| HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 54TH
CONGRESS, 1st Session GEN. JAMES C PARROTT February 28, 1896 – Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed. Mr Baker, of Kansas, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, submitted the following REPORT (To accompany H. R. 5226) The Committee on Invalid Pensions, have examined
the
bill (H. R. 5226) to pension James C Parrott, late Lieutenant-colonel
commanding the Seventh Iowa Infantry, and recommend that the same do
pass with an amendment changing the rate of pension asked for therein
from $72 a month to $50 a month. This is a meritorious case. James C
Parrott is 85 years old. When a young man he enlisted in the
cavalry service of the United States Army and was for many years a
faithful and good soldier in the Western service when the Mississippi
River was the line of the frontier. He had retired from the
Army and was engaged in business in civil life at the outbreak of the
war of 1861-65. He was past the age of military service, but
he enlisted July 12, 1861, and was elected captain of Compane E,
Seventh Iowa Infantry. The regiment moved almost immediately
to the front and had its first engagement at the battle of Belmont,
where Captain Parrott distinguished himself for courage, collness,
bravery, and fitness for command, and a familiarity with army service
acquired while he was in the Regular Army. He was wounded
quite severely in that battle, but had attracted the favorable
attention of General Grant, who wrote him a personal and autograph
letter of approval, requesting him not to remain in the hospital but to
go home until he should have recovered from his wounds. He
made him lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, which placed him in
command, as there was no other colonel of that regiment from that time
until the close of the war, Colonel Parrott acting as colonel
throughout. Before the attack upon Fort Henry Colonel Parrott
had sufficiently recovered to return to the front, and was in command
of the regiment at Fort Henry and in the battle of Donelson, where he
led his regiment as a part of the assaulting body making the famous
charge which took the work. He was in the battle at Shiloh,
commanding his regiment, and in the battle of Corinth, where, on the
4th of October, 1862, he has again wounded. In July, 1864, in
the engagements before Altana, the continuous exposure and the effects
of his previous wounds brought on a rheumatism from which he never
recovered fully, and from which time he had to go to the hospital and
was given a sick leave. He returned from that furlough,
however, and commanded his regiment in the march to the sea, and was
finally mustered out at the expiration of the war. He was
given a pension to date from July Dr H A Kinnaman, a physician of credit and repute,
testified upon twenty-three years of acquaintance and many years as his
practicing physician and the general conditions we have stated.
He said that Colonel Parrott's disabilities were permanent
and preclude him from all forms of manual labor. Dr J M
Schafer, another physician of repute, and a member of the board of
examining surgeons, testified to the same thing. Dr A
Weismann, another physician of repute, and also a member of the board
of examining surgeons, testified the same thing. The last
medical examination was made October 23, 1895, by Dr George P Neal,
president; Dr H A Kinnaman, and Dr Robert M Lapsley, and in their
report, which the committee has examined, they reported:
"General appearance unfavorable; nutrition impaired;
emaciated; scars indicating gunshot wound of the right shoulder; ball
entered 1 inch below and a little posterior to the apex of the acromion
and emerged 1 1/2 inches below the coracoid process of the scapula,"
etc.; scars indicating "a gunshot wound of the neck; ball entered
immediately over second dorsal vertebra and emerged 1 inch above and 1
inch posterior to sternal end tto the left clavicle; a slight lateral
curvature of the spine from a ball; grazed his back. Claimant
is very weak in the back and knees; in our opinion may be the result of
the injuries caused by the gunshot wound of the neck and back." All of these surgeons have united in recommending
an increase of Colonel Parrott's pension. He is very poor,
and yet a veteran of long army service that was of the utmost
usefulness to his country. He has had to make the pathetic
statement to the Department of Pensions and to this committee that he
is in absolute need. The committee unanimously and cordially concur in asking of the House a favorable consideration of this bill, and when amended by striking out in line 6 the words "in the war of eighteen hundred and sixty-one," and by striking out in line 7 the word "seventy-two" and in place of "seventy-two" inserting the word "fifty," recommend that it do pass. |