|
Picture included in this
chapter is of Colonel William M. Stone
The last raid into Iowa by Missouri guerrillas was in October,
1864. On the morning of the 12th, twelve young men,
dressed in Federal uniforms, and mounted on good horses,
entered Davis County in the southeast corner, and, riding
along the highway at a rapid gait, began to plunder the farm
houses and people they met on the road. They seized such arms
as they found, and destroying them, took some of the citizens
prisoners. Their leader was Lieutenant James Jackson, who sent
out small detachments on intersecting roads to bring in
plunder. The point at which they entered the county was about
sixteen miles from Bloomfield, and, as they advanced with a
large number of prisoners, they presented a formidable
appearance that so terrified the inhabitants that it was
several hours before the news of the raid reached the county
seat. The first man killed was Thomas Hurdy, a farmer, who
refused to give up his team. The leader shot him in his wagon
and robbed his body of about four hundred dollars. The next
man killed was a returned soldier from the Third Iowa Cavalry,
Eleazer Small, who was shot by the leader, who dismounted and
coolly rifled the pockets of the dying man. At Springville,
the marauders went to the residence of Captain Philip Bunce,
an officer of the Thirtieth Iowa Infantry, who happened to be
at home on a visit. They robbed him of his uniform and were
about to shoot him when he walked up to the leader and in a
low voice, that he might not be heard by his terrified family,
requested that he might not be killed in the presence of his
wife. He was accordingly taken several miles from home and
brutally murdered.
When the news of the bloody raid reached Bloomfield, the
county fair was in session. The men rushed to the arsenal,
where arms and ammunition were hastily distributed, horses
were taken from the wagons and mounted, Colonel J. B. Weaver
was called to the command. A company of mounted men was soon
organized, and, led by Weaver, started in pursuit of the
guerrillas, while Lieutenant-Colonel S. A. Moore took command
of the militia to protect the town. The party under Weaver
struck the trail of the outlaws at Hurdy’s and followed it
with great rapidity until the place was reached where Captain
Bunce had been murdered. It was now midnight, they were in
Missouri and five hours behind the raiders, as they learned
from the citizens. It was impossible to track them in the
darkness, and in a region where the raiders knew every bridle
path and were among their friends, who would give no
information to the pursuers. It was useless to proceed further
and Weaver’s party reluctantly turned back, taking the of
Captain Bunce. On the 7th of November, while three
men in Davis County were attempting to arrest suspicious
characters, one of them, William Wallace, was shot by the
raiders and killed. During these troubles in teat county,
thirteen of the guerrillas were captured by the militia, and
delivered to the proper authorities.
Governor Kirkwood, having declined to be a candidate for a
third term, there was a lively contest between the supporters
of General Fitz Henry Warren and Elijah Sells, Secretary of
State, before the Republican State Convention, which assembled
at Des Moines on the 17th of June, 1863, to
nominate candidates for Governor and other State officers.
Colonel William M. Stone, of the Twenty-second Regiment, who
was home with a wound in his arm, received before Vicksburg,
had a few supporters, who held the balance of power between
the two chief candidates. The night before the convention,
after the delegates had arrived in the city, a rally was held
in the convention hall, at which General Warren and Colonel
Stone were the chief speakers. Warren, who was an accomplished
gentleman and an experienced politician, opened the meeting
with a polished address, but most injudiciously made some
remarks which seemed to reflect upon his principal competitor
and gave great offense to the supporters of Mr. Sells, who was
not a public speaker, and who did not address the meeting.
Colonel Stone saw the mistake and was not slow to profit by
it. When called out, he walked up to the platform in his blue
uniform, with his wounded arm in a sling. The war feeling was
high at this time, with Grant’s army covered with the glory of
that wonderful campaign, in which he had outgeneraled and
prevented the junction of the armies of Johnston and
Pemberton, beaten both in a series of brilliant engagements,
and was now tightening the coils around the Confederate
stronghold at Vicksburg. Iowa regiments and officers had won
fame in Grant’s army and every Republican was wrought to the
highest tension, waiting for the news of the fall of
Vicksburg. As Stone paused a moment on the platform, the
representative of “our boys in blue” with Grant, he must have
realized that the opportunity of a life time was before him.
He was equal to the occasion. Always an eloquent stump
speaker, he now seemed inspired by the surroundings, and
without alluding to the impending political contest on the
morrow, he brought a message from the army before Vicksburg.
Paying an eloquent tribute to the Iowa soldiers and their
glorious deeds on the battle-field, he continued in glowing
terms to eulogize the National and State Administrations under
Republican rule, the superb loyalty of the people, their
sacrifices and devotion to their country during the long and
bloody war. Seizing the auspicious moment he made the speech
that stampeded the convention the next day and made him
Governor.
When the convention assembled in the morning and the balloting
began, it looked as though Warren would be nominated. When
Sell’s supporters realized that the battle was lost, they
turned their votes for Stone, who had developed unexpected
strength after his speech the evening before. His nomination
was won as clearly by an eloquent and adroit speech, as was
Bryan’s at Chicago in 1896. Enoch W. Eastman was nominated for
Lieutenant-Governor, and John F. Dillon for Supreme Judge. No
new issues were represented in the platform he adopted.
The Democratic State Convention met at Des Moines on the 8th
of July and put in nomination the following candidates: fro
Governor, Maturin L. Fisher; Lieutenant-Governor, John F.
Duncombe; Supreme Judge, Charles Mason. A lengthy platform of
fifteen resolutions was adopted, in which the most notable
declarations were these:
“We are opposed to the war for the purpose of carrying out
the emancipation proclamation of the President of the United
States. That the power which has recently been assumed by the
President, wherein, under the guise of military necessity, he
has proclaimed martial law over States where war does not
exist, and has suspended the writ of habeas corpus, is
unwarranted by the Constitution, and its tendency is to
subvert our free government. That the establishment of
military government over loyal States where war does not
exist, to supersede the civil authorities and suppress the
freedom of speech and of the press, and to interfere with the
elective franchise, is not only subversive of the Constitution
and the sovereignty of the States, but the actual inauguration
of revolution.”
Mr. Fisher declined the nomination for Governor and General
James M. Tuttle was placed at the head of the ticket by the
State central committee. The campaign was fought out on the
issues made in the above declarations by the Democratic
Convention. The Republican candidates were elected by
majorities ranging from 30,000 to 32,989.
The feeling of depression and gloom pervading the North after
the disasters that had followed the great Army of the Potomac,
under its various commanders, up to the close of the year
1862, was not lifted during the first half of 1863. General
Rosecrans, after the indecisive battle near Murfreesboro, in
Tennessee, in which he lost nearly 20,000 men, without
advantage to the Union cause, remained inactive in that
vicinity.
The Army of the Potomac, now under General Hooker had fought
another great battle with Lee at Chancellorsville and had been
defeated with a loss of more than 17,000 men. No great victory
had been won by a Union army in any department to compensate
for these failures and heavy losses. Early in June, General
Lee, with his army largely reinforced, and flushed with
victories, marched northward, threatening Washington and
Philadelphia. Never before had the Union cause seemed in such
peril. President Lincoln hastily called upon the Governors of
Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio for
120,000 militia to repel the invasion. Not more than 50,000
men from the five States responded to the call. The most
serious apprehensions were felt in Washington for the safety
of the city, and at no time since the beginning of the
Rebellion had the people of the North felt so thoroughly
disheartened. Their country was about to be invaded and all
the horrors of war brought to their homes.
