History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Addison H. Sanders
ADDISON H. SANDERS was born on the 13th of September, 1823, in Cincinnati, Ohio. His education was begun in a printing office of his native city and completed at Cincinnati College. In 1845 and again in 1846 he came to Davenport, where his brother, Alfred, was struggling to put his Gazette on a paying basis. During each of these visits he stayed several months, taking editorial charge of the paper and thus relieving his overworked brother, so that he might bring the business department into better condition. When the city had grown large enough to demand a daily paper, Addison H. removed to Davenport, in October, 1856, took editorial charge of the Daily Davenport Gazette and continued in that position until he entered the Union army. At the beginning of the Civil War no newspaper in Iowa had wider influence than the Daily Gazette of Davenport. Early in 1861, Add. H. Sanders was commissioned aid to Governor Kirkwood, serving with Judge Baldwin of Council Bluffs and later in the year he was placed in command of Camp McClellan, at Davenport, where the Union volunteers were mustering for the organization of regiments and for drill. The Sixteenth Regiment was organized early in the winter of 1862 and Governor Kirkwood was so impressed with the excellent work and superior qualifications of Add. H. Sanders, that he offered him the position of colonel of the new regiment. But having observed the disadvantage of placing inexperienced officers at the head of new regiments he declined the command, urging the selection of a regular army officer for the place. The Governor and General Baker realized the wisdom of such a selection and Captain Alexander Chambers of the Eighteenth United States Infantry was appointed colonel and Mr. Sanders was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. The regiment received its “baptism of fire” at the desperate and bloody battle of Shiloh and at Corinth, Lieutenant-Colonel Sanders was wounded very severely. He did gallant service during the war, often in command of the regiment. At the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. Colonel Sanders was taken prisoner, suffering everything but death in the Confederate prison and when exchanged was so low with starvation and fever that for a long time his recovery was doubtful. On the 2d of April, 1865, he was discharged from the service for disability, having been brevetted Brigadier-General for gallant conduct on many battle-fields. Upon his return home, he was appointed postmaster of Davenport. In 1870 he was appointed by President Grant Secretary of Montana Territory and became acting Governor. In 1872 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office for Montana. He returned to his old home at Davenport where for many years he has done editorial work on several of the daily papers. As a writer, General Sanders has for a third of a century ranked among the ablest in the State.