Iowa Heritage Illustrated

snowed] and there was no place for the poor creatures 
but the old cotton shed under which they all gathered. 
They were barefoot, many of them almost starving; but 
the Chaplains and some of the Sanitary commission of 
Chicago turned out their stores of codfish, dried fruit, 
etc., which saved their lives until other arrangements 
were made for them. Mr. Eaton has since brought in 2000 
more and for the present we have them stowed away in 
rebel houses which are to be torn down because [they are 
in] the way of the camion in the forts. Hundreds of them 
are sheltered only by tents. I am now one of the promi­
nent workers.
[Undated report] I opened a school Nov. 1st, 1862, at 
[Camp] Shiloh, a contraband village of two thousand in­
habitants. . . .  I had one hundred regular pupils whose 
ages varied from seven to sixty-five years. Of this num­
ber fifty learned to read quite intelligibly in two months. 
I adopted the "word method" of teaching, relied much 
on oral instruction and used every means in my power 
to awaken thought, while my sole object was to educate 
humanity and not simply the intellect of human beings. 
They were very anxious to learn, desired to support their 
school and in fact made a beginning to this end. I find 
them tractable, intuitive and imitative but not usually 
reflective.
[July 4, 1863] I am now moved into camp Fisk where I am 
at the head of a school of three hundred pupils....  How I 
wish you could see me in my little room ten feet square. 
It is papered with the Independent, and is fitted up so 
as to look decidedly nice and literary. I have . . .  quite a 
library, pictures, maps, book case, globe, clock, carpet, the 
chair of state, and a cot with clean white pillow cases and 
sheets. . . . Vines have crept in and hang around the logs 
over-head, helping to beautify my little home.
[July 1863] I have never fully recovered from my sickness, 
and weakness now compels me to lie on my cot most of 
my time. But I have contrived a plan so that I can write 
as well as if I could sit up. . . .  I am at work on my book 
"The Freedmen." ... Everybody is kind, everybody helps 
me to carry out any plan I undertake. I have reason to feel 
thankful—we are looking for a great victory at Vicksburg.
[From Humphrey's unpublished manuscript, "The Freed­
men"] In the fall of 1862 a rich widow was ordered to give 
up this building for the sick of the oppressed race. . . .  A 
few weeks afterward I visited it and found the sick and 
dying lying around—some on the floor and some on 
bunks with nothing under them but the hard boards.
• • . With thousands coming in it became necessary to 
establish another hospital. . . . [One morning] . . . one of 
our detailed soldiers [was] riding around trying to get 
women to go and clean up the new hospital. . . . Feeling 
it to be [their] duty to help take care of the sick of their 
own color, we did not hesitate to compel them to go. . . .
My workers began to be more reconciled to their task, but 
they begged me not to take them where they would be 
exposed to small-pox. I told them that we were going to 
an empty house [but] we found the house full. . . . Three 
rods from the building were two or three tents filled with 
cases of small-pox. There were over one hundred sick at­
tended by a Hospital Steward who only got one hour's 
time to devote to them through the day.
[Late 1863] I shall return to Memphis in about two weeks [to 
marry] Captain H. S. Hay.... I never before found a will as 
strong as my own. ... If I am unhappy it will be my own 
fault. He would give up his life for me. ♦>
In late December 1864, Lucinda Humphrey Hay died at 
the home of a sister in Tipton, Iowa, from complica­
tions of childbirth weeks earlier. Although the school 
she established at Camp Shiloh in Memphis was de­
stroyed in race riots in 1866 when federal troops were 
withdrawn, it was rebuilt the next year. LeMoyne- 
Owen College in Memphis traces its roots to her school.
These excerpts are from “Lucinda Humphrey Hay," by her sister Emma 
Humphrey Haddock and published in Iowa Historical Record (April 1894).
Elizabeth Fairfax, 
Army Nurse
Elizabeth Fairfax (right) wears 
an honorary badge from Na­
thaniel Baker Grand Army of 
the Republic Post 88 (Clinton,
Iowa), circa 1885. She worked 
for the 26th Iowa Infantry 
from its early years until it was 
mustered out. On the reverse 
side of this photo are these 
words: “ As an army nurse 
[she] took care of sick and 
wounded soldiers in camps 
where stationed. Since the 
war an old resident of Clinton,
Iowa, and is well known. For 
24 years she kept a laundry, 
and wove rag carpets for a liv­
ing. By industry and economy 
she purchased and is now the 
owner of a little homestead.
She has raised two children.
Now advanced in years and
feeble in health, she is no longer able to maintain herself by 
her former occupation.To secure a living she now peddles 
for grocery store, and sells her pictures. She served her 
country faithfully and is deserving of support.”
SHSI (OES MOINES): EMERSON HOUGH COLLECTION
Spring 2014 59


