A Study in Disappointment

The Curious Civil War Career of Myron S. Barnes

Myron Barnes was another young man who ventured west in search of opportunity.  He was born in Bangor, in Franklin County, New York, on March 4^th, 1824.  His parents were William and Margaret Barnes of Vermont.  They made certain that he received a good education, he attended the Attica Academy and the Alexander Seminary; learning establishments in New York. He also mastered  the printer’s trade and became an editor at the age of 16. 

He served as a private in the Second Illinois Regiment (Company E.) during the Mexican War and was wounded during the Battle of Buena Vista.  Upon his return he headed up the Southport American, a Wisconsin publication, but in 1849 he returned to New York to become owner and editor of the Independent Watchman, an Ithaca, New York newspaper, where he remained until 1856.  Originally a Democrat, he switched party allegiance and used his paper as an organ to sound the virtues of the new Republican party.  In 1856 he was chosen as one of the delegates to the National convention that nominated the famous explorer, John Charles Fremont.  Barnes moved to Chicago shortly after to edit the Chicago Daily Ledger, but shortly afterward moved to Rock Island County to partner with Robert H. Graham to edit the Moline Independent, but by the time the war broke out, he had moved to Rock Island to become editor of the Rock Island Daily Register.

During his time in the Windy City, he’d become acquainted with Julius White, Lincoln’s appointee as customs collector in Chicago.  He teamed with White to raise a regiment which would be mustered in first as the "Fremont Rifles," and later as the 37^th Illinois.  Barnes was elected Lieutenant Colonel by the men of the regiment.  The troops were put to use quickly; organized in the summer, by September the regiment was stationed in Missouri where it immediately ran into problems with the Missouri Home Guard over control of government property and how to handle the thorny issue of runaway slaves.  At one point the enmity between the Home Guards and the 37^th erupted into gunfire when the regiment was sent to Boonesville, Missouri to arrest a Home Guard major for corruption, and the unit resisted, wounding 3 members of the 37^th.  Barnes was ordered to Boonesville to restore order, and did so, but the enmity between the Home Guards and the 37^th’s officers remained and would surface again.

When the regiment got the chance to prove itself in battle rather than the mundane tasks of railroad-guarding and chasing guerillas, it acquitted itself with honor.  During the battle of
Chandler's Mills, Barnes received a several shell fragment wound in the side. By the time the savagely fought Battle at Pea Ridge took place the editor's wound had not fully healed.  He  was present for duty though, and during the conflict his wound reopened when his horse was shot from under him, throwing him heavily onto the ground.  This is one of the reasons cited for his having to leave the army.   Julius White was promoted to brigadier general shortly before this time, and Myron Barnes had assumed the rank of full Colonel. This might have been a written explanation to save face however as another incident rears its head as a more convincing reason.  Colonel Barnes had a run in with the Missouri Home Guards again. again.  Two officers of the 37^th were arrested by one of the militia officers, perhaps as payback for the arrest of their major, and Barnes evidently in the vehemence of his protest overstepped military protocol, as he was charged with “Disobedience of Orders, Disrespect to Superior Officers, and Conduct Prejudicial to good Order and Military Discipline.”  A court-martial upheld the charges, and Colonel Barnes was dismissed from the service on November 20^th 1862.  The count that he was convicted of alleged that Barnes “did behave himself with contempt or disrespect towards his superior officer, Brigadier General E. G. Brown, commanding officer of the Southwestern Division, by using the following language: “Who was General Brown, He is nothing but a state militia general.  I don’t care a damn for him.” or words to that effect.”

Myron Barnes immediately went to St. Louis to seek to have his conviction and dismissal overturned.  Unsuccessful, he returned to Rock Island to resume his former occupation, becoming publisher of The Rock Island Union, an organ that Barnes used to support the Republicans and the war effort.  The war of words became heated, as the Democratic leaning editor of the Rock Island Argus referred to the Union as “that poor old nigger-league organ.”  Barnes responded in kind, charging that the Argus was ‘in the devil’s service.”

  During this time though, he continued campaigning to have the blot on his military record removed, and Congressman Isaac M. Arnold became an advocate on his behalf.  On April 18^th, 1864, President Lincoln set aside the conviction and said that Barnes could be recommissioned. Shortly after the War Department forwarded him his exoneration, Barnes received paperwork from the adjutant general’s office “authorizing and requesting” him to recruit a hundred day regiment.  Barnes helped to organized the 140^th Illinois Infantry, but he never did follow the regiment into the field. 

In August of 1864, he sold his Rock Island newspaper, probably in the hopes of joining the 140^th, but the new owner was unable to come up with the funds to finalize the transfer of it, so it reverted back to Barnes’s control in November of 1864. It had to have been a frustrating time for Colonel Barnes, who know doubt was eager to return to duty to redeem his reputation.    Financial concerns dictated his actions though, so he remained at the paper’s helm through the end of the war, finally finding a buyer for it in December of 1866. 

From that time until his death, Myron Barnes was a newspaper nomad, finding it hard to stay in one location for long.  From 1866 to 1872 he either owned or operated three newspapers, moving from Rock Island to Dubuque, Iowa, where he published the Daily Times, then to Aurora, Illinois where he operated the town’s Daily Herald.  By this time he had returned to the Democratic fold, and in 1871 he helped set up the Daily News, a paper in Chicago the was set up exclusively to serve to serve as a mouthpiece to tout Horace Greeley’s run for the Presidency in 1872.  After Greeley was soundly trounced by president Ulysses S.Grant, Myron Barnes shut down the newspaper and relocated to Galesburg, Illinois, where he purchased and ran the Free Press until age and ill health finally forced him to retire from the newspaper business in February, 1883.  By his retirement he was in years of service one of the oldest newspaper men in the State of Illinois.

Myron S. Barnes died in Galesburg on November 3^rd, 1889, and is buried in Galesburg’s Mt. Hope Cemetery.   His wife Charlotte, who lived until 1904, is also buried in their plot.  His impressive stone references his rank as Civil War Colonel, despite the brevity of his service and the circumstances surrounding his dismissal.  Evidently his exoneration meant much to him, as did the right to be addressed as “Colonel Barnes.”  He must have carried a lifelong burden of regret for the flash of temper that led to his dismissal and his failure to  rejoin his men and perhaps earn honor and later political preferment for gallant and meritorious war services as so many of his contemporaries did. 

Bibliography

Colonels in Blue Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, by Roger D. Hunt 2016

 Duty, Honor and Country, the Civil War Experiences of Captain William P. Black  Camp Pope Books, Iowa City, IA, 2006

Jottings from Dixie, the Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleherty, Phil Reyburn and terry Wilson, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1999.

