by

Josh Duey

    Robert Speer was born in Pennsylvania on February 25, 1828. On September 16, 1853, Speer arrived in Black Hawk County as one of its pioneer settlers. [1] He came in a quest to complete his legal education, but he soon discovered that the legal profession was not popular in the Cedar Falls area. [2] Therefore, Speer decided to venture into a more respected and needed profession: land surveying. [3]

    In the 1860s, the Civil War put a temporary halt on Speer’s activities in Cedar Falls. As mentioned in his obituary he served as "Captain of Co. B, 31st regiment, Iowa volunteers from Aug. 7, 1862 to Sept. 17, 1864." [4] Speer’s regiment was in the first division, 15th army corps, in the Army of the Tennessee, and served under General Grant. [5] Captain Speer led his men into some heavy battles in the campaign for Vicksburg under Grant from March 29 to July 4, 1863. Speer's regiment also fought in the campaigns at Chattanooga, on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in November 1863. Speer ended his military career in the Atlanta campaign under Sherman in September 1864. [6]

    Captain Speer wrote a number of letters home to the Cedar Falls Gazette. On July 4, 1864, he witnessed about four hundred wounded and sick soldiers participating in a procession around the camp with the aid of a drummer and a fifer playing "Rally ’Round the Flag, Boys." [7] Speer noted that, "I noticed that many of them did not keep the step; but I think they were excusable as they had, unfortunately, lost legs and were obliged to march on crutches. Others again had their arms amputated or in slings. Some had strips of cotton cloth wrapped round their heads, but it was not to keep the sun off." [8] Speer himself escaped death to return home to Cedar Falls. After his return, Speer continued to gather titles, becoming, for example, the president of Iowa State Horticultural Society. [9] He also served as trustee of the Iowa Agricultural College from 1884 to 1888, the Director of the Iowa Agricultural College Experimental Station, and trustee of Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home in Davenport. [10] Speer lived out his remaining days in Cedar Falls until his death at the age of eighty, on February 2, 1908. [11]

Footnotes  
 

1."Capt. Speer Called Away," Waterloo Courier, 4 February 1908, 1. 

2. ibid. 

3. ibid. 

4. ibid. 

5. ibid. 

6. History of Black Hawk County, Iowa. Isaiah Van Metre, ed. (Chicago: Biographical
    Publishing, 1878),336. 

7. "From Sherman’s Army, Letter from Capt. Speer," Cedar Falls Gazette, 12 August 1864, 2. 

8. ibid. 

9. Waterloo Courier, 4 February 1908, 1. 

10. ibid. 

11. ibid. 

   Bibliography 

 
"Capt. Speer Called Away." Waterloo Courier, February 4, 1908, 1. 

"From Sherman’s Army, Letter from Capt. Speer." Cedar Falls Gazette, August 12, 1864, 2. 

History of Black Hawk County, Iowa. Ed. Isaiah Van Metre, Chicago: Historical Company, 1878, 336. 

Lyftogt, Kenneth. From Blue Mills To Columbia. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1993.