The illustrations are of related artifacts in the Lucas County Historical Society collection --- a portrait of Col. Dungan in uniform, his pocket-size photo album containing carte de visite images arranged in order from Lincoln through Grant to some of the men he actually served with, a portrait of Dungan as an old man and a map of Camp Lauman drawn by T. Park Coin, one of Dungan's recruits.
As veterans of the 34th Regiment aged, regular reunions were held --- keep in mind that all of the 34th's 1,000 men had been recruited in Lucas, Warren, Decatur and Wayne counties. The 1903 reunion was scheduled for September in Chariton. And Col. Dungan composed for the occasion an account of how Company K came to be, published first in The Des Moines Capital and then republished in The Chariton Herald of July 23.
This is an especially useful piece for anyone intrigued by Civil War history because it describes a recruiting and organizing process similar across Iowa as the war accelerated during its first 18 months or so. Here's Col. Dungan's history of the origins of Company K:
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The Biennial reunion of the 34th Iowa Regiment is booked for this city next September, the 3rd and 4th days. B.F. Dora, of Warren township, is president, and Col. Dungan, of this city, secretary. A goodly number of these old soldiers yet reside in Lucas and adjoining counties who, with their families, anticipate a delightful time during this event. The secretary (Dungan) relates in a recent Des Moines Capital issue, the following interesting history of the 34th at the opening of the war of the Rebellion ---
Acting under a recruiting commission, obtained from Governor Kirkwood in July, 1862, I recruited a company for the war which afterwards became Company K, 34th Iowa. We organized the company at Chariton August 9th by the election of the following officers, to-wit:
Warren S. Dungan, captain; Wm. Boyle, first lieutenant; and John O. Coles, second lieutenant. We started for Des Moines the same afternoon without waiting for orders to do so. We traveled in ordinary farm wagons. We arrived at Indianola a little after midnight. I did not stop there, but went on to Des Moines to engage quarters for my company. It arrived the next day. I secured the upper story of a brick house, yet standing on the south side of the Coon River, to the right as you cross the Coon River bridge.
The upper story was all in one room and there, with straw on the floor for a bed and blankets over them, the 100 men composing that company slept for over five weeks. I stayed with the boys the first night, but thereafter I was content to secure lodging at the Galt House, a little way from the north end of the Coon River bridge. The company was composed of as large and fine looking set of stalwart men as went into the service from any state.
We hoped to get into the Twenty-third Iowa, then being organized in Des Moines, but in this we were disappointed. The governor (Samuel Kirkwood) and his adjutant general, N.B. Baker, were doing all in their power to organize the new recruits into regiments and send them to the front, but as yet they were not able to assign us or fix our place of rendezvous.
The boys were impatient to get to the front --- "the war would be over before they could get there." They found out their mistake later. To retain these men and prevent any of them from seeking a shorter way into actual service was the question for the officers to solve. The company was divided into squads and much drilling was done daily.
I reported to Col. Dewey of the Twenty-third, and, at my suggestion, he detailed some of my men for guard duty of government property in West Des Moines. One day he detailed Littleton R. Moore, an awkward country boy scarcely 20, to guard a room with arms in it. The colonel came to enter the room and was halted and challenged. He had forgotten the countersign, but insisted that Moore knew him well and ordered the sentinel to stand aside. Moore drew his bayonet on him and proposed to run it through him if he advanced another step. The Colonel saw the boy was in the right, and praised him to me in telling me the incident.
After waiting three weeks for an assignment, and being apparently no nearer getting into the service than when we first went to Des Moines and still fearing that some of the men might try a shorter way thereto than by remaining with us, I sent Lieutenant Coles to Davenport, where Col. Chambers gave him a recruiting commission and on his return to camp, on the first day of September, 1862, each member of the company was sworn into the United States service as a private soldier by Lieutenant Coles. The following is the form of enlistment paper given to each member, copying from my own, which is before me:
VOLUNTEER ENLISTMENT
"I Warren S. Dungan, born in Beaver county, in the state of Pennsylvania, aged 39 years and by occupation a lawyer,, do hereby acknowledge to have volunteered the first day of August, 1862, to serve as a soldier in the Army of the United States of America, for the period of three years, unless sooner discharged by proper authority. Do also agree to accept such bounty, pay, rations, and clothing as are or may be established by law for volunteers. And I, Warren S. Dungan, do solemnly swear that I will bear true and lawful allegiance to the United States of America, and that I will serve them honestly and faithfully against all their enemies or oppressors whomsoever; and that I will observe and obey the orders of the President of the United States, and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the Rules and Articles of War. (Signed) Warren S. Dungan
"Sworn and subscribed to at Des Moines this first day of September, 1862. Before John O. Coles, second lieutenant, mustering officer."
