Memphis Next

The Memphis Avalanche, of a late date says:

As we have said, again and again, the enemy’s great blow will be struck in his attempt to gain command of this valley.  If Columbus and Memphis should fall, he will have uncontrolled sway over two thousand miles of the richest agricultural region in the world, extending from the Lakes of the North to the Gulf of the South.  He can move his gunboats and transports at will – not five miles per day, as he now moves his army on land, but fifty or one hundred miles per day.  He will garrison towns as he goes, with troops enough to keep down all opposition.  He will thus penetrate the heat of our cotton and sugar region, and it will be no ordinary task to drive him from it.

We visited the Lincoln soldiers, now prisoners of the confederate government in this city, yesterday evening, and found that all seemed as cheerful as men will could, situated as they now are.  Their quarters were comfortable, and they said they had plenty to eat and warm places to sleep.  Captain Saffarans spares nothing that will satisfy them.

A large amount of cotton has been shipped from this port to – we don’t know where – but we hope to a haven of safety; and especially do we hope so, if the owner don’t think Memphis is the safest!

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Henshaw's Independent Battery Light Artillery

Organized at Ottawa, Ill., and mustered in December 3, 1862. Ordered to Kentucky and attached to District of Western Kentucky, Dept. of the Ohio, to June, 1863. 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 23rd Army Corps, Dept. Ohio, to August, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 23rd Army Corps, to April, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Army Corps, to October, 1864. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Army Corps, to February, 1865. 2nd Brigade, 4th Division, District of East Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to July, 1865.

SERVICE.--Duty at Louisville and other points in District of Western Kentucky till August, 1863. Operations against and pursuit of Morgan July 2-26. Action at Buffington Island, Ohio, July 19. Paris, Ky., July 29 and August 1. Burnside's Campaign in East Tennessee August 16-October 17. Duty at Loudon till November. Knoxville Campaign November 4-December 23. Actions at Huff's Ferry November 14. Lenoir Station November 14-15. Loudon November 15. Campbell's Station November 17. Siege of Knoxville November 17-December 5. Pursuit of Longstreet December 7-13. At Strawberry Plains till January, 1864, and at Mossy Creek till April. Garrison duty at Loudon, Tenn., and other points in District of East Tennessee till July, 1865. Mustered out July 18, 1865.

Battery lost during service 4 Enlisted men killed and 15 Enlisted men by disease. Total 19.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1045

Good

Some of the political prisoners arrested by Seward’s arbitrary order and without just cause, have refused the proffered amnesty of the President on the ground that they are not guilty of anything requiring the interposition of executive clemency.  All such prisoners should demand a trial, or an unconditional release from imprisonment, and hold Mr. Seward responsible for their illegal arrest and incarceration.  This course would bring Mr. Secretary Seward to his senses probably.  It might convince him, too, that there is another degree of supremacy above his higher law. – Dubuque Herald.

How was it with your dear friend and old leader, Geo. W. Jones?  It seems he was glad enough to accept Executive clemency.  How is it that the Constitution is constantly invoked by a certain class of politicians in the North for the protection of traitors, but never appealed for their punishment?  Why do they seek to hound down Mr. Seward, whose prompt and fearless action and bold assumption of responsibility has saved the country from the machinations of traitors for its overthrow, while holding up these same traitors as injured innocents and martyrs to the Constitution? – Gate City.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

The ending syllable “ough,” which . . .

is such a terror to foreigners, is snown up in several pronunciations in the flowing lines:

Wife, make me some dumplings of dough –

They’re better than meat for my cough;

Pray, let them be boiled till hot through,

But not till they’re heavy or tough.

No I must be off to my plough,

And the boys (when they’ve had enough)

Must keep the flies off with a bough,

While the old mare drinks at the trough.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Wool is now higher than it has been for forty-four years.

This is owing to the large demand for army goods, and the advanced prices of cotton.  It will not soon fall so low again as it has been of late years, and we shall be surprised if the flocks upon our hills are not greatly increased. – Province Journal.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

M. W. Jenks, of Muscatine . . .

. . . has been appointed Veterinary Surgeon General of Gen. Buell’s Division, Ky.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

The Italian free masons have . . .

. . . just introduced an important innovation into the statutes of the society.  There are now sister masons, venerable and great mistresses.  The correspondence of Rome describes the ceremony of installation with much minuteness.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Samuel L.. Hall, Private, Co. K, 7th Missouri State Militia Cavalry: Pension Index Card

SOURCE: Civil War And Later Veterans Pension Index at Fold3.com

Resignations

The following resignations have been received at the Adjutant General’s office and accepted:

Major Hiram Leonard, 14^th Infantry.

First Lieut. W. H. Robinson, Co. I, 7^th.

Second Lieut. Wm. Moore, Co. C, 7^th.

Capt. Noble L. Barner, Co. F, 13^th.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Diptheria is prevailing . . .

