Monday, September 17, 2012

Dedication Exercises at the Twelfth Iowa Regimental Monument: Shiloh National Military Park

November 22, 1906
_____

11:10 A. M.


Address:
Major D. W. Reed, Twelfth Iowa Regiment
Secretary of the Shiloh National Military Park Commission

Ladies and Gentlemen:

General Tuttle, marching toward the sound of battle, led his regiment along the road here to our right, and as he came to this spot where I stand he saw in the fringe of woods beyond him a rebel battery going into position. He immediately turned, ahead of his brigade, down that ravine, and formed his brigade in this ravine which we see just at our rear. The “Sunken Road” ran immediately behind this monument. In this position, the Twelfth Iowa, with the rest of the brigade, held the Confederates at bay all day long. The fight which has just been described at the Seventh regimental monument applies to this regiment also. Just to our left is a tablet, where Colonel Dean, of the Second Arkansas, was killed, within a few steps of the Fourteenth Iowa.

It is unnecessary to talk of what the Twelfth did. Their record has been told among the other regiments. They held a position here that was practically impregnable. A gallant Iowa officer coming here lately, in looking over it said, “I have always thought that the record of the Hornets’ Nest Brigade was a myth, but I see now, in looking over this position, that an overruling Providence directed General Turtle, at the head of the right men, to the right place, at the right time, to save Shiloh on this bloody battlefield.” The fringe of woods up yonder represents the position held by Ruggles’ batteries. His sixty-two guns, playing upon this position from three o'clock to five o'clock, failed to move the Union forces from their position.

I thank you, gentlemen.


Benediction:
Rev. Dr. A. L. Frisbie of Des Moines, Iowa

“We give thanks to thee, thou who art over all, for all these instances of thy care and direction, and that thou didst devise all means by which we have been protected. Now lead us still, as thou hast led us; lead us on, that we may ever attain the better things — the better life — the diviner prosperity and that true freedom in which we shall share and share justly, and dwell happily together in the name of Christ, our Lord. May thy peace abound toward us forever more, in His name.  Amen.”

SOURCE:  Alonzo Abernathy, Editor, Dedication of Monuments Erected By The State Of Iowa, p. 226-7 


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