Farrand, James Frank
James Frank Farrand, known as Frank to his friends, was
born in Ogle County, Illinois, but by the time of the
1860 census was living in Strawberry Point. Two years
later, with the Civil War in its second year, he enlisted
at Gem (in northeastern Marion Township) on August 13,
1862, in Company B of Iowa’s 21st regiment of
volunteer infantry. The Muster-in Roll said he was twenty
years old, 5' 9¼” tall with grey eyes, brown hair
and a dark complexion.
Joining him in Company B were David Shuck who enlisted at
McGregor and Jim Bethard, Jim Rice, Robert Pool and John
Mather all four of whom enlisted at Grand Meadow (a post
office and rail depot between Luana and Postville).
Ranging in age from eighteen-year-old David Shuck to
twenty-seven-year-old Robert Pool, the six men were
referred to by Jim Bethard as “the Roberts Creek
crowd.”
Company B was ordered into quarters at Camp Franklin in
Dubuque on August 16th and mustered in on the 18th. On
September 9th, with a total of 985 men, ten companies
were mustered in as a regiment. On a rainy September
16th, those able for duty crowded on board the sidewheel
steamer Henry Clay and started south. After an
overnight stop at Rock Island and a subsequent transfer
to the more commodious Hawkeye State of the
Northern Packet Line, they arrived in St. Louis about
10:00 a.m. on September 20th.
The regiment’s early service was in Missouri. From
St. Louis they traveled by rail to Rolla where they
camped southwest of town for a month before walking to
Salem, Houston, Hartville and, after a wagon train was
attacked, back to Houston. Many in the regiment
participated in a battle on January 11th in Hartville
before again returning to Houston and walking south to
West Plains and then northeast to Thomasville, Ironton
and Pilot Knob. On March 1, 1863, Jim Bethard wrote to
his wife that “James [Rice, her brother], and John
[Mather, her cousin] and Frank Farrand and I were on the
highest pinacle of the little mountain called Pilot knob
from whence we could see in all directions as far as the
eye could reach.” Jim wrote again the next day and
said, “Frank Farrand gets along verry well he is a
good honest boy he minds his own business and has no
enemyes that I know of I believe he has never been
excused from duty on account of sickness since in the
service.”
Frank continued to maintain his health as the regiment
moved to Ste. Genevieve and was then transported down the
Mississippi to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant
was assembling a large army to capture Vicksburg. Walking
south and roughly paralleling the winding river, they
crossed swamps and bayous until reaching Dishroon’s
Plantation and, on April 30, 1863, crossing to the east
bank at Bruinsburg. By then the health of the regiment
had suffered greatly. David Shuck and Robert Pool had
both died from typhoid fever and others, including Jim
Bethard, were sick and left behind on the west side of
the river.
Frank Farrand, Jim Rice and John Mather had crossed with
the rest of the regiment and participated in the May 1,
1863, battle at Port Gibson, were present at
Champion’s Hill on May 16th when the regiment was
held in reserve by General McClernand, and participated
in an assault at the Big Black River on May 17th. After
burying their dead and caring for the wounded, they moved
on to Vicksburg where they participated in an assault on
the railroad redoubt on May 22nd and took their place on
the siege line behind the city. Jim caught up with the
regiment on June 4th and told Caroline, “I found
James Rice and Frank Farrand well.” Not mentioned
was her cousin, John Mather, who was in a field hospital.
On June 19th, John died from the effects of chronic
diarrhoea and two days later Jim wrote that, “three
of the Roberts creek crowd have now gone to their long
homes and three are still spared Jim Rice Frank Farrand
and myself I think it is no more than fair that half of
the crowd should be spared to return to their
homes.”
After the surrender of Vicksburg on July 4th, the
regiment participated in a pursuit of Confederate General
Joe Johnston to Jackson and in various movements in
southwestern Louisiana. In early November they were led
on a forced march with big Mike Lawler in command.
Prostrated by ague, Jim Bethard was jostled along most of
the way in an ambulance while Frank Farrand suffered a
severe rupture on his right side and was almost totally
disabled. Averaging nearly thirty miles a day with
knapsack, rifle, accouterments and forty rounds of
ammunition, there was constant griping. Even the popular
Lawler shared the criticism as he kept the men moving
"as fast as his horse could walk, giving no thought,
apparently, to the men behind him, who with blistered
feet, many of them barefoot, carrying their shoes, lugged
at a quickstep their heavy load."
From late November 1863 to mid-June 1864, they saw
service along the Gulf Coast of Mexico with Jim noting
that “Frank is the champion checker player in our
company.” Texas was followed by service along the
Mississippi and the White River in Arkansas. In the
spring of 1865 they participated in their last campaign
of the war, a campaign to capture the city of Mobile. In
February they were transported from New Orleans to
Dauphin Island at the entrance to Mobile Bay and camped
for a month near Fort Gaines. They then moved up the east
side of the bay, occupied Mobile and camped at Spring
Hill before returning to New Orleans, performing guard
duty, and accepting Confederate surrenders along the Red
River. On July 15, 1865, the three surviving members of
the “Roberts Creek crowd” were mustered out at
Baton Rouge with Frank paying $6.00 so he could retain
his Springfield musket, bayonet and military
accouterments. On the 16th they started north and on the
24th were discharged from the military at Clinton.
On discharge, they received almost six months of pay plus
the $75.00 balance of their enlistment bounties less any
amount they may have owed the government for loss of
equipment or excessive draws of clothing. Many, often
tenant farmers before the war, moved elsewhere and used
their money to buy acreage where land was less expensive.
Jim Bethard moved to Sigourney to join his wife who had
moved there with her parents during the war. Jim Rice
moved to Wright County and Frank Farrand moved to Union
County in the Dakota Territory. There, on November 25,
1868, he married Hester Ann Heath.
Frank and Hester had at least two children, Almond Bert
Farrand born on August 14, 1874, and Eva Farrand born on
November 9, 1879. By then the family was living in
Covington, Nebraska, with Frank working as a farmer. He
applied for and received an invalid pension based on the
hernia suffered in Louisiana. Eventually, he said, it
became so bad that “at times he is unable to perform
any labor on account of said hernia even with the aid of
a truss.”
Frank Farrand died on January19, 1884, in Covington and
was buried a few miles away in the Dakota City Cemetery.
On June 9, 1884, thirty-three-year old Hester applied for
a widow’s pension and a pension for Almond (10) and
Eva (5). Witnessing her declaration were her sisters
Elizabeth and Nellie (who was married to Leroy Parker who
had served with Frank). In October she applied again,
this time for her husband’s pension that had accrued
but not been paid by the time of his death.
Hester’s son, Bert Farrand, eventually moved farther
west and lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his
wife, Adaline. Hester also moved to Colorado Springs and,
nine years later, was living at 212 East Fontanero Street
when she died from pneumonia on December 22, 1936, at
eighty-six years of age. She was buried in the
town’s Evergreen Cemetery. Bert and Adaline died in
1941 and were buried in Evergreen Cemetery on the same
day, February 27, 1941.
~*~*~
Farrand,
William Wallace
William Wallace Farrand was born in Chautauqua County,
New York. On October 22, 1860, in Sugar Grove, New York
he married Rhoda A. Loomis. Soon thereafter they moved to
Clayton County where, on October 13, 1861, a son, Frank
Welsey Farrand was born. The attending physician was J.
S. Green of Hardin. Young Frank was only ten months old
when, on August 14, 1862, his twenty-four year old father
enlisted at McGregor as a 5th Sergeant in what would be
Company G of the 21st Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry.
A farmer, William was described as being 5'10" tall
with black eyes, black hair and a light complexion.
Having moved to Iowa less than two years earlier, now
caring for a young child and again being pregnant, Rhoda
returned to her home in Harmony, New York, to be with
family and friends while her husband was away.
The Company was mustered in on August 22, 1862 and the
regiment on September 9, 1862. On September 16th the
regiment started south, but William was not with them.
He, like many others, had become ill during training and
was confined to the post hospital at Camp Franklin
(formerly Camp Union) in Dubuque. He caught up with the
regiment on December 21st while it was stationed in
Houston, Missouri.
On January 9, 1863 the regiment was ordered to the relief
of Springfield and 262 volunteers from the regiment were
quickly organized and on the way with a similar number of
Illinois troops and a howitzer. On the 10th they camped a
few miles west of Hartville “on a knoll covered with
timber and brush, the adjacent farm being then and now
known as ‘the widow Morrison’s
place’” near Wood's Fork of the Gasconade,
"a nice stream of water and plenty of wood for
fires." Only a half mile away, the Southern enemy
was camped along the same creek paralleling the same
road.
The next morning, when bugles were sounded, the two
forces became aware of each other, shots were exchanged,
and both sides rushed to Hartville with the Confederates
taking high ground on the east and Federals occupying a
low ridge on the west. The day-long battle ended in a
technical draw with the Federals withdrawing to the north
and Confederates to the south. Jim Bethard was a private
in Company B and wrote to his wife, Carolyn
“Cal” Bethard, that “Wallace
Farrand,” as he was called by friends, “joined
the regiment long before we left Houston and was with us
in the Hartsville fight and stood up to the rack like a
man.”
On March 21, 1863, in New York, another son was born, a
son named William Wallace Farrand in honor of his absent
father. By then, the regiment was in Ste. Genevieve,
Missouri, and before long it was moving south through
swamps and bayous west of the Mississippi in a Corps led
by John McClernand as part of General Grant's massive
army with its eye on Vicksburg.
On April 30th they crossed to Bruinsburg on the east bank
and, as the point regiment for the entire army, started
inland at night. About midnight, they drew first fire
from Confederate pickets. After exchanging fire for a
short time, both sides rested. They next day they fought
what is known as the Battle of Port Gibson, also known as
the Battle of Magnolia Church. Three men in the regiment
were fatally wounded and at least fourteen others
suffered wounds that would not prove fatal.
On May 16th, 1863 they were held in reserve during the
Battle of Champion's Hill, although two companies engaged
in some light skirmishing after the battle. Having seen
light action on the 16th, they were in the front on the
17th when they approached entrenched Confederates
guarding the large railroad bridge over the Big Black
River. Together with the 23rd Iowa, they led a short,
three-minute, assault over open ground directly at the
enemy. They routed the Confederates, but suffered heavy
casualties (7 killed in action, 18 with mortal wounds and
at least 39 with non-fatal wounds). For the next two days
they were permitted to rest and care for their
casualties.
With Confederates under John Pemberton taking refuge in
Vicksburg, Grant quickly built a line around the city
from the river in the north to the river in the south.
