious enough to engage
the attention of the State authorities, and on the 18th of March,
1863, Governor Kirkwood addressed a letter to Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of
War, on the subject, in which he said:
“There
is a very unfortunate state of affairs in our State at this time. A secret
organization known as the ‘Knights of the Golden Circle,’ is widely spread
through the State, the object of which I am informed and believe is to
embarrass the government in the prosecution of the war, mainly by encouraging
desertions from the army, protecting deserters from arrest, discouraging
enlistments, preparing the public mind for an armed resistance to a
conscription, if ordered, and if possible to place the State government at the
next election in the hands of men who will control it to thwart the policy of
the administration in the prosecution of the war. Indeed, with the exception of
advising desertions, the prosecution of the war. Indeed, with the exception of
advising desertions, the purposes above mentioned are openly advised and
advocated by many persons in the State .… There is undoubtedly a feverish and
excited state of the public mind, and matters must be managed here prudently
and firmly or a collision may ensue. I wrote you a few days since asking you to
send me some arms, and also to allow me to raise tow or three regiments as a
State guard. I regard these as measures both of precaution and prevention. Much
that is said in regard to resistance of the laws is no doubt mere bluster; but
I believe there are men engaged in this work of desperate fortunes, political
and otherwise, who would have the courage to lead an outbreak, and who would
rejoice in the opportunity. I think it extremely probable that there are in
this and other Northern States paid agents of the Rebels, who are organizing
machinery and using the means to effect the purpose herein attributed to the
‘Knights of the Golden Circle,’ and there is real danger that the efforts of
these men may so operate on the minds of their honest but deluded followers in
some localities as to cause a collision among our people. ….The dismissal of
those ‘arbitrarily arrested,’ as the phrase goes, as had a bad effect in this,
that it has led many to suppose that the Government had not the power to
punish. I scarcely know what to advise in regard to these men who are talking
treason, huzzahing for Jeff Davis, and organizing ‘Knights of the Golden
Circle’; it would be worse than useless to arrest them, unless they can be
tried, and if found guilty, punished. If arrests could be made, trials and
convictions had, and punishment sharply administered, the effect would be
excellent.”
The apprehensions of the Governor
as set forth in this letter, that the disloyal teachings of certain leaders
would result in serious trouble, were realized in the near future. There was a
large settlement in Keokuk County of disloyal people who were aggressive in
their treasonable utterances and public demonstrations. Their leader was a
young Baptist minister, George C. Tally, a rough, uneducated man endowed with a
rare gift of oratory. He was a firm believer in slavery as a divine
institution, and a bold and fearless defender of the Rebellion. On the 1st
of August, 1863, a mass meeting of “Peace Democrats” was held near English
River, in Keokuk County. Several hundred came in wagons with arms concealed
beneath straw in the vehicles. Threats had been made to destroy the town of
South English, which was a Union stronghold. The citizens, having heard of the
threat, armed themselves. On his way to the mass meeting Tally, with a disloyal
badge prominently displayed, passed through South English and became engaged in
an altercation with some of the citizens. He was the chief speaker at the
meeting, and by his fervid eloquence in denunciation of the Government and the
war, his hearers were wrought up to a state of wild excitement. A large crowd
of Union men had gathered on the streets, and, as the armed procession made its
way among them, it was greeted with cries of “Copperheads,” “cowards,” “why
don’t you shoot?” A shot was fired by some one in the confusion and excitement,
which was the instant signal for a general discharge of guns and revolvers by
both parties. Tally was among the first to fire. Three shots from his revolver
were sent into the crowd, when he fell dead in his wagon, pierced with three
bullets. He was the only man killed or seriously injured. The news of the
tragic death of their leader, as it spread among his sympathizers, produced a
frenzy of excitement. They gathered from Wapello, Mahaska and Poweshiek
counties in armed bands, making threats of vengeance. Their rendezvous was on
the south bank of Skunk River, about two miles from Sigourney. Here they formed
a camp and soon had nearly 2,000 armed men drilling. Messengers were sent to
Governor Kirkwood, and he ordered eleven military companies and a squad of
artillery to assemble forthwith at Sigourney, and, the, accompanied by three
aides, the Governor proceeded to the county-seat. A large assembly gathered at the
court-house, where the Governor made an address. He urged obedience to the laws
and promised that every effort should be made by the lawful authorities to
bring to speedy trial and punishment the guilty parties in the late affray. In
the meantime the “Tally army,” in camp near the river, had elected a
commander-in-chief, and fixed the time to march upon South English. Charles
Negus, a prominent attorney of Fairfield, had been called to the scene of the
conflict, by friends of Tally, to assist in bringing the slayers of their
leader to trial. He saw the imminent danger of a bloody collision if the army
on the Skunk River made a hostile demonstration against the citizens of South
English. He had an interview with the commander of the “Tally army” and told him
of the presence of the State troops, under command of Colonel N. P. Chipman,
and that it would be folly to inaugurate war against the legally constituted
military power of the State. The commander-in-chief returned to the army and
informed his men of the condition of affairs, and the advice of their
counsellor. When they found themselves face to face with State militia,
assembled by order of the Governor, their courage gave way to discretion, and,
after consultation, they decided to disband. Twelve men were soon after
arrested by the civil authorities charged with being implicated in the killing
of Tally; they gave bonds to appear for trial at the next term of court. The
prompt action of the Governor prevented a bloody conflict, and was unmistakable
warning to the lawless element that the military power of the State would be
used to suppress mob violence.
