The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-08-11

| 90 iAnperlsnaDle as the union Is eter
nal"
For these precious reminders We
have to thank you boys of 81. Nav
the memory Of your service and OF
tnat OF your comrades who are now
marching in full companies of hun.
pred men day in answer to the
last beat of the drum, ever remain
fresh and sweet in the hearts of the
youth OF the goth century, and OF all
the centuries that are to come.
Major John F. Lacey, Co. Il, ard Iowa
Infantry.
MT. Lacey said in part.
The pleasing duty has been allotted
to me to speak for my comrades OF
the old 3rd Iowa Infantry Though |
served nearly four years in the union
army In the civil war, only about
seven months of that service was with
the gallant regiment which was mus
tered into the service at Keokuk IN
the eighth of June, fifty years ago.
The LIST, End and Bird Iowa regiments
all look back to the days at Keokuk
IN 1861, as a time of the deepest in
terest. In selecting a date on which
these three regiments might cele-
brate their great semi-centennial, the
anniversary of Wilson's Creek, was
aptly chosen for it was on the tenth
OF August 1861, that Iowa troops had
the first opportunity to show their
mettle in a first hard battle in which
large numbers of troops once engaged.
IN 1884 when the battle flags of the
Iowa troops were transported from
the old adjctant generals building to
their final resting place, in Iowa's
beautiful capitol, it was my good for
tune to be called upon to speak for
all the soldiers of Iowa, and the an
niyersary chosen for that great oc-
casion was the tenth of August and
Wilson'S Creek was an honored an
niversary. The battle which gave us
this anniversary has been called by
various names. In the north, SPRING
field and Wilson's Creek, but in the
southern reports it is referred to as
Oak Hills, just as the first Bull Run
Is always spoken Of by the confeder-
ates as Manassas
The deeds of the First Iowa Infantry
had been recounted in appropriate
language and the Second Iowa had
also been most fittingly honored on
this occasion.
am asked to recount something of
the deeds of the grand old Third Iowa.
one thousand men were met in this
city in 1861 and were enrolled in the
history of the civil war as the 3rd
Iowa Infantry. When Stephen A.
Douglas was honored with a grand
procession on his burial day, July II,
1851, the LIST, End and Bird Iowa's
marched in solemn columns through |
the streets of Iowa honoring the
statesman who did so much to bring
all union men of the north to the
kgaPf2aHertt n 81 biz 9l d 9apeRs9t ,u Abra
spoke in the most eloquent, and GER
tain terms of the necessity of stand
ing by the old flag and the union OF
states. 1t was an impressive occa-
sion, fifty years ago when there we're
three Iowa regiments with muffled T
drum, and arms reversed marched |
through the streets of Keokuk to the
solemn music of the dead march. The |
LIST and End Iowa went to the scenes
of strife in Missouri and the 3rd Iowa I
soon followed them. No harder or
tiresome duty befell any of the union
troops than the guarding Of the
railway bridges and skirmishing SER
vice of the first summer of the war.
Let me illustrate this kind of SER
vice by Renaissance. The first
dead confederate | ever saw was at
the Grand river on the Hannibal and
st. Joseph railway, July IA, 1861.
young school-teacher, law student,
named Marmaduke, and few of his
associates attempted to burn the
bridge when Lieut.. T. j. McKenney OF
Keokuk, afterwards General Nc
Kenney) and a party of the End Iowa
caught them in the act. When the
Bird Iowa arrived a few minutes later
this young man was lying on his
back with a CHASTITY wound in his
skull. Near by him were some earth
vessels full of tar and the bridge was
still smoking where the fire had been
extinguished.
After fifty years it is hard to realize
that enthusiasm for the disunion cause,
should lead young man of intelli-
gence to assume that the way to
further the object of his enthusiasm
was to burn the railway bridges in his
own state. But short shrift was al
ways made of a bridge burner. The
Third Iowa flag in its glass case at
the capitol is inscribed with the
names of very many battles. 1t was
the one Iowa regiment that was liter
ally fought out of existence and after
the bloody struggle around Atlanta in
1864, the few remaining survivors
were consolidated with the Second
Iowa.
There were not many of them left
and there was no regiment with which
they might so fifty become part, as
the one with which they commenced
their service at Keokuk.