This is a bad photograph of something good --- one of the Lucas County Historical Society's rarest artifacts, a map hand drawn during October of 1862 by T. Park Coin of Camp Lauman, located on high ground immediately west of Burlington and the muster site for the 10 companies of the 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. It is the only known image of the camp; even Camp Lauman's precise location has been lost.
The map, in the collection for nearly 50 years, is framed and so this image was taken through glass, which explains some of the difficulty. It looks better in person.
The map depicts the quarters of the regiment's 10 companies grouped around a parade ground with regimental quarters to the west. A formation seems to have been drawn in at the top, the vertical slashes representing men of the various companies aligned behind regimental officers, including Chariton's Lt. Col. Warren S. Dungan, second in command. Col. George W. Clark was the commander. Cooking grounds, guard posts and a variety of other details are included, plus a few calligraphic flourishes.
The 10 companies of the 34th were raised in the south of Iowa during the summer of 1862 --- three in Lucas, four in Warren, two in Decatur and one in Wayne counties --- following President Lincoln's July 2, 1862, call for 300,000 3-year enlistments. Gov. Samuel Kirkwood then ordered the 34th to assemble at Camp Lauman during August and September of 1862 --- the last company and the commanding officer, Col. George W. Clark, arrived on Sept. 17. The regiment, 951 men rank and file, was mustered into federal service on Oct. 15.
The camp was named in honor of Gen. Jacob Gartner Lauman (1813-1867), a Burlington businessman who rose in rank to brigadier before being relieved of his command after the Siege of Jackson, Miss., during 1863 for failure to execute orders resulting in heavy losses, a charge he contested but never overturned.
In any case, I spent a little time over the weekend with digital files of The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye from 1862 that contained reports of the 34th in Burlington, commencing with the following, published on Sept. 27:
+++
The 34th Iowa Infantry is now at Camp Lauman adjoining this city, with full ranks and with all its officers. The barracks erected for them are ample and excellent of their kind, and both officers and men are pleased with their situation. The work of drill and discipline has been commenced and all are earnestly endeavoring to prepare themselves for the field, in which we doubt not, the 34th will maintain the honor of the State at the high position its predecessors in the field have earned for it.
We have been favored with a list of the Regimental and Line officers which we insert below:
Colonel Geo. W. Clark of Indianola, Warren County; Lieutenant Colonel Warren S. Dungan, of Chariton, Lucas County; Major R. D. Kellogg of Garden Grove, Decatur County;
Surgeon C. W. Davis of Indianola; Assistant Surgeons V. H. Coffman of Indianola and H. W. Jay, of Chariton; Adjutant ( ) Bryant of Indianola; and Quartermaster John D. Sarver, of Lucas County.
Company A --- Captain E. H. Alexander, 1st Lieutenant J. R. Walters, 2nd Lieutenant R. D. Sloan, Decatur County.
Company B --- Captain Wm. P. Guthrie, 1st Lieutenant J. C. S. Wasson, 2nd Lieutenant J. A. Dunegan, Warren County.
Company C --- Captain D. Lyon, 1st Lieutenant H. C. Henderson, 2nd Lieutenant J. S. Clark, Warren County.
Company D --- Captain J. Knox, 1st Lieutenant E. W. Perry, 2nd Lieutenant J. M. Lee, Warren County.
Company E --- Captain N. B. Gardner, 1st Lieutenant F. Nolan, 2nd Lieutenant J. Swank, Lucas County.
Company F --- Captain J. N. McClanahan, 1st Lieutenant J. B. Hatton, 2nd Lieutenant B. F. Jared, Wayne County.
Company G --- Captain S. B. Lowe, 1st Lieutenant Wm. Goltry, 2nd Lieutenant M. L. Doty, Lucas County;
Company H --- Captain J. Kern, 1st Lieutenant E. Herring, 2nd Lieutenant Thos. G. Milligan, Warren County.
Company I --- Captain Thos. Ward, 1st Lieutenant John R. Anderson, 2nd Lieutenant W.K. Maxwell, Decatur County.
Company K --- Captain Wm. Boyle, 1st Lieutenant John O. Coles, 2nd Lieutenant Jno. Chaney, Lucas County.
