Gillett, Henry A.

GILLETT, ROWE

Posted By: Linda Ziemann, Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/27/2007 at 16:31:38

HISTORY OF CERRO GORDO COUNTY IN IOWA
By Wheeler, Volume 1

Henry A. Gillett was born in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, July 14, 1839. He was of pure American blood, his father coming from Connecticut and his mother from “The Old Dominion.” As a joint son of Connecticut and Virginia, he united in his person the North and South and as a soldier for the Union he fought to preserve the union indissoluble.

Henry A. Gillet enlisted in Company I, 3d Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, in June 1861, and December 13, 1863, he re-enlisted at Wartrace, Tennessee, and served until the close of the War, when he was honorable discharged with his regiment, July 18, 1865.

Henry A. Gillett with his gallant veteran regiment took an exceedingly active part in the Civil War, being constantly at the front where fire and smoke were thickest and serving in some of the most important and strenuous campaigns of both the army of the Potomac and the army of Tennessee. He was on the firing line at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, with Sherman in his famous march to the sea and the grand review in the streets of Washington after the “cruel war was over.” He was honorably discharged with his regiment July 18, 1865.

In 1869 (sic 1868) he was married to Miss Jennie Rowe, a native of England, and in 1870 he settled on section 21, Mason Township, Cerro Gordo County.

Jennie died August 25, 1900, in Mason City, Iowa, at fifty-one years of age. Henry died March 21, 1923, in Los Angeles, California, at eighty-three years of age. They are both buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Mason City.