Being now full fledged American soldiers, the boys were content to bide their time to go south. Some two or more weeks elapsed while awaiting assignment. The line officers elect of these ten companies consulted together as to ways and means to get most speedily into the service. At length a meeting of these officers was arranged. At that meeting the plan adopted was to organize a regiment, having just enough companies for that purpose, and submit the same to the governor for his approval. The officers thus agreed upon were as follows:
George W. Clark, Indianola, Warren county, colonel; Warren S. Dungan, Lucas county, lieutenant colonel; Racine D. Kellogg, Garden Grove, Decatur county, major; William M. Bryan, Indianola, Warren county, adjutant; John D. Sarver, Chariton, Lucas county, quartermaster; Charles W. Davis, Indianola, Warren county, surgeon; Henry W. Jay, Chariton, Lucas county, assistant surgeon; Uriah B. Goliday, Garden Grove, Decatur county, chaplain; Bertrand Rockwell, Chariton, Lucas County, sergeant major; Joseph T. Meek, Indianola, Warren county, quartermaster sergeant; John Throckmorton, Chariton, Lucas county, commissary sergeant; John S. Davis, Des Moines, Polk county, hospital sergeant.
I was appointed a committee to present this organization to the governor and ask his approval. The time was passed in studying the tactics and in daily drill -- both squad and company. By this time ten companies of volunteers, four from Warren county, three from Lucas, two from Decatur, and one from Wayne county, were in camp in Des Moines, having, like us, hurried there without orders, anxious to enter the service. The governor was much pleased with our action and at once approved the same, except that he had a desire to appoint Dr. Davis the colonelcy of a regiment, but the next day, he received a letter from Surgeon Hughes, of Keokuk, saying: "Dr. S.W. Davis has just been examined by me, and don't fail to put him in the medical department," and the next day the order was issued organizing our regiment as proposed, and giving us the number Thirty-fourth, and fixing Burlington as our place of rendezvous. We then waited somewhat impatiently for the order to go to Burlington, but none came. Again, the line officers met to devise some means of getting a start towards Burlington.
The reason for the delay, ordering us to Burlington, was that the barracks would not be ready for our reception for some ten days. Again I was sent to the governor with this proposition, that we would go to our homes for 10 days and report at Ottumwa, the then terminus of the "Q" railroad, without expense to the state.
When I entered the governor's office he was so overwhelmed with his duties that it seemed almost impossible to gain his attention. The office was full of officers and citizens demanding his attention. To one he said, "Not now." To another, "You must wait your time." I remembered the governor was a financier, and that he wanted to save the state from expense wherever it was possible, and, watching my opportunity as he hurriedly passed where I was standing, I said, "Governor, can you give one minute's time to a proposition which will save the state several hundred dollars?" He said, "Certainly I can." It took less than a minute to explain, and he turned to the adjutant general and told him to issue the order as we requested, and we received it the same evening, and next morning we were on our way to our homes, and punctual to obey the order, were at Ottumwa at the appointed time.
It gives me pleasure to here testify to the soldierly deportment of every man in the company. Not a single case of discipline became necessary. The nearest we came to such a case was one day while the members the company were falling in for company drill. The company was partially formed; the next man to be called would have to step into mud and water. He hesitated, but said nothing. Again he was sharply commanded to take his place, but still stood as if resolved to disobey. I then took out my watch and said to him, "You have just sixty seconds to get into line --- 30, 40, 50" --- and promptly he took his place in line and I was as much relieved as he. This was before we were sworn into the United States service by Lieutenant Coles."
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| T. Park Coin's map of Camp Lauman |
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Col. Dungan mentioned by name in this account Littleton R. Moore, "an awkward country boy scarcely 20." Pvt. Moore was wounded during the Battle of Arkansas Post on Jan. 11, 1863, and died of those wounds on Jan. 14.
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