Portraits and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois, Chicago, IL 1886

Find a Grave:  Computer website entry for Myron S. Barnes, Illinois

 

 

 

An Illustrious Career Dissipates into Acrimony

The Life and Brief Civil War Service of Colonel William McMurtry

        A few miles north of Galesburg, Illinois, in a rural cemetery accessible only by a rough pasture road, rests William McMurtry, a man who had all the qualities for greatness save for one character flaw.

     Born in Mercer County, Kentucky, on February 20^th, 1801, a descendant of a grandfather who was an  pioneer in Kentucky along with Daniel Boone and its earliest settlers, and was killed in a fight with Indians there in 1790.  Young William travelled with his family to Indiana in 1818, and his parents settled in Crawford County.  Young William grew up there and met Ruth Champion there, whom he married in 1826.  In 1829 William and Ruth travelled to Knox County, Illinois, along with his father, and his brother James and his wife.  The family settled in what would become Henderson Township.  They purchased  a farm of one hundred sixty acres, upon which was a small log cabin.  Seeing to their safety immediately, the McMurtrys and their neighbors erected a small fort, a block house that could be used as a refuge and defensive position to protect themselves from raids by hostile Indians; fortunately, the uprisings they feared and often heard rumors about, never materialized.

     During the short-lived Black Hawk War, the families that lived in the area raised a company of Rangers to help assist in quelling the Indian uprising.  William McMurtry was chiefly responsible for assembling the force, and was elected its Captain.  His brother James, along with two of his neighbors, Thomas McKee and F. Freeman, went to Rock Island to procure weapons for the settlers in their little community, returning with a hundred rifles, which they distributed upon their return.  The company of mounted Rangers pursued rumors mostly, never actually engaging any of the enemy in battle.  Still, it was a testament to their high regard for William McMurtry that they elected him to lead them as Captain.  His brother James held a Sergeant’s rank in the same company.

     William McMurtry, as described in the 1899 Historical Encyclopedia of Knox County, was “one of the most remarkable men of his time.  He was strong intellectually, and was a thorough student of human nature, and was an adept in the art of leading and controlling men.”  He quickly rose politically, as his neighbors recognized these virtues.  In 1830 he was appointed in Knox County’s first ever election the responsibility of being foreman of the grand-jury of the Circuit Court.  In 1832 he was elected as the County’s first School Commissioner.  This post entailed selling the school section in each township, and distributing interest money to the teachers from the school fund.   From 1836 to 1840 he served in the state’s House of Representatives, and in 1842 he moved up into the Illinois State Senate, where he remained until 1849.  At that time, the current Lieutenant-Governor, Joseph Wells, decided that he would not run again, so William McMurtry was added to the Democratic ticket to fill that post, with Augustus French serving as governor.  McMurtry held this post into 1853. 

     According to the Knox County Historical Encyclopedia, “McMurtry was an uncompromising Democrat, and a particular friend of Stephen A Douglas…He was one of the most conspicuous political figures in Illinois, and on account of his tenacity of opinion and firm adherence to democratic principles, he was regarded as a “wheel horse’ in his party.  His natural powers were great.  He was a great reader and had a well-stored mind.  He was entertaining and agreeable in conversation, a good neighbor and a constant friend.  He performed the duties of citizenship faithfully, and was regarded by everyone as a conscientious and upright citizen.”  These attributes he attained through his own intellectual persistence since, like so many men of his time, he had little formal education.

     During his tenure as Lieutenant-Governor, a new State Constitution was adopted and the construction of the Galena and Chicago Union railroad was completed.  He also took an active part in the organization of Henderson Township, in 1853. 

     In 1854, his term as Lieutenant-Governor having ended,  he ran for United States Congress, but was defeated by Opposition/Republican party candidate James Knox.  This defeat signaled the end of William McMurty’s attempts to seek elective office, but he remained a prominent voice in the State’s Democratic Party up to the beginning of the Civil War.

     After the onset of the Rebellion and the bloody battles of Shiloh and the fighting around Richmond, it became apparent that the war would not be over quickly.  President Lincoln called for an additional 300,000 men to quell the rebellion.  William McMurtry asked for and received permission to recruit a regiment from men of Rock Island, Knox and Mercer and Warren Counties. The respect that he had earned over the decades won him election to Colonel of the newly formed 102^nd Illinois Infantry.  By this time he was 61 years old.  Soon the newly formed regiment was on its way to Kentucky.

     Heavy drinking was prevalent at that time, and some politicians such as Stephen A. Douglas were as noted for their attachment to alcohol as for their oratory.  Colonel McMurtry was no exception.  The conviviality and good fellowship expected of a politician led many of them to become too acquainted with liquid solace.  Soon rumblings of discontent were heard coming from some of the men about their venerable Colonel.  Heavy drinking no doubt took its toll on his health as well.  In a November letter home, one of the 102^nd soldiers, Stephen Fleharty,  addressed the Colonel’s resignation.

     “You have no doubt heard of the resignation of Colonel McMurty.  It is possible that the Colonel has been, to some extent, the victim of jealousy; but, independent of any such influence, both officers and privates had become convinced that the interests of the regiment required a change; and that the resignation was tendered only after the will of the regiment had been publically expressed.  That the colonel is brave, no one can doubt, but there are other qualities essential to a good commander.  He must be able to command himself.  Alas, how many of our best officers have ruined their best prospects by being subject to a domineering vice! And how much our poor soldiers have suffered from that worst of all commanders, Mr. Double-barreled Canteen!”

    The argument that this was a long-standing problem of William McMurtry’s is buttressed by a reference to his drinking in an otherwise praise-laden tribute that the Galesburg Republican-Register ran on April 17^th, 1875. 

    “Governor McMurtry was a genial, large-hearted man; and; like too many men of generous impulses and public prominence, was not free from the besetting social curse of intemperance.”  The same obituary went on to say that one of the Colonel’s oldest friends had observed sadly that “had it not been for this habit he might have today have held a place in the hearts of the people of the entire nation.”

    Colonel McMurtry was honorably discharged in 1863 from the service for reasons of poor health (“in consequence of long continued disease of the liver, lungs and the organs of digestion”) attributable to his advanced age.  His discharge was dated October of 1862 when he left the regiment to undertake recruiting duties.  It was a kind way to release a man whose decades of service deserved such consideration.  Franklin C. Smith took over leadership of the regiment and survived charges of drunkenness levelled against him as well to lead the regiment ably and emerge the war with a fine reputation.   The elderly patriot, William McMurtry, lived on until April of 1875.  He rests, almost forgotten now, in the rural Rice-Blue Cemetery referenced at the beginning of this article.  He cannot help but remind one of a chapter from Plutarch’s Lives, a man who could have attained greatness save for the character defect that kept him from it.

