The Oskaloosa herald., 1909-10-21
A LETTER FROM
COLONEL SWAIN
Tells OF Visit Tc National Cemetery
At Annapolis.
SOME IOWA SOLDIERS THERE
Forty In All From This State and
Several of Them Enlisted From
Mahaska County During
the War. ...

Annapolis, Naval Academy, Oct. l6.
Mrs. Swain and myself have put
in a few hours, during our visit here
at Annapolis, in visiting the National
Cemetery located here,-and we made
it a doubly patriotic duty when we
found that a number of Iowa soldiers
were among the twenty-five hundred
here found buried. The kindly Super
intendent, "a young Marylander -
placed everything at our command
and we visited nearly every grave OF
these absent sons of Iowa,-and none
were forgotten by us by way OF re-
membrance. Memory told me about
the home-c coming of men on parole,
whose i'll fortune had made them pris-
oners of war; it told me OF the parole
and conyalescent camps on these
shores, and all the work done to hold
the Pickering flames of life in the
starved and emaciated bodies, by the
good men and women who volunteer
ed for that task of loving SERVICE
like that which marked dear Aunt"
Becky Young, of precious memory for
similar service. But l. was surprised
to find that forty of our Iowa COM
rades had here laid down their lives
in the rest of death,-and from the
records | made the list as found be-
low. None of these Iowa commands
served in the East, save only for a
short time in the valley campaign
the 22d being one,-in which William
H. Needham, of the Sigourney News,
served with distinguished honor, and
in commissioned rank. The cavalry
men were all from Sherman's army,
and the 9Th and the Sth got into seri-
Gus trouble in a raid around Atlanta,
If my memory and the stories of the
late Col. Richard Root serve me right.
Some of these comrades / knew in
bOyhood-in Mahaska county,-and it
was a sorrowful surprise to thus find
them at rest near the banks of the
Severn,-cared for in the most beau
tiful manner by the federal govern
ment, for the preservation of which
they had given their lives. These
boys | had seen go out IN the Sd and
7th Iowa Infantry from Oskaloosa in
1861, and they were among the best
In September | noted the graves OF
the parents of two of these brave lads
in the old cemetery at Oskaloosa,
where my own dead are resting
The cemetery is within the easy
% oil he ali 80 he
Marine Battalion attached to the Ma
val Academy, and these dead of ours
can hear daily the sounding of col
ors" and of retreat" closing the day
with tattoo" and lights out" Some
may doubt this sentiment but | take
it that the dead never die,-and from
some place take cognizance of those
things which marked their careers in
active and honored life.
| am not a theologian, and do not
want to be--but it is personal COM
fort to me that these forty Iowa boys
are resting where the sound of the
bugle calling to high duty floats
through the trees shading their
graves,-and | want things to be so
that they can and do hear the sweet
cadences of the sounding bugle. The
flag for which they died is given to
the breezes at eight O'Clock every
morning and flies until retreat is
sounded at the parade ground of the
Marines a half mile away.
In lasting bronze plate along the
walks in the well-kept grounds,-you
can read-and you feel as you read
that poem written so many years
ago:
The muffled drums sad roll has beat,
The soldiers last tattoo" 4,
but your loyal and appreciative heart
will concur in the last stanza
"On Fame's eternal camping ground,
Their silent tents are spread;
And glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead"
Some Iowa people bear these Iowa
boys in dear remembrance,-so | have
taken on this duty of reporting them
under the conditions given,-as it may
comfort those who never saw them af-
ter they started out in those great
days Of the greatest struggle, to do, to
dare, and to die, after giving honor to
the service that the great Lincoln
had summoned them to,-as patriots
worthy of the great land that had CIV
en- them birth.
Saluting all fraternally, faithfully
yours, A. w. Swain.