The largest and best army ever raised in the Southern
confederacy, composed of veterans who had never been beaten,
was on the march of invasion. All attempts to crush this army,
or capture the Confederate Capital, had ingloriously failed,
and the National cause and its greatest army was now on the
defensive. The disloyal element in the North was never so
defiant as now. Loud and persistent threats were made of armed
resistance to the draft. The only hopeful news for the Union
cause in this time of general gloom was coming from Grant’s
army in the West. He had penetrated the heart of the enemy’s
country, won the a series of brilliant victories, driven a
large army into the entrenchments at Vicksburg and, closing
all avenues of escape, was now shelling that stronghold, the
fall of which would open the Mississippi. Suddenly the gloom
that had long that had long hung over the Union cause was
lifted. On the 3d of July was ended the greatest battle ever
fought on this continent. Fro three days the gigantic struggle
for supremacy between the Confederate army under Lee, and the
Union army under Meade, had raged among the hills and valleys
of Gettysburg, while the Nation trembled with suspense. On the
third day Lee’s army was shattered, beaten, and in full
retreat with a loss of nearly 30,000 men. Next day, Pemberton
surrendered his entire army, cannon, small arms, and the city
of Vicksburg was reached; the capture of Jackson, the capital
of the State; the fall of Vicksburg, and the opening of the
Mississippi River; the surrender of an army of 37,000 after
more than 10,000 had fallen in battle. The
”History of the American Conflict,” in summing up the results
of this campaign says:
"This was the heaviest single blow ever given to the muscular
resources of the Rebellion. No other campaign of the war
equals in brilliancy of conception and general success in
execution that which resulted in the capitulation of
Vicksburg.”
It is an undeniable fact
that the loss of this entire army, with all its equipment, and
the fall of the great stronghold of the Mississippi Valley,
was a greater blow to confederacy than the defeat of Lee at
Gettysburg. Although beaten, he had inflicted upon the Union
army losses almost equal to his own; he had replenished his
scanty army supplies from the granaries and storehouses of
Pennsylvania; exchanged his worn-out cavalry horses for the
well-fed animals of the northern farmers; had levied forced
contributions of hundreds of thousands of dollars upon the
cities in his line of march; and so slow was Meade’s pursuit
that he escaped with nearly all of his plunder, and, taking a
defiant position on the Rappahannock, checked Meade’s advance
toward Richmond to the end of the year.
It is an undeniable fact that
the loss of this entire army, with all its equipment, and the
fall of the great stronghold of the Mississippi Valley, was a
greater blow to Confederacy than the defeat of Lee at
Gettysburg. Although beaten, he had inflicted upon the Union
army losses almost equal to his own; he had replenished his
scanty army supplies from the granaries and storehouses of
Pennsylvania; exchanged his worn-out cavalry horses for the
well-fed animals of the northern farmers; had levied forced
contributions of hundreds of thousands of dollars upon the
cities in his line of march; and so slow was Meade’s pursuit
that he escaped with nearly all of his plunder, and, taking a
defiant position on the Rappahannock, checked Meade’s advance
toward Richmond to the end of the year.
The great joy of the eastern
people over the firs decided victory of the Army of the
Potomac, and the relief of the North from danger of invasion;
so thoroughly absorbed their attention, that the greater
victory in the West was not appreciated by the Nation at
large. Grant’s armies form the beginning of his great career,
were composed entirely of western troops, and were made up
largely, to the close of his Vicksburg campaign, of Illinois
and Iowa volunteers. Iowa soldiers had won fame in all of his
battles and campaigns. Belmont, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Iuka,
Corinth, Champion’s Hill and Vicksburg. In the West our armies
had generally been successful. Before the middle of July,
1863, we had opened the Mississippi River to New Orleans,
driven the Confederate armies out of Missouri, Kentucky, the
greater portion of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Louisiana. In addition to the many thousand Confederate
soldiers killed and wounded in battle, our armies had taken
more than 50,000 prisoners. This progress in the West had
inspired a confidence among its citizens in the final
overthrow of the Rebellion, which had never been seriously
shaken by the disasters to the eastern armies. From the
beginning to the end of the war no Iowa regiments were in the
Army of the Potomac, although we had many regiments with
Sheridan in his campaign of the Shenandoah Valley, when he won
the brilliant victories of Opequan, fisher’s Hill and Cedar
Creek, in the fall of 1864.
