Antietam

     September 16, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland: "There was a drizzling rain...the night was dismal. Nothing can be more solemn than a period of silent waiting for the summons to battle...," recalls Mariettan Major Rufus R. Dawes, second in command of the Union Army Wisconsin 6th Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Quotes unless noted are from his book Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers. Dawes was a keen observer, reporting not only the details but also the curious, along with his personal reactions.

     About daylight, Confederate artillery opened up. The Wisconsin men were rousted from deep sleep. "We had marched ten rods, when whiz-z-z ! bang ! burst a shell over our heads; then another; then a percussion shell struck and exploded in the very center of the moving mass of men. It killed two men and wounded eleven...Thus opened the great battle of Antietam,… (on) September 17th, 1862."

     The regiment soon came under withering fire from Rebels in the woods. “Company I under Capt John Kellogg heroically dashed across the field and drove them out.” Captain Edwin Brown of Company E was killed as his men passed through a gate. Years later, Major Dawes was haunted by the image of that young officer "shouting in a loud imperative voice the order I had given him...(as) a bullet passed into his open mouth, and the voice is silenced forever.”

Rufus Dawes, civilwarmonitor.com, Craig Johnson Collection

     "Colonel Bragg was shot...and his nerve, in standing up under the shock until he had (repositioned) his men..., was wonderful." With Bragg wounded, Dawes took over command of the regiment. "I felt a great sense of responsibility, when thrown thus suddenly in command..." Hours later the men were elated when Bragg rejoined them despite being wounded. “We had thought him dead.”

     Heavy enemy fire raked through their lines” like a scythe”, felling dozens. "But we...pushed on, loading, firing, and shouting as we advanced. There was...a reckless disregard of life, of everything but victory.” Though forced back, Dawes regrouped the remaining men around the Wisconsin colors. Nearly half of the original 314 officers and men had been killed or wounded. They fought on, clearing out rebels threatening an artillery position.

Wisconsin units push south near Dunkard Church, from warefarehistorynetwork.com. 

     Captain Werner Von Bachelle, commanding Company F, was shot dead. He was respected by all; his loss was deeply felt. A Newfoundland dog “was his constant companion and was with him when he fell. Our men left the body when under fire. The dog stayed with his fallen master and was found two days later lying dead upon his body. We buried him with his master.”

     Another prominent Mariettan gave his life at Antietam. Colonel Melvin Clarke commanded the 36th Ohio Volunteer regiment, formed at Lower Salem in 1861. He was a successful lawyer who helped recruit Washington County men for the Union Army. Clarke soon felt obligated to enlist himself.

    Late in the day at Antietam, the 36th under Clarke was part of an attack on the Confederate units south of Sharpsburg. They ran into heavy musketry and artillery fire. Clarke was hit with a large shell and died in minutes. The regiment was forced back under heavy fire, but they carried Clarke’s body with them in a blanket, so great was his men’s admiration and respect for him.

The Witness Tree at Burnside Bridge. Soldiers of the Ohio 36th, saw this tree when they crossed the bridge to attack Rebel forces. The tree was a sapling then. From Cumberland Times-News

     Fighting waned as night fell. September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day in American history before or since, with a tally of 22,727 dead, wounded, or missing on both sides. Major Hiram. F. Devol of the Ohio 36th Volunteers recalled: “That night the groans and cries of the wounded of both armies between the two lines could be heard, but no help could safely reach them.”

     Two days later the Confederates withdrew. The carnage was the worst that Rufus Dawes experienced before or after. Bodies were stacked in piles. Dawes noticed a horse appearing to rise. “Its head was held proudly aloft, and its fore legs set firmly forward. But like all surrounding it…, the horse was dead.” 

Photos of dead soldiers by Mathew Brady brought home the horror of war to many Americans, from civilwarmonitor.com

     Army Correspondent Charles Coffin recalled seeing a dead Union soldier near the Dunkard Church “with his face turned upward, and his pocket Bible open upon his breast. I lifted the volume and read the words: 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.’”

     Dawes wrote to his mother on Sept 18: “My Dear Mother : — I have come safely through two more terrible engagements with the enemy...Our splendid regiment is almost destroyed…nearly four hundred men killed and wounded in the battles…The men have stood like iron.” Relief, anguish, and pride are evident in his words.

     Rufus Dawes was mustered out of the Army on August 10, 1864. He was noted for his service in the famed Iron Brigade, (so named when General Burnside observed that the Wisconsin units stood like iron when under attack), especially at Gettysburg, and in 1866 was breveted as a Brigadier General. He returned to Marietta where he operated a lumber business, was a Marietta College trustee, and served a single term in Congress from Ohio’s 15th district. He continued the Dawes family’s long tradition of success in business and civic leadership. One document suggests that Rufus Dawes (like many thousands of other veterans) suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, a condition not understood at the time.

