The National tribune., 1883-10-18
A POST CAMPFIRE.
An Address That May Serve as a Model for Com
manders Generally.


An Address That May Serve as Model for Com
manders Generally.
At the Campfire of Chauncey Lawrence
Post, No. 163, Sabula, Iowa, on the 7th inst,
Commander Harvey Reid opened the meeting
with the following felicitous address:
COMRADES AND FRIENDS: We the veterans of
the Grand Army of the Republic that marched and
fought IN defense of our country and its flag in the
dark days OF the rebellion, meet tonight to recall
to our own minds and to represent to yours some
OF the events of twenty years ago. 1t is the camp
scenes and experiences of the soldiers daily life
that remain strongest in his memory, and familiar
almost as the doOr-yards in which we played in
our youth are the low shelter tent the stack of
arms in 'front.' the eartridge-box and belts, the
knapsacf (hs trunk ard his warlrobe), the can
teen, and the haversack-its lankness too often,
alas! portraying the dismal fact that " the enemy
nave got across our cracker line and then the
eamp-fire.s cheerful blaze. around which we lay
evening shades began to fall and sang the stirring
old army songs or swapped lies"
Arodnd our emblemate campfire tonight viii
gather some of the surviving members of Co. A.
Twenty-fourth Iowa infantry, and we shall learn
from them something of that saddest, grandest
event IN their army experienee-the battle of
Champions Hill.
We were boys together in the old army You
know, friends Uncle Sam would not accept for
his defense any man who had passed the age of
forty five, and SO our ranks became filed with the
young and vigorous whose pulses We're bounding
with the exuberant restlessness and frolicsome
care is stranger.
In the daily camp life, therefore gloomy forebod-
ings OF the future had no place. Sufficient unto
the day was the evil thereof and so much of fun
and enjoyment limited facilities could afford
was eagerly embraced. To each other we are still
: the boys We can no more grow old than could
Dr. y. w. Holmes classmates, of whom ne writes
on the thirtieth anniversary Of their graduation:
Has there any old fellow got mixed with the boyse
II there has, take him out, without making noise
spitel
Old Time is a liarl We're twenty tonight.
We're twenty we're twenty! Who says we are
more,
Hes. tipsy,-young jackanapesl show him the
Gray temples at twenty" Yesl tOhite if you
please;
Where the snow-falzes fall thickest there's moth
Was it showing spoke of? Excuse the mistake !
Look close, you will sec not sign OF a flake!
We want some new garlands for those we have
shed,
And these are white roses in place of the red
So we first recall campfire before the battle
when cheerfulness and fun ruled the hour We
shall hear the old martial music and the ole, bugle
calls; sing some of the old songs, and some new
ones, that have more of nonsense than of pathos III
them, and then we will try to tell something of
that other phase of soldiers life, when for his
country's sake he bravely dared TO march into the
storm of death-dealing bullets and the cannon's
terrible missiles and demand that the traitors
cause must fall.
A DECIMATED COMPANY.
The campfire after the battle we shall not
attempt to portray; we have no desire to recall it.
t1tty-four members of company a. Twenty-fourth
Iowa, marched up Champions EIill on that 10th
day OF May, 1868, but when they went into bivousc
that night there Were not more than twenty-three
IN the ranks. sergeant George Davis attempted to
call the roll, but it was too much tears came more
readily than words to all that little band, and they
sought their sorrowfui eouches in silence. Nine Of
the company had been left dead on the field; eight
more died OF their wounds within a few DAYS;
fourteen others Were wounded, of whom five were
so MANNED that they discharged from the
service without again entering the ranks. l have
already IN public print called attention to this
extraordinary mortality of seventeen killed or
died of their wounds in one battle from company
OF iiity-tour men, and expressed the doubt whether
such Il dread experience befeli any other company
OF equal strength during the war. To my inquiry
through THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE the most widely
circulated veterans paper published have as vet
met but one respoase-that of the Eleventh Ohio
battery at the battle of Iuka, September 10, 1862
which lost sixteen killed, thirty wounded and
three missing. it will be noted however that the
battery must have gone into the engagement with
much greater numbers than did company A. aud
their proportion of killed to wounded was much
less
have read recently some statistics that are of
interest III this connection. Probably the most
famous organization of troops produced during the
war was the " Iron Brigade of the Army of the
Pot6mac composed entirely of Western troops
the Second Sixth, and Seventh Wisconsin, Nine
teenth Indiana, and Twenty-forirth Michigan II
participated In most of the hardest-fought battles
OF that splendid army, and believe it is granted
that 1t suffered more casualties than anv other
brigade IN the service. The Second Wisconsin, of
that brigade, was iii the first battle of Bull Run
the united brigade received its first baptism of fire
at GAINESVILLE, or the second Bull Run on the 2Sh
OF August, 1862, where they left 7S3 dead and
wounded on the field; four of the regiments lost
their colonels-one dead, three wounded. AT South
Mountain they lost 2S0 killed and wounded and
v. VvHp Ia Ixpd
from Mcclellan their title of the 90 Iron Brigade
they lett S3 more comrades dead and wounded.
Ihey were at Fredericksburg and charlottesville
but with small casualties at either place. AT Get
tysburg they opened the fight on the 1st day of
july, 1863, and won imperishable honors-captured
Archers brigade of Missssippians and that gem
eral himself but AT the cost of 8g4 dead and wound-
ed From the Wilderness to SpottSylvania Court
mouse they left SO dead and wounded comrades,
ana they We're at Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Yellow
Tavern, Hateher's Run, and Five Forks. Yet
with all this arduous service and terrible casualties
the aggregate OF Killed and those who died of
wounds in the brigade for the entire period was
but O06 men, or an average of twenty to the COM
pany whereas company A, Twenty-fourth Iowa,
lost seventeen IN one battle.
CHAMPIONS HILL.
Iwasnot present at the battle of Champion's Hill, -
my service was not with Grants army-and the
task, therefore, assigned to me is the more distant
one OF historian; to present q hasty sketch of the
plan OF campaign or how the army got there Ishau
however, let this also be made from the standpoint
of the Twenty-fourth Iowa That regiment was
organized at Camp Strong Muscatine, Iowa. in
August, 1862; remained there until the latter part
of October, when it was transferred by steamer
TO Helena, Ark, and became part of Grants Army
of the Tennessee, whose objective point was the
capture OF Vicissburg ana the opening Of the Mis-
sissippi River
In April, 1868. the regiment left Helena by
steamer for Miihken's Bend as a part of General
a. 7. Hovey's division of McClernand's Thirteenth
Army Corps, to participate in the final move
against Vlcksburg. They were assigned to the
Second brigade of Hoveys (1welfthl division-the
brigade consisting of the Forty Indiana,
Iwenty-fourtS Iowa. Twenty-eighth Iowa and
Elity-sixth Ohio, commanded by Colonel Slack, of
The Forty-seventh Indiana. Grants army was
marched from Milliken's Bend, which was on the
west side OF the river, in Louisiana, down past
Fieksburg TO n landing called Hard Times La.
opposite Grand Gulf, Miss. Here they We're loaded
on transports that had run past the batteries at
vicksburg and Grand Gulf, with Admiral Porters
fleet, and dropped down the river n few miles to
I5rninsburg, Miss. where they landed without OPP
The bold movement was then made of marching
the entire army with only five days rations in a
campaign against jackson, the capitol of AIissis-
sippl, forty-four miles in the rear of Yicksburg
ine movement was entirely successful, Jackson
being taken by Sherman's Fifteenth Corps and the
army was then turned towards yicksburg to meet
Pemocrton's army, advancing from thence to en-