HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

54TH CONGRESS, 1st Session
Report No. 560

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
H. REP. 2-53
13, 1865, at the rate of $25 per month.  There has been no increase from that time, although there has been continuous and growing disability.  As the years advanced the effects of his army service have continuously increased upon him, taking the form of paralysis and rheumatism and a prostration of his physical powers.

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.


Copyright © 2008, IAGenWeb.org
All Rights Reserved