24th Iowa: Preacher Regiment?

[tony_gunter]

Found in a Georgia paper that prisoners of the 24th Iowa told their captors that the regiment was primarily composed of preachers and they were known as the Preacher Regiment.

Only a small regimental history has been attempted, it claims the nickname was Temperance Regiment.

A History of the 24th Iowa Infantry 1862-1865

On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers from the states not in rebellion. While not yet fifteen years old, the State of Iowa answered this call and future calls at an enviable rate. The state was credited with 76,309 enlistments...

wonder.wiu.edu

The same article claims one of Cumming's Regiments (not specified) suffered a casualty rate of 83% at Champion Hill?!?

 

[FZ11]

Found in a Georgia paper that prisoners of the 24th Iowa told their captors that the regiment was primarily composed of preachers and they were known as the Preacher Regiment.

Only a small regimental history has been attempted, it claims the nickname was Temperance Regiment.

A History of the 24th Iowa Infantry 1862-1865

On April 15, 1861, President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers from the states not in rebellion. While not yet fifteen years old, the State of Iowa answered this call and future calls at an enviable rate. The state was credited with 76,309 enlistments...

wonder.wiu.edu

The same article claims one of Cumming's Regiments (not specified) suffered a casualty rate of 83%?!?

Give 'em instant parole.

 

[Stryker65]

If so, the Adjutant General's extensive regimental history does not mention that name...actually, no nickname of any kind is recorded.

 

[7thWisconsin]

They had difficulty filling the chaplain positions during the war. I seriously doubt you could find enough clergy to sufficiently leaven a regiment so much that a nickname would arise. (See what I did there?) In many denominations, clergy actually had to ask the permission of the congregation to resign at that time, and no one knew how long the war was going to last. An ardent preacher, filled with patriotic spirit could conceivably find himself resigning from a long-time gig to find himself out of a job suddenly if the war comes to a crashing halt. (Believe it or not, clergy do think about these mundane, earthly concerns.)
The link above says that the commander was Methodist clergy. I can see how the "preacher's regiment" overheard in conversation might turn into "the Preacher Regiment" in print, but I suspect there's no real substance to the paper's claim.

 

[tony_gunter]

They had difficulty filling the chaplain positions during the war. I seriously doubt you could find enough clergy to sufficiently leaven a regiment so much that a nickname would arise. (See what I did there?) In many denominations, clergy actually had to ask the permission of the congregation to resign at that time, and no one knew how long the war was going to last. An ardent preacher, filled with patriotic spirit could conceivably find himself resigning from a long-time gig to find himself out of a job suddenly if the war comes to a crashing halt. (Believe it or not, clergy do think about these mundane, earthly concerns.)
The link above says that the commander was Methodist clergy. I can see how the "preacher's regiment" overheard in conversation might turn into "the Preacher Regiment" in print, but I suspect there's no real substance to the paper's claim.

I was looking around for other mentions of Preacher Regiment, apparently the 73rd Illinois held that nickname because of the high number of preachers in their officer's ranks.

 

[huskerblitz]

I just read an article not too long ago about a regiment nicknamed the Preacher Regiment or something similar. I'll have to try to find where I put that article.

 

[7thWisconsin]

I was looking around for other mentions of Preacher Regiment, apparently the 73rd Illinois held that nickname because of the high number of preachers in their officer's ranks.

I could see something like that - at least early in the War.

 

[alan polk]

The same article claims one of Cumming's Regiments (not specified) suffered a casualty rate of 83% at Champion Hill?!?

I would suspect this represents more missing and captured than wounded and killed. Most all of Cumming's command was scattered like quail, especially when it had to recross Bakers Creek in an area where no bridge was available.

 

[tony_gunter]

This podcast on the 57th Georgia repeats the claim, presumably from the same source. They incorrectly identify the regiment as the 28th Iowa.

57th Georgia Regiment Pt. 2: March to Battle

Podcast Episode · Survival · July 22, 2019 · 56m

podcasts.apple.com

 

[Mississippian1861]

I was looking around for other mentions of Preacher Regiment, apparently the 73rd Illinois held that nickname because of the high number of preachers in their officer's ranks.

The 73rd is a pet regiment of mine. It had a large number of mostly Methodist clergy in the ranks. It was also called the Persimmon Regiment because of a known fondness for that fruit.

 

[Samwisep86]

All the research I've seen says that the 24th Iowa was specifically recuited as a temperance regiment. Col. Eber Byam was a Methodist minister prior to the war. He proposed to the Iowa governor that he wanted to raise a special regiment because:

The religious element of the state cannot be moved to volunteer
as effectively, in any other way.
1st There are hundreds of this class who refuse to enlist
because they cannot bear the idea of being appointed with an
ungodly rabble.
2nd A still larger number, refuse to enlist as soldiers, to
fight for their country, & then be treated like dogs, by a christless--
wicked & (more than likely) drunken set of officers from
Col. down to Corporal.
3rd Scores of parents have said to me within the last few
months;' that they would not refuse to let their son volunteer in
such a regiment, as the one I propose to raise--but they would
never consent to have them join any other kind.

Governor Kirkwood of Iowa later publicized the creation of the temperance regiment in the newspapers:

The formation of regiments of strictly moral and temperate men
is one of the novel and meritorious features of the rebellion.
Strenuous efforts are being made to form one in this State, and we
are gratified to learn from a correspondent [of the Chicago Journal]
that, by authority of the Secretary of War, Governor Kirkwood of
Iowa, has ordered and commissioned Colonel E. C. Byam, of Mt. Vernon,
to raise (as the 24th Iowa Infantry) a regiment to be entitled 'The
Iowa Temperance Regiment,' to be composed of strictly temperance men,
with as much moral power as can possibly be concentrated in a
thousand persons. In this respect it closely resembles the character
designated by the Good Templars of Illinois in forming their
regiment.

To those who desire the highest morality should be found in
every commissioned officer--parents, wives, sisters who wish
their children, husbands, and brothers to go into a regiment commanded
by Christian men, and free from the vices so prevalent in
regiments of a different in these organizations, their moral status
only differing.

We are much in favor of the new style of going to war and deem
it worthy of encouragement. The usual habits of soldiers will be
far less likely to be contracted, and he who leaves home without
those faults, and goes with the Temperance Regiment will be apt to
return home as pure as when he left. The temptations of army life
will be kept from the camp as rigidly as are spies.

I don't think that the 24th was ultimately more or less different than any other regiments, but an effort was made at the organization of the unit, nonetheless.

 

[Mississippian1861]

All the research I've seen says that the 24th Iowa was specifically recuited as a temperance regiment. Col. Eber Byam was a Methodist minister prior to the war. He proposed to the Iowa governor that he wanted to raise a special regiment because:



Governor Kirkwood of Iowa later publicized the creation of the temperance regiment in the newspapers:



I don't think that the 24th was ultimately more or less different than any other regiments, but an effort was made at the organization of the unit, nonetheless.

Neal Dow's 13th Maine was also a temperance regiment IIRC. The 48th New York, "Perry's Saints" was fairly strict about swearing and such things.

 

[Stryker65]

Found it. The unit that I was thinking of was the 9th Arkansas Infantry, CSA. According to Crute, it "was known as the 'Parson's Regiment" because it contained forty-two ministers."

 

[7thWisconsin]

All the research I've seen says that the 24th Iowa was specifically recuited as a temperance regiment. Col. Eber Byam was a Methodist minister prior to the war. He proposed to the Iowa governor that he wanted to raise a special regiment because:



Governor Kirkwood of Iowa later publicized the creation of the temperance regiment in the newspapers:



I don't think that the 24th was ultimately more or less different than any other regiments, but an effort was made at the organization of the unit, nonetheless.

Imagine! Having to go to war with an "ungodly rabble." One must have standards.

 

[Samwisep86]

Found it. The unit that I was thinking of was the 9th Arkansas Infantry, CSA. According to Crute, it "was known as the 'Parson's Regiment" because it contained forty-two ministers."

I wonder, did they hold competing Sunday services for the other men of the regiment?

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Could not find any reference to the 24th IA Infantry consisting primarily of a significant number of preachers, and thereby earning the nickname of 'The Preacher Regiment'. Instead, the regiment which was organized and commanded by Methodist Minister, Col. Eber Byam, was composed of men of temperance principles and temperance habits - teetotalers who abstained from consuming or handling alcoholic drinks. (See https://civilwarintheeast.com/us-regiments-batteries/iowa/24th-iowa/ ). Thought the regiment was referred to as 'The Temperance Regiment' because of its members' abstinence beliefs rather than their preaching behaviors.

Alternatively, the 73rd IL Infantry was referred to as 'The Preacher Regiment'. Indeed, the official published history of this unit is titled 'The Preacher Regiment' (See https://archive.org/details/historyofseventy00inilli/mode/1up ), a regiment which was organized and commanded by Methodist Minister, Col. James Jacquess. The unit history (@ p. 20) makes mention of the practice of recruiting real preachers for the unit as follows:-

...'In many, if not most, of the neighborhoods and localities from which the 73d was recruited, the solicitations and appeals, the " drumming up " for volunteers, were made and participated in by ministers of the gospel, either in the regular or local work. This fact may have been due, in some instances, to Colonel Jaquess's influence, remotely if not directly. At any rate, when the several companies and fractions thereof reached Camp Butler, they, and the " preachers in charge," easily and naturally drifted into Colonel Jaquess's "Preacher Regiment," the 73d Illinois.'...

Seems that the 73rd IL more aptly fits the tag of 'The Preacher Regiment' than does the 24th IA.