The Union Guards

pg 338

One of the noted organizations of Columbus City and one which did much to advertise the town for a time was the Union Guards, a military company organized August 3, 1857. Colonel W. W. Garner was chiefly instrumental in the organization of this company and was its first captain. It was one of the best equipped and best drilled companies in Iowa. It gave exhibition drills at the state fair at Muscatine in 1858, at Washington at the celebration of the entry of the Mississippi & Missouri railroad; at Ottumwa in 1859, at the opening of the C. B. & Q. railroad, and at the state fair at Iowa City in 1860, meeting other companies at the different places.

pg 339

Following is a roster of the officers and privates of this company which we take from a card said to have been printed and used in 1860. There were quite a number of others who were members of the company before, and a few who were members after the time this card was made, whose names do not appear upon it. It is an interesting fact that thirty of the members of this company enlisted in the Union army and two in the Confederate army and that twenty of them became commissioned officers:

Captain, Wesley W. Garner; first lieutenant, Dr. Wm. S. Robertson; second lieutenant, Geo. W. Limbocker; third lieutenant, John L. Grubb; first sergeant, John Walt; second sergeant, Hugh L. Denham; third sergeant, Matthias Shirks; fourth sergeant, Philip Rasely; first corporal, Obed E. Denham; second corporal, J. M. Edwards; third corporal, T. W. Boice; fourth corporal, Andr. E. Gibbons.

Privates—Dr. M. O. Kulp. John Smith, John J. Wilie, Abraham Barringer, Wright Williams, James A. Fares, James R. Wilson, A. S. Limbocker, Franklin C. Manly, Jacob Luckey, James Manly, Leonidas Mitchel, Dr. B. G. Neal, James J. Billick, Charles Johnston, Taylor Jeffries, Wm. E. Limbocker, Wm. B. Gibbons. John H. Acheson, O. P. Wallace, M. Y. Wallace, John Winkleman, Jeremiah Limbocker, John Albaugh, Jos. L. Paschal, Geo. D. Harrison, Andrew O. Easton, J. S. Limbocker, Albert Calhoun, J. Whitfield Garner, John P. Getts, Edwin S. Reiner, Samuel H. Manifold, Charles S. Phillips, John F. Reiner, S. B. Getts.

Musicians—George Darrow, Dan'l Homer Darrow, Walter F. Hall, Wm. W. Paschal, Adam Stebling, Andrew Stebling, Milton Darrow, Alfred Compton.

Hugh L. Denham, secretary; John J. Wilie, treasurer; William O. Kulp, president.

When the company went to Ottumwa at the opening of the C. B. & Q. railroad it met three companies from Burlington and one from Mt. Pleasant, and all were commanded by Major J. G. Lauman, afterward a noted general and the hero of Altoona.

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