Springfield (MASS) Republican, October 19, 1894, p. 4. NOTE: It seems
likely that the Gresham referenced in the article below was one and the same
as Walter Q. Gresham who was enumerated in Harrison County, Indiana, in
1860. His occupation was lawyer. His wife was Matilda, a native of
Kentucky.
THE STORY OF SECRETARY GRESHAM of the state department is told in a very
interesting way by Kate Field in her Washington. (sic) It is worth the
telling when partisan newspapers are abusing Mr. Gresham on every occasion
and without reason or principle.
Gresham was a lawyer in good practice in Corydon, Indiana, some 20 miles
from Louisville when the rebellion broke out. His father was a Virginia,
his mother a Kentuckian, and they settled in Corydon in their early married
life. His wife was a Kentucky girl, and they had a boy three years old and
a baby daughter when the summons came.
Gresham began the study of military tactics before Sumter was fired on; in
September he went to the field as lieutenant-colonel of the 38th Indiana
regiment which was so hurriedly recruited that the men went into active
service without uniforms. Three months later Gresham returned to recruit
the 53rd Indiana regiment, led them as colonel, and after the fall of
Vicksburg was made brigadier-general and took part in all the important
movements of the army of the Tennessee.
He commanded a division in Georgia, and at Atlanta his left leg was
shattered, an inch and a half of bone being shot away. He was conveyed to
Nashville by a roundabout way to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy;
30 miles of the journey were made in an ambulance, and it was at the risk of
his life. Mrs. Gresham met him at Nashville, and they got as far as New
Albany, Indiana, a suburb of Louisville, when the wounded man could go no
further. For ten months Gen. Gresham could not leave his bed, and when he
finally was able to do that, it was on crutches, and on crutches he moved
for five years afterward.
This is the man whom the New York Tribune delights in accusing of lack of
patriotism and lowering the statesmanship of America. A soldier's record,
no matter how meritorious, counts for nothing with such organs if the
soldier does not stick to the Republican Party through thick and thin.