Bibliography

William McMurtry           Wikipedia

“Jottings from Dixie” the Civil War Dispatches of Sergeant Major Stephen F. Fleharty, U.S.A, Edited by Phillip J. Reyburn and Terry L. Wilson      LSU Press, 1999

“Colonels in Blue:  “Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin”  Roger D. Hunt,  McFarland Press, 2017

William McMurtry        Find A Grave   online site

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and Knox County,  1899

    

    

    

    

Lombard Student Joins the Cavalry

Lombard College Student Joins the Cavalry   
   
by Rich Hanson

Frederick W. Livingston was 27 years old and in the prime of life in 1862 when the call to adventure became irresistible.  He was a student at Lombard College in Galesburg who had made his way west from his birthplace in Vermont.  The 1861 Galesburg City Directory lists him as a student, and has him boarding on Cherry Street, the west side, the first door north of Waters.  He dwelled with four other individuals, probably students as well, ranging from Daniel Wilson, aged 34, to J. C. Livingston, aged 21.  In the Lombard records he is listed as a poet by the alumni association and as a member of Phi Sigma Fraternity.  An 1863 edition of Illinois Teacher, a publication produced out of Peoria Illinois refers to his poem "The Battle of Life," which had been published in the December, 1862 issue of the magazine.



Frederick Livingston enlisted into Company A of the 14th Illinois Cavalry regiment on September 13th of 1862, but had to wait until enough men had joined before the regiment was mustered into service.  He was part of the first two battalions which were mustered into service in Peoria on January 7th, 1863.  The third battalion was mustered in on February 6th.  Young Livingston evidently had some medical background, or else a sense of compassion that his comrades in arms recognized, as he soon assumed the function of a Hospital Steward.  This was a responsible position as attested to by the regimental records.  The 14th suffered 2 officers and 23 enlisted men who were either killed in action or died later from wounds suffered during battle.  As was the case with most regiments though, pestilence was a deadlier foe than enemy fire.  The regiment lost 190 enlisted men to various deadly diseases.




 The 14th participated in the Siege of Knoxville in 1863 and in the decisive Union victory at the Battle of Nashville in the winter of 1864, a battle that decisively shattered John Bell Hood's Confederate army.  These Tennessee battles are well documented.  Perhaps the most interesting endeavor that Livingston’s Company A participated in was General George Stoneman’s ambitious raid that hoped to penetrate as far south as Macon, Georgia.  Captain Albert R. Capron has written an interesting account of it.  He was a young lieutenant in Company A at the time, and his father, Horace Capron Sr, was the commander of the regiment.




General Stoneman had approached General William Tecumseh Sherman with the idea for the raid.  Its intent was to reach the prison camps in Macon and at Andersonville in order to release the Union soldiers held captive there.  Both Stoneman and Sherman recognized that this would be a perilous undertaking, but the potential reward of the raid overrode the risk involved.  Sherman voiced his support for the undertaking in a couple pieces of correspondence:




      “I see many difficulties, but as you say, even a chance of success will warrant the effort, and I consent to it.  If you bring back to the army any or all of those prisoners of war, it will be an achievement that will entitle you and the men of your command to the love and admiration of the whole country.”




      “This is probably more than he can accomplish, but it is worthy of a determined effort.”




 The expedition set out on the morning of the 27^th of July, 1864.  It consisted of two large contingents of men, a command of approximately 5000 horsemen led by General Stoneman and a command of some 4000 cavalry led by General Edward M. McCook. 
 


 General Stoneman’s route followed the Georgia Railroad.  While making their way south they also had orders to burn and destroy the railroads and to put the torch to all the public property that they could find.  The 14^th did a thorough job of doing just that.  As they neared Macon they intercepted train after train of goods and supplies.  Lieutenant Capron writes of the destruction that was necessitated by the orders that they had been given:




      “Train after train of cars came rushing along, loaded to their utmost capacity with costly furniture, printing presses and type, private carriages and horses; in fact, every conceivable form of moveable property.  These were intercepted by our force, and, in the process of destroying the railroad and rolling stock, were necessarily swept out of existence.  In speaking of this incident, my father says in his journal: ‘It is painful at this period to look back upon the terrific destruction of valuable property, but we were obeying orders; my best efforts were used to relieve it from the barbarities which so often followed in the wake of those raids by both parties to the contest.’
”


 Stoneman’s column got close to Macon, but the Rebels had burned the bridges that spanned the river at Macon, so Stoneman contented himself with shelling the town.  Having heard that the Rebels had moved the prisoners further south as the Yankees advanced, and encountering heavy resistance, Stoneman attempted to retreat, using the same route he had advanced toward Macon on.  By this time Confederate General Wheeler was pursing him with a force of 10,000 mounted troops.  Stoneman was hoping that McCook’s force would unite with his to bring the odds close to even. 




 Outside of Clinton, Georgia, Stoneman’s men encountered the Rebels; a force that had set up defenses behind barricades.  Colonel Capron sent the 8^th Michigan Cavalry to drive them from their defenses.  They succeeded, and the Rebels fell back from position to position until they joined with Wheeler’s main body of troops.  Both sides prepared for the fight the next morning.




The Confederate force was comprised of mostly infantry and artillery.  Once General Stoneman heard the heavy guns open up, he rode to the front to take personal command of the situation.  He threw his whole force into a line of battle.  The enemy moved forward and the fighting was quite brisk between nine and ten in the morning.   During this time an orderly by the name of J. C. Hall rode over to Colonel Capron to deliver an order from General Stoneman.  Placing his hand on the pommel of the Colonel’s saddle and leaning toward him in order to more effectively deliver the order amidst the noise of battle, a ball from one of the enemy sharpshooters that had been aimed at Colonel Capron struck the messenger’s arm and passed through the unfortunate courier’s body. 




At this point in the battle it was evident that neither commander was certain as to the make up of the enemy force that opposed them.  The Rebel assault was a probe meant to determine the strength of Stoneman’s force and draw them into the field of the enemy artillery.  Once the Rebel probing attack was checked, General Stoneman took the opportunity to repair his battle line and bring every man forward.  Colonel Capron and his force, which included the 14^th Illinois Cavalry and F. W. Livingston was on the right of the Union line and exposed to an enemy flank movement if the Rebels spotted and chose to exploit the weakness.  The Union command was also hampered by an inability to get a good idea of the enemy dispositions. 




