Iowa Civil War Home

 IOWA IN THE CIVIL WAR  

 

WILLIAM H. TEDFORD was born in Blount County, Tennessee, November 8, 1844. The family removed to Iowa in 1851, locating on a farm where the young man acquired his education. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in Company F, Eleventh Iowa Volunteers, serving in the army four years and taking part in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, Atlanta and Sherman's march to the sea with its numerous minor engagements. After his return from the war Mr. Tedford entered the State University, graduating from the Law Department. In 1869 he began to practice at Corydon, where he has since resided. In 1884 he was chosen on the Republican ticket one of the presidential electors. He was elected judge of the Third Judicial District and was reelected in 1894 and 1898.

WILLIAM THOMPSON was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, November 10, 1813. He assisted his father to clear a farm in the dense forests of Ohio and when twenty-one began to study law in the office of Columbus Delano. In 1839 he went by steamboat down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi river to Montrose in Iowa. At Mount Pleasant he opened a law office in partnership with J. C. Hall. In 1843 he was elected to the House of the Legislative Assembly. He served as chief clerk of the two succeeding sessions. In 1846 he was secretary of the Second Constitutional Convention. In 1847 he was elected on the Democratic ticket Representative in Congress for the First District. He was a candidate for reelection and after a warm contest was declared successful. But his election was contested by Danile F. Miller before the House of Representatives and the seat declared vacant. Both were candidates at a special election in which Thompson was defeated. For several years he was editor of the Iowa State Gazette. He was elected chief clerk of the war session of the House in 1861 by a unanimous vote. Mr. Thompson raised a company for the First Iowa Cavalry and was repeatedly promoted until near the close of the war when he was brevetted Brigadier-General. After the close of the war, at the request of General Custer, Mr. Thompson was appointed captain in the regular army where he served with Custer in his Indian campaigns, retiring just in time to escape the tragic fate of his gallant commander. Colonel Thompson died at Tacoma, Washington, October 7, 1897.

JAMES K. P. THOMPSON was born near Cary, Ohio, August 21, 1845. His education was carefully guided by his mother who was a prominent teacher. In 1857 Mr. Thompson came to Iowa, locating in Clayton County. He enlisted as a musician in Company D, Twenty-first Iowa Volunteers in 1862 and served through the war, taking part in the following engagements: running the blockade at Vicksburg, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Champion's Hill, Black River ridge, assault and siege of Vicksburg, Mobile campaign, siege and assault of Fort Blakely and Spanish Fort. He was severely wounded in the assault on Vicksburg. Under the instruction of S. T. Woodward of Elkader he began the study of law in 1896, was admitted to the bar, and in 1874 located in Lyon County at Rock Rapids, and opened the first law office in the town. He was for many years closely identified with the development of northwestern Iowa and especially with Lyon County, where he held many offices. He was largely instrumental in securing the establishment of the National Military Park at Vicksburg and was a member of the Board of Directors from the beginning. Colonel Thompson served on the staff of Governors Larrabee, Jackson and Drake. He died at his home in Rock Rapids in January, 1903.

RODNEY W. TIRRILL was a native of New Hampshire, born at Colebrook, December 22, 1835. To a public school education was added a course in Wisconsin University, after which he studied law, and as he was to enter upon practice the Civil War began and Mr. Tirrill enlisted in Company F, Twelfth Iowa Infantry. He was in the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh, and at the latter was so severely wounded that he was obliged to leave the service. After his recovery he was elected superintendent of schools in Delaware County and in 1879 was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Senate, serving in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth General Assemblies. he was the author of a bill requiring packages of oleomargarine to be plainly labeled as such, and in the face of powerful opposition secured its passage. It is believed that this was the first law of the kind enacted in the United States. Senator Tirrill served on many important committees and exercised a large degree of influence on the legislation of the two sessions during his term. In 1898 Mr. Tirrill was Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of Iowa.

