Clayton co IAGenWeb - Military & Wartime

Hale, Ripley Adam
Ripley Adam Hale, son of Captain Ebenezer Heald and Ann (Dinsmore) Heald, was born in Norridgewock, Maine. Numerous sources give his birth date as September 12, 1825, although this does not correlate with the age Ripley gave in numerous affidavits and other documents. The History of Clayton County (1882) indicates that Ripley “attended school until his thirteenth year” when he shipped as a cabin boy on board the Fortune. Working on merchant ships for many years, his travels took him to Germany, China, India, Japan, Panama and elsewhere. Eventually, after five years in the West India trade, he found his way to Iowa and bought a farm.

Electra Jane Thomas, daughter of Melzer and Sarah (Grear) Thomas, was born on August 25, 1829, also in Maine. On March 13, 1856, Electra and Ripley, giving his residence as Clayton County, were married by Martin K. Whittlesey, a Congregationalist minister in Ottawa, Illinois. Their three pre-war children were Ida Ellen born December 20, 1857, Edwin T. born August 25, 1858, and Elwin Manford born December 7, 1860.

On August 14, 1862, at Strawberry Point, Ripley enlisted as a Private in what would be Company D of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Giving his age as thirty-four, he was described as being 5 feet, 7¾ inches, tall with blue eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion. Like other volunteers, he was paid $25.00 of the federal enlistment bounty and a $2.00 premium. Brief training was received at Camp Franklin in Dubuque where the regiment was mustered into federal service on September 9th. The following week, at the foot of Jones Street, they boarded the densely crowded sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside and left for war. After a transfer to the Hawkeye State and a stopover at Rock Island, they reached St. Louis, spent one night at Benton Barracks, and then traveled by rail to Rolla where they camped southwest of town.

A month later they started the first of many long marches walking first to Salem and then to Houston, Hartville and back to Houston. That’s where they were when word was received that a Confederate force was headed for Springfield. Ripley was one of twenty-five volunteers from Company D in a hastily assembled relief corps that left Houston on January 9, 1863. On the 11th, they fought a one-day battle at Hartville before returning to Houston.

Ripley remained with the regiment as they walked south to West Plains before heading to the northeast, passing through Thomasville, Ironton, Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob before arriving in Ste. Genevieve on March 11th and camping on a ridge north of town. From there they were transported down the Mississippi to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was organizing a large army to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. In a corps led by General John McClernand, those healthy enough to walk made their way slowly south along roads, through swamps and across bayous west of the Mississippi before crossing the river on April 30th to the Bruinsburg landing and starting a slow nighttime movement inland.

On May 1, 1863, Ripley participated in the one-day Battle of Port Gibson and on the 16th he was present when they were held in reserve during the Battle of Champion’s Hill. The next day, rotated to the front of the army, the 21st and 23rd Iowa infantries led an assault on Confederates entrenched along the Big Black River and again Ripley participated. Casualties in the regiment were heavy - 7 killed, 18 fatally wounded, at least 40 non-fatally wounded.

They were allowed to rest, bury their dead and care for the wounded before taking their position opposite the railroad redoubt on the siege line encircling the rear of Vicksburg. On May 22, 1863, they participated in a massive, but unsuccessful, assault on the enemy line. Again casualties were heavy - 23 killed, 12 fatally wounded, at least 48 non-fatally wounded. Many, some wounded and some not, were pinned down between the lines where any movement might draw enemy fire. On the 23rd, exhausted soldiers rose early and were on the line before daylight while the wounded were "still lying on the slope near the fort calling for water." On the 24th, according to Gilbert Cooley, Ripley exhausted himself “in rescuing his comrades who were wounded in the charge” and “went about to men who were lying on the Field where they fell close to the Rebel works and gave them Drink and food. Then came to the command and called for volunteers and with them took streachers and carried two or more of those wounded comrades from the field in safety.”

By June 10th, Ripley was suffering from chronic diarrhea, fever and extreme fatigue. He was promoted to 5th Corporal while cared for by Ottumwa surgeon William Orr, but was soon hospitalized, first in a field hospital, then in a Division hospital near Vicksburg and finally “up the river” at the Webster U.S.A. General Hospital in Memphis. On September 8th, he was granted a furlough and made his way to Maine where Electra, her parents deceased, was apparently staying with relatives. He was still there on October 1st when Dr. M. B. Gordon, a surgeon in Lincolnville, wrote a letter indicating that Ripley was “laboring under a chronic inflamation of the lungs and severe cough” and recommending a thirty-day extension of the furlough. Ripley recovered his health sufficiently to rejoin the regiment and was promoted to 2d Corporal although a stoppage was placed against his pay to cover the cost of his recent travel.

On March 4, 1864, the War Department issued a general order providing that “any person now in the military service . . . who shall furnish satisfactory proof that he is a mariner by vocation, or an able seaman, or an ordinary seaman, may enlist in the Navy.” The following month the Department of the Gulf implemented the order and, on June 17th, Ripley, having had many years at sea, wrote to Elisha Boardman, Captain of Company D, and asked “to be transfered from the Infantry service into the Navy.” His request was passed up through the command and approved. Ripley was with the regiment, then posted near the railway station in Terrebonne, Louisiana, when, on July 1, 1864, he was transferred to the U. S. Navy. Transferred at the same time was Samuel Knickerbocker who, like Ripley, was from Strawberry Point and serving in Company D.

Ripley’s initial service was on a gunboat, the USS Autona, but on July 23rd he was transferred to the recently commissioned monitor USS Chickasaw assigned to David Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron. They left New Orleans on the 29th with Ripley serving as Captain of the afterguard and before long, with the Winnebago, Manhattan, Tecumseh and other ships, began to bombard forts Morgan and Gaines guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay. Witnessing the bombardment was Ripley’s former comrade, Linus McKinnie, who had been detached from the regiment to serve as clerk at the headquarters of General George McGinnis. The grandeur of the bombardment will, he said, “fill many pages of our future history.” In August, the two forts surrendered and the Union had control of the bay.
In the spring of 1865, the federal army, with naval support, started a campaign to capture the city of Mobile. During that campaign, on March 17th, Iowa’s 21st Infantry was slowly making its way northward along the east side of the bay while, ahead of them, Ripley Hale was on board the Chickasaw as it bombarded Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely, two forts the infantry would have to pass. The forts were soon captured, the regiment entered Mobile on April 12th, and Ripley Hale continued his service in the navy.

With the war coming to an end, the Chickasaw was decommissioned on July 6, 1865, and Ripley was transferred to the USS Fear Not, a storeship supplying others in the squadron with needed provisions. Suffering from an intermittent fever, he was treated with quinine and “tr. of the chloride of iron” and discharged at New Orleans on August 15, 1865, one month after his infantry regiment had been discharged at Baton Rouge.

After the war, Ripley and Electra resumed their life in Clayton County where they owned almost 125 acres, part in Lodomillo Township and part in Cass Township, five miles northeast of Strawberry Point. On December 17, 1870, Electra gave birth to another daughter, Ada Hale.

On August 6, 1890, Ripley, citing his wartime chronic diarrhea and fever, and their continuing aftereffects, applied for an invalid pension. His application was supported by affidavits from Dr. Orr and from comrades Asa Hankins, Ed Snedigar, Abe Treadwell and Gilbert Cooley (who was also Ripley’s attorney), all of whom testified to Ripley’s health problems. On April 8, 1891, he was examined by a board of pension surgeons in McGregor who reported that he was “prematurely old and is feeble and incapacitated for any thing in the way of constant manual labor.” A pension was granted, but only one payment was received before he died at home on September 13, 1893. On the 15th, Ripley was buried in Strawberry Point Cemetery and, on the 23rd, sixty-four-year-old Electra applied for a widow’s pension.

To prove Ripley’s death, their marriage, that they had lived as husband and wife, and that she had not remarried, Electra secured affidavits from friends, neighbors and others who knew them and could testify to the relevant facts. Rev. Whittlesey said he had “solemnized the marriage union.” Charles Roberts, “an Undertaker and dealer in Furniture,” had known the couple for twenty years and said he assisted “in placing [Ripley’s] body in a casket and officiated as undertaker.” Hiram Deyo, the cemetery’s Sexton, testified to the burial. On June 23, 1894, a certificate was issued that confirmed the grant of a $12.00 monthly pension retroactive to the day after Ripley’s death. On November 27th, Electra applied again, this time for Ripley’s pension that had accrued but was still unpaid when he died.

Electra did not remarry. She died on October 14, 1911, and was buried next to Ripley in Strawberry Point Cemetery. Ida married Ambrose Hughes, died on August 8, 1941, and is buried in the same cemetery. Ada married Lyman Little, died on October 12, 1950, and was also buried in Strawberry Point Cemetery. Elwin and his wife, Clora (Annis) Hale moved to Oklahoma where Elwin died on December 3, 1915. He and Clora are buried in Kingfisher Cemetery west of the town of Kingfisher. Their other brother, Edwin, moved to Minnesota where he died on December 2, 1936; the place of his burial was not found.

