of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 129-130
TWO REGIMENTS FROM MUSCATINE COUNTY. This county was exceedingly patriotic and in this regard no political party had precedence of the other. Partisanship was entirely relegated to the rear and the democrat and the republican joined hands and hearts in the mutual determination to save their common country from destruction and prove to rapacious and unfriendly nations beyond the seas that a republican form of government should not fail, but endure and become the admiration of the civilized world. During the great conflict Muscatine county was represented in nine military organizations, and every one of them cast lustre and fame upon the county and state it represented. Two of the regiments were organized at Muscatine and rendezvoused at Camp Strong, on Muscatine Island. The first was the Thirty-fifth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Eight of the ten companies forming this organization were composed of the brawn and valor of Muscatine. The famous "Greybeards," unique and alone in its makeup during the war, was the other, and was composed of men unable to enter the lists and conform strictly to the rules of the service, by reason of being outside the limit in age, as set by the war department. These patriotic patriarchs, therefore, in the month of August, 1862, formed a regiment under a special authorization of Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war, which took the formal title of the Thirty-seventh Iowa Infantry, but which was more famously and enduringly known as the "Greybeards."
THE "GREYBEARDS," OR THIRTY-SEVENTH IOWA. It was not long after the "Greybeards" had been organized that the various component companies were recruited and the regiment ordered into quarters at Camp Strong, near the city of Muscatine, where the patriots whiled away the time until in December before being mustered into the United States service. It was officered as follows: George W. Kincaid, colonel; George R. West, lieutenant colonel; Lyman Allen, major. The staff consisted of David H. Goodno, adjutant; Prestis Ransom, quartermaster; John W. Finley, surgeon, with George S. Dewitt and Samuel Haynes, assistants; Rev. James H. White, chaplain. Stephen B. Shellady, who had probably presided over more political conventions than any man in Iowa, was the first sergeant major.
The thoroughly matured men composing this command were from a large number of counties. Every congressional district of the state was represented in its ranks. There were farmers, mechanics, business men. Many of them were more than fifty years old, but when they marched through the streets of St. Louis early in Juanary, 1863, General Curtis, who had seen the volunteers of the Union in more than one war, declared that he had never seen a finer looking body of men. They attracted marked attention at St. Louis.
ON POST AND GUARD DUTY. They served at that city in guard of military prisons until the latter part of May, when they moved out on the Pacific railway, along the line of which they served about two months, when they were ordered to Alton, Illinois. They remained in that city in guard of rebel prisoners until about the middle of January, 1864, when they moved to Rock Island, where they performed similar duties until the 5th of June. They then proceeded to Memphis, Tennessee, in the vicinity of which post they were engaged on guard and picket duty for about three months of very hot weather. On the 5th of July a detail of fifty men from the regiment in guard of a supply train on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was attacked by guerrillas. Corporal Charles Young and Private Samuel Coburn were killed and two others slightly wounded. The guard promptly returned the fire but the effect was not known. From Memphis the command moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, whence five companies under Colonel Kincaid went to Cincinnati, three under Lieutenant Colonel West to Columbus and the other to Galliopolis, Ohio. At these posts the different commands remained until the middle of May, 1865, when West and Allen joined the regiment at Cincinnati. On the 20th the command left Cincinnati for Davenport, where it was mustered out of the service four days afterward.
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