Civil War Soldier's Letter From 2nd Iowa Cavalry

 On May 8, 1863, The Muscatine Journal printed this letter from an unnamed member of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry.

2nd Iowa Cavalry setting off on a scouting expedition

April 17, we, the 2nd Cavalry, started out on a scout, in company with the Sixth and Seventh Illinois Cavalry, having five pieces of two pounders. We all went south together as far south as Houston, which is south and east of Grenada. Here our regiment was sent off on the Columbus Road. When within about 20 miles of Columbus (on the Ohio and Mobile railroad), we were attacked by parts of three rebel regiments, 900 strong. We had about 500 men, but soon made the rebels fly, with no loss whatever on our side. We wounded 12 of the rebels, that we know of.

About an hour before this fight, 27 of our men were sent out on a byroad, leading into a swamp, to get a lot of horses and mules, known to be secreted there. They got some 60 head, and mounting a lot of darkies on them, started to rejoin the regiment. Soon, however, they found out that they were cut off by the rebels and endeavored to reach us by another route. After riding on this tack eight or ten miles, they found themselves between a heavy rebel column and their advanced guard. They now took off through the woods, on no road at all, but in executing this maneuver four men who were in the rear were taken prisoner. The rest got back to the regiment about 11 o’clock at night. The four men taken were from Atalissa. Their names are: Chas. Cope, C. Eves, B. F. Barkalow, and Barclay J. Embree.

Cy Slapnick Didn't Make It In The Majors But He Knew How To Pick Them

 

Cyril Charles Slapnicka was born in Cedar Rapids in 1886. Farm country. Immigrant parents. Baseball was the quickest way out of town and the surest way back in.

He pitched forever in the minors. Iowa. Illinois. Anywhere they’d pay him. In 1911 he won 26 games in Rockford and forced the Chicago Cubs to notice. September call-up. Big league clubhouse. A few appearances. Then, back on the train.

He resurfaced with Pittsburgh in 1918. Ten major league games total. Record: 1–6. He wasn’t a star. Not even close.

A lot of men would’ve faded right there.

Slapnicka didn’t.

In 1921, he signed on with Cleveland as a scout. That’s where the story actually starts. He had an eye, and knew what a big-league arm looked like before it knew itself. He drove Iowa’s back roads. Watched high school kids throw in half-empty parks. Talked to parents. Took notes. Made bets with other scouts and usually won.

In 1936, he found Bob Feller, an Iowa farm kid throwing gas past grown men. Slapnicka signed him. That changed Cleveland for a decade. Later came Bob Lemon and a pipeline of players who filled out rosters that could actually win.

For a stretch in the mid-1930s, he ran the club. General manager. Contracts, salaries, egos. No draft system back then. You wanted a player; you found him first and signed him fast. Slapnicka operated like a man who understood scarcity. Talent was gold. Hesitation was death.

He stayed with Cleveland over forty years, scouting into his seventies because he trusted his judgment more than anyone else’s reports.

He died in 1979 at 93, back in Cedar Rapids.

Here’s the clean version: He had a short, forgettable pitching career and a long, consequential second act.

He didn’t conquer the mound. He built the roster. And in baseball, that can matter more.

Historic old Buildings in Des Moines

 

Des Moines in 1858

On September 30, 1906, the Des Moines Register ran a pictorial on the historic old building of Des Moines. I picked two of them to feature hereL  a look at Des Moines in 1858, and the Des Moine Hotel in 1855. Some of the other pictures not shown here included the Old Congregational Church in 1858, the first bridge on Walnut Street in 1866, and the D. F. C. Grunell House, built in 1848.

Mrs. W. F. Mitchell President Des Moines Women's Club 1906

 

Picture from the Des Moines Register. September 30, 1906.

Mrs. W. F. Mitchell became the president of the Des Moines Women's Club in September 1906. She succedded Mrs. H. L. Carrell.

Colonel Earl D. Thomas Fort Des Moines 1906

Colonel Earl D. Thomas, commander of the Eleventh Cavalry at Fort Des Moines, took command several cavalry units in Cuba in 1906.

Thomas began his military service as a private in the Eighth Illinois, rising to sergeant-major during the Civil War. He graduated from West Point in 1869 and was assigned to the Fifth Cavalry where he took part in many of the Indian Wars. He fought in the Indian campaigns in the Republican River Country, the Apache Campaign of 1872-1874, at Four Peaks, Salt River Canyon, Music Mountain, and many more campaigns in the West.

Thomas was on frontier duty in Kansas and Nebraska from 1878 to 1885, led a surveying expedition in 1879, and fought in the Western Indian Wars from 1885 to 1898. 

When the Spanish American War broke out, he helped outfit Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, then served as an inspector general of volunteers. In 1899, he became an associate judge in a provincial court in Cuba. He returned to the United States in 1900 and served on the frontier for several more years.

Thomas was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1904 and took command of the Eleventh Cavalry at Fort Des Moines in April of that year. When he headed to Cuba in 1906, two-thirds of the 851 men at Fort Des Moines went with him.

Artists' Sketch Proposed Fleming Building in Des Moines

The Des Moines Register printed an artists' sketch of the proposed Fleming Building in its September 30, 1906. The building was to be erected on the southwest corner of Sixth Avenue and Walnut Street. When completed, the ten story building would be the largest office building in the city, and one of the most expensive at a cost of $350,000. Each floor would house 28 offices.

Capitol Park High School Baseball Team 1903

The Des Moines Register printed this picture of the Capitol Park High School baseball team on May 3, 1903. They didn't identifty the players in the picture, but they did list the team members and positions. 

Robert Gates, catcher; Andrew Chalmers, pitcher and team captain; Martin Peterson, first base; Fred Gates, second base; Walter Sargent, third base; Ray Prather, shortstop; Burt Sargent, left field; Ray Hampton, center field; John Dwight, right field; and Benjamin Franklin and Charlie Holmes, substitutes.