James Loraine Geddes was an American soldier and college administrator. Also, he was a professor, amateur artist, and writer of war songs.
Background
James Lorraine Geddes was born on March 19, 1827, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the son of a British officer, Capt. Alexander Geddes, and of Elizabeth (Careless) Geddes.
When he was ten, his father, who had become deeply religious, feeling that he should seek a simpler and more wholesome environment for the rearing of his family, emigrated to Canada.
The provincial surroundings were not to young James’s liking, however, and at sixteen, by working his passage, he returned to relatives in Scotland.
Education
In 1845, Geddes visited a soldier uncle in India and entered the British military academy at Calcutta.
Career
After two years of study, Geddes joined the Royal House Artillery and had seven years of active duty under Gough, Napier, and Campbell.
Upon his decision to rejoin his family he was made a colonel of Canadian cavalry. The Canadian service was not congenial, and in October 1857, he resigned his commission and removed to Iowa, settling on a farm in Benton County, near Vinton.
Wholly inexperienced in farming, he supplemented his income by teaching a country school. He was thus engaged when the outbreak of the Civil War brought a new opportunity.
Before the war began, he had been drilling a local company, which upon the organization of the 8th Iowa Infantry became its Company D. When the company was mustered, September 16, 1861, he was commissioned captain, one week later was advanced to lieutenant-colonel, and on February 7, 1862, was promoted to a colonelcy and the command of the regiment.
Its initial service was with Fremont in Missouri, but its first real fighting came at Shiloh, April 6, 1862, where the 8th Iowa was one of the regiments called to the support of Prentiss in his crucial buffer position.
This reorganized division by holding the “hornet’s nest, ” until after severe losses it was forced to surrender at the end of the day, helped to preserve the main army for its triumph on the morrow.
He was exchanged in time to be in the fighting at Vicksburg and Jackson, acquitting himself so creditably that, in October 1863, he was placed in charge of a brigade.
After brief service in Texas the brigade was transferred to Memphis, Tennessee, where Geddes served with tact and efficiency as provost-marshal of the district.
His last important engagement was in the Mobile campaign in which his brigade had a conspicuous part in the capture of Spanish Fort. For this achievement he was made brevet brigadier-general, June s, 1865.
He resigned from the service on June 30. Soon after the war he was called to the superintendency of the Iowa Institution for the Education of the Blind, where for two years he dealt with problems of administration and instruction conscientiously and intelligently.
He was interested from the first in the state’s land-grant college at Ames, and became its steward in 1870. The next year, he was appointed professor of military tactics and engineering, and to the duties of this position those of vice-president and deputy treasurer were soon added.
In November 1882, a board unfavorable to the existing administration among other measures of reorganization discontinued Geddes’s services. This action led to great protest from students and other friends throughout the state, and a new board in December 1884 appointed him college treasurer and recorder, and later, June 1886, college land agent also.
He held these positions until his death, which was occasioned, in his sixtieth year, largely by war disabilities.
Achievements
Col. Geddes, himself among the wounded, was highly commended by Prentiss for his part in the action.
His teaching was most notable in connection with the launching of military instruction in a land-grant college. His training, enthusiasm, and high military ideals enabled him to achieve gratifying results in skill and discipline under serious limitations.
Personality
Slender, erect, elastic of step, with sharp, clear-cut features, Geddes appeared the true soldier; his personality exemplified the ideal military gentleman.
Without relaxing his dignity, he had a kind, modest, considerate manner that won the respect and affection of soldiers and students, fellow officers and colleagues.
Interests
Geddes's interests, developed by travel and wide reading, were broad and tolerant. He was an amateur artist of some talent and a writer of war songs better in form and more restrained in sentiment than the average of such productions.
Connections
While in Canada, October 14, 1856, Geddes was married at St. Thomas, Ontario, to Margaret Moore.
On May 18, 1875, his first wife died, and on April 14, 1876, he married Elizabeth Evans of Vinton, Iowa.