Hall, William S.
William S. Hall was born in Chautauqua (town or county), New York in 1839.

The Civil War was in its second year, when, according to National Archive records, William enlisted at Strawberry Point on July 29, 1862 as a Private in Company B, a company then in formation in Iowa's northeastern counties for the state's 21st Infantry.

In a regiment where the average height was about 5 feet, 8½ inches, William was described as being 5 feet, 9¼ inches tall with black eyes, black hair and a dark complexion; occupation, farmer. The company was mustered in on August 18th and the regiment on September 9th, both in Dubuque where the men received brief training at Camp Franklin (formerly called Camp Union). On September 16th, armed with Enfield rifled muskets, they marched through town and, from the levee at the foot of Jones Street, boarded the four-year-old side-wheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges lashed to its side and left for war.

Initially, William maintained his health well. He participated in its early activities in Missouri (Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville, West Plains, Ironton, Iron Mountain, Pilot Knob) and was with it when it left Ste. Genevieve to become part of General Grant's massive army intent on capturing the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. After camping at Milliken' s Bend, they moved slowly south through swamps and bayous on the west side of the Mississippi River. Enrolled as a Private, William was promoted to 8th Corporal and then 5th Corporal, but was reduced to the ranks at his own request.

On April 30, 1863, they crossed to the Bruinsburg landing in an amphibious landing that would not be exceeded in size until Normandy in World War II and started a march inland. As the point regiment for the entire army, they drew first fire about midnight. The next day, May 1, 1863, William participated in the regiment's day long Battle of Port Gibson when three in the regiment were fatally wounded and another fourteen non-fatally wounded. On May 16, 1863, he was present at the Battle of Champion's Hill during which General McClernand ordered that they be held in reserve, an order that was emotionally difficult for soldiers who had to stand and listen while comrades in other regiments were dying. After the battle, they helped guard prisoners and gather weapons, and two companies engaged in light skirmishing. Their only “casualty” was Joseph Carter who said his gun was "resting against rail fence, he caught it by the muzzle and the cock caught one of the rails, gun went off & shot off two of my fingers of right hand.”

The next morning they were rotated to the front and were among the first to arrive at the large railroad bridge over the Big Black River. With the 23rd Iowa, they led an assault over open ground that routed entrenched Confederates who were trying to keep the bridge open. Regimental casualties were seven killed in action, eighteen fatally wounded and at least forty who suffered wounds that were non-fatal.

William remained with the regiment during the siege of Vicksburg and was with it during a subsequent expedition to and siege of Jackson, Mississippi. Soon thereafter, he became ill and, on August 26, 1863, was sent to a general hospital in New Orleans. He remained hospitalized for several months but, in January, William and several other members of the regiment were released. Instead of returning to their own regiment, they enlisted on January 4, 1864 as "veterans" in the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery. When it was realized that they had not yet completed their term with the 21st Iowa, they were ordered back to their regiment on July 30, 1864. An investigation determined that they had been mistaken in their belief that they could enlist in the Indiana regiment (and weren’t merely seeking the 30-day furlough and reenlistment bounty that would normally go to veteran volunteers) and they were reinstated without penalty.

William served the balance of his term with the regiment in Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas, served part of the time as a cook and part with an ambulance corps, and was mustered out with the regiment on July 15, 1865 at Baton Rouge. From there, they were transported north on board the Lady Gay as far as Cairo and then by rail to Clinton, Iowa, where they were discharged from the military on the afternoon of July 24, 1865.

William died in 1904 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Union City, Erie County, Pennsylvania. His widow, Laura Hall, died in 1929 and was buried next to William.

Hamisley, Patrick
During the Civil War, Patrick enlisted in the army, did his duty, and died. Unfortunately, little is known about Patrick’s personal life. Even the spelling of his name is unclear. Two published rosters have Hambley while another has Hamsley. Military records from the National Archives have Hamesley, Hamesly, Hamsley, Hanelsy, Hansley and Hensley. A county history has Hanbley.

None of these names are found on county census records, but a Patrick Hamersly, age 12, is referenced in the 1856 Iowa State census. He’s listed in the 1860 census as being 15 years old. At both times, he was living in the Michael Fallan (also shown as Fallon) household and both ages could correlate with Patrick’s listed age at enlistment (depending on the month of his birth). There is a gravestone, possibly a cenotaph, in Saint Joseph Cemetery, Garnavillo, for Patrick Hamisley, the spelling used for this biography, spelling which may or may not be correct. The names of several Fallan family members appear on the same stone.

Military records indicate Patrick was born in Vermont, but the Patrick Hamersly listed in census records was reportedly born in Ireland, as were Michael and Sarah Fallan. Since no other family members of Patrick have been found, either in Vermont or Iowa, it’s possible he traveled to Iowa with the Fallans or knew them before he arrived.

In July 1862, President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 three-year men and Patrick was one who enlisted. He was eighteen years old. Records indicate he was working as a blacksmith and was enrolled at Elkader on August 12th by Elisha Boardman, the thirty-five year old son of the town’s founder. Patrick was described as being 5' 9¾” tall with a dark complexion, dark hair, and dark blue eyes. On August 22, 1862, at Camp Franklin in Dubuque, he was mustered into Boardman’s Company D. When the required ten companies were of sufficient strength, they were mustered in as the 21st Regiment of Iowa’s volunteer infantry on September 9th.

On September 16th, they left for war. It was raining as they walked through town and down to the levee at the foot of Jones Street. Families, friends and local residents watched. Women sent cakes and cheese and others tossed apples as soldiers boarded the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside. Their trip south involved a night on Rock Island, flatboats to get over rapids, rail cars to Keokuk and travel on the “more commodious” steamer Hawkeye State but finally, on the 20th, they reached St. Louis where they spent the night at the city’s Benton Barracks. On the night of the 21st, they boarded rail cars, the type usually used for freight and livestock, huddled under blankets and were transported through the early morning cold to Rolla where they would spend the next month.

From Rolla they walked to Salem, Houston, Hartville and, after a wagon train was attacked, back to Houston. That’s where they were when word was received that a Confederate attack on Springfield was imminent. A relief force was quickly assembled, twenty-five volunteers from each company were needed, and Patrick was one who volunteered and fought in a one-day battle at Hartville on January 11, 1863, in which three members of the regiment were killed and another was fatally wounded.

After the battle, they returned in bitterly cold weather to Houston and, in late January, walked south to West Plains. From there they walked to the northeast - Thomasville, Ironton, Iron Mountain, Pilot’s Knob and, on March 11th, into the town of Ste. Genevieve. From there they were taken downriver to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant organized a large three-corps army for the purpose of capturing the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg. Serving under General McClernand, they walked south, passed once-prosperous plantations, crossed bayous, waded through swamps and finally arrived at the Disharoon plantation. From there, on April 30, 1863, they crossed to Bruinsburg on the east bank.

On May 1, 1863, Patrick participated in the daylong Battle of Port Gibson. He participated again during an assault at the Big Black River on May 17th and in an assault at Vicksburg on May 22nd. During those three engagements, the regiment lost 31 killed in action, 34 more who died from wounds, and at least 102 whose wounds were not fatal but many of which led to amputations and injuries that led to their discharge from the military. Another eight men were taken prisoner.

Unable to take the city by assault, General Grant resolved on a siege, a siege that proved successful when General Pemberton surrendered the city on July 4, 1863. Unfortunately, Patrick, who had participated in every one of the regiment’s engagements, wasn’t present to see the surrender. He had become seriously ill and been transported up-river. On June 28th, he was admitted to the Adams General Hospital in Memphis. On July 6th, he was transferred to the general hospital at Benton Barracks where he was admitted on July 9th, less than ten months after he had first visited the barracks.

He received medical treatment for another two months, but doctors eventually decided he should be discharged from the military. On September 12, 1863, J. H. Grove, the Surgeon in Charge, signed a Certificate of Disability for Discharge finding that Patrick was no longer able to perform the duties of a soldier due to “Phthisis Pulmonalis” (tuberculosis) and chronic diarrhea with “much emaciation.” On September 17th, his once-healthy body wracked by illness, Patrick was discharged from the St. Louis hospital. He died on the way home.

The date of death on the stone in Saint Joseph Cemetery is September 23rd. The correct spelling of his name is still unknown.

Hardy, Josiah W.
Josiah, the son of Francis and Sally (Felt) Hardy, was born in 1834 or 1835 in Essex County, New York. A brother, Andrew Hardy, was born in Westport, New York on February 16, 1825. The family moved to the Minnesota Territory in 1857, a year before it was admitted as the 32nd state. His parents stayed in Minnesota, but Josiah moved to Iowa and married Mary Jane Moore. In 1860 they were living in Farmersburg with a one-year old daughter, Minerva, but Minerva apparently died young. Mary was again pregnant when Confederates near Charleston began a bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. Three months later, on July 6, 1861, Clara Serepta Hardy was born to Josiah and Mary. Their residence was given as Clayton.

