Iowa
Old Press
The Sioux City Journal, Thurs. October 5, 1899
A REUNION OF VETERANS
First Annual Banquet of Society of Armies of the West.
THE ANNIVERSARY OF CORINTH
Capt. J. S. Lothrop Recites Some of His Personal Experiences in the Great Battle—Addresses by Other Western Soldiers.
Thirty-seven years ago yesterday the union army wrested a desperate victory from the armies of the confederacy at the bloody battle of Corinth. Last night the Sioux City veterans of the Society of the Armies of the West celebrated the anniversary of that famous fight in a banquet at Unity church, where in story, speech and song the memories of the old war days were recalled and dwelt upon in most pleasant reminiscence. That patriotism that led the Boys of ’61 to enter the army to fight for the nation’s preservation was the keynote of the occasion and was manifest in the decorations of red, white and blue that covered the walls and in every utterance of the speakers.
The banquet board was well filled. Seated about were not only members of the society, but their guests of honor—the Society of the Army of the Potomac, the Sons of Veterans, the members of the Fifty-second Iowa volunteers and a number of prominent citizens. When the good things that filled the table were disposed of chairs were drawn back and from some hours a programme of most interesting reminiscences of old war times was presented by veterans who underwent the experiences of the struggle between the North and the South.
Last night’s banquet was the first of the society, although the organization of which it is an outgrowth, The Society of Atlanta, was brought into existence more than ten years ago. The latter society was organized in 1888 by Sioux City veterans of Sherman’s famous campaign. Its objects were purely social. The scope of the society, however, was too narrow to give it due prosperity, and within the past year its members with other veterans organized a new fraternity of veterans, the Society of the Armies of the West, whose membership was extended to those veterans who fought in any of the western campaigns. Officers were elected as follows: President, J. E. Ayres; secretary, John Belfrage; treasurer, E. B. Spaulding.
Address by President Ayres.
President Ayres opened the feast of reminiscence with a short address in which he stated briefly the scope of the society. He presided as toastmaster and in bright, witty talks presented the various speakers. He said:
Comrades of the Society of the Armies of the West: On this our first annual meeting I congratulate you upon the success of our efforts to organize a society embracing all who served in the late Civil War west of a certain territorial limit. All present doubtless have knowledge of a society that was organized in this city some years since, designed to observe the anniversary of one of the principal battles before Atlanta. The membership of that society must of necessity have been limited, many of its members recognizing this fact and desiring to enlarge the scope of their purpose conceived the liberal idea of organizing a kindred society on a broader and larger scale, that should include all who may have served west of the eastern boundary lines of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.
Such an enlargement of territory would include in its material for membership very many who, in the first and second years of the war, had touched elbows and been comrades in a number of the principal battles of those years, but who, owing to the reorganization of brigades, divisions and corps, became separated and later served in different fields of action. It was thus intended to bring together the veterans of Wilson’s creek, Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Belmont, Fort Donaldson, Shiloh, Perryville, Mill Creek, Stone River, Iuka, Corinth, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Campbell’s Station, Knoxville, New Orleans, Port Hudson, Alexandria, Red River campaign, Mobile, Resaca, New Hope church, Kenesaw mountain, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Altoona pass, Spring Hill, Franklin, Nashville, march to the sea, Savannah, Bentonville, Wilmington and many others in one social organization to keep alive the memories of the stirring events of our patriotic services on those occasions.
Hence this present society was organized from the old one as a nucleus by the mutual efforts of the old society and comrades who were not members. We extend to all who are eligible for membership an urgent invitation to join us in what we believe will prove an interesting and profitable social organization. We desire your fellowship, we need your cash. Our functions are purely social and for the purpose of having a royal good time once a year. We have no titled officers to embellish our membership roll and give splendor on public occasions. We are Boys of ’61 to ’65, comrades each, and we believe, soldiers all.
With these remarks President Ayres introduced Capt. J. S. Lothrop, who presented a historical sketch of the fight.
Capt. Lothrop’s Recollections.
