Iowa Heritage Illustrated

Walch, Timothy

English

Stand Up and Be Counted! Iowa and the 1940 Federal Census

Swaim, Ginalie

Voices from Shiloh

Vermaas, Lori

Making the Perfect Cigar in Iowa

Wuthnow, Robert

Thoughts about Remaking the Heartland

Iowa Heritage Illustrated, vol.92 no.2, Summer 2011

Iowa and the Civil War--A New Exhibit

A Sweet Tradition Endures on Iowa Farms

ships have been through the same dangers, and now 
leave them to bear my burden? Not much."
A
 poignant expression of this high-minded atti­
tude appears in letters exchanged by William F. 
Vermilion and his wife, Mary. A captain in the 
, 36th Iowa Infantry, William mustered into service in
' August 1862 and less than a month later wrote to Mary
that "my love for you all has increased since I left you, 
* but I know that it is my duty to stay here and try to be
one of the many that God has raised to put down this 
' rebellion and blot out the institution of slavery."
I In another letter William wrote about his sense of
pride in place: "We live in Iowa, thank God. A state that 
has more than its quota of men in the field, and not [a] 
[ one, 3, or 9 month [enlistment] or drafted man among
! them. No traitor in Congress to disgrace our fair fame,
I by voting to cut off supplies. Whether the Government
|! stands or falls, we will love Iowa."
In a letter just before Christmas, Mary echoed his 
>' pride—but also reflected her frustration with the incon­
sistent response of Northern states that she considered 
less patriotic. "I am proud of Iowa," she wrote William 
I during a visit to relatives in Indiana. "I am glad that
our home is there. No other state has acquitted herself 
so nobly as Iowa."
But was the sacrifice worth it? No doubt more than 
a few soldiers received letters from their families ques­
tioning the purpose and value of the war. Mary Ver­
milion was in such a mood in a letter to her husband 
in March 1863. "I want to know whether our govern­
ment is really worth dying for or not," she wrote rhe­
torically. "Sometimes, my good love, I feel like I am 
willing to have the war end any way so that you can 
get home once more. If I lose you, my beloved, what 
will the country be to me? What will I care whether it 
is free and happy or not? Oh darling, I can hardly bear 
to think of it. You are worth more to me than 10,000 
republics!" Mary Vermilion was no traitor but she was 
frustrated with the course of the war and the heartache 
of missing her husband.
Soldiers often faced competing claims on their sense 
of duty. In the fall of 1864, as the war bogged down into 
stalemate, Benjamin Stevens wrote to his mother, Eliza­
beth Stevens. A citizen of Oskaloosa, Benjamin had joined 
the 15th Iowa Infantry in 1861. In the years that followed, 
he saw action at Shiloh and Vicksburg, among other cam­
paigns. After Vicksburg, he left the 15th Iowa to become 
an officer in the 48th U.S. Colored Infantry.
Joining up for the bounties
V IV
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7
T h e  U n d e rs ig n e d  Is
f iic e n s e d  as
d u l y
PENSION & BOUNTY AGENT 
AND COMMERCIAL BROKER.
FOR YAS¥I& OU IMTY
0
1
«*
All businegs entrusted to him Trill receive 
prompt attention.
Toledo July 2d 18G3. T A. GRAHAM.
v5n3ly.
Attorneys and agents advertised their skills in winning claims 
for what soldiers and their families were owed, including 
bounties.These two advertisements appeared in 1864 in the 
Iowa Transcript, a newspaper in Tama County.
“The new ones cannot endure marches,” Iowan Seneca 
Thrall wrote in November 1862, describing unseasoned 
soldiers.“The old ones called them ‘Bountyites,’ and we 
would see many of them lying by the road side, shoes and 
stockings off,footsore and completely exhausted....Then the 
old soldier would call out derisively: ‘Halloa, Bounty, hard 
work to earn that $ 100, aint it? Aint you glad you jined the 
army? I say old boy, I will tell you how to keep your feet 
from getting sore.' The new one looks up, eye brightens, 
he thinks he is about to receive the benefit of the old 
one's experience, and asks how. [The old soldier replies,] 
‘Wrap that $ 100 around your feet.’ ”
Generally, however, soldiers' bounties were no laugh­
ing matter. Receiving military bounties (sometimes in land, 
sometimes in money) was a strong American tradition 
dating back to the Revolutionary War. Throughout the 
Civil War, Congress frequently adjusted the amount of 
federal monetary bounties, as well as when they would be 
paid to the soldier and to whom they would be paid if the 
soldier died in battle. Localities and states paid additional 
bounties.
Iowa newspapers, letters, and dianes hint at the impor-
136 Iozva Heritage Illustrated
He was a seasoned veteran by the time he sat down 
to write his mother. She had asked him to return home 
to help her with the family farm. Her husband, Sime­
on, also a soldier, had died, and her second son was a 
prisoner of war. She needed Ben and wrote as much in 
a letter on August 24. In his response, he wrote that he 
had applied for a 20-day leave of absence.
That would be the extent of the time he could give 
to his mother. He would not, or could not, turn his 
back on his country. "Well, Mother," he wrote, "as far 
as resigning is concerned—I will tell you—I feel that 
my country needs my services for at least six [more] 