LEWIS TODHUNTER was born in Fayette County, Ohio, April 6, 1817. He received his education at the public schools of Ohio and Indiana. Late in life he studied law and was admitted to the bar of Ohio. In 1850 he removed to Warren County, Iowa, making his permanent home in Indianola, where he continued to practice law. He served the county several terms as auditor, treasurer and prosecuting attorney, but his most distinguished public work was as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1857, which framed the present Constitution of the State. He was also one of the founders of the Republican party of Iowa, having been previously a Free Soil Whig. The reform with which Mr. Todhunter was most closely identified was the suppression of intemperance. His labor in this cause began in 1840 upon the organization of the Washington Society and he has been a member of nearly all of the temperance organizations of Iowa. He was chairman of the committee which framed the bill which became known as the Clark law. He several times canvassed the State in behalf of the cause of prohibition and his name is imperishably associated with the history of the temperance movement for more than sixty years. Although exempt by age from military service during the Civil War, he tendered his services and was appointed quartermaster of the Forty-eighth Iowa Infantry in 1864, with the rank of captain, and was attached to the command of General Ord. After Mr. Todhunter retired from practice in 1890 he wrote a history of the Iowa temperance legislation. He died at Indianola, January 29, 1902.

HENRY C. TRAVERSE was born in White County, Illinois, August 28, 1839. His father removed with his family to Monroe County, Iowa, in 1846, where the son attended the public schools. Going to Keokuk he learned the printer's trade after which he taught school. He then studied law with George W. McCrary and was admitted to the bar of Bloomfield in 1862. He soon after enlisted in Company F, Thirtieth Iowa Volunteers, which was attached to the Fifteenth Army Corps. The regiment participated in the battles of Haines Bluff, Arkansas Post, Siege of Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, besides many minor engagements. Mr. Traverse was discharged at the expiration of three years, with the rank of orderly sergeant. He returned to Bloomfield, resuming the practice of law, and in 1867 was elected to the State Senate, serving in the Twelfth and Thirteenth General Assemblies. In 1879 he was again elected to the Senate, serving but one session when he was elected judge of the Second Judicial District. He held this position by reelections for fourteen years.

WILLIAM M. G. TORRENCE was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of September, 1823. After receiving an education he went to Kentucky and engaged in teaching. During this time the Mexican War began and he enlisted and was elected first lieutenant in the First Kentucky Mounted Volunteers. He participated in the Battle of Iowa and located at Keokuk where he was for several years superintendent of the city schools. In the spring of 1861 he enlisted in Company A, First Iowa Cavalry, and in June was commissioned major of the First Battalion of that regiment. After serving several months in Missouri he resigned. In the summer of 1862, Major Torrence was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Thirtieth Infantry. He was in the Vicksburg campaign and, upon the death of Colonel Abbott was promoted to the command of the regiment. He was with Sherman's army on the march to Chattanooga and was shot from ambush and instantly killed near Cherokee Station on the 21st of October, 1862.

HENRY H. TRIMBLE was born in Rush County, Indiana, May 7, 1827. He was reared on a farm and for several years taught school winters. He graduated at Asbury University in 1847 and went directly from college to the Mexican War, serving under Colonel James H. Lane of the Fifth Indiana Volunteers. He read law with Thomas A. Hendricks and came to Iowa in November, 1849, where he pursued his studies with Judge J. F. Kinney of the Supreme Court, at Keosauqua. He was elected county attorney, serving four years, at Bloomfield where he had located. In 1855 he was elected to the State Senate for four years. In 1858 he was nominated for Representative in Congress by the Democrats of the First District but was defeated by Samuel R. Curtis the Republican candidate. At the beginning of the Civil War Mr. Trimble helped to raise the Third Iowa Cavalry of which he was appointed lieutenant-colonel. In 1862 while leading a charge at the Battle of Pea Ridge, he was severely wounded and in October was discharged for disability. Upon his return home he was elected judge of the Second District, serving four years. In 1865 he was the Democratic candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court but was not elected. In the Eleventh General Assembly Colonel Trimble received the votes of the Democrats for United States Senator. In 1868 Judge Trimble became president of the St. Louis & Cedar Rapids Railroad Company. In 1872 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Sixth District and was defeated. In 1876 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention which nominated Tilden for President. In 1878 he was elected President of the State Bar Association. He has long ranked among the most eminent lawyers of the State and, had his party been in the majority, would have been elevated to the highest official positions.

MATHEW M. TRUMBULL was born in London, England, in 1826. He emigrated to America when twenty-one and for some time taught school in Vermont. He lived for a time in Virginia but his outspoken opposition to slavery aroused enmity which rendered it prudent for him to remove to a free State. He came to Iowa in 1853, studied law and began practice in Clarksville, Butler County. In 1857 he was elected to the House of the Seventh General Assembly on the Republican ticket, serving one term. When the Civil War began he raised a company for the Third Infantry and was appointed captain. In 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. In the fall of 1863 he was appointed colonel of the Ninth Cavalry and at the close of the war attained the rank of Brigadier-General. In 1869 he was appointed by President Grant Collector of Internal Revenue which position he held for twelve years. He then removed to Chicago where most of his time was given to literary work. His book on "Free Trade in England" was a standard authority on that subject. He was an able writer on sociology, theology and reform topics. He contributed regularly to the Open Court, the Forum, the Monist and other periodicals and magazines. He died in Chicago May 9, 1894.

