The Graybeards Regiment
The Graybeards Regiment, the nickname bestowed upon the 37th Iowa Infantry, was mustered on December 15th, 1862. It served until the Civil War ended, and was mustered out on May 24th, 1865. The Graybeards’ duties included prison camp guards, the protection of supply trains, and the manning of guard posts in the Western Theater. Such rear echelon duties freed up younger men for front line combat service. The 37th Iowa seldom saw combat, but on one occasion on June 5th, 1865, a detachment of fifty men defended a supply train from a rebel guerrilla attack near Holly Springs, Mississippi. In the fight that followed, three Graybeards were killed, and another four were wounded.
Far more Graybeards lost their lives to illness than to combat. Throughout most of history and until well into the modern era, many times more soldiers died in camp from illness than perished in the battlefield. In the Civil War era, germ theory was not yet widely known, and medical authorities were often ignorant of how diseases were transmitted or how to treat them. Combine that with often unsanitary conditions in which masses of men were crammed together in camps, plus the hardships and rigors of war, and it is no surprise that more men died of illness than from combat. Throughout the Civil War, 1041 men served in the 37th Iowa. Of those, only 3 perished in combat, but more than 145 died of disease. Another 350 were discharged for various disabilities.