On
the 30th of October, of the same year, a party of lawless men was
discovered passing through the western portion of Fremont County. Provost
Marshal Van Eaton called to his assistance Captain Hoyt and a few men, who
followed them towards the Missouri River, to learn their intentions. The
bushwhackers managed to conceal themselves in the brush, where they lay in
ambush until the marshal and his party came within gunshot, when they fired,
killing Van Eaton and wounding one of his men. The survivors returned the fire,
wounding one of the bushwhackers, but the whole party escaped. On the night of
the 17th of November, a party of mounted armed men intercepted the
pickets guarding the road leading into Sidney from the west. After a sharp
skirmish and rapid firing the enemy made a hasty retreat. On the 11th,
a gang succeeded in entering the town by night and in blowing up the
court-house, built at a cost of $36,000.
On
the 17th, Adjutant-General Baker sent two hundred muskets, 4,000
ball cartridges and authority to Colonel Sears to call out as many companies of
the Southern Border Brigade as were necessary to protect the county from
marauders. Captain H. B. Horn, in command of a company in the Southern Border
Brigade, stationed in Davis County, in March, 1863, reported to the
Adjutant-General the doings of the disloyal citizens in that county. On the 9th
of February, a force of armed men seized a negro and carried him into Missouri
to slavery.
Captain
Horn writes:
“Davis
County is not the place to punish men for such crimes. The disloyal men among
us have banded themselves together to resist the law and authority of those in
power. At a recent peace meeting in our county, resolutions were unanimously
adopted, in which they pledged themselves to resist to the death all attempts
to draft any of our citizens into the army, and that they would permit no
arbitrary arrests to be made among them by the minions of the Administration.
‘That we will resist the introduction of free negroes into Iowa—first, by
lawful means, and when that fails we will drive them, together with such whites
as may be engaged in bringing them in, out of the State, or afford them
honorable graves.”
When the draft began in the fall
of 1864, these disloyal utterances led to murder and mob violence. A draft had
been made in September in Poweshiek County. The time for some of the drafted
men to report had expired. In Sugar Creek township was a settlement of the
disloyal, who had harbored deserters, and had a strong lodge of the “Knights of
the Golden Circle.” On the 30th of September, James Mathews, the
provost marshal, sent two officers—captain John L. Bashore and Josiah M.
Woodruff—into that vicinity to arrest deserters from the draft. They had nearly
reached the residence of one of the deserters, fourteen miles south of
Grinnell, when they were fired upon by a number of armed men. Woodruff was
instantly killed, his body was dragged into the bushes twenty yards from the
road, where it was found riddled with bullets. Captain Bashore was lying in the
road mortally wounded; he was shot in the head and through the body, then
beaten over the head with the butt end of a rifle, which lay broken beside him.
A man by the name of Gleason was found lying near Bashore, shot through the
thigh, who, when found, said: “I came to the assistance of the provost marshal,
and was shot by the band who attacked him.” Bashore, hearing what he said, had
strength enough to exclaim, “that is not so, he fought us as wickedly as any of
them.”; and in a short time Captain Bashore breathed his last. Upon
investigation ordered by the Governor, it was ascertained that a company of
pretended militia had been raised in Sugar Creek township, under the command of
Captain Robert C. Carpenter, and that a portion of this band had pledged
themselves to resist the draft. Joseph Robertson, Thomas McEntire and Samuel A.
Bryant, living in that vicinity, had been drafted, and having been notified,
failed to report to the provost marshal, and became deserters. When it was
learned through spies that officers were coming to arrest them, members of
Captain Carpenter’s company assembled in a grove near the road where it was
expected the officers would approach the settlement. The men were armed with
rifles and shot-guns, and planned to send a portion of the company to waylay
and kill the officers. The plot was executed, but not without heroic
resistance. Though taken by surprise, shot from ambush, and mortally wounded,
Captain Bashore shot Gleason through the thigh, and he was left disabled in the
road by his companions, when they fled from the scene of the murders.
Gleason
made a partial confession, in which he admitted that the gang had pledged
themselves to resist the arrest of any of the number who might be drafted, and
that he broke his rifle over Bashore’s head in the murderous attack. Upon order
of the Governor, Adjutant-General Baker went to Grinnell and instituted an
investigation. Captain Mathews had six men arrested and, with Gleason, lodged
in jail at Oskaloosa. One of the men, by the name of Fleener, fled and was
never found. When Gleason recovered from his wounds he was tried in the United
States court at Des Moines, convicted of murder, and sentenced to be hung. His
wife went to Washington and appealed to the President to spare the life of the
convict. President Lincoln commuted the punishment to imprisonment for life.
After a few years in prison Gleason died.