JAMES M. TUTTLE was one of the most conspicuous officers among the Iowa volunteers taken from private life in the Civil War. He was born in Summerfield, Ohio, September 24, 1823. Coming to Iowa in 1846 he located at Farmington, Van Buren County. He served six years in various offices and when the Rebellion began raised a company and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the Second Iowa Infantry. On the 6th of September, 1861, upon the promotion of Colonel Curtis, Tuttle succeeded to the command of the regiment. At the Battle of Fort Donelson he led the Second Iowa to the thickest of the fight and it was the first to pierce the enemy's lines. This charge was one of the most brilliant feats of that great victory. At the Battle of Shiloh Colonel Tuttle commanded a brigade which fought most gallantly at the "Hornet's Nest." On the 9th of June he was promoted to Brigadier-General. In 1863 General Tuttle was nominated by the Democratic State Convention for Governor. He issued an address to the voters of the State but was defeated by Colonel Wm. M. Stone, the Republican candidate. He remained in the army until the spring of 1864, commanding a division a portion of the time. In 1866 he was the Democratic candidate for Congress against General Dodge, Republican, but was defeated. In 1872 he was elected to the House of the fourteenth General Assembly. In 1882 he became a Republican and was elected the following fall by that party to the Legislature. He died in Arizona, October 24, 1892

VOLTAIRE P. TWOMBLY is a name that will ever stand prominent on the "roll of honor" among the heroic young soldiers of Iowa who, in the War of the Rebellion, brought imperishable renown to the :Hawkeye State". Mr. Twombly was born near Farmington, Van Buren County, on the 21st of February, 1842, and received his education in the common schools, finally taking a course in a commercial college at Burlington in 1865. As a boy of nineteen he enlisted under the first call for volunteers, after the firing on Fort Sumter and was mustered into the United States service as a private in Company F, Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry, on the 27th of May, 1861. October, 1861, young Twombly was promoted to seventh corporal and detailed as color bearer. At the Battle of Fort Donelson, the first great Union victory, the Second Iowa was pronounced by Major General Halleck, to have "proved itself the bravest of the brave," and had the honor of leading the column which first entered Fort Donelson. In one of the most brilliant charges of the war the Second Iowa swept everything before its resistless charge, losing forty killed and one hundred sixty wounded. As the storm of shot and shell rained on the advancing column, Sergeant H. B. Doolittle who was bearing aloft the colors, fell pierced with three bullets; Corporal G. S. Page caught up the flag and soon shot through the head; Corporal J. H. Churcher seized the trailing banner and bore it forward but he was shot through his arm; Corporal H. E. Weaver sprang forward and held aloft the stars and stripes, but soon fell mortally wounded; then Corporal J. W. Robinson, without a moment's hesitation seized the fatal flag and waved defiance to the enemy, when he too was shot down; the Corporal Twombly caught it up and on swept the invincible Iowa regiment through a deadly storm of missiles, never stopping to fire a shot, when down went the flag again, as its youthful bearer was prostrated by a partially spent ball; the next moment he was on his feet bearing aloft the colors, as with a mighty rush the regiment mounted the enemy's earthworks and fired its first volley into the ranks of the terrified and panic stricken enemy. The day was won, and the "unconditional surrender" came the next day. Twombly was promoted to lieutenant for his heroic conduct on the bloody field of Donelson, having carried the colors in the terrible Battle of Shiloh. At Corinth he was severely wounded and again at Jonesboro, in August, 1864. In June he was promoted to adjutant of the regiment and in November he became captain of Company K and in 1865 was acting Inspector-General in the Fifteenth Army Corps. He was in Sherman's "march to the sea" and was at the final surrender of the Confederate army under General Joseph E. Johnston, which substantially ended the war. He was at the "Grand Review" of the Union armies at Washington, D. C. on the 24th of May, 1865, and was mustered out on the 12th of July, 1865. In 1880 he was elected treasurer of Van Buren County and at the close of his second term was nominated by the Republican State Convention for State Treasurer and elected, serving by reelections, three terms, to 1891