Bryce Holcomb
August 2002
First Lieutenant William Reeves Bryce
Company C
Ninth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry
This is the story of two of my great grandfathers, two Union soldiers, William Reeves Bryce, born in 1825 and died at age 57 in 1883, and James M. Childers who was born in 1824 and died at age 90 in 1914. Both of Bloomfield, Iowa, they joined the 9th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry and both fought during the Civil War, having previously fought in the Mexican War with particular emphasis on the battle at Buena Vista.
In 1850 Childers was called as a militiaman to ride 50 miles across the prairie of Illinois to the town of Nauvoo to quell the riot caused by the appearance of Joseph Smith of the Mormon Church. However, the militiamen arrived two hours late as Smith had already been lynched by the mob.
Up to now we have used the full names of these gentlemen as we have them, but from time to time hereafter we may call them Bill and Jim. It would seem self-evident that these fellows knew each other, fought together (probably drank together) came from the same town and were close friends...they loved to fight, and as George Washington was heard to say "I've heard the singing of the bullets and it's music to my ears." Most of their fighting was done in three states - Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
William R. Bryce resigned as Sergeant to accept a commission as First Lieutenant of Company C on November 21, 1865. By this time Company C had been moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas. The regimental return for November showed him as "absent on 30 days scout since November 11, 1865." On December 11, 1865, he was placed in command of a detachment assigned as escort to and from Boggy Depot on the Texas Road in the Indian Territory, Choctaw Nation, near present day Atoka, Oklahoma.
The Ninth Iowa Volunteer Cavalry was mustered out and sent home from Little Rock between February 28 and March 23, 1866.
Lt. Bryce had married Mary Nichols on March 13, 1848, after his Mexican War service, about the time of his father's death. Their youngest son was Harry Parker Bryce. James Childers married Martha Moore. One of their daughters was Sarah (also known as Sadie) Childers. Harry and Sadie were married in Bloomfield, Iowa January 24, 1894 and later moved to Oklahoma City. They became the parents of a daughter, Nelle Josephine Bryce. Nelle married Herbert Mason Holcomb on October 10, 1925, my beloved parents.
In 1936 my Mother and Dad decided to drive to Des Moines, Iowa to see my great grandmother Martha Moore Childers, widow of James Childers. Grandma Childers was at that time 91 years of age and not expected to live very long. My Mother called me and my sister, and my Dad, and took us upstairs in the Childer's home to see Grandma who was virtually bedridden. At age 10 I was not properly respectful, nor did I understand exactly what we were doing, and besides I had a new found cousin down in the yard below playing baseball, and I wished to join him and resume our game. I had no idea that her husband had fought in the Mexican War and the Civil War. Good night, I didn't know that we had had a Mexican War! Fifty years later I have repented.
I will close with a little story that I have enjoyed in regard to hardtack. Hardtack is the Army's snack cracker.
Two Union soldiers decided to stop, tether their horses and break out their hardtack. They were chewing away when Jim said to Bill..."You know, the other day I was eating my hardtack and I bit down on something soft." Bill said, "oh yeah, what was it?" Jim said..."it was a nail!"
