Iowa
Old Press
The Sioux City Journal, Thursday, July 21, 1910
TRIBUTE TO WAR VETERAN
J. S. LOTHROP GIVEN A GOLD MEDAL BY COMRADES.
GREAT TIME AT REUNION.
Gray Haired Soldiers Present American Flag to School Children of Correctionville—Parades, Music and Speeches Form Programme.
J. S. Lothrop, of Sioux City, was the recipient of honor yesterday afternoon at the campfire of the Northwestern Iowa Veterans’ Association at Correctionville, when he was presented with a handsome gold medal as a tribute of the services he gave his country during the Civil War. Department Commander H. A. Dyer, of Mason City, made the presentation speech.
Praise for Capt. Lothrop.
The presentation of the medal of honor to J. S. Lothrop, former captain of Company E, Twenty-sixth Illinois infantry, was accompanied by deep feeling, not only on the part of the former captain, but by many of the old guard in the audience. Commander Dyer, in the presentation speech, referred to the services of Capt. Lothrop during the war. He told how the captain had enlisted in the Eleventh Illinois infantry at the outbreak of the struggle, and then how after three months’ service, when President Lincoln issued his second call for volunteers to suppress the rebellion, the Sioux Cityan was among the first to enroll.
Commander Dyer paid a beautiful tribute to the wife of the valiant officer, telling of her devotion to the captain and the cause during the trying hours of great rebellion. During the winter of 1861 and 1862 she was in the field nursing the soldiers injured on the battle field.
Capt. Lothrop’s voice broke as he accepted the medal and expressed his thanks for the honor conferred upon him. “I would be much less of a man,” he said, “if I did not deeply feel and was not sensible of the honor conferred in the little emblem. It is not the gold in the emblem. It is the sentiment that is back of it as expressed by Commander Dyer. I did serve through the war as captain of an Illinois company. When the war was over every man in the company took my hand and said, ‘God bless you, Capt. Lothrop.’ Of that company, which I had the honor to command, only twenty-two members were left of the 100 who first belonged to it when first I took command. Commander Dyer has been kind enough to mention the woman who stood by my side, who took me for better or for worse. She is the best wife that God ever gave man.”
[transcribed by L.Z. Oct 2020]