The following year, when President Lincoln called for another 300,000 volunteers, Josiah was enrolled in Company D at Elkader on August 14, 1862, by Elisha Boardman, Jr. At enlistment, Josiah was described as being a 27-year-old farmer, 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with grey eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. Possibly due to his age, which was older than most enlistees, he was given the rank of 3rd Sergeant (often the principal musicians of a company, but there's no indication that Josiah was a musician). The Company was mustered in on August 22d and, when all ten companies were of sufficient strength, they were mustered in on September 9, 1862 as the 21st Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry.

The regiment's early service was in Missouri (Rolla, Salem and Houston). They moved briefly to Hartville but, when a wagon train bringing supplies from the railhead in Rolla was attacked on November 24, 1862, the regiment moved back to the more secure Houston. On January 1st, Josiah was promoted to 1st Sergeant, the top of the five Sergeant ranks. Also known as the Orderly Sergeant, the 1st Sergeant was usually responsible for relaying orders from the regiment's Adjutant back to his company officers.

While in Houston, word was received that a Confederate column was moving north from Arkansas to attack Springfield and a relief corps was hastily organized. Included were twenty-five volunteers from each company and an officer from each of the ten companies. Commanding them was the popular Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Dunlap. The entire force - including an equal number from the 99th Illinois, 200 cavalry under Major George Duffield, two howitzers under Lieutenant William Waldschmidt, and assorted wagons, mules and teamsters under Quartermaster Benton - was under the command of McGregor banker, Sam Merrill. On the night of January 10, 1863, they camped along Woods Fork of the Gasconade River, unaware that Springfield had already been attacked, two Confederate columns had united and, the Confederates were camped nearby.

They became aware of each other early the next morning. Pickets exchanged fire and there was minor skirmishing before both sides rushed to Hartville. With the Confederate force gaining high ground on the east side of town and the Union force aligned along a lower hill to the west, they fought a battle that lasted most of the day. The regiment suffered three killed, one fatally wounded, and at least thirteen non-fatally wounded. Josiah Hardy was one of the volunteers from Company D and was uninjured.

The regiment returned to Houston but, on January 27, 1863, started a long walk to West Plains. Josiah was ill and remained in Houston with many others who were unable to join the movement south. He caught up at Iron Mountain on March 8, 1863, went with the regiment to Ste. Genevieve, and was with it when it moved down the Mississippi to Milliken's Bend. The regiment continued its southern movement on April 12, 1863 but, again, Josiah was not with them.

Josiah, David Shuck (a young farmer from McGregor) and many others who were sick or otherwise not able for duty were confined on the Nashville, a large wooden-hulled hospital boat capable of caring for 1,000 invalids being transported to general hospitals in Memphis, St. Louis and Keokuk. David died on the way, but Josiah arrived in St. Louis and was admitted to the Lawson General Hospital on May 10, 1863. Still in the hospital, he died on May 25th of chronic diarrhea, one of at least sixty-five men in the regiment who died from the ailment. He is buried in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis.

Mary Jane was entitled to a widow's pension for herself and $2.00 per month for Clara until Clara reached the age of sixteen. Mary Jane remarried to Andrew Dye, had three more children, and died in Oelwein on April 19, 1921. She is buried in West Union Cemetery in Fayette County. Josiah’s daughter, Clara, grew up, married Nathan Shaw, and died on May 3, 1932, at seventy years of age, also in Oelwein where she is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Hart, Adam
Co G., age 24, b. Ohio, residence Millville

08/15/62 enlist
08/22/62 muster in Company G
09/09/62 muster in Regiment
07/15/65 muster out Baton Rouge

This is from the R&R which has his first name as Adam (rather than Alvin), as does George Crooke on the roster in his book. I have not verified the information.

Haskins, Asa S.
Co D., age 31, residence Strawberry Point

08/12/62 enlist
08/22/62 muster in Company D
09/09/62 muster in Regment
07/15/65 muster out Baton Rouge

This is from the R&R. I have not verified the information.

Hayes, William Timothy
William Timothy Hayes, called "Tim" by his friends, was born in Windsor County, Vermont. On August 11, 1862, at Hardin in northwest Monona Township, he was enrolled by William D. Crooke in what would be Company B of the 21st Iowa Volunteer Infantry. The company was mustered in at Dubuque on August 18, 1862, with Tim described as being 5 feet, 5½ inches, tall with brown hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion; occupation, farmer. His age was given as twenty-five which may be correct, but it doesn’t correlate with the July 27, 1839 birth date on his death certificate.

When all ten Companies were of sufficient strength, the regiment was mustered into service on September 9, 1862 at Dubuque with Tim detailed as one of the Company's cooks. After brief training of dubious value at the city’s Camp Franklin, they marched from their training camp, through town, and down to the levee at the foot of Jones Street. There on a rainy Tuesday morning, with family, friends and residents watching, they boarded the side-wheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges lashed alongside, and headed south.

Tim apparently performed his cooking chores well since, instead of being relieved and having others assigned to the task, he continued to be listed as company cook through the end of June, 1863. In the meantime, after early service in Missouri, the regiment was actively engaged in the North's, ultimately successful, Vicksburg Campaign.

General Grant had organized a massive army at Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana, and from there they had walked and waded south through swamps and bayous on the west side of the Mississippi. On April 30, 1863, the army began crossing the river to the small landing at Bruinsburg. As the point regiment for the entire Union army, the 21st Iowa led the movement inland. Guided along dirt roads by a former slave, they drew first fire about midnight and, on May 1, 1863, Tim participated with his regiment in the day-long Battle of Port Gibson.

The regiment was held in reserve during the Battle of Champion’s Hill on May 16, 1863, but it did participate in assaults on May 17th at the Big Black River and May 22d at Vicksburg. Neither the muster rolls nor Tim’s Descriptive Book indicate that he participated in either assault, or in the subsequent expedition to and siege of Jackson, but they do indicate he was ''present" at least through the end of August 1863.

The following month he became ill and the regiment was at Berwick Bay in Louisiana when Jim Bethard, a Grand Meadow resident and a comrade in Company B, wrote home on September 27, 1863, and told his wife that "Tim Hayes has got the ague this morning." Tim was admitted to the Convalescent Camp in New Orleans where he remained through the end of October. On November 11th he rejoined the regiment and was with it when it left for service on the Gulf Coast of Texas. On arrival he was detailed as the "private servant" for William Crooke, now a Major, who had enrolled him more than a year earlier. On April 12, 1864, the regiment was in Texas when Captain Lyons (from Hardin) wrote to an Assistant Adjutant General:

After approvals by Colonel Merrill, Brigade Colonel H. D. Washburn of the 18th Indiana Infantry, and Brigadier General Fitz Henry Warren, a 30-day furlough was approved. On April 16th, Myron Knight (Strawberry Point) wrote in his diary that Tim, Lewis Eno (McGregor) and Alvin Merriam (Hardin) “started home on furlough” and that he had written a letter that Tim agreed to deliver for him. Jim Bethard also noted that "there are three of our company going Eno of Mcgregor and Alvin Marium and Timothy Hayes of Hardin."

While they were gone, the regiment completed its service in Texas and returned to New Orleans. Unable to travel on one steamer, the right wing left first, followed several days later by the left wing including Company B which reached New Orleans about 6:00 a.m. on June 18th. Later that day, Jim Bethard wrote to his wife, "On our arrival we were joined by our furloughed boys Eno. Hayes. and Merriam they were all well but Hayes he has been quite sick for two or three days with the colic." The ''furloughed boys" were on their way to Texas but, with that service coming to an end, had been held in New Orleans to wait for the arrival of their regiment. All were returned to duty without loss of pay, although Tim was charged $3.00 for transportation and $1.89 for a piece of his shelter tent that had been destroyed. Tim remained with the regiment and was again assigned to duty as ''private servant" for William Crooke.

On February 15, 1865, Lieutenant Colonel Salue Van Anda assigned Tim for "special duty" at regimental headquarters. Three months later, still on "special duty," he sustained an injury that he explained in a postwar pension application. He said he was near Shreveport in May 1865: “clearing out a building for quarters and the stairs and platform in such building gave away and threw him down a distance of 12 feet or more causing a very severe injury in right side of body disabling him for the remainder of his term of enlistment " John Carpenter (Strawberry Point), a comrade in Company B, agreed: "William T Hayes with some other men by direction of Col S G Vanandy who was then in command of the regament were engaged in cleaning out a building for regamental use and while said Hayes was standing on a platform attached to said building said platform gave way and he fell a distance of about 12 feete receiving a severe injury in his left side from which he never recovered and that I waited upon him for several days"

Despite his injury, Tim stayed with the regiment and was mustered out with it at Baton Rouge on July 15, 1865.