. . . to an alarming extent in the State of Maine.  In the town of Patten, one in eleven of the entire population have died from it, while great mortality prevails in other portions of the state.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

No More Negro Catching

To Hon. Jas. F. Wilson, of this State, belongs the credit of introducing the resolution which instructed the military committee of the House to report the bill just passed, prohibiting army officers making it their business to return fugitive slaves to their masters.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Gen. Curtis' Army

Gen. Sigel commands two divisions, viz: His own (the first) and Gen. Asboth’s (the second) divisions.  The third division is under Gen. Davis.  The Fourth Division is commanded by Col. Carr.  The latter is composed of Cols. Dodge’s and Vandever’s brigades. – Each division has twelve batteries.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Congressmen As Colonels

A Washington letter in the Oskaloosa Herald says the committee on elections have unanimously agreed to report that Hon. Wm. Vandever is not entitled to a seat in Congress, and their report would soon be concurred in by the House.  The committee decide[d] that the holder of a commission in the army cannot hold a seat in Congress. – This decision will unseat about half a dozen Congressmen if our memory serve[s] us – among them Fouke & Logan, of Illinois.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Review: Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou

Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou

By Stanley B. Burns, M.D.

Of all the photographs taken during the Civil War, none are more compelling than the clinical photographs taken of the wounded soldiers.  A large number of these photographs were taken by Dr. Reed Bontecou, and of these, most were at one time in the collections of the Army Medical Museum.  Over the years, the museum dispersed many of these photographs out of their collection.

Dr. Stanley Burns, an ophthalmologist by trade, has spent a large portion of the last 35 years tracking down these photographs, collecting and preserving them.  A few of the photographs in his collection, known as the Burns Archive, have been published in various publications over the years, but most have not, that is until now.  With the publication of “Shooting Soldiers: Civil War Medical Photography By R. B. Bontecou,” Dr. Burns has begun a to publish his collection.  This volume, the first of several projected, depicts portraits of soldiers, photographed vertically, partially clothed, often in their uniforms with their wounds exposed.  The soldiers represent 101 regiments, most were wounded in the final battles of the war, and each holds a chalkboard identifying them.

The first 53 pages of the book, cover the history of the photographs, how and why they were taken, a biography of Dr. Reed B. Bontecou, new weaponry vs. old tactics, views of death and sacrifice in Civil War America, the final battles of the war (from which Dr. Bontecou would acquire a large number of his subjects), and Harewood Hospital where Dr. Bontecou did most of his work.  The rest of the book is dedicated to the photographs of the wounded soldiers.

The photographs were originally carte de visites and Dr. Burns presents them a little less than double their original size of 2⅛ × 3½ inches.  There is one photograph per page, and each is accompanied by text (sometimes only the identification written on the chalkboards and other times notes that were either written on the photographs or in the albums containing them).

There are indices of the represented regiments (page 57) and the battles at which his subjects received their wounds (pages 103 & 104), and a short bibliography of primary sources.

It is safe to say that due in part to Dr. Bontecou’s work medical practices and procedures were greatly improved during the latter decades of the nineteenth century, and through Dr. Burns, the medical history of the Civil War will be preserved for future generations.  This book is not only a must have for students of the American Civil War, but also those interested in photographic and  medical history.

ISBN 978-1-936002-05-4, Burns Archive Press, © 2011, Hardcover, 6.75 x 6 inches, 168 pages, Photographs, Bibliography & Indices. $50.00

Extent of the Rebellion

“The rebellion is in a fair way to be crushed – the rebels will soon be driven from their strongholds;” thus we are all inclined to reason.  It is true the rebels are being driven from their entrenched positions, but so wide-spread is our country that it requires an immense force to guard all points from Maryland along the Atlantic coast to Cape Sable, thence following the coast of Mexico to the Southern corner of Texas, thousands of miles in extent, do we sail along the shores of the rebellions States.  Leaving the point from which we started we follow the sinuous boundary of the state of Virginia, as it runs northwest and west and then dips to the southwest until it reaches Tennessee, where in pursuing the line of that rebellions State our course is more uniform until it strikes the Mississippi river, following its serpentine course it runs northerly until it meets our own State of Iowa.  The line of rebellion thence follows the boundaries of the State of Missouri until it strikes the southern boundary of Kansas, whence pushing toward the setting sun, it is lost in the immense prairies of the boundless West, leaving the vast country embraced in the area south of this line, comprehending hundreds of thousands of square miles, the theatre of the rebellion.

