Voltaire P. Twombly - - Congressional Medal of Honor Winner
TWOMBLY, TWOMBLEY, WILDER, FUNK
Posted By: Volunteer - Rich Lowe
Date: 10/1/2001 at 09:46:21
KEOSAUQUA - The first Congressional Medal of Honor out of only 28 medals given during the Civil War was awarded to Van Buren County native Capt. Voltaire P. Twombly.
It is believed Twombly was the second individual from Iowa to receive this distinguished award.
Twombly was born Feb. 21, 1842, in a log cabin on a farm near Farmington. He was the only child of Samuel Tuttle Twombly and Dorothy C. Wilder. His father died seven months after his birth, and in 1843, Twombly and his mother relocated to Keosauqua.
Twombly mostly attended private schools in Keosauqua, as the public schools in that day were said not to have been of a very high order.
In 1859-60, the Rev. Daniel Lane, the pioneer congregational minister of Keosauqua, instructed Twombly.
Shortly after Twombly's schooling, at the age of 19, he entered the Army.
Twombly's military and later political careers were outstanding.
In April 1861, after the firing upon of Fort Sumter, Twombly enlisted in what became Company F of the Second Iowa Infantry.
In May, Twombly was named corporal; he was assigned to the Color Guard of the regiment in October 1861.
He took part in his regiment's charge at Fort Donelson in February 1862.
According to a Color Guard's account of the battle, one sergeant, along with two corporals from other companys, fell in the battle and the colors were taken by Twombly, who bore them to the end of the fight, with not a single man of the Color Guard except Twombly on his feet to the end.
Rewarded for meritorious conduct during this battle, Twombly was made sergeant and while serving in that capacity carried his colors through the two-day battle of Shiloh in April 1862.
Twombly served as second lieutenant of his company, and during the battle of Corinth (Miss.) in October, he was wounded and hospitalized for one month. It was the only time he was off duty during more than four years of service.
The Second Iowa Infantry, as part of the First Brigade, Second Division, l6th Army Corps, was stationed in Corinth in 1863 and proceeded on many raids through northern Mississippi, Alabama and western Tennessee.
After the troops were stationed in Tennessee during the winter of 1883-84, they joined Sherman's Army just as it was moving out of Chattanooga. Twombly fought in many battles and was wounded in the battle of Jonesboro in August 1864; however, he did not enter the hospital. That year, he was commissioned first lieutenant and adjutant. In November, he was promoted to captain.
Twombly was discharged in July 1865 at Davenport, after being mustered out on July 12, 1865, in Louisville, Ky.
After a visit to his mother and friends in Keosauqua, Twombly entered Bryan and Stratton's Business College in Burlington. Three months later, he accepted a position as manager of the large flouring interests in Ottumwa, owned by Orchard City Mills Co. of Burlington.
He married Chloe A. Funk of Keosauqua, and in December 1867, they moved to Pittsburg, Iowa, where he engaged in the milling business with his father-in-law until 1876, when they moved to Keosauqua.
The mercantile business took Twombly's attention until 1879, when he entered into politics and was elected treasurer of Van Buren County. In 1884, he ran for treasurer of the state of Iowa, a position he held for three terms.
Twombly and his wife, Chloe, had five children. The two eldest daughters, Cora and Grace, and a son, Henry, died in infancy. Son William died of appendicitis at age 16, The youngest child, Eva, was born in 1878, and later married and moved to Des Moines.
Twombly died in February 1918 at the age of 76. His body rested in a receiving vault in Des Moines for two months and then was brought to Keosauqua on an evening train, taken to the Pittsburg Cemetery and interred near his children.
Twombly's Medal of Honor is in the National Military Park, Dover, Tenn.; the flag he carried is at the Iowa State Historical Museum. Des Moines, and his heroic act is depicted in bronze on the Iowa Soldiers and Sailors Monument, also in Des Moines.
Keosauqua's old stone building on the corner of First and Cass streets, now the site of the Van Buren Historical Museum, is known as the Twombly Building and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in July 1993.
The building was constructed around 1875. Whether or not Twombly had the construction done, he probably was the first occupant, running a grocery store downstairs, with the Keosauqua Republican newspaper located on the second floor. Twombly sold the two-story limestone building in 1892, and a clothing store occupied the ground floor. At one point, the building housed a bakery and supplied Kelly's Army, a branch of Coxey's Army.
By 1912, the building housed the post office on the first floor and a telephone company on the second floor.
A dedication ceremony was held at Twombly's grave on July 2, 1989, where a plaque was placed in his honor. In attendance was Ruth Jeffries of Des Moines, Twombly's only living descendant.
---------------
Reproduced with permission of Donna Murphy
Twombly Building - Keosauqua
Van Buren Biographies maintained by Rich Lowe.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen