Iowa
Old Press
The Dubuque Herald
Dubuque, Dubuque county, Iowa
August 8, 1863
The Parade of Armed Union Leaguers
The offensive exhibition of about fifty Union Leaguers,
Thursday, armed with government muskets, has created no small
amount of talk and indignation. The reports are rife--reports,
too, spread by themselves, that in joining this organization they
are released from the operations of the draft by pledging
themselves to the service at home against the Democracy. If the
madmen at the head of affairs do not consider the feeling of
opposition to the draft already of sufficient magnitude, they are
taking the very steps to augment it. People do not look upon the
impudent display of a force ostensibly for their own subjection
with much charity or complacency. That it is not equal to the
design matters nothing. While we may not fear the fifty or sixty
members of the Union League, who paraded the streets on Thursday
with their government muskets, bayoneted and shotted, it does not
follow that they are (not) viewed with contempt. The intention is
plain. It is asserted that all the members of this company are by
their so associating exempted from the draft; and it is also
asserted that still another company is being raised for the same
purpose. If this be so the provost marshal is aware of it and the
people should demand that his knowledge be made public.
[contributed by Dubuque co. IAGenWeb, Sept. 2015]
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The Dubuque Herald
Dubuque, Dubuque county, Iowa
August 20, 1863
Frank McLain, a farmer residing on the North Cascade road, seven
miles from Dubuque, was arrested as a deserter, brought to town,
put aboard the James Means and sent down to Davenport. He had
deserted, it was said, from the Thirty-seventh Wisconsin regiment
two years before."
About 8 o'clock August 12, 1863, two officers, D. E. Lyon and
Marshal Hungerford, tried to arrest Wendel and Adam Jacobi,
brothers, at their home in Peru township on the charge of
desertion and other offenses. They were resisted, whereupon in
the struggle the former was shot and mortally wounded and the
latter was seriously wounded. A third brother assisted, but was
not harmed. The coroner returned a verdict that he came to his
death by being shot with a pistol in the hands of an unknown
person willfully. The Dubuque Herald said: "No cause was
given for such extraordinary proceedings and the act can only be
characterized as it is by the jury, a most willful murder. This
horrible affair added to the harsh manner in which young McLain
was treated lately has stirred up a feeling in the community
which is fast becoming determined. Certainly if something is not
done to bring the offenders to justice there is cause for alarm
and independent action. It will never do to let this affair
settle into a result of military necessity.
The Jacobi Investigation
We learn that the grand jury failed to find a bill
against Lyon and Hungerford for the Jacobi affair. Dubuque will
not see such a jury for many a year hereafter. As the evidence is
to be published, we make no further comment.
[contributed by Dubuque co. IAGenWeb, Sept. 2015]