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In
the years before and during the war for the Union,
Montgomery County had no newspaper, and therefore no record
has been found of the meetings which were held at different
times in different parts of the county, to encourage
enlistments in the National Union army. It may be that
somebody in the county may have some such records still in
existence among his old papers, but we did not succeed in
getting hold of any. Many persons remember that some such
public meetings were held, but no one could particularize
with a sufficient exactness to make their recollections
available for this printed history....
June 24, 1861, a general order was issued to the officers and companies of the Iowa volunteer militia, in the counties of Page, Taylor, Adams and Montgomery, to meet at Clarinda, in Page
county, July 3, for the purpose of forming a regiment and holding a two day's encampment. This order was by the authority of Samuel J. Kirkwood, then governor of Iowa. They were to bring with
them their arms and equipments that had been furnished by the state; and those who had not received arms were requested to bring their own rifles. In response to this call, ten companies of
infantry, numbering 490 men, and five companies of mounted riflemen, numbering 244 men, reported for duty. Among these were Company H, Montgomery County Tigers, Capt. Brown; number
of roll, 45. Also, Company E, Montgomery Rangers, (mounted) Capt. Smith; number of roll, 45. The encampment elected the following officers of the regiment: Colonel, John R. Morledge, of
Clarinda, Page County; Lieutenant Colonel, L. T. McCoun, of Taylor County; Major, David Ellison, of Frankfort, Montgomery County. [Major Ellison now resides at Kansas City.]
July 5th, at midnight, this regiment was called on for help by Colonel Davis, or Maryville, Missouri. Col. Morledge reported to Gov. Kirkwood that from midnight till daylight he got together 250
men and marched immediately to Maryville, thirty-three miles, and remained there three days, when Col. Tuttle arrived with part of the 2d Iowa infantry, and took charge of the town and the rebel
prisoners, who had been captured; and then Col. Morledge returned home with his men. He also reports three other times during that year - July 10, August 28, and September 3 - that he was
called upon for help by the union men of Missouri, and he marched with such militia as he could hastily collect, to their relief in
Nodaway, Gentry, Worth and Andrew counties, in Missouri - once
marching even into the city of St. Joseph. Col. Morledge's report does not indicate that any Montgomery County men took part in these border warfare expeditions, but it is known from other
sources that a few did. These operations were merely local matters, under authority of the state, as a temporary necessity to prevent its own territory from rebel invasion, but were no part of the
movements of troops under United States authority. However, there can scarcely be a doubt that if it had not been for the prompt and resolute marching of the state militia of Taylor, Page and
Fremont counties, at the call of the union men in the border counties of Missouri, that the Missouri rebels would have overpowered the unionists and made some destructive raids into Iowa. It is
true these first border march3es were rude and undisciplined affairs, and did some wrong things, but at the time they were the "ounce of prevention that is better than a pound of cure." Let them
have fair credit for what good they did do.
It is believed that the following list embraces the military record of every man in the union army who was a bona fide citizen of Montgomery County, at the time of his enlistment. The entire
records of the Adjutant General's office, at Des Moines, have been carefully searched through, and every other discovered source of information dug into, for the record as here now given. (The
date here given is the date of enlistment.) |