The Rebels had a clear view of the Union positions since Stoneman’s men were positioned on elevated ground.  A road at the rear of the Union position exposed them to attack from that direction as well.  To protect the troops from a surprise assault from this direction, a squadron of the 14th, led by Captain Sanford, had been placed about a mile down the road.  The enemy had just begun another advance forward when Sanford’s men were seen coming down the road pursued by a rebel force.  Colonel Capron quickly gathered a small body of men, and leading them in person, went to Sanford’s assistance.  Seeing help coming, Sanford wheeled his men about and joined his Colonel in beating back the enemy attack.  A lieutenant and several men were lost in this successful skirmish.




 General Stoneman ordered the entire Union line forward.  After several volleys were exchanged, suddenly the Confederate’s superior force burst forward in an unstoppable charge.  One of the Union brigades broke, and the Rebels poured into the hole in the line.  Just then one of General Stoneman’s staff officers rode up to Colonel Capron to report that Stoneman had decided that it was futile to attempt to cut their way out, but if anyone thought otherwise, they had his permission to attempt to do so.


     “Stoneman surrendered?” was Colonel Horace Capron’s incredulous reply.  “Never while I have a horse under me will I surrender.”




 Cut off from General Stoneman and surrounded by the enemy, it was obvious to Capron’s command that their only hope was to cut their way to freedom by thrusting through the enemy.  He ordered his son to call in Captain Lord from his outpost to follow their retreat.  The battle by this time had degenerated into a disorganized mass of confusion, with many of the victorious Rebels more concerned with capturing horses rather than the remaining Federals.  Many troopers lost their lives trying to keep their mounts from being taken away from them. 




The Yankees who had managed to round up and keep their horses were eventually able to break through the looting greycoats.  They were joined by some of Captain Lord’s men who had managed to fight their way through as well.  Gradually their forces were replenished by men who rejoined them during the course of the retreat, which lasted all night.  They had marched 60 hours in 24 hours before they felt secure enough to halt and rest.




The Confederates continued the pursuit of the remaining Union cavalry, first to Athens, Georgia, where bridges had been destroyed forcing the tired and beleaguered Yankees to make a disheartening detour in search of an avenue of retreat.  Eventually the Rebels caught up with the exhausted remainder of the Union cavalry.  A furious attack was launched; one in which cries of “surrender!” came from the triumphant rebels.  In the confusion, Colonel Capron and his young 18 year old son plunged into a thicket along with other soldiers desperately attempting to escape.  One by one they were rounded up, with the exception of the Colonel, his young son, and a lieutenant of the 8^th Michigan, the three of whom reached Marietta, Georgia and the Union lines and safety a week later.




  The Colonel’s other son, Lieutenant Albert Capron, had been stationed with 75 men to guard the fork of two roads toward the rear of the command.  They attempted to fight their way out, but were surrounded and captured and the Lieutenant was sent to Macon where he found General Stoneman already a prisoner.  Other captives were sent to that hell of a prison known as “Andersonville.”


In a 1901 article, the Lieutenant, who by the end of the war had risen to the rank of Captain, summed up his feelings about the unsuccessful affair.  “In looking back from this point of time, how easy it is to understand the reasons of this sad failure; but, I’m sure, that no one who went through those dark days, but feels the bitterest disappointment that General Stoneman was not able to carry through his noble undertaking to a success.”


No doubt young Frederick Livingston was one of the Yankees who was captured and sent to a southern prison as well, as he was not recorded as one of the resolute soldiers who eluded the enemy to wend his way back to the Union lines.  He survived his captivity though, and was mustered out of service on July 31^st, 1865.




 An 1865 Issue of The Illinois Teacher mentions Mr. Livingston in glowing terms:  “Mr. F. W. Livingston, who served his country honorably as a member of the 14^th Illinois Cavalry, and is said to have risen to the rank of Lieutenant, has resumed his profession of teaching as Principal of the Keithsburg Union Graded School.  Mr. Livingston holds a State Diploma and stands high in regard as a teacher.  The people of Keithsburg are fortunate in securing his services.”




In 1866 we read mention of Principal Livingston again in the Illinois Teacher.  During a gathering of the Mercer County Teacher’s Association, the minutes indicate that he entertained his fellow teachers by giving a reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Old Clock on the Stairs.”  He is also mentioned as leading his students through a reading drill for the edification of those assembled, and later mentioned as reading the assembled crowd a copy of one of his own poems, a work entitled “True Courage.” He married his wife, Mary, in 1869.




 Principal Livingston eventually rose to become a Superintendent of Schools in Mercer County.  That should have been the pinnacle of his career and a fitting crown to a life devoted to teaching, but wanderlust, ambition or perhaps opportunity led him to forsake Illinois to head west to California.  A life that had begun in Vermont had taken him across a continent.  In 1900 we find him and his wife of 31 years listed on the U.S. Census as living in San Diego, California.  He is still employed as an educator.  He and Mary at this time have two daughters, Anna, age 23 and Nellie, age 15, living with them.




 Frederick W. Livingston died in San Diego on May 28^th, 1908, at the age of 74.  He was laid to rest in Mt. Hope Cemetery, in San Diego.  His simple white Grand Army of the Republic headstone, which has toppled and is lying on the ground face up, is very weathered, but still readable.  On it he is listed as an Assistant Hospital Steward with the 14^th Illinois Cavalry.  Nothing more. 




 The education that he received at Lombard served him in good stead.  It was a gift that he returned many times over to his students in both Illinois and the West Coast.  In his works, Lombard legacy brought rich returns.




             Bibliography:


 
Mlitary Essays and Recollections     “”Stoneman Raid to Macon, Georgia in 1864”   by Captain Albert Banefield Capron




Civil War Veterans of Knox County     internet website



Illinois Teacher  1862, 1865 and 1866 Issues of the monthly magazine published in Peoria by N C Nason




1860 United States Federal Census
 


1900 United States federal Census




California Death Index, 1905 – 1939




U.S, City Directories, 1821- 1989




14^th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry     Wikipedia




 Find a Grave     website entry for F. V. Livingston,  Mt. Hope Cemetery, San Diego, CA.

James K. L. Duncan

Monmouth College Student Earns the Nation’s Highest Honor for Valor

Not much is known about Seaman James K. L. Duncan other than the specifics that of the action in which he earned the Medal of Honor.  He was born in Frankfort Mineral Springs in Pennsylvania on the 6^th of July of 1845.  He enrolled in Monmouth College and would have graduated with the Class of 1866 had he stayed in school.  Like so many young men though, he caught up in the patriotic fervor that swept the north, and enlisted in the Union Navy.  Monmouth College sent 232 young men to help put down the Rebellion during the Civil War.  James Duncan was assigned to serve on the USS Fort Hindman, a 286 ton “Tinclad” gunboat that was built in 1862 in Jeffersonville, Indiana, as a civilian steamer.  Purchased by the Navy in 1863, it was first commissioned as the USS James Thompson.  She went through two name changes, becoming next the USS Manitou in June of 1963, and later to the USS Fort Hindman in November of 1863.  In July of 1863, as the Manitou, it participated in an expedition that made its way up the Little Red River expedition and captured the Confederate steamer Louisville.