On the 17th of
October, 1863, the President issued a call for 300,000
volunteers to serve three years, if the war should last so
long. This call was made necessary owing to the fact that the
term of service of a large number of men now in the army would
expire during the year 1864. Iowa again raised its quota with
volunteers, without resort to a draft.
The Tenth General Assembly
convened at Des Moines on the 11th of January,
1864. The Senate was called order by Lieutenant-Governor
Needham. The House was organized by the election of Jacob
Butler, speaker. In his last message to the Legislature,
Governor Kirkwood, in referring to the attitude of Iowa toward
the Rebellion, says:
“The position
occupied by our State in this war for the preservation of the
Union is a proud and enviable one. From the first outbreak of
the Rebellion, until the present time, Iowa has neither
faltered nor wavered in the discharge of her duty. In both
branches of the National Council has she presented an unbroken
front to treason and rebellion, and has given a steady and
undivided support to the General Government. Her State
Government in all of its branches has given evidence of her
unflinching and unconditional loyalty and devotion to the good
cause. Her people have at all times and promptly filled all
requisitions made upon them for troops to fill the ranks of
the Union armies; and the men she has sent to the field have
been at least second to none in all soldierly qualities.
When the war began ours was a new State without a history.
To-day her name stands on one of the brightest pages of our
country’s record, graven there by the bayonets of our brave
soldiers—and that page is all over glowing with proofs of
their heroism and devotion. We have sent to the field no
regiment of which we do not feel justly proud, and the bare
mention of the names of many of them stirs the blood and warms
the heart of every Iowan. It may perhaps be permitted me to
say that I trust when the history of the gallantry and
devotion of these men shall be written, the position I have
held will of necessity connect my name humbly and not
discreditably with theirs, and that this trust affords
compensation for somewhat of toil and care which have attended
the position, and should be sufficient to satisfy an ambition
greater than mine.”
The Governor, in his
message, pays the following well-earned tribute to his able
Adjutant-General, N. B. Baker:
“The office of
Adjutant-General has been since the commencement of the war,
and still is, a very important one. The labor and
responsibility have been very great. The labor has always been
well and promptly performed, and the responsibility cheerfully
borne….It affords me great pleasure to say that whatever of
success has attended the raising and organizing of troops in
this State is due to the efficient services of the present
incumbent of that office.”
At the close of Governor
Kirkwood’s term, the report of the Adjutant-General showed
that these two officials had raised, organized and put into
the field, forty regiments of infantry, nine regiments of
cavalry and four batteries of artillery.
The names of these two able,
faithful and devoted public officials will be forever
intimately associated with the most critical period of our
National history. Governor Kirkwood was clam and deliberate,
endowed with excellent judgment and possessed a vast amount of
practical common sense. He was solid rather than brilliant and
made few mistakes in solving the difficult problems thrust
upon his administration by the war. Not the least difficult of
these was the selection of field officers for the forty-nine
regiments of volunteers organized during his term. Hundreds of
prominent politicians sought these places, very few of whom
had any knowledge of military affairs. IT was impossible to
fill these most important positions with officers educated for
the profession of arms, for they were not in the country.
Selections had to be made had to be made largely from men
engaged in civil pursuits, who must acquire a knowledge of
military affairs in camp, on the march, or amid the carnage of
the battle-field. Under these circumstances, it was inevitable
that mistakes should be made. But in a large majority of cases
the excellent judgment of the Governor and Adjutant-General
enabled them to make wise selections. The incompetent were
usually soon weeded out by resignation, and the places filled
by promotion of those who had shown their fitness on the field
of battle.
Governor Kirkwood was
untiring in his efforts to meet every requirement of the
National Administration, and at the same time was constant in
his attention to the wants of the sick and wounded Iowa
soldiers in camp and hospital. He retired from office with the
respect and esteem of all loyal citizens of the State, and his
fame as one of the most eminent “War Governors” of that
momentous period will endure for all time.
On the 14th of
January, 1864, William M. Stone was inaugurated Governor, and
Enoch W. Eastman was sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor. On the
16th, the General Assembly met in joint convention
and proceeded to ballot for United States Senator. James W.