Pressing his advantage, he ordered an assault for May
19th that was unsuccessful. By the 22nd, the regiment had
joined other regiments on the line at the rear of
Vicksburg. A bombardment started early, watches were
synchronized and, at 10:00 a.m., the infantry charged
with the 21st Iowa focused on the railroad redoubt, a
"steep-sided earthwork with a deep ditch to protect
the front and a line of rifle pits in the rear."
They performed well and some entered the enemy's works,
but again the Confederate defenses held firm. Regimental
casualties were 23 killed in action, 12 with mortal
wounds and at least 48 with non-fatal wounds. Among the
dead was William Wallace Farrand. On June 4th, Jim
Bethard wrote to his wife that their friend,
“Wallace farrand was killed in a charge on the rebel
works here at vicksburg".
In New York, twenty-six year old Rhoda, with two sons,
aged 19 months and 2 months, applied for a widow's
pension that, on June 14, 1864 was granted at $8.00 per
month. On February 8, 1868 it was increased to $12.00 and
she was awarded an additional $2.00 monthly that each of
the boys would receive until reaching his sixteenth
birthday. On March 19, 1885 Rhoda married George Hills, a
sixty-three year old stone cutter living in Jamestown,
New York, and her widow's pension was terminated. When
George died in 1898, Rhoda asked to be restored to the
pension rolls and, in July, 1901 it was approved at
$12.00 monthly, an amount that had increased to $50.00
monthly by the time of her death in Spring Lake Beach,
New Jersey, on October 26, 1928. Frank Wesley Farrand
died in 1954 and was buried in Ogallala Cemetery, Keith
County, Nebraska.
~*~*~
Farrington,
Horace O.
Horace O. Farrington was born on January 24, 1830, in
Chester, Windsor County, Vermont.
On August 4, 1862, Strawberry Point resident William
Grannis, a storekeeper and one of five musical Grannis
brothers who frequently performed concerts in the area,
was appointed 1st Lieutenant in an infantry company then
being organized in Iowa’s northeastern counties.
Still in Strawberry Point on the 11th, he enrolled
Horace, a thirty-one-year-old farmer described as being
5' 8½” tall with grey eyes, brown hair and a light
complexion.
On August 22, 1862, at Camp Franklin in Dubuque, with a
total enrollment, both officers and enlisted, of
ninety-seven men, they were mustered in as Company D, one
of ten companies that would be mustered in on September
9th as the state’s 21st regiment of volunteer
infantry. Training, very brief and very ineffective, was
received for another week. On the 16th, at the foot of
Jones Street, they boarded the Henry Clay and
two barges tied alongside and left for the South.
After one night at Benton Barracks in St. Louis, they
took cars of the Southwest Branch of the Pacific Railroad
and traveled through the night to its western terminus at
Rolla, a town of about 600 residents, where they arrived
on September 22nd. When water at their first camp was
considered too poor and smelled like the “breath of
sewers,” they moved to Sycamore Springs about five
miles to the southwest on the Lebanon road.
General Fitz Henry Warren arrived on October 17th and,
the next day, the regiment started the first of what
would be many long marches. On the 19th they reached
Salem and, on November 2nd, resumed their march south,
but Horace was hospitalized and left behind with many
others. By the time the December 31st roll was taken at
Houston, he had caught up but was “sick in
quarters.” He was well enough to continue with the
regiment for the next several months as they walked from
Houston to West Plains, and then northeast to Iron
Mountain where Horace was marked “present.”
They reached Ste. Genevieve on March 11th and, on April
10th, Horace was again “present” when a special
muster was taken at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana,
where General Grant was organizing a large army to
capture the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg.
From the Bend, they walked, rode and waded south along
roads, across bayous and through swamps west of the
Mississippi River. Grant hoped to cross to the east bank
at Grand Gulf but, when Confederate defenses proved too
strong, he continued south and, on April 30, 1863,
crossed to the Bruinsburg landing. The first regiment to
cross was ordered to the hills overlooking the landing so
they could sound an alarm if the enemy appeared. The
second regiment, the 21st Iowa, was ordered to move
inland as the army’s point regiment and to keep
moving until they met the enemy.
When advance pickets drew first fire about midnight near
the A. K. Schaifer residence, the rest of the regiment
hurried to the front. After brief, ineffective, firing,
both sides rested but, on May 1, 1863, they fought the
daylong Battle of Port Gibson. Concerned they would be
trapped in Grand Gulf, Confederates evacuated the city.
Union forces moved in while most of the army, including
the 21st Iowa, continued to the northeast, but Horace was
no longer with them.
In declining health, he had been left behind at
Young’s Point during the march south, but now was
hospitalized in Grand Gulf. On August 6th he was granted
a thirty-day furlough to go north to recuperate, but he
failed to return when the furlough expired. On October
26, 1863, an Iowa doctor wrote to Elisha Boardman,
Captain of Company D, and said Horace was suffering from
chronic diarrhea and intermittent fever, and “I
would recommend that his Furlough be extended to cover
all time necessary to his return.” Two days later,
despite the doctor’s letter, Horace was arrested as
a “straggler,” but with a notation that
“he has been too ill to return sooner and is
deserving of great leniency.”
Horace was admitted to a general hospital at Camp
McClellan in Davenport where a December 31, 1863, muster
roll said he had been unfit for active field service for
a year. Still capable of performing light duty, he was
transferred to the Invalid Corps (soon to be renamed the
Veteran Reserve Corps). On June 29, 1865, he was
discharged from the military at Davenport.
Returning to Strawberry Point, Horace resumed work as a
farmer and became an accomplished apiarist. On May 8,
1869, his wife, Leah (Adams) Farrington gave birth to a
son, Frederick B. Farrington.
In 1886, Horace applied for an invalid pension and the
Pension Office asked the War Department to verify his
service. Stragglers, such as Horace, were distinguished
from deserters with the former usually referring to men
who were late returning to their regiments while the
latter referred to men who had intentionally absented
themselves from their regiments with no intention to
return. Twenty-two years earlier, when Horace was in
Davenport, his regiment was in the deep-south, had little
information about him and listed him as deserter,
something that would bar him from receiving a pension. On
May 4, 1887, after reviewing his records, a notation was
made that “all charges of desertion in 1863 against
his man are removed.”
Horace died on January 16, 1894, and was buried in
Strawberry Point Cemetery. The Oelwein Register
reported his death: “Horace Farrington of Strawberry
Point, a noted bee farmer, was struck by a limb which he
was trimming and killed.” Leah applied for and was
granted a widow’s pension.
Their son, Frederick, married Nellie M. Fox and they had
three children: Lucy M. born in 1895, Horace B. born in
1897, and Grace N. born about 1904. Ten years later,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo and
war was declared. On September 4, 1918, with World War I
still raging in Europe, Horace B. Farrington enlisted in
the army at Elkader, fifty-six years after his
grandfather had enlisted at Strawberry Point.
A year later, Private 1st Class Horace B. Farrington was
honorably discharged. His mother, Nellie, died in 1941
and his father, Frederick, in 1944. They, like Leah and
Horace O. Farrington, are buried in Strawberry Point
Cemetery.
~*~*~
Featherly,
Tyler D.
In the years preceding the Civil War, Iowa saw a large
influx of immigrants. In 1858, Clayton County's 15,187
residents were estimated to include 2,567 natives of
Iowa, only 17% of the county's total population. An
estimated 1,328 were born in Pennsylvania, 1,545 in Ohio,
and 1,722 in New York. Records indicate that Tyler
Featherly was born in Chautauqua County, New York, on
March 1, 1832. William Farrand, Abel Griffin, William
Hall, Norman Scofield, Perry Dewey, Gilbert Cooley, Henry
Lewis, George Penhollow, Barney Phelps and others who
would be his comrades in Iowa's 21st infantry also said
they were born in Chautauqua County.
Tyler said that, on his way west, he married in Ohio on
August 17, 1853, before settling in Iowa. In 1861,
Confederate cannon fired on Fort Sumter, war followed
and, by the fall of 1862, it was obvious that more
regiments were needed. President Lincoln called for
another 300,000 volunteers with each state being given a
quota and Tyler answered the call. On August 14, 1862, he
was working as a construction laborer when he was
enrolled at McGregor by the town's postmaster, Willard
Benton, as a 4th Sergeant in Company G.
In a regiment where the average height was slightly more
than 5' 8½", Tyler was described as being 5' 5½''
tall with blue eyes, auburn hair and a light complexion.
Like other volunteers, he was paid $25.00 of the $100.00
federal enlistment bounty and a $2.00 premium. The
balance of the bounty would be paid on completion of his
service.
They were ordered into quarters at Camp Franklin "on
a sandy plateau on the bank of the Mississippi" just
south of Eagle Point in Dubuque. Here they received their
uniforms, muskets, knapsacks and other accouterments, but
they were less than pleased. "The regulation
uniforms, having been made for regulars, were ill adapted
to the robust volunteers from Clayton," said one.
"The coats were too short by several inches. The
line officers protested against their men going into
drill presenting any such aspect as they must necessarily
do in such coats.”
On August 22nd, the Company was mustered into service
with eighty-six members (officers and privates). When all
ten companies were of acceptable strength, the regiment
was mustered into service on September 9, 1862. On the
16th, crowded on board the paddlewheel steamer Henry
Clay and two barges tied alongside, they started
south. They went first to St. Louis where they spent one
night at Benton Barracks before traveling on the Atlantic
and Pacific Railroad to Rolla where they arrived on
September 22d. They remained in camp near a spring a few
miles southwest of town until October 18th when they
started a march south to Salem. They stayed there until
November 2d when they were again on the move, this time
to Houston, about thirty-five miles to the south.
Houston was safely in Union hands, but they stayed less
than two weeks before starting a two-day march to
Hartville. On a rainy November 15th they arrived and went
into camp. The rain continued on the 16th, 17th, 18th and
19th and, by then, Tyler, like so many others, was sick
and unable for duty. On the 24th, a wagon train bringing
supplies from the railhead in Rolla was attacked and
Colonel Merrill decided to move the regiment back to the
safer confines of Houston. When the bimonthly company
muster roll was taken in Houston on December 31, 1862,
Tyler was marked ''present," but still he was not
well. In January they were ordered to West Plains, fifty
miles to the south. The able-bodied would walk. Some of
the sick would accompany them in wagons, but others would
remain in a Houston hospital. Some had already died and
many, such as Tyler, had been unable for duty for two
months or more. Eight were discharged for disability on
the 20th, another eight on the 21st, two on the 22nd, two
on the 23rd, nine on the 24th, one on the 25th and four
on the 26th, the same day the regiment started its march
(although it was on a wrong road and would have to start
again on the 27th).