In commemoration of the anniversary of the second day’s battle of Corinth, October 4, 1862, Capt. J. S. Lothrop gave to the society his personal recollections of the famous fight of thirty-seven years ago, describing it in all its details and dwelling with eloquence that aroused his hearers upon the blood stirring incidents of the conflict. After telling briefly of the unfortunate first day’s fighting and the doubt that filled the minds of the union soldiers on the night of the first day, isolated in the enemy’s country and surrounded by superior confederate forces, he said in part:
“Our men lay down to sleep, but little time was afforded them for it. About half past 3 o’clock the next morning the confederates started business by opening with a field battery which they had located quite close to our line, and the first shot started our army to its feet. For a good many years, I would have sworn that the shell from that first gun that morning struck a few feet in front of the gun stacks of my regiment. Since then I have talked with a good many soldiers who took part in that battle, and representing almost every part of the field, and a large number of them very gravely and confidently informed me that the first shot struck close to their respective companies, and in several cases knocked down their particular gun stacks. So I concluded that that first shell was the most promiscuous piece of loaded iron that ever left the muzzle of a cannon, and have ceased to claim for myself any knowledge of where it struck.
Then the army waited for the attack, but it was considerably past 9 o’clock, nearly 10 o’clock, I should say, before it commenced.
It came soon. Now I could see the left of the confederate line approaching our right. Soon the whole line emerged into view, all walking in fairly good order, while the great shells from our batteries were plowing great gaps through their ranks. There was a yell from the confederates on their left, a scream, which, taken up by their comrades, rolled on down to their right like the coming and of an ocean wave, and now they were running right on towards where our boys lay waiting. The skirmishers, who had been adding to the cannon’s roar the sharp rattle of their rifles ran back and were swallowed up in the battle line.
On our right Hamilton’s men lifted from the ground in one mass, and then Davies’ division, from right to left, regiment after regiment, like the unrolling of a scroll, rose to their feet, and from right to left, as quickly as they could be seen upright, a volume of fire, smoke and thunder escaped from their ranks. Now there was hell. Even above the deafening thunder of guns, I could hear the yell and shout of the combatants, while at close range they were pouring lead into each others faces. Fancy this picture, ye who can. My blood was leaping. Alternately I was cheering and gasping. Powell’s guns were sweeping the rebel lines almost enfilade, and from other batteries these missiles of death were mangling the enemy. The smoke that effectually concealed the sun covered the field like a pail, and at times hid both friend and foe from sight.
The Ups and Downs of Battle.
Continuing the description, Capt. Lothrop told of the great rebel yell that arose afresh on the arrival of their reinforcements, and pandemonium they created in the union ranks as they drove the Boys in Blue back in a terrible hand to hand fight. But while the union men were fighting desperately in Corinth’s public square, a wonderful northern cheer arose that set the blood in a most riotous chase. Hamilton’s reserve came on like demons in a charge that swept the confederates away, followed by every missile of death that could be sent into their ranks.
In the meantime, at another point of the field, another fight was on at Battery Robinett, where the final repulse was given the confederates, but not until hundreds had been killed by the deadly bullets, the opposing force shot into each others very faces, the union men on the inside of the embankments in a crowded mass, the enemy swarming on the outside like ants, shooting through at each other. But the Eleventh Missouri and Twenty-seventh Ohio soon settled the fight when they were thrown into the confederates, and the retreat became a rout. It was plucky to the end, however, said Capt. Lothrop.
The last man who held their flag carried it off the field with it over his shoulder, down the road through the abattis, threatened by the lead of a thousand rifles. He got safely away and our men accorded to him a most hearty cheer in admiration of his unsurpassed courage and reckless daring.
The field was a sickening sight of torn and mangled humanity. Not more of the slain and wounded than on other fields, but confined to a narrower space which made its appearance the more distressing.
The Terrible Losses.
The union loss in officers of high rank was unusually large. Gen. Hacklemen was killed, Gens. Oglesby and Mower severely wounded, brigade commander, Col. Silas D. Baldwin wounded; Col. Smith, of the Forty-third Ohio, mortally wounded, and other regimental commanders severely wounded. Col. Henderson, who is to be the next speaker of the national house of representatives, received the wound which cost him his leg, near the right of our line in the first assault of the confederates at that place. He was an officer in the Twelfth Iowa, in Hackleman’s brigade of Davie’s division.
