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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