On January 22, 1863, Captain Benton had signed a
Certificate of Disability for Discharge for Tyler who, he
said: "has been unfit for duty 61 days; was
taken sick November 19th 1862 in camp at Hartsville [sic]
Missouri while doing camp duty and has been unable to
perform the duties of a soldier since that time and in my
opinion never will be if retained in the service."
The regiment's surgeon at the time was William Orr and he
said Tyler was: "incapable of performing the
duties of a soldier because of Phthisis Pulmonalis. The
symptoms - cough, prevalent expectoration - small and
frequent - tenderness on pressure of left infra
clavicular region of left side, emaciation, dyspnola on
slight exertion. Useless as a soldier." On the
26th, Tyler was one of those discharged by order of
General Fitz Henry Warren and free to return home.
After his discharge, Tyler was able to recover his health
sufficiently to have a long life. He said he lived in
Iowa about nine years before moving to Texas. In 1876 he
was in Fort Worth standing on a scaffold when it
collapsed. Tyler fell and broke his left shoulder.
Fourteen years later he was living in El Paso when, on
September 22, 1890, he applied for a pension as an
invalid claiming the shoulder injury had rendered him
partially unable to earn a support by manual labor.
An El Paso news article on March 13, 1892, said that,
"while seated in front of Noake's blacksmith shop,
T. Featherly was injured by being struck by a carriage
spring, thrown in for repairs." He was still in El
Paso when he applied for membership in the Emmett
Crawford Post, Post 19, of the Grand Army of the
Republic, but he had lost his discharge papers. On March
29, 1892, a member of the Post wrote to the Iowa Adjutant
General and secured evidence of Tyler's service. Tyler
was then admitted to membership.
He was examined by a pension office surgeon, but the
surgeon didn’t feel Tyler was sufficiently
incapacitated to merit a pension and the pension was
denied. Still living in El Paso, he reapplied and
supported his claim with a statement from two people who
knew him and said he had the appearance “of an
infirm old man, totally unable to earn a livelihood by
hard work.” His case, they thought required
“prompt action, as he seems to have but a short time
to live.”
This time a $6.00 monthly pension was awarded. On
application it was increased to $10.00 in 1903, $12.00 in
1904, and $20.00 in 1907. In 1911 he moved and was
admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer
Soldiers in the Sawtelle area of west Los Angeles. He
stayed for several years and his monthly pension was
increased to $21.00, but he was back in El Paso when, on
June 4, 1914, he died. His sole assets, $48.00, were
deposited with the county clerk. Tyler’s burial in
the city’s Concordia Cemetery was handled by the
G.A.R. but, with only a few aging members, Post 19 was
unable to pay the $60.50 burial expenses.
When answering government questionnaires, Tyler said his
wife, whom he failed to name, had died in 1883 and he had
not remarried. He said he had three sons - James S.
Featherly born July 16, 1855, Tyler D. Featherly born
April 23, 1857, and George Reed Featherly born April 14,
1866 - but, two years before his death, said he
didn’t know “where they are or whether they
are alive or not not heard from them.”
~*~*~
Foster,
Jonathan
Jonathan Foster was born in County Fermanagh in northern
Ireland on March 19, 1838. He immigrated to the United
States and, on November 11, 1860, married Clarissa Ann
Flowers in Cassville, Wisconsin, across the river and not
far from North Buena Vista.
After Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter on April 12,
1861, it was widely thought in the North that it was the
action of only a few hotheads and any war would soon end.
Instead, the war escalated and leaders, both North and
South, called for more volunteers. On July 9, 1862,
Governor Kirkwood received a telegram asking him to raise
five regiments in addition to those already in the field.
Even though the fall harvest was imminent, the Governor
assured President Lincoln that Iowa would meet its quota.
In addition to the regular monthly pay of $13.00 for
privates, volunteers would receive a $100.00 enlistment
bounty with $25.00 paid in advance and the balance on
honorable completion of the soldier’s service.
Enlistments came quickly in the northeastern counties
and, on August 12, 1862, Jonathan, with a post office
address at North Buena Vista, was enrolled as a private
by McGregor postmaster Willard Benton in what would be
Company G of the state’s 21st regiment of volunteer
infantry. G.A.R. records also show that Jonathan was a
resident of Clayton County when he enlisted. He was
described as being 5' 6¾” tall, two inches shorter
than the regiment’s average height. With a total of
eighty-seven men, the least of the regiment’s ten
companies, they were mustered into service at
Dubuque’s Camp Franklin on August 22nd. On September
9th, with a complement of 985 men, officers and enlisted,
they were mustered into federal service and, on the 16th,
left for war. Crowded on board the sidewheel steamer Henry
Clay, they were held over briefly at Rock Island,
took rail cars from Montrose to Keokuk, boarded the Hawkeye
State, reached St. Louis about 10:00 a.m. on the
20th, spent a night at Benton Barracks and left by rail
for Rolla late on the 21st.
Jonathan’s early service was uneventful. He
maintained his health and was marked “present”
on bi-monthly Company Muster Rolls as they saw service in
Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville and West Plains,
Missouri. On February 8, 1863, they started a long march
to the north east - through Thomasville and Eminence and
into Ironton where Jonathan was promoted two ranks to 6th
Corporal to take the place of Peter McIntyre who was
promoted to 5th Corporal.
Jonathan remained with the regiment as it marched into
the old French town of Ste. Genevieve on March 11th and
when it was transported downstream to Milliken’s
Bend where General Grant was assembling a large army with
the intent of capturing the Confederate stronghold at
Vicksburg. Assigned to a corps led by General John
McClernand, they walked south on roads, through swamps
and across bayous west of the river until they reached
Disharoon’s Plantation. From there, on April 30,
1863, they crossed to a landing known as Bruinsburg,
Mississippi, on the east bank. Designated at the point
regiment for the entire army, they started a slow
movement inland on a sunken dirt road. About midnight,
advance scouts commanded by Cornelius Dunlap drew fire
from Confederate pickets near the Shaifer house.
Following a brief exchange of gunfire, men rested until
the next day when opposing forces engaged in what is
known as the Battle of Port Gibson.
Jonathan participated in the battle, was present on May
16th when the regiment was held in reserve during the
Battle of Champion’s Hill, participated in a May
17th assault against entrenched Confederates hoping to
keep the railroad bridge over the Big Black River open so
all of their soldiers could cross to the west,
participated in a May 22nd assault at Vicksburg and
participated in the siege that ended with the city’s
surrender on July 4, 1863. From May 1st to July 4th, the
regiment had lost 31 men killed in action, 34 whose
wounds would prove fatal and at least 102 whose wounds,
although not fatal, often led to amputations or were
otherwise so severe as to merit discharges from the
military.
On July 5th, under the command of General Sherman, the
regiment left in pursuit of Confederate General Joe
Johnston who had been hovering near the Union rear during
the siege. At Jackson, they engaged in a brief siege
during which Jonathan was seriously injured. He later
explained, “while in the advance picket guard at
Jackson Miss. on or about the 10th July 1863," he
was “struck by a minie ball fired by the rebel
cavalry who charged on the pickets, between the shoulders
which knocked him down, and in falling, on his elbow,
disabled it, so as to render him unfit for active duty,
for over 3 months.” The minie ball was
“spent” and caused no wound, but the impact had
knocked him from his horse. Jonathan was treated for a
week in a division hospital at Jackson and for three days
in a Vicksburg hospital. On July 25, 1863, he was granted
a thirty-day furlough to go north to recuperate. While
there he secured a certificate from a doctor who said
Jonathan was also suffering from irritation of the lungs.
Jonathan was promoted to 5th Corporal during the
Vicksburg siege and to 4th Corporal effective September
18th while on his way back from the furlough. On October
2, 1863, a comrade, Jim Bethard from Grand Meadow
Township, wrote that “John Foster and Pat Burns of
Co. G arrived here the first of the week.” That was
at Berwick, Louisiana, but Jonathan was soon relegated to
a camp for convalescents in Carrollton before returning
to the regiment for good on November 12th at Berwick. He
was then again marked “present” on all company
muster rolls through the end of his enlistment and saw
service in Louisiana, along the Gulf Coast of Texas, in
Arkansas (where he was treated for a hand injury and
dysentery), at Memphis, and during the regiment’s
final campaign, a successful campaign to occupy the city
of Mobile during which he was treated for a knee problem.
Promoted to 2nd Corporal, he was mustered out with other
original enlistees at Baton Rouge on July 15, 1865, and
discharged at Clinton on the 24th.
After the war, Jonathan and Clarissa lived for a while in
Clayton County and were living there on February 19,
1866, when Jonathan witnessed a comrade’s affidavit.
Four months later, on June 14, 1866, a son, Amos C.
Foster was born. Two other children, James and Jonathan,
died as infants.
On March 5, 1870, Jonathan said he was a resident of
Dubuque when he applied for his own pension based on the
arm injury sustained in the war. He couldn’t find
the doctors who treated him in military, but comrades
Archibald Stuart, George Moser and George Fisher signed
supportive affidavits. William Watson, a doctor in
Dubuque, examined the arm, said it had been fractured,
the elbow was enlarged and, in the doctor’s opinion,
Jonathan was three-eighths disabled. It took several
years to convince the government but a $3.00 monthly
pension was eventually approved.
He was receiving $4.00 monthly in 1877 when two North
Buena Vista residents signed affidavits contending that
Jonathan was a healthy man despite what Jonathan, his
comrades, personal doctors and government pension
surgeons (including the President of the Board of
Examining Surgeons and the well-known and highly
respected Asa Horr) had said. One of the men said
Jonathan was a “bully” and “when any
fighting is to be done he is the man that steps forward
to do it. . . . he disputed with me and knocked me down
and bruised me so that my face is disfigured.” If
the pension was based on a “wound it does not
disable him.” The other said, “if he is
pensioned for sickness I believe this case is a fraud or
rather will say that his health appears good. He gets on
sprees once in awhile.”
Jonathan’s pension wasn’t based on sickness or
a wound. It was based on the arm and elbow injury he
incurred when knocked from his horse. He had moved to
Dubuque to work as a miner and later as a carpenter where
he was paid $1.75 daily instead of the $2.25 paid to
able-bodied men. In 1881 he was attached to the Dubuque
police force and at other times worked for a railroad. On
August 27, 1890, he was working on a railroad bridge near
St. Paul when a tie broke. Jonathan fell twenty-three
feet, inured his spine and broke his right thigh near the
hip. Two months later, with the injury not healing
properly, he was treated Dr. J. H. Greene and put on
crutches. Then, on November 11th, Jonathan fell while
walking down the back steps at his residence, at 1734
Clay Street (now Central Avenue), Dubuque, and
re-fractured his leg. On December 23, 1911, at
seventy-three years of age, he was “struck by an
engine was unconscious or partially so 7 or 8 days”
and was treated by Dr. M. J. Moe. A year later the doctor
said, the numerous injuries and advanced age “have
practically incapacitated Mr. Foster for all work.”
