Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-12-29
.CUMMINS APPEALS
GOVERNOR INSISTS ON AccuR.
ATE INSCRIPTIONS ON SHILOH
MONUMENTS.
Secretary of National Commission Re
fuses to Allow Statement That Eff.
teenth and Sixteenth Iowa Partici.
pated In the Battle.

Des Moines, Dec 27.-The national
Shiloh battlefield commission again
has declined to allow the monuments
Of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa
regiments to bear the historically accu.
rate inscriptions upon which the vet
Grams of those regiments, the Iowa
commission and Governor Cummins in.
sist and which include the fact that the
Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa partici.
pated in the battle of Shiloh ON the
morning of April 6.
Governor Cummius has APPEALED di
rectly to the secretary of war, who has
the power to overrule the commission
and order correct and just Inscriptions
He and the members ofNthe Iowa com
mission, as we'll as the veterans of the
regiments affected feel confident that
the head of the war department will
see that Justice Is done the Iowa sol
diers, in spite of the national commits
sion.
However appeal, in case of an adj
verse decision. would be taken to the
President and ultimately to the con.
gress. 1t is morally certain that Iowa
veterans will not dedicate monuments
on which are Inscriptions which falsify
their records.
Reed Is at Fault.
d. W. Reed, the secretary Of the ma.
tional commission, is the source of the
trouble. He wrote history of the
battle of Shiloh and it does not con-.
form to the reports of the colonies Of
the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa regi.
ments-and others, also-and the tes-.
timon of veterans who were there to
do the fighting. There being con-
flict, the Reed theory of the battle is
sustained by the commission over
against the evidence of living men who
fought there, and the official record.
Governor Cummins argued the case
OF the Iowa veterans before the ma
tional commission at Pittsburg Land
Ing. and an adverse decision was made.
| A hearing before the acting secretary
OF war produced the suggestion that
Governor Cummins, for the Iowa vet
Grams, propose an inscription. which
was done. the fact that the Fifteenth
and Sixteenth Iowa were in the morn
ing battle being recited with the clause
added "as reported by their command.
ing officers
This was transmitted by Acting Sec
rotary of War Oliver to the national
commission, that Is Secretary Reed.
He replied in Incorporate terms, and
his reply, sent to the chairman of the
national commission, Colonel Cor.
| nelius Cadle, and by him to Secretary
Oliver. was sent on to Governor Cum
Minis.
cummins' caustic Letter.
Gov. Cummins says of Reed:
| II did not dare to hope that Mr..
| Reed would take any other view of the
matter than he has He has arranged
the battle of Shiloh to suit, himself, as
signed every regiment, company, and
possibly every man his place there
and if an angel from heaven would
bring down the eternal records and
show them inconsistent with Maj
Reeds findings. believe that he
would, without moments hesitation
reject the testimony of omniscience
He seems to be absolutely Indifferent
/ to the humiliation which he propose.
to inflict upon the soldiers of these
regiments.
ITO me, and have had twenty-five
years experience in the trial of con
tested matters of fact, it seems unfair
to say that the proposed inscriptions
would impeach the record of an,
monument and tablet Of every regi
ment and battery of Sherman's an,
Netherlands divisions"