The papers of Ira B. Dutton are divided into four series, Civil War, War Department, Missionary, which are roughly chronological, and Photographs.
Civil War (1862-1924) is the largest series in the collection and includes material relating both to Dutton's service with the 13th Wisconsin Infantry and his work as the Acting Assistant Quarter Master for the Northern District of Alabama. Although there is much in this series that is routine, it also provides a compelling portrait of life behind the front lines in the conquered Confederacy.
The sub-series covering Dutton's service as the Quarter Master Sergeant for the 13th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry comprises a relatively small portion of the Civil War series. Included are some biographical notes and sketches compiled by Dutton and others about Dutton and other members of the 13th Wisconsin. The material on Dutton is quite detailed, but the information on other 13th Wisconsin soldiers, including Dutton's friend Lt. David H. Wood who was a post-war correspondent of Dutton's, is very sketchy. Other material includes Dutton's Quarter Master correspondence, a bound volume with a selection of general orders and newspaper clippings collected by Dutton, an Inventory and Inspection Report from December 1863, receipts and returns, and a variety of other Quarter Master records and reports including lists of stores, requisitions, reports, and abstracts.
The sub-series covering Dutton's detached service as the Acting Assistant Quarter Master for the Northern District of Alabama, stationed in Decatur, Alabama, is the heart of the collection. Included is a large amount of correspondence, both letter and telegram, loose and in bound volumes. Among the many topics covered in the letters and telegrams are, supply issues, including the need for horses, forage, ordnance, lumber, blankets, and other supplies; issues dealing with contraband slave laborers; troop movements; transportation for refugees; a report on Confederate General John B. Hood's attack on Decatur and the subsequent Union abandonment of the post; many references to transportation issues concerning railroads, river boats, and mule trains, including problems with wrecked trains and disabled or sinking boats; problems with guerilla activity behind the lines, including arson attacks on Union supply trains; an unusual reference in a July 1864 letter to a 'soda fountain;' and a reference to two ladies who had a 'protection' from General William T. Sherman and were not to have their land foraged. The demobilization after the war is also documented in the correspondence including, a letter stating that loyal refugees and contraband laborers should be used in preference to Northern workers; a letter to Dutton ordering him to 'reduce and retrench in every way at your Post;' a reference to a post-war arson incident; a letter from a soldier who requests Dutton's assistance in locating his dead brother, who had died three years previously, so that he might be buried at home; and two impassioned July 1865 letters from the family and friends of a soldier, who was apparently imprisoned for some sort of loyalty offense, pleading for Dutton's assistance.
The material relating to freight is mostly routine bills of lading, railroad way-bills, and bound volumes detailing freight shipped and received. There is a September 1864 bill of lading with a reference to a shipment that was burned by arsonists while on a siding in Athens, Alabama, and there is a non-standard bill of lading and matching reference in the Quarter Master Department freight received volume with the cryptic notation 'Lot H.H. Plunder,' which may refer to a shipment of plundered Confederate contraband. The collection also includes a small number of orders, mostly relating to Quarter Master issues. Included are, a detailed document on purchasing local goods entitled, 'General Regulations for the purchase of products of the insurrectionary States on Government account;' a July 1864 order to cease shipping unembalmed bodies until November 1; an order extract detailing the killing and capture of the 'famous guerilla Whitecotton' and his band; the order to evacuate Decatur and Athens when Hood's army was approaching; and a March 1865 order to put Mrs. Mary Truesdale on the payroll of the Northern District of Alabama for 'secret service' at $100.00 per month. Personnel issues are also covered in the collection. There is a bound civilian employment roster with the workers divided into categories as white, 'colored,' and women with names, pay rates, and types of employment noted. There is also a number of other military and civilian employee reports, and two lists of men transferred out during the post-war demobilization. Topics documented by this material include the significant pay discrepancy between white and African-American laborers. Also included are a series of papers related to scouts in the employ of the Northern District of Alabama and their eventual discharge in May 1865.