Grimes received one hundred and twenty-eight votes, John D.
Jennings five, and J. M. Love one. James W. Grimes was
declared elected for the term of six years, beginning the 4th
of March, 1865.
The most important acts of
this session of the Legislature were the following: an act to
organize and discipline the militia of the State; an act for
the relief of the families of soldiers and marines in the
service of the United States, which required the collection of
two mills on the dollar of all taxable property in each county
for the benefit of such families for the years 1864-1865; an
act making an appropriation for the erection of a building for
the State Agricultural College; an act authorizing the
trustees of said college to lease or sell the lands granted by
Congress for the support of that institution; an act to repeal
the law of the Third General Assembly, which prohibited the
immigration of free negroes into this State; an act increasing
the number of Supreme Judges from three to four; an act fixing
the salary of the Governor at $2,500, and requiring him to
keep the Executive Office at Des Moines, where he should
transact the business of the Executive Department, and keep a
secretary in his absence. That all official acts of the
Executive should, at the time, be entered in a journal. He
should keep a military record, on which should be entered
every act done by him as Commander-in-Chief. An act
prohibiting the circulation of foreign bank notes in Iowa and
an act abolishing the State Board of Education, and providing
for the election of a Superintendent of Public Instruction
were also passed.
Several joint resolutions
were passed, among which were: one requesting the colonels of
Iowa regiments in the service to furnish the Adjutant-General
with a brief history of their respective regiments, in order
that their achievements might be placed on record, and be
preserved for use in permanent history; one asking a grant of
public lands to aid in the construction of a rail road from
McGregor to a point on the Missouri River, along or near the
43d parallel of north latitude; one authorizing the Governor
to convey to S. H. Taft ten sections of land in Humboldt
County upon which he had located a colony.
No act of this General
Assembly proved to be of such far-reaching importance as that
authorizing the lease of the lands of the Agricultural College
grant. Under that grant, 224,169 acres of Government lands had
been selected in our State by Peter Melendy, the commissioner
appointed by Governor Kirkwood in the years 1862-1863. there
were, at this time, and for many years afterward, hundred of
thousands of acres of Government lands in Iowa subject to
homestead entry at the cost of but fourteen dollars to the
settler upon one hundred and sixty acres. Under such
conditions there could be no hope of selling lands of the
college grant for many years. The college could not be opened
until revenue sufficient to meet current expenses could be
derived from this land grant. The state would make
appropriations for the erection of buildings, but not for the
support of the school. There was a growing and earnest demand
for the establishment of the institution. The friends and
founders of the college were not willing that this munificent
grant should be sacrificed fro the insignificant sum that a
sale of any portion would bring then, if, indeed, the lands
could be sold at any price. In order to solve the difficult
problem, if possible, Senators B. F. Gue, one of the
originators of the Agricultural College bill, held several
consultations, calling Governor Kirkwood to confer with them.
They finally devised the plan of having an appraised value
placed on each tract of the land, at which price it would be
sold at the end of five years to the person who should lease
it, he paying interest at the rate of six per cent. In
advance, annually, on the appraised value of the land leased.
The title remaining in the State, the lands were exempt from
taxation, the person leasing with the privilege of buying, was
neither required to improve nor to live upon the land, as in
the case of one taking a homestead, and the amount that one
person could lease and buy was not limited. These conditions
made the college lands the most desirable investment to a
large class of people who had confidence that in the future
there must be great increase in the value of Iowa lands. This
plan of disposing of the college grant met the approval of the
General Assembly and was promptly enacted into law. Its
workings met the most sanguine expectations of projectors, as
will be seen hereafter.
Article IX of the
Constitution, which established a Board of Education, also
provided that after the year 1863, the General Assembly should
have power to abolish or reorganize the Board. After a trial
of five years, public opinion clearly demanded that the Board
should be abolished; not because its work did not meet the
approval of the people of the State, but because under that
system school legislation became cumbersome and complicated.
