An eccentric Iowa farmer raises a regiment  of old-timers  with hopes of one day leading them into battle. BY BENTON McADAMS

COMPANY "H"

Tenny, Perkins A.
Age 52. Residence Ainsworth, nativity Maine. 
Enlisted Dec. 12, 1862. 
Mustered Dec. 13, 1862. 
Died of disease Oct. 13,1863, Alton. Ill. 
Buried in National Cemetery, Alton, Ill.

The brainchild of a flamboyant, 50-year-old Iowa farmer named GeorgeW. Kincaid, the 37th Iowa Infantry seemed to be an answer to Iowa's militaryleaders' most pressing concerns. Early in 1862, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwoodand Adjutant General Nathaniel B. Baker fretted as Iowa's once overwhelmingrecruitment numbers began to dwindle. Far to the east, the Civil War wasentering its second year and showing every sign of becoming a long, costlyfight. Kirkwood and Baker wanted the young men of Iowa to do their shareand more to bring about victory for the Union. Even though the state wasmeeting its federal quota of volunteers, both men wanted higher enlistmentfigures. They favored conscription, but knowing that drafts--always unpopular--couldhave negative political consequences, they hoped for a better solution.Kincaid's proposal for a regiment composed of men aged 45 years and upseemed to have promise, and Union Secretary of War Edwin Stanton applaudedthe notion. 

So it was that in the fall of 1862, Kirkwood named Kincaid colonel ofthe new regiment, the 37th Iowa--soon to be known as the "Greybeards" orthe "Silver Greys." Baker had every confidence the regiment would succeedin raising enlistments and in providing some level of service for the wareffort. Like the eccentric Kincaid, Baker likened the soldiers of the 37thto children--their ages notwithstanding--and the colonel as their proudfather. Baker wrote Kirkwood that Kincaid was "large as life, happy asa clam, and proud as a peacock." Kincaid had reason to be proud; he hadrisen almost overnight from being a complete unknown, far removed fromthe action and glory of war, to holding a commissioned position of powerin the Federal military. In his estimation, he was now half a step belowGod, and beholden to no one. 

One of Kincaid's first acts as an officer was to defy his commanders.As he began organizing his regiment, he ignored the age minimum, and allowedhis officers to recruit any man willing to join. When the 37th was musteredinto service in December, 86 underage soldiers took the oath, one of themonly 15 years old. Citing the official age limits authorized for the unit,the mustering officer took exception, but in the end Kincaid kept the youngsters.This apparent victory did nothing to lessen his ego. 

Recruitment began briskly for Kincaid. Every county in the eastern halfof Iowa contributed men, as did a number of Illinois towns across the MississippiRiver. Elderly would-be soldiers called the new regiment "a wonderful expressionof loyalty and patriotism," and despite a random sprinkling of youngsters,it was old men who made up the bulk of the unconventional unit. Many ofthe soldiers had served in the military before, some as far back as theWar of 1812. Nearly 600 of the 914 officers and enlisted men in the 37thwere more than 50 years old, 48 of them were 60 or older, and 9 of them,70 or older. The oldest was Curtis King, age 80. (Perhaps he was consideredhearty enough for duty because he had five children under 16 years old.)For many of the troops, however, age would be a hindrance; neither Kingnor any of the 70-year-olds would complete their three-year enlistments.Nearly 350 Greybeards would eventually accept disability discharges. Butat the outset, they had the fighting spirit of youngsters. Sixty-four-year-oldAllen Summer spoke for them all when he boasted he "would kill a rebelwith as clear a conscience as ever I killed a wolf." 

Apart from the rare tailor or shoemaker, the 37th was a regiment offarmers. As a result, the men shared the same ideals: they were volunteers,citizen soldiers, and every man had the right to speak his mind. Militaryprotocol and chain of command meant little--Kincaid's "children" oftenbypassed the colonel and flooded Baker's office with grievances. Some oftheir complaints concerned Kincaid. One letter accused the colonel of interferingwith company elections. In the spirit of democracy, however, the agingsoldiers also complained about each other. Company F wrote a group letterto Baker detailing the flaws of their fellow soldiers. One, they wrote,was "nothing more nor less than a walking bottle of morphene unfit foranything but eating, at which he cannot be beat." 

The soldiers of the 37th rendezvoused in October 1862 at Camp Strong,on a windswept island near Muscatine, Iowa, a few miles down the Mississippifrom Davenport. They spent most of their time outdoors despite the weather,which grew more and more blustery as winter approached. It was an unkemptcrew, and the island soon showed it. Private John Wagner wrote that theentire place was "covered in the greatest effusions of Snot that humaneyes have ever beheld." 