English

Elizaeth Fairfax, Army Nurse

F B GOOORICH, THE TRIBUTE BOOK. 1865
i seen some hard times 
as well as you
W hen Jesse Wilkerson joined the 13th Iowa Infantry, Company C, he left behind his wife, Sarahett, to run 
their farm near Hamburg, in southwest Iowa. The couple had 
two children, Maryett and Hatty, and another on the way. 
The letters between wife and husband reveal a gradual shift in 
decision making regarding the farm, a change in dynamics ex­
perienced by many farm couples during the war. As Sarahett 
waits for Jesse’s letters, which are often lost or delayed, she 
wonders if he even knows that a new baby has arrived.
november 24th 1864 Iowa
Dear Sarahett
I wonce more take my pen in my hand to write you 
a few lines to you and I hope that they mv find you all 
well. . .  you must manige the thing the [best] that you 
can you had better hire hands and git the corn gethered 
out before it wasted and the wheat threasht the oats 
you had better sell rite away before they git wasted you 
had better not sell any of the wheat for you my need it 
before I git back fore war is very uncetin ... I think that 
you had better sell yur horse fore he is not safte for you 
to handle and two horses is enouf fore you to bother 
with you must be carful and not make your self sick. 1 
wish that freeman would stay their this winter . . . you 
had better not sell any more corn then you can help for
it will bring a good deal more in the spring if you need 
money sel some of the cattle I much rathe staid at home 
with my famley then wet to war but it was my lot to go 
& I will trust in providence that I may git back . . .
Jesse S Wilkerson
November 29th 1864
Dear Sarahett...I will send you my likenss to day for it 
may be along time before you see me again for ware is 
uncertin you know if the year pases off as slow as the 
few weeks has bin to me since I left home you may look 
to see me gray hedid do not think but I often think of 
the Dear ones at home Maryett & hatty . .. their vishon 
is before me all of the time at night when I lay down to 
sleap 1 think of them in the morning . . . you must take 
good care of them & tell them to bee good girles untili I 
come back you must take good care of your self and not 
make your self sick . . .
Jan 8th 1865
Dear Jesse .. .  I liant got much news to write only that 
you have got a yong air to our house it is a girl and the 
prittist one that you ever seen for a yong babe i wish 
you could see it the other two is well and thinks the
Spring 2014 53
world of the baby .. .  I would give all the money I ever 
seen or ever xpect to see if you could come home a gain 
. . .  write and tell me whether you want your oxen sold 
or not freeman thinks that I had better sell them in the 
spring their is some one here most ever day to by cattle 
but i wont sell them till you want them sold . . . Freemon 
is going a way and i dont no how i can git along with 
the things i dont no [who] i can git to haul my wood for 
me the boys asks big wagis and i cant aford to pay so 
much for so little . . .  I want you to send me a name for 
the baby, i want to name her after you if you will let me i 
think that Jessie is a girls name . . .  Sarahett Wilkerson
Jan 15th 1865
Dear Jesse .. .  I wrote to you last week and told you 
that you had a nother girl at home she is two weeks old 
yesturday I wish that you could see her she is a pritty 
baby the pritiest one that you I ever had Maryett & 
Hattie wants their paw to come home they look for you 
ever day and cry because you dont come ... I read all 
the news that I can git So I can find out where Sher­
man army is the news is now that peace is a going to be 
maid now I hope it is so that you will come home a gain 
but I never expect to see you a gain you dont now how 
me and the childern miss you ... 1 hant got the wheat 
thrashed yet the machene wont come to trash it wont 
come I dont no what to do with i t . . .
January 21th 1865
. . . [The baby] is for weeks old yesturday I went to 
mothers yesturday it is bin first time i was out sence she 
was born the folks was all well I have got the wheat and 
oats thrashed at last their is a bout 42 bushel of wheat... 1 
got one of holands little girls to live with me I dont want 
to leav the childern with the baby a lone while i am out 
a milken the cows and doing the chores 1 fraid some­
thing might happen to the childern . . .
January the 31 1865
Dear Jesse .. .  I wrote you a letter yesturday and I got 
yourn to day and you said you had not heard from 
home yet. . . you have got a babe here it is a girl i expect 
you would rather it bin a boy but they cant draft a girl 
and take her a way from me ...  I want send you the 
babys likeness so you can see how she looks when she 
was little you may never see her . . . feel bad you was 
took a way from home so quick from your family and 
home you dont no how i feel a bout it 1 am sory to hear 
that you dont git enought to eat down there ... I paid 
Ben what you owed him and paid freemond what you 
owed him ... it is a bed time it is a bout twelve oclock 
I have the sore eyes and cant see to write much I dont 
expect you can read it so i will come to a close . . .
March the 5th 1865
Dear husband .. . well I rented the place .. .  to John 
Daily and his brother .. .  I paid your taxes it was eighty 
nine dollars . . .  they say that the taxes was not bin paid 
sence 1862 I fond the receips that was paid 1863 . . .  you 
have got a big girl at home I wish you could see it I want 
you to send it a name it is two months old it was born 
the 31 of december .. .  it is lonesom to stay a lone I hired 
zack litle to work two monts for me and git my wood ...
March 13th 1865
.. .  Dear Sarahett. . .  you may cook me a forth of july 
diner for I think that I will be home by that time ... you 
must enjoy yourself the best you can an not wory your­
self abot me for if 1 do have to leave my bones down 
hear it will be in a good cose take good care of the little 
ones at home i wish that you would send maryett too 
schoole as much as you can I can not tell you what to do 
with anv of the things their fore I do not know how you 
are agiting along . . .
march 26/65
well Dear Sarahett... I recieved 4 letters from you to 
day and it gave me grate pleasur to hear from you .. .  I 
am glad to hear that you are all well and especiley that 
we have got another heir and it is prety to in the bargen 
I was afrid that you would make yourself sick atring to 
do too mutch I would rather that you would hire some 
one to help you do the work you can ...  as for seling 
the steers you had better wait untill you . . . hear from 