months. She will then be out of danger." It is not 
known how his mother reacted to her son's rejection of 
her plea; no response has survived.
As far as Benjamin Stevens was concerned, his god 
and his country needed him more than his mother: "Every 
man that feels that he is accountable to a just God for the deeds 
done in the body should give himself as a willing sacrifice to 
his country in this, her hour of need. I would never live in 
America if our cause is not successful." It was a clear and 
forthright statement of personal patriotism.
Iowans were fighting for union and, to a degree, 
emancipation—as noble as these causes were to the 
nation—but also for their very sense of self-worth. The
diaries and letters of Cyrus Boyd, Philip Goode, Abner 
Dunham, Mary and William Vermilion, Seneca Thrall, 
and the Stevens family reveal the multiple meanings 
of Iowa's contribution to this national civic sacrifice. 
These Iowans speak to us with frank honesty about 
why Iowans entered the Civil War. Simply put, they 
fought for country, community, and comrades. ❖
Timothy Walch serves on the Iowa Civil War Sesquicentennial 
Commission and is a former member of the State Historical So­
ciety of Iowa Board of Trustees.
NOTE ON SOURCES
Sources used for this article include [Philip H. Goode], " ‘A Pretty Hard 
Business’: The Civil War Diary of Philip H. Goode.” transcribed by Edward 
W. Vollertsen, Palimpsest (Summer 1991); Russell L Johnson, Wamors into 
Workers: The Gvil War and the Formation of Urban-Industrial Society in a 
Northern Gty (New York Fordham University Press, 2003); Russell L. Johnson, 
" ‘Volunteer While You May: Manpower Mobilization in Dubuque, Iowa," in 
Union Soldiers and the Northern Home Front Wartime Experiences. Postwar 
Adjustments, ed. Paul A. Cimbala and Randall M. Miller (New York Fordham 
University Press, 2002); James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil 
War Era (New York Oxford University Press, 1988); and Edward Vermilion, 
Love Amid the Turmoil: The Civil War Letters of William and Mary Vermilion, ed. 
Donald Elder (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2003). See also letters and 
a diary edited by Mildred Throne and published in the following issues of the 
Iowa Journal of History: "An Iowa Doctor in Blue: Letters of Seneca B. Thrall,
1862-1864"( 1960); "Civil War Diary of C. F. Boyd" (1952); and "Civil War 
Letters of Abner Dunham" ( 1955).__________________________________
tance and appeal of bounties, especially in 1864 as three- 
year enlistments ended and Lincoln continued to threaten 
a draft if local quotas weren’t met. In August, Nathaniel 
Baker, Iowa’s adjutant general, reported, “The men who 
might otherwise enlist are awaiting the high bounties sure 
to be offered by cities, counties and individuals."
“We have served three years without bounty & now 
want all there is going,’’ D. S. Sigler, from Osceola, Iowa, 
wrote to the district provost marshal in December 1864. 
A few weeks later he added that a $700 bounty would be 
about right. In any case he and his friend would “go to the 
[quota] credit of the place from which we get the most 
Bounty—if we go at all.”
According to historian Russell Johnson, “Willing vol­
unteers migrated from rural to urban areas seeking larger 
bounties.”
At first glance, to enlist for money rather than to 
serve the cause might seem callous. But consider the 
wage-earning man who was joining the army and leaving 
behind a family with little means of support. Federal, state, 
and local bounties helped alleviate the hard times they 
would face. — Ginolie Swaim, editor
w  A © sL 1 s#
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7
ATTORNEY & COUNSELOR AT LAW,
Toledo, ------ Tama Co. , -------- I owa.
A1Z kinds of Law and collecting business 
promptly attended to.
Having procured all the laws, of the United 
Spates, on Bounties, Pensions and Soldiers’ 
Pay, I am prepared and will give special 
attention to obtaining and collecting,
Pensions due Invalid Soldiers, the widow 
and minor heirs of deceased soldiers.
Bounty money and pay due the heirs of de­
ceased officers and soZiiers.
Back pay due resigned officers and deceas­
ed soldiers.
Discharged soldiers sending their discharge 
papers, will receive their pay by return o 1 
mail from the Department at Washington.
No fees charged on soldiers' claims unless 
the claim is collect 1.
G. R. STRUBLE.
v4-n33-ly.
PV. «■ .
THE LAST CALL
jasper county is required to furnish about 100 men within 20 days
or a Draft wi 1 inevitably be made. Drafting List is rlready prepared
to veteran;* í¡w recruits s yet offered as a
4\
The undersigned. Recruiting' Agei
n- tk*' i WM *4
»hips to get Volunteers: Let al!
M p
Evening Meetings will be held rs follows:
, wilt visit the town- 
ot this I/ utter in earnest.
j*  :
t*«p
Thursday, 18th, at Slagle school house. 
Friday 19th at Rick Or. school house. 
¡Saturday 20th.in Newton 
Monday 22d in ijSmville 
Tuesday 23d, in Galesburg 
Wednesday 24 th,/¡Wild Cat sch. house. 
Thursday 25th, in Monroe 
Friday 26th, in vjmdalia 
Saturday 27, in Gr êueastle 
Monday 28; Clyde
On Tuesday 20, a Grand Rally in Newton, for the whole county.
L r* MM * i* . I IRWINFcl>. 10 1864.r..C¿n̂ K ‘k£
138 loica Herí tage Illustrated


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