He returned to Hardin and there, on February 21, 1866, was married to Laura Molthrop by the Rev. Joseph R. Cameron, a Methodist minister from Garnavillo. Their children were Ida S. Hayes (born April 2, 1867), Essie Hayes (born November 16, 1872 or 1875), William "Willie" G. Hayes (born September 11, 1881; died 1964), and Blanch E. Hayes (born November 24, 1884; died 1972).

They were living in Good Thunder, Minnesota, when Tim, a man of "strictly temperate and virtuous habits," applied for an invalid pension. With supporting affidavits from his Company B comrades, John Carpenter and William Lyons, the pension was granted.

Several years later, Tim had been visiting in Boulder, Colorado, for about six months when, on February 26, 1902 he died of uremia leaving ten acres, a residence and a forty acre Minnesota farm to his wife, Laura. A few days later his body was returned to Minnesota where it was interred in Lyra Cemetery, Good Thunder.

Laura was still living in the residence with two of her children, Blanch and William, when in 1906, she applied for a widow's pension. She died in 1926 and was buried with Tim in Lyra Cemetery.

Heath, Charles P.
According to his wife, Charles P. Heath was born on January 1, 1832 in Mill Creek, Canada West (now Ontario). He was living in Wisconsin and working as a dentist when, on April 19, 1861, he enlisted as a Private in Company G of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry. He was described as being five feet, ten inches tall, with a sandy complexion, grey eyes, and sandy-colored hair.

At the July 21, 1861 Battle of Bull Run (Manassas, Virginia), he was wounded in the knee. Three months later he was with his regiment at Fort Marcy, but he was not well. Already unfit for duty for at least thirty days, he received a surgeon's certificate of disability on September 21st and was discharged October 8, 1861.

The following year he was practicing dentistry in Strawberry Point when the President issued a call for another 300,000 troops. Charles enlisted on July 25, 1862 and was enrolled as a 1st Lieutenant in Company B of the state's 21st Volunteer Infantry. An active recruiter in Clayton County, he was successful in securing numerous enlistments in Strawberry Point, Cox Creek, Newstand and Elkport. The Company was mustered in on August 18, 1862, and the regiment on September 9, 1862, both in Dubuque.

During the regiment's initial service in Missouri, Charles was on detached service as the Post Adjutant in Rolla and then, after being recommended by the regiment's Major Salue Van Anda, as Acting Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of General Fitz Henry Warren. The appointment, however, had apparently been made without the General's knowledge. On January 28, 1863 he wrote that he had never seen Charles "and had no knowledge of him until arriving in Rolla" the previous October. "I shall," he said, "at once relieve him from duty . . . to relieve myself of any suspected complicity or knowledge of such transactions."

A few days later, at West Plains on February 7, 1863, Charles submitted his resignation to Colonel Merrill for "private matters ... some of the reasons being known to yourself." He was honorably discharged pursuant to a special order from Major General Curtis on February 23, 1863.

Returning to Iowa, thirty-one year old Charles married sixteen year old Marion A. Grannis on April 23, 1863 in Strawberry Point. The couple eventually moved to Sioux City where Charles continued to work as a dentist. They had no children of their own, but informally "adopted” Carrie E. Hills, then a young teenager, who continued to live with them and said she was "practically a member of the family". Charles became interested in the mining industry and, in 1892, purchased two acres of public land in Colorado. In 1896 the family moved to Denver where Charles became a mining promoter and acquired interests in several mines including the Geiger, Monarch and Richmond and invested in the Jackson Suburban Street Railway Company in Jackson, Tennessee.

On March 21, 1901, they were living in the Pleasanton Apartments, Welton Street, Denver, when Charles died from cancer. His body was returned to Sioux City and he was buried a few miles south in the Dakota City Cemetery, Dakota City, Nebraska.

Marion and Carrie stayed in Denver and Marion applied for a widow's pension. To substantiate her claim, she had to convince the Pension Office that she had legally married Charles, they were living together as husband and wife when he died, she had not remarried, and she was in financial need. In addition to her own affidavit, she secured affidavits from Carrie and others who knew them, including Charles' two sisters Hester and Nellie. Hester was the widow of James Frank Farrand and Nellie was the widow of Edwin Eugene Parker. In addition to the women being Charles' sisters, their husbands, James and Edwin, had served in the 21st Iowa Infantry with Charles, had predeceased him, and had been buried in the Dakota City Cemetery.

Marion's finances were complicated and the disclosure of mining interests, the Suburban Railway investment, promissory notes, and a house at 1254 Race Street that Marion purchased after Charles' death, caused skepticism in Washington. On May 9, 1904, a Legal Reviewer rejected her claim "on ground that claimant was at date of filing claim in possession of resources amply sufficient if prudently managed to have a net annual income of more than $250.” Marion continued to pursue her claim, submitted numerous additional affidavits, and enlisted the aid of her Congressman. The investment in the Tennessee railway company had never paid dividends and the Geiger and Monarch mining interests were worthless. She had sold her husband's interest in the Richmond mine to Ezekiel Cook, but Ezekiel had stopped making payments and, on November 8, 1907, committed suicide. She had used the initial funds received from Ezekiel to buy her residence, but she had been forced to borrow against it and a Special Examiner from the Pension Office determined that "her attorney, R S. Morrison, has practically beaten her out of at least $1200 besides he has charged her enormous fees. He has nothing but his home which is covered by mortgages. Claimant has, by persistent nagging, been able to make him pay the interest on the mortgage but the note she holds against him is un-secured and of no real value." Notes that were due to her from other parties were not paid.

Finally (after three more applications by Marion, ten more affidavits and seven depositions by the Special Examiner) Marion's claim was approved. On March 20, 1908, seven years after her husband's death, a certificate was issued entitling her to a pension of $8.00 per month, an amount that would be gradually increased due to new pension acts and her increasing age. Marion and Carrie moved to Los Angeles and were living at 2271 West 31st Street when Marion died on June 28, 1924. She was buried in the Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery (now named Hollywood Forever Cemetery), 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard. Carrie continued to live in Los Angeles, died in 1933 and, like Marion, was buried in Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the city and the burial place of numerous Hollywood luminaries.

Henderson, Cyrus M.
Henderson, Francis 'Frank'
Cyrus Henderson moved to Millville Township in 1835. He was one of the area's earliest settlers and was the first blacksmith on the south side of Turkey River. On April 26, 1839 or 1840 (records conflict), Cyrus and Harriet M. Wells (nee Walker) were married in a ceremony performed by Eliphalet Price. It was the second marriage to occur in the county. Their children (reported as nine, ten, or eleven) included Francis "Frank" Henderson born about 1841 and Cyrus M. Henderson reportedly born on February 16, 1845.

Frank and Cyrus enlisted together on August 15, 1862 in Company G, a company then being raised by McGregor postmaster Willard Benton. Frank’s age was given as twenty and Cyrus’ age as eighteen (indicating the birth date was wrong, the age was listed erroneously, or he purposely misstated his age since the minimum age for enlistment without parental consent was eighteen). The company was mustered in on August 22nd and, when all ten companies were of sufficient strength, they were mustered in as the 21st Regiment of Iowa’s volunteer infantry. After brief training of dubious value at Camp Franklin, they marched through town and, at the foot of Jones Street, boarded the side-wheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges lashed to one side and left for war on September 16, 1863.

With Colonel Merrill traveling separately, Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap was in command when the regiment reached St. Louis about 10:00am on Saturday the 20th. After debarking at the riverfront, they stood on the levee for an hour heavily laden with knapsacks, clothes, blankets, arms and personal accouterments, much unnecessary and later discarded. From there they walked in intensely hot weather to Benton Barracks. Most arrived about noon while stragglers didn’t arrive until almost nightfall. The next day, about 9:00 p.m. at the St. Louis depot, they boarded cars of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad for Rolla.

After a month in Rolla, they marched south to Salem and then to Houston, two towns already safely in Union hands. Cyrus wrote frequently to his parents to assure them that he and Frank were well and to explain what they were doing. From Rolla, he said he "would be greatly pleased to hear that you all was in joying the same blessing. Wee have tolerable dry times hear." From Salem, he said he wanted "to let you no that we are well at this time and hope that these few lines may find you enjoying the same plesure and more comfort."

On November 13, 1862, they left Houston at 8:00 a.m. and ten miles later stacked arms and camped on an old ball field. On the 14th, they were underway by 6:30 a.m. and covered about twelve miles before camping at noon. On the 15th, the regiment resumed its march at 7:00 a.m., reached Hartville in the early afternoon, and pitched tents in the rain. Along the way they had crossed a small nondescript stream. It's unlikely they knew its name but, in a few days, "Beaver Creek" would be etched in their memories forever.