On the 29^th of February, 1864, a fleet of five gunboats and a monitor- the Osage-began patrols up the Red River, the Black River and the Washita River successively to break up some enemy camps that had formed near Harrisburg, Louisiana.  Arriving at the town of Trinity, at the junction of the Little and the Washita Rivers, a battery of 12-punder guns opened up on them, as well as a band of sharpshooters under the command of the Rebel General Polignac.  Responding with a barrage of fire of their own, the union flotilla drove the enemy from the town.

The following morning the fleet made its way up the Washita.  They proceeded in the following order: The Osage, Fort Hindman, Conestoga, Cricket, Washita and Lexington.  Within about two miles of Harrisburg, General Polignac set up his guns and sharpshooters and launched an attack against the advancing Union fleet, directing the heaviest fire against the Fort Hindman, the flagship of the Union flotilla.  The thin iron plating and the two inch planking that had been added to the steamer to make it battle worthy served as little defense against the Confederate fire.  Twenty-seven 12 pound shells slammed into the Fort Hindman within a half hour, one of them disabling her starboard engine.  With only her port engine left, the steamer was unable to maintain proper steerage, and thus swung back and forth in the current, exposing her to more enemy fire.   Seaman Hugh Malloy would earn a Medal of Honor earlier during this engagement for risking his life during the battle by leaping from the protection of the gunport to retrieve a sponge that had fallen, then cleaning the gun from the outside of the part, the whole time being exposed to a hail of enemy fire.

Next it was Seaman James K. L. Duncan’s turn to seize his opportunity to become a hero.  An enemy shell burst at the muzzle of one of the Hindman’s guns, setting fire to the tarred yarn of a cartridge, which had been put in the mouth of the gun prior to the next step, which would be to ram them home.  Seaman Duncan saw the yarn burning, and before the fire could eat its way through the covering of the cartridge and explode in the gun, Seaman Duncan quickly moved forward and grabbed the blazing cartridge with his bare hand, and wrenched it from the muzzle of the cannon.  Rushing to the port side of the ship with the blazing cartridge still in his hand, he threw it over the side of the vessel.  Barely had it left his hand when it exploded, still in the air. In Deeds of Valor, a two volume account of Medal of Honor heroism that was published in 1907, there is a riveting artist’s rendition of young Duncan being hurled back by the force of the cartridge explosion.  The force of the explosion knocked young Seaman Duncan unconscious and sent him reeling across the deck.  His shipmates caught him and carefully set the stunned sailor down.

 When Duncan came to he described his sensations.  It seemed to him at first as though all sounds of the battle had ceased.  “When I regained consciousness after the explosion of the cartridge I looked about me in surprise, but there were the men rushing about, loading and firing the guns, but all were inaudible to me.  Upon recovering from my amazement I became convinced that I was deaf.  This belief was confirmed by the surgeon, who pronounced the drum of my right ear completely destroyed, and the other temporarily impaired.”

As the action continued, the Hindman continued to be pounded with shot and shell.  The courage of its crew was exemplary though.  Not a man flinched from doing their duty, and yet another earned the Nation’s highest horror for valor.  Despite having his left hand shattered by a shell fragment, Seaman William P. Johnson bound the wound with a strip that he tore from his shirt, and took the place of a fallen comrade at one of the ship’s guns until the engagement was over.

     James K. L. Duncan never returned to Monmouth College to finish his education.  His trail grows dim after the war.  All that I could find for certain about him is that he eventually made his way to Wisconsin after the war, and lived until March 27^th, 1913, almost to the start of another Great War.  The brave Seaman is buried in Milwaukee’s Wood National Cemetery.  His GAR stone has been replaced with a more modern version, one that alludes to him being the recipient of the Medal of Honor.

Bibliography

Deeds of Valor, Volume 2    Perrien-Keydol Company, Detroit. 1907

James K. L. Duncan  Find a Grave Memorial

James K. L. Duncan     Wikipedia entry

USN Ships Fort Hindman    Naval Historical Center Internet Site

Medal of Honor Recipients 1863-1994  Vol. 1   Lang, Collins and White

Dr. Hugo Max Starkloff

German Surgeon in a Swedish Regiment goes on to become Renowned Physician

     Perhaps it was an independent streak that led young Hugo Max Starkloff to leave his family in Germany to come to America, or perhaps like so many intellectuals of the time he had become disillusioned with the failure of the uprising in 1848.  Certainly he’s asserted his independence before, turning his back on his family’s rich military tradition by leaving the infantry regiment that he’d been assigned as a cadet to in order to study to become a doctor instead.  His studies took him to universities at Tuebingen, Heidelburg and Prague before he finally received his degree in medicine as an 18 year old in 1852. 

     A few months later he arrived in New York City, planning to head out to the “wild west” that he’d read so much about to make his fortune.  He almost drowned before he left the Great Lakes.  He had signed on as a deckhand on the steamer Griffith, which caught fire while making its way across Lake Erie.  The craft burned to its waterline, but its passengers were fortuitously rescued by a passing ship, which set the hapless folk it had rescued ashore in Cleveland.  From there young Hugo made his way eventually to California, where he found employment as a surgeon with John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company.

     The difficulties of setting up a practice for a “greenhorn” doctor were best evidenced by his movements between 1853 and 1861.  After a stint in California he was next heard from attempting to establish practices in Palmyra and Hannibal, Missouri.  He found little success there, but did find a wife.  He married a beautiful widow, Hermine August Reinhart, and their first child, a son, Johan, was born in 1855.  He died in the spring of 1857, just a month before the birth of Emil Arthur.  Their third child, Maximillian Carl, was born near the end of 1858.

     Dr. Starkloff’s efforts to establish a practice took him to Quincy and then to Galesburg.  A biography of his daughter Irma, states that Dr. Satarkloff was in St Louis in 1861, and witnessed the Camp Jackson affair, which saw loyal Union militia surround and force the surrender of southern militia that had been bent upon seizing the weapons from the Federal Arsenal. An angry mob gathered and began to throw rocks at the Union troops, who were marching the captured rebels to prison.  As the crowd degenerated into a threat to their safety, the harassed militiamen fired into it, wounding many and killing fifteen of the stone-throwing attackers.  Despite the bloody aftermath of the confrontation at Camp Jackson, this success of the Unionists, many of whom were Germans who felt a loyalty toward their adopted country, may have spurred Dr. Starkloff’s intention to enlist.  He returned to Galesburg and became a surgeon, with the rank of Captain, of Company C of the 43^rd Illinois Infantry, a regiment which travelled to Camp Butler and was mustered in on October 12^th, 1862.  The regiment consisted of 100 Swedes and 3 Germans, one of whom was Dr. Starkloff, who assumed the role of the regimental surgeon.