Jonathan was receiving an age-based pension of $30.00
monthly when he died on March 5, 1916. He is buried in
Dubuque’s Linwood Cemetery as are Clarissa who
pre-deceased him and their son, Amos, who died on
November 7, 1930.
~*~*~
Gates,
Orlen Fitzgerald
Orlen Gates was born on January 30, 1841 in Jackson,
Michigan, the son of Isaac and Laura (Fitzgerald) Gates.
Laura died of consumption, Isaac was remarried to Cevilla
(Jackson) Gates, and the family moved to McGregor. The
1860 census for Mendon Township includes a family of six:
Isaac, Cevilla and five children from Isaac's first
marriage: John (age 22), Ann (age 21), Orlen (age 18),
Mary (age 14) and Martha (age 11).
During the second year of the war, Orlen was one of many
recruited by McGregor Postmaster Willard Benton and, on
August 15, 1862, he enrolled as a Private in what would
be Company G of the state's 21st infantry with Benton as
its initial Captain. The Company was mustered in on
August 22, 1862 with the Muster-In Roll describing Orlen
as a 5' 8¼'' tall farmer with gray eyes, black hair and
a light complexion.
They went into quarters at Camp Franklin in Dubuque, were
mustered in as a regiment on September 9th, and received
equipment and training under the supervision of Samuel
Brodtbeck, formerly a Major with the 12th Iowa. As one of
Orlen's comrades said, "the process of getting used
to restraints of freedom, to inclemencies of weather, to
hard beds, and new forms of food, sometimes not well
cooked, was not always a pleasant one. Habits of
obedience had to be formed, and these to men in the ranks
were doubtless the most irksome of all," irksome but
necessary for men, mostly farmers, preparing for war.
On September 16th at the foot of Jones Street, they
boarded the paddlewheel steamer Henry Clay and
two barges lashed to its sides and started south. After
one night in St. Louis, they traveled by rail to Rolla.
From there they would walk south to Salem and then
Houston where Orlen was briefly hospitalized. For the
next several months they saw service in Hartville,
Houston, West Plains, Iron Mountain and Ironton. They
were in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, when Orlen was promoted
to Corporal on March 19, 1863.
By April 10th they were in Milliken’s Bend where
General Grant was organizing a massive army at the start
of what would be a successful campaign to capture the
Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg. Men made their way
slowing south along the west side of the Mississippi and
Orlen was present on April 30, 1863 when they crossed the
Mississippi from the Disharoon plantation to Bruinsburg
on the east bank. He participated in the next day's
Battle of Port Gibson, was present when his regiment was
held in reserve during the May 16th Battle of Champion's
Hill, and participated in a May 17th assault on
entrenched Confederates guarding the railroad bridge over
the Big Black River, an assault in which seven of his
comrades were killed and another eighteen suffered wounds
that would prove fatal. By the end of the month only 240
of the original 985 were still alive and fit for duty.
In August, after the siege and surrender of Vicksburg,
the sick and wounded recuperated, while those able for
duty participated in an expedition to Jackson. On their
return to Vicksburg, the entire regiment rested until
mid-August when they boarded transports, went down the
Mississippi and made camp at Carrollton, Louisiana. On
September 4th, the regiment joined others on an
expedition into the bayou country west of the
Mississippi, but Orlen was not with them. Sick, he was
left behind at Carrollton and, a month later, received a
furlough to go north to recuperate.
Unable to recover his health, he entered the U.S. Army
General Hospital in Davenport and, while there, received
promotions to 5th and then 4th Corporal. Ultimately,
suffering from general debility and intermittent fever
(often a term for malaria), Orlen was discharged from the
regiment so, on January 10, 1865, he could be transferred
to the Veteran Reserve Corps where he served in Company K
of the 4th Regiment. Men in Orlen's 2nd Battalion
included men whose disabilities prevented them from
carrying a musket, marching or performing military guard
or provost duty. Many had lost limbs or suffered other
injuries or disabilities. As a result, they were commonly
employed as cooks, orderlies, nurses or guards in public
buildings. He received a final discharge on November 25,
1865 at Davenport.
On September 18, 1875, Orlen married Cora Douglas. Their
only child, Laura Fitzgerald Gates, was born on April 9,
1883. For a while Orlen and his brother, John Asa Gates
(who was married to Cora's sister), owned and operated a
store in Anita, but they soon moved from there to Des
Moines, then to Eastonville in Colorado where John joined
the G.A.R., and finally to Denver where Orlen died on
June 21, 1898. He is buried in the city's Fairmount
Cemetery. He was survived by forty-six-year-old Cora and
their fifteen-year-old daughter.
In her youth, Cora had been a graceful ice-skater and was
known as “The Pride of McGregor’s
Landing,” but life was difficult after Orlen’s
death. She received a widow’s pension that she
augmented by working as a seamstress. Laura went to Texas
to live with a cousin, while Cora moved to San Francisco.
In 1901 she was joined by Laura and they lived together
until Laura married Joseph Sykora in 1907. All three, and
the children who were born to Laura and Joseph, lived for
a while in New York and then Leonia, New Jersey. They
were back in New York when ninety-seven-year old Cora
died on May 31, 1949. Her ashes were buried in Greenwood
Memorial Park, Fort Worth, Texas.
~*~*~
Gaylord,
William F.
Stephen A. Gaylord, a native of Tennessee, and his wife,
Rachel (Robinson) Gaylord, a native of North Carolina,
made their home in Illinois in 1827 and, five years
later, Stephen served as a soldier in the Black Hawk War.
In 1849 they moved their family to Clayton County where
they acquired land in Cass Township and erected a log
house. Stephen died in 1854 and was buried in Strawberry
Point Cemetery. During their marriage, Stephen and Rachel
had nine children, including four boys who served in the
Civil War, only one of whom survived the war.
William, enlisted at Strawberry Point on August 15, 1862
in Company D of the 21st Regiment of the Iowa Volunteer
Infantry. The company was mustered into service at
Dubuque on August 22, 1862 with William described as
being a twenty-four year old farmer, 5' 7¼” tall
with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. When
all ten companies were of sufficient strength, the
regiment was mustered in on September 9, 1862. Military
training was received at Dubuque's Camp Franklin
(formerly Camp Union) where the close confines of the
barracks led to an outbreak of measles that caused two
early deaths.
The regiment left for the South on the 16th, spent one
night in St. Louis, and then traveled by rail to Rolla.
From there, on October 18th, they started a march to
Salem, but William was no longer with them. Measles have
an incubation period that can be as long as three weeks
and William was one of fourteen in Company D who were now
suffering from the illness.
While the regiment saw many months of service in Missouri
- Salem, Houston, Hartville, West Plains, Ironton, Iron
Mountain and Ste. Genevieve - William remained under
medical care in Rolla. Eventually recovered and in good
health, he was able to rejoin the regiment at Milliken's
Bend, Louisiana, where, on April 10, 1863, George
Brownell, a comrade in Company D, made an entry in his
diary, "Wm. Gaylord arrived here to night has not
been with us since last fall." On arrival, William
was assigned to duty as a cook for the regiment's
colonel, Sam Merrill.
At Milliken's Bend, General Grant, intent on capturing
the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, was assembling a
massive army. Iowa's 21st, 22nd and 23rd Infantries,
together with the 11th Wisconsin, were designated the 2nd
Brigade of the 14th Division of the 13th Army Corps led
by Major General John McClernand. After marching and
wading south through swamps and bayous west of the
Mississippi, they crossed to Bruinsburg on the east bank
on April 30, 1863, and started a movement inland with the
21st Iowa as the point regiment for the entire army.
About midnight, an advance patrol encountered Confederate
pickets and, after brief firing in darkness, both sides
slept on their arms. On May 1st they fought the Battle of
Port Gibson and on May 16th were present, but held in
reserve, during the Battle of Champion's Hill.
Having been held out of the battle on the 16th, they were
rotated to the front on the 17th and were in the advance
when their brigade arrived at the Big Black River where a
Confederate force, hoping to keep the nearby railroad
bridge open long enough for all their men to cross, was
entrenched behind breastworks. Officers consulted and
decided on an assault. Their men fixed bayonets. Colonel
Kinsman ordered the 23rd, "Forward!" Colonel
Merrill shouted to the 21st, "By the left flank,
charge!" The two Iowa regiments ran directly at the
enemy. The 22nd Iowa and 11th Wisconsin followed. In
three minutes the Confederates were routed, but Union
casualties were heavy. Colonel Kinsman was dead. Colonel
Merrill lay on the field with serious wounds to both
thighs. His regiment had seven killed in the assault.
Another eighteen were mortally wounded and at least
thirty-nine suffered non-fatal wounds.
While other regiments went on to Vicksburg, the 21st
stayed on the field to bury their dead and care for the
wounded. Still detailed as Colonel Merrill's cook,
William Gaylord was furloughed on May 18th and detached
to accompany his colonel to McGregor so Merrill could
recuperate from his wounds. In late June, William
reported to the Provost Marshal in Dubuque seeking
transportation back to the regiment. Since he had
over-stayed his furlough, his name appeared on a list of
deserters, but the Provost Marshall noted that William
was "not properly to be considered as a
deserter," transportation was arranged, and William
rejoined the regiment in July.
Soon thereafter he became ill. On August 13th, when the
regiment boarded steamboats and headed south for New
Orleans, William and others unable for duty were left
behind. Taken on board the hospital boat R. C. Wood,
they headed north where they could receive better
treatment. Still on board on August 22, 1863, William
died. Thomas Appell, a surgeon on the R. C. Wood,
signed an inventory of William’s personal effects
and wrote to William’s commanding officer to advise
him that "Private Wm. F. Gaylord of your Company
died in this hospital on Aug. 22, 1863 of chronic
dysentery." The illness caused at least sixty-five
deaths in the regiment.
William is buried in the Memphis National Cemetery. He
was survived by a twenty-four year old wife. William and
Clara E. Eaton had been married on April 19, 1860 in
Strawberry Point and had no children. On September 8,
1863, pursuant to an act of Congress, Clara applied for a
widow's "half pay pension." It took a long time
and numerous affidavits from others but, on June 24,
1864, a pension certificate providing for $8.00 monthly,
retroactive to the day after her husband's death, was
mailed to her attorney.
