At Pea Ridge the Fourth and Ninth were the strong arm of the Union forces, and gave the hardest blows.

At Shiloh, where forests of bayonets bristled from every hill top, and torrents of flame rolled down the valleys, eleven of her regiments stemmed the tide of battle and stood the bravest of the brave.

Thirteen Iowa regiments were at Corinth, and when the battle raged like a sea of fire lashed into fury by the winds, that mighty surge that swept over the forts and rifle pits and filled the trenches with rebel dead, was made of Iowa men.

In the battle of Prairie Grove a small army of Union troops, commanded by an Iowa general and fronted by the Nineteenth and Twentieth Iowa, completely routed a vast army of rebels.

In the charge of Lawler's Brigade at Black River Bridge, the Twenty-first and Twenty-third Iowa filled the world with their fame.

Thirty of her regiments were in that wall of fire that surrounded Vicksburg, and thirteen brave men from the Twenty-second captured and silenced Fort Beauregard during the remarkable seige.

There were three regiments and a battery from Iowa among the 4,000 soldiers in Fort Helena when 10,000 rebels undertook its capture. Like a bridal party at a prince's marriage, the rebels marched to meet the Iowa boys; like a herd of wild asses before a prairie fire the remnants of the rebel army fled.

It was the Fifth Iowa that sustained the charge and won the battle at Iuka.

Nine Iowa regiments were at Chattanooga. Some fought on Lookout Mountain like hosts of heaven among the clouds. Some slew the hosts of hell on Mission Ridge.

Four Iowa regiments made Pleasant Hill very unpleasant for the rebel army. In fact the story of the Red River campaign, a sad tale of mad mismanagement and misfortune, from Fort De Russy to Jenkins' Ferry, is brightened by the brilliant exploits and brave deeds of Iowa soldiers.

Three of her regiments were in that awful tide of war that rolled down the valley of the Shenandoah, destroyed the rebels at Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek and scattered the remnants of Early's army.

Fifteen of her regiments were in that fierce host that swept like a cyclone through the mountains of Georgia, filled the gullies with dead rebels and fed Johnson and Hood's army to the buzzards. Seventeen Iowa regiments were in that triumphant army that tore its way like a besom of destruction through the very heart of secession from Atlanta to the sea.

At Nashville, Jackson, Tupelo, Memphis, Mobile, Champion Hills, Milliken's Bend, Stone River and a score of other battles known to history, Iowa troops fought in the front rank and distinguished themselves for valor among men as brave as ever went to battle.

In no bayonet charges or hand to hand encounter did they ever falter or fail to rout the enemy. The story of their sacrifices cannot fail to stir the dullest heart with love and pride.

By his political opponents he has been rated as a shrewd politician. As the term is used in its lower sense, he has never been a politician. The terms "wire puller," "pipe layer," "intriguer," or "plotter," were never applicable to him. He never personally abused an opponent, never betrayed a friend or made political trades to advance his own personal ends. He has always occupied the higher plane of a statesman, rather than the lower one of the politician. What he thought was for the public good he has always supported and advocated:

At a meeting of the Pioneer Law Makers of Iowa, held at Des Moines in the winter of 1892, Hon. W. H. M. Pusey, in 1858 a young Democratic Senator in the 8th General Assembly from Pottawatamic Co., gave an account of the tilt he had with Senator Kirkwood then a member of the same General Assembly, in the following style:

"An amusing and prolonged debate, arose after the standing committees of the Senate had been named, on a resolution offered by the Senator from Johnson Co., (S. J. Kirkwood) instructing the committee on banks and banking, to bring in bills to create banks of issue, (as provided by the new constitution) the one to be known as the free banking system, the other providing for a State bank and branches. I was a new member and knew but very few of my colleagues, I asked a gentleman sitting near me, (Senator Henry H. Trimble) 'who that Senator was, who proposed to instruct the committee on banks in their duty before the committee had even met for organization and conference.' His reply was, 'Oh, he is an old farmer from the east part of the State and don't know anything about banks, pitch into him. Well the young man from Pottawattamie, thought he saw an opening and made his maiden effort in the Iowa Senate. Before he was through with the Johnson county farmer, he learned there was one amusement, more exciting than hunting lions It is when the lion turns in the pursuit of you. I found the farmer's garb covered a man with a big brain, with a clear and incisive way of presenting his views, that was hard to combat, and that the farmer, was the great leader of as great a senate as was ever convened in Iowa,

"When the morning session closed, and the Senator walked over to my desk, and requested Senator Trimble to present his young friend from Pottawattamie county. I first learned that it was Samuel J. Kirkwood.

"From that day to the present, a life-long friendship has continued and strengthened between us, uninterrupted by the excitement of political and partisan strife. It is proper to state that his resolution was adopted, and he was unanimously added to the committee on banks, and from whom the committee and State derived great benefit from his wise counsels in framing those two laws.

"When the gavel fell, that beautiful May morning in the old Capitol building, announcing that the labors of the Eighth General Assembly had passed into history, the old farmer Senator, then filling the Governor's chair, it was with the benediction of our people, upon our citizen soldiers, hurrying to the front, where they so soon placed Iowa as one of the Trinity of Western States.

Indiana-Morton. Illinois-Yates.

Iowa-Kirkwood.

"Gentlemen, no more pleasing privilege is granted us, on this 'Reunion Day' than the greeting we send our 'War Governor,' who in his happy home on the banks of the Iowa, honored by the State and Nation, in the eventide of a full rounded and honest life, is confidently, peacefully, waiting for the Master's call."

In the summer of 1892, ex-Gov. Buren R. Sherman conceived the idea of having a large number of the old-time friends of Gov. Kirkwood make him a social visit in a body and after consulting with Judge Wright and a few other of the Governor's mutual friends, the 28th of September was fixed upon as the time, and invitations to the number of fifty or more were sent out inviting that number of the friends to respond. All responded by attending in person, or by letter sending regrets, and giving reasons why they could not be present. When the time arrived, which was one of those balmy autumnal Iowa days, when sunshine and shade are equally agreeable, about thirty, including those who had arrived in the city the day previous, and a few others residing in the city took carriages at 1:30 o'clock at the St. James Hotel and drove to the Governor's suburban residence on Kirkwood avenue, in the southeast part of the city.

The following account of the interview was given by the