     In February the 43^rd boarded the steamer USS Memphis, which was taking them to Tennessee to aid General Grant in vanquishing Forts Henry and Donelson.  They arrived too late to participate in those Union successes, but were soon billeted with the rest of Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee.

     As dawn arrived on the morning of April 6^th, 1862, it was accompanied by the yells of rebel troops and the staccato of musket fire.  The rebels had launched a surprise attack, hoping to drive the Union army up against the Tennessee River to force their surrender.  A shell came screeching overhead.  It slammed into the limb of a tree, which landed upon Louis Nelson of Galesburg, disabling him.  A Union officer later described the rebels as being “thicker than fleas on a dog’s back.”  The 49^th Illinois, which was to the left of the 43^rd, had already broke and fled, leaving the 43^rd in a vulnerable situation with its left flank exposed.  Company C was one of 5 companies ordered to move to the left to fill the gap left by the flight of the men of the 49^th.  The five companies held firm for about 10 minutes, then had to fall back.  They reformed about 1000 feet further back, then attempted to hold again.  They were able to hold the rebels back for a short time due to the superiority of their Belgian rifles, which had a range of about 200 feet farther than the firearms that the rebels carried.  Confederate numbers drove them back again though, eventually about a mile.  Grant personally inspected their lines and ordered up reinforcements to bolster the position.  At the end of the day the regimental officers took stock of their losses.  Out of 500 men the 43^rd had suffered 206 casualties in killed or wounded.  Company C lost 17 men.  Lars Bergloff, Claes Danielson and Charles Samuelson, all from Andover, died during the desperate conflict.  Daniel Chase, also of Andover, went missing.  Company C’s Captain Edvall died on May 7^th, succumbing to a wound received during the April 6^th battle.  Yes, the men of the 43^rd would have cause to remember that horrible day’s fighting, which took the name of a log church that occupied the bloody ground.  They would remember “Bloody” Shiloh.

     Dr. Hugo Starkloff would remember the battle as well.  As a child his daughter Irma listened to her father tell horror stories of the Union doctors running out of essential medical supplies in the aftermath of the conflict, which had proved more destructive of lives and limbs than any type of warfare that those responsible for laying in supplies had anticipated.

     Bloodied now, the regiment went on to participate in the Siege of Corinth, in battles with General Nathan Bedford Forrest, in Little Rock, and in the assault at Prairie D’Anne and Camden.  At Jenkin’s Ferry, Company C was part of 4000 Union troops that held off an assault launched by Confederate general Kirby Smith, whose attacking force of 20,000 men were beaten back with 2,000 casualties compared to 700 casualties on the Union side. 

     Dr. Hugo Starkloff’s competence as a surgeon led him from his assignment as the company’s surgeon to the eventual post of Medical Director of the 1^st Division of the 7^th Army Corps.  Yes, as had the troops of the 43^rd who had established their reputation for bravery in numerous engagements against the enemy, Hugo Starkloff had made his reputation as well, as a knowledgeable medical man, one worthy of promotion to more responsible positions.  He finished the war with the rank of “Major.”

     The end of the war saw Dr. Starkloff return to Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, to become a respected member of the German community there.  He had no ambition for political office himself, but as a German who had fought loyally for the Union, he felt a loyalty toward the party of Abraham Lincoln, so he became active In Republican politics.  He also joined the local Freethinkers’ Union and the “Schiller Union,” a club dedicated to the poet whose eloquent verse made him the spokesman for German liberty.  He also was a member of the German-American National Alliance and the Turnerbund.  He also took an interest in education, becoming a member of the St. Louis School Board.  Dr. Hugo Starkloff had an open mind for educational innovations;  he was a member of the school board that ushered in the first public school kindergarten in the United States, modelled upon its German Predecessor.

     Dr. Starkloff’s support of the Kindergarten initiative wrought change in his personal life as well.  His wife Hermione had died in 1875 of an “inflammation of the brain,” Arriving with kindergarten faculty from Germany was Emma Kuhlmann, a young woman who soon caught the eye of Dr. Starkloff.  They were married in 1876.  The doctor’s new wife was 18 years his junior, and soon became a valued business partner as well as his wife.  She managed his accounts, supervised the household staff, and managed the stream of patients that arrived at all hours with all sorts of ailments and emergencies that had to be dealt with immediately.  Emma had an independent streak as well; she had a gift of debunking irony that served as a foil to sometimes deflate the pomposity of her husband, and a mind open enough to be receptive to the wiles of the Women’s Movement.

     Dr. Starkloff’s medical practice continued to flourish.  By 1883 he took his son, Max Carl Starkloff as a partner in a practice located on Main Street in Carondelet.  To avoid a redundant repetition of the last name, I will refer to the father as “Hugo Max,” and the son as “Max Carl.”  This was a sign of rapprochement between father and son, as young Max Carl had earned his father’s wrath in 1879 by marrying a penniless Irish girl, a match that his father felt was beneath him.  In 1883 Dr. Hugo Max moved to larger home, a prestigious residence on a hilltop that overlooked the river at the corner of Lounghsborough and Michigan Avenues.  He also made certain that his office was connected to his residence by one of the new inventions of that era, a telephone. 

     With the election of Republican Benjamin Harrison in 1889, Dr. Hugo Max lobbied for a reward for his quarter century of service to the Grand Old Party.  He was rewarded with a consulship in Bremen, Germany.  The doctor’s family enjoyed the opportunity to travel about Europe, and the opportunity to meet many of their relatives from both parents sides who had chosen to remain in the old country. 

     In 1892 Dr. Hugo Max Starkloff’s mettle as a physician was tested when an outbreak of cholera spread from Russia to Hamburg and eventually to Bremen.  The city acted to quell the spreading epidemic.  Dr. Starkloff and the North German Lloyd’s shipping line, which controlled traffic from Bremen, undertook screening of the passengers bound for America.  The eminent bacteriologist, Robert Koch, the man whose research led to the discovery of the causes of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, met with the German doctor and together they suggested measures which included monitoring of the emigrant hotels and boardinghouses, two day detention of all arriving travelers, and strict examination and disinfection of all steerage passengers and their luggage before they were allowed to continue on their journey.  Within weeks the outbreak was completely contained without a single traveler carrying the disease out of Bremen to spread elsewhere.  Dr. Starkloff earned much renown for successfully preventing a multinational epidemic.

