Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1899 — A Sword for General Lawton. [ARTICLE]

A Sword for General Lawton.

A large nnmber of newspapers throughout the State have united in urging the raising of a fund by popular (subscription to present a sword to General Lawton. The suggestion is General Lawton was a citizen of Indiana before he was a soldier, having enlisted in the Union army. He therefore belongs to Indiana as much as a regular army officer can to any state, and as one of the heroes of the Spanish and Philippine wars Indiana should be proud to honor him. Perhaps there is no more suitable way of doing this than by the presentation of a sword purchased by popular subscription, and the Journal gives its hearty approval to the suggestion.—lndianapolis Journal.

To the above we may add that the people in this section of Indiana and Jasper county in particular have a right to take a special interest in this greaj; fighter, General Lawton. His first army experience was in the old Ninth, Indiana, whose earliest organized company was from Jasper county, and whose first Colonel was that most illustrious soldier northwest Inidana ever produced, Major General Robert H. Milroy, of Rensselaer. Lawton was a sergeant in Company E. of the three months’ service of that regiment enlisting in Allen county, April 24th, 1861. After his three months w r ere out he was appointed a lieutenant in another regiment, and from that day to this the profession of fighting has been his business and evidently also his delight.