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Kinyon Digital Library

Roster and Record
of Iowa Soldiers
Vol. 6 - Miscellaneous
(1911)

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Historical Sketch

Fifth and Sixth Batteries Iowa Light
Artillery

On June 18, 1898, Governor Shaw received the following telegram from the Secretary of War:

Washington, D. C., June 18, 1898.

Governor of Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa:

Under the President's call, May 25, 1898, after filling to the maximum the organizations already in the United States service from your State, you are requested to furnish two batteries of light artillery, each to consist of one Captain, one First Lieutenant, one Second Lieutenant, one First Sergeant, one Quartermaster Sergeant, one Veterinary Sergeant, six Sergeants, nine Corporals, two Farriers, two Artificers, one Saddler, two Musicians, one Wagoner and eighty Privates.  The Mustering, Captain J. A. Olmsted, has been directed to confer with your representative, concerning details affecting comfort, shelter, subsistence of organizations, and the order in which they should be mobilized for muster.  To save expense and for other reasons that will occur to you, it is suggested that preliminary physical examinations be made of the men before they are taken from their homes.  Blanks mailed to Adjutant General of State.  The recruiting for the old companies will be conducted by the officers now in the field and under orders from this office.

R. A. Alger,
Secretary of War.

The Governor directed the following reply to be made to the foregoing telegram:

Des Moines, June 20, 1898.

General R. A. Alger, Washington, D. C.:

Governor Shaw directs me to acknowledge receipt of requisition for two light batteries, and to say that he has them ready for examination, two hundred strong.  We caused the National Guard to be examined before leaving their homes, but it proved too lax.  This examination will be more rigid.  The Governor directs me to ask that ordnance, horses, uniforms, and full equipment be furnished at earliest possible moment.  The batteries will be composed of picked men, and the Governor desires all necessary supplies, to the end that the State may fully sustain herself.

Melvin H. Byers,
Adjutant General of Iowa.

Under the foregoing call several organizations offered their services, and the following were accepted:

Fifth Iowa Battery, Cedar Rapids, Captain George W. Bever, commanding.

Sixth Iowa Battery, Burlington, Captain Frank S. Long, commanding.

The officers and men of these batteries went into rendezvous at Camp McKinley, June 30, 1898, and were there mustered into the service of the United States, by Captain J. A. Olmsted, of the Regular Army, July 8, 1898.  They were never equipped, but were held in rendezvous, subject to the call of the Government, until September 5, 1898, on which date they were mustered out of the service and returned to their homes.  They were an exceptionally fine class of young men, and their discipline and deportment in camp were most excellent.  Had the opportunity for active service come to them, they would have gladly embraced it, and would have rendered a good account of themselves.

The subjoined rosters have been carefully transcribed from the records in the office of the Adjutant General of Iowa, and contain the names of each officer and enlisted man who was enrolled in the Fifth and Sixth Iowa Batteries.  No deaths are reported in either of these organizations.

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