Thomas Howard and the Lincoln Memorial
Thomas O. Howard and Edwin Nichols volunteered from Clear Lake for service in the Civil War. Lt Howard commanded Company B of the 32 nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry and Nichols was an enlisted man in the company.
The company was engaged in the Battle of Pleasant Hill in Louisiana on April 9, 1864. Edwin’s personal journal illustrates what that battle was like.
We took our position, and soon saw many signs of an approaching battle. The noise, smoke, and smell of powder burning made me wish that the general and command would make it necessary to have a bottle of water of the Atlantic Ocean, and would detail me to bring it. I am sure I could’ve gotten ready to start within thirty-days!
After the skirmish line was called in I felt that it was the other fellow who was in danger. All through the day we expected an attack at any moment, but about four o’clock the fire of the skirmishers and sharp-shooters slacked up, and many of us began to think the enemy was retiring. Just then Colonel Scott passed along the line, and when near our company said, ‘Boys, if they come today they will be here within a half an hour.‘
Company B of the 32nd Iowa was indeed engaged violent battle with Confederate troops within 30 minutes that day. The Confederates moved toward the Federal right. Only light skirmishing occurred during the afternoon but at 5 o’clock the attack was increased, the Federal skirmishers being driven back. The left flank received the heaviest onset, the Confederate Army advancing in two, oblique lines extending well over to the right of the 3rd brigade. This part of the line gave way and fell back on the reserves, thus exposing the front, right and rear of the 1st and 2nd brigades. It was at this point when Nichols who was standing near Lt. Thomas O. Howard witnessed the mortal wounding of his commander. Howard had been shot through the abdomen and was bleeding heavily.
Edwin Nichols gives us more details:
… there was such a storm of iron and lead. A ball struck the ground and filled my face with dirt; another took a bit of skin from the knuckle of my right forefinger; another pulled the hair over my left; another lodged in the rolled blanket on my shoulder. Col. Shaw saw that the enemy was passing on our left in heavy force.
… Lieutenant Howard stood with his left hand against a small tree, his sword in his right, the point resting on the ground. He soon fell.
Col. Scott stated in his battle report that
…when the battle opened Howard was in command of the skirmish line, and brought his men back in gallant style under the advance of the enemy in heavy force. It was impossible for field surgeons to reach the wounded on the field.
Wounds were treated with dressings made from the torn up underclothing of the men.
Howard was finally taken to one of the many field hospitals set up in and around the small community of Pleasant Hill, LA. There were 300 hundred men including Lt. Howard. Food was scare and was often simply corn meal mixed with water. It’s amazing that anyone survived.
Lt. Howard died from his devastating wounds on April 13, 1864. Lt. Howard’s last correspondence to his wife Rosa was March 15, 1864 – about 3 weeks prior to the Battle of Pleasant Hill.
Post conflict reports filed by Colonel John Scott, commander of the 32nd Iowa, recounted that the 32nd had been totally surrounded and cut off from the rest of the command. Despite the fact the nearly one half of the regiment’s men were either wounded or killed in the battle, the 32nd pushed forward and through the Confederate lines.
Col. Scott stated, “no regiment ever fought with sublimer courage than did the 32nd on the field at Pleasant Hill.” Scott also stated that “Lt. Howard was a soldier, brave and generous; as a Man, a Comrade, a Friend, he was trusted implicitly by his associates.“
Scott further reported that Howard was most likely “buried under the sod” near a Union field hospital.
Thomas Howard’s body was never taken to the National Cemetery in Alexandria, LA. It was not returned home, and its exact location is unknown even today. A gravestone was erected in the Clear Lake cemetery as a monument.
His wife Rosa, never remarried and died at the age of 92 in 1930. She raised her children and kept true to her late husband. She is buried in Section 3 of the cemetery. Her stone lists her as the wife of Lt. Thomas O. Howard – killed at the Battle of Pleasant Hill.
A 22-foot Lincoln statue designed to honor Clear Lake’s Civil War veterans was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1918 following the end of World War I to honor veterans of the American Civil War. The inscription on the statue honors the defenders of the Union. On the southside of the Lincoln statue is a monument erected at the same time period to the Lt. Tom Howard Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Post 101. The Civil War monument was placed by the Daughters of Union Veterans, Tent 45 to honor all Clear Lake Union veterans.