      The solid reputation he had earned for his efforts led the Democratic President Grover Cleveland to retain him in Bremen in 1892 when the Portly President returned to the White House.  Age and health issues were catching up with the doctor though, and in 1894 he asked to be relieved of his duties as consul in order to return to the United States.   Recovering his health after his return to St. Louis, he lived on until 1914, enhancing his well-deserved reputation as a surgeon and filling the Chair of Orthopedic Surgery in the Marion Sims College of Medicine and Surgery.  He was one of the highest ranked medical educators in the country.  He continued his interest in education as well, serving as a public school director for St. Louis Schools for fifteen years.  He rests in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis along with his wife Emma, who lived until 1931.

     That’s not the end of the story.  It is said that “the evil that men do lives after them.”  So does the good.  Dr. Starkloff’s commitment to education served as an example to his son Dr. Max Carl Starkloff, who became a hero in St. Louis after a tornado ripped through the city in 1898.  Despite suffering a broken arm, he put aside his own pain and worked tirelessly to tend to many of the thousand people who were injured when the twister passed through.  Those efforts paled in comparison though to his efforts during the 1918 influenza epidemic.  By this time he was in his fifteenth year of what would be a thirty year tenure as City Health Commissioner.  He acted quickly, urging the mayor of St. Louis to order the closing of all public places, in order to isolate the public from each other in order to contain the spread of the deadly flu.  Thanks to his efforts the death rate in St. Louis was kept down to 2.8 per 1000 residents, compared to 8.0 in Pittsburgh, 7.6 in San Francisco and 7.1 in Kansas City.  In recognition of Dr. Max Carl Starkloff’s efforts, St. Louis’s City Hospital was renamed in his memory.  Dr. Hugo Max and his wife Emma’s daughter went on to make her mark in life as well.  Irma Louise Starkloff Rombauer went on to write the widely renowned cookbook, “The Joy of Cooking,” a book that was brought to life during the Depression, and that is still in print.  Like the “Betty Crocker Cookbook,” it has evolved and seen numerous changes since Irma’s first edition of it.

     The Starkloff family: another case of newcomers to America who returned their opportunity to begin a life in a new land with labors that impacted the lives of so many of their adopted countrymen for the better.

                                  Bibliography

Hugo Max Starkloff          Find a Grave Memorial

Muench Medical and Cookbook Heroes         Meunch Family Association

Stand facing the Stove       Anne Mendelson, 1981

The Swedes of Knox County   Internet site

The Swedish Element in Illinois   Ernst Wilhelm Olson 1917

Galesburg Company at Battle of Shiloh     Q C Online   article by Marilyn Gantt

    

    

    

 

Brigadier General William Hanna

Beloved Commander of the “Blind Half-Hundred Regiment”

     The manuscript that I’m holding in my hands was written by Colonel William Hanna of the 8^th Illinois National Guard in 1880.  It is a short note written to Civil War veteran, Samuel B. Sherer, who rose to the rank of Captain during the Civil War, and after the war became a General in the Illinois National Guard and an active participant in Grand Army of the Republic activities.  General Hanna is writing to send his regrets that he cannot attend a reunion that was to be held in Galesburg.  The letter is written in ink on an ornately designed letter head that lists the names and ranks of the officers, along with their home towns.  They are: Colonel William Hanna-Keokuk Junction, Major C. Y. Long-Carthage, Major R. H. McMahon-Quincy, Surgeon S. H. McClung-Mt Sterling, Chaplain Edward J. Rice-Clayton, Adjutant H.E.Selby-Quincy and Quartermaster O. M. Smeigh-Quincy.

     As with any signed Civil War document of local interest that I’m fortunate enough to acquire, I wanted to learn more about the man who penned the note.  Finding nothing in local collections, I searched on-line, and discovered the existence of William Hanna’s military diary.  It was in the possession of Southern Adventist University’s Mckee Library, in Tennessee.  When I contacted the curator and asked if I could pay to have it copied and sent my way, in one of the many acts of kindness that you’ll run into while researching, the librarian was kind enough to scan and send me copies of the material.  The diary and other material were compiled by Dr. R. C. Slater of LaSalle, Illinois in 1960.  As much as I looked forward to reading the diary and using it to flesh out the character of General Hanna, I was disappointed.  The diary is rather terse.  It offers information about where the regiment was on a particular day, and often about what the weather was like, but rarely does William Hanna indulge in any character sketches or descriptive prose that graces other diaries that I have encountered.  He was evidently a man who dealt in facts, not conjecture, and not a man given to recording his feelings or reactions to events.

     William Hanna was born in Lexington, Indiana on June 23^rd, 1833 to parents of Scotch-Irish descent.  The childhood that most of us hold so dear was sadly brief for him, as he was left an orphan at the age of ten.  Chagrined, but not undaunted by the death of his parents, he found neighbors for whom he could work in exchange for room and board, and money enough for clothes and to pay for an education at the district school.  Early in his life he resolved to study for the ministry, but ill-health put an end to that ambition.  He went into business instead, and soon made a lot of friends and a success of his ventures.  The advent of war saw him a successful merchant.

     Soon after war was declared he assisted in raising Company E. of the 50^th Illinois regiment from Camp Point, Illinois, and in appreciation for his efforts was named Captain of the regiment.  The regiment was mustered into service on December 12^th, 1861 and made its way first to Hannibal, where they encountered their first foe, an epidemic of measles, and then down to Cairo.  In February they were shipped to Tennessee in time to participate in the capture of Fort Henry and then the siege of Fort Donelson.  The 50^th Illinois had earned the nickname the “Blind Half-Hundred,” because a good number of the men who enlisted in the regiment were either cross-eyed or blind in one eye.  The nickname was cemented to them the day shortly before Fort Donelson fell.  Their “blind obedience” to orders led them to embark on a charge that helped capture the last entrenchments of the fort, a factor that led its Rebel commanders to surrender the fort shortly afterwards. 