Meanwhile, Benjamin one of William’s brothers, was
continuing his service with the 3rd Missouri Cavalry. On
November 11, 1864 he was mustered out and, in 1865, he
married his brother’s widow, Clara. Their four
children were Alice, Burton, Minnie and another who died
as an infant. Clara died in 1891 and Benjamin in 1925.
They are buried in the Strawberry Point Cemetery.
~*~*~
Girard,
Theophilus J.
Benigne Bresson and Jean Marguerite Soffie Eugene Girard,
both born in France, were married there on September 2,
1828. Their children included at least two girls, Clarice
(born April 13, 1850) and Sophia. A son, Theophilus J.
Girard, was born February 20, 1840, most likely in the
area of Amblans, Haute Saône, in eastern France.
(Theophilus’ obituary said he was born near
“Adlam.” Military records, with slight
variations, say he was born in “Hautston.” Many
families - including those with Bresson, Chenevey, Girard
and Jeanmougin surnames - immigrated from Amblans to
Holmes County, Ohio).
When Theophilus was twelve years old, the family
immigrated to the United States, made their home in
Holmes County, Ohio, and became members of St.
Genevieve’s Parish, Calmoutier. On April 16, 1860,
his sister, Sophia, was married in the parish to Theodore
Jeanmougin. Theophilus was still living there as late as
February 1861, but shortly thereafter moved to Iowa.
He was working as a farmer when he was enrolled in the
infantry at McGregor on August 11, 1862, by Englishman
William D. Crooke. On August 18th, he was among
ninety-nine men (officers and enlisted) were mustered in
as Company B with Crooke as their initial Captain. The
only Frenchman in the regiment, Theophilus was described
as being twenty-two years old, 5' 9" tall with hazel
eyes, fair hair and a fair complexion.
When the last of ten companies being organized in
northeastern Iowa had reached sufficient strength, they
were mustered in at Dubuque as the state’s 21st
regiment of volunteer infantry on September 9, 1862. On
September 16th, they left for war.
The regiment spent the night of September 20th at Benton
Barracks in St. Louis and then traveled by rail to Rolla.
From there they walked south to Salem and then Houston,
Hartville and back to Houston where, like many others,
Theophilus became ill and was confined briefly in a
regimental hospital. He recovered enough to travel with
the regiment as far as the old French town of St.
Genevieve but, with a difficult Vicksburg campaign ahead
of them, only the able-bodied were needed. Theophilus and
many others were ill and, on March 28, 1863, he was sent
to a general hospital in Cairo, Illinois, where, when
able, he worked part of the time as a nurse while
recovering his own health.
He was granted a furlough from the hospital, but was late
returning and, on January 2, 1864, a division inspector
marked him as a deserter, something that was not
uncommon. Men often took more time than anticipated to
regain their health and were reported as stragglers or
deserters by their regiments. Theophilus reported
voluntarily and was ordered to the regiment on February
9th. It took more than a month of travel, but he reached
the regiment on March 14, 1864, at Matagorda Island in
Texas. By order of Major General Napoleon Dana, he was
restored to duty without loss of pay or allowances.
In the southern climate, Theophilus was able to maintain
his health and was present with the regiment during its
remaining time on the Gulf coast of Texas and its
subsequent service in southwestern Louisiana (Terrebonne
Station, Algiers and Morganza) and along the White River
in Arkansas. In the spring of 1865, he participated in
the regiment’s final campaign of the war as part of
a Union force that moved north along the east side of
Mobile Bay and occupied the city of Mobile abandoned a
few days earlier by the enemy. The regiment then camped
outside of town near the Jesuit College of St. Joseph at
Spring Hill and many took the opportunity to visit its
museum filled, said Company B comrade Jim Bethard, with
"all kinds of minerals shells, birds eggs, insects
and all kinds of natural curiosities from all parts of
the world and some splendid pictures."
From there they returned to Louisiana, performed garrison
duty, and were mustered out on July 15, 1865, at Baton
Rouge. After returning to Iowa, they were discharged at
Clinton on July 24th and free to return to their homes.
On February 6, 1866, in Wooster, Ohio, not far from his
former home in Holmes County, Theophilus married Mary
Louise Martin whose parents, like those of Theophilus,
had been born in France. The couple lived in Ohio until
1876 when they moved to Adair County in Iowa. They lived
for a short time in Stuart before moving to Arbor Hill
and, eventually, to Greenfield. Theophilus worked as a
farmer and joined a local post of the Grand Army of the
Republic.
In answer to a government questionnaire, Theophilus said
they had eight children - Emma (born December 24, 1867),
Joe (born October 12, 1870), Alice (September 17, 1872),
Albert F. (April 18, 1875), Lucy E. (July 8, 1876),
Jennie (August 20, 1879), Clara D. (February 22, 1883)
and Esther (February 24, 1887).
Meanwhile, his sister Clarice died in 1870, his father in
1878 and his mother in 1881. All three are buried in
Holmes County’s Saint Genevieve Catholic Cemetery.
Theophilus continued to work a farm in Iowa but, by the
time he was fifty years old, health problems began to
impair his ability to earn a living by manual labor.
Early pension laws required that claims be based on a
war-related disability, but a new law effective June 27,
1890, no longer required a military origin. Less than a
month after the law became effective, Theophilus signed
an application and said he was suffering from rheumatism,
a bad knee and varicose veins. A board of surgeons in
Winterset verified the problems and a pension of $8.00
monthly, payable quarterly, was granted.
Laws were further liberalized in 1907 when pensions
became age-based with no need to show a disability. Less
than two weeks after the law became effective, Theophilus
applied. A pension was granted that periodically
increased as he grew older - from $12.00 to $15.00 to
$24.00 and, shortly before his death, to $30.00.
In Greenfield, on February 6, 1916, Theophilus and Mary
celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Later that
year, on October 12th, Theophilus died at seventy-six
years of age. His funeral two days later at the Catholic
Church was attended by all eight of his children. An
obituary in the Adair County Free Press
remembered him as "Dad Girard," a man:
''who was in a class by himself. He
was full of sunshine, good cheer, witticisms and
jokes. Everyone stopped to chat with him, for he was
a cure for the blues, and he scattered good cheer and
sunbeams wherever he went.”
The day after her husband’s death,
with the help of her son-in-law George Musmaker of
Greenfield, Mary applied for a widow’s pension. On
August 4, 1917, a certificate was mailed that entitled
Mary to $20.00 monthly, an amount later increased to
$30.00. Mary died on October 25, 1926, and was buried
near her husband in Greenfield Cemetery.
~*~*~
Golder,
Eber
Eber Golder was born on December 10, 1835, in Somerton,
England, one of nine children born to William and Sarah
Golder. He arrived in the United States on November 9,
1852.
During the “Mormon Migration” from the 1840s to
the 1860s, an estimated 70,000 people immigrated to the
valley of the Salt Lake from states to the east and many
foreign countries. Some traveled in wagons while others
walked and pulled handcarts with their possessions. In
1856, the Hodgett Wagon Company and the Martin Handcart
Company, with immigrants primarily from England and
Scotland, left Iowa City late in the season and started
west. Listed among those with the Hodgett company were
Eber’s older brother, twenty-four-year-old Richard
Golder, Richard’s wife (Mary Ann) and their two
young children (Emma and George). Accompanying them as a
“teamster” was Eber Golder.
Sometimes the two companies were traveling close to each
other. Other times, the wagon company trailed the
handcart company by two or three days. An online source
says Fort Laramie “was passed” by the Martin
company on October 8, 1856. On that same date, also at
Fort Laramie, Eber Golder enlisted for five years in
Company I of the 1st U. S. Cavalry. Officers included
Colonel Edwin Sumner, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph E.
Johnston and George T. Anderson, Captain of Company I.
Eber was described on the Descriptive and Historical
Register as being 5' 7½” tall with a fair
complexion, grey eyes and brown hair; occupation laborer.
On November 5th, the Martin company was at Martin’s
Cove in the Wyoming Territory, while Eber was 830 miles
away at Leavenworth, in the Kansas Territory, where he
signed his enlistment papers under oath before Mayor
William Murphy. Cavalry companies within a regiment often
operated separately from each other and details of
Eber’s service with Company I are lacking. The
government’s Descriptive and Historical Register
does indicate that he deserted on February 16, 1858, was
apprehended on June 9, 1860, and deserted again on August
3, 1861.
In Iowa, on June 3, 1862, twenty-six-year-old Eber and
twenty-year-old Viola Shippee were married by Methodist
minister Alfred Bronson. On August 9th, in Elkader, Eber
was enrolled by Elisha Boardman Jr. as a 4th Corporal in
what would be Company D of Iowa’s 21st Regiment of
volunteer infantry. The company of ninety-six men was
mustered in at Camp Franklin in Dubuque on August 22nd.
When all ten companies were of sufficient strength, they
were collectively mustered in as a regiment on September
9th. The Company Muster-in Roll of that date said Eber
was now 5' 8¾” tall and had a complexion that was
dark, eyes that were hazel and hair that was black;
occupation “soldier.”
A week later, they crowded on board the four-year-old
sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied
alongside and started south. Low water at Montrose forced
them to debark, go downstream by rail, board the Hawkeye
State at Keokuk, and continue their trip to St.
Louis. After spending one night at the city’s Benton
Barracks they traveled by rail to Rolla where they would
camp about five miles west of town for the next month. On
October 18, 1862, they started a march south. According
to Stephen Hysham, one of Eber’s comrades, Eber got
very wet while “getting some teams over a
stream.” By the time they reached Salem on the 19th,
Eber’s health had deteriorated and “he was
placed in regimental hospital.”
Still at Salem on the 25th, Eber was promoted to 3rd
Corporal to take the place of Strawberry Point’s
Joseph Hewlet who had died from lung congestion. On
November 2d, with Eber “taken on a wagon,” they
started another march, this time for Houston,
thirty-seven miles to the south. On arrival, Eber was
again hospitalized. Still in Houston a month later, he
was promoted to 2d Corporal.
The regiment would remain in Missouri for another five
months serving in Houston, Hartville and West Plains
before marching through Eminence, Iron Mountain and
Ironton, and into the old French town of Ste. Genevieve.
That’s where they were on March 27, 1863, when
Viola, in Elkader, gave birth to their first child, a boy
they named Richard James Golder.
Eber remained with the regiment and, like many others,
suffered from hard marches, often in freezing winter
temperatures, often getting wet while fording icy
streams. He contracted chronic diarrhea (an illness that
caused the death of at least sixty-four of his comrades)
and rheumatism attributed to the difficult conditions of
those early months in Missouri.