   

    

 

    

    

 

1924 Election: Marietta Native Charles G. Dawes Elected Vice President of the United States

Turned off by the spiteful rhetoric in today’s political discourse? Stressed by the twenty-four hour news cycle and social media rancor? Go back to the 1924 presidential campaign. A Marietta native, Charles Gates Dawes, was the running mate of Calvin Coolidge on the Republican ticket. Dawes is the serious-looking one on the right in the photo. He grew up on Fourth St. in Marietta, the son of General Rufus Dawes and Mary Gates Dawes, and a descendent of William Dawes who rode with Paul Revere to warn colonists that “the British are coming.”

1924 Campaign Poster viewed at fineartmerica.com. Coolidge is on the left; Dawes on the right.

1924: It was the roaring twenties. The economy was strong; there were no foreign policy crises. There were also no computers, cell phones, or television. Radio would soon become a boom industry. Locally, farming, brick making, furniture manufacturing, and the oil industry thrived. Trolleys ran regular routes up and down the valleys. Shoppers packed the downtown area on weekends. Life was good; but it always seems that way when we look back in time.

Talk about qualifications for high public office: Charles G. Dawes was a graduate of Marietta College (what other qualification would you need?) and Cincinnati Law School, an executive with utility companies in Chicago, started a bank in Chicago, appointed Comptroller of the Currency, served in the U. S. Army during World War I in leadership roles for logistics and attaining the rank of Brigadier General, and was budget director for President Warren G. Harding. All of this was intermingled with political activity, including an unsuccessful Senate run, mostly in campaign support for others. He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his role in helping plan the financing of Germany’s World War I reparation debt.

A young Charles G. Dawes, around the time of his appointment at age 33 as Comptroller of the Currency in 1898. From OCC.gov.

Dawes and his wife endured the loss of their son Rufus at age 21 in a drowning accident. In his son’s memory, Dawes built homeless shelters in Boston and Chicago and financed a dormitory building at his son’s Alma mater Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ.

The 1924 campaign had little of today’s harsh rhetoric, though the Democratic Convention required over 100 ballots to finally select West Virginian John W. Davis for President and Charles W. Bryan for Vice President. Calvin Coolidge was a shoo-in for the Republicans, having been elevated to the Presidency in 1923 when Warren G. Harding died in office. The Coolidge-Dawes ticket won by a landslide.

Though Dawes seemed well qualified for office, his actual performance in office was an embarrassment. He was bluntly outspoken on many issues, often inviting negative publicity - not the desired profile of a Vice President. One writer observed: “Dawes was criticized by many of Coolidge’s opponents and was also resented by many of the President’s allies.” 

Caricature of Charles Dawes with his strange looking “underslung” pipe.

In March, 1925, he missed a critical tie-breaking vote on a cabinet confirmation in the Senate, causing defeat of a Coolidge cabinet nominee. Dawes had been told his presence would not be needed that day; Republicans were sure they enough votes for confirmation. So, instead of being at the Senate, he was napping at the Willard Hotel. 

Meanwhile, a political crisis was unfolding. The surplus of votes dissipated for the Attorney General nominee Charles Warren. It would be a close vote; the Vice President’s vote might be needed to break a tie. But he wasn’t there. Urgent calls went out to Dawes at the hotel. He sprang out of bed and bolted, not fully dressed, out on to the street with arms flailing to hail a cab - like an ordinary citizen. There were no limos or secret service protections then. The taxi (perhaps a 1924 Checker Model E) plodded to Capitol Hill. A disheveled Charles Dawes burst into the Senate chamber, panting and sweating. But it was too late. Warren’s nomination was defeated. President Coolidge was livid.

Republican leaders publicly blamed themselves for telling Dawes he didn’t need to be there. Dawes was nonetheless pilloried in the press for being asleep when duty called. He became a laughing stock of Washington. The Willard Hotel put up a sign: “Dawes slept here.” Writers even invoked Dawes’ ancestor William Dawes’ who rode with Paul Revere. Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” was parodied as “The Midday Ride of Charles Dawes.” He was mocked and held in low regard by the press - despite his impressive public service record. 

Dawes was predictably passed over as Herbert Hoover’s running mate in 1928. Hoover appointed him as ambassador to Great Britain, a very prestigious assignment.

Charles G. Dawes was not only a successful businessman and dedicated public servant - he was also a talented musician.Dawes was a pianist, flutist, and composer. His composition Melody in A Major became well-known piano and violin piece in 1912. Later, lyrics were added, transforming it to the popular tune “It’s All in the Game,” which became a No. 1 Billboard hit.

The Dawes family left us with many remarkable people. Charles Gates Dawes was one of those.