Redman, Captain William Henry

REDMAN, FERGUSON

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 2/5/2013 at 06:57:20

The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa
Des Moines: Union Hist. Co., 1880.

REDMAN, CAPTAIN WILLIAM HENRY—Jackson Twp—pg 660-1. Montezuma. William Henry Redman, one of the youngest and most prosperous attorneys of Montezuma, was born at Genesee Grove, Whiteside county, Illinois, on the 5th of March, 1840, his parents being Eli and Catherine Owen Redman. His father, born in Western Virginia, was a soldier in the War of 1812, receiving a land warrant in consideration of his services. William H. completed his academical education at the Mount Carroll Seminary, Carroll county, Illinois, and from that town enlisted for service in the war of the rebellion as a private in company C, Twelfth Illinois cavalry volunteers, January 1, 1862; re-enlisted as a veteran in same company and regiment February 29, 1864; was regularly promoted through the grades of second and first lieutenant to the captaincy of said company, and was finally, as such, mustered out with his company at Houston, Texas, May 29, 1866. He saw active service in the War of the Rebellion as follows: At the cavalry engagements at Bunker Hill and Martinsburg, Va., September 10, 11, and 12, 1862; in the siege of Harper’s Ferry, Va., September 13 and 14, 1862, and was one of the seventeen hundred cavalrymen who forced their way through the enemy’s lines on the night of September 14, 1862, thus avoiding becoming prisoners of war September 15, 1862, when Harper’s Ferry capitulated to Stonewall Jackson’s forces. He was in the battle of Antietam, Md., September 17 and 18, 1862; the severe cavalry engagement at Williamsport, Md., September 21, 1862, where his horse was shot and killed under him; the cavalry engagement of Dumphries, Va., December 26 and 27, 1862. He was captured by the enemy near Dumphries January 8, 1863, and the same night escaped from his captors, and, after two night’s travel, returned to his command. He was in the various battles and cavalry engagements of the great "Stoneman raid" in the vicinity of Warrenton, Rappahannock Station, Louisa Court-house, Ashland Station, and Tunstell’s Station, Va., between April 13 and May 5, 1863; also at Aldie and Upperville, Va., June 19 and 21, 1863; the battle of Gettysburg, Penn., July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, and of the several cavalry engagements at Boonsboro, Funktown, Falling Water, and Williamsport, Md., from the 6th to the 14th of July, 1863; the battle of Chester Gap, Va., July 26, 1863, and Brandy Station, and Culpepper Court-house, Va., August 7 and 8, 1863. He was also in the cavalry engagements at Germania Ford, Raccoon Ford, Stephensburg, Brandy Station, Rappahannock Station, and Brentsville, Va., in General Mead’s withdrawal of the Potomac army in October, 1863, having another horse killed under him at Germania Ford. He was also in the many battles and engagements of General Banks’ army on the disastrous Red River campaign in April and May, 1864, and was with his company in the following important cavalry raids: From Baton Rouge, La., to Liberty, Miss, in November, 1864; from same place to Pascagoula in December, 1864, and from Memphis, Tenn., to Ripley, Miss., in March, 1865, where he exchanged shots with the enemy for the last time and captured his last prisoner. During the time he was in the service he was never sick a day, never off duty, never failed to face the enemy, and never received a wound. His military record is as noble as his life is pure. On leaving the service Captain Redman entered the law department of the State University at Iowa City, and there graduated in December, 1869; since practicing law, with a growing business and rising reputation, at Montezuma, where he settled in April, 1870. He is in company with Major Carr, and they are doing a thrifty business in the abstract line and real estate, as well as law. Captain Redman has three times been mayor of Montezuma, and has a high standing in the community. In politics, he trains in the Republican ranks. He is connected with the Odd Fellows. The wife of Captain Redman [misprint spelled as Redfield] was Miss Sue P. Ferguson, of Jefferson, Harrison county, Ohio; married on the 3d of March, 1870. They have had five children, and lost two of them.