The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-04-10


took a telegram from the Secretary of,
War TO Governor kirkwood. The,
messenger found the governor work
ing in the field on his farm. Wiping
his hands, he opened the telegram and
exclaimed.
The President calls on Iowa to
furnish whole regiment OF men;
do you think l can raise as many as
that?"
Before the sun sank behind the
western hills that evening, enough
Iowa men TO I'LL ten regiments had
rendered their services TO the gov
eminent. and the question was an
swered.
This question answered, another
Presented itself. equal in importance
and Infinitely more difficult of solu-
| ton.
/ The state was so poor. as a result
OF the panic of 1857 that its warrants
could not be sold.
i With total population of seven
hundred thousand, it had more than
four hundred thousand dollars of de-
I linquent taxes which could only be
collected by selling the property of
the struggling settlers, and this prop
erty could hardly be sold at any price.
Volunteers were assembling and the
/ state must maintain and care for
them until they could be mustered in
to the military service of the nation.
1 Men from the villages-men who
had been breaking the prairie soil
! and telling the trees in the forest to
make homes in that new state. left
the plow in the fu-row and the axe
beside the tree and hurried to the de-.
Tense of the nation Men with bare
hands that must be armed. men who
| had forgotten how money looked ESQ
long had it been since they had seen
any must be fed and clothed. Medi-
cal supplies must be furnished and
/ the state treasury was empty.
! Again the patriotism of the people
was equal to the emergency.
The echoes of that first shot at Fort
Sumter had scarcely died away before
j. n. Graves and his brother. r. E.
4 Grayes, bankers of Dubuque, tele-
1 graphed the governor that they would
I esteem II an honor and privilege to
honor his draft to the extent of thir-
" thousand dollars TO be repaid at the
1 convenience of the state.
Hon Hiram Price, of Davenport.
followed with thirty-three thousand
/ dollars, and. at the governors re-
1 quest. took personal charge of its dis
Dursement 10 the men of the first
three regiments accepted by the state.
million dollars could be raised to-
day either in Dubuque or Davenport
more readily than these amounts in
that day of poverty and hard times.
When the first call for volunteers
was made Iowa contained a popula-
ton of less than seven hundred thous-
and, of which, one hundred and sly
teen thousand men were subject TO
military duty; of this number. more
than seventy-eight thousand men
we're enrolled in the defense of the
/ union. OF this number more than
twelve thousand laid down their lives
that the nation might live. and near
" ten thousand were discharged, Grip
pied by wounds or with health shat
tered by disease.
Mr.. POSTMASTER, / have no author
ity TO speak for the old soldiers of
Iowa, but / want to say to Judge
Hundley, our honored guest from the
state OF Alabama, that | do not be-
lieye a single one of those seventy
eight thousand gallant Iowa soldiers.
living or dead, would object TO placing
/ IN the rotunda of the capitol at Wash
ington the statute of that great chris
/ tan soldier of the southland Cen
eral Robert z. Lee.
/ The first confederate flag of note
was made by the ladies of Charleston
s. G., and was captured by Iowa sol
diers and sent back to Iowa as a
trophy of the war
In 1861. Jefferson Davis took the
oath OF Office as President of the con-
! federate states at Montgomery, Ala
1 pama; three years later, an Iowa regi-
| ment hauled down the confederate
! flag. and an Iowa regimental flag was
first to float over the steps on which
Mt Davis stood on that earlier and
4 memorable occasion.
An Iowa regiment. CARRYING an iowa
flag, was the first over the breast.
works at Fort Donelson. the first de-
cisiye battle of the war. and the
Third Iowa Cavalry, Colonel Hepburn,s
regiment, fred the last shot of the
war against the confederate forces
near Macon, Georgia. in 1865.
The entire congressional delegation
Of the state resigned and entered the
military service. Candor demands the
statement but detracts nothing from
the significance or value of the service
/ to say that the state had but two
4 congressional districts at that time
4 Out Of her poverty. she gave all that
she had
Every state and nation has in its
history some period of signal heroism
God grant that no crisis NAV ever
again arise which ebaII r,o,