In our dispatches of yesterday was an account of a terrific battle between the undaunted boys of the west and the rude though courageous denizens of Texas, in New Mexico, a territory bordering on California, that State alone separating us on the West from the Pacific ocean.  When we view the immense extent of territory to be conquered, and consider the character of the desperadoes with whom we have to contend, we feel inclined to repudiate the sentence with which we commenced this article, pulling up the stakes we planted long ago fixing the conclusion of the rebellion in May, and sticking them down some months beyond.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

The Iowa Boys

Just as everybody predicted, at the recent great battle in Arkansas, when Gen. Curtis, of Iowa, met the horde of rebels under the combined generalship of Price, McCulloch, Van Dorn and McIntosh and defeated them, the Iowa boys led in the contest and were the chief suffers.  In the commencement of hostilities, the 1^st regiment organized in our State, carved out a name for Iowa on the plains of Springfield, and ever since it has been the ambition of her sons to keep that name untarnished before the world.  They have done it; the bloody fields of Belmont, Mill Spring, Fort Donelson and Sugar Creek attest their bravery, while Missouri can “rise up and call them blessed” for the noble manner in which they have defended her when basely betrayed by her own citizens.  If the Iowa troops continue to maintain the high stand for bravery and patriotic devotion to their country which have thus far characterized them, when the rebellion shall have ceased and peace once more spreads her banner over us and all the industrial pursuits of the country are resumed, Iowa will be an honored name in the nation, and next to that proudest title ever uttered by mortal man, “I am a citizen of the United States,” will rank the appellation, “I am a citizen of Iowa.”

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 2

Samuel L. Hall, Private, Co. G, 3rd Missouri State Militia Cavalry: Pension Index Card

SOURCE: Civil War And Later Veterans Pension Index at Fold3.com

Legion Assists In Last Rites of J. W. Hall; Civil War Vet

Three times the guns roared forth in the bright air and the mournful notes of "Taps" echoed from the hillsides as The American Legion's ritual was ended and the last mortal remains of another Civil War Veteran was consigned to the grave Monday afternoon in Maple Hill Cemetery.  John W. Hall, for many years one of Clarke County's most influential citizens, has gone to his rest.  Another name has been crossed off the list of those boys of '65; another of those sterling pioneer citizens has been called.  On the fingers on one hand can be counted those old soldiers remaining, and the real pioneers of the county are almost as few.

John Hall was for many years recognized as one of the leading contractors of public buildings in Iowa.  Nearly every one knew that he was the contractor of the court house here but few were acquainted with the fact that he was connected with the construction of every church in the city and that he built the Glenwood home for the feeble minded children.  More than fifty creameries were built by him in this state.

With his parents, Warren and Cynthia Hall, he moved to Clarke County from the place of his birth, Whitehall, Indiana in 1860.  He was engaged in the carpenter and contracting business there for a time and in the early days of the war enlisted in Co. K of the 7th Missouri Cavalry.  In 1868 he was married to Sarah A. Scott.  They moved to Osceola where he embarked on his career as a contractor.  Later he served two terms as county treasurer and for twelve years was state oil inspector.  He also engaged in a number of other enterprises in the city.

He was a member of the I.O.O.F. and a charter member of the Knights of Pythias.

Of recent years he has lived quietly in retirement here.  Enjoying his friends and neighbors in the satisfaction that comes from a life well lived.  During the past few months his health has been failing rapidly as can be expected for one who is nearing 91 years.  A few days ago he took to his bed and on December 22, just five days before his 91st birthday, he quietly passed on.

Among those who are left are, the good wife Mrs. Sarah A. Hall of Osceola, two sons, Edgar C. Hall of Sabetha, Kansas, and Frank D. Hall of Osceola; three daughters; Mrs. Hattie M. Tarlton of Osceola, Mrs. Nina L. Foster of Des Moines, and Mrs. Ethel Tillotson of Osceola.  One daughter, Jessie, passed away at the age of seven years.  There are seven grand children living and 11 great grand children; also one brother, Samuel Hall of Auburn, Washington, and many other relatives and a host of friends.

Funeral services were conducted from the Webster Funeral Home, Monday, December 26, by Rev. R. Underwood, Pastor of the Methodist Protestant Church, assisted by Rev. F. C. McCallon, pastor of the Christian Church and a squad of the American Legion Post and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Osceola.  Internment was made in Maple Hill Cemetery.

– Published in The Osceola Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Thursday, December 29, 1932, p. 1, columns 6 & 7

Eighth Iowa Regiment

An excellent letter will be found in to-day’s paper from our correspondent of the 8^th Iowa Regiment.  It was written at Sedalia, Mo., on the 10^th inst.  The regiment was then under marching orders and as the letter was mailed at St. Louis on the 12^th inst., we presume they left immediately for that city.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 1

How To Raise The War Tax

This is the leading question just now, as it is one in which every person is directly interested.  It touches the pocket and that with many individuals is the most sensitive part of their persons.  Now we will make a proposition how to pay this tax, and we appeal to every lady in the land if a single gentleman would be affected to the amount of a shilling by the operation.  It is simply to enforce a law now on the statute books of one of the most thrifty States in the Union.  In Massachusetts there is a law which imposes a fine of not less than one dollar nor more than five, for every profane oath uttered.  We will submit to the ladies if the enforcement of such a law would affect gentlemen, while we know that if rigidly enforced a sufficient sum would be raised to meet the current expenses of the war, unless a wounderful reformation were speedily effected.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 15, 1862, p. 1