Note: Below is a reproduction of the bulletin produced by the family of Col. Jones for the dedication ceremony. Some of the actual dedication presentation material is reproduced below. All pictures were added by the 42nd web author.
The MIDI file of "America the Beautiful" is used by permission of Benjamin Robert Tubb from his website at Public Domain Music http://www.pdmusic.org
Hello, my name is Tim Beckman and I would like to thank the family of Col. Jones for inviting me here today to speak to you about the 42nd Indiana.
The 42nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry was organized in Evansville (Vanderburg County) on October 9th, 1861. Although the regiment was organized in Evansville, many of the men came from other southwestern Indiana counties such as Daviees, Gibson, Pike, Spencer, and Warrick. These men came from all “walks of life” and were made up of all nationalities. The vast majority of the men listed their occupation on their enlistment papers simply as “Farmer.” Some were mere boys as young as 9 years of age. All responded to the call of their country with great pride, fervor, and a sense of patriotic duty. You can feel this same sense of duty toward country as one reads the letters written by Col. Jones to his family back home, like the one just previously read, when he wrote “I felt bound by every consideration that can move a good citizen and a patriot, to take command of a regiment and do all I could for the preservation of the union.”
In his book, The History of the 42nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Captain Horrall relates the following humorous story concerning Col. Jones. “Col. J. G. Jones, after the battle of Perryville, Ky., as all did, felt greatly the want for water which was just beyond our reach in plenty, in Chaplin river, until the ninth of October, inside the enemy’s lines. The colonel, suffering from thirst, offered a private soldier $10.00 to get him a canteen of water. Starting at eight o’clock, the comrade tramped till twelve o’clock that night, not securing a drop of water. All the wells in our lines were under guard for use at the field hospitals, for the wounded. Upon the comrade reporting his ill luck, Colonel J. said, “Well, I’ll give you $5.00 for trying.”
During the 42nd’s nearly four years of service, they endured hardships of every kind; disease, starvation, exposure to all kinds of weather without adequate clothing and shelter, not to mention the separation from loved ones so far away. They marched thousands of miles and spilled their blood and died on battlefields from Kentucky to Georgia in order to “preserve the government.” Some of the more notable battles that the 42nd participated in were: Wartrace, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, the Campaign against Atlanta, and Bentonville. Others “lucky” enough not to have been mortally wound in battle were captured as prisoners of war. These men were detained in such horrible prisons such as Andersonville, Libby, and Belle Isle. Many died in these God forsaken places, while others barely survived, always on the brink of death due to starvation and disease.
Other hardships awaited some of the soldiers toward the end of the war. On April 27, 1865, the steam ship Sultana exploded on the flooded Mississippi River in the dark of the night 7 miles north of Memphis, TN. The Sultana was grossly overloaded with paroled Union soldiers, and nearly 1700 men lost their lives. Among the passengers were 3 members of the 42nd Indiana. Only 1 of the 3 survived this horrific accident. More lives were lost on the Sultana than were lost on the Titanic. The Sultana tragedy still stands as America’s worst maritime disaster.
During its term of service, the 42nd Indiana lost 113 men who were killed and mortally wounded and 197 to disease for a total of 310. Additionally, an estimated 443 men were wounded, and many of them were left with some form of disability for the rest of their lives.
In an e-mail about this dedication and the 42nd Indiana, Mary-Frances Jones observed that these men had suffered much during the war. She is right. These men did suffer many hardships. As we stand here today surrounded by the graves of our fallen heroes, may we vow to always honor those who sacrificed so much in order to protect the freedoms that we now enjoy.
Capt. Horrall, in his book on the history of the 42nd Indiana, stated the following in the context of addressing the sons and daughters of Civil War veterans “…(may we) impress upon all the children of soldiers and comrades, of the 42d Indiana particularly, the high worth of being sons and daughters of veterans: - to transmit to them all, if possible, the zeal, patriotism, and love of country that stimulated their fathers to deeds of honor, and their mothers to great sacrifices, to save the Nation. A saved Nation is a priceless heritage. Its price was paid in blood.”
End of Bulletin