Honoring The Past Highlights Opening Day At Nelson Pioneer Farm

Opening ceremony for Nelson Pioneer Farm 2012 season (photo by Ginger Allsup)

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Remembering the sacrifices of those who fell during the Civil War and telling the history of a flag, folded and forgotten over time, was just part of the days events.

1/Lt. David M. Lamb of Company “A” 49th Regiment Veteran Volunteer Infantry/SVR was shown a folded flag back in July of last year. The flag that was given to Lamb to bring back to the State Historical Museum is a “Company Flag” (meaning one that was not government issued; one probably made by some local community for their own sons to take off to the war with them) and it was one of a set of flags that was carried by Company “D” of the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

“The flag is one of the nicest “Great Star Patterned” (meaning that the 34 stars on the canton are themselves positioned into the shape of a star) flags that we have ever seen,” Lamb told Osky News in an earlier interview.

"Company Flag" carried by Company “D” of the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment and now fully restored and preserved and on display at Nelson Pioneer Farm. (photo by Ginger Allsup)

Lamb said there are 3 individuals that work on the battle flags themselves from the State Historical Museum, where each individual spends 250 hours of training in fabric conservation “to be able to touch one of those flags.”

“I can tell you from 2 years of experience of working on these [flags], I’ve never done anything in my life more rewarding.” Lamb said of his work as a conservator, where he said it’s possible to smell the smoke from battle yet in the flag, and to see the bullet holes in the flag, with one he had worked on having 118 holes in it from battle.

Lamb went on to give some history of Company “D” of the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment.

“The 22nd was organized in Iowa City in late August and early Sept of 1862 (so it is a probability that many of them came from your area) and mustered into Federal service on September 9 of that year. They moved to St. Louis, Missouri over the period of September 14-18th and then on to Rolla, Missouri, arriving there on the 23rd. They remained in garrison there until February when they moved South to see action at Champion Hill, Big Black river, Vicksburg , Jackson, and across Louisiana and into Texas before being moved to City Point, Virginia and on to Washington, D. C. and then formed part of Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah and fought at several engagements up and down the Shenandoah valley in the closing months of 1864-65 before moving on to occupy Savannah, Georgia as part of Sherman’s Armies.. They were in Savannah at the end of the war and mustered out there on July 25, 1865.”

Lamb gave the causality numbers for the unit as “Killed in action were 6 officers and 108 enlisted men; 1 officer and 135 enlisted men died of disease during service.”

During the opening ceremony, he gave a brief history of another Iowa regiment during the Civil War.

“The 15th Iowa, mustered in February of 1862 over in Davenport. They had no rifles to give them, so they trained with broomsticks. They took them down to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri for further training. They still had no rifles to give them.”

“It wasn’t until the morning of the 1st of April of 1862, when they loaded them on board steamers over on the Mississippi River that they handed them their first rifles as they stepped on board each ship.”

“They were then ferried down the Mississippi, up the Ohio to the mouth of the Tennessee, and down to a place called Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee. On the morning of the 6th of April at about 2 o’clock, many of the kids were up on the deck of the ship looking at what they thought was lightning in the far horizon, and commenting~ that thunder doesn’t sound like the thunder back in the corn fields of Iowa. It was Confederate artillery they were listening to.”

“When they stepped off the Minnehaha they were handed two packets of ammunition, told to load their rifle… and fall in on the road where they were immediately marched into a tree line behind a little Methodist church in Shiloh and told to hold that tree line until they were relieved.”

This 12 pound Napoleon Style Cannon was fired at the end of 'Taps' Saturday morning at Nelson Pioneer Farm

“They were marched straight into the guns of 4,000 waiting Confederate rifle and artillery. Within the first 30 minutes, 148 were dead, another 118 were wounded or captured, 17 of those disappeared, probably vaporized by canon fire. They were never seen or heard from again, and we are still finding them on the battlefields of this country.”

“The fact that those lads did not throw down their rifles and run for their lives is utterly amazing. But they didn’t. They stood and they held that ground for over 2 hours until they were relieved by an Ohio group of kids who, likewise, had never seen a shot fired in anger until that morning.”

This was the history given by Lamb about the Iowa 15th, as they entered into The Battle of Shiloh.