Note: All of the images here, other than the portrait of William H. Gibbon, are from the exhibit entitled "Iowa and the Civil War" at the State Historical Museum of Iowa, Des Moines.
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| Dr. William H. Gibbon |
Chariton physician William H. Gibbon was 52 during the spring of 1884 and able to look back upon his Civil War experiences 20 years earlier with equanimity, even a degree of nostalgia. Brevited a lieutenant colonel upon discharge as chief surgeon of the 15th Iowa Volunteer Infantry during 1865, he had experienced his baptism by fire as a young surgeon while treating casualties of Shiloh both on the battlefield near Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, and on a riverboat moored offshore in the Tennessee River.
His younger friend, George W. Blake, 42, a Chariton hardware merchant, shared memories of that great battle. He had enlisted as a private in Company K, 2nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry, during 1861; was elected 2nd lieutenant, then commissioned 1st lieutenant. His unit was in the thick of the fighting on April 6-7, 1862, that claimed the lives of 351 young Iowans. a fifth of the total 1,754 Union dead.
Both men were members of Daniel Iseminger Post No. 18, Grand Army of the Republic, named in honor of Capt. Daniel Iseminger, Co. B, 6th Iowa Infantry, among those who had died at Shiloh.
They could recall the faces of at least some of the 19 other Lucas Countyans who had died there or soon thereafter of wounds sustained --- Monroe Hardin, Oliver B. Miller, William Sheets, James H. Spurling, John W. Weaver, David E Hayes, Hilas L. Kells, John W. Badger, Alkana Malone, Charles L. Dooley, Abel T. Edwards, Jesse Wells, Stephen D. Gardner, Fergus Holmes, John H. Stanley, James M. Vincent, Baley Chaney, John Hall, John W. Armstrong.
So when the opportunity came to join an excursion to Pittsburg Landing, Shiloh National Cemetery and the Shiloh battlefield itself during April of 1884 to mark the 22nd anniversary of the battle, they decided to take it. Organized by G.A.R. chapters in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, between 300 and 400 other Shiloh veterans joined them.
Taking advantage of a special C.B.&Q. round trip rate offered to the veterans, Gibbon and Blake traveled by rail from Chariton to Peoria, Illinois, staging ground for the expedition, on Wednesday, April 2. The veterans then traveled together by special train to Evansville, Indiana, departing Peoria on Thursday morning, April 3, and arriving at the Ohio River late that afternoon.
There, they boarded two steamships of the Evansville & Tennessee River Packet Co. for the trip down first the Ohio and then the Tennessee rivers, arriving at Pittsburg Landing on Sunday morning, April 6. The ships had been lashed together and approached the landing in tandem, brass bands playing.
The following report, headlined "The Field of Shiloh" was telegraphed by one of the three journalists accompanying the men and published in The Burlington Daily Hawk-Eye on Tuesday, April 8:
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Shiloh, Tenn., April 7 --- The day broke bright and beautiful over Shiloh yesterday morning as the steamers John Gilbert and W.F. Nisbit, lashed together, steamed up to Pittsburg Landing with about four hundred excursionists on board, mostly members of the Grand Army of the Republic from Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.
The excursionists as they landed marched to the National Cemetery, the bands beating a dead march with muffled drums. When they played Webster's funeral march, the men stood with uncovered heads, the tears running down their cheeks. Many, as they looked around, recognized the names of many old comrades, while the marble slabs at the heads of the graves rose up like undulating waves as far as the eye could see.
The column formed again and marched to the platform erected for speakers and bands at the west end of the cemetery. The press was represented by J.S. Clarkson, of the Des Moines, Iowa, Register; F.F. Blyer, of the Grand Army Advocate, Des Moines, Iowa; and B.J. Green, of the Iowa State Register.
The ceremonies opened with an appropriate prayer by Capt. F.J. Bryant. Hon. F.D. Smith, of Illinois, was the orator of the day and delivered a stirring speech eulogizistic of both the federal and confederate dead. He concluded as follows: "As the quietly, steadily flowing current of the beautiful Tennessee, which perpetually bathes the foot of the hill in which rest our beloved dead, coming down from the uplands of the south to join its waters with that of the great rivers of the north, so may the current of the patriot lives of the country come from the south land and join others from all parts of the country until all are embraced in one sentiment of love and respect for the inseparable union of the states."
Col. T. Lyle Dickey, justice of the supreme court of Illinois, spoke of the motives that animated the parties to the contest and the substantial benefits that resulted.
The entire audience, which by this time had been largely augmented by people from across the river and the neighborhood, then sang, "Nearer, My God, to Thee." The audience sang "I Love to Tell the Story," led by a cornet band. The veterans then dispersed over the country as far as old Shiloh church, looking for places where their comrades fell.
Great interest was manifested in searching for old bullets, buttons and the like, and a large number were found on the field, nearly every member of the party carrying away some relic of Shiloh's dreadful day.
There was an old time camp fire last night on the battlefield by a spring, hardtack, bacon and beans being cooked and eaten from tin plates. The entire day, today, was spent in visiting points of interest on the battlefield and the steamboats will leave at 6 p.m on their return trip.
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Dr. Gibbon and Mr. Blake returned to Chariton on Saturday morning, April 12. Their return was noted in both The Patriot and The Democrat of the following week, but neither had much to say about their shared experience --- or the editors of those two publications failed to ask the right questions.
The cemetery the men had visited contained, at the time, the graves of 3,584 Civil War dead collected from the battlefield and other locations in Tennessee and reburied in regimented rows. Of that number, 2,359 were and still are "unknown" because their remains could not be identified. Of the Lucas Countyans who died in battle at Shiloh, only the headstones marking the graves of Charles Dooley and Alkana Malone contain names.
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