of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 24-27
IOWA AND THE CIVIL WAR. Iowa was born a free state. Her people abhorred the "peculiar institution" of slavery, and by her record in the war between the states proved herself truly loyal to her institutions and the maintenance of the Union. By joint resolution in the general assembly of the state in 1857, it was declared that the state of Iowa was "bound to maintain the union of these states by all the means in her power." The same year the state furnished a block of marble for the Washington monument at the national capital and by order of the legislature there was inscribed on its enduring surface the following: "Iowa--Her affections, like the river of her borders, flow to an inseparable Union." The time was now come when these declarations of fidelity and attachment to the nation were to be put to a practical test. There was no state in the Union more vitally interested in the question of national unity than Iowa. The older states, both north and south, had representatives in her citizenship. Iowans were practically immigrants bound to those older communities by the most sacred ties of blood and most enduring recollections of early days. The position of Iowa as a state--geographically--made the dismemberment of the Union a matter of serious concern. Within her borders were two of the great navigable rivers of the country, and the Mississippi had for years been its highway to the markets of the world. The people could not entertain the thought that its navigation should pass to the control of a foreign nation. But more than this was to be feared--the consequence of introducing and recognizing in our national system the principle of secession and of disintegration of the states from the Union. "That the nation possessed no constitutional power to coerce a seceding state," as uttered by James Buchanan in his last annual message, was received by the people of Iowa with humiliation and distrust. And in the presidential campaign of 1860, when Abraham Lincoln combated with all the force of his matchless logic and rhetoric this monstrous political heresy, the issue was clearly drawn between the north and the south and it became manifest to many that in the event of the election of Lincoln to the presidency war would follow between the states. The people of Iowa nursed no hatred toward any section of the country but were determined to hold such opinions upon questions of public interest and vote for such men as to them seemed for the general good, uninfluenced by any threat of violence or civil war. So it was that they anxiously awaited the expiring hours of the Buchanan administration and looked to the incoming president as to an expected deliverer that should rescue the nation from the hands of the traitors and the control of those whose resistance invited her destruction. The firing upon the flag of Fort Sumter aroused the burning indignation throughout the loyal states of the republic and nowhere was it more intense than in Iowa. And when the proclamation of the president was published April 15, 1861, calling for seventy-five thousand citizens soldiers to "maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popular government," they were more than willing to respond to the call. Party line gave way and for a while, at least, party spirit was hushed and the cause of our common country was supreme in the affections of the people. Fortunate indeed was the state at this crisis in having a truly representative man as executive of the state. Thoroughly honest and as equally earnest, wholly imbued with the enthusiasm of the hour, and fully aroused to the importance of the crisis and the magnitude of the struggle upon which the people were entering, with an indomitable will under the control of a strong common sense, Samuel J. Kirkwood was indeed a worthy chief to organize and direct the energies of the people in what was before them. Within thirty days after the date of the president's call for troops, the first Iowa regiment was mustered into the service of the United States, a second regiment was in camp ready for service and the general assembly of the state was convened in special session and had by joint resolution solemnly pledged every resource of men and money to the national cause. So urgent were the offers of companies that the governor conditionally accepted enough additional companies to compose two regiments more. These were soon accepted by the secretary of war. Near the close of May, the adjutant general of the state reported that one hundred and seventy companies had been tendered the governor to serve against the enemies of the Union. The question was eagerly asked: "Which of us will be allowed to go?" It seemed as if Iowa was monopolizing the honors of the period and would send the largest part of seventy-five thousand wanted from the whole north. There was much difficulty and considerable delay experienced in fitting the first three regiments for the field. For the first regiment a complete outfit of clothing was extemporized, partly by the volunteer labor of loyal women in the different towns, from material of various colors and qualities, obtained within the limits of the state. The same was done in part for the second infantry. Meantime, an extra session of the general assembly had been called by the governor to convene on the 15th of May. With but little delay that body authoried a loan of $800,000 to meet the extraordinary expenses incurred, and to be incurred, by the executive department in consequence of the emergency. A wealthy merchant of the state, ex-Governor Merrill, immediately took from the governor a contract to supply a complete outfit of clothing for three regiments organized, agreeing to receive, should the governor so elect, his pay therefor in the state bonds at par. This contract he executed to the letter and a portion of the clothing was delivered at Keokuk, the place at which the troops had rendezvoused, in exactly one month from the day in which the contract had been entered into. The remainder arrived only a few days later. This clothing was delivered to the soldiers but was subsequently condemned by the government for the reason that its color was gray, and blue had been adopted as the color to be worn by the national troops. Other states had also clothed their troops, sent forward under the first call of President Lincoln, with gray uniforms, but it was soon found that the Confederate forces were also clothed in gray and that color was at once abandoned for the Union soldier.
At the beginning of the war the population of Iowa included about 150,000 men, presumably liable to render military service, The state raised for general service thirty-nine regiments of infantry, nine regiments of cavalry and four companies of artillery, composed of three years' men, one regiment composed of three months' men, and four regiments and one battalion of infantry composed of one hundred days' men. The original enlistments in these various organizations, including 1,727 men raised by draft, numbered about 69,000. The reenlistments, including upwards of 7,000 veterans, numbered nearly 8,000. The enlistments in the regular army and navy organizations of other states will, if added, raise the total to upwards of 80,000. The number of men who under special enlistments and as militia took part at different times in the operations on the exposed borders, was probably 5,000.
Every loyal state of the Union had many women who devoted much time and great labor toward relieving the wants of our sick and wounded soldiery but for Iowa can be claimed the honor of inaugurating the great charitable movement, which was so successfully supported by the noble women of the north. Mrs. Harlan, wife of Hon. James Harlan, United States senator, was the first woman of the country among those moving in high circles of society who personally visited the army and ministered to the wants of the defenders of her country. In many of her visits to the army, Mrs. Harlan was accompanied by Mrs. Joseph T. Fales, wife of the first state auditor of Iowa. No words can describe the good done, the lives saved and the deaths made easy by the host of noble women of Iowa, whose names it would take a volume to print. Every county, every town, every neighborhood had these true heroines, whose praise can never be known till the final rendering of all accounts of deeds done in the body. The contributions throughout the state to "sanitary fairs" during the war, were enormous, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Highly successful fairs were held in the principal cities and towns of the state, which all added to the work and praise of the "Florence Nightingales" of Iowa, whose heroic sacrifices have won for them the undying gratitude of the nation. It is said, to the honor and credit of Iowa, that while many of the loyal states, older and larger in population and wealth, incurred heavy state debts for the purpose of fulfilling their obligations to the general government, Iowa, while she was foremost in duty, while she promptly discharged all her obligations to her sister states and the Union, found herself at the close of the war without any material additions to her pecuniary liabilities incurred before the war commenced. Upon final settlement after restoration of peace, her claims upon the federal government were found to be fully equal to the amount of her bonds issued and sold during the war, to provide the means for raising and equipping her troops sent into the field and to meet the inevitable demands upon her treasury in consequence of the war. It was in view of these facts that Iowa had done more than her duty during the war, and that without incurring any considerable indebtedness, and that her troops had fought most gallantly on nearly every battlefield of the war, that the Newark (New Jersey) Advertiser, and other prominent eastern journals, called Iowa the "Model State of the Republic."
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