On Thursday, November 20th, Colonel Merrill wrote to Iowa's Adjutant General, Nathaniel Baker that "we move to Houston, Mo., Monday,” the 23rd. Despite his letter, they were still in Hartville on the 24th, constructing a stockade and waiting for a wagon train they knew was bringing needed supplies from the railhead in Rolla. The advance section of the wagon train reached Houston and then turned west. Included, said Company C's Henry Dyer, were "fifteen men of the 3d Mo Union Cavalry 15 men of the 99" Illinois Infy & 15 men of the 21st Iowa Infy in all forty five men. besides these we had some twenty five teamsters & their assistants," a total force of about seventy men.

Sixteen miles east of Hartville, they made camp in "Hog Holler" along Beaver Creek. About 7:00 p.m. some of the men were cooking, some were resting, some were helping with the horses, others were on picket, and the more fortunate were searching for forage when the camp was attacked and quickly overwhelmed by a vastly superior mounted force. One man was killed instantly, two were mortally wounded, three were wounded less severely, and thirteen were captured. A few were able to escape and make their way to Hartville to sound the alarm.

Their attackers (identified by one author as being “Campbell’s band of roving troopers,” by another as being “Col Berbridge,” and by another as “Green and Burbags, regular soldiers of the Confederate army”) took all the supplies and ammunition they could carry, burned the rest, paroled their prisoners, and quickly left. When a relief force arrived from Hartville, they saw "our boys huddled around the burning remains of our wagons. They had been captured and paroled The rebels stripped them of their clothing, pocketbooks, and, in fact everything they possessed." Lying there, among the wounded, was Cyrus Henderson.

On December 2, 1862 the regiment started its planned return to Houston, while a field hospital at Beaver Creek continued to care for Cyrus and others wounded eight days earlier. On December 27th or 28th (records conflict), his brother, Frank, was given leave to travel from Houston to Beaver Creek to visit Cyrus but, along the way, learned that Cyrus had died. On December 29th, from Houston,1st Lieutenant John Dolson wrote to Cyrus’ father:

For several years thereafter Cyrus' parents did the best they could, but eventually the burdens became too great. Before he enlisted, Cyrus had worked their farm "giving all of his labor and resources of the same to his mother & father, working at ploughing, sowing, harvesting, hauling wood & doing everything requisite on a farm." When he enlisted, they still had five children under sixteen years of age and Cyrus' father was in failing health. By 1870 his health had declined to the point that Harriet applied for a dependent mother's pension. They had been forced to sell eighty-seven acres to pay taxes and other debts. To prove her dependence on her son, she sent the Pension Office copies of his letters and secured affidavits from friends and neighbors who knew her husband's health was getting worse. He was incapacitated and unable to perform manual labor. The Pension Office asked that he be examined by a surgeon and the surgeon reported that her husband was "suffering from general debility together with heart disease," disabilities he said were permanent. Harriet's claim was eventually approved and a pension was granted.

Francis survived the war, moved to Nebraska, and died in 1916. He is buried in Best Cemetery, Madison County, Nebraska.

Hinds, Charles B.
Charles Barritt Hinds was a son of Charles C. and Lorana (Burke) Hinds. He was born on January 31, 1839 in Windham County, Vermont. A brother, Edwin Burke Hinds, was born on November 21, 1842. The family moved to Clayton County in November 1855.

On August 11, 1862, Charles was enrolled at Hardin by William D. Crooke in what would be Company B of the state's 21st regiment of volunteer infantry, a unit then being recruited in the northeastern counties, primarily Clayton and Dubuque. He was described as being 5 feet, 9¾ inches, tall with grey eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion. The company was mustered into service on August 18th at Camp Franklin in Dubuque and was still there on August 22nd when Edwin enlisted in Company M of Iowa’s 1st Cavalry.

On September 9th, when all ten infantry companies were of sufficient strength, and still at Camp Franklin, the 21st Infantry was mustered in as a regiment. On a rainy 16th of September they marched through town and, from the levy at the foot of Jones Street, crowded on board the four year-old, 185-foot long, sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges lashed to its side, and started downstream. Many would never return.

They spent their first night on Rock Island before continuing downstream the next day. They were forced to debark at Montrose due to low water, traveled by rail to Keokuk, boarded the Hawkeye State, reached St. Louis on the 20th, spent the night at Benton Barracks, were inspected on the 21st and that night marched into town, boarded rail cars, and head west. The next morning they arrived at Rolla where they would spend the next month camped five miles out of town on the Lebanon Road.

From there they walked to Salem, then Houston, and then Hartville. When a wagon train bringing supplies from the railhead at Rolla was attacked on November 24th, they returned to the more secure confines of Houston.

While there they received word that a Confederate force was moving north towards Springfield. A relief force was quickly assembled, passed through Hartville and on the night of January 10, 1863, camped on along Woods Fork of the Gasconade River. A short distance away, the Confederate force was camped along the same small stream. The next morning’s bugle alerted them to each other, there was brief skirmishing, and they then moved to Hartville where a day-long battle was fought on January 11th. Charles was one of twenty-five from Company B who had volunteered for the expedition that included a total of 262 men from the regiment - 25 volunteers plus an officer from each company, Lieutenant Colonel Dunlap commanding them, and Colonel Sam Merrill commanding the entire force that included Illinois infantry and howitzers. The regiment suffered three fatally wounded during the battle, another whose wounds would prove fatal and at least thirteen who were non-fatally wounded.

After the battle, they returned to Houston where they stayed until late January. On January 27th, after leaving on the wrong road the previous day, they started a march to West Plains. On February 8th, they started another march, this one to the north east - Thomasville, Ironton, Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob - to Ste. Genevieve on the Mississippi. From there they went down the Mississippi to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant was organizing a massive army to capture the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg.

In a corps led by General McClernand, they moved south through swamps and bayous west of the river. The original thought was to cross to the east bank at Grand Gulf but, when it proved to be too well fortified, Grant moved farther south. On April 30, 1863 they crossed to Bruinsburg on the east bank and then, as the point regiment for the entire Union army, began a move inland. They encountered Confederates about midnight, shots were exchanged in darkness, and men then rested. The next day, Charles participated with the rest of the regiment in the Battle of Port Gibson when three were fatally wounded and at least fourteen non-fatally wounded.

With the fall of Port Gibson, Confederates quickly abandoned Grand Gulf and General Grant moved in to temporarily take the town as his headquarters, while the 21st Iowa and the rest of the army started a movement inland.

Charles, however, was not with them. He had become ill and, on May 6, 1863 was admitted to the Mary Ann Hospital in Grand Gulf. James Bryan, the surgeon in charge, said, "This institution was organized by introduction of patients from the field after the battles at Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, and the vicinity from the first to the fifteenth of May, 1863. It was almost entirely a field hospital, located on the slope of a prominent bluff occupied as a peach orchard The buildings consisted of a central dwelling, and several outhouses, formerly used as kitchens and quarters for the negroes."

On May 14, 1863, still a patient, Charles died from the effects of chronic diarrhea, a condition from which at least sixty-five other men in the regiment died. He was likely buried on the hospital grounds.

His brother, Edwin, reenlisted as a veteran volunteer in the 1st Cavalry on January 5, 1864, and was mustered out of service on February 15, 1866, at Austin, Texas.

Many who died in the South were reinterred in national cemeteries after the war. Some of the dead could be identified but others could not and were reinterred as “Unknowns.” Luana Cemetery in Luana, Iowa, has a monument with the names of Charles and of his parents who died in1877 but, as to Charles, it's likely a cenotaph. Burial in Iowa immediately after his death would have been impossible since Confederates still occupied Vicksburg and had many guns overlooking the river. It's conceivable that his military burial site could have been located and his body exhumed, shipped north and reinterred by family members or others willing to pay the expense sometime after the war, but that's unlikely and records on file with the National Archives have no indication of such a reburial.

Hopkins, Timothy Mead
Timothy Hopkins was born in Troy Township, Geauga County, in northeastern Ohio. His obituary in The Elkader Register said he was born on December 27, 1837, but his gravestone says he was born in l835. He lived for a while in Cleveland and then continued west and settled in McGregor in 1857.

On August 14, 1862, with his age listed as twenty-seven, he was enrolled at McGregor as a 1st Sergeant in Company G then being raised by McGregor postmaster Willard Benton. On August 22nd, with a complement of eighty six men (officers and enlisted), they were mustered in as Company G. Tim, as he was called, was described as being 5 feet, 10½ inches, tall with a light complexion, grey eyes and black hair; occupation, musician. The following month, on September 9th, ten companies were mustered in at Dubuque as the state's 21st regiment of volunteer infantry.

Crowded on board the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside, the regiment left Dubuque by transport on September 16, 1862, and went first to St. Louis. At Benton Barracks, they drew equipment and, on Sunday morning, the 21st of September, Brigadier General John Wynn Davidson conducted a general inspection. Men were ordered to fall in at 10:30am with full equipment. In broiling heat, they stood for hours and paraded around the square and, by evening, were exhausted but enjoying supper when ordered to move out. They started at dusk and, about 9:00 p.m., arrived amid cheers from local residents at the St. Louis depot where they boarded railroad cars usually used for freight and livestock. When boarding was complete, the train left the depot about midnight. The air was cold and men huddled under blankets as they sped along the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad to its western terminus at Rolla.