While the troops underwent rudimentary training--which included bothbattalion drilling and corn husking--their proud colonel busied himselfwith what he considered more important matters. He arranged for more comfortablequarters for his officers and then dunned Kirkwood for the cost. Next,Kincaid appointed his 19-year-old son Charles quartermaster sergeant. Stantonrefused to accept the boy, but Kincaid kept him anyway, at least long enoughto land him a commission in a black regiment. 

Finally, on December 15, the Greybeards mustered into Federal service.Given Kincaid's ambition and his enlistment of youngsters, the colonelundoubtedly harbored visions of leading his rickety legion against theenemy. The troops even heard rumors that the 37th was bound for Washington,D.C., perhaps to face off against General Robert E. Lee himself. Such grandioserumors proved untrue; Stanton and Kirkwood expected the men to do nothingmore glamorous than guard duty. 

In January 1863, the Greybeards left Camp Strong for St. Louis, Missouri,where they guarded arsenals, trains, and the Gratiot Street Prison. Thebitter winter took its toll on the aging soldiers; desertions, discharges,and sicknesses mounted. By February, the effective strength of the regimenthad plummeted from 900 to 700. 

The Confederates imprisoned at Gratiot Street described the Greybeardsas "old gentlemen--kind and fatherly." Their colonel, however, enjoyedno such favor, and with good reason. Kincaid strode into the prison oneday and announced to a group of Confederate officers that all Southernwomen, including their wives, "were prostitutes of the very lowest class."Griffin Frost, one of the prisoners, wrote that Kincaid was a "disgraceto the military service" and that "nothing was too low, mean or insulting"for the colonel to say. 

Kincaid did not confine his insults to prisoners. His "children," whoapparently failed to meet their "father's" expectations, got more of hisattention than they could bear. Desertion rates climbed, and a number ofnon-commissioned officers were demoted for drunkenness and disobedience.One lost his rank for singing while marching; others, disenchanted withtheir growing responsibilities, requested their own demotions. 

Such chaos could not be tolerated, so Kincaid ruled harshly. Accordingto one member of the 37th, Kincaid had a favorite remedy for malcontents.He would order the accused "to be placed...under a hydren and the waterfrom same be let upon his face, eyes, and mouth until he was perfectlysuffocated and apparently dead." This unique brand of discipline was imposedon 13 men "for trivial offenses...[and] without trial." Several membersof one company later tried, unsuccessfully, to bring charges against Kincaidfor such maltreatment. 

Finally, in May, the troubled 37th was sent to guard the military prisonat Alton, Illinois. There, the Greybeards refined their incompetence intoan art. During a single month, the Greybeards allowed 23 Confederates toslip past them and escape to the South. Nevertheless, Federal inspectorsbeheld the Greybeards with the same reverence as did the prisoners at GratiotStreet. 

Kincaid had no time for his "hydrant drills" at Alton Prison. By thistime, something had to be done about his son, Charles. Kincaid managedto secure him a commission in the 3d Arkansas Infantry (African Descent),later the 56th U.S. Colored Infantry. Perhaps he should not have bothered;Charles eventually would collect three dishonorable discharges, and itwould require a postwar act of Congress to get him a pension. 

It was at Alton that the ambitious Kincaid found a way to exploit guardduty for financial gain. Newly arriving Confederate prisoners turned intheir money, expecting to have it returned to them upon their release fromprison. When they handed in gold, Kincaid repaid them in greenbacks. Meanwhile,the gold, along with any increase in its value, went into Kincaid's prisonfund. Colonel William Hoffman, the commissary general of prisoners, orderedKincaid's financial speculation to cease, and the Iowan, for a change,meekly obeyed the order. 

As December arrived, Baker asked the War Department to send the Greybeardsto the military prison at Rock Island, Illinois. The island sat in themiddle of the Mississippi, only a few miles north of Camp Strong. RockIsland Prison also sat just across the river from Davenport, where Baker'soffice was. Major General John M. Schofield, commander of the Federal Departmentof the Missouri, obliged Baker's request and ordered the 37th to Rock Island.This way, Baker reasoned, he could keep a closer eye on the Greybeards. 

It was a good thing Baker was nearby; the move to Rock Island promptedan all-out war of wills between Kincaid and Colonel Adolphus J. Johnson,the prison's fiery commandant. Before the Greybeards even reached the prison,Johnson refused to acknowledge Schofield's order. Kincaid's military misfitswere not welcome at Rock Island, Johnson asserted, and he would not wastesupplies meant for his men on the 37th Iowa. 