me again .. .  I am glad to hear that you have rented 
the place out you must have them take good car of the 
horses .. .  I got to my regment on the 25 an now I think 
that 1 will git you letters reglar their is a good prospect 
that we will stay here 3 or 4 weeks and I think that by 
that time peace will be mad now in regard to my voting 
for father Abreham 1 thought that he was the man to 
vote for and I still think so . . . tell marvett and hattv to
j  J
be good girls and mind their maw and 1 will bring them 
something home that is prety ...
April the 2 1865
Dear husband ... I am sorry to think that you haft to go 
in battles for I am a fraid you will git kiled or wounded 
some way I am a fraid i will never see you a gain on 
this earth if 1 dont 1 hope that wee will meet in heaven 
whare their will be no more sins to be forgiven .. . the 
baby was boren a newyears eve and mother staid with 
me four days I was sick four dayes before it was born 
. . . I tell you i seen some hard times as well as you do . .. 
Hatty says her paw is in the army a shooting rebels. She 
can talk evrything now Mary she looks for you on evry 
steamboat. ..
54 Iowa Heritage Illustrated
\
Aprile 11th 1865
Well Dear husband . . .  you told me you was in a big 
ol battle I am sorry that you haft to go to sich places ... I 
wish I could be with you to take care of you when your are 
sick, their is no one that you now their to do any thing for 
you I expect you often thinks of home and dream a bout 
it [too].. . I will never for git the day you left here I cant 
content my self one minit at a time sence you left home 
i am a worring a bout you all the time i am a fra id the 
Childern wont see you any more they are a talking a bout 
it all the time little hattie says her paw is coming home on 
a steam boat some day but Maryett sais she douts it very 
much whether you come or not she tells hatty that you 
dont want to see her then haty cries a bout it... i sold two 
hunderd buchel to day at eighty five cnts a buchel 1 thaut i 
had better sell it before it got down to low ... the childern 
calls [the baby] Jinnie they want you to send her a name 
they say that they will call her that till you come home ... 
somt thinks ther will be peace but i dont i think that you 
will haft to kill all of the rebels first i wish it was down 
there to help so to git through with it quick for i am 
tired of i t . . . we send our love to you and all of the poor 
soldiers from your wife until death .. .
Aprile [16th?] 1865
... Dear Husband .. . we heard that Abraham Lincon 
was kiled 1 hope that it hant so but 1 gess it is so . . .  1 
wish you would come home for i am lonesom without 
you here i never see any satisfaction while your gone 
you dont now how me and the childern miss you here 
•.. I have my garden maid most i hope you will be here 
to eat it i will plant some water melons for you and save 
them till you come ... I will send you five dolars in this 
letter . . .  it will help you a little to git your tobaco and 
diner I shant sell any of your cattle we have nine calvs 
now I have a brand made to brand them it cost me three 
dolars to make it i am going to have them all marked be­
fore they run off i expect the most of them will be drove 
off on the planes thier is a good many herds here . . .
May 21th 1865
Dear wife ...  it is the genarl supostion that shermans 
army will be mustard out as fast as they can .. .  it will 
not be many weeks before I will bee home with you and 
the childern ...  if we are dicharged hear and paid off I 
could make a good thing out of it if I had five or six hun- 
dard dolars by buying goverment mules for their is a 
grate many hear and will be sold cheap if I new wether 
you have sold the steers or not I would know more how 
to make my carkelations .. .
June 14th 1865
Dear Husband ... I am sory to hear that you dident git
your discharge for I now that you was out of hart to think 
you dident git one I got out of hart when i read the letter ... 
I want you to write and tell me how much hay you want 
put up and how you want it put up it will cost you a bout 
two hunderd dolars to put up ... the bugs is very bad here 
they have took most of the garden here an potatoes I plant­
ed two buchel and a half of potatoes i have plenty of peas 
now to eat I wish you was here to eat some peas i have got 
eleven nice pigs and twelve calvs and plenty of chickens 
. . . [Maryett] dont go to chool their hant any here She 
is got big enough to wash dishes and she thinks she is a 
woman Hattie is got to be quite a big girl .. .
July 5th 1865
Dear Husband . . .  I have bin sick for the last too weeks 
but I am a giting better now. 1 had the neuralgy in my 
face and head . . .  the chintz bugs has comence on the 
wheat now it hant ripe yet. . . [Freeman] is here part of 
the time and part of the time i am a lone he has a good 
deal of his time a runing a round with the girls I can git 
hay cut for one dolar an acre and hands two dolars a day 
and two and a half 1 wish you could be home to tend 
to i t . .. cattle is low now hunter sold his four year old 
steers for one hunderd and thirty dolars a yoak . . . [the 
baby] has two teth and can set a lone I expect she will 
walk the first time you git to See her Hatty she cryes to 
see her paw she sais he stais to long Marv sais she thinks 
you mite come home to her . . .
July 18th 1865
Dear wife . . .  by the time that I git back their I will 
have traveled five thousand miles or upwards and 
some of it the hardes kind of traveling . . .  our offer- 
cies is very slow . . .  we mite of been home by this 
time if they had tryde since the order came to muster 
us out but they are agiting big pay and are not in any 
bury about giting out if half of the curses has had any 
efect they will go to hell sure . . . tell little Hatty not 
to cry and wory about her paw for he will be home 
before long and he will not leave her any mor for 
the rebles is all whiped now . . . the cuntry has gon 
throug heavy triles and came out all right with flying 
Colers and the nation has caus for grate rejoysing . . .
I think that I will be with you in a few days give my 
respects to all inquiring friends Yours as ever . . .
This le tte r concludes Jesse and Sarahett's Civil W ar correspondence. Jesse 
was murdered in a barroom in 1869. The complete set o f  43 letters be­
tween Jesse and Sarahett Wilkerson is housed in Special Collections, Uni­
versity o f  Iowa Libraries, University o f  Iowa, Iowa City. For online facsimiles 
and transcriptions, go to: digital.library.uiowa.edu and then search fo r 
“W ilkerson le tters."
Spring 2014 55