The regiment camped at Rolla for a month before moving south to Salem and then Houston. Tim had been continuously present with the regiment and was still with it when it left Houston for Hartville on November 13th and when it returned to Houston on December 2d, but he was not well. Rashes and skin sores had erupted on his legs. He was incapacitated and, by January 23, 1863, had been unable to perform his duties for two months. According to Dr. William Orr, Timothy was suffering from "'chronic eczema involving both legs from the foot to the knee, eruption so extensive as to interfere with locomotion. Prospect of recovery remote." With the approval of Brigadier General Fitz Henry Warren, Colonel Merrill signed a Certificate of Disability for Discharge and Tim was free to go north. Promoted to take his place as 1st Sergeant was Archibald Stuart, a native of Perthshire, Scotland.

Tim returned to McGregor, but kept in contact with comrades still in the military. There was a “clique,” he told the North Iowa Times, that was trying to “instigate some plan whereby deserving men shall be thrown out, and they raised to positions obtained by fraudulent means.” The conflict within the regiment continued and five officers were eventually discharged, but four who wanted to continue their service, including Colonel Merrill, were quickly reinstated.

In the fall of 1863, Tim returned to Ohio where, on December 17, 1863, he married Augusta Amelia Brown. The following day Augusta celebrated her nineteenth birthday. (August said she was born December 18, 1842, but her gravestone says she was born in 1843.) She and Tim had known each other for many years and exchanged letters while he was in the military. They left for McGregor “a few weeks” after their wedding.

In February, 1864, when Colonel Merrill returned to the regiment after his reinstatement, he carried a watch that Tim and several others had bought for their friend Linus McKinnie. On February 10th, Linus sent a letter thanking Tim and his other “chums” in McGregor.

On June 15, 1864, the Times reported that “it is said that Tim Hopkins has purchased the St. Nicholas Saloon of Clarke” and was getting up “an excellent evening lunch.” By the following May it was able to report that “Tim Hopkins has re-papered the St. Nicholas, and the general over-hauling he has given that resort of sportsmen adds materially to the pleasure of a session at Tim’s festive board.”

That September a meeting of the National Guards was held at McGregor’s Evans Hall to elect officers and complete organization of a local company. Tim was elected Captain and a former comrade, Tyler Featherly who had been discharged for disability only a few days after Tim, was elected as a 3rd Sergeant. Tim also continued his interest in music and, on December 7, 1864, the Times reported that residents could have the services of Tim Hopkins’ “cotillion band.”

In 1874, Tim and Augusta moved to Dubuque where Tim worked a variety of jobs including several years with the J. G. Shattuck Detective Agency and seventeen as a Deputy United States Marshal. After retiring from law enforcement, he worked as a traveling representative of Levens & Dillon, wholesale dealers in Kentucky Whiskies (Old Crow, Kentucky Club, Hermitage), California wines, foreign wines, brandies and sherries, a job that required him to be on the road for up to thirty days at a time. Late in life he managed the Lorimier House in Dubuque.

During the first several postwar decades, a veteran applying for a federal pension, an “invalid pension,” had to prove he (or, in rare cases, she) was suffering from a war-related disability. Many hired attorneys who specialized in representing claimants and one of the most successful was George M. Van Leuven, Jr., a druggist in the small community of Lime Springs, Iowa. An 1883 Howard County history said:

Philena Mather, mother of John Mather who had died of illness during the war, sought a pension as a “dependent mother,” but her initial claim was unsuccessful. In 1882, claiming her “Post Office address is Lime Springs,” 140 miles from her actual home in Shakopee, Minnesota, she reapplied with George Van Leuven as her attorney. When the Pension Office asked the Lime Springs postmaster to verify her address, he replied that he had “made enquiry and cannot find out what her address is.”

Van Leuven was also hired by William Barber of Luana, Iowa, Sam Withrow of Dexter Minnesota, Joseph Rogers of Milford, Iowa, and other veterans of the 21st Infantry. Tim Hopkins was one of many who signed an affidavit supporting Sam Withrow’s application and indicated, “I have written this myself.” In 1891, Tim also hired Van Leuven. In his pension application, Tim, a Dubuque resident, said that he signed it in Lime Springs and that his Post Office address was Decorah. He claimed that he was suffering from eczema, rheumatism, heart disease, diarrhea and liver disease, all war-related and causing him to be “Totally disabled from obtaining his subsistence by manual labor.” Supportive affidavits were signed by his wife, friends and former comrades.

On the evening of January 5, 1892, Tim was one of sixteen men who appeared for examination by a three-member medical board at the Stiles House in Decorah where Van Leuven was staying. The board, whose report said Tim’s examination was on the 6th, agreed that he could “do no manual labor.” Later that month, Tim wrote a somewhat cryptic letter to Van Leuven and said he was “satisfied that no one on earth could have done better than yourself.” Aware that Tim’s discharge mentioned only eczema, the Pension Office apparently questioned his claim of multiple disabilities and sent questionnaires to everyone who had submitted affidavits on his behalf. It took a long time but, finally, on May 12, 1893, a pension examiner submitted Tim’s claim for admission. On the 17th it was approved by a Legal Reviewer. The only requirement yet to be fulfilled was approval by a Medical Referee, but that never happened.

On May 22, 1893, George Van Leuven and the mayor of Cresco, Dr. George Kessel, were arrested for pension fraud and, the following day, a Special Examiner seized documents (including Tim’s letter) from Van Leuven’s office. The allegations as to Van Leuven were numerous. To avoid questions as to why people living far away would hire someone in Lime Springs instead of a local representative, he had some claimants say, falsely, that they lived in Lime Springs (as Philena Mather had done) or closer to Lime Springs than their actual residence (as Tim Hopkins had done). Van Leuven also allegedly drafted affidavits for signature by witnesses or provided them with affidavits they were to copy. When questioned about the affidavit he had signed for Sam Withrow, Tim Hopkins said “the words were probably put in my mouth. It does not seem as I would write such a statement unaided. I probably had some copy to go by. I know as a fact that it was Van Leuven’s custom to furnish such copy.” It was also alleged that Van Leuven bribed, or had others bribe, the examining surgeons to give favorable medical reports. All sixteen men who were examined by the board in Decorah, had paid $10.00, payments that were not allowed.

The criminal prosecution resulted in a conviction of Van Leuven on thirty-seven counts and a substantial fine. A jail sentence that was cut short when doctors convinced President Cleveland that Van Leuvan had only a short time to live. In fact, Van Leuven lived another twenty years and died in 1915. Meanwhile, claims of hundreds of Van Leuven’s clients were reexamined and Tim was called to testify before a Grand Jury in Dubuque. Special Examiner E. F. Waite took multiple depositions of Tim and deposed others who had signed affidavits on his behalf. Tim said most of his application was correct, he listed Decorah as his Post Office address since he sometimes got mail there while on the road, and he believed he had contracted the listed illnesses while in the army, but he didn’t want to discuss his grand jury testimony. He admitted his complicity in paying the surgeons $10.00, but said Van Leuven had told them “if we wanted a good and thorough examination we must chip in.” Witnesses stood by most of the statements they had made previously, but one said he didn’t know who wrote the affidavit he signed and didn’t remember the circumstances, another had been a musician in Tim’s band and recalled the eczema, some said they no longer recalled the medical issues about which they had testified, and most said Tim had to “make water” more often than others since there was something wrong with his “waterworks.” On May 15, 1895, Special Examiner Waite made his report to the Commissioner of Pensions. He reviewed the evidence and thought Tim was “a man of easy conscience,” but said:

He was convinced that Tim’s claim “has merit with respect to eczema & am inclined to believe it is meritorious with respect to rheumatism, heart disease & urinary disorder, - but not as to the other alleged ailments.” Despite his comments, it does not appear that Tim ever received a pension. As he said during a deposition on November 4, 1896, Van Leuven “got it all tangled, so that I could never get justice.”

Tim and Augusta had three children. A Dubuque census on June 3, 1880, listed Tim (age 44; Deputy U.S. Marshall), Augusta (age 38; keeping house), Bradley (age 14; clerk) and Frederick (age 5). A daughter, Vinnie, had died in 1876 at three years of age and was buried in Dubuque’s Linwood Cemetery. Brad worked with his father at the Lorimier House.

Tim Hopkins died at the Lorimier House on May 18, 1899, and was remembered as “a man of happy temperament, generous and whole-souled.” Funeral services were held under the auspices of a Masonic fraternity and burial was in Linwood Cemetery.

Augusta returned to Ohio after her husband’s death, lived in Fostoria with her son, Fred M. Hopkins, and was receiving a $25.00 monthly widow’s pension when she died on January 8, 1902. She, like her husband, is buried in Linwood Cemetery. Fred was an attorney in Fostoria and, at the time of his mother’s death, was serving as Secretary and General Manager of The Review Printing Company. He died on December 15, 1954, and is buried in Fostoria’s Fountain Cemetery.

