JOHN C. BROWN.

The Twenty-third was ordered to Missouri and its main field of operations, during the war, was in Mississippi and Louisiana. Soon after the regiment reached the State first named, Captain Coe, of Company I., resigned on account of ill health and was succeeded by John C. Brown, the second lieutenant. The latter was killed, while bravely leading his men at Milliken's Bend, on June 7, 1863, and was succeeded by John J. Van Houten, who went out as first sergeant.

. . .

In all the other engagements which preceded the fall of Vicksburg the Twenty-third was prominent. On the 7th of June, about a month before the city capitulated, 120 of its men were surprised by a Confederate force and over 30 were either killed or wounded. The scene of the ambuscade was at Milliken's Bend, and among the killed was the lamented captain of Company I, James C. Brown. After the fall of Vicksburg the regiment participated in the engagements at Jackson, Fort Esperenza, and Spanish Fort, and was mustered out of the service at Harrisburg, Texas, on the 26th of July, 1865.

From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 83.

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The honor of establishing the "Cass County Gazette," the first newspaper in the county, belongs to John C. Brown, its editor. Neither was he simply a newspaper patriot, as his subsequent record with the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry and his death while in the service, abundantly prove. John J. Van Houten, his printer and foreman of the "devil," Seth M. Young, also went to the front with the editor and, upon Mr. Brown's death, succeeded him as captain of their company.

From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 101.