I Seen Some Hard Times as Well as You

Swaim, Ginalie

Thrown Upon Their Own Exertions: Women on the Civil War Home Front

Futrell, Susan

Pride, Patriotism, and Secret Atomic Research at Ames, Iowa

Former slaves found refuge in overcrowded “contraband” camps that grew up around Union encampments and forts. 
Classes were sometimes taught in the camps. Many of the men worked as army laborers, or, starting in I 863, enlisted in the 
U.S. Colored Troops. Women washed, cooked, and helped in army hospitals. A hundred such camps existed in the war years.
A glorious work to teach them
Lucinda Humphrey in Memphis
58 Iowa Heritage Illustrated
path to the steep bank where we stand enraptured gazing 
on the graceful bend of the river embracing islands in its 
course. Not far away there is something rising above the 
water which you might mistake for a whale—but it is the 
rebel boat Beauregard, the grave of 150 rebels. . . . Below, 
the scenery becomes more romantic, the deep ravines, the 
precipice, the magazines in the side of the bank, the nu­
merous piles of cannon balls scattered along the winding 
pathway under the bluffs, leading around to the contra­
band village. . . . Now turn away entirely from this com­
muning with nature and our eyes fall upon the various 
paraphernalia of war. . . . Here we are with tents, ambu­
lances, wagons, horses, mules, and men, protected on one 
side by the little black gun-boats in the river. . ..
.. . There seemed to be no call for me in the hospitals, 
so I turned to teaching. I have a select school about a mile 
from here of 300 pupils. . . . There are nearly two thou­
sand slaves who have escaped the yoke of bondage, and 
who now live in their own little houses built of new slabs. 
Very few of them know how to read but 1 find it a glori­
ous work to teach them. . . . The Captain of the Engineer 
Department calls almost ever}' day to see if our wants are 
all supplied. He has charge of the contrabands employed 
by the Government and looks upon the school as a very 
important thing.
[Date?] 12,000 soldiers are here sick and wounded in the 
hospitals and probably as many more in camp. About 
six thousand contrabands are here. . . . [For two days it
Lucinda Humphrey (left) was 28 when she 
arrived at an army hospital in Memphis, 
Tennessee, her second assignment from the 
Chicago Sanitary Commission. In later 
months she found her real passion, estab­
lishing schools and hospitals for black refu­
gees and freedmen, under the auspices of the 
American Missionary Association, which 
recruited teachers for contraband schools. 
These excerpts are from her manuscript, re­
ports, and letters to her family in Iowa.
—The Editor
IOWA HISTORICAL R E C O RD  (APRIL 18W )
[October 1862, Memphis] Be not surprised. This is a world 
of change. Little did 1 dream of ever coming south again 
when I bid you good bye at home; but I was sent for by 
Mrs. Porter who is here in Memphis, and who has had 
more to do than any other woman in the west towards 
getting nurses for the hospitals. . . .  1 want you to know 
that this is no romantic move of my own which is "just 
like me," but that I am walking in the path which seems 
marked out for me....
In the Overton Hospital, to which I expect soon to be 
removed, there are 700 sick, some I understand are here 
from the Iowa 3rd.
[November 19, 1862] How I wish I could this morning 
paint the scenery around me. . . . Our building is situ­
ated on the banks of the Mississippi. . . .  A green slope 
with here and there a cedar and honey locust marks our
o *
snowed] and there was no place for the poor creatures 
but the old cotton shed under which they all gathered. 
They were barefoot, many of them almost starving; but 
the Chaplains and some of the Sanitary commission of 
Chicago turned out their stores of codfish, dried fruit, 
etc., which saved their lives until other arrangements 
were made for them. Mr. Eaton has since brought in 2000 
more and for the present we have them stowed away in 
rebel houses which are to be torn down because [they are 
in] the way of the camion in the forts. Hundreds of them 
are sheltered only by tents. I am now one of the promi­
nent workers.
[Undated report] I opened a school Nov. 1st, 1862, at 
[Camp] Shiloh, a contraband village of two thousand in­
habitants. . . .  I had one hundred regular pupils whose 
ages varied from seven to sixty-five years. Of this num­
ber fifty learned to read quite intelligibly in two months. 
I adopted the "word method" of teaching, relied much 
on oral instruction and used every means in my power 
to awaken thought, while my sole object was to educate 
humanity and not simply the intellect of human beings. 
They were very anxious to learn, desired to support their 
school and in fact made a beginning to this end. I find 
them tractable, intuitive and imitative but not usually 
reflective.
[July 4, 1863] I am now moved into camp Fisk where I am 
at the head of a school of three hundred pupils....  How I 
wish you could see me in my little room ten feet square. 
It is papered with the Independent, and is fitted up so 
as to look decidedly nice and literary. I have . . .  quite a 
library, pictures, maps, book case, globe, clock, carpet, the 
chair of state, and a cot with clean white pillow cases and 
sheets. . . . Vines have crept in and hang around the logs 
over-head, helping to beautify my little home.
[July 1863] I have never fully recovered from my sickness, 
and weakness now compels me to lie on my cot most of 
my time. But I have contrived a plan so that I can write 
as well as if I could sit up. . . .  I am at work on my book 
"The Freedmen." ... Everybody is kind, everybody helps 
me to carry out any plan I undertake. I have reason to feel 
thankful—we are looking for a great victory at Vicksburg.
[From Humphrey's unpublished manuscript, "The Freed­
men"] In the fall of 1862 a rich widow was ordered to give 
up this building for the sick of the oppressed race. . . .  A 
few weeks afterward I visited it and found the sick and 
dying lying around—some on the floor and some on 
bunks with nothing under them but the hard boards.
• • . With thousands coming in it became necessary to 
establish another hospital. . . . [One morning] . . . one of 
our detailed soldiers [was] riding around trying to get 
women to go and clean up the new hospital. . . . Feeling 
it to be [their] duty to help take care of the sick of their 
own color, we did not hesitate to compel them to go. . . .
My workers began to be more reconciled to their task, but 
they begged me not to take them where they would be 
exposed to small-pox. I told them that we were going to 
an empty house [but] we found the house full. . . . Three 
rods from the building were two or three tents filled with 
cases of small-pox. There were over one hundred sick at­
tended by a Hospital Steward who only got one hour's 
time to devote to them through the day.
[Late 1863] I shall return to Memphis in about two weeks [to 
marry] Captain H. S. Hay.... I never before found a will as 
strong as my own. ... If I am unhappy it will be my own 
fault. He would give up his life for me. ♦>
In late December 1864, Lucinda Humphrey Hay died at 
the home of a sister in Tipton, Iowa, from complica­
tions of childbirth weeks earlier. Although the school 
she established at Camp Shiloh in Memphis was de­
stroyed in race riots in 1866 when federal troops were 
withdrawn, it was rebuilt the next year. LeMoyne- 
Owen College in Memphis traces its roots to her school.
These excerpts are from “Lucinda Humphrey Hay," by her sister Emma 
Humphrey Haddock and published in Iowa Historical Record (April 1894).
Elizabeth Fairfax, 
Army Nurse
Elizabeth Fairfax (right) wears 
an honorary badge from Na­
thaniel Baker Grand Army of 
the Republic Post 88 (Clinton,
Iowa), circa 1885. She worked 
for the 26th Iowa Infantry 
from its early years until it was 
mustered out. On the reverse 
side of this photo are these 
words: “ As an army nurse 
[she] took care of sick and 
wounded soldiers in camps 
where stationed. Since the 
war an old resident of Clinton,
Iowa, and is well known. For 
24 years she kept a laundry, 
and wove rag carpets for a liv­
ing. By industry and economy 
she purchased and is now the 
owner of a little homestead.
She has raised two children.
Now advanced in years and
feeble in health, she is no longer able to maintain herself by 
her former occupation.To secure a living she now peddles 
for grocery store, and sells her pictures. She served her 
country faithfully and is deserving of support.”
SHSI (OES MOINES): EMERSON HOUGH COLLECTION
Spring 2014 59


A Glorious Work to Teach Them

irs of the he 
d. Complete
ored dead, a 
of the wound
SHREIOITWJS K u  ,  . 
-  to 1561. ♦
gorro v.'
this you have probably received by
♦''a outlines of die battle of Springfield 
•eek- * the bloodiest in
the 
an sc 
ant 
at tl 
at t)
1 devotion to their u -.. .— ebo learns how inaDV1—"ihlo missiles ol
Wilson’s creek—cto the forces engager, -
Its details will give
All
battle the
engaged,
- •
ever fou£ta
birth• V w
1 proportion to me 
 ̂upon Americ oil. Its details w
, to both pride and deadly s o r r o w  in our own
Puvte—pride at the gallantry displayed by her
• il-«» numbers who sealed their* Iowa
\Y\weCp
t l  V V — -  w
a t  the ers n  a<-.- 
heir country by their blood. Iowa
as she l e a r n s  how many of her chil-
* down by the terrible mi:- - «M*h a thrillwit  
,ereS«cilU:'be 'ca»«flcCt T st *<Ŵ 
•i'tU ,...«(*!.?<** f the vet? ^  i
sionisU in the charge, but upon retreating 
oue fellow drove a bayonet into his thigh, 
while another Knocked him from his horse 
with the butt of his musket. The next raorn- 
iug however wo found him, and he is now in 
a lair way to be able to repay his injuries 
with iuterest, at some future time.
That night there was no more fighting or 
alarm, owing both to the retreat of the enemy 
and the extraordinary care taken by Gen. Lyon 
to secure the camp agaiust surprise.
Early the next day we resumed the march, 
proceeding slowly to give the cavalry time to 
examine the country. About a mile from the 
battlefield wc came to’a house in which were 
thirteen of the wounded Secessionists, and a lit­
tle farther at another house wc found five more 
wounded and one dead man. This house was 
singularly horrible to one unaccustomed to 
scenes of blood. The whole house resembled a 
slaughter-house—bed, pillows, sheets, lloor, 
walls, ceiling, stairway, chairs, everything was 
stained or clotted with olood or bore it in dark 
hideous pools. There was a living spring near 
the house, and the rivulet that bubbled away to 
hide itself in the green undergrowth and whisper 
its soft music to the wild flowers on its bank 
bore on its bosom the same hideous stain. It 
was perfectly a stream of blood, and following 
_ it up to ascertain the cause, I found a poor horse 
standing weakly in the pond lapping up feebly 
its own life-blood that trickled from a ghastly 
wound upon one side of its head. A grape shot 
had torn away nearly half the head. 1 turned 
away in pity, regretting that I had not a revol­
ver with which to mercifully end its miseries.
From the wounded we learned that the force 
of the enemy amounted to about ten thousand 
men—the main body being encamped on Cane 
Creek, a few miles below. Not a thing in the 
house was disturbed—an example wli ch I hope 
will be of use to the Secessionists. One of the 
wounded men had received a ball in the hip, 
another was shot thr. ugh the shoulder, and both 
were fine looking intelligent men. The Surgeon
had run off and left them to obtain such care as 
they could get from each other.
Some two or three m les from here we came 
upon the brow of a wide, deep ravine. The road 
crossed the ravine by winding around some 
romontory-like eminences, and ascended 
’raight up the hill opposite. The other side
densely t r.b^red, and we couldw ______
-------
Newspaper vendors did considerable business in army camps.The sign on this 
cart advertises Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore papers.
Franc Wilkie,
Embedded Reporter
Iowan Franc B. Wilkie was one of more than 200 correspondents who covered 
the Civil War. Wilkie wrote for the Dubuque Herald and the New York 
Times. These excerpts begin in April 1861 as Wilkie and the 1st Iowa head 
south down the Mississippi. His opening scene of soldierly camaraderie on 
the steamboat isfollozved by his equally evocative and realistic descriptions of 
what entertained and what exhausted the troops, as experienced by one who 
traveled with them. —The Editor
"Profound silence soon covered 
the whole boat, till suddenly some 
'rough' on the floor gave a tremen­
dous 'Baa!' Another at the other 
end responded, then the chorus 
was taken up in all parts, and in 
three seconds the whole crowd was 
Baa-ing with the force of a thousand 
calf-power. So it went till day-light. 
There were cat voices, sheep voices, 
and coon voices. There were gos­
lings and crowings. There were fel­
lows there who could bet any jackass 
on a bray, and give him fifty. In short 
there were more noises than ever 
were made or ever will be again,
unless all the jackasses, mules, 
gobblers, roosters, cats, coons, and 
cattle in creation are assembled for a 
grand concert. Nobody slept; some 
laughed a little, others swore a great 
deal, and thus wore away the night."
"Sunday morning, 2,000 muskets ar­
rived here from St. Louis.... I think it 
would be a master stroke of policy to 
allow the secessionists to steal them. 
They are the 'old-fashioned . . . '  kind 
that are infinitely more dangerous to 
friend than enemy—will kick further
than they will shoot."
"Last night, our first in camp, was 
somewhat a melancholy one to those 
of us to whom the experiment was 
wholly new. Notwithstanding the 
thousand men in the camp, it seemed 
lonely, with nothing but thin cotton 
between one and the great skv. It pro­
duced a sense of isolation and loneli­
ness that was not lightened by the 
mellow strains of a violin that stole 
tenderly through the night air from a 
distant part of the camp."
"The men lay 'heads and points' [in 
their tents] and are packed in like a 
good many hogs in a very small pen."
"In one tent... they have adopted 
a rule that whoever swears shall 
read aloud a chapter in the Bible. ... 
Truth compels me to say that one can 
scarcely pass the tent day or night 
without hearing some one reading a 
selection of Scriptures."
"Incessant drilling, guard mounting, 
either beneath a broiling sun or in a 
drenching rain storm, sleeping seven 
in a tent, washing greasy dishes, 
scouring rusty knives and forks .. . 
all these and a hundred other circum­
stances incident to camp life, will very 
speedily take the romance out of the 
whole matter.... [Yet] at a distance, 
white tents are beautiful, nestling like 
a flock of huge swans upon the green 
prairie."
"[The men are] marching ahead 
amid clouds of dust and beneath a 
sun that would broil a mackerel... 
limping wearily along at the rate 
of three miles an hour. . . . None of 
your play soldiers in clean shirts; 
but a vast concourse of solemn men 
armed for deadly war, swarthy, sun­
burnt, with real guns on their shoul­
ders loaded with leaden bullets."
"It is now the 'holy Sabbath eve.' I 
sit writing on a board in the midst of 
grass higher than my head; at a little 
distance an amphitheatre of ragged 
timber; the air full of bugs of ten
thousand nameless sorts; everywhere 
soldiers, wagons, tents, mules, horses, 
noise, smoke, mosquitoes, wood- 
ticks, dirty shirts, unclean, unshaven 
countenances, and Heaven only 
knows what else besides. Just imagine 
anything you please, which is most 
exactly unlike the quiet evening that 
you are all now enjoying at home (like 
good Christians as you are)."
"Among the prominent attractions 
in camp is that of music.... We have 
any quantity of singers. Singers who 
sing in good English and bad English, 
in French, German, Low Dutch and 
other dialects too numerous to men-
"The individual, whose tearful 
emotions while writing to his wife I 
mentioned in my last [letter] is now 
sprawled out at full length in front of 
the tent, and along with half a dozen 
other loungers, is engaged in the 
pleasant occupation of looking out for 
and making artistic comments upon 
each neatly turned ankle that passes 
along."
"Some of the boys write every day, 
and one bereft young gentleman has 
even sent as many as two messages 
per diem to a lorn damsel.... Two 
letters a day! Whew! There's affection 
for you."
"All of the men are squalid, ragged, 
and filthy. .. . Two hundred and fifty 
of them are utterly unfitted for travel 
from the want of shoes; some are 
entirely barefooted."
"[There is a] wide-spread, universal 
determination to steal. Men, with the 
Commissary's Department full to 
bursting, run down pigs and chickens 
under the very noses of their officers, 
without reprimand or scarcely a no­
tice. ... They steal everything, from a 
peach to a piano, and carry articles of 
plunder to their tents without a word 
of reproof. The desire for stealing has 
become so intense that, for the sake of
stealing, men will take things not the 
slightest possible use to themselves or 
anybody else."
"Stealing is a disease too deeply 
rooted, in both armies, to be eradi­
cated by any such simple process as 
an agreement between Fremont and 
Price... . The need of such a remedy 
can be seen everywhere here, to the 
barren fields and empty granaries of 
the country, and the ragged bodies, 
shoeless feet and broken-spirited ex­
pression of the people. Not merely is 
the evil present, but it reaches far into 
the future. Their grain is taken, they 
have none for the winter; their horses, 
mules and wagons are taken, they 
cannot prepare a crop for the coming 
year; and thus nothing is left them but 
starvation."
"With only two hours of sleep the 
night previous, the men were in the 
worst possible condition. ... For 
the first few hours [of the march] a 
number of cheery choruses rang out 
through the wood and enlivened the 
march, but these finally grew fainter 
and less frequent, till midnight, when 
we plodded on in a silence unbroken 
save by here and there a savage oath 
as some man tumbled over a rock or 
into a hole, and the grinding of the 
artillery wheels as they passed over 
the rocky ledges, or the splashing of 
the horses as they forded some rapid 
stream. Minutes became hours, the 
weaker of the soldiers dropped in 
their places and refused to move an 
inch farther.... When the column 
halted, that the heavy cannon might 
be extricated from the muddy grasp 
of some slough, regiments of men fell 
to the ground as instantly as if felled 
by lightning, and were sound asleep 
before they reached the ground.... I 
saw men who would suddenly stop 
and stand perfectly still, and who, as 
we approached, were found to be fast 
asleep. A ton of lead seemed resting 
on each eyelid."
For the complete set of letters, see Missouri In 1861 : 
The Cvil War Letters of Franc B. Wilkie Newspaper 
Correspondent, edited by Michael E. Banaski (Iowa 
City: Camp Pope Bookshop, 2001 ).
Spring 2014 37