From Ste. Genevieve they were taken down the Mississippi
River to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was
organizing a large army for the purpose of capturing the
Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, a city that
Jefferson Davis said was “the nailhead that held the
South's two halves together." Assigned to a corps
led by General John McClernand, they walked south along
the west side of the river to Disharoon’s Plantation
where, on April 30th, they crossed to the east bank.
The next day, Eber participated in the day-long Battle of
Port Gibson during which three of his comrades were
killed and another fourteen wounded. They were present
but held in reserve during the May 16th Battle of
Champion’s Hill but the next day, with the 23rd
Iowa, led an assault on entrenched Confederates at the
Big Black River. Seven more members of the regiment were
killed during the assault, eighteen suffered wounds that
would soon prove fatal and at least thirty-eight had
non-fatal wounds of varying severity. Eber, who had been
promoted to 5th Sergeant in January and 4th Sergeant in
March, was now promoted to 3rd Sergeant to take the place
of twenty-four-year-old Wallace Moore who, said Colonel
Merrill, “was shot in the neck and lay dead”
immediately prior to the assault.
On May 22d they were in position on the siege line around
the rear of Vicksburg when General Grant ordered an
assault along the entire line. Again Eber participated
and again the regiment suffered heavy casualties -
twenty-three were killed, twelve more had fatal wounds,
and at least forty-eight had wounds that were sometimes
slight but other times led to amputations before the men
were sent north to their families. Effective on May 26th,
Eber was promoted to 2d Sergeant. Vicksburg surrendered
on July 4, 1863, and, on the 28th, Eber was granted a
thirty-day furlough. He returned home and, on expiration
of the furlough, reported at Davenport’s Camp
McClellan, secured transportation and went south to find
his regiment then in Louisiana.
He remained with the regiment during its service in
Louisiana and for more than six months on the Gulf Coast
of Texas. In June, 1864, they returned to Louisiana with
Hiram Hunt serving as the regiment’s Assistant
Surgeon. Many of Dr. Hunt’s records were lost when
the war ended, but he later found “by looking over
what few Hospital reports in my hands that Eber Golder
Serg of D Co. 21st Regt Infty Iowa Vol was treated by me
in the Regt for Diarrhea and piles and was excused from
duty from Aug 30th 1864 to September 2nd 1864.”
Unable for duty, Eber had been granted a medical furlough
to go north. On December 1st, he rejoined the regiment at
Memphis. He stayed with the regiment during the balance
of its service in Tennessee, Alabama and back in
Louisiana, but needed frequent medical care for the
continuing chronic diarrhea and resulting piles and
hemorrhoids.
At daylight on June 23, 1865, they arrived in Baton Rouge
where recruits who had not completed their service were
transferred to another regiment and muster rolls and
descriptive books were updated for those who would be
going home. On June 28th, while anxious soldiers
continued to wait in Baton Rouge, Viola Golder was at her
brother’s house in High Forest, Minnesota, when she
gave birth to a second child, Zabin Henry Golder. On July
15th, Eber and other original enlistees were mustered out
of federal service. The next morning they boarded the Lady
Gay and started the long trip north.
Eber and Viola remained in Iowa until about 1882. During
that time they had, said Eber in an 1898 affidavit, three
more children - Lorena on August 27, 1868, Albert Ishmael
on June 15, 1870, and Lois M. on November 19, 1872 -
while Eber continued to receive medical care for
rheumatism, piles and hemorrhoids. Treatment was received
from Dr. Andrews in McGregor and, later, from
Edgewood’s Dr. Blanchard who performed surgery
“by ligature” that provided temporary relief.
On May 4, 1878, Eber applied for an invalid pension from
the federal government. Three years later, supported by
affidavits from doctors who treated him, friends and
neighbors who knew him before and after his service, and
comrades who served with him, he was awarded $4.00
monthly retroactive to July 16, 1865. Eber was one of at
least three men in the regiment who had previously served
with a different regiment, deserted, voluntarily
re-enlisted, served their entire terms, and received
honorable discharges and federal pensions in recognition
of their service. Over a period of many years his pension
was gradually increased to $6.00 and then $10.00.
For about five years, from 1882 to 1887, the family lived
in Walsh County in the Dakota Territory where, in 1886,
Eber was granted a land patent, but they did not stay.
Instead, they moved to Anaconda, Montana, where Viola
died on June 19, 1896, at fifty-four years of age. She
was buried in the town’s Upper Hill Cemetery. Eber
continued to work as a plasterer and brick mason, but was
frequently hindered by his continuing health problems. He
was active in the Grand Army of the Republic, served as
Commander of the George C. Meade Post in Anaconda, and
attended numerous GAR encampments in the state. Congress
eventually authorized age-based pensions and Eber was
receiving $72.00 monthly when he died on February 9,
1923. He was buried in Upper Hill Cemetery.
Lois died on June 8, 1927, and, like her parents, is
buried in Anaconda’s Upper Hill Cemetery. Zabin died
on November 10, 1935, and is buried in Missoula Cemetery,
Missoula. Richard died February 2, 1939, and is also
buried in the Missoula Cemetery. Albert died on March 29,
1947, and is buried in Idaho’s Rexburg Cemetery.
Lorena is believed to have died sometime prior to July 5,
1898, but the date is not known.
Richard and Mary Ann Golder had completed their 1856
journey to Salt Lake City where a daughter, Louise, was
born on February 20, 1858. Sometime later they moved east
and settled in Seneca Falls, New York. During the Civil
War, Richard enlisted on August 29, 1864, in the 15th New
York Engineers. He died on June 14, 1920, and is buried
in Seneca Falls. Another brother William Golder, also
served during the war. He enlisted on August 15, 1861, in
the 8th Iowa Infantry. He reenlisted as a veteran
volunteer and was mustered out at Selma, Alabama, on
April 20, 1866.
~*~*~
Goldsmith,
Alfred
Co F, age 21, b. New York, residence Manchester, Delaware
co. IA
07/13/62 enlist as Musician (fifer)
08/23/62 muster in Company H
09/09/62 muster in Regiment
05/22/65 muster out
This is from the R&R. I have not
verified the information
~*~*~
Goodman,
George
Mathias and Mary Goodman and their two boys, George and
J. D., were born in Pennsylvania, but were living in
Clayton County when the census of 1860 was taken. George
was born on February 22, 1842, in Harrisburg, but was
working as a McGregor painter when he was enrolled by
William D. Crooke on August 11, 1862 in what would be
Company B of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was
described as being 5' 6" tall with black eyes, black
hair and a dark complexion.
The company was mustered in at Dubuque on August 18th.
When all ten companies were of sufficient strength, the
regiment was mustered into service on September 9, 1862.
The following week, on the paddlewheel steamer Henry
Clay and two barges lashed to its sides, they left
for war.
George maintained his health and was with the regiment
for all of its initial service in Missouri - Rolla,
Salem, Houston, Hartville, West Plains, Ironton, Iron
Mountain, Ste. Genevieve. During Vicksburg Campaign,
George participated in the May 1, 1863 Battle of Port
Gibson, was present while the regiment was held in
reserve during the May 16th Battle of Champion's Hill,
and participated in the next day's assault at the Big
Black River and in the May 22nd assault at Vicksburg. He
remained with the regiment throughout the siege that
ended with a Confederate surrender on July 4, 1863. The
regiment lost thirty-one killed in action, thirty-four
who succumbed to wounds that proved fatal, and at least
another one-hundred two men whose wounds were non-fatal.
After the surrender, George participated in the
subsequent pursuit of Confederate General Joe Johnston to
Jackson and a battle on July 10th.
In August, George was detached from the regiment and
assigned to duty with the Pioneer Corps of the 13th Army
Corps' 1st Division. The following month Jim Bethard
wrote to his wife that "Lieut Lions John Presho and
George Goodman are detached in a pioneer corps." It
was another year before he was relieved and able to (no
doubt happily) rejoin his regiment then at Morganza Bend
in Louisiana. He stayed with it for the balance of its
service in Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana, and was
mustered out with the regiment at Baton Rouge on July 15,
1865. Like many who elected to retain wartime souvenirs,
he paid $6.00 for his musket and accouterments.
John Presho, George's tent mate in Company B, had married
Celena Giroux in 1862 and during the war had possibly
spoken favorably of her younger sister, Martha. On June
9, 1872, thirty-year old George Goodman married
twenty-two year old Martha in Cook County, Illinois.
Making their home in Waukon, they would have three
children - Minnie born May 6, 1873, William born June 20,
1876 and Mattie born May 30, 1879. On September 1, 1883,
George joined the J. J. Stillman Post of the G.A.R. in
Waukon.
During the last few months of his service he had suffered
from night blindness in May and diarrhea in June, 1865,
during the regiment's service in Arkansas. After the war
he tried to work as a brick and stone mason, but the
diarrhea became chronic and he also suffered from
rheumatism. In 1890, at age forty-nine, he applied for an
invalid pension. A comrade, David Drummond, wrote a
supportive affidavit and two friends in Waukon, Carlton
Earle and James Hays, attested to his current condition.
They had worked with George a good deal of the time and
knew that, during cold or rainy weather, he suffered so
much from the rheumatism that he could not work. He was,
they said, a "poor man" with no other income or
property and tried to work but, at best, could only do
the work of half an able-bodied man. George was approved
for a pension of $6.00 per month.
In 1900 he was examined by a doctor. George had injured
his left knee twenty-eight years earlier and the doctor
said George was now suffering from atrophy of the muscles
of the thigh, he was limping badly, and he "stumbles
very frequently and cannot lift any considerable weight
without flinching." A pension increase was granted,
but his health continued to decline. In Waukon, on May
26, 1907, George died of pneumonia at age sixty-five. He
was buried in the town's Oakland Cemetery.
Following her husband's death, Martha sold what few
assets she had, moved to Chicago to live with her
daughter, Mattie, and applied for a widow's pension. A
pension was granted but, since she had not married George
until after his discharge, the amount was limited to
$12.00 monthly. She later moved to California to live
with another daughter. Martha was still receiving that
amount when she died on February 27, 1947 at age
ninety-seven. She is buried in the Inglewood Park
Cemetery.
~*~*~
Grannis, William
William Grannis was born on December 16,
1821, in the town of Evans in Erie County, New York. From
there, William and four brothers (Erasmus, John, Newton
and James Harvey Grannis) moved to an area west of
Strawberry Point in Clayton County, Iowa, where they
became well-known as fine musicians who often gave
concerts. There are many references to their move being
in 1851, but William had married Eliza Carr and an 1850
county census shows William (30), Eliza (27) and their
three children, Myron, Rhoda and Emma.