~*~*~

Howard, Henry H.
Henry Howard was the son of Lyman and Asenath “Axef” S. Howard of Chautauqua County, New York, where Lyman was active in the Baptist Church. In 1842 he attended an annual church meeting in Clymer, New York, where it was:

Six years later, Lyman was a delegate at a meeting in Frewsburg when a similar resolution was adopted “against the use of alcoholic drinks and against American slavery.” A report of an 1850 census for Carroll, New York, showed Lyman, Axef and six children - Willard F. (24), Louisa (18), Lorinda (18), James H. (16) Warren M. (13) and Henry H. (11). Willard married Betsy McWilliams on December 9, 1853, and, by 1855, only Lorinda’s name appeared on the New York census.

An 1856 census for Cass Township in Clayton County reflected Lyman, a fifty-six-year-old blacksmith, his wife Axef and two of their children, Warren and Henry. Also in the township were Willard and Betsy Howard who were listed separately with one-year-old Ellen, who had been born in Pennsylvania.

In May, 1858, the Clayton County Journal was founded with Willard F. Howard as editor. It seems likely that he was the same Willard who was the son of Lyman and Axef. In 1859 Warren Howard married Margaret Nelson and the following year they moved to Fayette County.

Henry, the youngest of the six children, enlisted in the Union army at Strawberry Point on July 25, 1862. He was described as having brown hair, a light complexion and blue eyes; occupation, printer. Twenty-three years old and unmarried, he was, at 6' 3½”, one of the tallest men in the regiment. At Dubuque, on August 13th, he was elected 2d Lieutenant of a company that was mustered into service five days later as Company B. When ten companies were of sufficient strength they were mustered in on September 9th as Iowa’s 21st regiment of volunteer infantry and on the 16th, crowded on board the Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside, they left for war.

The regiment’s early service was in Missouri - Rolla, Salem, Houston, Hartville, West Plains - and they were in Ste. Genevieve on February 7, 1863, when the company’s 1st Lieutenant, Charles Heath, submitted his resignation for “private matters.” On the 23rd he was discharged and, on March 6th, McGregor’s William Crooke, Captain of Company B, wrote to the regiment’s Colonel, Sam Merrill, and recommended Henry to take Heath’ place: “It is needless for me to say anything respecting his character as a man and an officer since he is well known to you. No officer in our Regiment is more worthy of promotion than is he.”

Henry received the promotion retroactive to February 24th (the day after Heath’s discharge). From Ste. Genevieve they were taken by river transport to Milliken’s Bend where General Grant, intent on capturing the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, was organizing a large three-corps army. From “the Bend” they walked south, waded through swamps and rode across Louisiana bayous west of the Mississippi until April 30th when they crossed to Bruinsburg on the east bank.

The 21st Iowa was designated as the point regiment for the entire union army as they started a march inland. About midnight on the 30th, advance scouts drew first fire from Confederate pickets and the next day the regiment participated in the Battle of Port Gibson. On May 16th, they were held in reserve during the Battle of Champion’s Hill and they spent that night camped at Edward’s Station. On the 17th, they were rotated back to the front, resumed their march toward Vicksburg, and before long encountered Confederates entrenched along the Big Black River and hoping to keep its railroad bridge open so all of their forces withdrawing from Champion’s Hill could cross.

By then, Henry was serving as Adjutant for Colonel Merrill and he was with Merrill as officers huddled and made plans for an assault that routed the enemy. It lasted only three minutes, but the regiment suffered seven killed, eighteen mortally wounded and at least forty who had wounds, some very serious, that were not fatal. After the war, Colonel Merrill served as Governor of Iowa and from there he moved to Los Angeles. On May 30, 1899, he wrote a long letter to his sister, reminisced and recalled that “thirty-six years ago, the 17th of this month, was the severe charge at Black River Bridge.” Merrill and William Kinsman, Colonel of the 23d Iowa, had been ordered to prepare for the assault:

Henry had been shot in the stomach and Colonel Merrill on both thighs. The Thompson brothers, Francis and James, were from Elkader and were serving in Company D. After the assault they joined two others “who carried off our beloved Colonel. We laid him beside that noble Christian soldier, Adjutant Howard, who was mortally wounded.” While other regiments continued the advance on Vicksburg, those who participated in the assault remained behind to care for the wounded and bury the dead. Colonel Kinsman’s remains were reinterred at Council Bluffs after the war, but Henry and others are likely among the “unknowns” in Vicksburg’s national cemetery.

On June 4th, Company B’s Jim Bethard wrote to his wife, Caroline, and said “our first Lieutenant Henry Howard of strawberry point and one of the best officers in the regiment was killed at the black rivers fight.” On the same day, in Iowa, the Strawberry Point lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons remembered “Bro. Henry H. Howard,” a member of the lodge who had become “endeared to us by his honorable deportment, his fidelity to duty, and his appreciation and love for our Institutions.” On the 14th, the International Order of Good Templars of Strawberry Point passed a similar resolution remembering that “in the fall of Brother Howard the temperance cause and our beloved Order have lost a faithful, exemplary and staunch friend, and the country a worthy, upright, and esteemed citizen.”

On July 31st, Henry’s father died in Caledonia, Minnesota, after a long illness. On August 1st, the wife of Henry’s brother, James Howard, died of diphtheria. She and Lyman were buried in a double funeral the next day.

On June 22, 1869, Henry’s mother applied for a “mother’s army pension.” Axef said she was sixty-five years old and a resident of Putnam Township in Fayette County, but received her mail through the Strawberry Point post office. Henry had died six years earlier, but Axef said she had been, in the words of the statute, “wholly or in part” dependent on him for her support. Numerous witnesses signed supportive affidavits. Before enlisting, with his father ill and “unable to labour,” Henry had furnished groceries, clothing and cash for his mother’s support and after enlisting he had sent her more than $200.00. Axef had “no property in her own right and no visible means of support” and a fractured wrist was “much enlarged” making any work difficult.

More and more affidavits were submitted until finally, on January15, 1872, a private bill on her behalf was introduced in Congress by Rep. William Drennan. The bill was referred to the Committee on Invalid Pensions, but there it apparently languished. On February 9, 1874, Rep. Drennan again introduced a bill “granting arrears of pension” to Axef, but again it was referred to committee. On January 15, 1875, the Committee on Invalid Pensions reported “that a general bill covering all cases of this kind is now pending, and therefore ask to be discharged from the further consideration of this bill.”

Eventually, a $17.00 monthly pension was granted, but payments were then stopped. Someone, it was thought, had told the government that Axef was not in need of a pension. On April 30, 1877, she signed another affidavit. Lyman, she said, had left 160 acres in Putnam Township, but she had inherited only “a life lease” on the property and the income from the property was barely enough to cover taxes. In 1876, it produced only “9 bushels of very poor wheat 10 bushels of corn and enoughf [sic] hay to winter one cow.” Another affidavit was signed by a Notary who thought he knew who had lied to the government to “get his venom satiated.” The Notary said the stoppage had been an awful blow for a “feeble woman” whose son “fell in a brave charge in his countries defense.” Axef’s pension was reinstated.

In 1883, a post of the G.A.R. was organized in Strawberry Point with Henry’s comrades Myron Knight (Company B), Gilbert Cooley (Company D) and Abe Treadwell (Company B) among the organizers. In 1885, the post changed its name to the “Henry Howard Post” and the following year the “Henry Howard Woman’s Relief Corps” was formed.

Axef and her son James moved to Illinois and that’s where she was living when she died on February 6, 1899. She was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, Port Byron, Illinois, where, in 1910, James was also buried.

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Hughes, Andrew K.
James and Margaret (Stevens) Hughes were married in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, on December 28, 1843, and had seven children with Andrew being the oldest. He was born on December 25, 1845, in Lycoming County and was followed by Catherine in 1847, Amos in 1849, Sarah in 1853 and Ambrose in 1855 who also were born in Lycoming County, George in 1859 in Lodomillo Township, Clayton County, Iowa, and Carrie in 1861 in Ohio before the family returned to Lodomillo Township.

In 1860, South Carolina and several other Southern states had threatened to secede if Abraham Lincoln was elected in that fall’s election, a threat discounted by the Clayton County Journal. “No one anticipates such a result,” it said. “This cry was invented only to frighten the people into voting for the Democratic candidate. Divide the Union! The people of the United States are not prepared to do any such thing.”

But, Lincoln was elected, Southern states did secede and, in January 1861, government forts were attacked. Again, the Journal was unconcerned. “We hope however our readers will not become too excited over this, because it is not worth while. There are men enough in Pennsylvania alone to subdue South Carolina without the aid of Iowa volunteers.” General Beauregard’s cannon fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, war followed and thousands of men died as the war escalated.