The total union loss was 2,520, which included the killed, wounded and missing. That of the confederates as reported by Van Dorn was 4,838, within a small fraction of 22 per cent of its entire force. Gen. Rosecrans reported that our forces killed and buried 1,423 confederate soldiers. If that be true, and I believe it to be true, their wounded could not have been less than 5,000. We captured 2,268 prisoners. So that the confederate loss was 8,691, a figure more nearly correct than Van Dorn’s official report. That the confederate army was practically destroyed is evident from the fact that Hurlburt, with one division was able to cross the Hatchie bridge in its front and beat it into retreat.
Of the regiments in that battle and represented at tonight’s banquet, so far a I am informed, were the following, with the names of the representatives as indicated:
Fifty-second Illinois infantry, E. B. Spalding;
Fifth Minnesota infantry, T. P. Gere and J. F. Hopkins;
Eighteenth Wisconsin infantry, R. J. Chase and J. M. Leitch;
Tenth Iowa infantry, Dorsey Taylor;
Second Iowa cavalry, W. S. Belden;
Second Iowa cavalry, H. C. McNell;
Seventh Iowa infantry, John Adair;
Sixteenth Wisconsin infantry; W. A. Spencer;
Twenty-sixth Illinois infantry; John Hornick and J. S. Lothrop;
Fifty-sixth Illinois, W. C. Sanderson.
Siege of Port Hudson.
In response to the toast, “The Siege of Port Hudson,” Capt. T. C. Prescott, Eighth New Hampshire, told of the operations of the army in the southwest and their importance to the general result of the war.
“These operations were overshadowed,” he said, “by the brilliancy of those further north, but when viewed from the standpoint of results which they helped to accomplish they are seen to be of enduring importance. This almost forgotten army in the southwest served a good purpose. The importance of the Mississippi river and its strategic value had been recognized from the time the first settlers of the Mississippi valley crossed the Alleghenies, a century ago, until Gen. Butler induced the War Department to equip and maintain an army to contest vigorously for complete possession of that stream. The brilliant success at New Orleans and later Grant’s capture of Vicksburg and the surrender of Port Hudson after a long siege, in which there was a terrible loss of life, served a grand purpose and cut in two the enemy’s country, and made the later victories and successes more easy of accomplishment.”
Salvation of Tennessee.
With a wealth of reminiscence and anecdote, Prof. J. S. Shoup, of Merrill, held his hearers in rapt attention as he responded to the toast, “The Battle of Stone River,” the fight that saved Tennessee from the threatened conquest of the invading confederate armies in the winter of 1862. Beginning with the romantic wedding of Confederate General Morgan at Murfreesboro on the very eve of the terrible battle, and the tragic interruption of his dance with his bride at the wedding ball, by the appearance of a mud-bespattered orderly who brought the news of the attack of the union army, through the daring charge of Col. Roberts at the head of the gallant Forty-second Illinois that helped to turn defeat into victory, to the final dispersion of the southern army, Prof. Shoup carried the assembled veterans along with a narration that alternately brought smiles and laughter, filled eyes with tears and made the blood leap and bound and breasts thrill with enthusiasm. “In all the war there was nothing more brilliant than that charge of Col. Roberts,” he declared.
“Surrounded upon every side by a superior force of rebels, Gen. Sheridan’s command seemed doomed to slaughter by the bullets that poured in upon it from all directions of the compass. Almost against orders, Col Roberts took the Forty-second Illinois and commanded them to fix bayonets for an assault on the enemy. What a sight it was to see those magnificent soldiers, nerved to desperation, ready to do or die! It were worth ten years of peaceful life to see this grand array. ‘To the charge,’ he shouted, and as his men sprang forward he rode at their head on his magnificent horse. On, on they went, heedless of the storm of bullets until they cut and slashed their way through the surrounding wall of human beings, and drove the enemy to flight before their terrible onslaught. When it was over Col. Roberts wheeled on his horse, whirling his sword in the air, and shouted, ‘I said we’d do it, boys, and by God we did.’ Hardly were the words out of his mouth when his body plunged from his horse and he fell, shot dead by a rebel bullet.”
As he came to his feet to respond to the toast, “The Battle of Santiago,” Sergeant George Snook, late of the Third United States regular infantry, was given an ovation. In a brief, interesting way he described that short but terrible campaign in Cuba, and the task allotted his regiment in the fighting that occurred.