When the Universalist Church was organized in 1858,
members included William and Eliza, and William’s
brother James. It held its first meetings in a log cabin
on the Blake farm two miles northwest of Strawberry
Point.
By then, many county residents were still coping with the
“Panic of ‘57” that followed the
“wild and giddy speculation” of 1856-1857. The
“soil provided a good living, and the surplus
products of the farm could be exchanged for the few
simple manufactured articles which the settler was
obliged to have.” William and James had a store on
the corner of Main and Elkader streets in Strawberry
Point where they sold goods including broad cloths,
jeans, denims, collars, gloves and other clothing items
as well as teas and coffees, sugars and syrups, and, as a
sign of the times, offered to sell not only for cash, but
also for wheat, corn, oats, eggs and other products from
local farms. On August 4, 1859, the Clayton County
Journal, possibly indicating the brothers had difficulty
paying a clothing provider, said the Sheriff would sell
property of J. H. Grannis, William Grannis and Eliza
Grannis “to satisfy a special execution in favor of
Burchard, Dickie & Co. for the sum of $631.”
During the 1860 presidential election campaign, several
Southern states threatened to secede if Lincoln was
elected but the Journal didn’t regard the threat
seriously. “Indeed! because a majority of the voters
of the United States are in favor of a certain man and
invest him with the highest office in their gift, the
Union is to be dissolved! Ridiculous! Is there a
sensible, an unprejudiced man, in the State of Iowa who
believes this? Bah! No one anticipates such a
result.” But Lincoln was elected, states did secede
and, on April 12, 1861, General Beauregard’s
Confederate cannon fired on Fort Sumter. War followed.
By 1862, with casualties mounting, President Lincoln
called for another 300,000 men and, on July 9, 1862,
Iowa’s governor, Samuel Kirkwood, received a
telegram saying the state’s quota was five new
regiments in addition to those already in the field. On
July 21st, William’s son, Myron, enlisted in what
would be Company D of Iowa’s 21st regiment of
volunteer infantry and, on August 4th, William was
appointed 1st Lieutenant of the Company.
William and Elisha Boardman (who would serve as Captain)
were active recruiters. In Strawberry Point, William
enrolled Ruel Aldrich, Gilbert Cooley, Christopher Scovel
and William Southworth on August 11th, Salmon Bush on the
12th, John Robinson on the 13th, George Brownell and
Harvey King on the 14th, James Curtis on the 25th, and
many more. They were ordered into quarters at Camp
Franklin in Dubuque where, on August 23rd, they were
mustered in as Company. On September 9th, ten Companies,
with a total of 985 men, were mustered in as a regiment.
William was described as being 42 years old and 5'
10½” tall (about two inches taller than average).
On a rainy September 16th, they boarded the sidewheel
steamer Henry Clay and started down the
Mississippi. Their first six months were spent in
Missouri with William being sick and confined to quarters
at Salem and Houston, but on January 11, 1863, he was one
of the volunteers from regiment who participated in a
one-day battle at Hartville before returning to Houston
and then moving south to West Plains. He was sick again
in February but noted as “present” as they
moved to the northeast and into Ste. Genevieve where they
arrived on March 11th. From there they were transported
downstream to Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana, where
General Grant was organizing a large, three-corps, army
to capture the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg.
On April 12th, William was with the regiment when they
left the Bend and started walking south along the west
side of the river. On the 30th, they crossed from
Disharoon’s plantation to Bruinsburg, Mississippi,
where they were designated as the point regiment for the
entire Union army and started walking slowly inland.
About midnight, they were fired on by pickets for a short
time before both sides rested. The next day they fought
the one-day Battle of Port Gibson and, on the 5th,
William was detailed to lead a group of foragers
searching for provisions. They were held out of action
(“in reserve”) during the Battle of Champion
Hill on the 16th, but on the 17th, with the 23rd Iowa,
led a successful assault against entrenched Confederates
at the Big Black River and suffered twenty-five men
killed or mortally wounded. While they rested and buried
their dead, other regiments continued to Vicksburg and
began surrounding the rear of the city.
By May 20th, the regiment had taken its position on the
Union line and two days later participated in an assault
during which another thirty-five members of the regiment
were killed or sustained fatal wounds. Among them was
Samuel Bates who was seriously wounded and captured
behind Confederate lines. On June 14th, after learning
Samuel had died, William sent Samuel’s personal
effects to his father, Rev. John Bates, who bore the news
of his son’s death with “noble Christian
fortitude.” On the 18th, William signed a
certificate for the discharge of Ira Chapman who was at
home on furlough when he became disabled by “the
accidental cutting off of the large toe of his right
foot” that rendered him unable for duty.
Having been present with his regiment since it left Iowa,
William was “suffering with chronic diarrhoea”
when the surgeon recommended a leave of twenty days and
said a change of climate would be helpful. On July 5th,
one day after Vicksburg’s surrender, Major General
John Rawlins agreed and signed Special Order #181
approving the leave. It was extended several times while
William recovered his health and it was a rainy September
29th before William, Chaplain James Hill and Captain
Elisha Boardman rejoined the regiment near Berwick,
Louisiana, and 2d Lieutenant Gilbert Cooley was ordered
to turn over all ordinance, stores and equipment to
William.
In October, with the regiment in Louisiana and its
colonel, Sam Merrill, at home recuperating from wounds
received during the assault at the Big Black, Lt. Col.
Van Anda arranged the discharge of Elisha and several
others without their knowledge. When they became aware of
what he had done, William wrote to Governor Kirkwood
indicating that it was the wish of all members of Company
D that Elisha be recommissioned and returned to duty.
Approval was given by the War Department and Elisha was
reinstated. During the four months Elisha was gone,
William had been in command of the Company and he
requested and received additional pay for being
responsible for clothing, arms and other property.
The regiment saw six months of service on the Gulf coast
guarding the “sacred sands” of Texas, before
being transported back in Louisiana where William
recommended that 6th Corporal Jasper De Long be reduced
to the ranks for disobedience of an order and neglect of
duty. On June 16th of 1864, and still in Louisiana, they
were posted at Terrebonne Station where William was
detailed as the Company’s Assistant Quartermaster.
He remained in that capacity as the regiment moved to
Algiers, saw service along the White River of Arkansas,
and from there moved to Memphis where William was
relieved of the position and returned to the Company. For
those services, he was again entitled to pay for the
additional duties he had performed.
The regiment’s final campaign of the war saw them at
the head of Mobile Bay in Alabama. They were on Dauphin
Island when Ed Rolfe, a member of the state’s 27th
infantry, wrote on March 12, 1865, that “after
meeting” the previous Sunday he “went down to
the 21st Iowa and I [saw] Mr Grannis the store Keeper at
Strawberry Point and took supper with him I drank Coffee
out of a china Cup for the first time since I was on
Furlough and Eat off an Earthen plate. Beans & Beef
Bred & Butter sweet cakes and Bread pudding.
Concentrated Milk in our Coffee for supper pretty good
for a soldier But Grannis is a 1st Lieut and he can
afford to have such things.”
William and the rest of the regiment left Dauphin Island
on March 17th, moved across the bay’s entrance and
started a march north along the east side the bay. It was
a difficult march. Under a surface that appeared firm,
the subsoil was swampy, almost quicksand. Wagons sank.
"Every team seeking an untried path soon got mired,
and wagons were seen in all directions sunk down to the
hubs .... long ropes were made fast to the teams, and the
soldiers with cheerfulness and alacrity, hauled both
animals and wagons out of the mire" and continued
their advance. On April 12th Confederates in Mobile
completed their evacuation of the city and the Union army
moved in. The 21st regiment was then stationed at Spring
Hill for more than six weeks before returning to
Louisiana, seeing light service along the Red River, and
being mustered out on July 15, 1865, at Baton Rouge.
After their discharge at Clinton, Iowa, on the 24th, the
soldiers returned to civilian life.
Eliza died in 1876 while in California and several months
later William married Laura “Rosannah” (nee
Palmer) Knapp who had been married twice but was divorced
from her second husband.
On May 16, 1878, William applied for an invalid pension
saying he had, like so many others, contracted chronic
diarrhea in the military. Since leaving the service he
had lived in Strawberry Point and Dubuque and worked as a
clerk but gave his mailing address as Forest City. His
claim was still pending when forty-one-year-old Laura
Rosannah died on August 17th. She was buried in
Earlville’s Fairview Cemetery while the Bureau of
Pensions continued to investigate William’s claim.
The War Department verified his service and a surgeon in
Forest City signed an affidavit giving his opinion that
William was “one half incapacitated for obtaining
his subsistence by manual labor” due to the chronic
diarrhea contracted in the military.
On February 13,1879, William married for a third time,
this time to Martha Wheeler whose husband, Eugene
Wheeler, had died three years earlier.
Meanwhile, the pension process continued, and William
submitted another affidavit, this one by a doctor who
said William had been “a man of good physical
condition” before enlisting. Subsequently, the
doctor had seen William as often as 4 or 5 times a year
while William was traveling through the country and
“suffering from general debility and diarrhea. He
has not been a sound man since leaving the service.”
On March 27, 1880, an examiner submitted William’s
claim for consideration. It was approved and on the 31st
a certificate was issued entitling William to $8.50
monthly, payable quarterly through a local pension
agency.
On August 27, 1881, William gave his address as Earlville
when he applied for an increase and indicated his health
had worsened so as “to be gradually incapacitating
him from caring for himself” although he was working
as a “runner for a large house in Dubuque.”
On May 30, 1883, he was accompanied by Martha (“to
guard him from injury in falling down during his
epileptic fits”) when he was examined by a board of
pension surgeons in Dubuque. He was emaciated and feeble,
was still having diarrhea spells that averaged once a
month and had suffered from heart trouble and depression.
The surgeons recommended an increase, and the pension
office raised it to $50.00 monthly.
In his final years, William worked as the proprietor of
the Grannis House in Dubuque, but heart disease and the
debilitating effects of his continuing wartime diarrhea
led to his death on March 14, 1886, at 64 years of age.
He was buried in Earlville’s Fairview Cemetery.
On May 16, 1886, Martha applied for a widow’s
pension and for William’s accrued but still unpaid
pension. Her application was supported by R. L. Jones and
Asa Wheeler who said they had known William and his
second wife, Rosannah, for many years and testified to
her death. Martha was granted $17.00 monthly, an amount
she would receive for only a few months before remarrying
to William Pitts.
~*~*~
Griffin,
Abel
Abel Griffin was born in Chatauqua County, New York, in
1832. Like many others from New York, he moved to Clayton
County where, on June 21, 1856, “Abel Griffin and
Marion Eaton were duly joined in marriage by E. L.
