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"Louisville's Most Historic Inn" |
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Concerning a monument to General Lawton
INDIANAPOLIS, Friday, January 5, 1905 By Louis Ludlow.
Washington, Jan. 5., - General Henry W. Lawton had no warmer friend, no more ardent admirer than Major Charles Shaler, who became widely and favorably known throughout Indiana when he served as commandant of the Indianapolis Arsenal. The proposition for a State appropriation to build a monument to General Lawton at Arlington has aroused the enthusiasm of Major Shaler. The Major, by the way, is now connected with the Ordnance Bureau, with headquarters at the War Department.
"The project", said Major Shaler, "to erect a monument to General Lawton should commend itself to every one who loves Indiana, and to every one who loves a gallant soldier and a noble man. He entered the volunteer service as a sergeant in Company E. to the Ninth Indiana infantry, and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel before the war was over.
"He left as a legacy to his State, among other deeds, his brevet as major general of volunteers for distinguished gallantry in leading a charge of skirmishers against the enemy's rifle pits, taking them with their occupants and stubbornly and successfully repulsing two determined attacks of the enemy to retake the works, in front of Atlanta, Georgia, August 23, 1864.
"In these days of graphic accounts of fights between the stubborn Russians and the gallant Japanese, it is well to note that just such fighting was done by General Lawton and others like him during the Civil War. His later career was one of incessant devotion to duty.
"I remember being told by an officer who met him in the midst of one of the Apache campaigns that Lawton was so gaunt, ragged, shoeless and black with sun and sand that he could hardly recognize him even when told who he was.
"He was one of the kindliest men that ever lived and was a living example that 'the bravest are the tenderest'. His State in honoring him will honor itself."
With Thanks to Jean Lawton Reagan for finding and sending this article
The General Lawton, Spanish-American War Photo Album
