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Edward Burton Snedigar
"Burt |
The second of nine children born to
Fielding and Miranda (Hayes) Snedigar, was born in
Wisconsin on October 10, 1844. From there the family moved
to Illinois and then Clayton County, Iowa, where Fielding
worked as a merchant and was regarded as “one of the
strongest Union men in the County” and “a man of the highest
integrity.”
On March 9, 1861, Fielding was appointed
Postmaster in Elkader (a position he would hold until 1868)
and the next month Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter. On
July 9, 1862, Iowa’s Governor Kirkwood received a telegram
asking him to raise five three-year regiments in addition to
those already in the field. If the state’s quota wasn’t met
by August 15th, it "would be made up by draft," but the
volunteers came and a draft was not required.
Burt
Snedigar enlisted at Elkader on August 9, 1862, as a
private. His Master in Roll and Descriptive Book said he was
5' 7 3/4 tall with a light complexion, light hair and dark
eyes. The company was ordered into quarters at Dubuque’s
Camp Franklin mustered in as a company on August 22nd and,
with nine other companies mustered |
in as a company on August 22nd
and, with nine other companies, mustered in as regiment on
September 9th with a total of 985 men, officers and
enlisted. Military training was received, but it was very
brief and on September 16th they marched through town and,
at the foot of Jones Street, boarded the Henry Clay and two
barges tied alongside and started down the Mississippi. Due
to low water at Montrose, they had to debark, travel by rail
to Keokuk and board the Hawkeye State before continuing to
St. Louis.
On January 9, 1863, they were in Houston,
Missouri, when word was received that a Confederate column
was moving north toward Springfield. A relief force was
organized and Burt was one of twenty-five from Company D who
volunteered to participate. Two days later they engaged in a
day-long battle at Hartville after which both sides
withdrew, Confederates to the south and Federals north to
Lebanon before returning to Houston. From there on the 27th
they started south, on the 30th they reached West Plains, on
February 8th they left, and on March 11th they reached Ste.
Genevieve, an old French town on the Mississippi. They were
then transported downstream to Milliken’s Bend where General
Grant was organizing an army to capture Vicksburg. They
walked south along the west side of the river until April
30th when they crossed to the Bruinsburg landing on the east
bank and started a slow walk inland. Before the campaign
ended with the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4th, Burt
Snedigar had participated in the May 1st Battle of Port
Gibson - “we gave them (the rebels) a good thrashing at Port
Gibson, and they’ll remember it too,” he said - been present
at Champion’s Hill on May 16th (when the regiment was held
out of action by General McClernand), participated in a May
17th assault at the Big Black River, participated in a May
22nd assault at Vicksburg (during which Burt received a
slight leg wound that was treated in the field hospital),
and participated in the ensuing siege. He was one of only
twelve members of Company D who were still able for duty
when the siege ended and they pursued Confederate General
Joe Johnston east to Jackson where there was a brief siege
that ended with the city’s surrender.
The regiment
then served in southwestern Louisiana and spent six months
along the Gulf Coast of Texas. On May 10th, Burt’s older
brother, James Snedigar, was still at home when he enlisted
in the 47th Iowa Infantry, a 100-day regiment, and two of
their sisters, Martha and Irena, stepped in to help their
father at the post office. The 21st Iowa returned to
Louisiana in June and was transported up the Mississippi
before debarking at New Orleans. They then saw brief service
near the Terrebonne rail station west of New Orleans, in
Algiers and at Morganza followed by two months along the
White River of Arkansas. On December 15, 1864, while the
regiment was stationed in Memphis, Confederate General John
Bell Hood suffered a defeat at Nashville and started a
withdrawal to the south. Union cavalry under Benjamin
Grierson was ordered to move east from Memphis to try to
intercept Hood and, leaving their tents behind, the 21st
Iowa joined Grierson. This was the earliest and coldest
winter Tennessee had experienced for years and men struggled
through mud and rain, suffered through cold nights and
bivouacked in the open. It rained and snowed intermittently
throughout the day as they covered fifteen miles and retired
for the night at Germantown.
On the second day of
its march, the regiment continued another fifteen miles over
rough frozen ground covered with snow. They covered seven
miles on the third day and camped near Wolf River while
Grierson's cavalry continued its search. Then the rains
came, the river flooded, pickets waded to their posts and
lowlands were inundated. It was thought the infantry would
be needed to build bridges so the cavalry could cross the
river, but another crossing was found and the regiment was
free to return to Memphis. On December 26th, it was raining
as they started their return through water, mud and slush.