Gardner a Justice of the Peace.” On July 22, 1858,
Marion gave birth to a daughter they named Nellie E.
Griffin.
The following year abolitionist John Brown raided
Harper’s Ferry and the Clayton County Journal
called him a “traitor to his country.” In 1860,
despite rising tensions in the South, newly elected
Governor Sam Kirkwood assured citizens that “passion
will subside, reason will resume its sway.” The Journal
discounted secession threats but, on April 12, 1861,
Southern artillery fired on Fort Sumter and, on September
18th, a son, Elmer E. Griffin was born to Abel and
Marion.
The war that most thought would never happen escalated
rapidly and the President called for more and more
volunteers. With his son less than a year old, Able
enlisted as a drummer in Company B on August 5, 1862. Ten
companies were mustered in as the state’s 21st
Infantry regiment on September 9th. Also serving in the
regiment were other immigrants from Chatauqua County
including Gilbert Cooley, William Wallace Farrand, Tyler
Featherly, Perry Dewey, William Hall, Norman Scofield and
Henry Howard.
Abel maintained his health well during the
regiment’s early service in Missouri and was marked
“present” on all bimonthly muster rolls as they
moved from St. Louis to Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville,
back to Houston, West Plains, Ironton, Pilot Knob and
Ste. Genevieve. He was also present on April 10th at
Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana, where General Grant was
organizing a large three-corps army hoping to open the
Mississippi by capturing the Confederate stronghold at
Vicksburg. In a corps led by General John McClernand,
they walked south along roads west of the river and waded
through swamps ("a home for alligators and
reptiles").
Understandably, many became sick and were left behind.
Among them was Abel Griffin who, on April 21st was
reported as “sick at Perkins’ plantation.”
On April 30, 1863, the army began to cross the river to
the Bruinsburg landing on the east bank and start a march
inland. As the point regiment for the entire Union army,
the regiment drew first fire from enemy pickets about
midnight as they approached the Shaifer house. Abel was
reported as “absent” on April 30th, but also as
participating with his regiment the next day in what the
North called the Battle of Port Gibson. He was also
reported as present on May 16th when the regiment was
held in reserve by General McClernand during the Battle
of Champion’s Hill and as participating in the May
17th assault at the Big Black River, the May 22nd assault
at Vicksburg and the siege that followed. General
Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to Grant on July 4, 1863.
During the siege, Confederate General Joe Johnston had
been little more than an irritant as he roamed around the
rear of the Union lines, but ultimately did nothing to
help his comrades in the city relieve the siege. Never
one to waste time, as soon as the siege ended Grant
ordered Sherman to take care of Johnston. Abel Griffin
and others in the regiment left with Sherman on the 5th
and headed east in pursuit of a rapidly withdrawing
Johnston. They pursued him as far as Jackson where
defenders of the city resisted their advance for several
days, but eventually it too fell to the federals. After
helping to destroy railroads, gather abandoned arms, burn
buildings and remove anything that might benefit the
rebels, Sherman ordered a return to Vicksburg.
From the 25th of July through the 12th of August, they
camped next to a levee near the city but, on the 13th,
they boarded the Baltic and started downstream. Many
thought they were going to Natchez but, instead, they
continued south, went ashore on the 16th, and made camp
at Carrollton, then a suburb of New Orleans. Abel was
admitted to the Barracks U.S. Army General Hospital in
New Orleans where, on August 31st, he died from typhoid
fever, one of at least twenty-five men in the regiment
whose deaths were attributed to the illness. Buried
initially in the barracks hospital, he was likely
reinterred after the war but the site of the burial is
unknown.
Marion was left to care for their two children,
five-year-old Nellie and Elmer who would have his second
birthday eighteen days after his father’s death. On
January 21, 1864, still living in Strawberry Point,
Marion signed a “Widow’s Declaration for
Pension.” Clara Gaylord and Amos Eaton, who had been
present when Abel and Marion were married, signed a joint
affidavit attesting to the marriage, confirming that Abel
and Marion had “lived together as man and wife, and
were so reputed,” and that Marion “has remained
a widow since his death.” In Elkader, Alvah Rogers,
a County judge, issued a certificate that also confirmed
the marriage “which appears of Record in my
office.”
Abel’s military record and death were confirmed by
the Bureau of Pensions and Marion was awarded a pension
of $8.00 monthly, payable quarterly, through a local
pension agent. On July 4, 1867, she applied again and
this time was awarded an additional $2.00 for each of her
children, amounts she would receive until their sixteenth
birthdays.
On October 24, 1867, after more than four years of
widowhood, Marion married David Baker in Anamosa. Since
she was no longer entitled to a widow’s pension, she
asked to be appointed guardian of her children, now ages
nine and seven. The appointment was approved and signed
by Clayton County judge C. A. Dean on June 2, 1868, and
the government issued a new certificate recognizing
Marion E. Baker as guardian and continuing the
children’s pensions until their sixteenth birthdays.
~*~*~
Grutchek,
John
Kruchek, John
(post-war)
Born in Austria1
08/12/62 enlisted McGregor, Co. B
08/18/62 mustered in Dubuque, IA
07/15/65 mustered out Baton Rouge, LA
John Grutchek was born on August 10, 1837 in Austria. He
emigrated to the United States in 1852, lived one winter
in Cleveland and two years in Dubuque, and then settled
in Clayton County. The 1860 federal census said he was
then working in Grand Meadow Township as a laborer on the
farm of P. G. Bailey, a farm that was irrigated from two
creeks, had a fine stand of timber and, to the south,
abutted the farm of Levi and Abigail (Rice) Haines and
their daughter, Phila. On August 12, 1862 he enlisted in
Company B then being raised by McGregor postmaster
Willard Benton. The Company was mustered in on August
18th and the Regiment on September 9, 1862. The Muster-in
Roll described John as being 5' 5" tall with blue
eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion, listed his
occupation as farmer, and said he enlisted at "Grand
Meadow."2
Unlike many others, John maintained his health well and
was one of twenty-five volunteers from his Company who
participated in the day long Battle of Hartville,
Missouri, on January 11, 1863. He remained with regiment
during General Grant's successful Vicksburg Campaign
during which he participated in the May 1, 1863 Battle of
Port Gibson (Magnolia Hills) when three members of the
regiment were fatally wounded, was present during the May
16, 1863 Battle of Champion's Hill when General
McClernand held the regiment in reserve, participated in
the May 17, 1863 assault on entrenched Confederates at
the Big Black River (when the regiment's casualties were
7 killed, 18 fatally wounded and 38 non-fatally wounded),
and the assault at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863 (when 23
were killed, 12 were fatally wounded and 48 were wounded
non-fatally).3 Following the siege and
surrender of Vicksburg, John was with the regiment as it
pursued Confederate General Joe Johnston and during the
siege and occupation of Jackson, Mississippi. After
returning to Vicksburg, John became ill and was granted a
30-day furlough to return home, a furlough that was
extended another 30 days based on a statement by
Clermont's Dr. Lewis that more time was needed. He
eventually returned to the South and rejoined his
Regiment on November 4, 1863. The following April, Jim
Bethard, a comrade in Company B, wrote to his wife,
Caroline: "John Gruchae keeps poking his head out of
his tent and bothering me John is as fat and saucy as a
pet sheep ever since he came back from up north"
John stayed with the regiment through its subsequent
service in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Arkansas. They
were in Louisiana when, on June 12, 1865, Jim Bethard
again wrote to his wife: "John Gruchek has spoken to
me several times in a laughing way about catching you and
Phila Haiens in the blackberry patch dressed in mens
clothes he says he meant to have had some fun not
pretending to know but what you were boys but you cut and
run to soon he is good natured and always full of
fun".
After being mustered out with the regiment at Baton Rouge
on July 15, 1865, John returned to Iowa, moved to
Humboldt, and joined the local post of the G.A.R. It was
there, on January 1, 1868, that 30-year old John married
18-year-old Mary Steward. Their children, apparently all
born in Humboldt and with some variations in spelling
over time, were: Elva A., b. 12/15/1868; Louisa K. /
Lonesa R., b. 03/28/1870; George F., b. 05/01/1872;
Charles S., b. 09/14/1873; Burtis H. 'Bert', b.
05/08/1875; Margaret M. 'Maggie', b. 12/01/1877; Minnie
F., b. 07/30/1879; John M., b. 02/12/1880; Walter W., b.
10/04/1882; Lethe / Letiva, b. 09/25/1884; Liciel, b.
03/23/1886; Nichodemas, b. 05/05/1883; Hazel, b.
02/28/1890 and Sailor, b. 08/03/1893
All children bore the surname of Kruchek as John would
explain to the federal Pension Office: "until I was
discharged from the army I spelled my name
G-r-u-t-c-h-e-k but ever since my discharge I have
spelled my name K-r-u-c-h-e-k except in my signature to
pension papers when I have used the former
spelling". On July 15, 1892, John applied for an
invalid pension claiming he was suffering from chronic
diarrhoea contracted while in the service, an illness
that led to subsequent complications. With supportive
affidavits from former comrades David Drummond and Othmar
Kapler, as well as his doctor, he was granted a pension
initially at $4.00 per month and then periodically
increased as he aged and medical issues escalated. On
August 17, 1901,John's G.A.R. membership was transferred
from the Humboldt post and it seems likely that's when he
moved to Waitsburg, Washington with Mary and several of
their children. From there they moved to Pullman, WA and
that's where John died on September 20, 1912. He was
buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery, Pullman. Mary
continued to live in Pullman until, less than a year
later, she died on August 9, 1913. She was buried with
her husband in the Odd Fellows Cemetery. Also buried in
Pullman's Odd Fellows Cemetery are three of their
children: Letivia who died on February 16, 1923 at age
thirty-eight, Margaret (Krucheck) McKarcher who died on
January 23, 1952 at age seventy-four, and Bert who died
on November 30, 1958 at age eighty-three. Charles, died
in 1952 and was buried in Dayton Cemetery, Dayton, Iowa.
John and his brother Walter are buried in Waitsburg
Cemetery, Waitsburg, Washington. The graves of the other
eight children have not yet been located.
1The 1860 census said he was born in
Germany, but all other documents, including many
signed by John, say he was born in Austria.
2His Company Descriptive Book said he
enlisted at "McGregor" but also has
"Grand Meadow" written above it.
3Other sources have reported different
casualty figures, but the figures given here are
accurate and the names of each of the men have
been verified from military and pension records at
the National Archives and Records Administration and
from regimental and other
records.
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