Kincaid, meanwhile, obeyed Schofield's order. Denied admission to theRock Island compound, the Greybeards spent two bitter winter days sittingin their railroad cars. Finally, the post quartermaster disobeyed Johnsonand offered rations and shelter--all outside the military post--to thetired, hungry old men. It took a letter from Baker to Stanton to forceJohnson to accept the regiment. Even then, Johnson quartered the 37th ina section of the prisoners' barracks. 

Strangely, although they were quite practiced in complaining, not asingle Greybeard wrote to Baker about being forced to share quarters withthe Rebels. Perhaps they took the opportunity to complain in person--afterall, Baker's office was only a mile away. If they did visit the adjutantgeneral, they no doubt also mentioned that the tyrant Johnson refused tolet them keep pigs, as they had done on previous assignments. 

If the Greybeards' failure at Alton had shown a chink in their armor,the entire suit rusted away at Rock Island. According to a report by surgeonAugust Clark, the 37th was "a regiment of decrepit old men and the mostunpromising subjects for soldiers I ever saw." What is more, wrote Clark,they had no idea of the value of discipline. One night, for instance, adrunken Greybeard, thinking he was being assaulted, shot a recently dischargedveteran who merely wanted to embrace his comrade. 

Kincaid, now the highest ranking officer at Rock Island, may have entertainedthoughts of command there. A local newspaper editor suggested he would.But, like his dream of combat, command of a major prison would elude him.The same inspectors who approved his troops despite their many flaws calledKincaid "altogether too slow and easy.... Under no circumstances [shouldhe] be placed in command." 

Kincaid himself came to agree. As 1864 wore on, he realized his menwere old, sick, boisterous, and not battle-tested. The desire to commandhad gone out of him. His disenchantment apparently had begun even beforehe reached Rock Island. He had taken long leaves of absence while his troopswere in St. Louis and Alton--20 days in April 1863, 25 in August, and another20 in September. And while he remained with the regiment for most of itsstay at Rock Island, he was no longer the hydrant-pumping fiend of a yearbefore. He did nothing more outrageous than pester the quartermaster forhorses for him and his field officers. 

If Kincaid had grown soft, however, his officers had grown harsher.Two officers--identified in reports only as Captain Hogendoble and LieutenantGraham--were especially noxious to the prisoners. Hogendoble, struck bya foul ball from a prisoners' baseball game, approached the batter, drewhis pistol, and threatened to "blow the d----d rebel's brains out." Grahamused his side arm more profitably. He often played cards with the prisoners,and if he lost he would draw his pistol, accuse them of cheating, and keepthe money anyway. 

After several months at the prison, the 37th left Rock Island for anassignment in Tennessee. Johnson received a 100-day regiment of half-trainedboys as replacement guards. Even these youths, he believed, would be animprovement over the Greybeards. A prisoner put it more succinctly in hisdiary: "The Greybeards are ordered to Memphis. What for?" 

What for, of course, was more guard duty, this time on the Memphis &Charleston Railroad. And on July 5, 1864, a few of the Greybeards foundwhat their colonel had been dreaming of since 1862: combat. While atopa train bound for La Grange, Tennessee, a detachment of Greybeards receivedand returned the fire of a gang of bushwhackers. Four of the Iowans werewounded, two mortally. Kincaid insisted that his men did the enemy at leastequal damage, although he neglected to report how he determined this fromthe top of a moving train. 

This was the only engagement the 37th would ever see. In August theregiment was sent east to Camp Morton in Indianapolis. There, the 37thwas broken into two detachments; five companies stayed put while the otherfive continued east to Ohio, where they were parceled out among severalgarrisons--notably Camps Chase, Gallipolis, and Cincinnati. 

Kincaid ended up in Cincinnati. Now he commanded not even a regimentof old men, but just a few companies. He passed the remainder of the warquietly, his ego deflated and the fire and defiance wrung completely outof him. Even though the establishment of the 37th had indeed prompted anincrease in enlistments in Iowa, Kincaid considered his "children" nothingbut a disappointment. When the "decrepit old men" were gathered in May1865 and sent back to Rock Island to be mustered out, Kincaid could notbear to watch. As these "unpromising subjects" stood in the ranks as soldiersfor the final time, Colonel Kincaid was not with them--he was once againon leave. 

A lifelong student of the Civil War, Illinois native Benton McAdamsis working on books about Rock Island Prison and the 12th Illinois Infantry.This is his first article for Civil War Times.