Never Haul Down the Flag.
Cheers that aroused every echo of the banquet hall greeted the patriotic utterances of W. L. Wilkins in his response to the toast, “Our Guests, the Society of the Potomac.” When, as he paid tribute to the loyalty and patriotism of the soldiers who fought to free Cuba, and who are now upholding the Stars and Stripes in the far off Philippines, he declared, “ Where that glorious flag of red, white and blue has once been raised aloft, it must never again be hauled down!” The grizzled veterans who listened eagerly to his words gave vent to loud applause that left no doubt of their continued devotion to the flag and their faith in it as a preserved of the liberties and right of men. He referred eloquently to the great work of the grand old army in the Civil War. “That was war,” he said, “that has meant more to the world than any other struggle between man and man. I’d rather be a yellow dog under a band wagon, and wear this grand old badge of the G.A.R. on my coat lapel, than be the greatest monarch that ever sat upon a throne.”
Interspersing the programme of speeches, a quartette, consisting of Messrs. H. D. Chapman, Louis Price, Roy Tyler and E. A. Rundell, led the veterans and guests in the singing of old army songs. At the close of the feast of wit and wisdom, Roy Tyler stirred up the good will that has taken the place of the former enmity between the wearers of gray and the blue, by a solo, “We Are All Yankees Now.”
The entire evening’s exercises were a most auspicious installation of the annual banquet feature of the Sioux City Society of the Armies of the West.
List of Guests.
Those who were in attendance upon the banquet were:
Society of the Armies of the West—
H.W. Allen, John Adair, James E. Ayres, A. Bassett, Charles Breun, J.B. Belfrage, G.W. Beggs, F.M. Blagg, E.E. Crady, William Conniff, A.D. Collier, J.A. Dean, D.R. Edwards, G.W. Goodwin, E.A. Glenn, L. Greenwood, T.P. Gere, J.F. Hopkins, E. Hansel, F. Hansen, A. Haakinson, T.W. Jordon, C.H. Joes, J.S. Lothrop, James Leitch, Albert Kelling, H.C. McNeil, G.W. McGibbons, B.E. Nichols, J.W. Orton, Geo. D. Perkins, T.C. Prescott, J.M. Pinckney, P.H. Ray, Grant J. Ross, H.W. Rice, E.W. Rice, J.E. Robson, S.A. Reed, W.C. Sanderson, W.Z. Swartz, J.S. Shoup, J.A. Shipman, E.B. Spalding, W.A. Spencer, Dorsey Taylor, T.P. Treadwell, T.H. Stevens, J.W. Winslow, A.B. White, George W. Wakefield.
Society of the Army of the Potomac—
W.H. Barker, H.W. Chase, M.B. Davis, A.L. Day, G.M. Gilbert, W.E. Gantt, George Hills, F.C. Hills, E.A. Herman, W.F. Joyce, J.W. Millington, Lafayette Miles, C.R. Marks, L.J. Needham, M.A. Ormsbee, Maris Peirce, G.M. Pardoe, J.C. Rennison, C.C. Roscoe, D.J. Spencer, E.C. Tompkins, J.D. Webb, W.L. Wilkins, W.A. Welsh, N.K. VanHousan.
Fifty-Second Iowa Volunteers—
Howard Reiden, A.C. Bergen, D.G. Bruce, H.D. Chapman, C.E. Gantt, Will Gantt, H.A. Gooch, German Greenwood, Thomas Harrington, Fred Hills, Eric Knos, J.A. Lucey, C.W. Mahoney, F.A. Meredith, H.D. Nichols, Harry Tompkins.
Sons of Veterans—
W.E. Davis, W.C. Davenport, C.W. Herman, Charles S. Hills, J.T. Henderson, F.B. Leitch, J.E. Murphy, U.G. Purssell, A.O. Wakefield.
Invited Guests—
G.W.J. Snook - Third United States infantry;
Fred C. Smith - Forty-ninth Iowa;
J.C. Kelly, J.M. McDonald, Horace Gilbert – Third United States infantry;
Phil Schaller – Ex-commander Iowa department, G.A.R.;
C.R. Tyler, L.W. Price, E.A. Rundell, A.D. Stratton.
[transcribed by L.Z., Nov 2020]