+++
Disease was the principal issue facing men of the 34th while encamped at Lauman, as reflected in this report from Surgeon Charles W. Davis found in the Hawk-Eye of Nov. 1:
Mr. Editor --- As your excellent paper is freely circulated through the various counties in which the 34th were recruited, I thought it would not be amiss to give you an occasional statement as to the sanitary condition of our Regiment.
There have been near 300 cases of measles, several cases of typhoid fever and an abundance of ague. We have on hand, at present, 172 cases. A large majority are measles. Many cases have assumed a typhoid or rather congestive type, rendering the disease malignant as well as very dangerous. Two patients have died from the sequela of measles, one of appoplexy, and two of inflammation of the brain. At present, with but few exceptions, the patients are doing remarkably well. Our aim is to present a good record in point of successful termination of our sick. Many regiments have lost from 60 to 100 cases with the measles. Truly, C.W. Davis, Surgeon, 34th Iowa Infantry.
+++
On Nov. 17, as deployment neared, the citizens of Burlington present the men with a flag to carry into battle with them, as reported in the Hawk-Eye of Nov. 22:
On the afternoon of the 17th inst., a beautiful Regimental Flag was presented to the 34th Iowa Regiment at Camp Lauman, in this city.
The flag was donated by the citizens of Burlington, and was made at the establishment of Messrs. Greenbaum, Schroder & Co., was of the finest quality of silk, regulation pattern, fringed and embroidered with gold, and the handsomest we have yet seen. A large crowd of our citizens were present.
The presentation was made by Charles H. Phelps, Esq., of this city. Col. Geo. W. Clark, on behalf of his regiment, replied. At the close of Col. Clark's speech, Lieut. Col Dungan proposed three cheers for the patriot citizens of Burlington, which were given with hearty good will. Major Kellogg then proposed three cheers for the flag, with which the agreeable ceremonies terminated, the whole being highly satisfactory to all concerned.
+++
The men of the 34th left Burlington after a march through the city on Saturday morning, Nov. 22, as reported in The Hawk-Eye of Nov. 29:
The 34th regiment left us on Saturday morning last. The steamers Ad. Hines and Ella, light draft vessels, with two barges in tow, having arrived at our landing, the regiment marched through the city to the boats at about nine o'clock in the morning and immediately embarked. This being completed, the two boats took their departure at about eleven o'clock, amid the cheers of a very large concourse of our citizens, assembled to bid them a hearty farewell.
It is unnecessary for us to repeat what we have heretofore said of the exemplary conduct of the members of the 34th since it has been stationed at Camp Lauman. If their conduct in camp be taken as evidence of what it will be before the enemy, as probably it ought to be, the fame of the 34th will prove as world-wide as that of the very best and bravest which has already proved its mettle against the rebels. The citizens of Burlington will always feel a deep interest in its welfare, and be gratified as much as if it were our own, at the honorable mention they confidently expect to have made of it. We are not at present advised of its immediate destination.
+++
The 34th's destination was Helena, Arkansas, and the companies arrived there just in time to get caught up in a smallpox epidemic --- and to participate in Sherman's disastrous expedition against Vicksburg and the capture during the following January of Arkansas Post.
The regiment then was ordered to escort some 6,500 captured secessionist troops upriver by boat to Chicago, plagued again by disease.
By the time the war was over and final losses tallied, the record shows that only one officer and 11 men of the 34th were killed in combat, but 2 officers and 244 enlisted men died of disease. Others were sent home in the hope they might recover there; some did, many others died and are not carried on official records as fatalities of the war.
T. Park Coin, the artist, a teacher and lawyer in civilian life, was stricken as the 34th came back downriver from Chicago to St. Louis during February of 1863, discharged and sent home to Chariton because physicians were unsure he ever would recover, or if he did, would be strong enough to serve again.
He did recover, however, and during 1864 moved his family from Chariton to Boone County where he resumed teaching and served as county superintendent of schools from 1872-1876.
In 1879, the Coins headed west to Superior in Nuckolls County, Nebraska, where he practiced law until 1884, served a two-year term as county judge and finally returned to education, working as teacher and principal until his death on Nov. 7, 1890. He is buried in Superior's Evergreen Cemetery behind a military tombstone that records his service in Co. K, 34th Iowa Volunteer Infantry.
No comments:
Post a Comment