(Continued from previous blog)
Years after the Civil War, Byers would write: “There was no man living I was so anxious to see as Abraham Lincoln.” 1 Yet, when he had been offered an opportunity to personally meet with the President, he declined the offer.
It was March 15, 1865, and Byers had just delivered General Sherman’s dispatch to General Ulysses Grant at Grant’s Union Army Headquarters in City Point, Virginia. The General had greeted him warmly and Byers had found him to be a very sincere and down-to-earth type of person. “Of vanity, pretence or power there was not a single sign. …Like General Sherman, he repeatedly expressed his interest concerning the terrible experiences I had undergone in Southern prisons.” 2 After a lengthy discussion, General Grant said: “I suppose you will want to get home as quickly as possible, won’t you … or would you rather remain here awhile and look about the army?” 3 But Byers still had another dispatch from General Sherman to deliver to President Lincoln. General Grant realized this and told Byers that the President would be coming to City Point in a few days, and “if you choose … I will give it to him, or (you can) stay over and give it to him yourself.” 4 A steamer was departing from City Point within an hour headed north to Washington, D.C., and Byers chose to leave. But, as Byers explained later in writing about his war experience: “Privately, I was fearing a sudden break-down of my health …” 5
The years of intense battles and the sixteen months he spent in confederate prisons had taken its toll on Byers. As he would recall:
“SUMTER was fired on. I was twenty-two. I longed for the excitement of battle, the adventure of war; and I enlisted in a regiment that was to be wiped out of existence before the war was over. …
It was in a pause of the battle of Chattanooga. I was lying there on the grass for just one moment, my mind went back to that village green where I had volunteered to go out and fight and, maybe, win adventure. I had had it all – and the worst, a thousand times, was yet to come. …
I had, as a boy, often wondered how men feel in war-times. After four years of war, adventure, and prison, I found it out. In all the civil war I slept but eight nights in a bed at home. I had longed for adventure. The memory of the past is now enough.” 6
When Byers was discharged from the voluntary service, “he was a physical wreck. It was several years before he regained anything like even a tolerable degree of health, and from the effects of his sufferings while in prison he has never fully recovered. No sooner was he out of the army than he was compelled to set about earning a livelihood, though he was a fitter subject for a hospital than for any active employment.” 7 It appears that Byers may have been suffering from what is now called, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is an emotional disorder brought on by traumatic events or life-threatening experiences.
“On January 4, 1866, Byers was at home in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he signed an affidavit which stated that he was totally disabled and unable to do any work as a result of a ‘nervous disease’ caused by exposure and imprisonment.” 8
On September 25, 1867, Byers wrote to Charles Aldrich, Adjutant of the 32nd Iowa, from a popular spa (sanitarium) located in Dansville, New York. He mentioned “that he was taking the water cure and expected to be there at least a year.” 9 In the mid-19 century, mineral water cures or hydropathy were popular as an alternative form of medicine. Dr. James Caleb Jackson managed the institution. “Along with the water cures, Jackson came to believe that diet was fundamental in improving health. Over time, he removed red meat from the menu at the spa, and ruled out tea, coffee, alcohol and tobacco. He promoted a near vegetarian diet with the emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed grains.” 10
In 1868, Byers wrote his first book: “What I Saw in Dixie; or In Rebel Prisons.” It was published by a printing company in Dansville, New York. Although the book was a small volume of only 92 pages, it took a long time to write as he explained in the first paragraph of a note “To The Reader” at the start of the book: “This note is not written to ask the Critic to spare his stereotyped criticism upon my unpolished Story, nor yet to apologize to Rebels for having written the same; but simply to say that the work would have appeared long ago had not continued illness—the result of imprisonment—forbade this labor necessary to prepare it for the press.”
By writing of his experience in the Rebel prisons, Byers had taken a positive step in his treatment for overcoming his PTSD. It also was the start of what would be a long writing career, but that would come later. The book was well received by the public and whenever it was commented upon publicly, there would always be some reference that the author was the one who had written the popular song: “Sherman’s March to the Sea.”
Prior to enlisting in the Iowa 5th Infantry, Byers had studied law in the offices of William Loughridge in Oskaloosa. In 1869, Loughridge was serving as the U. S. Congressman for Iowa’s 4th congressional district; and on April 13, 1869, he wrote a letter to President Ulysses Grant requesting the appointment of S. H. M. Byers as a Consul at one of several U.S. Consulate locations in Europe which he listed in his letter. He commented that “Mr. Byers is a Lawyer, of talent, he lost his health by suffering during Sixteen months in Rebel prisons during the war, and his Surgeon advises travel and change of climate as necessary to his restoration to health—He is well qualified to discharge properly the duties at any of those places.” General Sherman endorsed Loughridge’s letter on April 14 and added the following comments: “I found Byers a prisoner of war, at Columbia, S. C. in February 1864 [sic], and took him on my staff by reason of his Zeal and intelligence as far as Fayettville, NC whence I sent him with dispatches to Washington. I have not seen him since, but I feel great interest in his behalf, and would be glad if he receives such an appointment as would tend to restore his health, shaken I am told by his long imprisonment in the ill fed ‘Camp Sorghum’” 11*
As President Grant was signing the papers to commission Byers as Consul for the U.S. Consulate office in Zurich, Switzerland, he “laughingly said, with a twinkle in his eye, ‘Well, Sherman, here it is, and I expect a certain song had lots to do with it.’ Sherman only smiled.” 12
Byers married Margaret Gilmour on June 14, 1869 in Galena, Illinois, and on his thirty-first birthday, July 23, 1869, the newly married couple departed for Europe on the Steamship City of London.
(To be continued – “Iowa, tis Iowa”)
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1. “With Fire and Sword” by Major S. H. M. Byers; New York, The Neal Publishing Company, 1911; p. 197
2. ibid, p. 196
3. ibid
4. ibid, pp. 196-197
5. ibid, p. 196
6. “How Men Feel In Battle” by S.H.M. Byers; Published by Harper’s Magazine Co., 1908
7. Annals of Iowa, A Historical Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1, Des Moines, Iowa, April 1893, 3d.. , p. 149
8. “With Fire and Sword” by S.H.M. Byers; Reprinted 1992 by Press of the Camp Pope Bookshop, p. xii; Pension Records for S.H.M. Byers, National Archives, Washington, DC.
9. “With Fire and Sword” by S.H.M. Byers; Reprinted 1992 by Press of the Camp Pope Bookshop, p. xii
10. Wikipedia - Dr. James Caleb Jackson
11.* The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: July 1, 1868 – October 31, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant Association; p. 485. *(There was an error in the quoted material. General Grant arrived in Columbia, S.C. in February 1865 and not in 1864)
12. Annals of Iowa, A Historical Quarterly, Vol. XI, No. 1; Des Moines, Iowa, April 1913; 3d, The Song “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” p. 216