The bulk of the Acting Assistant Quarter Master material is comprised of the records and reports prepared by Dutton in his role as Quarter Master. Included are receipts, vouchers, estimates of required supplies, invoices for ordnance, his June 1865 annual report, inventory and inspection reports, forage reports, monthly reports from May 1865 through September 1865, and a variety of lists and supply abstracts. Among the subjects covered in Quarter Master records and reports are, forage requisitions for a wide variety of military units that passed through the Decatur Depot; a supply requisition for a small-pox hospital; affidavits on supplies lost and destroyed, including a list of stores thrown overboard to prevent the sinking of the U.S.S Chattanooga river boat; a coffin requisition for named soldiers; an extensive list of supplies burned or abandoned during the evacuation when Hood attacked Decatur; a very extensive list of all supplies held at Decatur on a monthly basis; an invoice transferring the U.S.S. Stone River armed river transport to Dutton's control, which details every piece of equipment on the boat; and the public property auction reports. The June 1865 annual report includes a narrative detailing some of Dutton's activities, information about troop movements, and information about an attack by Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Also of interest are the minutes of an August 1865 Board of Investigation convened to assess the amount of compensation owed to the Presbyterian Church in Athens for damage done to the church by troops during the war.
Transportation records include transportation pass books for general transportation and military railroad transportation, which show the wide variety of persons traveling in Union occupied Alabama including, military units, refugees, Confederate deserters, civilian laborers, scouts, prisoners, and discharged soldiers. Of particular interest is the daily journal of the armed river transport U.S.S. Stone River. This journal details the activities of this boat over a four-month period including, what was transported, where it was transported, weather, and a variety of incidents such as troop pick-ups, the capture of a Confederate deserter, and the transport of a Treasury agent who had been forced to leave his home because of his Union sympathies. The journal was kept by Captain William A. Naylor of the 10th Indiana Light Artillery, on detached service as the sailing master of the Stone River.
War Department (1866-1884) is comprised of records that document Dutton's service overseeing the disinterment and reinterment of the Union dead in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee, with the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in St. Landry and Calcasieu parishes in Louisiana, and as a war claims adjuster in Tennessee and Kentucky. Orders and correspondence document Dutton's service as a civilian employee of the War Department overseeing the disinterment and reinterment of Union soldiers in the geographic area where he served during the war. Of particular interest are his orders to concentrate his efforts along the tracks of the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, which probably indicates that when Union soldiers died during transport they were buried where they died along the railroad tracks, and his orders giving explicit instructions about noting body position and all other relevant data before disinterring the body. There is also a letter from the family of a soldier who died in that area, requesting that a name be placed on his grave if his body was found. Dutton's work with the Freedmen's Bureau is only briefly documented by his appointment, his resignation, and some receipts for monies advanced to planters by the Federal Government. Dutton's work as a war claims adjuster is also briefly documented. Included are documents relating to his appointment and resignation from the post, and two bound volumes with lists of names, claim amounts, place of residence, amount actually paid, and remarks. Of more interest is a series of personal correspondence from this period in Dutton's life dealing with the repayment of some old debts that he accrued in some unspecified way. Apparently he had declared personal bankruptcy, because a number of letters refer to the fact that he did not have to pay the debts, but perhaps as an outgrowth of his growing spiritual awareness and eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism, he decided that he wanted to pay off his debts. The letters show an extraordinary outpouring of appreciation from businesses, mostly in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, and individuals from all over the country, including Fort Sully, Dakota Territory, Leadville, Colorado, and Sacramento, California, at Dutton's willingness to pay off debts, which in many cases had been completely forgotten by the person or business to whom he owed money.
Missionary (1882-1928) includes Dutton's correspondence with his G.A.R. comrades, in Wisconsin and elsewhere, other correspondents, and a few writings by and about Dutton during his missionary period. The letters from Dutton documents his life on Molokai and the letters to Dutton provide updates on the lives and deaths of his comrades and praise him for his missionary work. Among the correspondents are G.A.R. Memorial Hall custodian Hosea Rood, A.G. Weissert, and 13th Wisconsin comrade David H. Wood. Included are some printed letters that Dutton sent to a wider group of correspondents and a photocopy of a letter from President Warren G. Harding praising Dutton for his work with the lepers on Molokai. A small number of other writings include topics such as Dutton's life among the Hawaiians, Father Damien, G.A.R. issues, and a transcription of the Declaration of Independence into the Hawaiian language.
Photographs (1863-1928) consists of portraits of Dutton at different times of his life, from 1863 to 1928; a picture of the Brother Joseph Dutton School in Beloit, Wisconsin; a view of the high school in Stowe, Vermont; some pictures of the mission on Molokai, including the raising of a G.A.R.-donated American flag; and a several versions of a photograph of Dutton's mother.