Franc Wilkie, Embedded Reporter

Walch, Timothy

s
Grenville Dodge
Railroad Man and Spymaster
LIBRARY O F C O N G R ESS
by Timothy Watch
Those who came to know Gren­ville Mellen Dodge saw him as a man with a "good deal of 
executive force, a man that, when 
he went into anything, went in with 
his whole soul." It was this quality 
that came to the attention of Ulysses 
S. Grant. The two men established 
a partnership that lasted through 
the Civil War and for many years 
thereafter.
Dodge first came to public at­
tention as a railroad man. Following 
his graduation from Norwich Uni­
versity in Vermont in 1850 with an 
engineering degree, he worked on a 
number of railroad projects, starting 
with the Illinois Central Railroad. 
Intelligent and ambitious, Dodge 
soon partnered with Peter Dey in 
planning the Mississippi and Mis­
souri Rail Road from Davenport to 
Council Bluffs.
During the Civil War Dodge 
drew upon his railroad know-how. 
One of his primary assignments was 
to build and maintain the rails need­
ed to supply the Union Army in the 
western theater of operations. Mar­
shalling his considerable manage­
rial and engineeering skills, Dodge 
reopened numerous railroad lines, 
repaired bridges, added hundreds 
of miles of new track, and protected 
the lines from Confederate guerillas.
With only limited troops, Dodge 
built a defense on information and 
intelligence gathering. Military in­
telligence had been a staple of war­
fare since the times of the ancient 
Greeks, but he took these operations 
to new levels. Foremost, he recruited 
Southerners loyal to the Union to 
infiltrate Confederate lines. In fact,
he organized the 1st Tennessee Cav­
alry, the 1st Alabama Colored Infan­
try, and the 1st Alabama Cavalry as 
Unionist units to act as scouts and 
raiders. The intelligence gathered 
by these spies was vital in protect­
ing Grant's troops from rear-guard 
action.
The size and sophistication of 
Dodge's network were unprece­
dented. For the Vicksburg campaign 
alone, Dodge had over a hundred 
agents who operated across the Con­
federacy as far east as Virginia and 
deep into Georgia and Alabama. 
Dodge gave his men code names and 
communicated with them by mes­
sengers using ciphers. He trained 
them to closely observe Confederate 
operations and carefully estimate 
troop levels and resources.
Dodge ran his operation from a 
war room where the walls were lined 
with maps. As the maps were updated, 
the incoming reports were destroyed. 
He quickly became known for his de­
termination to control all intelligence 
information. Once, when ordered by a 
superior general to reveal the names 
of the agents, Dodge went directly to 
Grant, who countered the order.
In December 1864, Grant ap­
pointed Dodge to command the 
Department of Missouri with the 
assignment of quelling a restless In­
dian population on the Great Plains. 
Here again, Dodge's ability to gather 
intelligence about his enemy gave 
him the upper hand. The Indians at­
tributed supernatural powers to the 
general for his ability to anticipate 
their actions. To these Native Ameri­
cans, Dodge was known as "Long 
Eyes."
In 1866 Dodge ran successfully 
for Congress, but he served only a 
single term. For the rest of his work­
ing life, he devoted himself to railroad 
ventures in the United States. He re­
turned briefly to public service after 
the Spanish-American War when 
President William McKinley asked 
him to chair a commission on the 
performance of the War Department. 
Not surprisingly, the commission rec­
ommended a permanent intelligence 
division to support the army general 
staff. It can be said, therefore, that 
Grenville Mellen Dodge remained a 
spymaster, as well as a railroad man, 
to the end of his career.
—by Timothy Watch
NOTE ON SOURCES
Archival materials on Grenville Mellen 
Dodge can be found in several repositories, 
including the State Historical Society of 
Iowa in Iowa City and Des Moines as well 
as the Western History Collection of the 
Denver Public Library. The best biography of 
Dodge remains Stanley R Hirshson. Grenville 
M. Dodge: Soldier, Politician. Railroad Pioneer 
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1967).
Spring 2014 51