     The men who thought that they’d experienced war at Fort Donelson discovered that it was nothing compared to the ferocity of the battle of Shiloh in early April.  Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston launched a surprise attack at dawn, vowing to drive the Union army into the Tennessee river.  The 50^th was situated on the left of the Union line, at the top of a steep ravine.  Despite the formidable terrain the Rebs moved forward.  The enemy’s initial assault killed three of the 50ths officers.  Despite the determination of the assault and the superior numbers that they faced, as well as having the element of surprise work against them,, the 50^th Illinois fought a commendable defensive withdrawal, delaying the enemy advance the best they could until they finally halted and found refuge and formed a final line of defense in front of a mass of artillery that had been set up to halt the Rebel advance.  The men of the “Half-Blind Hundred” hurled themselves to the ground in front of the guns, firing from a prone position into the vanguard of the enemy advance until the tired and discouraged Confederates finally fell back.  The next day saw the arrival of Union reinforcements under the command of General Don Carlos Buell, and the reinvigorated and reinforced Yankees, including the 50^th Illinois, moved forward to retake the field that had been wrest from them at so bloody a cost the day before.

     The 50^th accompanied General Halleck on his inexcusably slow advance on Corinth.  They remained there, and were present when Confederate General Earl Van Dorn launched an assault to attempt to retake Corinth on June 5^th.  The resolute Union defenders beat the attackers back.  The “Blind Half-Hundred” regiment performed creditably, capturing a stand of colors, and 151 prisoners, including 2 officers.  Van Dorn launched frontal assaults upon a well defended position, having some success on the first day of the battle, driving the Federal army from the rifle pits that they’d been using as their first line of defense, and exploiting a gap in the Union lines, driving the defenders back into their inner line of fortifications.  The second day saw the Confederates repulsed after they attempted to storm Battery Powell and Battery Robinett.  After some ferocious hand to hand fighting, the Rebs attack on the second day was repulsed.  The results were a disaster for the Confederates.  They suffered 473 Killed compared to 355 for the Union troops, and the horrendous total of 3750 wounded and missing compared to 2200 for the defenders.  As noted above, the 50^th Illinois had done their share to account for this disparity in numbers.  Despite the victory that he won, General Rosecrans was criticized by both President Lincoln and General Grant for not pursuing and perhaps losing a chance to annihilate the retreating and demoralized Confederates.

      For a time, when he held a Captain’s rank, William Hanna served as an Acting ADC on the staff of General Grenville M. Dodge, who would go on to earn great renown as the Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific who was instrumental in the construction of the first Transcontinental railroad, the      Union Pacific.   Captain Hanna gained valuable experience working as a subordinate officer for the very competent Union commander, experience that served him well when he shouldered more command responsibility.  Hanna’s wartime diary begins late in the war, on January, 1864.  It’s disappointing in its terseness.  By this time he had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.  For example, His entry for the 5^th of October, a momentous day in the “Blind Half-Hundred’s” history, consists of a lackluster five sentences.  He mentions that the fighting was heavy, that he was wounded (in the left thigh) and the casualties inflicted on the regiment.  Seven thousand rebel troops attacked the 2900 Union defenders of Allatoona Pass in Georgia.  The determined enemy inflicted casualties of 962 men upon the Union defenders, but suffered close to 2200 casualties before they were beaten back, saw 400 of their men captured prisoner, and lost 3 flags and close to 800 weapons. 

     It was a costly defeat and cemented the 50ths reputation as a fighting regiment.  A bit of local interest:  The commander of the Union defenders was General John Corse, a Burlington, Iowa native, made his reputation in this battle.  General Corse was slightly wounded during the battle, but he magnified the importance of his wounds in a dramatic message that he sent to General Sherman.  It read: “I am short a cheekbone and one ear, but am able to whip all hell yet.”  You will find an equestrian statue of him in Burlington’s Crapo Park, inscribed with the words “Hold the Fort.”  These words are the refrain of a popular hymn that used the heroic defense of Allatoona Pass as inspiration.    The hymn, by Chicago evangelist Phillip P. Bliss featured the chorus: “Hold the fort; for we are coming; Union men be strong.”  You can find General Corse’s gravesite in a little chapel named for him that is situated in Burlington’s Aspen Grove Cemetery.  Aspen Grove can boast of a number of prominent Civil War burials in it.  Next to the Corse Chapel is the gravesite of General Karl Matthies and within short walking distance are the graves of Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Nicholas Bouquet and Major General Jacob Laumann.  Couple a visit here with a visit to Crapo Park and the Des Moines County Historical Society and one can spend a day exploring links to the Civil War in that historic Iowa City.   The repulse at Allatoona Pass was disheartening for the Confederates, as they had hoped to seize the one million rations that were stored there, or at least to burn them to deprive Sherman’s army of their use.

     After the fight at Allatoona Pass the 50^th and William Hanna continued with General Sherman as he took Atlanta, then set out to make Georgia howl as he cut a swath of devastation across the state as they made their way to Savannah.  Then the 50^th accompanied Sherman’s army into North Carolina, fought with Joe Johnston and the Rebels in Bentonville, North Carolina, and was present at the surrender of Johnston’s army.  At the war’s end the “Blind Half-Hundred” participated in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington DC, and then travelled by train to Louisville where the regiment was mustered out.

     Before the mustering out the 50^th earned more laurels, winning a Divisional competition in Louisville as the best-trained regiment.  At his time Colonel William Hanna was presented with an inscribed sword and cartridge box in recognition for his leadership and as a token of the high esteem his men held him in.  He had also been honored by his government by being awarded the brevet rank of Brigadier General on March, 13^th, 1865 for his gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Allatoona, Georgia.

     General Hanna ran a country store after the war in Golden, Illinois.  He died there on August 4^th, 1907 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, in Camp Point, Illinois.  His large red granite monument is easy to find.  On it he is given the tribute “Of such as he was, there are few on earth.”  His stone also lists his rank as Brevet Brigadier General, and ten important battles and sieges that he participated in: Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, the Battle of Corinth, Resaca, Lay’s Ferry, Allatoona, Savannah and Bentonville.  William Hanna was a merchant, with no military training, but his determination and willingness to learn and adapt to military life made an integral cog in forging the 50^th Illinois into a fighting machine to be reckoned with.  How respected was the regiment?  Perhaps the best tribute paid to it is that before his death Ulysses S. Grant chose a number of battle flags to be displayed in the tomb that was being planned for him in New York City.  Doomed by the ravages of cancer, the former General and President reflected during his illness on the regiments whose efforts he respected, and whose battle flags he would deem worthy enough to be displayed in the monument that would be his final resting place.  One of the flags that the dying warrior chose was the faded, battle-scarred standard made glorious by the efforts of the “Blind Half-Hundred.”

                   Bibliography:

Wartime Diary of William Hanna, 1864   Dr. R.C. Slater 1960

Battle of Shiloh                                           Wikipedia

Battle of Allatoona Pass                              Wikipedia

Battle of Corinth                                          Wikipedia

50^th Illinois Infantry Regiment                       Wikipedia

50^th Illinois Infantry Regiment History          Civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org