The march was hard but they covered twenty-two miles the
first day before arriving at Germantown. On the 27th, they
reached White's Station where they camped until continuing
to Memphis on the 31st. Burt Snedigar would later say that
it was while they were at White’s Station that his eyes
became sore and inflamed, a condition diagnosed as acute
ophthalmia. He continued with the regiment and was marked
“present” on all bimonthly muster rolls until being mustered
out as a 3rd Sergeant on July 15, 1865.
After being
discharged at Clinton, soldiers returned to their homes with
Burt going to Elkader. His vision was often blurred,
sometimes with pain, and he could “scarcely see to read or
write or do any work” at his profession as a jeweler.
“Harvest hands were making $2.50 per day,” but manual labor
was difficult since it aggravated his eye problems. In 1864,
Burt’s father had formed a partnership with Henry Stearns
and Burt now went to work with them as a mercantile clerk.
Seeking medical help, he traveled to Danville, New York, for
treatment at the “home on the hillside” spa of Dr. James
Jackson, a practitioner of alternative medicine, but the
relief received was only temporary and, on November 14,
1870, Burt applied for an invalid pension. Their family
doctor had served with the 48th Iowa Infantry, but was
living in Toledo, Ohio, when he wrote to confirm that Burt
had been in good health prior to the war.
It was
about this time that Burt met Ellen Mitchell, a resident of
Smithfield Township in Fayette County and, by the end of
1871, their relationship had become close. On June 26, 1872,
they were married and in 1873 moved to Maynard. A daughter,
Mabel Louise, was born in 1874 and a son, Charles, in 1879.
Meanwhile the pension claim lingered. Ellen said “he was
singing at the organ and he could not see unless he had a
book to himself” and his music teacher noticed he couldn’t
see the music “without holding it to his eyes.” During the
war he had ordered medications from O. W. Fowler’s in New
York, but there was nothing in government records that
indicated the vision problems were service-related as the
law required. Gilbert Cooley, 2nd Lieutenant of Company D,
signed an affidavit confirming that Burt had an inflammatory
eye condition “caused by exposure while in the line of duty
with the troops in support of General Grierson’s raid” and a
regimental surgeon said he had treated Burt for acute
ophthalmia while they were at White’s Station. A West Union
doctor confirmed the current eye problems as did numerous
other witnesses, but the government wasn’t convinced and
ordered a special examination. Depositions were taken in
Maynard, Fayette, Elkader, Strawberry Point, Dubuque, Brush
Creek, Earlville, Edgewood and Volga City, nineteen total.
Affidavits were signed, letters were written and Burt was
examined by a “skilled oculist” in Davenport who recommended
that the claim be allowed.
On April 6, 1886, more
than fifteen years after the application was filed, the
pension office mailed a certificate entitling Burt to $2.00
monthly, an amount later increased to $6.00. On March 23,
1904, the Oelwein Register reported that, “on the afternoon
of March 16, 1904, while at work with his son in the cellar,
he dropped dead.” Burt had been active in the I.O.O.F., been
Secretary of the school board and served as postmaster for
twelve years. A funeral was held at the opera house and Burt
was buried in Long Grove Cemetery. His father had died in
1896, but Burt was survived by his mother, wife, both
children, two brothers and three sisters.
Ellen
assumed the position of postmaster and, on April 1, 1904,
applied for a widow’s pension. She secured a certified copy
of their marriage record and numerous affidavits testifying
to their marriage and that they were still living as husband
and wife when Burt died. Her only assets were household
goods, Burt’s “Kit of Mechanical Tools” that might sell for
$100, and a $400 half interest in real property. On June 6th
a certificate was issued entitling Ellen to a monthly
pension of $8.00 but she received no payments since, less
than a month later, on Saturday, July 2, 1904: “in an
attempt to tilt a gasoline stove while it was lighted, Mrs.
E. B. Snedigar set fire to her house and herself. The alarm
was given at once and the flames in the house soon
extinguished but not before she had been most terribly
burned. All that medical skill could do was done for her but
to no avail and after terrible suffering she passed away
early Sunday morning.”
Ellen, like her husband, was
buried in Long Grove Cemetery.
~ Compiled & Contributor:
Carl Ingwalson |
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Fayette County
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