Grenville Dodge: Railroad Man and Spymaster

Connon, David

\
abilities, and gift of persuasion. Many had mixed assess­
ments, ranging from repulsion to admiration. Yet when 
he died in 1887, Iowa newspapers that had denounced 
him during the war remarked mostly on his qualities as 
a leader of men, an intellectual, and a man of great per­
sonal warmth and a charitable nature. Numerous Union 
leaders in Iowa who had known him well published es­
sentially positive reviews of his life's work while noting 
his many quirks. It was also reported that late in his life 
Dean privately regretted his harshest rhetoric.
The storms of controversy that Dean had created and 
survived defined him. One day shortly before his death, 
as he sat on his front porch with a friend, he commented, 
"Do you see that large elm down there in the grove, doc­
tor? I've watched it grow from a tiny sprout. It has stood 
the assault of hailstorms, hurricanes and of lightning, and 
now it reaches up above all the rest, strong, sturdy, un­
afraid, like my life has been. That tree, doctor, is to be my 
headstone." ❖
James H. Williams
Iowa Legislator; Virginia Confederate
by David Connon
Twice elected state repre­
sentative as an independent 
Democrat, James also served 
as a correspondent for the 
Democratic Dubuque Herald.
Under the pen name "Lex," he 
reportedly wrote in December 
1860: "The abolition of slavery 
[should depend] upon more 
than the wish of the slave. The 
best interest of society, of both
races, enter[s] into the right to be free. Their superior 
condition in slavery [as compared] to freedom in the North 
must enter into it."
As war clouds loomed in March 1861, Williams's 
father in the Virginia legislature called for his state to 
secede. I he next month, South Carolina troops fired 
upon Fort Sumter, President Lincoln called for 75,000 
volunteers, and Virginia passed a secession ordi­
nance. In Iowa, Governor Samuel Kirkwood also cal­
led for Iowa volunteers and then a special legislative 
session to legitimize and fund Iowa's war effort. Ap-
On May 12, 1861, 25-year-old James Harrison Williams wrote in his diary: "Started for Des Moines this morning . . .  I go most reluctantly to 
the legislature. Want to be home, to get ready to go to Va. 
& espouse her cause."
The son of a well-connected state legislator and 
slave-owner, James H. Williams grew up in the Shenan­
doah Valley. A talkative ladies' man, he loved studying, 
smoking cigars, plaving board games, and hunting. In 
1857 he graduated near the top of the class at the Univer­
sity of Virginia Law School.
Later that year, James headed to Dubuque, Iowa, 
where he joined the law firm of native Virginian John T. 
Lovell, his future brother-in-law. Living in a state quite 
unlike Virginia, he cherished his "sacred memories of 
home," as his diary reveals, and on a visit in the spring of 
1859 he "saw old Va in all its glory."
As Williams entered Dubuque's political life, he met 
leading Democrats in and out of the courtroom. He also be­
came acquainted with 11 Dubuque men who later served 
the Confederacy. This group included a merchant and sev­
eral men practicing and studying law.
LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA
NOTE ON SOURCES
Special Collections. State Historical Society of Iowa (Des Moines) holds 
the papers of Henry Clay Dean. Charles Mason. Laurel Summers, and 
Gideon Bailey. Pertinent articles appeared in the Burlington Hawk-Eye, 
Iowa State Register, Davenport Democrat, Fairfield Ledger, Keokuk Daily 
Constitution, Keokuk Daily Gate City, [Mount Pleasant] Home Journal, and 
Tipton Advertiser. Useful secondary sources include several articles in the 
Annals of Iowa, Iowa Journal of History, and the Palimpsest (all published by 
the State Historical Society of Iowa), as well as books on Dean and Iowa 
Copperheads, particularly Hubert W. Wubben, Civil War Iowa and the 
Copperhead Movement. See also Boyd B. Stutler. “Henry Clay Dean— 
Inconsistent Rebel," West Virginia Review 9 (Jan. 1932); and Edgar White. 
“Henry Clay Dean, The Orator of Rebel Cove,'" Missouri Historical 
Review 22 (July 1928).
Complete annotations are in the Iowa Heritage Illustrated production 
files at the State Historical Society of Iowa (Iowa City).
David Holmgren volunteers at the State Historical Society 
of Iowa and writes often for this magazine. His article on 
Pammel Court received an honorable mention for the Mills/ 
Noun Award from the Board of Trustees of the State His­
torical Society of Iowa.
Spring 2014 23
proval appeared to be a foregone conclusion. After 
all, the Republicans controlled both chambers of the 
Iowa General Assembly.
But then, young James H. Williams arose to play 
David against the Republican Goliaths. After a bill came 
up in the House to "prevent rendering aid to rebels," 
he took center stage, proposing an amendment in stark 
contrast. His amendment was Iowa-specific and went 
further than the 1850 federal Fugitive Slave Act, making 
it illegal to even "countenance" the escape of fugitive 
slaves, thus criminalizing a citizen's moral stance.
Williams's amendment caused an uproar and brought 
all work to a standstill. Voicing "many objections," Repu­
blican legislators assailed Williams's proposed amendment. 
The House leadership finally used parliamentary tactics to 
table the issue.
Although a Muscatine paper labeled Williams "a 
secessionist," and some legislators called him a "rank 
disunionist," he returned to Dubuque to "many congra­
tulations from friends & those hitherto not friends," as 
he noted in his diary.
Williams re-entered the fray in the editorial pages 
of the Dubuque Herald. He criticized Lincoln's suspen­
sion of habeas corpus—a move that resulted in mass 
arrests and imprisonments without formal charges or 
trial by a civilian court. (Among those later imprisoned 
were two Dubuque men: former U.S. senator George 
Wallace Jones, and prominent Democrat and Dubuque 
Herald editorialist Dennis Mahony.)
Former Dubuque County representative Lincoln 
Clark argued that Lincoln did indeed have the power to 
suspend habeas corpus without congressional approval.
Williams countered: "If it be disloyal to cry out 
against usurpation, wicked to complain of breaches of the 
Constitution, let us burn that sacred instrument . . . and 
serenely recline our heads on the footstools of tyranny."
Clark retorted, "It is understood that you sympathize 
with Virginia . . . [and] have often stated that if Virginia 
seceded, you would go back and fight for her."
Williams shot back, "I am a citizen of Iowa; I have 
not gone to Virginia. . . .  1 have written nothing to favor 
violations of the Constitution in any quarter. ... I thought 
I had the right to call attention to unconstitutional acts at 
home.... It may be that no one has a right to question the 
acts of this government."
Soon afterwards, on July 12, a crowd threatened to 
destroy the Dubuque Herald offices. Williams reportedly car­
ried horse pistols to defend the Democratic newspaper.
Ten days later he wrote in his diary, "Went to the 
Dentist early & whilst there heard of the great battle 
of Manasas. The news quite discouraging.... About 3 ock, 
the News [of] the glorious victory was received. Took the 
biggest drink of brandy."
Although elected to the State Democratic Conven­
tion, he left Iowa for Virginia on July 24, the day of the 
convention.
Williams began his military sendee by recruitingtroops for Chew's Battery of horse artillery, 7th Virginia Cavalry. He combined recruiting 
trips with visits to his future wife, Cora DeMovell Prit- 
chartt, and Dubuque friend Junius L. Hempstead, 5th 
Virginia Infantry, whose father had been Iowa's second 
governor. Williams became a lieutenant in the battery 
and then sought appointments as judge advocate, writing 
to Confederate Major General J. E. B. Stuart that "at the 
breaking out of the war, I was practicing my profession 
in Iowa with prospects as bright and success as marked 
as I had a right to expect. . . .  I was impelled to sacrifice 
all that I had acquired. I preferred to take an active part 
in sustaining our cause and entered the ranks." In recom­
mending him, a Virginia politician noted that in Iowa, 
Williams had "boldly denounced the proposed coercion 
of the Southern States, resisting manfully the raising of 
men or money to prosecute a war against the Confederate 
States."
Williams received the appointment, yet he sometimes 
found court-martial proceedings "a very boring business" 
that would "serve to kill time." Late in the war, a superior 
officer noted that Williams, as judge advocate and acting 
assistant quartermaster, "has done very little service with 
his company [and] displayed a distaste for field service."
After the war ended, Williams lived the rest of his life 
in Virginia, marrying Cora, practicing law, and serving in 
the state legislature. He died in 1903. ♦>
David Connon is an independent researcher and writer. He is a 
historical interpreter at Living History Farms and a Humani­
ties Iowa Speakers Bureau lecturer. To date and by his criteria, 
he has documented 67 Iowa residents who left the state and 
sewed the Confederacy.
NOTE ON SOURCES
Valuable sources included James Harrison Williams Diary, Special Collections, 
University of Virginia Library; Williams Family Papers, Virginia Historical 
Society; James H. Williams Compiled Confederate Service Record, National 
Archives, College Park, MD; Journal of the Iowa House of Representatives. Special 
Session, Spring 1861 (Des Moines); and Hubert H. Wubben, Civil War Iowa and 
the Copperhead Movement (Ames; Iowa State University Press. 1980).
Pertinent newspaper articles appeared in the Dubuque Herald, 5/22/1861, 
5/23/1861, and 6/2/1861; James H. Williams, letters to editor, Dubuque Herald, 
6/29/1861 and 7/1 I / 1861; and Lincoln Clark, letters to editor, Dubuque Herald, 
7/10/1861 and 7/12/1861.
Also useful were James A. Dueholm, "Lincoln’s Suspension of the Writ 
of Habeas Corpus: An Historical and Constitutional Analysis!'Journal of 
the Abraham Lincoln Association 29 (Summer 2008); William M. Robinson 
Injustice in Grey: A History of the Judicial System of the Confederate States 
of America (New York: Russell & Russell, 1941), 364-65; and Morton M. 
Rosenberg, Iowa on the Eve of the Civil War: A Decade of Frontier Politics 
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), 222.
Complete annotations are in the Iowa Heritage Illustrated production files, 
State Historical Society of Iowa (Iowa City)._________________________
24 Iowa Heritage Illustrated


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