The Board of Education had no power to levy taxes or make
appropriations of money; these powers could only be exercised
by the General Assembly. Consequently no act of the Board
could become effective which required the expenditure of money
unless it met the approval of a majority of the members of
both branches of the Legislature. While the members of the
Boards of Education had usually been men well qualified to
enact educational laws, and their acts had met public
approval, the people could see no necessity for a third
legislative body and the additional expense and delay involved
in the new system. The Board of Education was therefore
abolished by the first General Assembly which had the power,
under a provision of Constitution.
The most notable contest in
the Tenth General Assembly was over the suppression of the
last remnant of what was known as “wild cat” currency in the
State. In pioneer times, gold and silver were for the most
part used as money. The Miner’s Bank of Dubuque was the only
one established in Iowa in early days, and when that failed,
the people lost confidence in paper money, and in the first
Constitution of the State prohibited the establishment of
banks with power to issue paper money. The object of this
provision was clearly to rid the State of bank notes and every
form of paper currency, recognizing gold and silver only as
lawful money. But it utterly failed to exclude the
objectionable currency and in a few years our State was
flooded with disreputable paper promises to pay. After ten
years of trial of this constitutional prohibition and its
disastrous failure to exclude the “wild cat” currency, another
plan was adopted in the Constitution of 1857. The prohibition
was removed and the General Assembly was authorized to enact
laws for the establishment of banks of issue, to take effect
only after having been approved by the people at an election.
A system of sound money and safe banking was enacted by the
Seventh General Assembly, and it was expected that the notes
of the State Bank of Iowa, which were always redeemable in
specie, would displace the “wild cat” currency which still
lingered in spite of all efforts to dislodge it. As the war
proceeded most of the banks of the country, as well as the
National Government, were compelled to suspend specie payment,
gold, silver commanded a high premium, and consequently were
retired from general circulation. Treasury notes took their
place to a large extent, and came into use as the common
currency of the country; and, as they were not redeemable in
specie, the State Bank bills which were gradually retired from
circulation. In 1863 an act of Congress was passed for the
establishment of National banks, and the Tenth General
Assembly made the notes of these banks receivable for taxes.
A movement was now made,
having for its purpose not only striking a death blow to “wild
cat” currency in Iowa, but restricting our people to the use
of the money based on the credit of the Nation, and thus
aiding the Government in carrying the burden of debt incurred
in prosecuting the war.
On the 25th
of January, 1864, Senator B. F. Gue of Scott County,
introduced into that body a bill to prohibit absolutely, under
severe penalties, the circulation of any bank note or bill
intended to circulate as money in the State of Iowa, except
United States Treasury notes, national bank bills, or those of
the State Bank of Iowa. This bill met with the most determined
opposition from the day of its introduction. Private bankers
and brokers had for many years found a profitable business in
receiving from distant banks of the country their paper
currency in large quantities, at a heavy discount and putting
it in circulation through produce buyers and in loans to their
customers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars had been lost by
the people of Iowa in the failure of these worthless banks. No
legislation thus far aimed at this evil had eradicated it. The
profits were so large that a strong lobby soon gathered at the
Capital to defeat this radical bill. It was fought at every
stage, in committee, and on the floor of the Senate, as an
arbitrary, unprecedented species of legislation, discourteous
to other States. But it passed the Senate and went to the
House where it encountered a still more determined opposition.
It was there in charge of Samuel McNutt of Muscatine. The
committee of ways and means, to which it was referred,
reported against it was referred, reported against it and an
attempt was made by the Speaker to rule it out. The press of
the State took up the discussion, and a large majority of the
newspapers urged the passage of the bill. When it came up of
consideration the fifth lasted two day and every device known
to parliamentary practice was used by the opposition to
modify, amend or defeat the bill. But under the guidance of
McNutt and “Russell of Jones,” it was carried safely through,
received the approval of the Governor and became a law. This
ended the long struggle, which, begun in Territorial
Assemblies, was carried into three Constitutional Conventional
and several State Legislature to expect “wild cat” currency
from Iowa. It seemed to have as many lives as the traditional
cat of another species. This law terminated the existence of
currency of doubtful value in the State. |
