Photo: David Lamb

Taking a Closer Look
20 February 2010

Taking advantage of one of the rare, momentary lulls in what has seemed to be the “Never-Ending Snow Storm” that has descended upon Iowa this winter, First Sergeant Lamb, Regimental Color Sergeant Krock, and Color Sergeant Thompson drove down to Eddyville, Iowa to take a look at “Eddy” (the name that we have affectionately given to the monument in their City Park).

“Eddy”, may well be one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, Civil War monument in Iowa having been erected in the years immediately following the war; and “re-stored” in 1911 by a local descendant of one of the veterans who served from the area and whose name (1/Lt. T. J. Lafferty, 9th Iowa Cavalry) appears in a prominent position on the “plinth” monument.

To tell the story of this venerable old monument far better that I might do, I shall here transcribe an article that appeared in the long-defunct Eddyville Tribune on Friday, September 22nd, 1911. The author is unknown:

Soldiers’ Monument Rebuilt
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Only Monument to Those who were killed in Civil War
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BUILT SOON AFTER WAR
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Rebuilt by J.A. Lafferty and presented to the Town of Eddyville
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Many people are not aware that the beautiful soldier’s monument, but lately rebuilt, and which stands in the north center of Eddyville’s well kept park, is not a memorial to the soldiers now living or to those who died after the close of the warm but in reality is built in honor of four score of our brave soldiers who went out from this locality and who met death in the service. Quite a number of these brave boys lie in unmarked graves at different places in the South, while some who died in hospitals lie buried in national cemeteries with a suitable mark at the heads of their graves.

At Shellsmound, near Ft. Pemberton, Tennessee, are the unmarked and unknown resting places of perhaps a score of those who wore the blue. Two who went from this vicinity, Alexander Sackett and J, C, McDole, were on board the “General Lyon” destined for home when the boat sank with all on board and not one was left to tell the story. Mr. Sackett was the father of Mrs. L.V. Terrell, and Mr. McDole was a brother of Mrs. L.A. Roberts.

Hercules Warner, a brother of Joe Warner, was killed by bushwackers down in Georgia. Peter Stuber, a brother of Phil and Abe Stuber and Mrs. G.W. Stevens, was shot in the wrist at Marks Mill, Arkansas, and died in the hospital at Little Rock.

B.F. Gordon, one of our Civil war veterans who survived the Civil War and who takes a keen interest in army and G.A.R. matters, states that he is perhaps the only person who knows where the remains of Wm. Kirfman, a brother of J.C. Kirfman, are buried. Mr. Gordon and Mr. Kirfman were schoolmates, and Mr. Gordon was one of those who helped to lay the body to rest after Mr. Kirfman had met death in the South. Mr. Gordon also lost two brothers in the war, N.B. Gordon being buried at Vicksburg, while H.C. Gordon, who was killed on Sunday, April 6, 1862, was buried on the battlefield of Shiloh.

The body of Capt. T. B. Hale, of the 36th Iowa, was buried on the banks of the Washata river, sixty miles south of Camden, Arkansas, all alone in the woods. His final resting place is one of the many unmarked graves occupied by Eddyville boys.

Others who died in the service are buried at Andersonville and Tyler, Texas, so it is indeed fitting that they should have a monument to their memory back at their early home here.
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THE OLD MONUMNET

About the next year after the close of the Civil war an ingenuous schemer by the name of Hazelton, who was in the monument business here, and who operated a marble shop in an old frame building where E. W. Knemeyer’s meat market and grocery stands, conceived the idea of soliciting the soldiers for subscription with which to erect a monument for the veterans who died on the field of battle. It seems that Hazelton had an agent by the name of George Maple, and these schemers went among the surviving veterans and induced them to contribute between five and twenty dollars toward a fund for putting up the monument. Hazelton went ahead carving the names on the die or slab of marble, and after they had raised about five hundred dollars he set up the plea that he had not yet raised sufficient funds to complete the work. Those posted on such matters, however, stated that the monument such as he contemplated, with a slab of marble surmounted by a spire would not have cost more than half that amount.

Hazelton soon found it convenient to go out of business, so he sold the spire to A.M. Lafferty. For several years the die was permitted to lay in the alley between where Brown’s and Walker’s stores now are, till finally some of the veterans took it down to the park and set it up on the old stone bases which supported it for years, till the bases finally crumbled with age.

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AS IT STANDS TODAY
Last summer the Women’s Civic Improvement Club took up the matter of improving the appearance of the monument, and it was suggested that a new base be put underneath and it was also the opinion of some that it should be moved and placed in Highland cemetery.

But there were some who clung to the idea that the monument should be left in the park where it would perhaps be seen by many more than t would have been had it been removed to the “silent city of the dead.” Among these were J.A. Lafferty, himself the son of a veteran and a member of the town council as well. He first conferred with the local G.A.R. Post, and found the Post strongly opposed to moving the monument away from the park. So, Mr. Lafferty, at the regular September meeting of the council, asked permission to rebuild the monument with charge to the city. His proposition was gladly accepted by the town council and three cement bases were soon completed in workmanlike manner, the work being done by Contractor S.P. Crosson and his force of men, who were employed by Mr. Lafferty.

The lower base is 38 inches square and 24 inches thick; the second or middle base 30 inches square and 12 inches in thickness, while the upper base is 24 inches square and stands ten inches high.

The old die or slab of marble from which the lettering was rapidly becoming defaced, was removed to take to the shop of the Lafferty marble works and Roy Lafferty was employed to chisel off the names and engrave the names of the soldier dead anew. The slab is 20 inches square and 30 inches in height and rests on the third or upper base of the monument. Just above the three inch projection eight inches in height known to masons as a “plinth.” On the south side of the plinth are the words: |1st Lieut. T. J. Lafferty, 9 Iowa Cav.” The wording on the east face of the plinth is al follows: Rebuilt and presented to the Town of Eddyville by J. A. Lafferty, 1911” The other two faces are left blank”


There follows a listing of some seventy-eight fallen from at least thirteen different Iowa Regiments; one from a US Regulars Regiment; and at least one from the United States Colored Infantry.

As can be seen in the accompanying photographs, “Eddy” is in dire need of some help, and the 49th Iowa intends to see that he gets it. Missing approximately 2/3rds of his rifle, and his entire right hand, the brim of his slouch hat and part of his left hand are also in need of work. We intend to enlist the aid of Des Moines sculptor Jim Russell in ascertaining what it will take to have this noble sentinel restored to his former glory for future generations. We shall also undertake whatever cleaning and restoration is needed to improve the legibility of the names of the noble fallen that were inscribed upon the monument soon after they entered into their eternal rest.

No one knows for certain how “Eddy” was so ignominiously reduced by the loss of his right hand and weapon, but the common belief in the community is that it was more than likely the result of young people attempting to gain a purchase in climbing up onto the statue that broke the weapon and hand away.

The restoration of “Eddy” will be the focus of the “Governor’s Own Forty-Ninth Iowa” over whatever length of time it takes to gather together the funds to restore this monument; but, it shall not be the Regiment’s only project. Simultaneously, several other smaller projects will be accomplished in hopes that most of the monuments in need can be addressed by the end of the approaching Sesquicentennial celebrations.

For further information on the projects of the Forty-Ninth Iowa, please contact any active member of the Regiment; or, send your enquiries to the Commander,

1/Sgt. David M. Lamb
Commanding
Company “A” 49th Regiment
Iowa Volunteer Infantry
“The Governor’s Own Iowa Rifles”
1305 Locust Street # 7
Des Moines, IA 50309

Photo: David Lamb