Youngest Civil War Veteran, born in Jasper County

HUNNEL, HUNNELL

Posted By: JCGS Volunteer
Date: 3/18/2017 at 15:17:53

Hunnel May Be The Youngest Veteran
J. F. Hunnel of Runnells, who is visiting relatives in Des Moines, declares that he is about as young a civil war veteran as is alive in the entire country. He has just passed his sixty-seventh birthday and is in the best of health.
“I enlisted in the Union Army when I was just thirteen years of age down on Fourth street right here in Des Moines,” says Mr. Hunnel. “I was seventeen when I came out of the army, and was a drummer boy during the entire war. I enlisted during the entire war. I enlisted during the entire war. I enlisted in Company G, Twenty-third Iowa in 1862. I was given my discharge down in Texas in 1865. I was at the siege of Vicksburg under General Grant, and in that engagement lost my father who was a fifer in the same company, and an uncle. Both died from disease during the long days of the siege. I had one other uncle and a cousin in the same company with myself. Three out of the five of us came out of the war alive.
“I was never wounded altho I was pretty sick for several months just after going to the war. I was born in Polk county and now live within four miles of the place where I was born. I have heard some discussions of who is the youngest living civil war veteran and believe I might be ranked in that class.”
(NOTE: John G. Hunnell was born December 10, 1848 in Jasper County and died March 23, 1936 at Runnells, Iowa. He is buried at Vandalia Cemetery in Des Moines Township, Jasper County, Iowa.)
Source: Des Moines Capital; January 10, 1916