SAMUEL H. M. BYERS was born in Pulaski, Pennsylvania, in
1838. Coming to Iowa in 1851 with his father he was educated in the schools of
Oskaloosa, where his father located. He enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infantry and
served in the army until March, 1865, was promoted to adjutant in April, 1863.
He was in many battles and in a charge at Missionary Ridge was taken prisoner
and for fifteen months suffered the horrors of Libby and other Confederate
prisons. He finally escaped and returned to the army, where for a time he was
on General Sherman’s staff. At the close of the war he was brevetted major.
While in prison at Columbia, South Carolina, he wrote the well-known song, “The
March to the Sea,” which brought him into national notice. It gave the name to
Sherman’s famous march and thousands of copies were sold immediately after the
war. Major Byers was sent by General Sherman to General Grant and President
Lincoln as bearer of dispatches announcing his great victories. He served
fifteen years as American consul at Zürich in Switzerland and was under
President Arthur, Consul General for Italy. Under President Harrison he served
as Consul to St. Gall and later as Consul General for Switzerland. Major Byers
has been a contributor to the leading magazines of the country. He is the
author of “Iowa
in War Times,” “Switzerland
and the Swiss,” “Twenty
Years in Europe” and several volumes of poetry.
Benjamin F. Gue, History
of Iowa From The Earliest Times To The Beginning Of The Twentieth Century,
Vol. 4, p. 36