On July 9, 1862, Iowa Governor Sam Kirkwood received a telegram asking him to raise five regiments as part of the President’s call for another 300,000 three-year men. If the state’s quota wasn’t raised by August 15th, it "would be made up by draft." The Governor was confident Iowa would “do her duty,” but enlistments started slowly as "farmers were busy with the harvest, the war was much more serious than had been anticipated, and the first ebullition of military enthusiasm had subsided. Furthermore, disloyal sentiment was rampant in some parts of the State." All men between eighteen and forty-five were listed in preparation for a possible draft, a draft that wasn’t needed.

The 21st Iowa Infantry was mustered into service at Camp Franklin in Dubuque on September 9, 1862, with a total of 985 men. On the 16th, they walked through town and, from the levee at the foot of Jones Street, boarded the four-year-old sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied alongside and started down the Mississippi. The regiment’s early service was in Missouri and it played a prominent role during the 1863 campaign to capture Vicksburg. After crossing from Louisiana to Bruinsburg, Mississippi, on April 30th, it was designated as the point regiment for the entire Union army and on May 17th, with the 23d Iowa, led a successful assault on entrenched Confederates at the Big Black River. Following a siege, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, 1863, and the regiment then saw continued service in Mississippi and Louisiana. In November, 1863, they left New Orleans and were transported to the Gulf coast of Texas.

By then, their ranks had been significantly depleted and recruiters in Iowa asked more to enroll. Significant numbers of recruits enlisted in January and February and, on March 16, 1864, three months after his eighteenth birthday, Andrew signed a Volunteer Enlistment in Springfield, Iowa. While Southern states had claimed they were independent and could secede by a vote of their legislatures, the North had contended the states were all part of one, united, country. Surprisingly, the forms signed by recruits provided they would bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America and serve “them” honestly and faithfully against all “their” enemies. Assigned to Company B, Andrew was described as being 5' 5" tall with blue eyes and brown hair; occupation, farmer.

He received a $100.00 bounty and, on March 28th, was mustered in at Davenport. From there, he was transported downstream and on April 28th reached the regiment then posted on Matagorda Island. He remained with the regiment during the balance of its service in Texas and was with it when it returned to New Orleans in June. By August, they were at Morganza Bend and it was there, on the 16th, that Andrew was diagnosed with remittent fever. He returned to duty two days later and was with the regiment when it moved to the mouth of the White River. On September 10th, the regiment boarded the St. Patrick and started up the river but Andrew was not with them. His fever had returned and he left the same day for Memphis on board a hospital ship. On arrival, he was admitted to the Overton General Hospital and that’s where he died on September 15th. His personal effects were inventoried and stored for later disposal.

On September 29th, one of his comrades, George Purdy (who had lost his wife and a young daughter earlier in the war), wrote to Andrew’s mother. Andrew, he said, “exhibited a high moral character, very ambitious, always ready to do his duty cheerfully.” George had seen “something noble in his character” and, since George was tenting alone, “took him in with me. Showed him all the favors I could.” They talked frequently about religion and “I not infrequently caught him reading his Bible.” George had last seen Andrew when they were at the mouth of the White River. By then Andrew was sick and George “exhorted him to look to Jesus.” Andrew is buried in the Memphis National Cemetery.

His mother, Margaret, died on May 21, 1881, and was buried in Noble Cemetery, Edgewood, while James continued to live in Lodomillo Township. On June 27, 1890, Congress adopted a new pension act, an act that included provisions for dependent parents. On August 14th, James applied. By then, he was sixty-nine years old and said he had no means of support other than “his own manual labor, or the contributions of others not legally bound for his support.” As his attorney, he chose Strawberry Point’s Gilbert Cooley who had served as a Lieutenant in Company D of the regiment. To support his claim, he secured affidavits from neighbors and men who had served with Andrew.

William Carpenter said he and Andrew “spent our Boyhood days together” before serving together in Company B where William helped take care of Andrew while on the way to the mouth of the White River. John Carpenter had also been in Company B and had been a neighbor of James and Margaret in Pennsylvania when Andrew was born. Now, like others, he said James was alone and had no means of support except his own manual labor and contributions from others. William Marshall had also been a Pennsylvania neighbor when Andrew was born, but had moved to Iowa where he was now a neighbor of James. Luther Pugh had known James for about thirty years and was “well acquainted with said Hughes financial standing” and knew he was a poor man in need of a pension.

The affidavits were filed with the pension office in Washington where Andrew’s service and death were verified by the War Department. By then it had been almost a year since James applied for a pension and more affidavits were submitted. James McLane had known James for more than twenty-five years and knew he was a “poor man” with no property to support himself. Another confirmed that Andrew “was a single man and left no widow or children.” Myron Knight had served in Company B and said Andrew “was a good soldier and man of good habits.” John Carpenter and William Marshall signed a joint affidavit to supplement their earlier affidavits and said they knew James and Margaret well, both before and after their marriage, knew when they married, and knew they had lived as husband and wife.

On April 27, 1892, James died and, like Margaret, was buried in Noble Cemetery. Six months after his death, the pension office finally agreed he was entitled to a pension and on November 18, 1892, mailed a certificate entitling him to $12.00 monthly, a pension he never received.

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Hyde, William A.
William A. Hyde was born on April 23, 1829, in Herkimer County, New York. In May, 1855, still in Herkimer County, William and Martha E. (who often went by the name "Emily M.") Willard were married. A son, Benjamin W. Hyde was born on May 23, 1857, and a daughter, Ivie E. Hyde, on March 20, 1862.

In Iowa, William was working as a physician when he noticed that a new regiment was being raised. On June 4, 1862, while living in Elkader, he wrote to Governor Kirkwood asking for a position as a Surgeon or Assistant Surgeon and listed numerous references. He received the desired appointment and, on August 29, 1862, signed the oath of office as Surgeon of the 21st Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, a regiment then being raised primarily in the state's northeastern counties. The reaction to his appointment was as fast as it was unique. On September 8th, only ten days after he took the oath, an anonymous letter to the Governor from "Many Ladies" in Elkader objected to his appointment.

On September 9th, the regiment was mustered into service. On September 11th, from their training camp in Dubuque, a letter to the Governor was signed by the regiment's Lieutenant Colonel, Major, Quartermaster, Adjutant and twenty-one company officers. They claimed that Dr. Hyde was "inefficient as a medical officer" and unqualified to be Surgeon. He has, they said, "rendered himself personally objectionable and unpopular with the entire Regiment." They asked that he be transferred. Also on the 11th, the Hon. J. K. Graves of Dubuque, wrote to Governor Kirkwood and said he knew "from personal knowledge that Dr. Hyde has rendered himself very unpopular with the officers and soldiers."

On September 12th, Major van Anda wrote to the Governor and said there was a "disafection" [sic] in the regiment and Dr. Hyde did not have "the confidence" of anyone in the regiment. He was, said Van Anda, an "incubus." On September 14th, still in Dubuque, Colonel Merrill wrote to Governor Kirkwood and agreed that Dr. Hyde was "very unpopular," but said the doctor had agreed to resign if he could secure a new appointment elsewhere. "The efficiency of my command will depend much upon the change," said Merrill.

On the 16th, those able to travel boarded the sidewheel steamer Henry Clay and two barges tied to its side and left for war. They spent two days and one night before going to Rolla. There, on October 7, 1862, Dr. Hyde, wrote to Major General Samuel Curtis. "I have two Assistants," he said. "They have done all they could to bring about discord with the men and officers." He asked for instructions.

On November 11, 1862, Brigadier General Fitz Henry Warren wrote to Major General Curtis and stated the obvious ("There is great trouble in the 21st Iowa"), but said Dr. Hyde had received a "call" from the 32nd Missouri Infantry. General Curtis couldn't transfer the doctor from one state's regiment to another's, but a resignation from Dr. Hyde would be accepted and he could then do what he wanted. The resignation was tendered, it was accepted, and Dr. Hyde was appointed Surgeon of the 32nd Missouri. He served with that regiment for the next six months before becoming ill. On May 13, 1863, a surgeon in Columbus, Ohio, said Dr. Hyde was suffering from rheumatism and an ailment, chronic diarrhea that was common with most western regiments. Dr. Hyde tendered his resignation the same day, was soon discharged from the military, and resumed his life as a civilian.

On October 19, 1868, a son, Arthur W. Hyde was born; on February 28, 1872 another son, John W. Hyde, was born; and, on June 4, 1874, another son, their fifth and final child, William Hyde, was born. Dr. Hyde would later advise the government's pension office that he had moved west and, on May 25, 1886, secured a divorce from Martha in San Francisco. Three years later, on November 26, 1889, indicating his residence was Phoenix, Arizona, he applied for an invalid pension and the following year, still in Phoenix, he married Carrie L. Boody. The application for a pension was granted at $24.00 per month and continued until his death. A certified copy of his Certificate of Death said Dr. Hyde died on March 13, 1908 in South Hollywood, California. He is buried in Live Oak Memorial Park, Monrovia, California.